The Landfall Campaign (The Nameless War) (78 page)

“
Vicksburg
isn
’
t much use for defensive ops anyway so continue to send her out,
”
Villar suggested.

The two Admirals looked at each other.

“
That seems reasonable,
”
Kander said after a moment
’
s thought.
“
Probably rotate the ships sent as her escort.
”

The meeting covered a few more, fairly minor matters, interrupted only by an announcement from the station command deck that the
Vicksburg
group had jumped in. Crowe hurried back to
Deimos
shortly afterwards, just in case they needed to move out in support but there remained no sign of the Nameless. By the time the big strike boat carrier threaded her way into the rings and had taken station at the inner marker, Crowe had retired to his bunk.

23
rd
October 2067

When the main alarm sounded Berg
’
s muffled curse launched a blob of toothpaste from her mouth, which with the centrifuge barely moving then drifted across the cabin. She didn
’
t waste time trying to retrieve it and instead shoved her earpiece in and began to struggle into her survival suit.

“
This is Berg. Bridge report.
”

“
Ma
’
am, we
’
ve just observed an enemy fleet jumping into the system.
”

Berg hesitated,
“
Bridge, confirm you said fleet.
”

“
That
’
s confirmed Skipper. Passives make it at least sixty ships, range seven light minutes.
”

“
Understood. I
’
m on my way up.
”

The passives were still working their way through the mass of overlapping signals by the time Berg reached her bridge. Immediately she could see oddities. The Nameless had come out only marginally inside the Red Line of the planet Phyose, nowhere near their closest possible jump in point. In fact they were so close to the Red Line they were in a vulnerable position. A Battle Fleet ship could jump in on the red line and immediately have them in plasma cannon range.
Oh for a battleship,
Berg thought to herself as she looked around the destroyer
’
s bridge. One destroyer might take out more than her own tonnage but wouldn
’
t survive the attack.

“
Do we have the positions of the rest of our squadron?
”
she asked.

“
Yes ma
’
am.
”
On the main holo the presumed positions of the destroyers
Stingray
and
Scorpion
appeared. Both were further out, respectively twenty and forty light minutes away so neither would yet be aware of the Nameless arrival. Junction Station would have detected the Nameless several minutes before
Mantis
and would soon be powering up the FTL transmitter.

They could make a jump to the far side of the planet and then run for the rings to join the close defence of Junction but the odds were the Nameless didn
’
t yet realise
Mantis
was there. That offered possibilities.

“
Communications, put a laser onto the satellite at the rendezvous point. Instruct it to pass along that we are going to hold position and observe.
”

“
Confirmed Captain.
”

“
We
’
ll see what we can do,
”
Berg muttered half to herself.

_____________________

“
Report,
”
Crowe demanded as he strode onto
Deimos
’
s
bridge.

“
Communications hook up from Junction, sir,
”
said the officer of the day.
“
A Nameless fleet has just jumped in, sir. Putting it up on the holo now, sir.
”

Crowe frowned as he studied the holo. They had dropped back into real space much further out from the planet than was their usual practice.

“
Bridge, coms. Analysis from Junction is making it sixty-three ships.
”

“
Doubt it. Probably more,
”
Crowe commented as he glanced towards the status board. The flak guns and point defence were already online, while the engines and plasma cannons were warming up. But at this point the Nameless were still a minimum of six hours away from firing range. All around Junction, warships were bringing their combat systems online.

As he pulled on his survival suit Crowe looked thoughtfully at the holo. The sixty or seventy enemy ships out there was a pretty formidable force, no doubt about it, but the Nameless had fielded bigger fleets in the past. If they tried sending that many into the planetary rings, the Battle Fleet ships would eat them alive. So why were they here? Most previous assaults had attempted to make use of their ability to jump in closer to a planet to ambush Battle Fleet ships and achieve local superiority long enough to overwhelm the defender. This kind of
…
blatant jump in seemed sort of clumsy. If their past actions were anything to go by, the Nameless had reasons for everything and whenever they did something new, it tended to be a painful experience.

“
Bridge, Coms. We
’
ve got a hook up from Admiral Lewis.
”

“
My screen.
”
A moment later Laura Lewis appeared on his personal screen.

