The Landfall Campaign (The Nameless War) (79 page)

“
Visuals have got a couple of decent shots.
”

“
Let me see.” The angle was a bit awkward but certainly there was nothing particularly unusual about them.
“
There must be something special here.
”

“
Skipper?
”

“
Well, the way things are going they’ve either got something new, or they’re going to do something stupid,
”
Alanna said.
“
They’re getting in close but if our ships make a run at them they aren’t going to be able to keep the range open.
”

“
If there
’
s something there, I for one am not seeing it,
”
Schurenhofer replied grumpily.

“
Well maybe
Deimos
or
Envoy
will spot something. Are you forwarding our reading on to them?
”

“
Of course Skipper,
”
Schurenhofer replied indignantly.

“
D for Dubious,
”
the radio suddenly crackled.
“
This is
Deimos
. Return to ship. Repeat, return to ship. Acknowledge.
”

“
Understood,
Deimos
. On our way.
”

On full burn it took Dubious over ninety minutes to catch up with the now retreating
Deimos
and by the time the fighter was drawn into her hangar, Alanna had been in the cockpit for almost five hours.

“
Order from the bridge, ma
’
am. You
’
re to stand by your plane,
”
the deck chief said as she stuck her head out the access hatch. The deck crew was already working on Dubious, removing unused light missiles. He handed her a ship
’
s intercom earpiece,
“
The Skipper wants to speak to you.
”

“
Thanks. Bridge, this is Lieutenant Shermer.
”

“
Shermer, are you able for another sortie,
”
Crowe asked.

“
Of course sir,
”
she replied while thinking,
I could hardly say no.

“
The Admiral has decided to put in a fighter strike with all available fighters. Wing Commander Carano will be senior officer. You
’
ll be section leader for
Deimos
and
Envoy’s
fighters.
”

“
When sir?
”

“
The fighters from Junction and the ships still there launched about half an hour ago. We
’
ve got about an hour twenty before they reach us and you launch. You
’
ve got twenty minutes to freshen up and grab a bite to eat. We
’
ve received a briefing upload from Junction.
”

“
Understood sir. We
’
ll be ready. How many fighters?
”

“
Twenty-six in total.
”

“
Very good sir.
”

“
Just the twenty-six of us?
”
Schurenhofer looked unimpressed when Alanna gave her the details.

“
Don
’
t moan. At Alpha Centauri it was twelve of us against over a hundred of them.
”

“
Yeah and I remember how that ended,
”
she muttered before Alanna shot her an irritated look.

As the fighters from Junction reached
Deimos
, Dubious shot off the launch rail. C for Curious and the two fighters from
Envoy
swung in behind. The transit time was eighty minutes and halfway there the Nameless began to react. Their fleet made a slow turn through ninety degrees. That would delay making contact but not avoid it. In fact at this range there was no course of action that would avoid it now. Far astern of Dubious, the ships of Junction were rising away from the ring and putting themselves onto an intercept course. The fighter
’
s role would be to strike and hamstring as many Nameless ships as possible. Once a number of their ships were slowed by damage, the Nameless would either have to write off any ship that couldn
’
t run or allow the Battle Fleet ships to get into plasma cannon range. Neither would end well for them.

“
New contacts,
”
Schurenhofer said as she leaned over her display,
“
they
’
re firing.
”

“
What!
”
Alanna exclaimed. The range was still showing as nearly a light second. The missiles could certainly cross that but the chance of hitting anything would be around nil.

“
Confirmed, we have contacts launching for
…
launching
…
that can
’
t be right!
”

“
What?
”
Alanna snapped as she flicked Dubious off autopilot.

“
Erm
…
they
’
re coming out of the new support ships. Erm
…
I don
’
t think they
’
re missiles.
”

_____________________

Crowe
’
s frown deepened as he stared at the new contacts on the main holo. They weren
’
t moving directly towards the fighters or even
Deimos
and
Envoy
. They were settling onto a track that would take them towards the planet
’
s rings, but not particularly close to Junction Station. That eliminated missiles as a likely option.

“
Sensors, Bridge. Can you get a close look at one of the new contacts?
”
he asked.

