Wandering Engineer 6: Pirates Bane (59 page)

“Admiral, the screen covering the jump point has abandoned its
post and is moving out. They will be passing the Queen Adrienne in four
minutes. They will be on us in eleven minutes,” Bounty warned him.

“Very well. We'll have to take it. Signal Lassie to go to
Charlie.”

“Charlie Aye sir,” Bounty replied, sending the signal out to the
collier.

“Echo and Romeo launch on the frigates and large ships. Keep the
packs in reserve,” the Admiral ordered.

“Aye sir,” Bounty said. “The missile packs are hampering their
systems Admiral. They are slower and can't fire in all directions.”

“They'll have to cope with it. As we will,” the Admiral replied.
“Status on Adrienne?”

“She's still adrift Admiral,” Bounty replied.

The Admiral was torn. On the one hand he wanted to fire, he had
eight missile packs on Bounty. But on the other he wanted that ship intact if
they could take it. Indecision warred through him briefly.

“Admiral, Adrienne has regained some of her drive controls. She's
moving faster. Also, one of the destroyers has come along side her. I believe
to render aide.”

“She's turning in on us,” Lieutenant Nobeki reported, looking up.

“Very well. Flush half our reserve pods. Target the Adrienne.
That should keep her busy,” the Admiral ordered just as the gunships passed the
battlecruiser. The frigates and corvettes weren't far behind.

“Aye sir. I'm not certain we'll get any hits with the gunships
out in front. They may choose to intercept,” the tactical officer warned.

“I know,” Irons replied.

 
<----*----*----*---->

The Arrow Captain fought down panic as his ship came under attack
by those missiles. There were only six of them, but they came lashing in from
below just as they were about to launch. With his fire control down they had
been lucky to see them coming in at all. Point defense lasers in local control
danced as they lashed out, firing on the missiles.

But the missiles were elusive things, with their own shields and
counter measures. Two were cut down, then a third and fourth, but the last two
managed to get through everything his desperate crew threw at them to slam into
his ship's shields. One hit at an angle, it's warhead going off to sear the
ship's starboard keel as the ship frantically rolled. The rest of the force
emitter directed weapon was wasted into the void.

The second missile however cut in behind the first. With the
Arrow's shields down she erupted, shredding the ship's keel, scouring away
nodes, lasers, sensor arrays, anything on her outer hull and breaching her
hull. The hit didn't kill the ship, but she was now lamed.

 <----*----*----*---->

The twelve missiles fired on the Queen Adrienne lashed in almost
completely unopposed. The tactical department was cut flat footed as the
missiles entered their final acquisition phases.

Just as the missiles crossed the ten million kilometer mark
traveling around point two C a sharp-eyed point defense laser crew caught their
drive trail and began firing. Their fellow defense crews were alerted that
something was wrong when one of the missiles exploded from a chance hit. They
too started firing wildly and the seemingly helpless leviathan suddenly
sprouted laser porcupines.

Lasers and rail gun rounds swept the void. Two of the missiles
caught chance hits on their bow shields. They tumbled off course slightly,
nearly colliding before the corrected. However the explosion of force on their
shields was a marker for the fire crews, one graser lashed out blowing a
missile apart. A second graser winged a missile as it spiraled up and around
its base course in an evasive pattern.

Flares and Chaff erupted from the missiles as they attempted to
confuse the ship's fire control. That unfortunately was the wrong thing to do,
it alerted the crew to their positions and gave them something to track off of.
Two more missiles were picked off, silhouetted against the bright flares.

“Maneuvering, get us around. Roll!” the exec called frantically.

“No you fool! Give the gun crews a chance!” the Captain snarled
turning. It was already too late; the helmsman had started the roll. He brought
the ship back on course, but the momentary roll had forced the defenses to lose
what lock they had on the missiles.

Despite their best efforts however seven missiles made it through
the last line of defense to slam into the ship's port side. Their shields
interacted with the ship's shields, turning into awls that bored their way
through them, popping shield nodes like ripe melons.

The warheads went off, scouring and blackening the ship. But she
was a battlecruiser, designed to take such punishment. She bucked like a wild
thing and then drifted as her crews picked themselves up and swung into damage
control.

