Criticism is welcomed. Without, it there can't be any improvement. Address criticisms to [xazqrten@cox.net]
*****************************
Pointing to the pictures being projected on the screen at the end of the
briefing room, Collins explained, "As you can see there is a space station
almost two thirds the size of Babylon 5. Off to one side is what looks like
the two ships we followed here. There are two more holding position on the
opposite side of the station, and this monster here is a ship type we haven't
seen before. As best we can determine, it is about twenty percent larger than
the Ares. We have studied the infrared signatures of it and the station to try
and find weak points. We know the weak spots of the cruiser-carrier ships.
Captain."
"Gentlemen, we need to discuss this situation, and determine if there is
a reasonable chance of successfully attacking these ships and that station
and also surviving the attempt. I’m open to all suggestions and questions,"
commented Susan.
A long silence greeted Susan's comments. Each of the participants looked
at one another everyone waiting for someone else to be the first. Susan's
husband was sitting in the back of the room. He was an invited guest, but
not a participant. However, he held his hand up.
"What's on your mind, Charley?" asked Susan.
"I don't know crap about military tactics, but several things seem rather
obvious," he replied.
"Go on Mister Wayne," said Sanchez. "About now, your ideas are as good
as anyone else's."
"First and foremost, the station can't run away. Second, the cruiser-
carriers are very vulnerable to the Ares' main batteries. We learned that
much at Babylon 5. That leaves the big fellow. We need to take him out of
the picture first. I suggest we use some of the new tactics my wife and her
crew have developed, namely, open a jump point either inside their ship, or
right on top of it, and hit them with everything we have from hyperspace
through the jump point."
"I thought you said you didn't know anything about military tactics, son?"
inquired Sanchez.
"I don't, general, but I believe in winning at whatever the cost,
especially when my ass is on the line," replied Charles.
"I’m waiting for any other ideas," noted Susan.
"I believe your husband summed it up very well, Susan. All that remains
are the details," said Leftcourt.
"Do we have enough data, Mister Collins?" Asked Susan.
"I would really like to insert another set of probes on the far side of
the unknown ship. I want to be pinpoint accurate when we hit him. We probably
won't get a second chance," responded Collins.
"Okay. We’ll insert one more set of probes, then I want particulars. They
aren't going to wait for us forever," commented Susan. "I want a meeting of
my tactical team as soon as Jake has his data. Jake, call us when you're
ready."
***********************************************************************
Sitting in Susan's office, Leftcourt looked across the room at her. "Are
you having second thoughts?"
"Not at all. If we can pinpoint the unknown ship and surprise them, I
think that between our main batteries and a few nukes we can destroy them
before they know what hit them. Remember, the Drakh know they enjoy a number
of technological advantages. I’m counting on their arrogance in these matters
to be one of their Achilles' heels. If I had observed as much activity as
they have while we were doing our probe insertions, I would have had a couple
of my ships checking it out."
"You've fought them before, so I’ll go with your assessment. Any way
you look at it, we’re going to have some fast talking to do when we get back."
"I notice that you said when, not if."
"I have faith in you, your crew, and your ship. It looks like it may be
the best money we've ever spent on a ship."
*******************************************************************
"Just what is the purpose of this meeting General Marsh?" asked the
same lieutenant who had told Susan she had no authority to attack the Drakh.
"Robert, you were rather blunt in telling General Susan Ivanova that she
has no authority to proceed with this endeavor. I thought I would enlighten
all of you in matters that can ruin your career and your life," replied Marsh.
He then put down a pile of printed sheets of paper on the table.
"Everyone take one of these and then I’ll explain them."
Each of the men took a set of stapled sheets and quickly gave them the
once over.
"You will note item labeled paragraph 4.C. Read it carefully, then read
section 2 on the second sheet of what I passed out," said Marsh.
"Does this mean what it seems to mean, general?" asked a lieutenant
sitting on the other side of the table.
