Admiral's Nemesis Part II Read online

  I reeled back in immediate alarm. “You almost blew up the Palace retrieving my mother. We don’t need another Caprian incident. No!” I said with force.

  “Don’t raise your voice like that to me, Jason,” she warned with a scowl.

  “You send away our guards and let strangers abuse and drag me through the halls, and you have the right to get mad when I get angry?” I retaliated with no little heat. “Speaking of which—” I rounded on the head of my personal armsman team. “Why am I giving up so much personal freedom in exchange for top notch protection if you’re not actually around to protect me?”

  Sean looked back at me impassively. “I’ve been warning for weeks that the entire Grand Assembly and its Assembly Hall are chock full of security risks. Every time you step onto the floor of the Grand Assembly you leave your security bubble. You knew the risks going in, your Highness,” he replied.

  “That’s not what I’m saying and you know it. Where were you when I was being man handled through the halls by those brain washed anti-tyrant bigots?” I demanded. “I was jabbed with combat heal this time, but the next one I might not be so lucky. Poison, sedatives, genetically engineered retro-viruses, or just a plain good old fashioned shiv—” I started listing the many and various ways things could go wrong.

  “If you want your Royal Armsmen team to try and start a war all by ourselves the next time you’re inconvenienced on the Assembly Floor, we can do that. But it will be the shortest war in the history of this Sector, I guarantee it,” D’Argeant replied evenly.

  I glared at him.

  “Like I said before: stop—” Akantha interrupted.

  “I’m not whining,” I snapped and then stopped to take a deep breath.

  “Listen,” my wife lectured, “people want to be led. They hunger for certainty and they want their leaders to be infallible. Act like a leader and most of the time they won’t even dare to touch you. Act like a peon or worse a victim and a warrior will respond accordingly. You just have to present yourself accordingly and warriors such as the Assembly Guards will respond,” Akantha said with certainty.

  I personally thought it was more along the lines of she was both a woman and a genetically engineered super soldier. The optics of beating her up on the Assembly floor versus laying hands on the Tyrant of Cold Space were entirely different. Throw in the fact that they might get their rears handed to them by a girl and most of the non-female security guards would be twice as hesitant.

  “Well if they want a leader they’re certainly going to see one,” I said with crystallizing certainty, “the Assembly asks me to bring in my people and fight their wars for them and this is the thanks I get?”

  “Backing out?” D’Argeant asked neutrally.

  “Not on your life,” I smiled with a definite edge.

  The rest of the trip back up to the flagship was a silent one.

  Chapter 21: The Laurent Surprise

  “Why are we here again, Sir?” asked the Sensor Warrant manning the sensor section of the Mini-Surprise. “There’s nothing here.”

  “Keep your eyes on your panel, Warrant,” warned the ship’s XO.

  The Warrant shook his head and turned back to his console shoulders hunched.

  “We’re running a grid pattern search with the other Corvettes of this squadron because we have good reason to believe the Imperials are or will soon be hitting this star system,” said Captain Shepherd after the better part of half a minute had passed.

  “Yes, Sir, but we’ve scanned this entire star system four times already and that’s before we started the grid search. If there was something here we’d have found it by now. The Imperials are not ghosts,” said the Sensor Warrant, swiveling around to look at him.

  Rick Shepherd gave the other man a stern look. “You’re that sure our sensor technology will be able to scan top of the line Imperial stealth warships, are you?” the Captain asked.

  “Uh…” the Warrant covered his mouth and coughed, “it’s impossible to scan a negative, Sir. I just know we had new sensors installed before we left Tracto Star System and we’re seeing better than before the refit.”

  “The Admiral tells me to take my squadron out and look for the enemy, that’s what I’ll do, Sensors. Intelligence is sure that one of the systems they’re going to go through is Hart’s World, so we’ll scan and scan again, and then scan some more if we have to. Maybe they already went through and we missed them or maybe the intel is bogus, but if they do show up I’d hate to be asleep at the switch…you feel me?” asked the Captain.

