at the Toliman Jump Point. They are informally known as the Invincibles; and with good cause. There are approximately sixty ships surrounding the point including a L-point blocker. This blockade has severely limited our access to many systems. Today, we hope that a shattering blow will be struck against the Alliance Navy. This strike may even lead to a military victory over the Alliance. Now. A strait forward attack on the point would be considered suicidal at best. This is why we will be taking a more indirect approach. When our armada is 45 million kilometers from the jump point it will be split into two forces. One, which will be lead by me, will move in and take out the capital ships using remote controlled tugs and light freighters. As the blockade fleet moves in to defend against our attack; the second force-lead by the destroyer Time Streamer- will loop around the battle and attack the unprotected rear of the blockading vessels. To surprise the blockade; the second force will have to time its' exit of LDS exactly to appear only a few kilometers away from the battle. With any luck, we will defeat the Alliance fleet and destroy the L-Point blocker."
Toliman Blockade Fleet
The fighter carrier Dignity was at standard code yellow, stationary in respect with the Toliman Jump Point. Most of the fighter pilots were asleep when the attack came; including Pilot Sherman Kelly.
Kelly was awakened by the blare of klaxons. He leapt out of his bunk and switched into his flight uniform as quickly as possible. He cursed as the ship suddenly pitched starboard. In any attack, the carrier would be a prime target. But he couldn't worry about that, all that mattered is that he get to his fighter. He smiled grimly as he past the other fighter pilots in the airtight catwalks that the fighters were attached to.
Pilot Kelly quickly squirmed through the airlock and ran a systems check. A calm voice spoke up: HELLO SHERMAN. I'VE TAKEN THE LIBERTY TO CHECK ALL THE SYSTEMS. EVERYTHING IS IN THE GREEN. THE FIGHTER SAMSON IS READY TO ROCK AND ROLL.
Kelly grinned at those words. He replied, "Thanks Joe."
MY DESIGNATION IS NOT 'JOE'. I AM A.I. UNIT 453.
Kelly chuckled and disengaged the docking clamps. He lit up the Samson's powerful thrusters and shot out of the carrier. He lost his smile as he conducted a thermal scan. He detected at least 10 warships and an undetermined amount of NC fighters. Already the Alliance ships were forming a defense line, but these ships could be dangerous, especially the fighters.
The A.I. unit spoke up: I RECOMMEND THAT WE ATTACK THE NEW COMMONWEALTH FIGHTERS. THE LARGER WARSHIPS ARE NOT AS WELL EQUIPPED TO HANDLE THEM.
"My thoughts exactly. Attack pattern 9B." Pilot Kelly announced. The A.I. unit controlled navigation as Kelly let loose with a volley of PBC discharges. He grinned fiercely as the fighter he targeted exploded. As soon as the ship was destroyed, A.I. Unit 453 veered the Samson to prevent it from colliding with an opposing fighter.
Pilot Kelly switched to manual and was about to make an attack run when the fighter's LDS indicator lit up. When he angled the exterior camera to the source, he felt his stomach drop to his feet. What he saw was nearly 20 ships near the Alliance capital ships. Behind the ships. The instant the newly arrived Commonwealth armada dropped out of LDS, they opened up with everything they had at the defense line's rear. Kelly swore as he watched the fighter carrier Dignity get blown apart by PBCs.
"Launch a spread of missiles at the destroyer Time Streamer. We've got to take their attention away from the cap ships!" The fighter rocketed toward the destroyer, firing missiles and PBC blasts as it went.
Whoever was the weapons officer on the Time Streamer immediately took notice of the fighter. Pilot Kelly whooped as he dodged the destroyer's returning fire. Seconds later, his gleeful yelling was replaced by a cry of shock.
The Time Streamer scored a direct hit. Kelly shielded his eyes as the control panel hissed and sparked. The Samson thrashed like a fish out of water as navigational control was lost. A second shot finished the job, vaporizing the outer hull, and exposing the cockpit to vacuum. Kelly barely had enough time to seal his suit when the fighter automatically ejected him. Sherman Kelly watched helplessly as his fighter exploded. Without warning, he was tugged toward the destroyer by an invisible force. They had caught him with a mono-pole beam. Alliance Pilot Sherman Kelly was now a prisoner of war.
