The Void War (Empire Rising Book 1) (33 page)

Lightfoot’s plan was very simple. He had decided to take a leaf out of Gupta’s playbook. After lying in stealth for a number of hours to observe the ships in the system
Ghost
and
Raptor
would boost into the system under full acceleration. Intentionally alerting the Chinese to their presence, the ships would then switch into stealth mode when they reached their top speed. Being still so far out from the inner system and in stealth would mean they could pick any target and slowly make their way towards it. New Shanghai was what the RSN academy instructors called a target rich environment. The Chinese system Commander would know they were coming but he wouldn’t know where they were going. Lightfoot and James would thus be able to see how he reacted and chose their targets accordingly.

As
Raptor
excited shift space, James watched as his bridge crew frantically analyzed all the sensor data coming through. Following standard doctrine,
Ghost
and
Raptor
had excited shift space one and a half light hours from the edge of the system’s mass shadow. A ship exciting shift space produced small gravimetric disturbance detectable up to one light hour away. RSN stealth doctrine therefore called for ships to enter a system at least a one and a half light hours out so any ships patrolling the system’s mass shadow wouldn’t detect them.

Romanov was again manning tactical. He was the first to shout a warning, “A ship has just gone to full acceleration. Its half a light hour off our port bow, heading directly for us.”

Before James could register the implications of the ship’s presence the sensors officer called another warning, “Another ship has just gone to full acceleration right towards our position. This one is point two of a light hour to starboard.”

As James was trying to decide what to do Lightfoot appeared on a COM channel. “It’s a signaling system. A warning must have got out of Wi, they were expecting us. They must have ships strewn out along the end of the shift passage waiting to detect us. The last thing they will expect us to do is take on one of those ships. Follow the vector my navigational officer will send you.” Without waiting for a reply, Lightfoot had already gone.

When the channel closed James cursed, he should have seen it sooner. The British were doing the very same thing in the Void. Their approach was a little bit more sophisticated with different course changes and acceleration burns signaling different things. Yet the Chinese system, crude as it was, would be just as effective. With two ships accelerating towards the same point, the Chinese system Commander would be able to know exactly where
Ghost
and
Raptor
had come out of shift space. 

“Navigation, follow the course
Ghost
is sending over to us,” James ordered. “Sensors, have you been able to identify either of the two ships coming towards us yet?”

“Yes sir,” the officer replied. “The first one is a frigate, the second one a destroyer. I can’t determine the class of either though.”

“That’s ok,” James said. “That’s all we need to know for now. Romanov ready a full spread of missiles. Contact the tactical officer aboard
Ghost
to work out the best defensive formation given the damage both ships have taken. We’re going to be taking on that destroyer.”

Even as he spoke, James felt
Raptor
come alive as she turned and began to make for the approaching Chinese destroyer. It had only been point two of a light hour away when they had emerged from shift space and already the range was closing fast as it accelerated towards the point they had emerged. Both
Ghost
and
Raptor
had emerged from shift space with the same velocity they had entered it. Traveling at 0.1c they were beginning to move away from where they had come into the system. It wouldn’t be enough to avoid the destroyer though. They would have to fight.

For a moment James had to wonder at the speed of Lightfoot’s reactions. While he had still been struggling to react to their situation, Lightfoot had already figured out what the Chinese were doing and had realized they couldn’t avoid a confrontation. As James thought about it he was sure all the Chinese Captains who were patrolling the shift passage had orders to engage whatever came out of the shift passage. Only by pressing the British forces into a fight could the system commander know what he was facing. It was a cold logical approach. The System Commander was willing to sacrifice a frigate, or even a destroyer, in order to get intel on his enemy. Still, just like the signaling system, it would work.

Once Romanov had conferred with his counterpart on
Ghost,
he brought up their plan on the main holo display. “Here’s our suggestion sir,
Ghost
will take up position above our forward starboard side. I’m still not happy with the repairs we have managed to do to the point defense plasma cannons in that section. This way we shouldn’t have to use them. We have also planned a number of evasive maneuvers we can take together that will allow our best point defense weapons to keep engaging any incoming missiles. We’ll have to come out of stealth and increase our speed before we engage the destroyer for them to work effectively.
Ghost’s
tactical officer is running it by Captain Lightfoot now.”

“And what about our flak cannon?” James asked. Romanov had been able to repair two of the cannon’s barrels during their raid on Wi Li, from spare parts on board
Raptor
. Without time in a repair yard that was the best he could do. With only two barrels the cannon’s rate of fire was halved, along with the area of space it could fill with shrapnel.

“Diagnostics indicate the repairs are fully functional. I have slaved control of it to
Ghost’s
tactical officer though. It will be more effective if he can use our reduced firepower to enhance his own flak cannons rather than use them as two separate weapons.”