  The Sensor Warrant stiffened in his chair. “I feel you, Sir,” he said quickly.

  “Carry on,” growled Captain Shepherd.

  Silent and unseen by the star system’s defenders, a trio of Imperial Destroyers ghosted into the Hart’s World Star System and began drinking in the radio and electronic emanations of the Spineward Core World.

  “Anything new on the scanners, First Lieutenant?” asked the Captain of the Imperial warship Praxis Eternus.

  “Nothing, Sir,” the First Lieutenant replied.

  “Are those Corvettes still running a standard search and patrol grid?” asked the Captain.

  “Yes, Sir. They’re putting out a lot of noise but not so much as a hint that they’ve caught so much as a comet's tail, let alone seen us,” reported the First Lieutenant.

  “Good. Helm, make sure to stay outside of their grid. Local scanner technology, at least with this bunch, is slightly better than expected and a high powered scan at close range could still unmask us,” said the Imperial Captain.

  “Aye, Sir,” said the Helmswoman.

  “Are you sure you don’t want to bag a few easy kills?” asked Commander Torrent, the Praxis Eternus' XO.

  “I’m not against a few easy kills,” the Captain said with a hungry smile, “but our orders are to avoid enemy contact until orders change…unless of course we’re spotted. If that happens, all bets are off.”

  The Captain and the XO shared a toothy smile.

  “I think we’ve finally got these jokers pinned down, Sir,” reported the Lieutenant Starspitter.

  “Good, it’s been blasted long enough,” growled the Captain.

  “I’m not sure how you can say that,” cut in the First Officer pointing down at Starspitter’s console, “all I see are a few blips that look a whole lot like sensor artifact to me.”

  “Gravimetric sensors and stealth systems are supposed to look like artifact, or at least the good ones are, Sir,” said Starspitter.

  “The important part isn’t if you’re right or not, we’ll find that out in due time. The question is whether you’re sure,” snapped the Captain, “are you sure, Starspitter?”

  “Absolutely,” nodded the Sensor Officer.

  “Alright then, go to full active with the satellites, kick our drives into full speed and bring this ship to battle stations, XO. Time to flush out some Imperials,” the Captain said with a hard gleam in his eye.

  “We are hot and ready to trot, Sir,” said the First Officer after relaying the orders to the rest of the bridge. He then pressed a hand against his ear and nodded saying something under his breath before turning back to the Captain, “The Lancers are asking if they’re going to do an imitation of sardines for the rest of their stay in this star system or if you’re going to let them out for a little action.”

  “Tell those beasts they can stay put for the foreseeable future and I’ll let them know, and not the other way around, when they’re ready to get out of those combat shuttles,” growled the Captain. “Just make sure you’ve got a solid lock on those stealthed contacts, Lieutenant,” the captain said to the Sensor Officer.

  “I’ve got them isolated, Sir; they’re not getting away,” Starspitter said confidently.

  “I still don’t know how we can see them on passives while an entire squadron of Corvettes going active scan can’t catch hide nor hair of these quote unquote contacts,” said the XO.

  “That’s because they’re us
ing top of the line Spineward Sectors technology with a few upgrades from the shipyard and we’ve got an actual rebuilt suite of top of the line Imperial sensor technology. And a little birdie told me that thanks to capturing that Command Carrier we cracked enough of their database to actually know how to use them properly. I hear that soon all of our warships will be retrofitted with Imperial class technology,” Lieutenant Starspitter said confidently, “and that leaves out one more thing: we may be on passives but those satellites we deployed aren’t.”

  As he finished speaking, the warship began to move.

  “New Sensor Contact reading level 5 by 5, going full active and slewing around to head in our direction!” reported the Imperial First Lieutenant.

  The Executive Officer jerked in the captain’s chair. “Take us to battle stations throughout the ship and start taking us away from this position at maximum sustainable stealth,” ordered the XO.

  The Helm started moving the Destroyers away at a crawl

  The door to the Captain’s ready room just off the bridge opened and the Praxis Eternus’ Captain walked confidently onto the bridge, “Report!”

