As Promised
Next Installment:
2403.2-2404.0
“Praetor Lysander we no longer have a choice, the Handra supply base must be re-colonized if we do not keep a permanent fleet base in that system we are just asking for those Phong to invade us!.” Admiral Lord Tyson Babcock had a habit-a rather annoying one as far as Lysander was concerned-of keeping his voice low and polite even when he was chewing someone’s *** off, and since day one of the first colony’s launch he had condemned those lords who overruled the Admiralty about sending millions of civilians to the original Haden base.
“Praetor I agree with Tyson on this matter, the original colonization was the biggest blunder our nation has made so far and I think not sending another expedition would be even more foolish.” Alexander Hallice, Lord High Admiral of the entire Icaran Royal Navy was far more stubborn and held a lot more credit then his lesser known colleague within the nobility of Icara and as such his word on any matter could shake even Lysander’s views around.
“Opening that doorway now would lead to a war we can not win, our resources at this time are to unstable and our navy too small to repel any invasion from that particular region of space Your Highness, however I do not believe we should send this colony into the fray unguarded like our lordships did it’s predecessor.” Hallice hid the traces of a grimace of disgust by taking a sip of the hot Icaran coffee that he had all too rarely these days.”
“Isn’t
HMS Saber on location Sir?” Babcock raised his right eyebrow as his superior cocked his head in a manner he often did while he thought about important matters.
“Yes but she is low on supplies and munitions, and I doubt a single frigate could neutralize an entire Phong squadron, don’t you?” Just the tone in his voice as he looked over to his Praetor suggested that he knew Saber wouldn’t stand a chance on that post alone no matter what any arrogant lordship thought.
“You realize Admirals that to authorize something that would cost that much money and that many resources I would have to grant the house of lords permission to send a full fledged colony expedition don’t you?” Lysander frowned as he thought of the amount of pain his *** would be in over the next few days trying to convince the lords to at least minimize the number of colonists they sent.
“Well then our lordships would certainly want better defense wouldn’t they your highness?” Hallice said with a distinctive grin as he finished sipping his coffee and placed his cup gracefully on the table. Hallice was almost 80 Terran Years old but thanks to modern medicine he looked like a man a third his age, and his mind certainly held every ounce of wit and tactical knowledge it had over 50 years ago.
“What are you proposing Alexander?” Lysander asked in a deliberate manner as he thought about just how much money this whole operation would cost his Nation, not to mention the time and resources.
“Oh, well Admiral
HMS Saber should certainly stay on station, our supply base on Handra-the new name given it by The Admiralty-can certainly fix her up and get her in shape once we’ve established even a basic infrastructure there.” Hallice paused a moment cocking his head in thought as numbers and names plied through his rapier like mind.
“
HMS Enterprise Can certainly leave within the month, the asteroid damage she sustained pulling that freighter out of the Swift asteroid belt will be repaired by then, and I can guess Ross would like to get out in real space again instead of getting stuck at home with one of only three destroyers in the fleet.
And I beleive
HMS Farrogot can be ready a month after that, considering the construction time of a colony ship and it’s slower speeds compared to our new destroyers, I think both destroyers will be on station only a month after initial colonization.” The High Admiral hummed quietly as he thought.
“And I think the next two destroyers built at Icara and Brandenburg could arrive there in about 6 months so we’ll have an entire effective battle group there within a years time.” Alexander grinned again as his Praetor began to nod. Braddock too was nodding. A decent battle group of four destroyers and a frigate would definitely be enough to guard that border, and maybe even go on the offensive, as long as they could keep the lords out of this.
“Good idea Alexander, I do believe I can overrule the Lords on the matter of numbers of ships easily, after all the defense of our Nation is the only concern we should have right now, and if any of those Lords or Ladies turn this down I’ll remind them of the mistakes the collegues made with the first colony.” Lysander nearly spat as he considered those five lords who now hung dead and cryopreserved outside of the Admiralty building (showing just how the navy felt about fools), those five who had gone behind the backs of the house of Lords and given “unofficial” permission for several companies to ready a colony for Haden, those same five lords who then refused to allow a naval presence to escort the colony ship under the excuse of it “making the colony ship a target for hostile forces”. Instead 1 million soldiers and 31 million civilians were blown apart by a single enemy frigate that could have been stopped by Saber!
