Riss Series 3: The Riss Survival (27 page)

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

The battle of ZigZag

Captain Dannatt sat in the command chair listening to the recording of the Aliens' broadcast to Zigzag, the Teita had sent via tight-beam. Considering how defenseless the planet, the Aliens proved cautious sending three cruisers. One had approached the planet to give their ultimatum while the other two had remained well back, to provide backup and to handle any incoming traffic. The scout remained close to the Wave observing the results. The Aliens actions didn't appear to be an occupation, since for now at least, they hadn't brought an occupying army. But they seemed to be planning to stay, guaranteeing no information left the solar system. We had discovered what and how, but not why. The good news was that the Aliens were allowing the residents to evacuate the area before they began their destruction, because Wattson appeared ready to let the Aliens do what they were going to do regardless of the consequences. Dannatt understood they were here to learn about the enemy, and we could only do that if we let them do what they came to do. But it was hard to sit and watch a planet being attacked when the navy's mission was to protect them.

"Captain, one of the merchants has left the space station, and A1 has launched missiles," Ooten, the radar officer said. He remained quiet for several minutes. "Damn the bastards. The merchant's ship has disappeared off the radar—it's nothing but space debris."

The waiting continued for another two hours.

"Another launch, Captain. Eight hours to the second." Ooten banged his hand on the console. Dannatt felt his frustration at not being able to do anything. "Another four."

"Damn," Dannatt cursed, looking up at the chronometer. Thirty seconds between launches. Our Light cruisers are going to have problems even with two against one.

"Multiple explosions on the Space Station. The docked merchant's ship has exploded," Ooten spat.

"Captain Dannatt, you are free to engage A3. The Puma and Kestrel have been notified to engage A2. Good hunting," Admiral Wattson said over Dannatt's SID. He and his staff were in the command center monitoring the task force's activities and directing operations.

"Tac, engage A3, fire at will." Seconds later a slight vibration as twelve missiles headed for A3.

"Time to impact, sixty-seven seconds." Parcell, the Tac officer, said.

"Four incoming. Time to impact, sixty seconds based on the information from the
Harris
and the
Tetia
. That makes their missiles almost twenty percent faster than ours," Lindert, the ECM officer said. Dannatt nodded.

Thirty seconds later. "Another four incoming."

"A3 is directing all its fire at us--eight per minute. That gives us a six missile advantage per minute, plus a thicker hull—I hope," Dannatt said to no one in particular. He wondered if this was their normal cruiser, or a Light, Light cruiser. He hoped not the latter. The cruisers they sent were bad enough.

"We only scored one hit. They are either very lucky or their ECM is the equivalent of ours," Parcell said, frowning at his monitor's display.

The Golden Eagle shuttered. "Damn their missiles. As the Harris reported, they turn off all electronics when they encounter chaff and then they're a bitch to target."

"Bay 21, open to air. Two Sharks destroyed, five killed," the Comm officer began summarizing the damage reports as they came in. The Golden Eagle was scoring the same as A3—one per minute—but incurring less damage due to its extra-thick battle steel. Twelve minutes later A3 appeared to lose power.

"Commander Labree, the Aliens ship has launched ten fighters. Release your Strikers."

"Strikers launched. Fifty seconds to contact," Labree said, after a short pause. Dannatt watched as the twenty Strikers met the Aliens' ten fighters.

"Captain, they are deliberately attempting to collide with the Strikers. We've killed three before they could; however, five succeeded and two are heading for the
Eagle
," Labree shouted. Lasers reached out and disabled one, but the other rammed the
Eagle
. The ship jerked as the explosion ripped through one of the weapon storage bays and destroyed two missile tubes. The remaining Strikers converged on A3. It was over in minutes, but the toll was heavy—four Strikers destroyed by Laser fire.

Dannatt stood dazed. In the course of fifteen minutes, one Light, Light cruiser had taken on a SAS Heavy scoring twelve hits out of the ninety-six launched, thirteen counting the fighter, and caused considerable damage. Only the Heavy's reinforced hull had limited the damage, and its greater throw weight had enabled a quick end to the battle.

"Captain Dannatt, What is your status." Wattson interrupted his thoughts.

"We're operational, but in need of major repairs."

"The Puma and Kestrel destroyed A2, but the Kestrel will have to be abandoned. It’s beyond repair. Captain Lambert said A2 directed all its missile fire against the Kestrel—over eighty missiles. He thinks, the Captain of A2 decided he couldn't win and chose most vulnerable cruiser. Equipped with the new Duster missiles, A2 only scored seven hits, far less per hundred than A1 had scored against the Harris and Tetia. He said the Kestrel would have survived, except A2's ten fighters ignored the Puma and attacked the Kestrel. The Kestrel Strikers with support from the
Puma's
Sharks destroyed seven but the remaining three managed to ram the Kestrel. We lost two Strikers and two Sharks."

Wattson was silent for a few minutes, before speaking.

"Tell Captain Lambert to collect the survivors from the Kestrel and then destroy the ship. We don't want to leave anything useful for the Aliens. They will undoubtedly send a task force when their scout ship doesn't return. The less they know the better off we are."

"Captain, the Eagle will retrieve the survivors and the wounded from the Tetia and
Harris
and destroy the Tetia. And I want A2 and A3 towed back to Freeland."

* * *

The scout ship had been an easy kill. The Eirene and the Mnemosyne had eased closer as the fighting raged on. Then as the battles ended and the scout ship began to retreat, we each fired one bank of six Demons. Eight struck, disabling the ship—shortly afterward S1 exploded. I wondered if the robots initiated the explosion.

