‘’A…a truce, KOSTROMA?’’
‘’Correct, GREMLIN. Now, turn around at once, along with your three other craft, and tell your admiral that I want to speak to him. KOSTROMA out!’’
‘’What the hell was that about?’’ Blurted Serena’s weapons officer, making her shake her head as she turned her craft around.
‘’Don’t care, Ryan! The only important thing is that we are not going to be vaporized. ALL CRAFT OF BLUE FOX FLIGHT, THIS IS GREMLIN: TURN AROUND
IMMEDIATELY AND RETURN TO THE CARRIER.’’
On the SARATOGA, Wa was alerted within seconds and rushed out of his day cabin to go examine the sensors sphere with Commander Parawak and with the captain 185
of the SARATOGA, Captain Vernon Hall, and Captain Theresa Margolis, Wa’s operations officer. He reviewed twice the retransmission of the conversation between the GREMLIN and the KOSTROMA, then passed a hand on his face.
‘’A truce? Who would have believed that?’’
‘’I do!’’ Said Hall, somber. ‘’This Captain Forster seems to be a sentimental at heart, even if she has proved to be gifted at space tactics.’’
Wa gave a cautious look at Hall: the captain of his flagship had insinuated a few times during the past days his doubts about the wisdom of the Federation Council’s policies in its ways of dealing with Spacers. He had also been clearly critical of the conduct of ISF
troopers towards Spacer civilians on Mars.
‘’So, you think that this girl is serious about an offer of a truce, Captain Hall?’’
‘’Yes,
sir!’’
‘’Even if she is, sir,’’ cut in Theresa Margolis, ‘’we cannot possibly accept such a truce. We represent the interests of eight billion Terrans and cannot abandon our mission just to avoid casualties. We have to push on and destroy that KOSTROMA.’’
Wa, while he admired the keen intelligence and mastery of space tactics of his operations officer, also knew that she was an extremely ambitious woman with little feelings for others. As such she was quite unpopular in the fleet but she enjoyed strong political support and Wa could not deny her competence.
‘’You do realize the kind of casualties we will suffer in a fight against the KOSTROMA, Captain Margolis?’’
‘’I do, sir.’’ Said Margolis, unrepentant. ‘’However, if we let time for those five other big Spacer ships to arrive and link up with the KOSTROMA, then our task will become impossible rather than just difficult.’’
Wa sighed with resignation: Margolis was right, like she often was.
‘’Very well. I will politely reject Forster’s offer of a truce but I intend for us to fight clean in this battle. If we find Spacer survivors after the battle, we rescue them and treat them decently. Also, under no circumstances will we bombard cities, unless we have clear, pinpoint military targets. I want no repeats of the excesses the ISF committed on Mars. Is that clear, Captain Margolis?’’
‘’Very clear, sir.’’ Said the woman, coming to attention. ‘’What about our attack plan against the KOSTROMA, sir?’’
‘’As we expected, the KOSTROMA is using the cover and protection of a moon, this time Deimos, to await battle. It gives it very good protection against long range laser 186
fire and missile attacks, but it also gives us a chance to outflank it and take it in a multiple pincer. We will thus proceed with our initial plan of attack, with our central objective being the KOSTROMA, behind Deimos. Rear Admiral Fu Lao Thai will take charge of our deep penetration force, while we will lead the main charge against the KOSTROMA. Commodores Henley and Visaya will lead the flanking forces. Start deploying the fleet for battle while I contact the KOSTROMA.’’
‘’Yes sir!’’ Responded in unison Hall and Margolis. Then letting his two senior subalterns, so unalike from each other, take care of the fleet deployment, Wa returned to his day cabin and asked for a radio link with the KOSTROMA on the general space distress frequency. At this distance, the time delay between sending and receiving would be a bit over three seconds, something still manageable for a conversation. He got a video link within a minute, ending up with the head of Tina Forster on his video display.
‘’Captain Forster, this is Grand Admiral Ming Wa, aboard the TCNS SARATOGA.
