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Fiction > Starfire
Nemesis Campaign
Erik L:
Posted on behalf of Procyon.
Commodore Brenna Muldoon sat back and reveiwed the duty log and sensor reports. Patrols in the Pan Euro section of the asteroid belt were generally an exercise in monotony. Once in a great while a smuggler mining in a restricted section was found. Nothing more. She turned off her monitor and looked around. Brenna knew that her presence on the Heavy Escort Tatianna was making it's Captain, Keely Sereg nervous. Perhaps an inspection was in order. She hadn't been out of her chair for six hours now and a little activity might be just what the day needed.
No sooner had the magnets of her boots snapped onto the floor than the command deck was bathed in red light. Her monitor sprang to life in a dozen flashing colors. There was no siren, no loud alarm. The deck was in vacuum, as always. But her comm channel repeated in a metalic, sterile voice"... New Contact...New Contact..."
Activating the section of her monitor she took in what the sensor con anounced to the ship. "Three new contacts. Chinese Strike Vessel times one, Convoy Escorts time two. Bearing two four zero degrees at ascencion plus three two degrees at four point five light seconds. Current speed two three zero zero k - m - h. Zero delta vee. Course zero zero 5 dergrees at one one dergees ascencion."
Brenna's comm lit up with a message from the captain's chair. She knew what it would be even before she openned the channel. "Commodore Muldoon, they have no business out here, but I have no authority to engage Chinese military vessels without authorization. That is going to take almost half an hour to get, at best."
Brenna thought about what it was that had brought her into the combat space service so long ago. It had been an accident. She had been paralysed. Her life would have consisted of being fed through a tube, breathing with a tube, and cleaned by aids and family. And it would have been a short life at best. The combat space service was the only place to get a full cyborg conversion. Only her brain and a few remnants of her nervous system remained. Even those were meshed through with thousands of monomolecular strands. But so was all of the crew. That was 52 years ago...
Brenna keyed her comm. "Intel says that Chinese sensor arrays don't have the range of ours. I think if they knew we were here they would be doing something. But I don't want any suprises. Bring us to battle stations. Lets coast for another 60 seconds just to make sure they can't see us. Then engage the drives and bring us around behind them. We'll see what they want out here."
Brenna locked herself into her station as Captain Sereg announced battle stations. She watched as the crew quickly locked themselves into their stations and waited for the green light on her monitor to show. The drive would not engage until the stations were all locked or the captain overrode the lock. A crew member not locked into their station would become a dangerous projectile when the drive engaged. A potentially ship killing projectile.
Brenna tried to prepare for when the drive engaged. She had never gotten used to it in all her years of service. She wasn't sure that anyone could. She could feel the hum of the particle accelerators warming up. Shortly they would fire streams of hydrogen atoms at nearly the speed of light. Those streams would converge at 90 dergee angles at a single point. The same point two dozen small chemical lasers were all focused on. And then that point would become a fair approximation of hell.
The 3rd Battle Group was all based around the same basic materials and design. The Heavy Escort Tatianna boasted heavier plating and baffles to protect her than the Attack Escorts Catherine and Isabelle that accompanied her. But that was pretty much all that was different. They were all composed of monomolecular chains formed into composites that all had one thing in common. They were designed to withstand the fury of a nuclear explosion. But only on one vector. And just barely. Baffles and shunts could create a small amount of manuverability, but miniscule. What it could do was shunt a great deal of thrust forward or backward per se, braking or increasing the ships speed in the one vector that could stand the stress.
The acceleration against the solar wind caused a static charge that was turned into a magnetic field that was used to reduce the felt acceleration of the cyborg bodies to less than one percent of the hulls acceleration. This was still almost 1000 G's. No human body could withstand combat acceleration. Any lose material would become a bullet punching through anything in its path. Even an atmosphere in the ship would be crushed and compressed to the rear of the compartments. Even if the hull could withstand the compressed air, it would shatter when the drive cut out and it explosively re-expanded. No. This was no place for any normal person.
That same static charge limited the ships maximum speed. Anything much greater and the dynamic forces and static charge would overload the ships' abilities to withstand it. Accelerators could be red lined for brief moments to achieve a small amount of extra thrust and speed, but only for a short time.
