Chapter 62: The Element of Surprise

The bridge was quiet as Corsica crept across the belt. Terrence said nothing as he constantly adjusted the course of the ship. I watched him grow in confidence as he found ways to slip between the asteroids.

“Captain,” Chaz said after about thirty minutes of silence. “I think I’ve found another one of the Sa’arm ships.”

I looked down at the tracking display. A ship had entered the void that Terrence had been so carefully skirting. The system was refining the data.

“See if you can get some details on the ship’s size and weaponry,” I said. “Helm, hold near the current asteroid. Let’s see if we can get the drop on this one.”

“I thought we were supposed to scout the system,” Chaz said.

“Have you launched a drone carrying all the information we have to far?” I asked.

“Oops,” Chaz said. “Should I?”

“Definitely,” I said. “We should make sure that Crucible and Central Command know what we’ve found. So far all they know is that the early warning buoy sent out its message drone.”

“I’m not going to be able to hold position too much longer,” Terrence said. “The asteroid’s orbit is becoming unstable.”

I hit the button to activate the call to general quarters. Immediately the klaxon rang out. “Chaz, I need the intercom,” I called out as I began switching between the various tracking displays.”

“Got it,” she said. “What are you looking for in the tracking displays?”

I ignored her and spoke into the air. “Everyone, we have an approaching Sa’arm ship. We have an opportunity to make a surprise attack, but we’ll lose it if we take too long to get ready. Everyone to your posts and make sure you log in so the system can confirm.”

I turned off the intercom and looked at Terrence. He had his eyes on this displays. “Terrence, I’m going to allow Kelsey to make the call. Hold position as long as you can though.”

“On it,” he said. “What are we attacking?”

“Chaz?” I asked.

“Its too big to be one of the scout class ships they have. If I didn’t know any better I’d say its just a bit larger than we are,” Chastity replied.

I had a thought. Quickly I activated the tracking menus and called up the silhouettes of Confederacy ships. When I found the one I was looking for I sent it over to her. “Does it look like this?”

“Yes,” Chastity replied in a puzzled tone. “What ship is that?”

“That’s a Confederacy corvette. It’s the silhouette of a Castle class ship. They are a bit larger than Corsica. It also appears that the Sa’arm around here either captured one or somehow communicated with a hive that did,” I said.

“So what does that mean to us?” Chastity asked.

“I’m not sure,” I replied. “We don’t know how much of the design the Sa’arm kept. Remember they are a lot bigger than we are, and need a large crew according to the reports I studied.”

“I missed those,” Ensign Munfree replied.

The door behind us opened. Kelsey ran to the weapons station and sat down.

“Give me intercom,” Kelsey said abruptly.

Chastity hit a number of buttons. “You have control of the intercom. Captain, is that how it should work?”

“She needs to get the weapons teams ready,” I said. “At this moment, she has immediate command. My job is to plan ahead and give her priorities. She decides on the tactics we use.”

“That sounds like you are quoting from a book,” Terrence said. “And I should note that the Sa’arm ship is changing direction.”

“I see it,” I said as the Sa’arm ship started moving to our right. It had not accelerated, but it was clear they were aware that there was another space ship hiding in the asteroids.

“Missile one and missile two, I want standard loads ready to fire in two minutes,” we all heard Kelsey command. “Missile three, I need one of the incendiary warheads. We might want to light up a rock to distract the Sa’arm. Missile four, have a standard body ready, I don’t know which warhead we’ll need, so don’t load, just prep the body.”

“Those might not work,” I said. “The Castle class has a fairly good anti-missile defense, and some of the reports suggest that the Sa’arm evolved on a world that saw high levels of meteor activity. They appear to be very good at preventing missiles from impacting on their hulls.”

“Even a near miss will cause damage,” Kelsey said confidently.

“Nope,” I said. “Near misses work on Earth because the atmosphere will carry the shock wave. In space there is no atmosphere to carry the kinetic force. Other forces like electro-magnetic or gravity will carry, but the shock wave effect can’t be counted on.”

“Damn,” Kelsey muttered. “Missile four, same load as missile three, we’ll prepare to use it as a distraction. Unless I see an opening to get it to go off inside their ship.”

“That would definitely do a lot of damage,” I said. “Chaz, any luck on refining the scan?”

My mirror of the tracking display changed. The silhouette expanded. “That’s what I have,” Chastity replied. “The AI confirms that the ship’s profile matches that of a Castle class corvette. The ship is about twenty percent larger though.”

“Bigger bodies require more space,” I said. “Terrence, I don’t know if you can see the tracking display, but pay attention to the Sa’arm ship. I can see the two turrets that a Castle class ship normally has. There is one on the spine and one on the belly. They can shoot anything in a three-hundred-sixty degree arc. If you are above or below the ship, only one can fire. Expect the Sa’arm to try to keep oriented so that we are facing the side of the ship.”

“What kind of weapon?” Kelsey asked. “Can the sensors tell us?”

“Not yet,” Chaz replied. “All the AI provides is an error message that the turret guns are larger than expected.”

“Normally it would be light particle beam cannon,” Kelsey said. “Mark, we can’t take hits from those. Not without losing crew. The armor we have isn’t that heavy.”

“Captain!” Chastity screamed out. “New contact and its big.”

“How big?” I asked.

“Look at the blip just inside the jump envelope. It’s about forty degrees away from us on the orbital plane of the system,” she said. “And ... it just launched what looks like three more ships identical to the one near us.”

“Kelsey, you get one shot, line it up and work with the helm,” I said. “Terrence the instant that shot is off dive for jump distance.”

I hit the intercom controls. “Engine room. We just found multiple contacts. We’re outgunned. In a moment we are going to need full power and the jump drive ready for a quick jump.”

“You’ll have it,” Ensign Daniels reported.

“This shot will be at the edge of our range. I have to lead the ship and hope they maintain acceleration,” Kelsey said. “Can we get closer?”

“We need to leave the system. There are four other ships we can see and two others that could come up behind us. Sorry, but we have to take the shot now,” I said.

“Damn,” Kelsey said. “I doubt we’ll get a hit. We’re still over a light second away. I’m guessing that they haven’t changed anything, and our shot will take several seconds to arrive. They might dodge.”

“Unfortunately, we can’t risk getting in closer,” I said. “Call the shot and allow Terrence to get us out of here, before we get trapped.”