  “We’ve got a large enemy contact, Cruiser class, that just popped up and is now making course correcting adjustments to our position in space,” reported Starspitter.

  “Flaming atoms,” swore the Captain, “Tactical, what are we looking at and just what are those Corvettes doing?”

  “They’re not massing and appear to be moving to cut us off from moving out of the star system,” reported the Tactical Officer, “meanwhile the Local SDF seem to have realized this is no longer just a wild goose chase and a large part of their fleet is moving to intercept. The rest are taking up positions around valuable worlds and infrastructure but all of it is too far out right now to impact things out here.”

  The Captain scanned the holo-screen and then swore again.

  “Take us to full military speed; we’ve obviously been spotted but advise the rest of the squadron to stay under stealth and use their best judgment. We may have been the only one caught out and we don’t need to take three Destroyers up against a Cruiser and a squadron of Corvettes just for the fun of it,” he growled and then slammed a fist down on his armrest, “this is not going to look good in a report.”

  “They’re fleeing, Sir, they know they’ve been spotted,” reported Starspitter.

  “They think they’re fleeing, Lieutenant. But they have yet to see the Furious Phoenix really stretch her legs. Tell the Chief Engineer to red-line our engines; I want this ship moving at 115% of maximum or I’ll have answers,” said Captain Laurent, staring hungrily at the screen.

  “Aye, Sir,” said the Engineering watch-stander.

  “She’s faster than expected, Sir. Those are Imperial engines in her,” reported Navigation.

  “Her profile doesn’t match anything in the…ah, there, I see her. It’s Victorious Solar Flare, a former Imperial Strike Cruiser captured after Rim Fleet left the Spine for the Gorgon Front,” said the Imperial Tactical Officer.

  “She’s one of ours,” growled the Imperial Captain.

  “Heavily modified, Sir,” warned the Destroyer’s Tactical Officer, “intelligence reports from the Partisans in Sectors 26 and 27 report that she’s been significantly enhanced with a Duralloy II belly band, pushing her up from normal Strike Cruiser range right into Heavy Cruiser range.”

  “We don’t need to tangle with a Heavy Cruiser that moves like she’s a Strike Cruiser, Helm. Get us out of here,” ordered the Destroyer Captain.

  “I’ll try, Sir but between the Corvettes and that Strike Cruiser it’s going to be tough,” replied the Helm.

  “Imperial Destroyer is making for the hyper limit like a bat out of the abyss,” reported the Tactical Officer on the Phoenix.

  “Tell Shepherd to move to intercept. She’s going to have to pass by one of us. I’m betting she’d rather face us than a whole squadron of Corvettes by herself,” said Laurent.

  “I don’t see why, Sir,” the XO shook his head, “if she can pass us by she’s golden and there is only one of us but we’ve got a much heavier broadside. The odds…”

  “She can’t risk engine damage. Even a glancing hit would be the death of her and with that many Corvettes to blow through, one of them would get off a shot. Besides you’re forgetting one fact, Bill,” said the Captain.

  “What’s that?” asked the XO.

  “We’re a former Imperial ship. That should prick their supremacist pride right where it stings,” said Laurent.

  Two tense minutes passed as the Destroyer continued to cut the difference between both groups until it became clear it the Imperial Destroyer was going to have to face one or the other. Then she adjusted course and shot almost straight toward the Phoenix.

  “It looks like they’re coming about for a high speed pass, Sir,” said the Tactical Officer.

  “I can see that. Tell Gunnery to man their guns and be ready to take the battle to the enemy and remember Easy Haven. It’s time the Empire learned they’re not free to go wherever they like whenever they feel like it. Right Bridge Crew?” asked Laurent with a bared teeth grin.

  “Remember Easy Haven!” cheered the bridge.

  There were long faces on the Praxis Eternus as it finally became clear they were going to have to beard a modified Strike Cruiser to get out of this star system.

