Hi all! A little something different this month with a chapter and an interlude. I hope you all enjoy!
"The Opening Move"
Marshall System
MCS Annapolis
November 21st, 2212
Bish arrived at the bridge just as they finished their jump into the Marshall System. A system according to Graves would be free of IMC influence. Yet on the holo-board were three IMC transport vessels. Their transponder signals registered them as the Gravia, Dunera, and the Whitley. More interestingly, Bish saw they weren't guarded.
"I want the fighter screen to pull along side at a hundred klicks and target their rear thrusters." Graves ordered.
Bish came up to the board and touched the Gravia and expanded his hand out. Sonar and Lidar pulses pinging back a heavy ship with lots of crates inside. At this range, it was impossible to tell what was inside the ships but it's weight rating knew it was full. Easy pickings for them.
"So what are three fully loaded transports doing out here?" Bish asked Graves.
Graves' face was still taunt as he studied the board for a few more seconds before answering. "I don't know but that's what I want to find out."
"So why do you look disappointed?"
"Because those are fully loaded transports with no escorts." Graves rubbed his chin. "It's not how the Navy used to be."
Bish could hear the pangs of wounded pride in his voice. He had been heading the Militia for almost eight month now and still the Field Commander would get sentimental.
"The Colonial Navy is stretched thin these days." Bish tried to explain.
"Not that thin, Commander. See this part here?" Graves touched the Whitley.
The Whitley expanded and slowly enlarged on the board. Bish saw what looked like an extended promenade deck jutting out just below the main deck cargo bays. The paint was newer, then the rest of the ship. So it followed that it was a recent expansion. What Bish didn't understand, was what it was for.
"So I guess it's not extra walking space."
"No, I think Commander Lorck, the IMC are arming their merchant ships, but the space is too small for Heavy Turrets and their spider mounts."
"Maybe Em-Tees like what we're experimenting with on the Barges?"
"The expansions don't have any discernible openings. That's why I ordered a squadron to investigate."
"Ah, so you want me to jam their distress calls." Bish grinned.
"If you'd be so kind, Commander." Graves motioned to Bish's laptop resting on the holo-board.
"I'll do better than that. How about their manifests and diagnostics?"
Bish hijacked onto the sensor towers and began broadcasting his signal towards the Whitley. Using his personal auth code of "BISH-FU," he worked his way into the Whitley's system and began running his electronic warfare programs. Cracking into the ship's database he was able to start pulling up the information he needed. The Whitley was part of a convoy from Victor with fuel and resources for an nav-point some 5 AU from their current position. Bish didn't see that very often anymore but more interesting was that the IMC still trying to use Victor for jump fuel.
Digging further, Bish found that the transports were armed with a new medium turret. Graves was right, they were armed. Bish observed it's smaller design would most likely fit within the new expanded area on the Whitley. There were quite a few around the whole ship.
"You were right," Bish looked up from his laptop, "they're armed with a new set of turrets."
"Let me see... A new turret design, very clever Spyglass. Advise our fighters on the gun emplacements and make sure we stay out of range until we can – damnit!"
Bish turned to the holo-board as the Gravia and Dunera fired up their jump thrusters. He immediately got to work on infiltrating their networks and disabling their engines. By the time he had finished, the Gravia was seconds away from jumping. The sudden change in the Gravia's speed started a fire in it's engines. Dunera's crew had caught on and quickly shut down it's engines in an attempt to avoid the same fate.
Caught, the two undamaged merchant crusiers used impulse to maneuver themselves into a wedge around the Gravia. Abandoning their guise as defenseless, the additions blew downwards against the hull, revealing several medium AA turrets. Bish tried to hack into them as well but was halted by his discovery that the turrets were on an isolated network.
"Huh, they're so new, they're not even on the main part of the ship." Bish said puzzled.
"Then we'll do this the old fashioned way. Order all fighters to disable those turrets and ship engines. Have Sarah get her SRS ready for a boarding action."
"Aye aye, sir." The Comms officers acknowledged.
"Commander Lorck, log this position. After this raid we're jumping to Harmony."
