Rumors of Glory (The System States Rebellion Book 1) (6 page)

Janicot was stunned. The Chancellor might be dead or at
the very least injured. Consulting him on what to do about the retreating
cruisers was out of the question, but Sparta and, more importantly, the SSU had
just been attacked, and Janicot, as Chief of Space Operations for the SSU Navy,
had all the authority he needed to act.

“Switch me to our boats!” yelled Janicot. When the
Communications Technician had done that, he pointed at Janicot to signal that
that channel was open. “CSO to 101 and 102, pursue and attack those FED
cruisers! We’ll feed you tactical data as long as possible. Don’t use your onboard
radar unless you have to. Out.”

Drake electronically acknowledged the order even as he
cursed under his breath. He’d seen the shuttle explosion too. As the CO of the
second missile boat, he was the same rank as 101’s skipper, but in terms of
seniority Drake was the junior CO. His boat was also in the least favorable
position. When the alert had sounded, the three FED cruisers were in front of
Drake’s 102 in terms of orbital position, but by descending to a position over
the planet’s capital, the cruisers had basically circled most of the way around
the planet and were now behind him. That meant that his boat was moving away
from them at 111
kps
. The other boat was behind the cruisers and was
moving at least partially in the same direction. He could tell that the
cruisers were accelerating directly away from Sparta to get out beyond the
hyper-zone boundary in the least possible time. There was no way that Drake’s
boat could catch up to them. Not only did they have a huge head start in terms
of distance and velocity, they could also accelerate faster. That was the only
advantage of not having thousands of tons of extra mass in the thin layer of
matter that was collapsed down to the atomic level. His boat had that armor,
and her maximum rate of acceleration suffered as a result, but his boat’s
missiles could still catch the bastards. With two missile boats against three
cruisers, the only chance they had of stopping even one cruiser was to
co-ordinate their attacks. The other boat’s skipper had the same idea.

“101 to 102.”

“Go ahead, Boomer,” said Drake, using his counterpart’s
call sign.

“I’m thinking we need to co-ordinate our fire, Paladin.
Do you agree?”

Drake felt himself blush at the use of his call sign. It
always sounded so pretentious.

“Affirmative, Boomer. I guess that means I fire first,
eh?”

“And you get to pick the target too. I’ll fire at the
same ship. With a little luck we might be able to pick them off one at a time
with separate waves. Go ahead and fire when ready. I’ll make sure my birds
arrive at the same. Just let me know which one you’re going for, okay?”

“Okay, Boomer. Standby while I set up the first wave,”
said Drake. “Weapons, have you got a firing solution yet?”

“I’ve got it, Skipper. You should see it on your number
two screen now.”

Drake looked at the indicated screen. His Weapons Officer
had selected eight high explosive warhead missiles for the first wave targeted
on the cruiser that was leading the three-ship squadron. With a flight time of
just over 16 minutes, the missiles would have travelled the necessary 1,843,955
kilometers to reach where the targets would be by that point. The missiles
would have a velocity of 3,741 kps by then too. It looked good, and Drake
touched the virtual button approving the firing plan. All eight missile tubes
fired simultaneously.

“Boomer, we’ve just launched eight HEs at the lead bogey!
Have you got that?” asked Drake.

“Got it, Paladin! Fire the next wave when ready!”

“Set up the next two waves the same way, Manny!” said
Drake to the Weapons Officer.

“Okay, Skipper. The HEs are loading now. Watch your
number two screen!”

As soon as the screen showed the missile launch tubes
loaded and ready to fire, Drake approved the firing plan. While waiting for the
third wave, he noticed that Boomer’s boat had fired her own wave of eight HEs
that were programmed to arrive at exactly the same time as his first wave.

Once his third wave was on its way, he paused. His boat
has just shot itself dry of HE-tipped missiles. She still had 16 missiles armed
with kinetic-energy penetrator warheads. If they hit their targets, they would
inflict damage but not nearly as much as a high explosive warhead, unless the
KE warhead hit something vital such as a power plant or maneuvering engine by
sheer luck. The Weapons Officer had gone ahead and initiated loading of KE
missiles since there was no other choice, but Drake wasn’t sure if he should
launch them immediately. The problem was figuring out which of the three
targets to fire at. Waiting to see the impact of the first three waves wasn’t a
viable option. By the time those missiles reached their targets, the bogeys
would be so far away and moving so fast that any missiles his boat fired at
that point would not reach them before they crossed the boundary and jumped
away, assuming that they still could. Since there was no way to tell which
cruisers still had jump capability, picking a target arbitrarily might turn out
to be a waste if that target was already crippled by the HE missile wave. If
both missile boats fired all their KE missiles, then there would be nothing
stopping the FED cruisers from reversing course and attacking Sparta again. At
least one boat had to hold some missiles back just to prevent that possibility.

“Boomer. I’m down to my 16 KEs. How do you think we
should allocate them?” asked Drake.

“Standby, Paladin. I’m still firing my HEs.”

Drake waited, aware that with each passing second, his
remaining KE missiles were getting closer to becoming useless.

“Boomer to 102. You hold your KEs back, just in case they
think we’ve shot ourselves dry and turn on us. I’ll fire five KEs at each bogey
and we’ll see what happens.”

“Okay, Boomer. 102 is standing by,” said Drake. “Did you
hear that, Manny?”