***
Bridge of the Brazen
"Fire a volley of missiles at the L-point blocker," ordered Admiral Brett.
"Firing sir." the weapons officer paused. "No affect, sir. That thing was made to take one hell of an attack."
"We'll just have to try harder," Brett murmured. He didn't want to destroy the blocker; it was quite apparently a very advanced piece of technology. It's power output was outrageous, and that hinted at an antimatter power source. The NC armada didn't get any useful information from the Alliance blockade fleet ships that they had captured. So far, no matter what they threw at it didn't faze it.
"Admiral Brett, sir?"
Brett turned around to look at the speaker. It was Ensign T'jen, manning one of the science stations, "Yes, Ensign?"
"Sir, I believe that I have a workable theory to disable the blocker." he said. When Admiral Brett nodded, he went on. "The blocker's Aggressor Shields and LDAs are run by a central processing unit. The shielding is usually inactive, but when it is attacked, the CPU reacts amazingly fast to put up shields. The CPU chamber is near absolute zero, and is about twelve meters from the surface of the blocker. If we were to eject our super-heated plasma toward the blocker, the CPU chamber's temperature would increase to at least 140 degrees Celsius for a few seconds. This will scramble it temporarily and enable us to take out one of the LDAs. Then we could simply cut into it at our leisure."
"Do it. When we vent the plasma, have the PatCom Bluefish take out the LDA protecting the docking port." Brett commanded.
"Yessir," said Ensign T'jen. "Venting now...CPU is overheating...the Bluefish has taken out the LDA! A engineering team can dock to the blocker and disable it from the inside."
"Good," exclaimed Brett. "FTL a message to the home world. 'We have taken Alpha Centuri. Victory will soon be complete.' Encrypt and transmit."
**Four days later**
Sirius III's moon: POW camp
The LST Prison I landed on the POW camp launch pad softly. It had a smooth ride all the way from orbit, not having to dodge Alliance antispacecraft fire. That was because the last Alliance forces had been driven off of the moon, and hardly any warships remained in the system. As a bonus, whatever Alliance troops that the NC had captured were used to mine ore from the moon's vast mines.
"Form ranks and exit the LST!" bawled out the prison guard.
Sherman Kelly sighed and rose to his feet. He then quickly stepped behind a captive that he didn't know, and marched out of the transport. Grim faced soldiers lined the rocky tunnel that he now walked through. The tunnel was steeply sloped and he had to be careful not to trip. They continued down until they arrived at a huge airlock. A guard that had traveled all the way with them spoke up.
"Alright POWs! You are about to enter the Common Room. You will eat, sleep, drink, and just plain live in there until you get called for mining duty. You guys are lucky. First Alliance troops we captured had to work ten hours a day. But now we got so many of you, you only work about four to six hours a day. When you enter the Common Room, report to the quartermaster. He will issue your daily rations, tent, pillows, and clothing. And a word of warning: If anyone tries to start some sort of riot, you will be immediately shot, no questions asked. Now into the Common with you!"
The large airlock hissed open. Kelly stepped through with the other prisoners; and like the others, Kelly gasped in amazement. The Common Room was huge. It had to be at least three kilometers across. As far as he could see there were brightly colored tents of the prisoners in neat rows. Kelly actually blinked in disbelief as he heard laughter, talking, and cheering. Why, some of the prisoners were playing sports.
Kelly had heard horror stories about New Commonwealth prison camps. Malnutrition, disease, and torture were supposedly commonplace. Apparently they were just that-stories. The people that he saw were cheerful and well fed. He shook his head, dumbfounded. Why, if you ignored the anti-tank guns mounted on the Common Room's walls, it was almost comfortable.
***
Sherman Kelly had just finished assembling his tent when he was approached. Kelly stared warily as the man came near him. He relaxed a bit when the other man smiled and offered his hand.