The drive engaged. Brenna's vision greyed as the acceleration started. Even with the monomolecular mesh her brain still was affected by the stress. Then a blue halo ringed the outside of her vision. She had been told that it was the effect of the magnetic field used to counter the acceleration. It interacted with the brains own electronic fields, the two crossing at right angles or some such thing. "Still a nusance." she thought to herself. Then it stopped as the drive cut out. Manuvering thrusters fired, changing the ships attitude. Then the drive engaged again. Twice more this cycle went on. Finally the drive cut out and the sensor con announced it had reaquired the contacts, dead ahead. "Closing at one zero thousand k - m - h. Distance to contact, four point five light seconds and closing."
Brenna keyed the comm officer. "Broadcast to contact this. Identify vessels and reason for presence in Pan Euro sector. Do not change heading. Initiate braking at this time. Any other action will be considered as hostile." Repeat back to me all before sending. The comm officer verified the message and broadcast it. Brenna thought that ever since the accident she had been living on borrowed time. Although her three escorts outsized the small convoy escorts, the strike vessel was much larger than any ship she had there. Perhaps her time was up today. They would know quickly enough.
Onboard the Chinese Attack Frigate Jiang, Captain Thich Hanh sat bolt upright. "Give me a bearing on that signal. Where are they dammit ! All crew, all ships, battle stations. Prepare ships to engage drives as soon as possible." Worrying about where they had come from and how they had found them was a problem for later, if they survived. Captain Hanh knew that they must not find out why they were here, or where they were going. Even if it meant losing the three ships under his command, and his life.
procyon:
October 17th 2202 (part 2)
Commodore Brenna Muldoon waited impatiently. It would take the Chinese ships a few moments to get their crews locked in before they could activate the drives. But during this time she was beginning to close the distance between them. In a few moments she would enter the range envelope of her battle group's missile. Probably the Chinese missiles also. And with the drives on the Chinese ships down, they would be able to deploy their missiles without worrying about the drive bloom of the engines. And the crews wouldn't have to be locked down to launch.
"All ships Battle Group Three. Sensor Conn establish radar and lidar locks. Weapons Conn, plot firing solutions for all targets. Priority of fire to Chinese Convoy Escorts." It still amazed her how her voice sounded the same after all these years. Synthesized from a variety of recordings from before her accident, it would always sound the same. Sterile and emotionless. Anything but how she felt right now. If the Chinese turned out to be hostile, she would have to take out the Strike Vessel's Escorts quickly. If they were gone she might have a chance. They were smaller, with less protection. Intel said the Strike Vessels plating and stand-off baffles would soak at least one of her missiles with the primary and secondary safeties released. Maybe two of them. And she was sure it packed a lot more firepower than her vessels.
Suddenly the sensor officer hit the override comm. "Aspect change on all three contacts. Nuclear drive bloom times three."
Brenna cut him off. 'All ships, primary missile safety release. Target contact designated Escort two. Deploy now." It was done. The Chinese were not going to stop. They had cleared their drive blooms so they would be able to fire. It was going to take them a few minutes to come up to combat speeds, and that would give her battle group an edge. The question was would it be enough.
The Tatianna barely shuddered as the single missile deployed from its launcher. It would drift a second on its manuver thrusters before engaging its drive. A smaller version of the ships' drive, it was run by batteries instead of a small fusion reactor like the ships' were. Just enough to get it started. The static generated against the solar wind would power the lasers and particle accelerators for the rest of the journey. With no crew it had no need for the magnetic dampening system. It would also take the locomotive sized weapon and drive it to a speed of nearly 50,000 kilometer per second in the space of only 10 seconds. Almost a quarter of light speed. As it neared its target it would arm. With the primary safeties released it would simply use its manuver thrusters to spin, and then would break up as it reached intercept. Inside the missile were 10,000 metal cylinders, each about 50mm across and half that thick. They would spread over space due to the spin of the missile and cover an area several kilometers wide. It was like a giant shotgun. The hope was that some of those cylinders would make impact with the target. Mis-timing the intercept by a few thousandths of a second was all it took to miss.
Brenna heard Captain Keely Sereg on the comm. "Helm, attitude change. Bring our bearing about to match the Chinese ships. Engage drive. Match speed. Don't let them close." Brenna keyed the comm. "All ships. Change bearings to match Tatianna." She was glad the captain was covering all the bases. She might have to keep an eye on her if this actually flared up into a shooting war.