"Let me summarize it for all of you. What these document excerpts mean
is that under the circumstances we are now operating, everything she is
planning to do is completely legal, and is supported by present law,"
explained Marsh. "Robert, she could charge you with treason for what you
said in the briefing. At the very least, she could charge you with trying
to start a mutiny. She could have you shot, under the present circumstances,
for your what you said, and nothing could be done about it, under the present
laws. So, let me advise all of you, keep out of sight, and keep your damned
mouths shut. You might get yourselves into something I can't get you out of.
That said, I’m going to show you the video of the last briefing. It may allay
some of your worst fears."
"Couldn't one of you senior officers take command of the ship and overrule
her?" asked Robert.
"I’m not an unrestricted line officer, and am not in her direct chain of
command. Therefore, I can't over rule her in any matter relating to combat.
I can only advise her if she is breaking the law," answered Marsh.
"How about all the other generals?" insisted Robert.
"Because of the unique situation surrounding the Ares and General Ivanova's
assignment as her commanding officer, none of the other generals are in her
chain of command, except General Leftcourt. That makes him the only one who
can overrule her on the decisions she makes as this ship's captain. Even he
had better be able to explain what she did wrong, if he were to do such a
thing. As long as she stays within the law and regulations, on board this
ship, she is God. She may have to answer for her decisions later, but only
if she did something patently illegal. The military is loath to second guess
it's leaders, especially when the decisions are made in a combat situation.
That’s one of the reasons she was exonerated for her actions at Babylon 5.
That said, Robert, I again remind you, she could have you shot and nothing
would be done about it," answered Marsh. "Make no mistake, the marines will
follow her orders to the letter without question."
*********************************************************************
The video of the briefing had finished running. There were low murmurs
around the room.
"How do you feel now about what we’re about to get involved in? Anyone
still think we’re going into a fight without knowing what we are getting
into?" asked Marsh.
"I still don't like having to go into combat, general. If I had wanted
to get shot at, I wouldn't have bothered with law school," groused the
lieutenant named Robert.
Another young officer commented, "Let's face it Bobby, you've always been
a coward. I bet you have never stood and fought a fight in your life."
That comment elicited laughter from the other young officers.
"I have no desire to get killed. If you turnips want to commit suicide,
be my guests," retorted Robert.
"All of you remember what I told you and behave accordingly. Screw with
General Ivanova, and you’ll be lucky to get back to Earth in one piece,"
said Marsh, ending the meeting.
*********************************************************************
"Captain, Mister Collins is ready for a final briefing," said the yeoman,
who had just delivered a datapad to her.
"S.W.C, navigator, let's go see what the man has to tell us," said Susan
as she headed for the exit from CIC.
In the briefing room, Susan and her tactical team looked on as Jake
Collins made his presentation.
"We have plotted out the exact location for the attack on the Drakh
dreadnought. We’ll be on the side away from the station and the other ships.
If we do this by the numbers, they won't even know he's under attack until
he's been destroyed. That's if we do it by the numbers," said Collins.
"We'll do it by the numbers, Jake," said Susan. "Navigator, S.W.C. get
your numbers from Jake and let's get this show on the road. We have ships
and a space station to destroy and Drakh to kill."
*********************************************************************
"I told you they were simply traveling the same direction we were, sir.
They have continued on their way," insisted the intelligence officer.
"I want to go back and make sure. They may return after they think we
have gone on our way."
"I thought I was distrustful and suspicious, but I admit, you shame me."
"We will loiter at the point where we changed course for a few hours.
We aren't in any hurry. I don't trust Earthers, and I trust this one least
of all."
*********************************************************************
Almost six hours had passed when the Drakh commander gave the word for
his ship to rejoin its sister ship. It was a short trip to the jump point.
Arrival at the space station would be the beginning of a well-deserved rest
period.
The jump point opened and the Drakh ship entered normal space five hundred
kilometers from a space station. It was two-thirds the size of Babylon 5, but
mass was all it had in common with Babylon 5. Its shape was similar to a
diamond with rounded edges, and its layout was purely functional. Nothing had
been sacrificed for creature comforts. Its atmosphere was pleasant enough, but
its location, well off any beacon path, meant that only Drakh ships, military
ones at that, ever visited it.