“Agreed,” James said. “We’ll be entering missile range in ten minutes, sooner if Lightfoot approves the acceleration,” he spoke to the bridge at large, “inform the crew to prepare for battle.”

*

Aboard
Ghost,
Lightfoot was reassessing his options. While everyone else was preparing for the duel with the approaching destroyer he had been reviewing New Shanghai’s defenses. Agent Bell had been able to fill some gaps in the RSNI intel and even before jumping into the system, he had been coming to realize their mission might be impossible. The system was simply too well defended. Now, with all the data that was coming in from the sensors on the inner system he was more convinced. Included in his orders to attack New Shanghai and Wi was a secondary objective. It was secondary because it was more of a long shot but it looked like it would have to be bumped up the list. Still, if they could take out the approaching destroyer quickly, they could yet cause a bit of havoc in this system.

Switching his thoughts back to the coming battle, he reviewed his tactical officer’s plans. “Approved,” he called out knowing his officer would know what he meant. “Take us to full acceleration, fire as soon as we come into range.” Even with
Raptor’s
damaged flak cannon, the coming battle was all but a forgone conclusion, yet he didn’t want to take any chances. His tactical officer’s request for more maneuvering flexibility was a sensible one, even if it gave away their position a little sooner than he would have wished.

As the previous battles with Chinese warships had gone, his ships got to fire off the first missile salvo. Twelve missiles sped off towards the approaching destroyer.
Raptor
had used her two penetrator missiles against the light cruiser at Wi but
Ghost
had one left. Lightfoot had chosen to keep it in reserve; a couple of volleys and the enemy ship should be destroyed. The fact that the three ships were almost heading straight for each other meant the missiles closed quickly with their target. Nevertheless, the Chinese ship still managed to get off two missile salvo’s before the first British missiles came tearing in on their target. The point defenses took out nine of them but three got into engagement range. Not one of them managed to get a direct hit but three proximity explosions rocked the destroyer. Immediately, it lost acceleration and began to roll violently. Lightfoot studied the visual feed carefully to observe the damage. The destroyer looked like it was out of the fight already but he didn’t want the same trick he had played at the Damang to be played on him.

Satisfied that the ship did indeed look like it had taken serious damage, Lightfoot waited until
Ghost’s
and
Raptor’s
point defenses had taken out the first Chinese salvo of five missiles. Then he spoke to the COM officer, “hail the Chinese ship, inform them that we’re going to close to plasma cannon range and destroy their ship. They are to evacuate now. If they don’t evacuate we’ll assume they intend to fight on and we’ll send another volley of missiles their way.”

“Yes sir,” the COM officer replied, “sending the message now.”

As the second Chinese missile salvo approached, it became impossible to see what the Chinese destroyer was doing as space around the two British ships was filled with flak explosions, plasma bolts, AM missiles and exploding Chinese missiles. When the sensor feeds cleared both
Ghost
and
Raptor
continued on, having shrugged off the Chinese missiles. Lightfoot could also see on the visual display that small escape pods were launching from the damaged destroyer.

“Tactical,” Lightfoot ordered, “keep your missiles locked onto that ship but hold fire. If there is any sign of it turning to bring any weapons to bear on us fire immediately. As soon as we get into plasma range take it out. Then put us back into stealth. We are now the hunted.”

The Void War saw the first real use of warships as raiders operating behind enemy lines for long periods of time. This had been a tactic perfected by the wet navies of Earth centuries before but many of the skills had to be relearnt.

-Excerpt from Empire Rising, 3002 AD

16
th
May 2465 AD, HMS
Raptor
, New Shanghai

James felt more exhausted than he ever had before in his life. The closest he had come to how he currently felt had been when he had taken
Drake
through the V17 system. There he had to dodge a number of Chinese picket ships while trying to get a good scan of the planet. New Shanghai was turning out to be an entirely different kettle of fish. For the last five hours
Ghost
and
Raptor
had been slowly making their way deeper and deeper into the system. Only an hour ago they had actually managed to pass the line marking the system’s mass shadow.

The Chinese System Commander had filled the exit of the shift passage from the Wi system with small patrol craft. After finishing off the destroyer, Lightfoot had taken them back into stealth and they had slowly made their way into the system. Every time they had detected a Chinese warship they had been forced to try and sneak around them. In
Drake
it would have been much easier but, even though the
Churchill
class of destroyer had impressive stealth systems, it was much harder to hide a fully equipped warship.

As if things couldn’t have gotten any worse, three hours after they had defeated the Chinese destroyer another force had jumped into the system behind them. They must have been reinforcements sent to Wi that had returned once they learnt that
Ghost
and
Raptor
had already left. As soon as they had jumped into the system, they had spread out and were now slowly making their way into the system. All their active scanners were operating at full capacity as they sought to locate the two British ships.

