Exodus: Tales of The Empire: Book 2: Beasts of the Frontier. (18 page)

Cinda wanted to
save those people.  They were civilians, innocents, just regular people out
here on the frontier, trying to make a better life.  Away from the protection
of the Core and developing worlds, with their orbital forts and system fleets.

But I’ve only
got one frigate, with twenty destroyer class missiles.  Even if I fired my
whole spread at them, they would blast them out of space without even trying. 
She
kept playing the problem over and over again in her mind.  Any missiles she
sent at them would be detected well before they got to target.  And a ship that
was designed to handle spreads from other capital ships, hundreds of weapons at
a time, would have no problem taking out her paltry twenty weapons.  Even at
long range and maximum velocity, just like they had taken out all the weapons
from the battle cruiser and frigate.  There was just no way to do it. 
Unless. 
The thought seemed to come out of nowhere, a gestalt.

Cinda was out of
her bed and into the seat of her desk in a second.  She linked in with the
system and the comp holo sprung to life over her desk.  She stared at the holo
for a moment, then ordered the system to show her the track of the comet, and
the incoming course of the Ca’cadasan battleship. 
It could work
, she
thought, getting up from her desk. 
It seems like a crazy, wishful thinking,
plan, but maybe all we have. 
“All senior bridge officers and division
chiefs are to report to the briefing room, immediately,” she said into the com
link, heading for her quarter’s hatch.

*     *     *

The twenty-five
million ton ship shuddered slightly as it released a half dozen missiles
through its accelerator tubes.  It would take about fourteen hours to close,
but the remaining small escort ship was doomed.

“Time till
orbital insertion, twenty-eight hours, twelve minutes,” said the Pilot, his
lower hands playing over his board.

“Weapons’,” said
the three meter tall Captain, sitting on his raised chair, looking over the
crew who sat at lower stations.  “Are there any orbital defenses in place above
that planet?”

“None that we
can detect, my Lord,” said the Weapons’ Officer.  “There might be some shore
batteries on the ground, but this is not a heavily populated planet.”

“Not from our
sensor readings, my Lord,” chimed in the Sensory Officer.  “Preliminary scans
indicate little industrial activity, probably a very low population planet,
with a newly planted colony.”

“We could just
hit them with some missiles,” said the Weapons’ Officer quietly, looking back
at his captain.

“No,” growled
the senior officer.  “We are not here to kill the ecosystems of planets.  Only
the humans that infest them.  We will go into orbit and blast their settlements
out of existence with kinetics, then send down ground troops to root out
whoever is left.”  He looked pointedly at the Weapons’ Officer.  “And I can
assume they don’t have much of a ground force presence either.”

“Probably a few
hundred of their militia,” said the Weapons’ Officer, giving a head shake of
negation.

“Then we will
proceed according to doctrine,” said the Captain, looking at the planet in the
holo.  “Then two days back out and into hyper.”

*     *     *

“I don’t see how
this can work,” said Lt. SG Jakardo, the Tactical Officer.  “We’re depending
too much on luck.”

“I really don’t
think we have anything else to depend on,” said the Captain, looking from face
to disbelieving face.  “Look.  I refused to sacrifice all of you in what I saw
as a forlorn hope. This may be just as forlorn, but I think we might just be
able to pull this off.” 
And it certainly fits the letter of the Emperor’s
order.

“They’re still a
battleship, ma’am,” said Lieutenant Romanov, the Navigation Officer.  “They
outmass us by a factor of over two hundred and fifty.”

“Maybe if we
just use the missiles,” said the Com Officer.  “That would still give us a
chance of getting away.”

“We need to do
everything we can to make sure we get a hit,” said Cinda, shaking her head. 
“If we only depend on the missiles, we are depending on robots to do the job. 
And I doubt we could get away anyway, if they still have any tracking or
weapons ability.”  She looked at the officers, most of whom were shaking their
heads.  “Look.  This isn’t up for discussion.  I wanted your input on the plan,
but the decision is mine.  Now, I’m depending on you to make it work.”

