Heart of Steel: Book II of the Jonathan Pavel Series (25 page)

A devilish grin played across George’s face.

“Of course they haven't seen the legs on this girl, no one has in a while. I’ll bet you we can close the gap between us and any Colonial frigate and break it like a match.”

Jonathan nodded.

“We’ll pull the convoy in tightly, and put the ships on high alert. I doubt any enemy raiders are going to try to take on a light cruiser or even a Solarian destroyer. We build them tough after all, but if they do give us an opportunity to engage, we should take the opportunity to neutralize a wolf pack and make our rear a bit more secure in the process.”

“A secure rear in the navy, what a contradiction,” Elman said dryly.

Everyone laughed at that, even Heath smiled.

Jonathan shook his head. Centuries after the age of sail no navy could fully expunge buggery jokes.

The meeting broke up soon after, and Jonathan proceeded to the bridge. Once there, he activated the ship's PA system.

“Attention all hands this is the Captain speaking,” Jonathan paused for a moment before continuing, “We are at war.”

Casaopia System, Solarian Republic

On board
RSNS Sound of Fury

November 7th 844 AE

Fury
and her consorts reached the Casaopia system two days later, which gave Jonathan and the other escort captains not to mention the continually nervous Captain Mao time to plan the convoy’s defense. The seven merchantmen were grouped in a cluster with
Oeillet
and
Charon
leading while
Cronus
and
Fury
brought up the rear. The plan was to put George’s notion that any commerce raider that approached would underestimate
Fury's
speed, and bring itself into a trap.  Captain Mao was unhappy at the notion of being bait, but Jonathan assured him it was the safest strategy. A destroyed raider was one that was no threat at all. Jonathan didn't seriously think anyone would be foolish enough to attack the convoy though.  Captain Mao in his capacity as the convoy’s senior officer had chosen what could be considered the shortest course through the system, rather than the safest. Casaopia’s three gas giants were called
Liu Bei, Guan Yu, and Zhang Fei.  They were each twice as large as Jupiter in the Sol system, and a fourth larger than
Zhong
in the Solarian system. Their gravity wells had for a millennia collected massive amounts of space debris. One of those was a frozen, harsh moon called Dante that had been converted into one of Solaria’s harshest penal colonies. Aside from the 15,000 prisoners and their guards, the system had 6 million inhabitants most living aboard two space stations. The people in the system were for the most part zoners, they lived on the edge of what was called civilization and had a distaste for law and order. They tolerated the Republic and its presence in the system, but they didn't love it. Solaria had necessarily kept a light footprint. There were two CRS stations to help with search and rescue and watch out for smuggling and a monthly naval patrol to keep the peace. Other than that, the only evidence of the Republic’s presence was the penal colony.  George had been right though.
As a far as systems went, it was an ideal area for an ambush. Raiders loved asteroid belts and uninhabited worlds, and the convoy’s course took them straight through the gap between
Liu Bei and Guan Yu and their rings. Though the gap between the gas giants was millions of miles, their debris field was very close and in astro-navigable terms practically touching.

“Any contact from the CRS Mr. Heath?” Jonathan asked the com officer.

“No sir. Just a message from Dante station. They report CRS post went quiet four days ago. Since then, several ships have disappeared. They advise caution.”

Jonathan nodded. Although Dante and the two space stations were Solarian, they hadn't thus far been attacked, which made sense. All three installations orbited Zhang Fei, which was close to the Abreau wormway this time of year. A wolf pack wouldn't want to smash up the Solarian outpost by the front door of the system. Incoming convoys would see that, and head back to Abreau. No, better to lay and wait and strike at the opportune moment.  Jonathan nodded and looked at the Yeoman at the ship's control.

“All ahead full. Mr. Heath signal to the convoy, stay tight everyone.”

The convoy moved at a slow but steady pace. It would be five days across the system, and
Jonathan had adjusted the duty rotation to place himself on the bridge through as much of the transit as possible. Especially when they crossed through the Hazin Cloud, the thickest part of the debris field between
Liu Bei and Guan Yu. Despite all the tension and danger, Jonathan had to admit it made a very lovely sight. The two gas giants’ debris fields were mostly nickel iron asteroids, frozen ice, and a millennia worth of gas and dust. The
Hazin Cloud formed a gold and purple nebula between the two planets and around them. In a few millennia, the giants would become stars in  Casaopia which would become a trinary system. The younger and smaller
Zhang Fei  would join them in a few more millennia and Casaopia would become a star forge, or a place where stars were born and new worlds were fashioned from the debris caught in their gravity wells. It was hard not to marvel at the scale of it.
On the third day of the convoy's passage, Jonathan was beginning to think that they might make it through the system unscathed then technical at the lidar station called out.

“Sir, two new signatures resolving from
Liu Bei belt
, wait one...” tension built as the lidar computer processed the information. They had endured a number of false alarms before. Merchantmen and prospectors skimming the belt to avoid getting stepped on by the interstellar conflict. Most of those merchantmen had been headed away from the conflict zone. A few had fled
Fury
and her consorts very rapidly, leaving Jonathan to suspect that smugglers were taking advantage of the chaos that came with war.
Fury’s
computer was still processing the new signatures when Heath called out from the communications station.

“Sir, signal received from
Oeillet.
Confirmed. Both signatures are tangos and match Jane's profile of
New Congo
class frigates.” Jane's Fighting Ships was an onboard manual that had a profile and the EM signature pattern of every class of ship in human space.

“They are requesting instructions sir.”