First, let me thank you for having given a chance to live to my fighter crews. Your sense of humanity is appreciated and has been well noted. Be assured that, whatever happens next, my forces will conduct themselves honorably and according to the laws of war.’’
‘’Thank you, Admiral Wa. I would however prefer that we avoid battle altogether.
There is surely a better way than fighting to resolve our differences. As the old British Prime Minister Winston Churchill said in the 20th Century, it is always better to jaw jaw than to war war.’’
Wa genuinely smiled on hearing that.
‘’An interesting historical quote, I must say. I will have to research it later. Did you learn your tactical cunning from history books, Captain Forster?’’
‘’Partly, Admiral. Another old military quote says that, while professionals are predictable, the World is full of amateurs.’’
Wa laughed at that.
‘’Meaning that I am the professional and you are the amateur, albeit a gifted one.
Well, enough of pleasantries. While I appreciated your offer of a truce, I must regrettably refuse it, Captain Forster. My orders leave me no choice but to impose the will of the Federation Council on Mars and on the Spacers League. However, in return, I am asking for you to surrender to my fleet. Such a surrender would be quite honorable in view of the odds against you. You must have by now taken stock of the size of my fleet.
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You may inflict heavy losses on my ships but, ultimately, your KOSTROMA will be overwhelmed…and destroyed.’’
‘’And I must refuse, Admiral Wa. What I am defending is bigger than my KOSTROMA, or even Mars. We Spacers have declared our independence so that we could be free of the tyranny of your corrupt and short-sighted political leaders, and we are ready to die to defend that cause. Be assured that we will also fight cleanly, although I cannot promise you that I don’t have a few surprises for you. I must warn you as well, before you decide to attack, that Spacer reinforcements will soon make your efforts fruitless.’’
‘’I am well aware of the approach of your five battleships, Captain Forster. They just decided me that I could wait no further before acting on my orders. I can only wish that you and most of your crew will be able to survive this battle. Goodbye, Captain Forster.’’
‘’And goodbye to you, Admiral Wa.’’
Wa then terminated the link and sighed, his heart heavy. He really would have wished to be able to avoid this.
23:51 (Universal Time)
Bridge of MSS KOSTROMA
Floating behind the moon Deimos
‘’Their fighters are now within extreme laser range, Tina.’’
Tina, her spacesuit visor now closed and sealed, sighed with regret as she looked at the waves of Terran ships and craft coming at her. Wa was concentrating his carrier and nine cruisers, plus two dozen fighters, in a massive frontal attack against Deimos and the KOSTROMA. His flanking attacks by a total of two cruisers and ten frigates, as well as his secondary attack, with one cruiser and fifteen frigates racing towards Mars itself, had not escaped her attention. In fact, with all the sensor systems in orbit around Mars sending their data to her and to Governor Watts command post in Ares City, she was aware with precision of every move made by the enemy. That still didn’t make her less bitter about this.
‘’Nine minutes before Christmas. What a lousy time to start a battle! Very well, Patricia: start firing! Pick up your targets in succession before they could come within missile range.’’
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‘’Aye,
Captain!’’
Patricia O’Neil, who had become the unofficial weapons officer of the KOSTROMA, then started firing single laser beams at a time via the sole fire control director not masked by the moon Deimos. Tina was holding the KOSTROMA just below the moon’s terminator, thus hiding from the Terrans the majority of her ship’s bulk from their fire. The targets being small and very distant, it took about a second of laser fire before the beam brushed against one of the 24 fighter craft rushing ahead of the line of cruisers. At 2.1
gigawatt of power, that beam was however powerful enough to burn through the hull of the craft in microseconds and cause catastrophic damage. With the warhead of one of the missiles carried by the fighter touched off by the laser beam, the craft exploded in a ball of flames. Picking off her targets systematically and helped by the main computer of the ship, Spirit, which refined her aim, Patricia took less than three minutes to destroy the whole advance screen of 24 fighters. By then, the line of charging cruisers were still well beyond missile range of the KOSTROMA. However, the cruisers were now themselves within lethal range of one of the surprises Tina had reserved for the Terrans.