“
Ronan, I need you to get out there,
”
she said without preamble.
“
A couple of the skimmers are there and I want them escorted back into the rings. I
’
m sending the tenth destroyer squadron and
Envoy
with you.
”

“
Understood, Admiral.
”

“
Just escort them to the inner edge. They can make their way in through the rings once they
’
re in cover. When you
’
re done with them escort
Envoy
out and let her get a good look at what we
’
re facing.
”

“
How far out?
”
Crowe asked.

“
As far as you judge safe.
”

“
Against sixty ships, that isn
’
t going to be very close,
”
he warned.

“
So be it Commodore. Get on with it.
”

As soon as they cleared the rings the two hydrogen skimmers appeared on radar. One had already been on the way back and was dumping its cargo to run faster while the other was still approaching the planet, although it had swung round and was now braking hard.
Deimos
and the rest soon had them hustled back into the safety of the rings.

With that done, they set course towards the Nameless fleet.

“
Well, sir, it looks like they
’
ve gone for a tight deployment,
”
Captain Talina said across the laser link from
Envoy
.
“
I
’
m pretty sure that
’
s deliberate so their signals overlap and hide their numbers.
”

“
I think we taught them that trick,
”
Crowe commented.

“
Well, it isn
’
t going to work against our optical sensors.
”
The scout cruiser
’
s sensors outclassed those of
Deimos
.
“
Now we
’
re coasting and they aren
’
t trying to compensate for engine vibrations I can give you a firm count of sixty nine hostile combat units, with up to seven big support ships and six smaller ones.
”

“
That
’
s a lot of support ships, Captain. They only had eight at Alpha Centauri when they had a fleet several times bigger,
”
Crowe said.

“
My tactical section isn
’
t entirely sure on that count.
”
Captain Talina
’
s face was replaced by a still from
Envoy’s
optical sensors.
“
These ones, sir, here and here,
”
a pointer circled two of the support ships,
“
they match the profiles of the ships seen at Alpha Centauri last year. The small ones, they
’
ve also been seen before on the Nameless side of the Junction Line. These four though,
”
the pointer circled around the remaining four large ships,
“
this design profile is not on record. There is clear design commonality between the other large support ships though. They might just be another design of transport ship.
”

“
Maybe,
”
Crowe murmured. That was one thing that had been noticed early on in the war. The Nameless seemed to have a strong preference for standardised designs. God only knew what they were like on the inside but in terms of external identification, so far only two types of scout ship had been identified, one type of escort, two slightly different designs of cruisers and two of capital ships. Battle Fleet in contrast had gone into this war with seven different classes of cruisers alone. There were some groups within the fleet that took this as proof of a communist style command economy. That was a bit too much of a stretch for Crowe but he had come to the conclusion that something new meant trouble. Talina
’
s voice broke his concentration.

“
I
’
m sorry Captain. What did you say?
”

“
I said they might just be intending a close siege. Those transports could be exactly what they look like,
”
Talina said.

“
Or they might be something completely different.
”

“
How much closer are you prepared to get, sir?
”

Deimos
’
s
navigator was keeping a rolling plot of how long it would take them to return to the ring. The figure was already up to fifty minutes. The Nameless had started to move in but were taking their time. The new Nameless transports seemed to be none too nimble and the rest of the fleet was keeping its acceleration down to match.

“
Three hours out. Then I intend to launch a fighter for a closer look while we hold range.
”

_____________________

As she closed through the one hundred and fifty thousand kilometre mark, Alanna watched with a certain amount of grim humour as the Nameless redeployed into a tight defensive formation that put the transports right at the heart.

“
Easy fellas. I think you can take me,
”
she murmured as she gently turned Dubious to take up a position running parallel to the aliens. Even if she was carrying ship-killing ordnance there was no way she was going to try to plunge in all on her own. Once in position she cut power to the engines and allowed Dubious to coast.

“
Y
’
know Skipper,
”
Schurenhofer said after while,
“
I swear to God that these guys are trying to break line of sight to the new transports.
”

“
That
’
s what defensive formations are for.
”

“
Yeah, which might be reasonable if we were wandering around with a plasma cannon. But these guys seem to be trying to get physically between us and the transports
Envoy
was looking at.
”

“
Have we managed to get any kind of a look at them,
”
Alanna asked.