The presence of several other ships like his, and especially the
dreadnought, made the Drakh commander breathe a little easier. The stress
caused by the close proximity of the Ares had not helped his stomach ulcer.
For all the knowledge his people had accumulated while they were allied with
the dark masters, they still hadn't developed a decent pill for the occasional
stress related stomach ulcer. A visit to the doctor for such a mundane ailment
seemed so backward.
***********************************
Onboard the Drakh dreadnought, the monitors picked up a disturbance that
resolved itself into a small jump point. It closed in less than a minute. The
area was more than two hundred thousand kilometers distance from his ship and
the space station, but the Drakh commander dispatched a fighter to investigate
it, even though they had detected nothing coming out of it.
Over the next several hours the incident repeated itself at widely
separated points in normal space. Drakh operators on the various ships had
informed their commanders, who dispatched fighters to investigate each one.
However, since nothing had been detected coming through them, the commanders
didn't give them much thought after the fighters were dispatched.
"I don't care what the other commanders think. Take us toward the last
detected jump point. I want to see for myself."
"As you command, sir," responded his navigation watch. [Damn him, his
ulcer and his suspicions.]
"I warned them about the Earthforce destroyer and how did they respond.
They all but laughed in my face. So help me, if I turn out to be correct, I
will show them who laughs last."
"You still grousing about the Ares, Commander?" asked his intelligence
officer.
"I'm not grousing. There have been a half dozen jump points open in the
space surrounding us. I smell trouble and its name is Captain Ivanova. They
could be using some new kind of reconnaissance system."
"If they had something like that, our agents would have notified us. We
have infiltrated their highest command levels with agents happy to sell out
their brethren for advantage or money," replied the intelligence officer.
"What if it is a technique that she developed while deployed away from
Earth? Then our agents wouldn't know about it."
"Commander, this woman has you rattled. She is just a ship commander,
nothing more."
"Tell that to the ships we sent to ambush her and the Zeus."
"Commander, nothing was ever found of those ships. There is no way she
could destroy them without leaving a great deal of wreckage."
"I will sleep much better after I attend her funeral."
Shaking his head, the intelligence officer departed the bridge, muttering
to himself. Leaving his commander with an increasingly burning sensation in
his stomach. The commander reached into his pocket for his bottle of anti-acid
tablets and popped two of them into his mouth.
**********************************************************************
The fighters that had been sent to investigate the jump point openings
found and destroyed small monitor buoys in each area after reporting them
to their mother ships. What the Drakh missed was that these were 'sacrificial'
buoys, intended to be found and retrieved or destroyed. It dissuaded them
from investigating any further and prevented the discovery of the real
monitor buoys.
On board his ship the suspicious commander was inspecting the buoy that
had been retrieved. His intelligence officer offered the evaluation that
the buoy didn't present any threat and was only good for general monitoring,
not the precision processing required for tactical use. In short it was good
only for the most elementary strategic monitoring. His explanations only
served to reinforce his commander's suspicions that they were missing
something important.
"Open a jump point and take us into hyperspace!" ordered the commander.
His navigator immediately complied. The resulting excursion revealed
nothing of value to the suspicious Drakh, and his ulcer kicked into high
gear, causing him to gulp down a small handful of his anti-acid tablets.
Finding nothing to support or allay his fears, he ordered a return to the
vicinity of the space station.
Less than twenty minutes after the Drakh ship exited hyperspace, the
Ares passed through the hyperspace area it had occupied.
**********************************************************************
"O.O.D. How is the evacuating of the unmanned compartments coming?"
"We're as ready as we will ever be, captain," said the O.O.D.
Susan turned her chair and looked at the general officers seated in the
flag area. Her expression was one of apprehension at what she was about to
do. It was apparent that she didn't like the situation. Slowly turning back
to face the navigator, she gave the order, "Take us in. Everyone look sharp."