“Admiral do you believe that
Saber can protect that base by herself before those warships arrive?” Lysander’s tone was bitter as nightmare images rushed into his memory, the images taken from Haden by remote drones.
“Highness, I believe
Saber can protect her from any one ship, and possibly any two ships we’ve seen those yellow bastards throw at us thus far.” Hallice said with an unusual gusto as he absently fixed one of the stars on his collar.
“Then Admirals, you have a go, just get those two destroyers ready for deployment before I have to talk to the lords, or at least make it look like they are ready.” Lysander said with a wink as he guided his guests to the door.
*************
“Sir, now that we have approval for the deployment of an entire squadron to Handra do you believe we can get the go ahead on an assault into Fornax?” Babcock asked quietly as he and the High Admiral walked along the great corridor of the Capital Building.
‘I think His Highness will give us permission to do anything it takes to defend Handra base, if that happens to include going into Fornax and removing any threatening presence in said system.” The glean in Hallice’ eyes was clear as he looked at his junior officer and smiled, he liked Babcock though he really couldn’t figure out just what about the energetic young man (only 42 E-Years) he liked."Then so be it." He finished with a smile.
“Excellent Sir!, with your permission I’ll get together with Captain’s Ross and Holly later and discuss possible maneuvers they can take to force the Phong into making themselves a “reasonable threat”. Babcock’s own face lit as he considered the possibilities. Though he would have preferred to be in the field himself, commanding a fleet in battle, but unfortunately for him and just about seventy-two percent of all IRN personnel there just weren’t enough ships to crew much less form a full “fleet” worthy of the name….though within a few years that would hopefully all be changed.
“Very good Admiral, I’ll have discuss the new naval budget with the House of Commons and the rest of the Admiralty tomorrow morning.” The smile turned to a sour grimace as the Admiral considered the meeting that lay before him, he hated talking about money and “resource allocation” but now a days that seemed to be more of a hot topic for him then strategy and command.
The two Admirals talked idly as they walked down the long corridors to head to their respective duties.
Five months later the new colony ship set down on Handra base and Captain Sandra Fowler’s ship turned her running lights to a blinking row pattern signaling her salute to the nobleman aboard her.
A month later the destroyer pair of
Enterprise and
Farrogot arrived to take up station around Handra, both ships signaling salute to their “little sister” as
Saber was affectionately called by the two destroyer’s crews.
2404.1-4
“Sir incoming missile at point three, oh five niner!” Tactical officer Remeraz blurted as the main battle screen in
Enterprise's bridge showed 3 yellow dots appear at a range of just under five thousand clicks.
“Helm, Evasive maneuver Jager Nine two.” Ross voice was icy as his helmsman began twisting and turning the Icaran destroyer in an attempt to evade the enemy missiles that were closing at two thousand clicks per second.
The third missile had Ross far more worried as it’s glowing light code closed at over one thousand clicks faster then the other two….the light code signaling the missile’s approach was moving far to fast and suddenly
Enterprise rocked and shuddered as the impact alarms blared.
“Sir Cannon one is gone, we’ve also lost missile tube two! And starboard engine three.” Commander Pallins sounded shocked but as she read off the damage list she seemed angry that
her ship had been caught with it’s pants down by that third missile.
“Thank you Commander, What is the status of
Saber?” Ross watched the holotank intently as the frigates own missiles closed on one of the enemy ships.
“Her port cannon battery is down, she’s leaking atmosphere on two decks and a quarter of her crew is dead or wounded sir.” The comn officer of the watch seemed like he was about to wet his pants but then a brief cheer from the weapons commander made him jump clear out of his skin as he whirled around to look a the holotank.
“Got one sir, the second enemy ship is down sir!”
“Thank you mister Saunderson please try not to distract our other officers.” Ross snipped at the young officer and the man just about crapped his vac suit as he turned back to his station sheepishly.
“Sir
Saber is gone.” Tactical said as the frigate’s light code winked out .
“Closing on enemy ship, baring three, two seven mark.” That same mechanical voice that had announced
Saber’s destruction seemed to chant out the words as Tactical Officer Remeraz watched his displays like they were the only thing in the universe.
