Opening Moves (16 page)

“
Our sensors show nothing, captain,” Commander Cadeyrn reported from his post. “Just like they showed nothing all the other times we've been running system-wide sensor sweeps.”

Most military vessels could attain detailed real-time scans of a radius of several astronomical units, giving them a rather precise mass and IR footprint on most vessels operating inside their sensor envelope. After that the quality of the readouts dropped remarkably fast within a few million kilometers. Rasenni sensors, however, as with much of their military technology, were a generation or two ahead of the rest, allowing for truly system-wide sweeps even by smaller ships. If there was something to see, that was.

Judoc nodded absentmindedly. He could appreciate the officer's boredom and from the general atmosphere on the bridge could sense it was a common feeling. The Rasenni fleets simply weren't meant for such dull duties! They should be out there, dueling with Tuathaan raiders or playing a game of wits with the Dominion's navy, not guarding a system which nobody wanted to ever visit, let alone attack.

“
We'll run one more sweep, then go home and report our duty done to Lord Sechláinn.”

The crew brightened up a little and re-calibrated the sensors as the ship turned from the main planet and pointed its bow rimwards to head on another leisurely journey between the different outposts on its circuit. Judoc's ship was a fairly powerful unit, the crescent winged
Ice Raven
-class attack ship. On the scale of warships it jumped all over the place, fulfilling some of the class requirements for destroyers, frigates and gunships. The vessel was designed for high speed attacks in close collaboration with its sisters across the lines of battle. And every morning Judoc would ask the pantheon of gods to grant him the chance to show the full potential of his ship and crew. He prayed for war.

“
Picking up gravitic disturbances at the edge of the inner system!” Cadeyrn cried with a mix of anxiety and glee.
Finally
something was happening. He checked his sensor readings. “Registering a thermal bleed-out!”

A ship's transition back into normal space was always preceded by a thermal footprint. The larger the ship or the more ships were arriving the larger the footprint was.

Judoc bolted upright and scrambled to the sensor station. “There are no scheduled arrivals,” he muttered. “What ship is it?”

“
Can't get a reading yet,” the sensor officer reported. “We should have a transition any moment now.”

A million possibilities went through Judoc's mind: could it be raiders or perhaps an alien power? Was it a cargo ship in distress? Maybe a wayward freighter belonging to one of the Pact powers which he could claim as a prize? Either way his twin hearts were racing at the notion of something actually happening out here.

“Sweet Lord of War,” Cadeyrn whispered in astonishment. “Transition completed. It's a bloody Ukhuri heavy cruiser!"

“
Ukhuri?” Judoc was just as surprised. “Just the one?”

Cadeyrn shot his CO a baffled glance. 'Just the one?' That 'one' probably out-massed them by a factor of five! He steadied his voice to present Judoc with an answer. “Yes, captain. One of those double hulled designs, moving slowly towards the colony.”

“Fantastic!” Judoc grinned. “Charge the main battery and ready missiles! Helm, reverse course and set us up for a flanking attack. Get me into effective range. Comm, send a priority dispatch to the principality's local command. We have an Ukhuri attacker!”

The attack ship swung onto course and accelerated towards the intruder. Without even a warning or demand to surrender it locked its weapons on the Ukhuri cruiser. “Activate full EW protocols and ready the hack-packs. Time to target?”

Captain Judoc said a quick 'thank you' to the gods for this glorious opportunity to prove his prowess. This was exactly what he had wanted.

“
At our current acceleration we'll be in energy weapons' range in sixty-five minutes, captain,” Cadeyrn replied. “Enemy cruiser is maintaining its course. Either their sensor officer's blind or they simply don't care.” The energy output of their drive alone should have put them squarely in the intruder's sight, even at this distance. Contrary to common belief there really was no stealth in space for warships. The sheer amount of energy their systems ate with every second made it impossible to completely hide a million ton ship going at .05c from sensors, though there were persistent rumors about some smugglers and black ops ships being able to do so at least for short periods of time.

The waiting began. Judoc's ship was extremely fast, but even at its speeds it took time to merge the courses of the two pebbles in the huge pond that were the ships and the star system. But he bore the wait with almost angelic patience, intently studying both the enemy and the reaction of his own crew. Each pleased him greatly, and he looked forward to what would soon unfold here. The minutes raced past.

Then Cadeyrn spoke up again. “Reading active sensor emissions now. Low band tachyon sweep, not very focused.” A short warning blared across the bridge. “Enemy cruiser's painting us. Seems he's got some problems with the smoke screen we've set up,” Cadeyrn reported with a smile. “Intruder is holding his course. Apparently our visitor is not in any kind of hurry.” He checked his own instruments. “Range is down to one point fiver million clicks.”

“
Any sign of enemy fighters?”

“
None, captain. Enemy electronic warfare suite is, well,
laughable
. If that's the best they've got to offer, our own stuff will cut right through them.” Cadeyrn hesitated. “Isn't that strange, sir? I mean, shouldn't they be going for the colony and the orbitals at full speed, especially now that they've seen us? They must know that their presence is no longer a secret. A few hours from now this place will be crawling with ships flying our house's flag, and that rust bucket there will have a hell of a time getting back out of the gravity well in time.”

Judoc snorted. “They're Ukhuri! Who knows what these animals think. Anyway, we'll make sure our friend here won't have to worry about getting back again,” he grinned and pointed at the growing image on the bridge's main screen. “Any reactions?”

“Negative, sir. Distance now at two hundred and thirty-five thousand. Reaching effective combat range in twenty seconds.”

As if to belie that statement the Ukhuri cruiser opened fire. A focused plasma laser beam streaked out from the garishly painted hull. It missed the Rasenni attack ship by several thousand kilometers and fizzled out with no effect in the depths of the Oscan star system.