Captain Thich Hanh listened as the sensor officer reported. The Pan Euro vessels had closed within his sensor envelope, but not his weapons range. The short range missiles of the escorts and frigate could not reach them. Neither could the heavy laser mounted on the frigate. He had begun manuvers to correct that, but the Euro vessels were already at battle speed, and just as manuverable as his ships. And now the Euro vessels had launched on him.
"Indicate as target the Nan King captain." Thich began to worry. The Jiang could take some of the pounding those missiles would inflict, but the escorts were little better than trash cans with firepower. The missiles they carried delivered several times the payload of a Pan Euro missile, but had a much shorter range. The ships though were little more than a launcher with a drive system and crew. The one set of stand off baffles would not save them.
In the darkness of space three missiles completed their final spins and released their payloads. Thousands of metal disk rocketed through the void. As did the Chinese Convoy Escort Nan King. Then one of the disk made contact with the ship. The velocity of its impact instantly turned the cylinder and the plating it struck into a jet of super heated gas and molten metals. The violent impact and expansion of the gas shattered plating and pressurized the baffle. The second disk struck the forward section crushing more high pressure gases into the space. The hull cracked and the forward maintenance hold was filled with the searing gases and molten fragments. Then a third disk hit. Plating ruptured across the ship and the cabin space ruptured. Flames with the heat of a star scorched controls and crew alike. The Nan King's drive automatically started an interupt cycle to prevent the ship's destruction, while the onboard computers released a torrent of compressed argon to vent any debris from the ship.
Thich listened as the reports came back. The Nan King was venting and her drive had re-engaged. Auxillary Weapons Conn was responding and the launcher was undamaged.
But they would never survive another volley, and it was a long way to close to effective range. But maybe he could draw them in close enough for the escorts to start the battle. He keyed the comm and issued the orders.
Brenna listened as the Sensor Officer reported in. "Escort two venting. Drive bloom still present. Wait.. Target aspect change. Strike Vessel vectoring away and accelerating. Convoy Escorts times two coming about on intercept course and accelerating." The Chinese commander was hedging his bets. If they pursued the larger ship, they would be forced to close with the escorts. The lack of return fire indicated that at the moment they either didn't have the range or the sensor resolution to fight back. But if they closed that would change. If they changed course to avoid the escorts the Strike Vessel would accelerate past sensor range and then cut its drives - disengaging and effectively disappearing. "Continue fire on Escort two. Course to maintain current range to the Strike Vessel. Prepare lasers on all ships and plot firing solutions."
Captain Thich listened as the reports came back. The Euro vessels were closing with the escorts. They were continuing to launch on the crippled Nan King. She would never survive to fire, but her sacrafice would allow the other escort to make it into range. Its crew of 34 would perish without ever having fired a weapon. But his frigate wasn't going to be able to shake the Euro Escorts. They were staying in their weapons range.
"Convoy Escort Two shows loss of containment. No drive bloom. Escort One continues to close. Drive bloom on number one down. Drive re-engaging. Detection of new drive accelerating. Sensors indicate missile inbound." Brenna tried to brace herself, but it was fruitless. She was already locked into place. All she could do was wait.
The missile streaked across the depths of space with a speed that exceeded even the Euro missiles. Over 75.000 kilometers a second. But it wasn't going to release a hail of metal cylinders. All the safeties had been removed. As it approached intercept the particle accelerators released a torrent of hydrogen into the drive. And the missile disappeared in a blast of light and heat that fueled a sun. Even as the heat pulse radiated out the nearly plasma hot remains of the missile hurtled forward with the momentum the missile had imparted on them. The heat pulse could buckle any plating, and the wave of super heated particles could rip apart a ships hull with pathetic ease. But the timing was off. The range had been to long and the tremendous speeds left little ability to correct any course errors. And the Euro ships passed on unharmed by the missile's fury.