"Hello. My name's Sherman," Kelly said cautiously accepting the handshake.
"Mine's Michael de Camp. I was a grunt before this," de Camp had a sly look on his face. "And you, you're a pilot. I can tell by the way you walk."
"I just might be." Kelly allowed. "What of it?"
de Camp leaned closer and whispered, "You feel like sticking around this place or would you like to return to Alliance territory?"
"Back in the Alliance, of course. I don't see how we can get out of here. Even if we got to the surface, we wouldn't survive long."
de Camp shook his head impatiently, "I've been planning this for months. Back before I was caught, I passed an ore refiner. That was pretty far from a place that my men and I were ambushed. Now, we dropped down from orbit in a couple of Type B1 Shuttle crafts. Unless I miss my guess, they should still be there. All we need is one and we can get the hell out of here."
"What about the guards? They're sure to stop us."
Again, de Camp shook his head. "They don't guard the mines. They just dump us off, and bring us back. They know that we'll obey. They control the only source of oxygen on the moon. Even if someone ran off, they wouldn't survive more than a day. Besides, tomorrow prisoners with last names beginning with A-L are going for mining duty. It's the best time to go."
Suspicious now, Kelly asked, "If you already know about the ships and how to escape, why didn't you try this before?"
de Camp smiled, "Simple. I'm not a pilot."
Grudgingly, Sherman Kelly nodded, "Tomorrow then."
COVERT FTL TRANSMISSION FROM SPY IN WOLF 227
Wolf 227 Status Report:
Steele has just giving quite a stirring speech on how Wolf 227 will soon become the
most powerful system in all Known Space-as soon as the non-Wolfians(he actually used that
word!) destroyed each other. He really is getting fanatical, but he sure as hell can tell
a tale. As far as I can see, he has everyone in the system behind him. You can't walk a
kilometer here without seeing ten posters claiming the evils of the Alliance, or the New
Commonwealth. Sickening really.
On the other hand, he knows how to organize a planet. The economy is much better than
either the NC or the Alliance. Guess what the unemployment rate is. Zero. Everyone here
has to work for the "cause." It's actually a law! Nearly all of the system's
resources are devoted to producing weapons and ship parts. The number of factories here
have nearly quadrupled since the system was cut off.
The ship of choice here is the Lone Wolf battleship. It is quite a crude design, but
effective. They are about 200 meters in length and are deadly. Heavy shields and weapons,
but has to be one of the slowest ships I've ever seen. Not to mention ugly. Maybe you can
use that if you ever attack.
That is all for now. I must go. One of the ugly ships has come in damaged and I'm on
the repair crew. Hit a asteroid I think...idiots. Until next time.
S.H.END TRANSMISSION
Admiral Brett felt like dosing off. It had been almost a month guarding that Toliman point, and nothing had happened. Either the Alliance was gathering ships for an assault against him, or they had given up. At this moment, there was nothing he could do.
However, that was all to change.
NC NAVY MISSION BRIEFING
SECURITY CLEARANCE 7
TO: ADMIRAL BRETT
FROM: HIGH COMMANDER, NEW COMMONWEALTH NAVAL FORCES- HARRISON KING
The time has come, Admiral, for a major assault against Earth. We don't intend to take the planet, but rather to scare the Alliance where it hurts- their morale. Informants have indicated that the Alliance has become a harsh dictatorship. Freedom of speech has been eradicated and it would seem food rationing is being implemented. Your mission is to attack the Sol system and act as a beneficiary to the people.
Enter the system from the Jupiter LaGrange point, where you will attack the Navy Shipyards. Namely, cripple their missile frigate. It is far from completion, but it could be a major threat to planetary defenses. Also make sure to take parts or whole warships if possible and send them back via freighters. As you have guessed, we intend toestablish a brief presence in the system.
After this initial attack, use gravity generators to disrupt the L-Point where you will be making your base at. You are provided with three of these generators, which leaves you the possibility to block two other points simultaneously. Three specialized tugs will carry the generators. For the sake of feeding Earth, don't block the Earth points for more than 48 hours.
