Rodney Smith - First Command

The heavy K’Rang task force was pressing hard to find the path to Barataria. At half FTL speed, they blew through autonomous minefields designed for vessels traveling at much slower speeds. Even the F-48s had trouble getting into firing positions on them. Two Undefeated class cutters managed to take out a fighter defense frigate that got too far out on the flank of the formation, but the ships kept leaking through. Finally the two A-76 squadrons got in front of the formation and let loose all 288 missiles. That slowed down the task force as the Shadow Force destroyer’s defensive capability was overloaded and it ran out of defensive missiles before the A-76’s ran out of offensive missiles. The formation lost all cohesion as the following ships swerved in all directions to avoid the burning hulk of the destroyer, suddenly slowing to a stop from the multiple missile strikes. They quickly reformed though and pressed on.

Fleet Commander J’Kalt still had the sensors of the Shadow Force heavy cruiser. He pushed his small force to move ever forward to the source of the electronic signature of a Human world that was growing stronger as they moved forward.

Admiral Minacci had an idea. He had standard dumb mines in his supply ship. These were proximity mines and didn’t care what speed you were going. They just stood in your way and blew up when you hit them. He called Captain Chang and gave him some interesting orders. In two hours, he had accomplished his mission.

The light task force was moving slower, but having the same bad luck. The mines were causing them problems, but they had some luck blasting through them. The torpedoes were more of a problem. Their defensive missiles were running out, but the torpedo ships kept coming. The two fighter defense frigates had only enough missiles for one more salvo of torpedoes. After that, they had only guns to ward off the torpedoes. Captain H’Rak pushed forward as best he could.

At the next junction in the gravity maze, he saw something new. A different type of mine he’d not seen before was arrayed in large numbers across their path. H’Rak knew it was a trap, but had yet to decide how to proceed when the remaining gun frigate called, frantically saying that a torpedo squadron just appeared behind them and was advancing rapidly. H’Rak turned the task force to the right down the clear path. H’Rak knew he was being herded, but had no other option.

J’Kalt saw a similar sight in his path. Large mines, as yet unseen in this battle, appeared in their path, closing off the path going straight ahead. A-76’s appeared behind them and unleashed 144 missiles. J’Kalt increased speed and took the path to the left. The fighter defense frigate took down all the missiles with guns and defensive missiles, but he was now down to one half of one missile pod, not enough for another massed attack. J’Kalt did not have long to wait.

A squadron of the torpedo ships appeared on his port quarter. He had seen this attack profile before and turned his guns to face the threat. The torpedo ships flew into max range for their torpedoes, fired off a salvo, and turned away before they came into missile range. He looked over the sensor operator’s shoulder and saw the torpedo ships release their torpedoes, the same as every other time. The only anomaly was that there were fewer torpedoes this time. They must be running low. Good!

Squadron Commander Leon George led his four Scylla straight at the heavy cruiser. They flew in and amongst the 48 torpedoes launched by the eight Charybdis. The defensive fire from the K’Rang ships had not started yet. They must be running low on missiles.

As they approached, the cruiser opened fire. Plasma bursts and particle beams reached out and attempted to hit the torpedoes. Every third shot, it seemed, hit one of the torpedoes and set them off. Leon calmed his three other pilots and had them fall back slightly. He saw defensive missiles leave the pods on the defensive frigate. As the missiles homed in on the torpedoes ahead of them, Leon called out, “Let’s go,” and pushed his throttle to the stop. The four Scylla formed up into two-ship formations as they dropped down below the cloud of remaining torpedoes, and surged forward toward the heavy cruiser. The defensive missiles flew over them after the torpedoes. They were now in between the defensive missiles and the cruiser. All he had to do was to survive for half the remaining distance to the cruiser.

Leon’s sensors saw guns on the cruiser start to move to point in his direction. He called to his flight to go evasive. The four ships executed a complicated set of dives, climbs, and rolls, complicating the gun director’s job to the point of impossibility. Unable to fire directly on the torpedo ships, the K’Rang switched to area bombardment. This was only slightly more effective.

Almost to the release point, Leon gave a five second countdown and ordered his ships to fire, after which they were released to get back to base as best they could. Sixteen torpedoes streaked toward the cruiser. These were souped-up torpedoes, faster than normal torpedoes by a factor of four. The torpedo ships broke in all directions and increased speed to clear the area before the K’Rang got their range. Leon looped back to the way he had come, to watch the effect of the torpedoes.

The torpedoes sped toward the cruiser. The cruiser’s close in defense system took out eight, but the other four sped on. Two torpedoes hit the heavy cruiser behind the bridge and took out the rear facing guns and rear missile bay. Two torpedoes went high and missed the heavy cruiser, but hit the light cruiser just below the bridge and in the bow. The light cruiser split into several pieces and tumbled through space. The remaining three torpedoes from the initial salvo plowed into the burning hulk of the light cruiser.

J’Kalt picked himself up off the deck. He took over the nearest sensor monitor and scanned for any further attacks. He saw only the retreating torpedo ships. So, the Humans still have tricks to play. So did he.

J’Kalt called the captain to get a damage report. The aft gun turret was destroyed, as was the aft missile pod. There were no missiles, so that was no loss. Ten crewmen in the aft turret control center lost their lives in the explosion. Considering it could have been worse, those were acceptable losses.

Now J’Kalt had to determine what trap the Humans were up to, directing their path as they were. He knew it would not be in their best interests, and he needed to figure it out sooner rather than later.

Captain Alden had some difficulty reforming his fleet. Many of the captains felt their mission was over when Fleet rescued Mrs. Debran. He reminded them they hadn’t yet been paid and they still were under contract to Mr. Debran. 26 ships rendezvoused with him at the entrance to the star cluster and followed him in. He thought to himself, “How could they be finished when their four operatives were still on the surface?”

They approached Barataria carefully and called for planet clearance long before they came into defense system range. At first the Baratarian controller told them to go away, they had entered a war zone. Alden told them he had 26 warships and four fighters to add to their defense, courtesy of Mr. Friedrich Debran, and their tone changed dramatically.

Maynard himself came on the circuit and granted them permission to enter planet orbit and did they need to land. Captain Alden said they did as some of their ships lacked true living quarters. Maynard turned them back over to the controller and thanked them for their timely appearance. The controller guided them into Lafitte City’s spaceport where four operatives, alerted by coded transmission, awaited a ride off planet.

As the controller gave them landing instructions, Maynard was in communication with Admiral Minacci, giving him the good news. Minacci was pleased and asked Maynard to have this Captain Alden give him his capabilities and ordnance requirements as soon as possible. Minacci reflected that he now had a reserve force at just the right moment. He sent out a general recall message to all forces, but the Vigilant, to form up at Barataria and prepare for their final defense of the planet. The Vigilant was to maintain contact with the two K’Rang task forces.