 <----*----*----*---->

Each of the two corvettes had two missile packs
strapped to their hulls, one mounted on their keel, the other on the dorsal.
They each had six cells of missiles, capital ship smart missiles, far more than
a lowly frigate or anything smaller than a cruiser could handle.

However there were a dozen gunships, two
frigates, and two corvettes coming at them. Too many for all three ships to
hit. They needed those missiles to deal with the battlecruiser.

“We'll split the difference. Whoever has the
least kills buys the beers,” Ian said over their link.

“Sure,” Mary replied. “That is if we survive
this,” she said.

“Pessimist,” Ian replied teasingly. “See you on
the other side Mary,” he said, Echo climbing away as Romeo dropped. They were
doing a classic scissor attack, also known as a pincer. For a brief minute the
enemy force was confused, then split equally between the targets.

When Romeo hit the two million mark the Captain flipped into the
weapons station. She watched as the enemy launched her own short ranged
weapons. She knew she could die, but it was a distant thing. “Use em or lose
em,” Captain Apple muttered, designating targets and pressing the big red
button.

The two packs on her ship received the tactical telemetry,
acknowledged it, and then fired off explosive bolts, kicking themselves clear
of the ship's hull. Suddenly lightened of one hundred and sixty tons of weight
the ship lunged forward.

The missile packs drifted clear of their mother ship, oriented on
their targeting priorities and then flushed their cells.

Twelve capital ship missiles entered sprint mode as they went
after their prey. Four were targeted on the Manta frigate, two on the corvette
and the remaining six on the gunships.

The gunships immediately kicked into evasive action, trying to run
for it. However at two million kilometers the capital missiles had more than
enough time on their clocks to give chase and overtake. Four of the frantically
evading gunships were obliterated, one managed to wing it's attacking missile
and send it into a premature detonation. The explosion was close enough to kick
the gunship into an uncontrolled tumble, overloading her systems.

The other gunship swung close enough to a corvette for the
corvette to scratch it's back with covering fire. The missile walked into the
fire and exploded.

The gunship attempted to return the favor for the corvette,
turning on the two missiles tracking the larger ship. However when the gunship
made a firing pass it entered one of the missile's final acquisition range. A
link clicked and the trigger went off, detonating the one hundred megaton
warhead.

Nuclear fratricide took the other missile with it, but it consumed
the gunship and battered the Apollo corvette's shields down and left her
drifting.

The Manta frigate rolled and pitched, kicking out Gauss rounds in
the path of the missiles. One took a hit and tumbled, after a moment it's drive
cut out and it exploded. Its explosion took out one of the other missiles.

The other two missiles overshot when the Manta kicked its RCS and
dove away from them. The missiles took a wide turn, coming back around.

The Manta however had found her own target; Romeo was fending off
some of the Horathian's missiles. Dumb and practically blind by the lack of
telemetry from their mother ships, a few had still managed to maintain lock on
Romeo.

Distracted Romeo didn't notice the frigate's firing pass until her
bow spinal mount lasers went to rapid fire, digging into the corvette's shields.
The weapons turrets on her bow reoriented on the threat just as the last
remaining missile cut its drive and exploded. The blinding flash momentarily
distracted the ships and blinded them.

The frigate recovered first, hammering the corvette with her six
turrets as she passed. Romeo bucked but fired her own hoarded missiles back,
ripping into the stern of her attacker, tearing apart her engines and leaving
her tumbling.

Romeo sparkled; her systems failed one by one in a cascade that
her surviving crew couldn't stop. Captain Apple was injured, her drive was dead
and her reactor scrammed. Romeo was left adrift.

 <----*----*----*---->

“Admiral, Romeo is down,” Sprite informed him quietly. Irons
looked at the plot and nodded. Romeo was a dead stick, drive down, energy
readings flat lining. “Crew?”

“Alive. She took a beating though,” the AI reported. “Unknown
number of survivors,” she said.

“Can they get her back online?” Miss Nobeki asked urgently.

“No,” Sprite replied. “She's lost one engine and her reactor is
scrammed.”

“Send Echo to get the survivors off if they can,” the Admiral
ordered.

“Commander McGuyver has his hands full right now. But I'll let him
know,” Sprite replied. The Admiral simply nodded.

 <----*----*----*---->

Echo had climbed when Romeo had dropped, forcing the enemy to
divide its forces. The Federation corvettes had been overhauled; they were more
than a match for half their attackers.