Once in the system, send scouting fleets to attack Alliance warships. Expect heavy attacks on your point, which I expect you to deflect. Meanwhile, other armed parties will make massive supply drops to the inhabited Earth and Mars. We will establish a shipping line to you, and the drops will be made via atmospheric cargo pods. One drop to Earth will contain censored letters from captured Alliance troops.
Over the course of two weeks, it is your job to wreak havoc on Alliance naval vessels and continue to make these drops. This is an immensely expensive and risky maneuver, but we hope to raise doubt in the Alliance in the Sol system. From there it can spread.
The details are included in that enclosed data packet.
Your fleet will be boosted to:
3 cruisers
7 Destroyers
4 freighters
40 corvettes
50 PatComs
8 Tugs
Our only carrier- with 30 fighters (use them well)
I wish you all the best of luck, and I don't have to remind you how important this
is.
-King
***
Sherman Kelly and Michael de Camp scrambled awkwardly across the rocky landscape. Over three hours ago they had left the mining area in hopes of freedom. When they left, all of the other prisoners just shook their heads and urged them to stay. Ignoring the prisoners requests, they moved out as fast as they could in their cumbersome suits.
"How much farther?" Kelly panted.
de Camp pointed ahead, "See all of those boulders up there? That is where the closest one is. When we got here we cleared out a section and hid the ship. It's pretty well disguised. I doubt anyone has even been around here. Anyway, the ship is basically invisible from up in the air or space."
After that Kelly fell silent. Within another twenty minutes, they had reached the shuttle. Most of the concealing covering of the ship had been blown away by a weak but persistent wind. The metal of the 29.2 meter long shuttle gleamed dully in the feeble sunlight. Quickly, de Camp punched the access code, and pulled open the airlock.
Once inside, Michael de Camp activated the life support and tore off his helmet, "Lord, am I glad to get out of that thing. So, can you fly this monster?"
Sherman Kelly sat down at the controls and nodded confidently, "Just a shuttle. Any fighter pilot who couldn't isn't worth their wings."
de Camp sat in the copilot's chair and began a systems check. "Green light on the reactor, fuel cells, LDS field seems a little out of alignment but we could fix it fairly quickly, LDAs...everything it seems. I'm now commencing reactor startup. Fuel pumps activated and feeding into the main reaction chamber...fuel pump 3 seems a little sluggish, but that shouldn't matter. Igniting fuel now."
Both men grinned as the entire ship began to vibrate. Kelly activated the engines and plotted a course out of the atmosphere. Right when he was going to engage it, de Camp grabbed his hand.
"I've got an idea," de Camp exclaimed. "Let's do a quick pass over the mines. This shuttle has a laser cannon and six missiles. That expensive mining equipment will be completely unguarded and unshielded! Everyone's down in the mines, so we don't have to worry about hittin' them."
Kelly nodded enthusiastically and said, "That'll teach those b*stards to screw with the Alliance!"
At half the speed of sound the shuttle screeched through the air toward the mines. In quick succession the missiles were fired at the equipment. de Camp and Kelly cheered as their sensors confirmed six large explosions. Knowing that the prison camp would probably detect them soon, Kelly had the shuttle climb steeply out of the atmosphere. They had just escaped the moon's ionosphere when de Camp called out in alarm.
"Radar detects a ship from the moon! No...three ships! No! Ten ships zeroing on our location at high speeds! It's a whole damn squadron."
Kelly glanced at the sensor screen and felt dread. He had been in enough orbital battles to know what they truly were. "Those are surface-to-space missiles, Mike. No way in hell are we going to outrun them in this ship. Even one or two would take us out."
"Then we have to use LDS!"
Kelly shook his head as the missiles came within 100 kilometers, "To dangerous. The thing hasn't been used in months. It hasn't even been fully charged yet."