Brenna would have breathed a sigh of releif if she could have. But the battle wasn't over. "All ships. All weapons target remaining escort. Primary safety release only. Lasers full spread." The Chinese had violated treaty by detonating the drive of the missile inside the asteroid belt, but she didn't want to have to answer for that offense. Not yet at least. The drive on the Tatianna stopped to allow the missiles to deploy and the laser optical cavities and output couplers to align. The lasers engaged the que and fired as the ships coasted. Not the small beams of a personal laser or manufacturing style, its beam was lensed to be almost a hundred yards across at the target range with full spread. Powered by the fusion plant and set for a short pulse, it destroyed ships by rapidly heating the surface, flash expanding it and creating shock waves through the hull. Not burning a hole in it. Although with proper lensing that could be possible. Just impractical for targetting a ship moving at combat speeds. The missiles from the Euro ship struck even as the crippled Chinese Escort vented to try to deal with the debris of the laser impacts. Only one cylinder struck home. It was enough as the hull splintered and disappeared as the drive shield lost containment.
"Now" Brenna thought, "just that big SOB to deal with."
Captain Thich Hanh watched as the Escort Saigon was destroyed. The Pan Euro ships were not showing any signs of damage, or of breaking off. "We won't die running away. Helm, bring us around and plot an intercept course for the Euro Heavy Escort." He knew they would never reach them. "Communication, transmit on narrow beam to Ceres station all information on engagement thus far. Continue until unable." They were going to die out here, but maybe those deaths would help save others when the treaty lapsed in only a few months.
"Redline the drives. Let see if we can close this gap."
Chinese Fleet Admiral Hu sat in his office. The space station had gravity in the ring, and his office was one of those privledged few to be located there. He went over the information on the monitor again and again. Three ships lost. One a frigate. No enemy losses or recorded damage. If this had happened in a few months... but he dismissed that thought. It wouldn't.
The other file showed that the base in the asteroid belt had successfully tested a long range deep space missile. Equal in range to the European missiles used in the engagement. Chinese sensors may be a little less precise, but we will be able to shoot back now. The base had scuttled before the Europeans had been able to locate it. Their would be no evidence. And the Europeans would not risk a shooting war just before the treaty expired. It was simply another incident in deep space. What was outside in the construction docks was more imporatant.
Floating outside in slip two was a ship over twice the size of the Jiang. With more long range missile tubes than an entire Euro Battle Group. It had necessitated the Strike Vessels' redesignation to a Frigate. The Cruiser Mao Tse Tsung would change the balance of power in the war that was to come. And here at Venus, the Euro and US would have no warning of its existance.
Overview of the battle.
This was a rude suprise for my middle son when his ships were manuvered against and destroyed at ranges he could not respond. He hoped that his more powerful weapons and larger ship would carry the day. He immediately began a redesign of the frigates in light of this and replaced the lasers with missile launchers.
My wife, the euro player, realized more quickly that with the reaction drives it was going to play out like an airplane dogfight. Position and speed was going to be everything. She got the advantage and never let go.
Ship designs
EURO
Heavy Escort Tatianna CT 16HS
[2]A A A A H Mgs La Ra Qa (cpCp) [6/1] salvos 18
Attack Escorts Catherine , Isabelle ES 12HS
[2]A Hs Mgs La Ra Qa (Cp) [6/1] salvos 18
CHINESE
Attack Frigate Jiang FG 22HS
[2]A A A A A A A Hs Qa (Cp) La Mgs Ga Ga Qa (Cp) [6/1]
Convoy Escorts Nan King , Saigon EX 7HS
[2]A H Qa Ga (Cp) [6/1]
procyon:
Thanks Hawkeye. Copy and paste worked like a charm.
My kids often remind me that I have only evolved a little past chisels and stone blocks....guess they might be right.
mavikfelna:
Nice. I think it's cool your family is all playing together and it looks like a an interesting campaign.
--Mav
procyon:
December 4th, 2202
Captain Jack Douglas sat and wondered how long they would keep up the pretense that the three US Space Interceptors were out here in the asteroid belt on a 'customs' patrol. Everyone knew that after the "Chinese Incident", tensions were running high. With the end of the L2 treaty in less than a month, hostilities were becoming a very real possibility. Jack looked over the current event stories that the news services were carrying on his monitor. Most of the Chinese space fleet had put into their ports for 'annual maintenance'. More likely drawing full supplies and upgrades for extended combat in the outer system. The Pan Euro had unveiled a new vessel, the 'Red October'. It was supposedly as large as a Chinese Strike Vessel and had made its maiden voyage from Mercury to the asteroid belt in record time. If the press was to be believed, it had gone faster than even his Interceptor, the JFK, could make the trip. The fact that it met up with Pan Euro Battle Group 3 out here in the belt was just a little sideline. If he had hair on the back of his neck, Jack was sure it would be tingling now. He could feel the war looming ahead.