The looks coming
her way were still full of doubt, and she didn’t blame them.  She worried for a
moment that they might refuse, that she would have that mutiny she had feared
on her hands. 
Not that I didn’t give them a great example to follow with my
refusal to obey orders, even if I was in the right. 
“Look.  If we don’t do
something, all of those people on that planet are going to die.  That’s a
fact.  I won’t slight the bravery of the captain of the
New Kiev
,
or
his people.  But basically, the man was an idiot.  He wasted his command for no
purpose.  There might not have been a plan that would have worked, but running
a battle cruiser into the teeth of that Ca’cadasan monster was definitely not
it.  Now it’s up to us to save that planet, and I intend to do so.  Anyone who
doesn’t want to participate can get in a shuttle and sit this one out.  Not that
I think you’ll survive us by much.”

The crew members
looked at each other, some nodding, others shaking their heads, then nodding. 
“I think we’re with you, Captain,” said Frobisher, the senior officer of the
group.  “I really don’t see this plan doing much more than getting us killed. 
But I for one am not willing to let fifty thousand people die without a
prayer.  That isn’t what I swore my oaths for.  So let’s get the bastards.”

*     *     *

“I’m picking up
activity in the asteroid belt,” called out the Weapons’ Officer from his
station, looking back over at the main holo.

“What is it?”
demanded the Captain, standing from his chair and stalking toward the central
holo tank, upper arms crossed over his chest.  He leaned against the rail with
his lower hands and stared at the representation of the system.

“It appears to
be a small ship leaving the proximity of one of the rocks, a fair sized
metallic specimen,” said the Sensory Officer, pulling up a close up of the
vessel on the forward holo.  The ship looked like a stout shuttle, the kind
used in mining operations.

“Is it any
danger to us?”

“I wouldn’t
think so, my Lord,” answered Weapons’.  “It might carry some mining lasers, but
nothing that we need concern ourselves with.”

“Launch a
quartet of armed shuttles,” ordered the Captain after a moment’s thought.  “I
want that craft destroyed, and whatever station they came from, if there is
one, also taken out.”

“Four shuttles,
my Lord?” asked the Weapons’ Officer, a questioning expression on his snout.

“Two are to go
to that location and take care of the observed problem.  The other two can do a
close in sweep of that belt, look for other possible hideaways, and rendezvous
with us before we leave the system.”

The Weapons’
Officer gave a head shake of acceptance, then turned to his board to transmit
the orders to the shuttle crews.

“And I want the
rest of the shuttles and our fighters prepped for action.  There’s no telling
what else we might discover that we need to destroy.” 
Better to be
thorough, even if it takes another half a day.  It will be much more terrifying
to the humans to come into a system devoid of life, giving them little to hope
for when we come and visit their other systems.

*     *     *

“They’re
launching shuttles, ma’am,” called out Jakardo.  “Two, no, four of them.”

“Heading?” 
Cinda stared at the plot that showed the icons of the enemy small craft.  They
were on an initial heading that could take them close to the comet. 
Please
don’t be heading this way,
she prayed, clenching her hands.

“It looks like
they’re starting to turn their vector,” said Schmidt, the Sensory Officer. 
“Heading appears to be out toward the belt.”

“Why would they
be heading there?” asked Garibaldi, looking over at Romanov.

“Most likely
they spotted some of the miners,” said Jakardo, scowling.  “A shuttle, or
possibly an energy spike from one of the stations.  They’re going to
investigate.”

“There are
several hundred people out there,” said Romanov, looking back at the Captain
with a pleading expression.  “We can’t let the damned bastards kill them.”

“And there’s
fifty thousand people ahead of that big bastard,” said Jakardo, giving the
Navigator an ‘I can’t believe you’ stare.

“There’s nothing
we can do for those people in the belt,” said Cinda, feeling sick to her stomach
for what she was about to order.  “If we attack them, we tip our hand to that
monster.  And then we die for nothing.  And the people on the planet die soon
after.”

She sat there
looking at the plot, shaking her head, wishing she could change reality, and
knowing that she couldn’t.  “No.  We stay put, and make our play for the only
target that might make a difference.”

