"Return to Urtraghus"

"Colossus Smash"


/

[UCFS-1C.1152]_TRANSMISSION

TO: [GFS-Bithynia]

TRANSLATION= URTRAGIAN:GALACTIC_STANDARD

WE ACKNOWLEDGE AS LEGITIMATE THE BLOCKADE OF URTRAGHUS

[UCFS-Colossus] IS APPROACHING ORBIT OF URTRAGHUS AND MUST DOCK

ALLOW PASSAGE TO [Colossus]

A WEAKNESS IN THE BLOCKADE HAS BEEN IDENTIFIED

IF [Colossus] IS DISALLOWED PASSAGE, WEAKNESS WILL BE EXPLOITED

WE ESTIMATE THIS EXPLOIT WILL BREAK THE BLOCKADE

/

The communication officer displayed this message from a Space Pirate destroyer onto the main screen. This attempt at negotiation was unusual for the Space Pirate fleet, especially since they claimed to know a weakness in the blockade formation. The admiral asked another officer, a tactical analyst, to give his opinion on the situation.

"Their flagship is returning from a long voyage, and its supplies are most likely low. Maybe even depleted. If it's true that they have five destroyers, there are two possible spots in our formation that might be broken by a combined attack with their flagship if it's still at battle capacity." The tactician's report bore a general sense of danger, and suggested that the Pirates be allowed to simply slip their flagship through a blockade.

"Find one weakness and reconfigure the fleet formation to correct it," the Admiral, last name Puldes, ordered. "If we can cripple the Colossus as it tries to enter, we will set back their production for a few months. They will focus their resources to repairing it. I want all frigates facing those destroyers, and every heavy weapon prepared to shoot down the Colossus as soon as it appears."

On the lead destroyer, Commander Valdar wondered why the GF ship hadn't responded yet. "Send orders to the other destroyers to take aim at their south side flank. We only need to take out their missile ships to provide the Colossus safe passage. Send another transmission to their capital ship."

"What for? They're not about to cut us a break here."

"Just try to scare them a little. The Colossus will be here soon, be ready to communicate with them immediately. If we can get the Federation to break formation, we can scatter, and the Colossus gets back to dock free."

"On it, Commander."

/

[UCFS-1C.1152]_TRANSMISSION

TO: [GFS-Bithynia]

TRANSLATION= URTRAGIAN:GALACTIC_STANDARD

WE HAVE BEEN TASKED TO SECURE PASSAGE FOR THE [Colossus]

WE ARE AUTHORIZED TO CALL REINFORCEMENTS AS NEED BE

ALLOW [Colossus] PASSAGE, OR REINFORCEMENTS WILL BE BROUGHT IN

IF IT COMES TO THAT, NO SHIP OF YOURS WILL BE SPARED

/

"Admiral, how do we respond to their threat? Do you think they can really get reinforcements if we engage now?"

"They might have reinforcements on the way already, or they might be trying to sneak something out. Don't engage those destroyers, Lieutenant, we just need to cover that weakness they tipped us off to and hold that new position." Admiral Puldes tried to create a conjecture that made sense given what he knew for sure. The Pirates presently had very few ships, and a sixth very powerful ship was on its way, but the Colossus was also very valuable to them.

"Admiral, the enemy destroyers are launching targeting waves on our destroyers. The intercepted frequencies indicate targeting for kinetic mass cannons, probably Cordite slugs. Another frequency found doesn't appear to have any practical application."

"Mass drivers? Gunnery, I'll admit I forget this: how far are those effective?" The range of the Space Pirates' weapons would determine how they had to be engaged, if at all.

"Admiral, mass drivers' effective range depends on slug velocity, but the Space Pirates have used these same weapons before, and usually tuned to effect at 3.2 light minutes." The lieutenant began simulating the damage those heavy guns could cause, trying to find a way to mitigate their destructive potential.

The Admiral sat in quiet contemplation, also trying to devise a plan to counteract the Space Pirates' deadly mass drivers. His ships had a far lesser range than the Pirates', and Puldes would not break off the blockade in response to pressure from a small force. But as he thought, a spatial anomaly formed behind his fleet.

"Admiral, a hyperspace exit point has been identified behind the fleet. This must be the Colossus trying to enter orbit. Colossus' ETA in twenty-two seconds."

"Forward to the fleet. Order all destroyers to rotate and face starboard at the exit point. Destroyers are clear to fire on the Colossus only at will. Move the Bithynia between our destroyers and theirs, face the top towards the Pirate destroyers. Order all frigates to maintain position and prepare to chase Colossus as it passes."

The order was out, and the Colossus was here. Admiral Puldes commanded eight destroyers in this blockade. Suddenly, one of those destroyers exploded. Before the Pirate commanders could pick off another, the Bithynia was in place, blocking the GF destroyers from the Pirate ships. One flaw of this spot was that the Pirate destroyers could just move, or could potentially cripple the capital ship. This risk had already been considered, and deemed an acceptable loss in exchange for the opportunity at stopping all Space Pirate production.

The Federation destroyers fired on the Colossus on a guess; none of the ships waited to scan and aim at the Pirate flagship, as all their captains figured they couldn't possibly miss such a large target. The laser barrage splashed onto the hull of the giant ship, leaving scorch marks all over but not causing any significant damage. When the destroyers got a clear image of their target, and all agreed to one location, they fired the laser batteries at full power, up from forty percent, focusing every burst on the propulsion shield generator. After the second round of cannon fire, there was a small explosion on the Colossus.