Bish put his laptop on the edge of the holo-board and brought up the whole map of the Frontier. He found their coordinates and placed a marker on the convoy's position. On a whole, the 1st Fleet's attacks should look like a well coordinated expansion on their raiding patterns. It was loose but it was the best way to disguise an entire fleet's movements towards their real objective: Harmony.
"I just hope the IMC don't figure it out before we get there."
Graves just frowned and kept his focus on the holo-board as two Hornet squadrons with some Crows as torpedo bombers made their attack run. Bish busied himself on finding where the transports were headed. Operating by nav-points was not standard procedure for most ships, who knew the location of where they were going ahead of time, preferring to stick to well guarded trade lanes.
"So where are you going?" Bish mumbled to himself.
His search started with nearby IMC outposts. Nothing turned up. Next, he expanded out nearby IMC held planets but that didn't tread either. Bish was getting frustrated and pulled deep on his knowledge of smugglers who would plot their own private "lanes" by setting up a series of nav points that were clear of planetary trajectories. Even Bish thought that was a long shot, no one had done that in fifty years ago. That was back when exploration was still being done with projections and AI assist. So that left just one theory that would fit. The transports were deliberately not getting the location because it was an IMC black site. High risk shipments like these would have highly paid crews who knew the risk.
Bish quickly glanced up at the board to see how the fight was going. The Hornets were dancing around the three ships. Back to his screen, he dove back into the Whitely's system and pulled up it's schematics looking at the maintenance logs. He scrolled through mostly mundane fixes until Bish came across something strange. Two months ago the Whitley had a data slot fail safe installed. Bish opened up his index in another window and searched for data slot fail safes. Back inside the Whitley's system, he began trying to find what the data slot could connect to...
"Gravia's been disabled." A Liaison reported.
On the holo-board, Bish saw the burst from the Gravia's thrusters finally explode. The smoke expanded outwards in a spherical shape as the heat from the engines pushed the smoke outwards. After a moment or two, when the engines' fuel was cut the smoke just hung there around back of the ship with no where to go. To Bish, it looked like a thick black nebula had just grown out of the back of the Gravia.
Bish went back to the Whitley's system a second later, it cut. "Shit, I'm being jammed. Can someone put a rocket into one of their communication dishes?"
He said it to no one in particular but was surprised when Graves relayed the order, "You heard Commander Lorck, target their conning tower." Then Graves turned to Bish, "What do you got, Commander?"
"I was messing around inside the Whitley's system and found they've rigged up a fail safe device."
"A fail safe for what?" Graves asked.
"That's what I couldn't find out."
"What about where it was going?" He pressed.
"We got the jump on them before their next nav-point."
"Are you still inside the Gravia and Dunera's systems?"
"Sure am." Bish grinned.
"See if they have it too."
"On it, boss."
He dove into the Gravia's system and identified the same fail safe. Following the same maintenance path, he discovered that the fail safe had been rigged to the engines. The log didn't state what for. Usually, IMC logs were small encyclopedias on what they were for, the lack of longevity struck him as strange. A dead end.
Bish began pulling into the Dunera's system but was cut out of it almost instantly. He tried the Whitley again but they were still countering him. Well once Sarah's team got aboard with their data-knifes would allow him in or with their interceptor chips too. Bish folded his hands behind his head and watched the space battle on the holo-board.
"This is Raider, ready and waiting, Bish." The boarding team relayed.
"Understood, Raider. Standby, the Hornets are still clearing the corridor."
"Roger that."
As Bish watched the fighters on the board duke it out with the AA guns of the merchant convoy, a chime trilled on his laptop. Changing his focus to his laptop, he saw that the Gavia was ramping their damaged engines. That wasn't a good sign, stressing the engines after they'd been damaged meant they were probably trying to scuttle the ship.
Graves saw it too, "Commander Lorck, can't you override?"
Bish didn't have time to answer and dove straight away to avert disaster. The Gravia's crew was smart and had done it all manually. If he had to guess, it was from inside the engine room too to cut him out. Bish shut his laptop and shook his head.
"Withdraw our fighters to minimum safe distance. Seal all shutters. Get damage control crews to the ready."
