Scout Force (57 page)

      
The captain ordered the crew off battle stations.
 
Kelly turned helm control back over to the helmsman and walked back with the captain to the galley for some coffee.
 
Chief Watson had the conn.
 
Kelly got a cup of coffee and a sandwich from Cookie, then went into the sensor section to confer with Chief B.

      
“Chief, we need you and your folks to keep a sharp eye out.
 
Could you tell if the K’Rang command ship got out a distress call or not?”

      
“We’ll keep both a sharp eye and ear out.
 
As far as the command ship, it didn’t have time for a distress call.
 
If one went out, we didn’t have any indication of it.”

      
“Chief, we may see ships coming from any direction.
 
Keep a watch on where the K’Rang invasion fleet is, on the two K’Rang worlds, and from further into K’Rang space.
 
The captain thinks we may be able to pick off any stragglers that retreat across the frontier away from the 1st Combined Fleet.
 
The 1st Fleet won’t pursue across the frontier, but since we are already here, there’s no harm in taking them out.
 
Try and find good targets for our remaining missiles.”

      
Chief B responded, “Will do, sir.”

* * * * * *

      
The K’Rang Fleet commander was ecstatic.
 
Fighting his way through the frontier defenses, minefields and outer defenses had cost him more than anticipated, but at last he had a relatively clear path before him into the 6664 system and the human planet, New Alexandria.
 
His claws involuntarily extended and retracted as he could see an easy victory before him.
 
He ordered his fighters to sweep the path into the system.
 
The remaining defensive satellites along his path would be easy targets for his fighters.
 

He signaled his battlecruisers and bombardment cruisers to prepare for the destruction of the planet's surface defenses.
 
Their targeting sensors and firing computers listed and prioritized the defensive installations for total devastation.
 
The lighter carriers followed behind the battlecruisers, ready to land ground forces for the easy elimination of any remaining resistance.
 
The landing support carriers moved their attack fighters to launch positions.
 
His missile cruisers deployed outward to seal the 6664 system from outside reinforcement.

      
The commander’s reverie was interrupted by the harsh klaxon sound of multiple alarms going off.
 
He shouted to his battle captain, “What is happening?”

      
The battle captain sat speechless, staring at his indicator screen.
 
The commander walked over to see what his battle captain was seeing.
 
He rudely slapped the battle captain out of the way and couldn’t believe his eyes.
 
The screen was covered with hundreds of hostile ship symbols at maximum sensor range coming in at high speed from every direction.
 
There were so many the symbols overlapped.
 
Thousands of inbound missiles were shown vectoring in on his fleet.

      
“Battle Captain! Recycle your system!” he shouted.
 
“It is obviously malfunctioning.”

      
The battle captain turned to face his admiral, his eyes huge.
 
“I already have, Admiral, it’s not a malfunction.”

      
The admiral stared for just a heartbeat more before recovering his senses.
 
“This is Admiral K’Tang to all ships.
 
I order the fleet to form for defense.
 
Escorts form a bubble.
 
Main combatants to withdraw immediately across the frontier at flank speed.
 
Battlecruisers and missile cruisers prepare to fire your long-range missiles against the incoming ships once they come into range.
 
Execute!”

      
The K’Rang moved into their defensive battle formation in an orderly and expeditious manner.
 
There appeared to be no panic.
 
All ships assumed their formation positions as they had practiced it scores of times.
 
It did them no good.

      
 
The first inbound salvoes of Fleet missiles expended the K’Rang ships’ magazines of defensive missiles.
 
Their defensive missiles took out hundreds of incoming missiles, but the remainder flew on.
 
The escorts’ guns were unable to save them either.
 
There were simply too many missiles coming in too fast for the defensive guns to track and destroy.
 
The defensive bubble of escorts dissolved in brilliant flashes of matter/antimatter explosions.
 
One second the escort ships were there.
 
The next they were expanding clouds of flame and debris.

The major combatants fared only slightly better.
 
They never had time to fire their own long-range missiles.
 
Incoming missiles passing through the debris of the escorts flew inexorably into the massed formation of capital and support ships.
 
The missiles chewed away at the fleet.
 
The support ships were easily destroyed by one missile each, but the larger ships took two or more before they were totally destroyed.
 
In minutes, the K’Rang Fleet was no longer a cohesive threat.

Several ships carried on singly, bravely, attempting to take out any Human ships in range.
 
The carriers launched most of their fighters and attack ships.
 
One lone, damaged missile frigate made a dash for the frontier, but it was quickly dispatched by the Rutherford’s squadron of planetary corvettes.
 
The squadron and other escort ships moved to the frontier to provide early warning of any K’Rang reinforcements.
 
Fleet and New Amsterdam fighters made short work of the K’Rang fighters and attack ships still remaining.
 
No K’Rang forces made it to the planet’s surface.
 
In less than a day, the 6664 system would be clear of any K’Rang forces.
 

* * * * *

      
Kelly moved through the galley, picked up another sandwich, refreshed his coffee, and resumed his position on the bridge.
 