"It's that or die for sure!" de Camp grinned wolfishly, then slammed his hand on one of the controls. The small shuttle's LDS was forced into overdrive as it leapt ahead. Kelly opened his mouth to speak when an internal explosion rumbled through the ship. Then something struck his head as everything went black.
de Camp turned just in time to see Kelly crumple bonelessly onto the control panel; the top of his head clipped off by flying debris. de Camp shrugged mentally as he pushed the body out of the chair and sat in it himself. There are casualties in every war he thought.
Worried, de Camp scanned the area for the surface-to-space missiles. Seeing that they were far behind and getting more distant, he turned his attention to the fluctuating LDS. The information that the diagnostic was spitting out meant nothing to him. He had taken only the required amount of engineering classes and had hated it the entire time. Realizing that he couldn't do anything about it, he saw no other choice but to continue on for as long as the shuttle would hold out.
Less than four hours later, the LDS gave out. de Camp's sensors registered no ships; enemy or otherwise. Angrily, Michael de Camp slammed his hands on the control panel. His destination was an old supply dump on a small asteroid, but he was still 500,000 kilometers away. He guessed that the dump would have been abandoned and forgotten in the Alliance's haste to get out of the Sirius B system. Sighing in resignation, he activated the shuttle's thrusters and prepared himself for a long trip.
***
Tactical Long Range Fighter Lewis
The experimental NC fighter executed a flawless turn as the pilot widened the search area. The Lewis's mission was to find the escaped prisoners and shuttle. The launch of the LDS capable fighters was authorized by Beutel himself. Over the two-way radio and nearly one and a half million kilometers away, the other fighter pilot spoke up: "This is the fighter Clark calling the fighter Lewis. My LDS detectors registered a weak signal...perhaps a Linear Displacement System overloading. My computer estimates the source is in grid 406:12:94. I'm altering course to investigate. ETA: Thirty four minutes. Clark over and out."
Quickly, the pilot of the Lewis replied, "Alright. I'll continue this search pattern. If it is the shuttle, then great. If not, let's hope one of us will find it soon."
***
Michael de Camp paced the small bridge of the shuttle. He went hardly more than two steps when he had to stop and turn the other way. He continued until a quiet but insistent buzzing made him jump up into the air.
"Warning: New Commonwealth ship detected at high LDS speeds. ETA: Three minutes." the computer droned.
"Goddamn it!" de Camp cursed. He then activated the communications array and switched the broadcast to a common pirate frequency.
"Computer, prepare to record a message." The computer acknowledged, and de Camp continued. "This is a neutral shuttle being attacked by a New Commonwealth fighter. If you assist, I'll make it worth your while. I am a smuggler of fuel and weapons, and I have a huge hidden cache. If you help, it is yours. End recording and transmit. Keep repeating the broadcast".
Michael de Camp hoped that anyone listening would believe the lie and lend a hand. Until then, he could only wait.
Pirate battle PatCom: Vergeltung
"...and weapons, an I have a huge hidden cache. If you help, it is yours. This is a neutral shuttle being attacked-"
Captain Erwin Patton deactivated the audio signal and looked around the bridge. "Helm, plot course to intercept the shuttle and engage."
"What makes you think that this person is telling us the truth? We could just be putting ourselves in the line of fire for no good reason at all." protested Helmsman Chale.
Captain Patton waved his hand dismissively, "I don't know, but it is worth checking out. Besides, I'm itching to test those high yield seekers that we stole from the Alliance convoy. A NC fighter sounds like a good enough target."
The helmsman replied grudgingly, "If you say so. Engaging LDS."
Less than four minutes later, the ship spotted the two ships. The B1 shuttle craft was making sluggish maneuvers, attempting to avoid the fighter's PBC.
"Fire a volley of seekers. The NC ship won't be able to dodge them and fire at the shuttle at the same time."
The Vergeltung rumbled as the missiles left the launch tubes. Instead of dodging the missiles as the crew had expected; the fighter reoriented itself and took out the missiles in rapid succession.
Captain Patton swore, "That isn't a normal PBC. The missiles were taken out too fast! Gunner-when the fighter is in range, take it out with the PBC!"