But for the moment they were simply out here to monitor the traffic passing through the transfer stations in the US Space sector of the belt. Other than a small lifter moving off into the belt, returning to its mining colony, nothing was on the sensors. About a half dozen small craft or freighters made stops at each of the three transfer stations per day. At least to make it look like a customs mission they had split up the three interceptors among the transfer stations. The JFK was in the middle at Transfer Station 2. "Enjoy the boredom while you can, in a month we might very likely be dead." The Comm Officer looked up from his station at Jack. Jack shook his head and the Comm Officer just nodded, then turned around to continue monitoring radio traffic. Guess it's not a secret to anyone.
On board the 'redesignated' freighter Marie Celeste, Captain 'Dutchman' locked himself into his station. The rest of his crew were doing the same. A few thousand kilometers away the 'Mary Reed' would be doing the same thing. A month ago they had been able to "acquire" a number of heavy lasers for use on combat ships. Although the Free Spacers didn't officially maintain any military shipyards or construction facilities, there were other ways to get your hands on weapons for those who wanted them and were willing to pay the price. Now it was time to pay off the debt for the weapons. The dealer who provided them and the facilities to install them had asked for a low price in cash, but had wanted to make sure that the US Space folks would be too busy watching their own backyards to be able to send off any ships in the next few months. In particular, he wanted Transfer Station 2 to be unable to fulfil its duties of shipping supplies back to the core, or to the outer system, for the forseeable future. "Bring us in at standard cruise. Weapons ready, but I don't want any acitve targeting yet." No sense looking like anything but a pair of freighters until the last second. The US folks will figure it out as their station begins to break apart around them.
"Captain Douglas, I'm tracking a pair of inbound freighters. I've signaled for flight log numbers and vessel registry numbers, but what I'm getting back isn't listed on any of the logs." The Sensor Officer had turned his chair around to look at the captain. Their could be no expression on the metal face screens, but his posture gave away a certain uneasiness. Captain Jack Douglas felt it too. Everyone was being overly careful, doing everything by the numbers to avoid being blown out of space right now. This didn't add up. "Ship, this is Captain Douglas. All crew to stations. Lock for acceleration. Warm up the capacitors of the main laser batteries."
"Captain Douglas, I have drive blooms on both freighters. They are on a direct course for the Transfer Station. Current range of three point five light seconds, directly ahead."
Jack watched as the crew hurriedly tried to lock themselves into stations. It was going to slow. They had been scattered about the ship attending to dozens of tasks to pass the time. In a few minutes this could all be over and they would never have pulled away from the station. Let alone defended her.
"Captain. Laser batteries one and two reporting weapons ready." Jack's monitor sprang to life with energy states and tracking information from the sensors. Targeting solutions were already being laid in to the system. "At least we won't go down without a fight." The US Space Interceptors had the best laser technology hands down of any spacefaring power. The Japanese had come up with adaptive lensing paired with a very high output medium. The result was a weapon with over 30% greater range than any other in use. If the ships coming in had missiles, they would have already fired. Jack noticed that the light for 'all stations locked' was on even before engineering was able to report it. "Engage drive, full power. Fire on target designated contact two as soon as they are in range."
The Marie Celeste shuddered as the drives shut off and the automatic venting cycle purged any loose debris from the forward holds. The Dutchman watched as damage reports streamed across his screen. The forward holds and bulkhead had sustained considerable damage. "This isn't a warship. She won't take a pounding like this for long" he thought to himself. "Weapons, when will we be in range of that damned US ship." No one had bothered mentioning that the US was garrisoning its transfer stations out here. He had been forced to abandon guile and try to rush into weapons range before the US warship would be able to react. That plan was already shot. Now he needed to silence its weapons before they tore his converted freighter apart.
"We will reach weapons range in thirthy seconds sir." replied the midshipman.