Behind her in the command area, General Fitzgerald leaned over to Sanchez,
Ames, Marsh and Leftcourt and said, in a tight voice, "Hold on to your hats,
the ride is about to get interesting."
A jump point opened in front of the Ares and centered in the view of normal
space and less than twenty-five kilometers from the opening was the Drakh
dreadnought. Before the jump point finished opening four beams of energy
focused on the same point impacted the dreadnought's hull. The beams burned
through the outer hull and the supporting structure behind it without
hesitation. The secondary and tertiary weapons began pouring fire into all
exposed areas of the dreadnought's hull. The result was the loss of sensor
information to the Drakh manning their ship's sensors.
"S.W.C., the missiles, are they..." --- "Already on their way, captain,"
the S.W.C.'s response cut her question off.
Susan watched the destruction of the Drakh ship, and felt as useless as
tits on a boar hog. Her crew didn't need her. She swung around and looked
back at her fellow general officers. Her expression was one of consternation.
Grinning a grin that covered his entire face, Leftcourt offered, "This
is what happens when you train them too well. Let them do the job you trained
them to do, Susan."
"I never had a crew that was so well trained that they made me feel
useless," commented Sanchez to the other officers.
"I venture that none of us has," noted Ames.
*****************************
On the bridge of the Drakh dreadnought, its commander was watching the
cruiser-carrier leave its assigned station.
"Where is he going?" the commander asked, rhetorically.
A moment later, his communicator answered, "He says he wants to check out
the jump point that just opened and closed."
"We have already sent fighters to do that."
"Yes, sir. He insists it needs to be investigated more closely."
"I am beginning to wonder about his stability. This isn't helping my
opinion any."
He received no answer from his communicator.
*****************************
When the cruiser-carrier returned from checking out the jump point oddity,
her commander was called by the dreadnought commander for an explanation.
The only explanation that was forthcoming was that they had found nothing,
except another of the general purpose monitor buoys.
The commander of the dreadnought was talking to the commander of the space
station about the jump points they had seen, and how they were affecting one
of his sub-commanders, specifically the commander of the cruiser-carrier that
left its station a short while earlier.
"Commander, we have a jump point opening close off the starboard beam,"
stated the monitor array operator.
"Bring us about and power up the weapons array! Quickly!"
As he finished stating his command, the ship shuddered slightly and the
main lighting was lost. As the emergency lighting powered up, he noticed that
none of the consoles on the bridge had power.
"Engineering! What happened!" He shouted into his chair's intercom. There
was only silence. He noted that none of the lights on his armrest control
panel were working.
There was another shudder that shook the big ship from stem to stern that
almost knocked the commander out of his chair. There could be no doubt, they
were under heavy attack.
"Commander! We have lost main power to all our systems! I have no contact
with any other stations on the ship!" noted his navigator insistently.
Raising his link to his mouth, the commander tried to contact his
engineering section.
"Commander, we are starting to drift and we have lost artificial gravity,"
said the navigator.
"I think artificial gravity is the least of our worries! Can we get even
one scan system console operating!"
The ship shuddered again as somewhere in its bowels there were massive
explosions occurring. The commander had no way of knowing that these were
the smallest of the micro-nukes from the Ares. In a few moments, the much
larger one-megaton warheads following just behind the micro-nukes would all
but vaporize his ship.
*****************************
"Captain, we have to let the jump point collapse. If we don't, we risk
damage from shrapnel from that ship when the big nukes detonate!" exclaimed
the S.W.C.
"Do it! Move us to our next target. I want to hit the space station next.
Just hit it hard enough to keep those cruiser-carriers hanging around to
protect it."
"Yes, sir!" snapped the S.W.C. in response. "You will be pleased to know,
captain, the jamming buoys we deployed are operational. The other Drakh must
be having a hell of a time trying to communicate with one another."
In the flag area, the generals were looking at one another, stunned at
how quickly and efficiently Susan's crew and tactics had destroyed a ship
that could kill the Ares in a toe-to-toe slugfest. The Drakh hadn't even
known what had hit them. The odds were that the space station and other
ships were still trying to understand what happened.