On the bridge of the Colossus there was order. There were many, and no time for panic. Orders were sent to the weapon operators, propulsion, navigation, radar, defense systems and every other station on the ship.

There was also a bold plan from the captain of Colossus. He did not want to fly past the GF destroyers nor get into a firefight with them. Both would result in too much damage, as well as a delay in transporting an important asset to the surface, directly to High Command. A very important person, recovered from beyond the galaxy. To this end, the Colossus's captain decided the best course was to plow straight through the Federation ships.

"Admiral!" one lieutenant on the Bithynia shouted, "The Colossus is raising forward shields. It's changing course; it's heading right into the fleet." He checked a few more figures and ran a few more calculations. "At constant acceleration, it's set to hit us in three minutes."

Admiral Puldes snapped, "Scatter the fleet and get us out of the way! After that, order all destroyers to resume fire on the Colossus's propulsion systems, and bring the Bithynia to engage the enemy destroyers. We can't let that ship get away intact." On which orders everything started moving: the Bithynia towards the five destroyers and the rest of the Federation fleet making sharp turns in every direction.

The charge of the Colossus, which was originally intended to run through the GF ships, was now a flyby. In many senses, this was better; the Colossus was armed with many side mounted missiles and cannons. The gargantuan ship also had an EMP generator in the front, which had been modified extensively during its latest campaign, and plasma batteries all over. The Colossus had always been considered a great threat, and even in a state of fatigue, as was the case now, it was still a dangerous opponent to the Galactic Federation.

The Colossus started charging its EMP generator, which had very peculiar behavior. The energy pulses did not form one solid wave, but rather scattered and travelled on many different arcs. These arcs did have some homing ability, but generally repelled each other, making it difficult to hit many ships clustered together. What it was good at crippling was heavily divided fleets. Like that under Admiral Puldes's command.

The bridge of the Bithynia reported an energy spike from the Colossus, with its source in the front of the Pirate flagship. The analysts on board had never seen the unique arcing generator of the Colossus, and determined that the incoming shot would be an incredibly wide charged particle field. The admiral ordered the ships to spread out even further, and all the destroyers changed course to double back and face Colossus again.

The destroyers had not gotten one quarter of the rotation desired when the EMP arcs hit. The gambit successfully disabled this sector of the Federation's blockade. All the big ships lost their main and auxiliary reactors, and the smaller ones suffered destructive meltdowns.

The damage reports on the Bithynia showed that a second contingency power generator was operating at full, but all systems would still be offline for a few more minutes, in which time the crew could only hope that the Colossus didn't attack them. Meanwhile, several squads trained to respond to blackouts went spacewalking and setting shield generators facing towards the Colossus and along its last projected path.

Admiral Puldes added a few orders: "Contact all the other sectors of the blockade at the first opportunity. They all have to know that there's been a breach. After that, send orders to every destroyer to retreat to Federation space." He then inquired about the ground army supplies on the Bithynia, and received a satisfactory answer. "Then after you reach the other ships, get down to the planet. Land us in as inconspicuous spot as possible, and prepare to start ground operations."

The decision to land may not have been the best, and the admiral was betting a lot on the Space Pirate's behavior, on the hope that they'd repair the Colossus at all costs.


One radian over, Commander Zerrul considered that he had a destroyer under his command isolated from every other active vessel. Everything he done was left to his own discretion. He would never have another opportunity to act on his spite for High Command, much less one with as much gravity as this. He determined that he'd have to do this in secret even on board this ship. Better not to risk having astronauts loyal to High Command rather than their current captain.

Zerrul let the proximity of the terminals influence his plan. He decided to clear the bridge. "All officers, I'd like to run some inspections on these terminals, if you don't mind." None of the officers gave any complaint; none seemed to acknowledge that he said anything. Zerrul walked from station to station, checking the undersides of the computers.

As subtly as he could manage, he sabotaged a few as he went, taking care to avoid damaging communication and navigation. The commander also couldn't simply cut crucial wires and disable the computers; it would be far too obvious that he was responsible in such an event. Instead, he made small punctures and frays. General safety hazards, but nothing completely disrupting the system.

When he finished, Zerrul told the staff of the bridge, "I've found several safety problems. Everyone, go down to Alpha Deck and wait for the all clear signal. Get someone from engineering up here quickly. I don't want there to be a fire."

One of the crew asked, "Captain, what about the Federation blockade? We're definitely approaching it; we can't just leave our posts now."

"Slow to geo-sync. The Federation will not break form to engage us. Don't do anything else. I want everyone off the bridge for repairs." The commander really had nothing to worry about. His crew was reacting to very normal concerns. Of course, he would have preferred that they not know about the Federation's presence, but it presently made no difference.

He watched all the officers head down to Alpha Deck, and waited for the repairman to arrive. He got to work, inspecting every terminal himself. Zerrul chose not to tell him which to start with, and the repair process took a while. He walked over to the mechanic as he finished fixing it.

Then he strangled the mechanic. Zerrul was completely alone on the bridge.

He took some wires from the mechanic's toolbox and connected the communication and navigation terminals to his main computer. After finishing this, he disabled those stations' interfaces and moved the mechanic's body and toolbox. Lastly, he put concealing tape on the wires. A bit overt, but an obedient crew was skilled in missing the obvious.

Commander Zerrul called the officers back up to the bridge.