Glancing at the sensors data fusion sphere, she saw that both of the Terran flanking forces, as well as the secondary attack force, were about to cross inside the equatorial geosynchronous orbit of Mars, along which were positioned dozens of satellites of various kinds, including the powerful radar stations of the Mars space traffic control system.
‘’Continue firing with lasers at the lead cruiser, Patricia. Let’s hold still with our missile fire until all the Terran ships are within lethal range. Frida, starts slow axial rotation of the ship.’’
‘’Aye, concentrating fire on the TCNS MOSKVA.’’ Said Patricia, while Frida Skarsgard made the KOSTROMA slowly rotate around its longitudinal axis. That made its massive bow shield rotate as well, ensuring that any laser beam that hit it now could not delve on a single spot for more than a microsecond. In ships with light shields, that precaution would be next to useless, but against the two meter-thick shield of the KOSTROMA, the typical 150 megawatt laser beam from a Terran cruiser would normally take nearly a second to burn through and start to cause true damage. Against a rotating shield, that meant that a particular beam would wander continuously over the surface of the shield and simply dig furrows in it, without penetrating it.
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The unfortunate MOSKVA had not yet opened fire with its own lasers when the KOSTROMA’s beam hit its bow shield squarely. In a most ironic twist, the cuts to space programs ordered by the Federation Council months ago now played against the Terrans. The MOSKVA, like its sister ships, was already well over forty years old and had been due for an extensive refit to modernize its sensors suite and computers, on top of rebuilding its engines. However, that refit program, scheduled to be done by the Avalon Space Yards, had been cancelled and the MOSKVA still had the same old sensors and computers, now fully three generations behind in terms of top technology.
Some of the new sensors and computers meant for the MOSKVA and its sister ships were now aboard the KOSTROMA, giving it a definite edge in sensors definition and accuracy. The 2.1 gigawatt laser beam burned through the bow shield of the cruiser in two tenths of a second and then dug its way along its central axis, piercing deck after deck. In a basic replay of what had happened to the cruiser of the unfortunate Commodore Bogdanovich, the MOSKVA was irretrievably damaged within seconds, with its central missile magazine hit and exploding after six seconds of firing. The internal explosion blew open nearly all the bulkheads of the ship before tearing the cruiser to pieces, killing all of its 430 crewmembers in the huge explosion.
As the catastrophic loss of the MOSKVA registered on the rest of the shaken Terran main force, Patricia O’Neil switched her fire to the nearby cruiser PARIS, shredding that cruiser to pieces in fifteen seconds of fire and leaving it dead in space, its radars, propulsion and main power offline. The cruiser MADRID was next in the KOSTROMA’s collimator. By now, even if Admiral Wa realized that his own fire would lack accuracy at this range, the surviving Terran cruisers and the carrier SARATOGA started firing their own laser batteries. The large majority of their fire missed by hundreds of meters or hit the surface of Deimos, wasting their power on simple dirt and rocks. Only two laser beams hit the part of the KOSTROMA that was visible, and then were not even able to stay steady on target, the servos on their fire control optics lacking the precision needed at such long range. With the axial rotation of the KOSTROMA aggravating the Terrans problems, they thus caused nothing more than a series of shallow furrows in the tough ceramic-carbon composite of the shield. The MADRID then exploded, weakening the Terran laser fire against the KOSTROMA.
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On the SARATOGA, Admiral Wa followed the action from his command chair, cringing at the beating his cruisers were taking. The KOSTROMA was however in an excellent tactical defensive position and had all the advantages…up to now. Wa saw that his flanking forces and Rear Admiral Thai’s force were now past the equatorial geosynchronous orbit of Mars and were starting to get into the rear of the enemy battleship. A few more minutes and the KOSTROMA would find itself inside a three-pincer pocket, with a powerful Terran force heading towards the low orbits of Mars.
Forster would soon have to decide either to withdraw in order to protect the low orbits of the planet and avoid encirclement, or stay in place and die fighting. A shout from Commander Parawak, at the sensors, came just as Wa lost a fourth cruiser, the SINGAPORE, cut into two huge pieces.