“I heard, Skipper. All tubes are loaded and ready to fire
if you need them.”

Before Drake could saying anything more, he heard the
CSO’s voice again, “CSO to 101 and 102. You’ll be relieved to know that
Chancellor Belloc was not killed in the shuttle explosion. He’s injured but not
seriously. I’ve been listening in on your tactical chatter. I approve your
strategy to hold some missiles in reserve. You’ve done all that you could do.
101, return to base to reload as soon as you’re down to your last missile. 102
will remain on High Guard until relieved. Any questions?”

“No, sir,” said Boomer.

Before Drake could answer, his tactical display pinged
for attention.

“THEY’VE FIRED BACK!” yelled Boomer.

Yes,
thought Drake,
and
they’ve fired back at you, Boomer.
A new icon containing the number 30 was
accelerating away from the cruisers and towards Boomer’s missile boat. Boomer’s
neutron armor was about to get a major test.

Drake realized that he was holding his breath and let it
out. Because of the distances involved, there was still roughly nine minutes to
go before his first wave reached its target. He adjusted the scale on the
Bridge’s main display. The enemy’s missile volley was accelerating hard, but it
was still moving backwards due to the momentum those missiles started with.
Another icon appeared on the display. Boomer had just fired the first five KE
missiles. Twenty seconds later there appeared a second group of five, and
twenty seconds after that the third and final volley appeared. There were now
nine clusters of missiles clawing their way up to their projected interception
points and one cluster of 30 missiles that were just about finished slowing
their backward velocity to zero and could now start to actually move closer to
THEIR target.

Those nine minutes seemed to take forever. As the countdown
timer reached zero, two of the three enemy icons flashed red, indicating hits,
and they began to fall behind as the third icon continued to accelerate away.

“What the hell just happened?” said Drake to no one in
particular. His and Boomer’s first volley were supposed to target the leading
cruiser. Instead, his volley hit one of the other two, and Boomer’s volley had
hit the third one. “Comp, evaluate results of first volley of missiles. Why
didn’t our missiles hit the lead target?”

“Tracking indicates that second vessel moved in front of
target. Missile terminal guidance did not have enough time to maneuver around
it,” said the electronic voice.

Son of a bitch! That squadron commander
ordered his other two ships to maneuver in order to take the hits meant for
him!
Drake waited to see whether his second and third volleys would still go after
their assigned targets or go after the leader. Either alternative was possible.
The missiles had been aimed at a point in space where the targeted ships should
be IF they continued to accelerate in the same direction, but the number two
and number three ships were no longer accelerating at their maximum rate of
7.7Gs. One was down to only 3.1Gs, and the other was down to 4.4Gs. Both ships
had obviously suffered damage to their maneuvering engines. That meant that
they wouldn’t be at the interception point by the time the second and third
waves got there. Those missiles would turn on their own terminal guidance
radars during the last few seconds of flight, and those radars would see no
target at the anticipated location and three possible targets at other
locations. Drake wasn’t familiar enough with the guidance system’s programming
algorithms to know which new target they would select. And since Boomer’s
second and third waves were coming in on a different angle from his, it was
entirely possible that all the missiles from both waves and both boats might
just converge on the leader.

That didn’t happen. Both of his waves hit one of the
damaged ships, and both of Boomer’s waves hit the other damaged ship again. The
two ships immediately stopped accelerating.

“Comp, did the two damaged ships position themselves in
our missiles’ path again?”

“Affirmative.”

Drake banged his fist against this chair’s armrest in
frustration. The lead ship now had a good chance of getting away if Boomer’s
KEs didn’t damage its power plant or hyperdrive. If the lead ship continued to
accelerate in the same direction, there was a possibility that all 15 of
Boomer’s KEs would retarget against it, but after a couple of minutes, it
became obvious that the lead ship had changed direction. It was trying to
maneuver so that one of the two damaged ships would be in the path of at least
one and maybe even two of Boomer’s missile volleys as they tried to adjust
their trajectories to hit a target that was no longer where it was supposed to
be.

Drake had to give that FED Commander credit. He or she
was good, very good in fact, but also ruthless to a degree that made Drake
shake his head in dismay. Deliberately sacrificing two thirds of his or her
command in order to getaway was a decision that Drake could not have made.

Before Boomer’s KE missiles reached their targets, that
incoming wave of 30 FED missiles reached the 101 boat. The com channel between
the boats was still open. Drake heard Boomer warn her crew of the impending
hits, followed by a rapid series of bangs that reminded Drake of a string of
firecrackers going off, only much louder. He thought he heard Boomer yell out
‘son-of-a-bitch!’ but wasn’t sure. The tactical display showed that her missile
boat was still accelerating with no obvious damage.

“Are you okay, Boomer?” asked Drake.

“Yeah, we’re okay. None of the impacting warheads broke
through the armor, but the sound and the vibration was scary as hell! But now
it’ll be our turn again in a few seconds.”

The maneuver by the lead ship to avoid some of Boomer’s
missiles worked. Only the first volley was able to stay locked on to its
intended target. The other 10 KEs shifted to one of the coasting wrecks.
God
help anyone left alive on it
, thought Drake when those missiles passed
through what was left of the outer hull and ripped through the vulnerable
interior spaces.

Whatever damage the first five did, did not prevent that
lead ship from entering hyperspace as soon as it crossed the hyper-zone
boundary.