“Guns, take her out as we come to bare!”
“Aye skipper, cannon crews standing by, missiles locked…..firing in three…..two….one, birds away, cannons firing!” the missiles slid from their rack with a dull droning sound and the distinctive thumping of heavy cannons was almost musical in Ross’ ears as the enemy light code winked out in the holotank.
The lights on
Enterprise’s bridge returned to normal and the damage codes winked off as the other ships of the squadron reactivated their transponders, winking their light codes back into existence on the holotank.
“All hands stand down battle stations, I repeat stand down battle stations. The drill is over.” Pallins said almost cheerfully as she started reading the computer’s assessment of their performance during the battle drill.
The
Enterprise Battlegroup had been standing at Hadran station for three months so far and run twenty two battle drills with varying pairings on who played the opfor and who played the defender. The entire squadron had done rather well by her opinion though captain Fowler ended up with a grimace more often then not as her ship had been destroyed twelve of the past twenty drills and only destroyed one of the enemy ships every other time, But even Fowler had to realize that saber had done more then pull her weight in each drill.
“Alright ladies and gentleman let’s return to Hadran base, And good job to all.” Ross smiled at his exec and unzipped the vac suit that he had been wearing for the past six hours. They may save your life but they sure didn’t save your comfort, he thought as he felt “fresh” air blowing against his tunic again.
“Sarah you have the watch.”
“Aye sir have the watch.” Sarah was still cheerful as she unzipped her vac suit and sat in the comfortable captain's chair to take
Enterprise into port.
Three months of peace on the Phong frontier had the odd effect of making the crews more nervous then having at least one stand up fight, because the anticipation of a Phong assault coming any day was just not what they were trained to deal with, so battle drills and various surprise inspections were a regular distraction and one of the few ways to keep them busy without burning them out. And quite frankly Sarah Pallins loved battle drills because they made sure her crew would not let Captain Ross down no matter what and if he wasn't let down then the Navy wouldn't be let down.
2404.5
It was 0200 when the first alerts began howling their warnings in the C3 center of Handra’s military base and within five minutes every civil and military alarm on the planet was triggered. Startled civilians went rushing for the local shelters why the local military personnel on the base rushed to their Posts.
Handra’s military governor, Lord Korey Aznoble entered the command center at a frantic pace the second he heard the first alarm, by time the civil alerts started up he was already standing over the holomap of the Handra system frowning.
‘This makes if fifteen minutes right roger?” Aznoble’s frown grew darker as the senior military officer, Commodore Roger McMan, nodded.
“M’Lord it is a single Phong frigate, and our battle group can easily destroy it, my fear is that it’s a trap of some kind, I’d rather not send the entire squadron to engage her because I don’t want to leave this planet unguarded.” The Commodore’s face grew pale as he remembered what had happened to Haden base.
“What do you suggest Commodore?” Aznoble frowned as he saw the light signature of the enemy frigate closing in on Handra. “Do we let that frigate come here and then have the squadron intercept it in orbit?” He asked as that ominous light signature continued to close in on his planet.
“Sir that would be a very bad idea, if our ships are not in exactly the right position when that ship arrives in orbit we could face massive casualties before they get into an intercept position. I recommend we send one of the destroyers to intercept it. I’d suggest Ross’ as he’s the most experienced combat officer we have on station at the moment.” McMan loathed the fact that he had to report to a man that was not military, especially one who did not understand the physics of space combat.
“Very Well Commodore dispatch Ross, if he fails, at leas we’ll have a fallback.” Aznoble grimaced again before leaving the Commodore’s side and walking over to a secondary command station to observe the deployment himself.
***************
Meanwhile in space the four warships had not been idle, their sensors had the advantage of not being hindered by atmosphere and Ross suspected that his crews had manned battle stations before the planetary commander even knew what was happening.
But when the message
did come through Ross clenched his fists,the Commodore ordered his ship to engage an unknown enemy starship alone and worse then that he ordered him to intercept the enemy vessel at 20 light minutes, it would take any of the other warships at least a day to arrive and back him up should anything go wrong and by then they'd likely just find his wreckage.