‘’SIR, THE KOSTROMA IS STARTING TO BACK OFF FROM DEIMOS WHILE
STILL FIRING. IT IS PULLING AWAY ON GRAVITY SAILS AT AN ACCELERATION
OF 3 Gs.’’
Wa was impressed by that piece of data: three Gs on gravity sails alone, while backing off? The important thing, though, was that the enemy was withdrawing, as he had hoped for.
‘’Continue the charge and our laser fire! Do not let any respite to the KOSTROMA while our flanking forces are progressing.’’
‘’Aye,
sir!’’
The cruisers assault force was well within the equatorial geosynchronous orbit of Mars and within 5,000 kilometers from Deimos, close enough to shoot missiles at the moon but not from the still retreating KOSTROMA, when Commander Parawak shouted again to Wa, near panic in his voice.
‘’WE HAVE MASSIVE MISSILE FIRING AGAINST OUR SHIPS FROM
MULTIPLE POINTS, SIR.’’
‘’WHAT? FROM WHERE EXACTLY? HOW MANY MISSILES?’’
‘’FROM VARIOUS SATELLITES IN GEOSYNCHRONOUS ORBIT AND FROM
THE SURFACE OF DEIMOS, SIR. I COUNT OVER 200 MISSILES ON THE WAY.’’
‘’DAMN! SWITCH ALL LASER FIRE TO DEFENSIVE COUNTER-MISSILE
FIRE, AUTOMATIC CONTROL, NOW! FORGET THE KOSTROMA FOR THE
MOMENT.’’
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Wa swore mentally as he understood what Forster had done: she had used all those captured missiles from the ISF convoy, missiles preloaded in launch boxes made to fit on Terran fighters and frigates, and positioned them on unmanned satellites. Those satellites had the advantage for Forster of being already equipped with sophisticated sensors because of their original purposes. Forster then had only to monitor the advance of his ships and then send remote command signals to trigger the firing of selected missile batteries. His cruiser assault force had already suffered heavily, with seven of his nine cruisers now either destroyed or dead in space, reduced to impotent hulks. His own SARATOGA had now been the target of the KOSTROMA for a very long minute, with grievous damage and casualties increasing steadily, and now he had to deal with about eighty missiles rushing towards his three ship-formation, if he could judge from his view of the sensors data fusion sphere. His flanking forces and his deep attack force were also under missile fire, trapped in pockets of expertly chosen killing zones between the equatorial geosynchronous orbit and the high altitude orbits of Mars.
Wa felt his stomach turn acid as he watched the waves of missiles raining down on his ships, which were now desperately firing their laser batteries at the approaching tiny, speedy points. The cruiser CAPETOWN was first to be hit by at least two missiles, followed closely by the SARATOGA and then the BANGKOK. Out of eighty missiles fired at the main cruiser force, 64 were either destroyed by laser fire or missed, a very creditable performance by the Terran defenders of the cruisers. That however still left sixteen missiles to slam in the three ships and explode inside their hulls. The SARATOGA, being much bigger and bulkier than its two escort cruisers, attracted the worse of it, absorbing seven of the missiles, while the CAPETOWN took five hits and the BANGKOK four hits. Alarms rang inside the carrier and lights flickered while it shook from the hits, with main power failing after the sixth hit. Wa, sealed inside his spacesuit and still strapped to his command chair, could see thick black smoke starting to spew out of the air vents of the bridge. That smoke, coming from burning electrical cables, was toxic and would asphyxiate any crewmember whose spacesuit was not already sealed. That point suddenly became academic, as a geyser of sparks exploded from the ceiling of the bridge, with another geyser of sparks from the deck floor opposite it.