"Bring us sixty degrees starboard, minus ten ascension." They've already got a large advantage in velocity, we cant't let them get in behind us and park there. Sensor Conn anounced urgently "Contacts one and two coming about. Contact two dead astern. Contact one..." The report was cut off by the sudden drive cut out and purge cycle indicating the ship had been hit. "Dampers overloaded. Thermocoulplers and hull sensors show damage to hull plating and to all external baffles." Weapons announced "Unable to target contact two, solution for contact one now online."
"Fire on contact one!" Jack was cursing his luck. His ship could outrun these hostiles, but they had already built up speed, and he had only started to accelerate. He couldn't keep both out of the blindspot caused by his drive bloom. Now he was unable to concentrate fire on the ship that was already damaged. At least it had been obliged to keep its distance when it fired from behind them to avoid the heat and radiation pulse from the JFK's drive system. Jack saw the readouts that contact one was stuttering its drive and venting in response to the JFK's laser fire, but the warning lights flashing across his monitor's screen as contact one returned fire horrified him. But only for a moment as the cabin rutured and pieces of the hull rocketed through the command section. His body was one more piece of debris vented by the automatic computer response.
The Dutchman had to hand it to American ingenuity. That ship had just taken a pounding that would have destroyed either the Marie Celeste or Mary Reed. And its drive was still blazing away as it picked up speed. They were going to have to turn around to finish the US ship off. Their combined velocity had pulled them out of weapons range. "Bring us about. This isn't over. Get me back in weapons range now."
Chief Engineer Jack Ryan quickly tried to grasp everything on his monitor. HE was now in command?? What the hell was happening? These were supposed to be freighters! Laser battery one was giving no readings but battery two looked to be functional. He keyed the monitor prompt for computing a firing solution. Only one target in range, contact two. The other had carried to far beyond and was continuing on toward the base. He keyed the firing prompt as he issued orders for the engineering section to continue full acceleration away from the contacts.
Dutchman felt the Marie Celeste shudder as the US ship once again tore into her hull with its lasers. "I don't care what the reactor output says! Get me in range!" Damage readouts on the monitor showed that the Marie Celeste was being torn apart, but both of the lasers looked to be operational. "Mary Reed, fry that station." He knew he didn't need to give that order. They would be looking for revenge after the raking their ship had taken. "Time to make those Amercans pay for this!"
Jack Ryan watched as contact two began to pull up on the JFK, and then felt the ship shake as the pulses of light shuddered her hull, vaporizing bits of its composites and explosively expanding others. The last laser battery signaled the output coupler was off line. That was it. The JFK was out of the fight. But the drive still worked. Somehow it was holding together. They might make it out of here. Checking what sensor readouts he could access Jack Ryan confirmed that most all of the small craft at the station were scattering in a dozen different directions. At least they had bought enough time to let the crew of Transfer Station 2 escape. The station itself was not likely to be so lucky. Jack keyed in for redline acceleration on the drive. "Lets see if a freighter hull can match this." 'Just please hold together' he thought to himself.
Admiral Hu read the news reports that the US Transfer Station 2 had been destroyed by unknown terrorists, and that the culprits were going to be hunted to the fullest extent of US abilities and brought to justice. "Good." The US vessel JFK had survived, but only barely by the sound of it. Selling the surplus lasers on the black market from the frigates refit had born unexpectedly good results. "Very good" he thought to himself. In a few months the Jovian systems will be securely in Chinese control.
Overview
Where the previous battle had been the pregame warm up for my wife and middle son, This battle pitted my oldest son (US Space) against my oldest daughter (Free Spacers). The oldest boy had thought he had an easy victory in store. He was a little upset that his younger sister managed to beat him with worse ships and crews. He didn't change his design strategy, but did decide that splitting up his ships was a bad idea.
My oldest girl was pleasantly suprised with her victory. She had expected to be forced to break off and run away. (She always sells herself short)
US SHIPS
Interceptor JFK CT 16HS
[2]A A A H (MNE) Qa Lb Lb (cpCp) [6/1]
FREE SPACER SHIPS
Converted Freighters Marie Celeste , Mary Reed FT2 16HS both crews considered poor (shakedown cruise)
[2]H H H A H H La La Qa (Cp) [6/1]
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