The rest of the
bridge crew sat there, none of them looking happy, but all nodding their heads
in acknowledgement. 
They realize there is no other choice,
she thought,
feeling the same shame she knew they felt. 
Still doesn’t make it any easier
to make it.

*     *     *

The minutes
passed in silence, and then it was time for act two of the Battle of
Compton
.

Here we go,
thought Cinda, watching the enemy ship approach on the tactical plot, while a
side screen showed an almost real time view of the massive vessel.  She shifted
a bit in her seat.   She had never really liked the battle armor that naval
personnel wore into combat.  But if the compartment was evacuated and became
vacuum, they would allow the crew to still function.  And if battle damage had
to be cleared, the powered armor suits gave them the strength to do so.  It was
the smart decision, and the one dictated by regulations, so she put up with the
discomfort.

The tactical
plot showed the twenty missiles sitting in the tail of the comet, moving
forward at the same velocity as the body whose ejecta was shielding them.  The
track of the battleship was closing on the plot, and the enemy ship was
starting to enter the engagement envelope.

“Helm,” she
ordered after trying to swallow with a dry throat.  “Take us into position.” 
She looked over at Jakardo.  “It’s in your hands now, Tac.”

Jakardo nodded
and turned back to his board.  Except for the Helmsman, the young Lieutenant
was the only one with anything to do at this time.  Everyone else was now just
a spectator, sitting there in their own fear generated sweat.  And then the
frigate poked her side over the top of the comet, David into battle with
Goliath.

*     *     *

“Is that comet
any risk to us?” asked the Captain, leaning forward in his chair and studying
the ice ball on the holo.  It had a larger than usual tail, which gave it an
almost menacing look. 
It has been thousands of years since we looked at the
Galaxy with primitive superstition
, thought the large carnivore with a
snort through his snout. 
I do not fear you, ice ball.

“No, my Lord,”
said the Weapons’ Officer, pulling up a view of the comet on his own screen. 
“It’s larger than the norm for an insystem visitor, and this is an energetic
star, so the tail is especially long and thick.”

“What will be
our closest approach to it?”

“Closest
approach will be one thousand two hundred kilometers,” said the Pilot.  “No
danger.”  The officer looked back at the captain.  “Do you want us to change
our vector?”

“No,” replied
the Captain.  “What’s our current velocity?”

“Three thousand
KPS,” answered the Helm Officer.  “Grabbers are functioning normally, and we
are a little over an hour from orbital insertion.”

“And the
planet?  Any changes?”

“The two ships
are still in orbit,” said the Weapons’ Officer.  “I’m surprised they haven’t
tried to get away.”

“No,” said the
Captain, thinking about the small scout ship they had destroyed earlier at long
range.  “They had nowhere to run.  I think the crews have evacuated to the
planet.  Not that such a course will help them, in the long run.”

The Captain
looked back at the holo of the comet.  The tactical plot hanging in the air
next to his chair showed the track of his ship and that of the small system
body.  The lines would come closest within the next half minute, then
separate. 
Untidy to leave possible planet killers in orbit,
he thought,
realizing from the track that the planet was in no danger, from this pass at
least.

Another thought
struck him, and he looked back over at the Tactical Officer.  “What is the
status of our shields?”

“One quarter
strength,” said the Weapons’ Officer.  “Do you want me to….  My Lord, we’re
taking light amp fire.”

“From where?”

“There,” yelled
the officer as a view of a small escort ship came up over the top of the
comet.  “It’s firing both laser rings at us, and we’re receiving some particle
beam fire.  Nothing too severe.  Shields are handling it.”

“Lock all weapons
on that ship and blow her out of space,” yelled the Captain, pointing his right
index fingers at the holo.

*     *     *

As soon as she
had weapons lock the frigate opened fire with everything she had.  Her two
laser rings both put out their most powerful bursts, a hundred megawatts of
power each in single beams.  Her lone particle beam accelerator was putting out
a couple of kilograms a second through one of the projectors that branched off
of it, concentrating that fire.  The ship she was facing had twenty laser domes
that could currently take her under fire, out of the forty she possessed, each
producing a beam in the gigawatt range, while her multiple particle beam
weapons could put out hundreds of kilograms of protons a second.