“Keep her steady. We make one pass then come around. Stand by damage control teams!”

“
Aye, sir- … Ninety thousand, captain!” Cadeyrn cried.

Ninety thousand kilometers was the maximum range at which Judoc's ship's own offensive laser batteries still took full effect. While it was easily possible to hit enemy ships up to ranges of a light-second and more, the demand on the ship's power plants, the lasers' cooling systems and the complex arrays of focusing lenses grew exponentially if you tried. At around one hundred thousand kilometers the coherence of the laser beams began to fray out, leading to a loss of the power transmitted upon impact. The effects would still be destructive, but considerably less so than at maximum effective range.

“All batteries, open fire!” Judoc commanded and his ship's bow erupted into fiery beams of focused energy. The attack ship ignored the Ukhuri's laughably simple ECM suite and cut into the cruiser's port side hull, sending smoldering black debris and puffs of atmosphere erupting into space.

The Ukhuri cruiser fired back with its topside lasers, but they had no chance of hitting such a fast moving ship in its impenetrable cloud of sensor distortions. Judoc brought his little ship tightly around, its main guns blazing on while the Ukhuri captain began to fill the space around his attacker with everything his own vector allowed him to fire.

“Missiles locked on enemy drive and frontal batteries, sir!”

“
This'll discourage the Ukhuri from raiding our space!” Judoc grinned widely, imagining the praise and laurels which awaited him. “Destroy them!”

Missiles erupted from tubes hidden in the crescent wings of the Rasenni ship. They flared into life and raced for the back of the Ukhuri ship. Covered by Judoc's EW suite and equally capable systems of their own, they raced towards their target, its point defense laser clusters failing miserably to intercept barely thirty percent of them. They burned into the ship's armored hull, their penetrators burying them deep into its bowels. A new sun flared to life as eight nuclear explosions engulfed the cruiser in fire.

Judoc watched with pride as the fireballs receded, leaving only a burned out skeletal hulk in their wake. It was a flawless victory, quick and painless for his ship and, with a little bit of luck, worthy of a promotion to a combat fleet.

“
Inform base the enemy raider has been dealt with, then hold position until reinforcements arrive to confirm our kill.”

“
Absolutely, sir,” Cadeyrn replied enthusiastically. This was why he had joined the navy, to achieve a swift victory and progress in social standing based on the attached praise. “I'm glad we stayed for another pass.”

“
Devotion to duty is always rewarded, Commander,” Judoc smiled. “Today proves that. Well done, crew! Today we proved that we are still lions!”

Aeta Star System, Ashani Dominion

A Week Later.

“
It has begun. The wheel of time turns, Rasenni bastards. Soon it'll be my people who will be doing the conquering.”

Strategos Tear'al nodded in agreement. “Indeed. The Ukhuri have come far since the days of the occupation. The time is right for you to take your revenge.”

The head of the
Eye of Satevis
, the central intelligence agency named after the ancient Ashani god of knowledge, sat comfortably in a cushioned chair in his spacious quarters aboard the main orbital starbase the Dominion's navy had constructed to serve as the local command facility. The conquered Aetu below were slaves busily strip-mining their own world to feed the Ashani war machine. The leaders of that military saw no reason to rub shoulders with their workers or visit the dust filled and ravaged world, so they lived above in luxury.

Tear'al offered his guest another drink, one which was accepted gladly. “The Rasenni destroyed the ship without any warning or attempt to communicate. Exactly as you predicted, I might add.”

His companion nodded his bald head. Two frog-like eyes located high on the man's head caught what little light there was in the strategos' chamber and intensified it, giving them the look of lightly glowing spheres which illuminated the lizard-like features of the leathery skin of the old Ukhuri.

“
It was a sad sacrifice, but a necessary one. An old ship past the point where it should have been decommissioned, and a crew so green they probably shouldn't have left training yet,” the Ukhuri said with a sad shrug. “Their sensors were so obsolete I doubt they could have hit that Rasenni vessel even if it had stared them in the eye. They never had a chance, but I doubt they knew that before the end. To our people they will be remembered as martyrs, like so many others. It pains me to say it, but all that matters is that the action achieved its aim. It's created a moment of Rasenni aggression I can use to keep my people angry and ready for war.”

Merr'Quan'Hoth
was one of the most powerful members of the Ukhuri People's Council, the son of a famed resistance leader during the Rasenni occupation of the Ukhuri home world. He had made himself a name during his youth as a fearless commander of cross-border raids and was now one of the Inner Circle. As a military hero and a man with a lineage of revered freedom fighter he was something of a living legend. His word carried weight.

“
How will you explain the ship entering Rasenni territory?” the Ashani wanted to know.

“
We'll call it an accident. Due to its age the ship was experiencing integrity problems with its warp bubble en route and had to quickly transition back to real space wherever it could. Well, fate had it that the cruiser was forced to do so in Rasenni territory. Unfortunately, instead of offering help the Rasenni mercilessly destroyed the damaged ship, killing all on board. Young cadets on a training cruise, killed by my people's arch enemies. That should do the trick.”

“
An excellent story,” the Strategos approved, showing the still sharp remnants of what ages ago had distinguished his species as predators in a wide grin. “It'll whip your people into a frenzy of revenge. They will demand retribution.”

“
They better should,” Merr'Quan'Hoth growled. “But I'll have to be cautious. What I need for my people is a short, victorious border war. While we certainly are ready in spirit for the confrontation we do not want a full scale war with the Rasenni just yet,” the Council's representative emphasized. “Still, we think the Rasenni want a war a lot less than we do, and with their current leadership situation they will try and buy us off, giving us a star system or two to keep us quiet. The trick will be how far my people can push them,” he grinned and sipped more Ashani brandy.