Unfortunately they had double the trouble to deal with. Ian kept
his missiles in reserve, but that made his part even harder. Fortunately he had
the more experienced crew. Echo took down three of the gunships and scattered
the rest before she tangled with her frigate.

“Drop the lower pod. That will clear our belly,” Sindri urged.

Ian looked down at the screen showing the engineer. “You want to
come up here and fly this thing?” Sindri shook his head no. “Then let me do my
job. You mind engineering. Leave me to fight the ship,” he said, sending the
implant codes to target the corvette and frigate with the upper pack and
jettison it. Then he flushed his internal missiles at both.

The distraction of the short ranged missiles bought his capital
missile pack time to blow clear of his ship, orient, and then fire. Three
missiles went for each target. The enemy ships scrambled to run. They exploded
as the missiles caught up with them.

“Yeah!” Sindri yelled. Ian snorted, hearing his small crew cheer.

“It's not over yet,” he said, altering the ship's course to
intercept Romeo. “We've got some friends to pick up,” he said. He checked the
plot and then scowled. It was going to be close; the battle cruiser was headed
for the derelict corvette at a stately one hundred kilometers per second. At
that rate he'd have less than ten minutes to get the survivors off before the ship
got the range. That was, if she didn't fire capital missiles of her own. So far
she hadn't.

“Wonder for small favors,” Ian muttered, engaging his drive. He
prayed that they would be in time.

Following the order to go to plan Baker, Phoenix changed course,
doing a swing around a rock and made a run for the Pyrax jump point. She had
dropped down below the plain of the ecliptic in an effort to cut under the
enemy's formation but her course would bring her close to the Horathian fleet
train. The crew knew it was a risk. Baker could let them slip by to get the
word out as the enemy focused on Bounty and her fellows... or it could split
them up, sending some gunships or other ships after the unarmed runners. If
that happened it would at least take some pressure off the Bounty, allowing
them a chance at defeat in detail.

But it wouldn't do the runners any good if the enemy caught up
with them.

<----*----*----*---->

Lassie lumbered, altering course in a vain attempt to get below
the ecliptic and away from the battle. Her part was done.

However the battle came to her as surviving gunships moved in for
revenge. She was hammered by a gunship when the slow ship tried to turn and
run. The mortally wounded collier turned on her attacker, banking into her firing
pass to ram the much smaller but faster ship. The gunship tumbled off into the
void in pieces. The Clydesdale rolled and slowly tumbled, her bow a mangled
ruin.

She didn't kick out a life pod, not one. The crew knew what would
happen to them if they were caught, this time they preferred going down with
their ship.

CIC wordlessly updated the plot a few moments later. Miss Nobeki's
strangled gasp made the Admiral look up to first her and then the central plot.
He saw Lassie's icon blink an angry red and then fade. Irons regretted the
loss, but accepted their sacrifice. The crew had known the possible outcome.

<----*----*----*---->

Two million kilometers out from the jump point Phoenix passed the
Horathian fleet train. The ships were adrift; two of the colliers had bumped
into each other, tearing their flanks up.

“What a mess,” Lieutenant Olson said, shaking his head as they
passed through the formation. He had chosen to come low in order to use the
slingshot. Now he rather regretted it, he realized now that it had put his ship
in danger.

“Sir! Port! Incoming!” Barry called out frantically.

“I can't see it!” Olson said, jinking the ship.

“It's too late Lieutenant,” Phoenix replied calmly as the ship
shuddered. After that Olson only knew fire and screaming. Phoenix caught a hit
from a lurking gunship near the jump point to Pyrax and tumbled, drive dead.

<----*----*----*---->

“Admiral, I regret to inform you, Phoenix has been hit,” Bounty
said quietly.

“Raise her,” Irons replied as Nobeki and the bridge crew looked up
briefly. The crew returned to their duties as the Admiral frowned.

Irons checked the plot and then pulled up a feed. He caught sight
of his beautiful ship briefly as Bounty tried to raise her. “No response Admiral,”
Bounty said. “Her reactor is down. Energy levels are minimal,” the AI said.

Irons grunted. She was pretty torn up, her drive pods had been
shredded like ripped melons. A yard job for sure he realized, which meant she
was a derelict again. He felt a brief pang at the loss and then accepted it.
There was nothing he could do for her now, nothing but keep fighting.