Gunner Cody Brosen remained silent as the New Commonwealth fighter made its first strafing run. The pirate vessel rocked back and forth as the high energy PBC blasts slammed into the ship's LDAs. Faster than Brosen could realign the Vergeltung to attack the Clark, the fighter executed a complex series of maneuvers that made it impossible to fire back.
Wrestling the controls, the gunner yelled, "This is some sort of advanced fighter! I can't get into my cross hairs, much less destroy it! I'd give us another minute before our shielding fails."
Captain Patton worked fiercely at his command station that doubled as the engineering station, "Helmsman Chale, I need you to begin charging the LDS, but don't activate it. We're gonna need a burst of speed. Gunner Brosen, when I give the order, fire a single LDSI at the fighter. Chale, when I give that order, activate the LDS."
Both officer's acknowledged, and Patton continued, "Prepare to fire at the aft section of the shuttle craft-fire!"
Gunner Brosen fired the PBC. The blast caught the B1 shuttle near the reactor assembly, and an instant afterward the small command pod of the shuttle detached as the man aboard attempted to escape the destruction. So far, so good, Patton thought.
"Fire all of our missiles at the fighter! We need to keep it occupied for a moment!" Patton ordered, "Helmsman! Intercept that command pod! Attempt to lodge it between the main hull and the starboard pylon!"
The Vergeltung leapt forward, on a direct collision course with the pod. Bare seconds later, the two vessels collided with a metallic shriek. The command pod was now pressed firmly against the PatCom-and was within the LDS field of the ship.
Patton bawled out, "Fire LDSI! Activate LDS!"
Almost at the same time, both actions were carried out. The Vergeltung streaked away in LDS as the LDSI homed in on the fighter, making a pursuit impossible. Only after the NC fighter disappeared off the PatCom's sensors did Captain Patton allow himself a sigh of relief.
"Christ...I'm getting to old for this." he muttered under his breath.
Looking at his status screen, Brett nodded to himself in satisfaction. Turning to the communications officer on the Brazen, he said "Inform the fleet: 'spam'"
"Aye sir!" called out the officer.
CRUISER "McCurry"-
The communications officer held his ear piece closer to his head for a second before calling out "spam!"
CRUISER "Hormel"-
"Spam!"
DESTROYER "Silent"-
"Spam!" Captain Marzez turned on the ship-wide announcement system. "All hands! This is the captain. 'Spam!' Man jump stations and prepare for battle!"
***
Throughout the Commonwealth fleet, the code word was relayed as the ships accelerated to the LaGrange point at high speed. Corvettes first, followed by PatComs, Destroyers, Cruisers, then freighters and tugs passed through in columns of white light. In Jupiter space, the might of the Commonwealth returned home.
As soon as the Brazen emerged from capsule space, the ship rocked gently from PBC fire being deflected off the LDAs. "Status!" Brett called out.
"Sir, there are four gunstars surrounding the point. The fleet is large enough that only the larger ships are being targeted. Our shields are deflecting the fire," reported the tactical officer.
"Send the 6th, 7th, and 8th PatCom squadrons to loop around and destroy the Gunstars. Order all capital ships to open fire on them so that the gunstars don't target the smaller ships," replied Brett.
"Aye sir!"
Within seconds, Gattling cannons began to target the gunstars, firing from all directions. The quicker destroyers reversed their LaGrange exit velocity faster and maintained their fire. Within three minutes, all the gunstars were destroyed.
"This is Brett to gravity tug number one. Move into position. Gravitational strength will be 80k Newtons. Comms officer, send this gravitational alteration to the carrier Alabama and order them to jump in."
*** Four hours later ***
The Commonwealth had set up a secure position at their home LaGrange point. Dividing his forces in half, and taking the Alabama with him, Brett moved an attack force out to hit the Alliance shipyards. He now had 1 cruiser, 4 destroyers, 20 corvettes, and 25 PatComs. Giving his orders to the remaining fleet, the Brazen left with her fleet to the Alliance shipyards while the freighters went into high-LDS towards a different destination.