Ross suspected that Lord Aznoble had something to do with the distance involved in the intercept because when it came down to it the man was a coward and wanted to keep battle as far away from
him personally far more then he wanted to keep the battle away from Handra, a proper military officer would have ordered at most a 10 light minute intercept so that reinforcements could arrive in a shorter amount of time but even that would be pushing it for most admirals.
It had been one day at full thrust, with the enemy ship closing on their position the whole time and finally
Enterprise was closing in on her target.
“Time to intercept two minutes fifteen seconds sir.” Tactical officer Ramerez chanted in his normal mechanical tone .
“All stations report full battle readiness sir.” Sarah said icily as she watched the status board.
“Thank you Commander….Tactical.” Ross said grimly as he waited anxiously for his ship’s first engagement.
The first volley of missiles streaked from the Destroyer’s prow launchers at just under 10,000 kilometers range, their drives glowed brilliantly like three tiny new stars as they carried their deadly payloads toward another tiny star that was not even visible from the bridge of
HMS Enterprise.
The holotank showed a small red line appear from the enemy light dot signifying a long stream of point defense rounds pouring into space desperately clawing at the missiles that were closing in on it. The point defense go lucky once and nailed the sprint missile, unfortunately for the Phong warship the two more powerful missiles were already in too close and the Holotank on the Icaran destroyer showed two clear hits.
“Sir they are closing to cannon range, I don’t think we got their engines sir.” Remerez mechanical tone had a nervous edge to it as he watched the enemy ship close within visual range of the ship's cameras.
The bridge’s main monitor suddenly switched over from a star view to a magnified image of the enemy vessel. As they watched the magnified image the bridge crew saw three small bursts of light come from her port side and immediatly began to brace for the impact that was sure to follow.
The holotank clearly showed three incoming shells to match each of the bursts of light, causing Ross to squint sharply and grit his teeth as he realized that by time those objects appearedo on display the shells would already be far closer.
His ship rocked and loud explosions could be heard from other sections of the ship and the damage board came to life with color all across his ship.
“Sir, cannon crew two is gone, we’ve also lost the sprint missile launcher and two engines.” Remerez announced as the remaining cannon crews returned fire automatically, the ship’s remaining cannons roared in fury and sent a devastating broadside into the already damaged hull of the Phong Frigate, the first shot missed entirely but the second struck home in what must have been the enemy frigate’s control centers because she immediately started to list and spin out of control.
“Good shooting guns!” Ross’ professionally calm tone momentarily broken as he watched the enemy ship spin out of control sending debris and what looked like bodies hurling out into space.
As the bridge crew watched the third round impact the enemy ship’s hull a gasp of universal disbelief and morbid amusement ran through them, the third round impacted at an odd angle into the hole that had been caused by one of the heavy missiles that had impacted earlier and instead of punching another hole the shell bounced at least tree times inside the enemy ship causing multiple internal explosions at various points until the shot finally breached a weakened part of the hull and exploded 10 meters of the enemy ship’s hull.
“My Lord, can you believe that?” Sarah’s voice sounded oddly amused by the display and Ross himself felt a strange urge to laugh at the almost comical occurrence but his training did not let him forget that many of his crew had probably been killed in the broadside that dying bastard had spat into his vessel.
“Status of the enemy…..”Ross’ sentence was cut off as the enemy ship seemed to simply begin collapsing in on herself, the entire middle of the ship seemed to just crumple as if she had been grabbed by some giant hand and squeezed.
“Cancel that tactical.” Ross said as he tabbed a control on his personal command panel.
“Damage Control here.” Chief Engineer John Lee’s voice sounded harsh as he answered his Capatin.
“Status Lee?” was all Ross could croak out as he observed the damage board with a scowl
“Sir, aside from what you’ve already been informed about, we’ve lost our forward gfg and I lost an entire work party when that damned broadside blew a hole in our engine room.” His voice made him sound ten years older then he was as he mentioned the loss of an entire 18 man work crew, his work crew.
Four others had died and ten were wounded in the engagement but
HMS Enterprise had survived the first live combat action any Icaran destroyer had taken part in, and she had won.
"All hands stand by, we are returning to port." Captain Ross said as "cheerfully' as he could manage as he took count of the price his ship had paid.
Please tell me what you think
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Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
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