<----*----*----*---->

Mary stumbled through the airlock and fell. Hands caught her and
dragged her out of the way by her suit harness. She was a mess and knew it. She
covered her belly with one hand, she didn't feel any pain anymore there and
that was probably bad. She coughed, a ragged liquid cough with a lot of blood
in it. The blood sprayed over the inside of her suit visor. She lifted it and
coughed again.

“Shit,” Sindri said, checking her suit vitals. She was bleeding
internally; he didn't know how long she'd last. They didn't have a sickbay or
stasis pod either.

“Chief! We're in trouble here! Incoming! Get that hatch shut!”
Ian said through the implants.

Sindri scowled. He peered around the corner. He could see Chuck
and Larry's lights as they searched Romeo. The lights moved around in the dark.

“Get back here!” Sindri roared. “Get them out! We're leaving!”

Larry turned and ran through the hatch immediately. Chuck turned
reluctantly and then dived through the hatch as Ian triggered it closed from
the bridge.

“Is that all?” Sindri demanded.

“All I could find!” Chuck said shaking his head. He looked
around. Some were badly wounded like Apple, others were just bewildered.

“Get the others sorted out. Triage. Then get those that can fight
to stations,” Sindri ordered.

“Aye sir,” Chuck said, helping with a pressure bandage. “Its got
anticoagulants impregnated in the surface so don't pull it off or play with it.
Keep pressure on it,” he said to Allen.

They all grabbed for hand holds as the ship bucked. Chuck looked
out the airlock window to see the other corvette tumbling away. The outer lock
closed after a moment.

“Damn, that was close.”

Allen looked up from the spear stuck in his leg and grimaced. He
reached for it but Chuck slapped his hand away. “Don't! Leave it in. It's
filling the void. You yank it out and it'll gush!”

“Frack! It hurts!”

“I know man, just suck it up. We'll do what we can until we can
get you to the doc,” Larry said, patting him on the shoulder.

“Larry, get to engineering,” Sindri ordered, helping sit the
Lieutenant on the deck. She coughed again, trying to breathe.

“Sindri! Get your ass to engineering!” Ian growled. “We need
everything you've got and more if we're going to survive what's coming up our
ass!”

“Shit,” Sindri said, getting to his feet.

“Go,” Apple coughed. “The ship...” she said, coughing and waving
weakly.

“Stay alive girl,” Sindri said roughly as he turned and moved
quickly out of the companionway. He got to the corner and looked back briefly.
Duty told him he had to be in engineering, if the ship failed they were all
dead. But his friend...

The ship bucked again. He put a hand out to steady himself. He
cursed softly as he broke into a trot and then a run.

<----*----*----*---->

With her pawns down the battlecruiser “Queen Adrienne” entered the
range of Echo. The larger ship's myopic sensors picked up the drifting ship.
She attacked like a half blinded grizzly. She swung about to take on Romeo and
Echo. The two ships split up, Echo clawed to get out of the behemoth’s range
leaving the crippled ship alone.

Even with her fire control on local control the BC still had more
than enough firepower to torch the fleas. As one turret mount fired the other
mount crews noted it and fired on the same target as well. In seconds they had
the range and hammered the supine corvette, taking out Romeo, turning her into
an expanding ball of plasma in a spiteful attack against a helpless foe.

“Kill the mother fucker!” Admiral Rico snarled, holding a hand to
the bloody bandage on his forehead. That missile attack had come close to
killing him and the ship. Many of the ship's crew were dead or missing. Some
were still trapped in compartments, either dead or dying from lack of air.

“Firing,” the bridge reported coldly. “Force beams only. Grasers
are out on the port side,” the tactical officer said.

“When she's down leave her alive,” the Admiral said,
countermanding his last order. “I want answers,” he said grimly as a medic worked
on his head wound. Another medic was picking off pieces of debris from a dead
rating. “Leave him. Someone get my steward. I need my suit,” he growled.

The medic looked up and then dropped the wire he had been holding.
A cold stern look from the Admiral had him scurrying to obey.

“Sir, she may be coming around. Or trying to stay on our wounded
flank,” Tactical replied.

“Then roll ship and engage with primaries!” the Admiral snarled.
He slapped the medic's hand away and leaned over the console, eyes cold as he
watched the little ship frantically jink to keep him from getting a target
lock. He knew it would be in vain.