Jonathan pondered for a second looking at the relay. The Frigates weren't moving toward the convoy. In fact, they were moving away from it, but not at their full speed. They were obviously bait, but the question was would he take it? Jonathan decided the best way to neutralize a trap was to spring it.

“Transmit to
Oeillet
and
Charon
to pursue and destroy enemy targets.”

Jonathan paused looking at the read out. “Message to convoy to form sphere,
Fury
and
Cronus
to take center.”

“Aye sir,” Heath said beginning the transmission.

As he did so, Jonathan hit the switch on his console ordering general quarters.

Across
Fury,
the klaxon blared and crewmen dropped whatever they had been doing as the prerecorded voice called out repeatedly,

“ALL HANDS, MAN YOUR BATTLE STATIONS THIS IS NOT A DRILL.”

Jonathan watched as his board lit up as each section reported stations manned and ready. One minute and ten seconds till all green, Jonathan allowed himself a small smile at that. He’d been running his regular gauntlet of drills since the convoy had gotten underway, and the results of this were showing in the crew's performance. Still, training was no substitute for experience.  Jonathan sat in silence, his jaw set and his expression neutral as the two Solarian destroyers closed on the fleeing Colonial ships. A good size gap had appeared between the the Solarian ships and the convoy when two more signatures resolved out of the
Liu Bei’s
debris field, not far from the stern of
Charon
and
Oeillet.
As Jonathan had suspected, the first two ships were decoys designed to draw off the convoy’s escorts. Once that was done, the trap was sprung and the four ships would turn on the now isolated Solarian destroyers. No doubt the hope was to neutralize the convoy’s escorts, thus making the sluggish merchantmen vulnerable to being picked off one by one.

“Communication signal the
Cronus.
My compliments to Captain Trendale and ask if he is ready to ambush the ambushers.”

The debris field the Colonials had hid in was a double edge sword. As much as it scrambled the Solarian lidar systems and scopes, it also rendered the Colonials nearly blind. They would have been able to ascertain the existence of the convoy, but not necessarily how many escorts it had or what class.

“Signal from Cronus sir. Captain Trendale’s compliments, message reads After you
Fury.”

Jonathan was about to give the order to move away from the transports and engage when the face of his XO popped up on his screen. George was at his station in the auxiliary control center. One of the more morbid aspects of the XO’s duties was when the ship was in combat, the only thing he was suppose to do was to standby in case the Captain died and the bridge was taken out.
“Skipper, I think you should hear this,” George said.

Next to George a window appeared showing the grizzled face of Lt. Alan Sing,
Fury’s
assistant tactical officer.

“Go ahead Mr. Sing,” George urged the other man.

“Right, uh Captain sir I think we need to hold off,” Sing said.

“Oh, and why perchance is that Mr. Sing?” Jonathan asked slightly annoyed.

“Well sir, it's like this. I think there is another pair of Colonials waiting to jump on us, or the merchies as soon as we move to engage.” Jonathan raised an eyebrow.

“Any evidence of this or just a gut feeling?”

Sing nodded vigorously and pulled a sensor readout up for Jonathan to see.

“I had the gut feeling, so I had the computer run a pattern displacement on the asteroids and ice chunks in the belt. Scopes can’t pick out power signatures in that muck, but it can find drift patterns look here,” Sing circled two points with a red circle. “And here, do you see sir?”

Jonathan studied the image intently for a moment then nodded. The sensor read out was tracking micro meteorites. The readout Sing had sent him indicated four areas in the belt where the drift pattern shifted. Asteroids seemed to be going around or reversing direction there, the by- product of bouncing off a ship's kinetic barriers. The sensor logs showed the two frigates, which had jumped from the ambush moving out of the belt, but left two other similar signatures still in the belt, both were causing larger displacement than the frigates.

Jonathan bit his lip. These could of course be other decoys meant to prevent him from supporting
Oeillet
and
Charon.
Jonathan looked at the read out.
Cronus
was already moving to engage, and
Oeillet
and
Charon
had raised their barriers and made ready to stand and fight. Jonathan made his decision. 

“Mr. Heath signal
Cronus.
Tell them they're going to have to go it alone. Tell
Oeillet
and
Charon
to close with bogeys 1 and 2 and destroy them.
Cronus
will pursue bogey 3 and 4, and we will hold here.”

Jonathan thought for another moment and then nodded, turning back to the screen.

“Let's see if this works. Both of you stand ready.” Sing and George acknowledged and winked out.

Jonathan brought up the video link to the
Fury’s
hanger where Major Alicia Kern fully kitted out in zero-g combat armor stared back at him.

“Major, are your Devil Dogs ready to jump off?”

“Aye sir. 1st Platoon is kitted out and flight 1 of gunships is standing by.”

“Right then, go ahead and launch. It looks like we're going to have a visitor sooner than I would like.”

Jonathan continued to issue orders holding
Fury
within the formation of merchantmen, while the other vessels closed to attack range.

Bogeys 1 and 2 which had turned back toward
Oeillet
and
Charon
were indeed definitively identified by their signature as
New Congo
class ships, the same class Jonathan had dealt with in New Helsinki. Lidar painted their emissions profile as CCNS
New Bolobo
and
Sonki.

Bogeys 2 and 3 also turned heading toward
Cronus.
No doubt, the Colonials had decided their best course was to engage the three Solarian destroyers as separately as possible rather than all together. It was prudent, especially since the Solarian ships were bigger and better armed. It also landed credence to Lt. Sing’s theory. If Jonathan had been in command of the Colonials, he’d have the frigates tie down the Solarian escorts then spring his trap. Bogeys 2 and 3 EM resolved gradually as the range closed. One was pinged as CCNS
Ando.
The other though...