ONE HOUR LATER, MARS SPACE-
The Alliance corvette "Grisholm" approached the four freighters with weapons charged and ready. On board the Mars STC, the bitter commander watched and waited for when another valuable transport would be destroyed because of simple administration errors.
"This is the Alliance corvette "Grisholm" to freighter trains! Your codes do not check out! Break your current course for detainment and examination!"
The four freighters remained silent, transmitting no more than their forged ID beacons. The captain of the Grishholm was getting frustrated. Some ******* can't even fill out his forms right, so I get to clean him up. I'm sure these people need the supplies. But then he remembered his orders: Engage and destroy all non-allied ships and detain or destroy any unregistered ship that will not comply.
"Dammit!" he cursed aloud. "Weps, fire three warning shots across the bow of the nearest freighter. Make it close."
"Aye sir," replied the weapons officer. Switching the manual, he calculated velocities on his console targeted the forward PBC cannon towards the bow of the target freighter. With three rapid pulls of the cannon trigger, bolts of charged plasma were fired in the path of lead ship of the nonchalant convoy.
On board one of the freighters, the mission leader's heart jumped for a second as he feared that the corvette was firing on his fleet. Now was the time for phase two: "Okay, this guy is getting a little on edge. Target gun turrets and launch PatComs.
Within seconds of his order, the contacts display on the Grishholm lit up. "Sir, new contacts! I count twelve PatComs, they must have been hiding three-to-a-ship under the freighters! I'm reading armaments on the freighters too! It's-" his voice was cut off as the nimble alliance corvette was rocked with PBC blasts, all deflected by the LDAs.
"Full burn ahead. Take us under the freighters. Launch two seekers and contacts 3 and 4. Come right to 045 and maintain attack pattern!" barked the captain of the Grishholm. With amazing acceleration, the corvette swooped right and flew under the armed convoy, PatComs in pursuit. Running right into the seekers, two Commonwealth PatComs blew up in proximity to one of the freighters. Pieces of the vessels impacted themselves against the freighter, scraping the cargo pods and threatening the loss of the precious food.
The captain of the convoy wasted no time. Immediately, he ordered his freighters to make an orbital run of the planet, dropping cargo pods with pre-programmed flight patterns at specific intervals. When they landed on the surface at the major cities of Mars, the hungry people would open the goods wrapped in packages containing the Commonwealth logo.
While this was progressing, the ten remaining PatComs hunted down Grishholm. Once finished, they began to destroy the communications installations near the LaGrange point. Quickly stopping the remaining Alliance warships in the area, the 2nd PatCom squadron leader radioed the freighters: "This is PatCom 'Singapore' to freighters. I see things are going well. When you're done, head back to our position in high-LDS. We will go on patrol in the area, raiding Alliance squadrons. Safe journey home. Over and out."
ALLIANCE NAVAL SHIPYARDS, JUPITER SPACE
With the inertial dampers fluctuating at half capacity, the Brazen shuddered with the high-G maneuvers. Joining formation with another destroyer, the capital ships pushed their thrusters to their limits in a mad dash for the main alliance construction facility, dubbed the "Megabase".
"This is Brett to destroyers, prepare for Mk. 90 launch. Make sure you're navigators get a good fix!" The Mk. 90 was a small but powerful guided bomb that was developed after the split between the Alliance and the Commonwealth. Having very little navigational instruments, they did have a programmable thruster system. Thus, a detailed path of where the small bombs should fly to could be programmed provided you knew exactly where you were relative to the target. About the size of a short man, these bombs had a high-yield warhead and could be carried by the tens in a standard cargo bay.
As the Brazen and the destroyer flew past a line of Alliance warships, showering them with Gattling cannon fire. About twenty kilometers from the Megabase, cargo doors opened along the bottoms of the destroyer "Martin" and the "Brazen" as almost a hundred Mk. 90s flew from the hulls of the warships. Following their programming, they made a full-speed run towards the gaping main entrance to the Megabase construction floor, still with the unfinished "Burke" class destroyer near to the opening of the facility. Gun turrets on the station opened fire on the approached swarm of Mk. 90s. Decoys were launched, as the Megabase controllers tried to fend off what they thought were guided missiles. As they entered the Megabase at an average of 1500 m/s, some hit the sides of the station and exploded on contact while most went right into the large, enclosed area.