  “Sir, the Captain of the Belly Butte is offering to take those Corvettes in the rear and distract them long enough for us to get out of this trap,” reported the Praxis Eternus’ Com-Officer.

  “Negative, Coms. We were the one’s that were spotted not them. We got ourselves into this and we’ll get ourselves out. Instruct the Butte’s captain to follow protocol and complete the mission its important that the information we’ve gathered here get back to the Praetor. Besides there’s no sign they’ve been spotted. If they try to intercept those Corvettes they’ll just be exchanging their ship for ours with no better chance of success.”

  “Even if both our sister ship’s popped up there’s every likelihood we’d still be defeated. So stay the course people,” the Captain said jaw jutting as he swept the bridge with a steely look, “they’ll get some licks in but we’re the Imperial navy.”

  “That’s right,” the XO agreed strongly.

  Heads nodded around the bridge and the Captain nodded in approval.

  “It’ll be tight but we’re lined up for a high speed pass. We’ll just have to weather one or two broadsides and we’ll be past them,” he said.

  Faces looked concerned.

  “Are we sure she can do that captain, I love the Praxis and her regenerative shields are nothing to sneer at but that’s a strike cruiser out there, she’s not exactly in our weight class is she, Captain?” asked a Junior Chief looking uncertain.

  “I’d put Imperial shields and maneuvering up against Provincial gunnery any day of the week, Chief,” the Captain said with certainty before cracking a smile, “thankfully we won’t have to put everything on our Helmsman’s shoulders,” he looked over at Tactical, “prepare to deploy every drone in the launcher. Let’s see how well the locals deal with it when their sensors and targeting computers fuzz up.”

  “Time to eat some jamming, right Captain?” asked the Tactical Officer in a loud voice.

  “Exactly right, Commander,” said the Imperial Captain as the Chief faded back and the bridge visibly perked up.

  However as soon as everyone had turned back to their tasks the Captain sat down and clenched his right fist down beside his lap and the armrest where no one else could see and sent a silent prayer to the heavens.

  “Great Maker, make us fast and accurate,” he muttered.

  With the Corvettes snapping at her heels the Destroyer didn’t have a lot of room for maneuvers. So her captain apparently chose to sacrifice maneuverability for speed.

  “She’s coming on fast, Sir,” reported Phoenix Tactical.

  “All we have to do is wing her. Normal space drives or mai
n dish for her hyper drive and she’s going nowhere fast,” Laurent said confidently, “wait until she’s at extreme range and prepare the turn the ship. I want starboard side gunnery to fill her full of holes, for Easy Haven and our fallen.”

  “For Easy Haven!” cried the Bridge crew.

  At a rapid pace relatively, for things moving through normal space, the two warships began their final approach.

  “Wait for it,” Tactical said into his ear piece, “wait for it.”

  “Now helm!” Laurent ordered seconds before the entire screen fuzzed mid turn.

  “Jamming! We’re being jammed,” cried Sensors.

  “Trying to isolate the signal,” reported Coms in a rising voice.

  “Continue with that turn,” snapped the Captain.

  “Now Gunnery!” shouted Tactical.

  “I can’t see a thing, Chief,” exclaimed a medium laser Gunner, “my whole targeting computer locked up.”

  “The best I can do is a yellow lock, Master Chief!” reported a Turbo-Laser gunner.

  “Take your best guess, aim and fire!” ordered Chief Gunner Taser-Face, his heavily-scarred face forming into a scowl.

  “Fire!” cried a Gunner lining up his Laser mount and pulling the trigger.

  The heavy pitched whine of lasers discharging filled the deck.

  “I’ve got hard tone,” screamed a Heavy Laser Gunner opening fire just as the Destroyer made its closest pass to the Furious Phoenix, “boohya!” she cried as her targeting computer registered a hit.

  “Demon Murphy,” Laurent said as half the broadside didn’t come anywhere near close to the Destroyer and its regenerative shields.

  Then one hit and three more struck the Destroyer.

  “Roll the ship!” he ordered.

  “Rolling now,” reported the Helm as the Destroyer shot past them.