“
The size and range is making it difficult to focus sir.
”

“
Helm. Cut power to the engines. Sensors, give me a visual. Put it up on the main holo.
”

The image that came up was little more than a dot, on which the camera zoomed in and focused before the computer enhanced. It was an elongated egg shape with a drive at the rear and four short stubby wings mounted in an X formation roughly halfway along. There was a structure right at the front that Crowe couldn
’
t make out. Then the object performed a half roll. There were two more short winglets on either side of the nose like a hammerhead. Mounted on the end of each was one of the small dual-purpose missiles the Nameless had been using since the start of the war.

“
They
’
re fighters! The bastards have fighters now!
”
Crowe said before snapping,
“
Give me the tactical display. How many of those new contacts?
”

“
Three of the new transports launched sixty each. The fourth does not appear to have launched, sir.
”

“
Can our fighters intercept?
”

There was a long pause.

“
Damn it! Sensors, can they intercept!
”
Crowe shouted.

“
Working it out now, sir,
”
came the harassed reply.

As Crowe watched the holo he started to suspect the answer. The human Raven fighters had been going full burn to reach the Nameless as quickly as possible. They would have had to shed some of that velocity to put in the attack but right now they were close to the peak of the acceleration/deceleration curve which meant their ability to radically alter course was limited. The Nameless fighters had broken into three groups and were taking a wide course out and around them. The acceleration figures showing for the Nameless fighters weren
’
t too impressive, so the Ravens might be able
…

“
Sir, that is a negative. The fighters are carrying too much velocity. If our fighters move to intercept right now the Nameless will reach the rings just before the Ravens can achieve firing range.
”

“
Shit!
Coms, get me Admiral Lewis right now!
”

Laura
’
s face appeared on Crowe
’
s screen.

“
Commodore.
”

“
Admiral, you have Nameless fighters incoming, I believe they
’
re aimed at Junction…
”

“
Yes, that
’
s our assessment too,
”
she cut across him.
“
They
’
ve finally found something they can send into the rings and suckered us into sending out what should have been our close defence.
”

Crowe glanced at the main holo. Admiral Kander had most of the Junction starships. Like the fighters they had been accelerating away from the rings, to force contact on the Nameless fleet. Like the fighters they were going to be too far away from Junction Station when the Nameless fighters reached it.

“
I
’
ve got the
Gaston
,
Lincoln
and the
Vicksburg
left,
”
Laura said grimly. All three were militarised commercial ships. The first two carried flak guns and with larger magazines than regular warships, they were useful for putting down barrages in open space. But they didn
’
t carry much in the way of conventional point defence, which was exactly what they would need at the short ranges in the rings.
Vicksburg
had barely any active defences worth mentioning and Junction Station nothing at all. The Nameless were hours away from reaching the station but the laws of physics meant that their reaching it was now inevitable.

“
It
’
s too late to block them completely so we
’
re going to have to settle for bleeding them anyway we can. Move your ship to these co-ordinates, fire on them as they pass Commodore. This is going to hurt unfortunately, now the only question is how much.
”

_____________________

The two anti-ship missiles accelerated away from Dubious, vaguely in the direction of the Nameless Fleet before Alanna swung the nose around towards one of the groups of Nameless fighters. Around Dubious, the strike unravelled as fighters jettisoned their anti-ship missiles and started to race after the enemy fighters.

“
This is Dubious to Curious and
Envoy
fighters. Follow my lead,
”
she ordered as her fingers danced over the navigation console.

“
Confirmed,
”
the radio crackled back. But Alanna barely heard it as she worked out the optimal interception course. On the display the two lines failed to meet and instead both terminated at the rings. Close but not close enough.
”

“
Max out the engines?
”
she murmured entering new parameters. The lines got closer but half the line projected for Dubious started to flash red, indicating the point at which complete engine burn out became the most likely possibility.

“
This is Dubious to flight, we aren
’
t going to make interception short of the rings. We
’
ll have to engage them inside. We
’
ll hold onto our anti-fighter missiles just in case they do something that keeps them on the outside but jettison them before going in. They won
’
t be any good in there.
”

For three and a half hours Dubious chased the Nameless downwards and Alanna attempted to doze. She woke up to watch as the Nameless crossed through the outer edge of
Deimos
’
s
plasma cannon range. One fighter blinked out and they made up some of the range as the Nameless bobbed and wove to avoid. At eighty minutes before reaching the rings Dubious made the turn over and started to brake. All the while Alanna tried to come up with a plan that didn
’
t appear doomed to failure.