"FC, Dunera and Whitley are trying to jump." A Liaison reported.
Graves sighed, "Can't be helped."
"Dentonation in six, five, four, three..."
Bish watched the holo-board as the Gravia flickered away. Scuttling a ship was like detonating a grenade in the middle of an empty room, all you could do was stand still and hope the fragments missed you.
"Debris incoming."
"How large?" Graves asked.
"Point-two up to eight meters!" One Liaison reported.
"All hands brace for impact!" Graves announced over the comms.
"Dunera's jumped successful! Whitley's damaged, possible rupture!" Another called out.
"Status on the fighters?" The Field Commander continued to ask for reports.
"Light damage, they were able to dodge most of the debris."
Graves nodded, "Tell them to boost and light their beacons. We'll collect them once the debris passes."
"Aye, sir."
"Debris passing in five, four, three, two..."
Bish listened to the sound of several pieces of metal knocking on the hull. Everyone held their breath and waited. A loud thud came from the bridge shutters and made it's way up the side of the bridge.
"Recall the boarding teams from their standby and get the salvage and rescue teams ready! Maintenance crews on the hull as soon as the debris passes." Graves issued new orders.
"Copy that," Bish acknowledged and got to work, "Raider, stand down. No convoy today."
"Sonova... Okay, rog' Bish. Raider disembarking."
"FC! Whitley's decompressing! Another smaller cluster of point two to three meters!" A Liaison broke in.
"Crew maintain stations, second debris wave incoming!" Graves made the second announcement.
"Second debris wave in twelve, eleven, ten, nine..."
"What did they load into this starships anyways?" Bish asked rhetorically.
No one answered but a little later, more debris knocked against the hull. This time lighter and faster, like the sound of ball bearings on a sheet roof. The whole field was past them in over a second. Bish was just happy it was over.
"Damage report!" Graves called out.
"Superficial to minor damage to all ships. Six plus two fighters were knocked out."
Six from the raid, two from the debris clusters. Bish automatically processed in his head. Eight fighters isn't a bad trade for two freighters.
"Good, I want salvage teams out processing the Whitely. Rescue teams pull aboard anyone they can find. We'll stay in the zone until they're finished and then make our final jump. I want all reports forwarded directly to the CIC. Commander, follow me."
"Right behind ya, boss." Bish jumped out of his seat, laptop in hand.
The pair walked down the corridor to the bridge elevator without a word. Bish was used to this. Graves often processed an action after the fact. Himself, he was more of a "fire and forget" type. A behavior he picked up during Anderson's command when they went from one loss to another. Mac had changed that. In the time it took to destroy Demeter, the Militia had gone from a small Frontier revolution into a full scale war. The Coalition would be the new direction of their evolution.
"I don't like it," Graves finally spoke as the elevator descended.
"Four to one is a great ratio. What's not to like?"
"Merchant cruisers, way points instead of planned routes, scuttled rather than surrender. It reeks of a blacksite transport."
"That was my thought too but that's even better right?" Bish grinned.
Graves sighed, "Maybe. I used to know all the routes and black projects. The Marshall System wasn't supposed to have one."
"So we got lucky and ambushed a convoy they didn't expect you to find."
"I wish I could share in your optimism Commander. I fear the quick victories are almost over."
Bish shrugged as the elevator door opened and Sarah greeted them at the CIC, "Direct Line from Gridiron. Lurps report that the training base at White Head is still taking in new recruits. I'd like to get SRS on the ground to run close recon."
"For what reason, Commander Briggs?" Graves said, not missing a beat out of the elevator.
"We think they're training Grunts from scratch and not bringing in academy experienced Pilots."
"That follows. However, the Rise outpost is of more strategic value to us as long as the IMC don't know it's there. I can't authorized anything that could jeopardize the outpost."
"Okay," Sarah said as she followed Graves and Bish to the holo-board of the CIC, "the Artemisium shipyard is close to Harmony and Quay. We could take some of them and do localized raids for ships."
"Quay? Wasn't it Tortuga just last month?" Graves raised an eyebrow.