I opened my SID and reviewed the report. The SAS fleet had taken a beating, considering its overwhelming force against three small Light cruisers. Even the Golden Eagle had taken significant damage. As I had suspected, we were being invaded by a highly advanced civilization.

* * *

On the ride back to Freeland, the mood on the Mnemosyne was sober. I had released Wattson's summary of the battle, and everyone had something to think or worry about: friends and comrades were on those ships, the unexpected power of the Aliens small ships, and the real battle to come. With nothing to do, I visited each section.

"Captain Reese," Seng greeted me as I entered the Scorpion's area. Terril and Seng had been discussing something when I interrupted. "Are you here for relaxation or is this official?"

"I wondered if you had any feedback from the … battle of Zigzag." That seemed an appropriate title.

"Some. From what Gunny and I have heard, the Aliens' cruisers where manned entirely by robots, and the corridors and work area had heat-sensor activated lasers. Ironically, they found no ship-killer switch. The boarding techniques Gunny developed saved a lot of lives. Thanks to that, no one was hurt during the boarding actions on A2 or A3. Their ships are nasty, but the robots don't appear violent or at least they weren't armed."

"Admiral Wattson is right. Information about the Aliens is critical, more so now that it appears their technology is superior to ours."

"Cheery thought, Captain," Terril said, frowning. "Ironically, most of us are counting on the Riss, which is weird considering how they hate war and killing."

After some small talk about how strange it was to encounter robots and not some kind of organic thing, I headed for the Shark area. The fighter pilots were unusually subdued. The task force fighters had taken heavy losses. Commander Byer perceptively pointed out the squadron felt guilty they hadn't been there to help." I understood. Our total involvement had been one salvo of missiles. If we hadn't been at battle stations, no one would have known we had engaged the enemy. I saved Intel for last. Iglis was waiting for me when I cleared security.

"Commander Iglis, do you have some kaffa?" I said. She stared at me opened mouthed for several seconds, then smiled.

"Yes, Captain Reese. Us spooks always have kaffa available." She smiled and led me to her office. "I'm confused and scared. The feedback is tentative, but there is no clue as to what the Aliens look like. All we can do is conjecture they are technologically superior to us if they can send robots to quarantine a planet. And if those small cruisers can cause so much damage, what about their equivalent to our Hunters and Heavies … " Her voice rose and changed octaves as she talked.

"Iglis, take a deep breath. Your speculating based on too little information. They may have to use robots because there are too few of them—like the Riss nation. Those small cruisers maybe all they have. Their invading force maybe small and, therefore, they have to rely on surprise. They may have bitten off more than their invading force can chew. We've learned more about them during this engagement, but not enough to see the whole picture. Like a puzzle, we are missing too many pieces to know what the picture will look like."

"You’re right. But you have to admit it's scary."

"Yes, but those of us in leadership positions must be careful not to create panic. We all perform better when we're relaxed."

"Yes, deep breaths." Iglis smiled as she took several exaggerated breaths. "I forgot this is a Riss ship."

* * *

The rumors ran wild when we returned to Freeland. They ranged from,
we had turned back the Aliens invasion
to
we were defeated at Zigzag by three mini-cruisers.
It forced Admiral Wattson to call a meeting of all the Captains, XOs, and Shark and Scorpion commanders. The conference room was standing room only.

"Attention," Bradshaw called as Wattson entered.

"At ease," Wattson said as he walked to the front of the room. "I've called this meeting to give you the facts of … our engagement with the Aliens at Zigzag. We did not go to Zigzag to challenge the Aliens. We went to collect information: how did they quarantine a solar system and why, what kind of force did they use, and to engage the task force they sent. We had postulated it would be a reasonably small force as Zigzag has no defense systems or heavily armed mercenaries. In fact, the Aliens sent only three small cruisers. Small is not to be confused with defenseless. Part of what we wanted to determine was how well our cruisers would fair against their ships. So we had one of each: an unmodified older Light, an unmodified new Light, a modified Light, a Hunter, and a Heavy. The Riss cruisers were backup and never used. We destroyed the three cruisers and have brought two back for examination. We learned that the Aliens' cruisers are a match for our unmodified Lights, as were the Raiders Light cruisers. The modified Light did much better. It was destroyed only because the Aliens use kamikaze-like tactics." He stopped for a sip of water, while he looked around the room.

"Let me say again, we went there to collect information about the Aliens. If we must fight them, the more we know the better our chances of winning with minimum losses. We still have lots of questions, but we are smarter than we were. We learned they quarantine a planet by destroying their capability to leave: they destroy the space station, any spacecraft in the area, and the Comstat. They demonstrated a certain humanity when they gave civilians time to leave the station before they destroyed it. Any questions?"

"Yes, sir," the captain of the Peregrine said. "I understand the cruisers were manned entirely by robots."

"That’s correct. Their scout ship and the three cruisers. That may indicate many things: a master computer may direct their actions, each robot may be programmed to perform a specific function, they may not be programmed to seek a peaceful dialog, or  … " He left other possibilities dangling. "It's why we need more information. Any of those possibilities could represent a weakness we can capitalize on if it comes to a war. It's your responsibility as senior officers to stick to the facts and not to speculate. We need to maintain morale and discipline. Unfounded rumors could be very disruptive."

"Sir, what about their Kamikaze fighters?"

"That's the kind of information we were after. Now that we know their tactics, we can develop an effective defense. Knowledge is power." Wattson actually smiled. The questions went on for another hour, mostly directed at the Captains of the Harris, Puma, Kestrel, and Golden Eagle.