The Chinese Commander was definitely a canny one. Even though he must have known
Ghost
and
Raptor
were trying to sneak further into the system, he hadn’t ordered his outer system pickets to go to active scanning. Instead they had remained quiet and undetectable unless the British ships got close to them. That meant that James and Lightfoot had to be prepared to come under fire at any second.

Further into the system things were a little different. Around the planet the System Commander had two light cruisers in orbit to lend weight to the battlestations that were on full alert. Slightly further out was the main Chinese force. It consisted of a heavy cruiser, two more light cruisers and three destroyers. They were slowly heading away from the inhabited planet towards the shift passage back to Wi. The Chinese Commander was clearly waiting for the British ships to trip over one of his outer pickets and then he would pounce with his larger force. Taking the ships further into the system was like walking through a field of landmines. Worse, it was like walking through a field of landmines with an enemy force waiting for you to reach the other side while another force came along behind, forcing you to keep going. James was not enjoying the experience.

The last twelve hours had reminded James of the accounts he had read from submarine commanders during World War Two. Both the American and German commanders who had tried to sneak up on enemy convoys had had to endure hours of slowly overhauling their targets before they could attack. All the while surface patrol boats had been constantly searching for them, just waiting for a chance to blow them out of the water. The submariners often hadn’t even known they had been detected until it was too late. So far Lightfoot had proven himself to have nerves of steel as he had led them onwards. James, on the other hand, was beginning to struggle. He didn’t know how Lightfoot was doing it. He was beginning to feel himself fray around the edges. Knowing he needed to do something before his subordinates began to see past the confident front he had been projecting, he decided to retire to his quarters. Having spent the last fourteen hours on the bridge he needed to at least try and get some sleep.

When a COM channel on his command chair beeped, he almost jumped. Recovering quickly, he hit the accept button to bring up Lightfoot’s face. The Captain of
Ghost
looked tired but his voice was still full of confidence and James could feel himself drawing strength from Lightfoot as he spoke. “Still awake Captain, I thought you would have retired for a nap by now? I guess you don’t want to miss any of the action. This is definitely going to make a great story when we get back to Earth.”

“Certainly sir,” was all James could manage. He wasn’t sure if Lightfoot was joking for the sake of his subordinates or if he really was enjoying himself.

“I think I’ve come up with a plan,” Lightfoot continued. “We’ll be lucky to make it out of here, never mind actually causing any damage so we need to adapt. You haven’t been briefed on this but RSNI had received some intel that the next convoy going into the Void would be passing through New Shanghai in about four days. It was a secondary target for us to go after if we got a chance. The intel suggested that the convoy would be lightly guarded until it got to New Shanghai. That might be why there are so many more smaller ships in the system than we were expecting, some may be waiting for the convoy. Our best chance of intercepting the convoy is if we hit them here.”

As James looked at his personal holo display an image of the shift passage connecting New Shanghai to Paracel appeared. The Paracel system didn’t contain anything of importance but it did lead to the Anyang system which was as heavily developed as New Shanghai and it in turn led on through Chinese space to the Beta system and then back to Earth. The shift passage between New Shanghai and Paracel was a relatively straight one but it did have two very tight kinks in it. Ordinarily, it was deemed impossible to ambush a fleet as it travelled through shift space. Even though the ships had to make regular stops to realign when the shift passage twisted and turned the passages were so large it was impossible to predict accurately enough to plan an ambush where a ship might make its stop.

However, throughout known space there was five shift passages where it had been deemed just such an ambush was possible – at least by the RSN tactical planners. One of them was between New Shanghai and Paracel. There were two very severe turns in the shift passage that were also very narrow. Any ship hoping to pass through them in a timely fashion would have to exit shift space in a fairly small area of space. Provided the ships didn’t suspect they would be ambushed and stuck to the least time route through the passage, the point at which they would come out of shift space was easily predictable.

As James studied the image Lightfoot continued, “This will only work, however, if we can convince the Chinese Commander of the system defenses here that we have gone somewhere else. If he suspects we are trying to ambush the convoy, all he’ll have to do is send his ships to the twist in the shift passage and he’ll have ambushed us.

“If we’re going to convince him we’re somewhere else we will have to be somewhere else, at least one of us will be. But first we need to get the Chinese Commander’s attention. By now he’ll have received a report from those ships that came into the system behind us on the damage we caused at Wi. Hopefully, we can give him some more incentive stop us attacking any other unprotected systems. Here are a couple of targets I’ve selected.”