Luckily, the laser beam from the KOSTROMA did not cut across the bridge, rather moving towards the outer hull. That still left the bridge open to space vacuum, with a hurricane sweeping through the compartment and sucking out anything not firmly fixed in place. A number of unfortunate crewmembers, including Captain Margolis, disappeared 192
through the jagged holes, dismembered or ripped apart before ending in space, their spacesuits shred to pieces and not protecting them anymore. Wa gripped the armrests of his command chair with desperate strength to resist the storm, all the while powerless as he watched his men and women die around him. After about ten seconds the storm calmed down, leaving the shattered bridge in a dark vacuum. Only emergency power was on, coming from local batteries in the nearby damage control compartment. With no way to direct or even observe the continuing battle from the bridge, Wa was now useless. Captain Hall then shouted orders on the radio, asking for damage and casualty reports. The answers he got in the next minutes were grim: the SARATOGA was out of the fight for good and could not even propel itself in space, now being little more than a floating hulk. Nearly half of the crew was either dead or missing, not responding to calls to their compartments, and all life support systems were offline. After listening for nine minutes to this, Wa took a painful decision and activated his helmet microphone, speaking in as calm a tone as he could.
‘’Captain Hall, the ship is as good as dead. No sense in risking more lives in futile damage repair efforts.’’
Hall looked at him for a moment, obviously hating to take the decision that this left him, then nodded slowly.
‘’Understood,
Admiral.’’
Hall then switched to ship-wide call and gave firmly an order.
‘’ABANDON SHIP! I SAY AGAIN, ABANDON SHIP! ALL CREWMEMBERS TO
THE LIFE PODS!’’
On the bridge of the KOSTROMA, Tina had directed the fighting of her ship and the remote-controlled firing of her prepositioned missile batteries with an apparent impassive expression. In reality, each symbol on the sensors sphere that denoted a ship hit or destroyed added to her emotional distress. The voice of Patricia O’Neil then got her attention.
‘’Tina, the main cruiser force can now be considered eliminated. I’m receiving life pod distress beacon signals from around all the cruisers and the carrier, with none firing anymore.’’
‘’Good! What about the other enemy forces?’’
‘’The port side flanking force is now down to one cruiser and two frigates, while the starboard side flanking force is left with two frigates. The deep strike force is 193
however still relatively intact, having lost only four of its fifteen frigates and being still led by one cruiser. That deep strike force is still pushing towards Mars lower orbits.’’
‘’Will it pass close enough to Phobos to come within range of its missile batteries?’’
Patricia took a few seconds to check that before answering.
‘’Affirmative! They will be in missile range of Phobos in about 26 minutes.’’
‘’Then let’s hurry there, to block their path from behind Phobos. Frida, go to maximum power on gravity sails! Get us as quickly as possible in an orbit 2,000
kilometers below Phobos. Patricia, if you get chances at laser long range shots on that deep strike force while we are moving, take them!’’
‘’Got it, Tina! What about the flanking forces?’’
Tina thought for a moment before answering the redhead.
‘’I will call them in the meantime. Our main worry now is that deep strike force. If it can get to low orbit, it could then seize Mars’ main orbital installations.’’
Tina then switched to the frequency the Terrans had been using up to now.
‘’To all surviving Terran ships still heading towards Mars, this is the Spacers League ship KOSTROMA. Be advised that we will not fire further on you if you turn around now and go retrieve the life pods containing the survivors of your cruiser force before leaving the Mars System. I say again…’’
She repeated three times her call, not receiving answers or acknowledgement. Anwar Duharto, monitoring the communications and electronic intercept suite, then spoke.
‘’Captain, I am detecting an exchange of encrypted radio traffic between the three surviving enemy forces. I can’t break the encryption, though.’’
‘’Hum, they probably are deciding what to do now. Let’s hope that they lost their appetite for battle by now.’’
Tina’s pious wish did not come to pass, however. Three minutes later, the surviving ships of the flanking forces turned around and powered their fusion drives to return towards the remains of their main force, but the deep strike force kept going towards Mars. Tina clenched her teeth, mentally swearing at the stubbornness and stupidity of that enemy commander.
‘’What the hell is that imbecile hoping to accomplish against us with one cruiser and eleven frigates, while we are still essentially intact and with five more big ships on the way?’’