Luck had smiled once again on Susan Ivanova. The first salvo of high-energy
beams had destroyed the principal power distribution conduits on the
dreadnought. The sweep of the beam had destroyed the secondary feeds and the
main propulsion reactors. In a matter of seconds, the Ares for all practical
purposes had 'killed' the dreadnought. The remainder of the short, vicious
attack had merely reduced the ship to less than salvageable scrap metal.
*******************************************************************
On his ship, the paranoid Drakh commander was watching the playback of the
dreadnought's destruction, again. It had been lightning fast and efficient.
The attack had been launched from the far side of the dreadnought and its size
had prevented them seeing who carried out the attack. In the pit of his
stomach, he knew it had to have been the Ares and her captain. That female
Human must be the devil incarnate, if one believed in the Human superstitions.
The station and remaining ships made haste in getting fighters launched
and positioned around them to prevent whoever had attacked the dreadnought
from being able to pull off another surprise attack. The quick, efficient
dispatching of the dreadnought was beginning to sink into the Drakh commanders’
consciousness, and now they weren't quite so sure of themselves where this
threat was concerned. They had been lackadaisical and arrogant. That attitude
had cost a great many lives and a fine ship.
*****************************
"Captain Ivanova, we probably won't be able to open a jump point as close
to the station as we did to the ship. We don't have precise enough data."
"Do your best. Maybe we'll get lucky and open it within the station
itself," replied Susan.
"Let's say we don't, and be ready for a real fight, sir," answered S.W.C.
"The fighters are manned and ready, captain," reported her 'air' boss.
Thumbing the 1MC switch on her console control panel, Susan started
speaking, "Attention. This is the captain. We have just engaged and destroyed
the Drakh dreadnought that was in the vicinity of the space station. We caught
him by surprise. We won't be as lucky during the next phase of this attack.
I expect us to use every dirty tactic we have developed and practiced. I
strongly advise all personnel to make sure they are securely fastened to
something that is permanently mounted to the deck, ceiling or bulkheads.
Captain out."
"We’re approaching the area of the station, captain."
"Navigator, S.W.C., the show is yours, gentlemen. Take us in."
*****************************
"What is our status?" Asked the senior Drakh leader aboard the space
station.
"Our fighters and those of the nearby ships have been deployed around them
and us. Some are hurrying to get on station. Our local defensive systems and
main batteries are up and operational, and they are on full automatic. They
will acquire and fire on any target that presents itself," reported the
station commander proudly. "We will not be caught by surprise like the Grntlh
(roughly translates as "Master of Darkness") was."
"I certainly hope not," responded the senior Drakh, disgustedly. "Whoever
attacked her has very heavy energy weapons. They would seem almost as powerful
as those of our former dark masters. Can your station withstand that type of
bombardment?"
The look on his junior's face answered the question, and not to his liking.
Their communications were being jammed, rather effectively, making
communications with the nearby ships extremely difficult. He did not like
this situation at all.
******************************
"Jump point initiated, captain," said the navigator, as an enlarging
vortex sprang into being in front of the Ares.
As the Ares approached the jump point, the S.W.C. spoke into the tiny
microphone suspended just in front of his lips, "Bob (navigator), give me
pattern Golf One when we enter the jump point." S.W.C then finished
programming his target list and prioritizing it.
The ship shuddered heavily as the navigator poured all available power
into the engines, and initiated a pseudo random tumbling pattern. The ship
would exit the jump point at a very high rate of speed, tumbling end over
end and sideways along a changing course.
*****************************
On his ship's bridge, the nervous Drakh commander watched a jump point
forming just off to one side of the station at a distance of less than a
hundred kilometers from it. The opening was about four hundred kilometers
from his ship, but almost in the center of the box formed by his ship and
its three sisters. Whoever tried to attack the station would find themselves
fighting on all sides at the same time. It also occurred to him that there
were bearings the ships could not fire on without hitting one another. He
didn't like it, but it was the best defensive stance they could assume,
considering their lack of data concerning their attacker or attackers. What
he saw exit from the jump point took him by surprise. It looked like a ship
completely out of control. This element of surprise had affected the other
ship commanders also. It lasted only a second, but it was enough for the Ares
to get a complete and accurate picture of the situation.