On his holo display James watched the image shift to show the New Shanghai system again. A series of dots appeared with scrolling text beside each one along with an ETA. As James looked closely, he could see they were all minor targets. Some small mining facilities and a freighter resupply hub, for freighters that wanted to pass through the system without going into the inner system. Their worth wasn’t what made them important. Combined, their destruction would only cause a small headache to even a poorer Politburo member. Their importance was in where they led when the dots were joined. They didn’t form a straight line but to anyone observing all the dots, it was clear that the British destroyers would be heading towards the Fujian passage. Theoretically the Fujian passage led all the way back to the Damang system, though it would take over a month to do so. Along the way it passed through four other Chinese systems. None had a habitable planet and so were poorly developed yet combined, they still had received a sizable amount of investment from the Chinese government. Given all the destruction
Ghost
and
Raptor
had dished out at Wi, no sane Chinese Commander would want the two British destroyers loose among the four unprotected systems.

“One of us is going down the Fujian passage to draw the Chinese off then?” James asked.

Nodding, Lightfoot fleshed out the details, “that’s the plan. The greater risk will fall on the ship that does so I’ll be taking
Ghost
. First, we’ll hit all the targets I’ve sent you here in New Shanghai to convince the enemy we’re working as a single unit. When I make the jump to Fujian, you will go to stealth and wait for whatever Chinese ships are sent after us to make the jump. Then you can double back and head for the ambush site. As soon as I get to Fujian I’ll begin stirring up a right hornets’ nest. Hopefully in all the confusion it’ll take the pursuing Chinese ships a while to figure out
Raptor
isn’t there.

“If they do figure it out, things might get a bit hairy for you but it’s two days to Fujian system along the shift passage. That’ll give you at least four days to sneak out of New Shanghai and get to the ambush site before any message is sent back informing the Chinese Commander
Raptor
isn’t at Fujian. The convoy is expected in four to five days, so, unless it is late you should be there before the Chinese have a chance to send any ships after you.

“Once it seems like there’s no point hanging around the Fujian system I’ll either jump on up the Fujian passage to draw as many ships away from you as possible or I’ll try and sneak past them and back to New Shanghai. I’m sending you some coordinates for the Damang system. We’ll meet back there when all this is done. Is there anything you want to add to the plan?”

James considered it for a moment. Obviously Lightfoot had been thinking it through for the last twelve hours. There was one flaw in his plan and James proceeded to point it out. “Wouldn’t it be better if you were to take
Ghost
to attack the convoy? Even lightly defended the convoy will have some sort of escort. You have the last penetrator missile. If there is anything larger than a frigate escorting the convoy, you would need it to destroy the ship quickly before the rest of the convoy had a chance to jump away.”

“You’re right, it will be needed,” Lightfoot began, “but it won’t be on board
Ghost
. We’re going to dock after we hit the last target here in New Shanghai and I’ll be transferring it along with several other missiles over to you. We’re both running low on missiles but, if you’re going to take out as many of the convoy freighters as possible, you’ll need more than I will to harass Fujian. I’ll be giving you everything I can spare. Including the penetrator missile.”

“But sir,” James began to protest.
Ghost
was just as likely to need those missiles if she was going to draw half the Chinese fleet in this system with her to Fujian.

Lightfoot held up his hands to stop him saying anymore. “Listen James, I am the Senior Commander. The responsibility of making the command decisions falls on me. I’m not sending you to the Fujian system low on missiles with an angry Chinese fleet on your tail. I can, however, send myself. That will be the end of it. I want you to take the plan and run it over with your senior Lieutenants. See if there is anything I have missed. Then begin to plan for your ambush. I’ll coordinate with your navigation officer. It’ll be another six hours before we reach our first in system target.”

“Aye sir,” James said as he tried to hide his frustration at Lightfoot.

“Gupta, Romanov,” James called over the two Lieutenants who were both on the bridge. “I want you both to go to my private office and begin to review a plan Captain Lightfoot has sent over. I’m going to retire for a nap and I’ll join you presently.”

“Sub Lieutenant Jackson, you have the bridge,” James called as he followed the two Lieutenants out.

*

After his three hour nap James felt somewhat refreshed. The briefing with Gupta and Romanov had been disappointing. They had reviewed Lightfoot’s plan and made a few minor suggestions, though they hadn’t been able to give James any other viable alternatives. Splitting up was the best chance they had to cause the Chinese some serious damage. If both ships went up the Fujian passage, they would cause a lot of havoc but they would eventually be trapped. It was a much shorter route to go to the Damang system via Wi. Once the Chinese Commander was sure the British ships intended to go all the way up the Fujian passage, he could dispatch a blocking force to Damang via Wi. They could then travel down the other end of the Fujian passage and prevent
Ghost
and
Raptor
from doing too much damage. They would also likely trap the two ships and destroy them. The only other option was to turn around and run back to Damang via Wi now. Yet even that was all but impossible with the second Chinese squadron blocking their retreat.