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‘’Maybe he is hoping to be able to blackmail us by pointing his missiles at Martian cities?’’ Suggested Frida Skarsgard from her pilot’s seat. Tina’s face hardened at that.
‘’If he really tries that, then there will be no pity for him. Are we going to be able to get ahead of him before he gets to Phobos?’’
‘’By the skin of our teeth, Tina. We always could go to fusion drive at maximum, but then we would have to endure a felt gravity of three Gs inside the ship, despite our gravity controls. If our gravity controls fail, then we will end up crushed to the deck.’’
‘’Then let’s do it! TO ALL CREWMEMBERS, PREPARE IMMEDIATELY FOR A LONG, SUSTAINED BOOST WITH A FELT THREE Gs OF GRAVITY. YOU HAVE
TWO MINUTES TO GET SAFELY INTO PADDED SEATS, OR BEDS FOR THOSE
NOT AT ESSENTIAL BATTLE STATIONS.’’
After waiting for the two minute delay to pass, Tina braced herself in her command chair, then looked at Frida Skarsgard.
‘’Go to maximum power as soon as I give the last warning, Frida. TO ALL
CREWMEMBERS, WE ARE NOW GOING TO MAXIMUM BOOST. IF YOU ARE NOT
IN A SAFE POSITION YET, LAY DOWN ON THE DECK AND HOPE FOR THE BEST.
Light it up, Frida!’’
With the pilot pushing her fusion drive settings to the maximum, Tina and the others on the bridge were pushed deep in their padded seats, suddenly feeling three times their normal weight. They had to breathe in quick, shallow breaths, while their arms felt like they weighed a ton. The 27 million tons of thrust came out of the plasma exhaust chambers in blinding flares of lights tens of kilometers long, visible from the surface of Mars.
On the bridge of the Terran cruiser KOLKATA, Rear Admiral Fu Lao Thai, who already had his ships at their maximum acceleration rate of five Gs, snapped his head around in disbelief when one of his sensors operator announced that the KOSTROMA was burning a path towards them at eleven Gs.
‘’ELEVEN Gs? BUT THAT’S IMPOSSIBLE! THE KOSTROMA IS A CARGO
SHIP, NOT A TRUE WARSHIP.’’
‘’I’m sorry, sir, but that’s what our sensors say. It will be able to block our path to Mars before we could get past the orbit of Phobos, sir.’’
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‘’Should we change course and evade, sir?’’ Asked the captain of the KOLKATA, strapped in his chair near the one of Fu Lao Thai. The latter shook his head angrily.
‘’NO! Our main force paid a dear price to allow us to go this far. We are not going to flee now, when we have yet to accomplish anything worthwhile.’’
‘’But, sir, we are clearly no match for the KOSTROMA, and…’’
‘’Are you questioning my orders, Captain?’’ Shot back Thai, glaring at the captain, who clenched his teeth and shook his head meekly.
‘’No
sir!’’
Fu Lao Thai got the first reason to regret his decision sixteen minutes later, when the KOSTROMA started firing its lasers at him from a distance he could not even hope to match. His cruiser, along with two frigates, quickly started accumulating damages and casualties as the laser beams turned the three ships into Swiss cheese. One of the frigates blew up first, with another then taking its place as one of the designated targets of the KOSTROMA. The KOLKATA then lost its main propulsion drive and continued on its course with only the limited help of its gravity sails. A second frigate blew up, victim of the utter lack of armoring around its missile magazines. Then, it was the turn of the KOLKATA to blow up, leaving only nine surviving frigates to rush towards Phobos and Mars. The crews of those nine frigates, already quite scared and expecting to die in the minutes and hours to come, never made it past Phobos. Tina Forster, watching closely their progress, remotely fired the missile batteries positioned on Phobos when the enemy force got within a mere 700 kilometers from the moon. The nine frigates were then confronted by a wave of forty missiles shot at them from what was essentially point blank range, with only seconds for them to react. With the laser fire from the KOSTROMA still chewing up their starboard sides, the Terran ships collided head-on with 33