As his ship turned to pass the base, Brett watched his screen as the Mk. 90s entered the base. One…two…three…flashes of white light erupted from the inside of the facility and ships, rooms, and people were destroyed. The shock wave pushed the "Burke" class off its assembly blocks and into the open space, an empty relic of the Independence War.
"Bravo, ladies and gentlemen!" called out Brett. "Open fire on the outside of the Megabase. Instruct all ships to re-group so we can finish off the remaining Alliance warships. Send the first and second corvette squadrons inside the base. Tell them to look for any remains of a missile frigate. Instruct the destroyers Caper and Silent to hit that Alliance destroyer."
Flying through the wreckage ejected by the blast inside the base, the eight corvettes of the first and second squadrons entered the wrecked base. Some navigators, with the fullest view of the scene wanted to vomit as they piloted through bodies and other personal artifacts floated in the expanse of the Megabase. Charred hulks of small warships were pushed all over the walls of the complex, with command sections and accommodation modules joining the wreckage. There was nothing alive or salvageable in the Alliance naval shipyards. Nor was there any sign of the frigate.
The captain of the corvette "Adagio" was the first to signal Brett: "Sir, it's a mess in here. This place is ruined; we certainly fulfilled that part of the job. But there is no sign of any sort of frigate."
Brett pounded his fist on the armrest. The frigate was gone, who knows where. It could have left hours ago and already be in LDS towards Mars or even Earth. No, that doesn't make sense. It has to be in Jupiter space because if it left, the second PatCom squadron would have detected the LDS signature. "He's here somewhere, just powered down. Instruct the LaGrange point forces to send out active scans. He may be using the IR interference of Io to hide. Or even the Io flux-tube to bounce active-"
"Sir, multiple in-bounds bearing 280! Count forty high-speed contacts at 100 kilometers out!" shouted the tactical officer.
Brett then realized what was happening. "Vampire! Vampire! Brett to all ships: retreat inside the Megabase ASAP! Multiple missiles incoming! NAV officer, full burn for the Megabase. We need it for cover!"
The Commonwealth warships ran into the Megabase in a chaotic formation, faster ships cutting off the slower vessels while the lumbering capital ships struggled to keep up. The worst off were the destroyers attacking the Alliance destroyer. Launching volleys of missiles and decoys, they began to accelerate towards the Megabase just as the Brazen made it to safety.
"Missile impact in ten seconds!"
It's too late. Thought Brett. Multiple missiles impacted against the sides of the dead Megabase, throwing their destructive force on to the useless metal protecting the priceless Commonwealth vessels and lives inside. Others impacted against the destroyers, as they fired their turrets in futile defense. Within thirty seconds, the missile attack was over and two destroyers- 500 lives- were gone.
Angered, Brett wasted no time. "NAV, can you follow the missiles back to a destination?"
"Yes sir, I've got an approximate location. It's near Io, as you suspected."
"Good, get us out of the Megabase, make an active scan for the guy and plot a course."
MILLENNIUM CITY, MARS
Millennium City was the most terra formed location on the planet of Mars. Founded in the year 2001, the city had turned into a flourishing center of learning and athletics, boasting the Solar System's most prestigious university and an exotic 20 square-kilometer park.
Not one of the hungry people who were outside that day failed to notice the two cargo pods as they floated from the sky in giant parachutes and landed the park. Within five minutes, crowds thronged around the dual pods speculating about what they could contain. Three alliance troops, with rifles and heavy armor shoved their way through the crowds towards one of the pods. One had a laser-cutter, and proceeded to open the pod. Upon sight of the food and supplies inside the pod, the people gasped.
"The Commonwealth sent these!" shouted a spectator.