The large ship disabled Echo with a force beam barrage. Echo
tumbled off, reactor and drive down, a dead stick.

<----*----*----*---->

The cobra's erupted out of stealth just as the Horathian warships
rallied to face Bounty and her two corvettes. A single strafing run between the
unarmed ships allowed the trio of fighters to disable the larger ship's drives
and sensors, rendering them helpless. They drifted, screaming for help. 

Once they were certain their prey was helpless the cobras went
back into stealth and then changed their headings for their next phase.

<----*----*----*---->

The Arrow class launched fighters. Twelve angry red wasps formed
up off the ship and then arrowed toward the three ships that had dared do so
much damage. “Sir...”

“I see it,” the Admiral said grimly. Things were going to get
ugly. He had thought about holding one of the three fighters back, but he was
now glad he hadn't. The next phase would be dicey enough.

“Move defense pod two between us and the fighters. Can either of
the corvettes handle the other pod or pods?”

“We're not sure sir,” Enric replied.

“Find out,” the Admiral said, looking at Bounty's avatar. The avatar
nodded.

“Signal going out. Echo has drive failure and is adrift. Romeo
is... no response. Their communications may be out Admiral,” the AI said.

The Admiral thought briefly of Ian, Apple, and Sindri and then
nodded once. They would be alive or dead, only fate knew for certain right now.
But he was going to stay to find out. He wouldn't let them fall into enemy
hands again.

“Admiral, Echo reports Romeo has been destroyed. They got off as
many as they could. They are down. Force beam attack.”

“Damn,” Enric muttered softly. The Admiral's eyes cut to the
young man and nodded briefly.

“The Adrienne is on her Admiral. I think they may want to take
her alive,” Miss Nobeki reported. “Commander McGuyver reported his self
destruct is out.”

“Crap,” another rating said. “What do we do?”

“Sprite...”

“Another cyber attack?” Sprite asked. “They will be expecting it Admiral.
I'm not certain what we can do,” she said.

“Anything is better than nothing. Disrupt their communications,
give them sensor ghosts, anything you can think of.”

“Shell game?” Sprite suggested.

“No,” the Admiral said. “First off, we've got two decoys and
three ships. Second, they are too close; they have already locked us up. It
would be a waste of resources,” he said.

“Not if we can time it right. But I agree,” Sprite said. “Can I
borrow Defender and anyone else?”

“I'm busy coordinating damage control and managing the ship,”
Bounty said. “Phoenix is down Commander.”

“So I'll see about Proteus,” Sprite replied. The Admiral nodded.

“Good luck,” he said.

“
We make our
own,” Sprite responded.

Alone, the Admiral considered fleeing but refused. His people were
out there; he didn't want to leave them alone again. Never again. He checked
the status board.

The AI’s had disabled the civilian ships and some of the warships
by invading their network and scramming their reactors, forcing them to run on
sublight reaction thrusters. The enemy Arboth destroyer had been taken out this
way, left to drift helpless. But now the enemy had gotten wise. The ships that
had not been in range of the cyber attack or that had somehow recovered from it
shut down their communications and moved in. The better part of Tango 3, six
gunships and the one Horseshoe frigate were on their way in, passing the
flagship. But ahead of them were the Horathian fighters.

“Admiral, good news, Echo is alive. And she has most of Romeo's
crew as well. The bad news is they are without power. Sindri's working on
restoring their reserves but things are iffy in his words.”

“Very well,” Irons replied. He looked at the plot. Echo was
adrift, headed up and away from the fighting. Fortunately out of range of the
other ships now.

“They've got about a day's worth of life support,” Bounty
reported.

“Hopefully we can help them in that time,” Miss Nobeki murmured.
“But right now, we have to stay alive first,” she said.

“Agreed.”

“Fighters are five minutes out and closing,” Bounty reported to
the quiet bridge. “Sir, the force is comprised of four Cobra, four Cutlass, two
Raptors, one Sabre, and one Executor class fighters. It looks like the Executor
is the squadron leader.”

“How do you know that sir?” Enric asked absently.

“The Executor has the longest legs, best armor, best shields and
is also transmitting the most encrypted data,” the ship AI replied.

“Oh,” Enric said.

“Any other fighters? Just the twelve?” Irons asked.