The captain was in his cabin.
 
Chief Watson still had the conn.

      
LCDR Timmons stuck his head out of his cabin and said, “Exec, get some rest.
 
We could be out here on patrol for weeks.
 
Chief, get everybody back on normal watch schedule.”

      
Kelly closed down his station and retired to his quarters.
 
The war would wait for him to get some rest.

      
He awoke in three hours, cleaned up and took his position on the bridge.
 
The crew settled back into normal watch schedule.

      
Kelly reviewed the log from the previous watch.
 
With the exception of some explosions in the Voracious’ patrol area, there was no activity, short of some uninteresting interplanetary traffic in the nearest K’Rang planetary system.
 
The K’Rang invasion fleet had taken a bad beating from the 1st Combined Fleet.

      
Kelly stood his watch and had very little to show for it.
 
The sensor section provided periodic reports on the action in the 6664 system.
 
The K’Rang continued to take a beating.
 
Kelly finished out his watch and turned the watch over to Chief Billings.

      
Awakened by Chief Watson, Kelly was asked to report to the bridge.
 
It took only a moment for Kelly to throw some water in his face and step back onto the bridge.
 
The tension on the bridge was thick as a fog.
 
The captain was conferring with Chief Watson about something on his display.
 
Kelly moved over and listened in.

      
“Chief, there are too many of them for us to take on by ourselves.
 
Oh, Exec, there you are, come here and look at this.”

      
Kelly looked at the display and saw a formation of twenty-two warships and support ships moving in their direction.
 
He saw four battle cruisers, four missile cruisers, four destroyers (one of them a new Shadow Scout Destroyer), eight frigates, and two support ships.

      
“We only have eight missiles, we can’t take them all on.
 
Even if we get unbelievably lucky and knock out all the cruisers, the destroyers and frigates would chew us up.
 
Even the nebula won’t protect us from a deliberate cordon and search by twelve determined ships.
 
We’re too far away from the frontier to make a run for it.
 
I am open to suggestions.”

      
Kelly was about to admit he had no clue how to take this fleet on, when he remembered something he read when researching Admiral Craddock.

      
“Sir, do you remember how Admiral Craddock took on the Algolians?”

      
A blank look came over LCDR Timmon’s face followed by realization.
 
“I’ll be damned.
 
I see what you mean.
 
The Algolian Gambit!
 
Perfect, but the K’Rang are not the Algolians.
 
How do you propose to make this work?”

      
Kelly studied the display for a moment before replying, “We go after the formation from the rear to the front.
 
We take out the support ships first with our guns.
 
We can jump out from this nebula already at max FTL speed, drop in behind the support ships and take out their engines, then jump out to the gas giant we used earlier.
 
We jump from there, take out the other support ship, and jump back into this nebula.
 
We watch them react to our attack and wait.
 
That should take them a while to sort out.
 
If we do it right, they won’t have a clue where we came from and where we went.
 
We should be safely inside the gas giant or nebula before their sensors are able to resolve our signature.
 
It will require precision and our stabilizers must be working at full efficiency for us to go from power 6 to a dead stop in the space inside the safe zone of the planet’s atmosphere.
 
We have to stop before the atmospheric pressure crushes us.
 
If we can manage this, we should be able to knock off maybe a dozen ships.
 
The admiral engaged 20 ships.
 
We should be able to handle a dozen.
 
That will leave 10 for us to take on with our missiles.”

      
“It’s a gutsy plan, but it gives us the best chance of success.
 
Plot our jumps so that we come in between two ships.
 
We can double the number of ships we can disable that way.
 
Chief Watson, get as much stuff locked down as possible.
 
This plan will really put a strain on the stabilizers.
 
We don’t want things flying around if they start to go on us.
 
We’ll secure the crew as best we can.
 
All right, get started on locking things down.
 
They’ll be on us soon and I want us ready as soon as they go past.”

      
Chief Watson called all the other chiefs together.
 
The meeting was followed by a flurry of activity, as everything that could be stowed, tied down, or locked away was made so.
 
In an hour the ship was secure and ready for battle.

* * * * *

      
Shadow Leader M’Trang reviewed the reports coming in from the 27th Battle Fleet.
 
The Humans had somehow managed to move a large force into the Scutum sector and they were engaging the 27th Fleet to devastating result.
 
He keyed his communicator and attempted to contact the Sector Command Ship that should be in the vicinity.
 
There was no response.

      
He realized that if the Command Ship was not responding, it was probably destroyed.
 
The Command Ships had communications redundancies.
 
He considered his options and formulated a plan.

      
There were three reinforcing battle fleets converging on New Alexandria.
 
He contacted all three fleet commanders and coordinated their arrival at New Alexandria.
 
His appointment as provisional governor of New Alexandria made him the senior commander.
 
They would converge simultaneously and hit the Humans from three sides with a withering fire.
 
They could bring over 3000 long-range missiles to bear on the Human fleet.
 
It would be simple to continue in with their long-range heavy guns and take out any survivors.