The station's weapons began firing the instant the Ares appeared on its
weapons tracking systems. However, the tumbling pattern prevented the
station's weapons systems from being able to effectively concentrate their
fire on a single area of the Ares hull.
*****************************
As the station's main batteries took the Ares under fire, the senior Drakh
official looked at the station commander and said, "It looks as if something
is going right."
"Not as right as I would like," responded the station commander. "Its
tumbling makes it impossible to concentrate our weapons in one area of its hull."
"It doesn't sound like an accident, does it?" asked the senior Drakh, as
the Ares returned fire with its four forward batteries concentrating their
output on a single area of the space station.
As the Ares poured fire into the station with its forward batteries, its
aft batteries were raking the cruiser-carriers in turn, destroying their
primary power distributions systems.
In the bowels of the station there was pandemonium and panic as the
powerful energy beams sliced through deckplates, bulkheads and girders alike
as they sought the apparent main reactor area of the station. There was
carnage everywhere. Broken station hardware and flesh and bone were
vaporized and melted together in the inferno, which showed no signs of
abating.
As suddenly as it had begun, in less than two minutes, the station's
weapons and defense grid had been reduced to ineffectiveness. Its main power
source had been destroyed and secondary generators were all that kept the
lights working. This secondary system was only for limited backup purposes.
The station's designers had never designed it to withstand an attack by a
ship or ships having the firepower of the Ares. They were now in the process
of paying dearly for that oversight.
The paranoid Drakh commander ordered his ship to fire on the Ares at the
same time as the energy beam from one of the Ares main batteries raked across
his ship's hull. The energy beam sliced a deep scar across the hull leaving a
gash twenty meters wide, one hundred meters deep and three hundred meters
long. It severed the main power couplings between the ship's reactors, its
engines and its main power distribution switch boards. It would take three
minutes to reroute the main power to the secondary distribution system. The
secondary power couplings to the engines could only handle sixty percent of
the power load the main system had handled.
As the lights came back on, the paranoid Drakh ship commander demanded,
"What is our status?"
"We have restored partial power, our main power distribution center and
our main power couplings to the engines have been destroyed, reported his
engineering officer. Also our jump engines are damaged, maybe beyond repair."
"One salvo and we are almost destroyed. We can't retreat."
"That appears to have been their intent, Commander. Our scanners indicate
they hit the other ships in the same manner. We can't retreat, our
communications are being jammed and we no longer have full power to our
weapons systems. Our best hope is that our fighters can destroy the Earth
ship."
"What is the station's status?"
"It is very heavily damaged. Its defense screen capability is less than
fifty per cent. Also, the Earth ship has jumped back into hyperspace, but it
didn't escape unharmed."
*****************************
As the Ares exited the jump point looking for all intents and purposes
to be out of control, the station's main batteries, without hesitating,
engaged her. Its energy beams played over the rapidly moving ship's hull
and the energy was absorbed and dissipated throughout the ship's bio-armor.
The Drakh ships hesitated for a moment before firing and paid for it by having
their main power systems come under fire from the Ares. In less than two
minutes all four ships had been rendered less than fifty percent effective.
The major danger they still posed was from their fighters.
Susan watched the scenario unfold. It went like a textbook example. The
ship was handling the incoming fire without any strain. They had been at it
for almost two minutes when the big ship shuddered heavily, twice, only
moments apart.
"We have been hit by two Drakh fighters, captain."
"Where?"
"Damage control is localizing the impact areas now, Sir. We’ve been hurt,
captain. I’m getting reports from at least fifteen decks," responded cheng
from his station.
"Navigator! Get us out..."
"Jump point already initiated, captain," responded the navigator, cutting
Susan off in mid-sentence.
The Ares entered the jump point and vanished into hyperspace to lick its
wounds before returning to finish the job.
***************************************************************
END PART 3
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