"New pirate faction took over. Coalition leaning." She shrugged.
"Well," Graves reached the board, "if a target of opportunity presents itself, I think we could do that. Provided Bish is up for the challenge and we can spare our only diplomat."
"Funny." Bish said but Sarah snickered at the jab.
"Commander Briggs, get me an operational plan by the end of the day. Alright people, we got a job to do. Let's do it by the numbers." Graves said to the CIC.
It was an exhausting two hours. Rescue teams were able to recover the two pilots caught in the debris wave but the six in the raid were lost and their Hornets were unrecoverable. The Gravia's detonation had crumpled the Whitely beyond recovery of the ship and it supplies. As best the salvage teams could tell, the Gravia was carrying arms and the Whitely equipment. Pockets of smoke hung around the wrecks making them to dangerous to approach with anything short of individuals jetting in on cables. There wasn't time to do something that slow and so the crumpled Whitely lay dormant in the center of an expanding debris field for an IMC recovery crew to pick apart.
The Annapolis would ready a new wave of fighters to deploy as soon as they finished their jump, ready to spring on any awaiting surprises that would meet them. Below deck the fighter squadron from the convoy raid was below deck for repairs and rearmament. Once everything was secured, the First Fleet would jump in a staggered echelon, allowing each ship to have a clear lane to move when they arrived. They weren't expecting trouble but just under 30 days since they were "invited" to Harmony, anything could've chnaged.
"All hands – Standby for jump in three, two, one." A Liaison over the PA announced.
Bish blinked and the map in the CIC had changed to the Freeport System. Planets appeared in translucent blue balls sailing around the holo-board and at the fringes of the system was the Artemis Shipyard. It's long mass broken up by large rings as it slowly generated it's artificial gravity. The memory of the Artemis Raid came back to him and Bish wondered what had happened to the crew of the Montana.
Graves ordered the fighters to be released again and to start their screening for the fleet. Bish reopened his laptop and began bringing up the data cache from the Artemisium Shipyard raid. He wanted to be prepared in case Sarah got the go ahead for the raid. The cache hadn't been updated in a while and Bish was eager to try and hack through the OSET security system again.
"I want a ping of the planet ASAP and identify any planet defenses or installations. Commanders, let's go." Graves left the CIC, followed by Sarah and Bish. When the three of them were inside the elevator, Graves turned to Sarah, "What's your assessment on Harmony, Commander Briggs?"
She twisted her face, "We haven't been there since Anderson's day. Beautiful country, good place to call home. Proud folks, work hard. It rated low on the threat scale back then so we stashed some weapons there in case we came back this way. It looks like the IMC found out about it."
"Commander Lorck, you're our diplomat. Recommendations?"
Bish cleared his throat, "Uh, I think we should send Marsh, our Coalition representative, and Sarah."
Sarah glared at him like he was a traitor. Graves nodded thoughtfully. "I agree, out of the three of us, Briggs is pure Frontier and a hero amongst the Militia."
"Plus her bounty's higher than mine." Bish added wryly.
Sarah rolled her eyes, "I'm no diplomat, Graves. I wouldn't know where to start on trying to get them to join the Coalition. Besides," She added, "you want that operational plan now or later?"
"The operational plan can wait. We need those Titan prototypes and with Harmony as a springboard, we could capture Artemisium later. Think of it as putting our best foot forward for now."
Sarah swallowed her opinion and nodded, "Sure, understood."
As graves left the elevator, Sarah grabbed him by the arm and glared at him, "Thanks Cheng."
Bish chuckled nervously. It made sense for her to go, Sarah had lost more than most and Bish was willing to bet so had the people of Harmony. Someone like her, rough and stubborn would mesh well with the farmers and traders that had wrested control from the IMC with the same tenacity.
"Low traffic FC, some smugglers out of Quay. On the peripheral, we have a couple of sorties and frigates around Artemis. Looks like someone took notice."
"Good work," Graves patted the sensor operator on the back, "Comm-O."
"Aye, sir!" The Comms Operator sounded off.
"Patch me into all squadron leaders."
"Aye, aye!"
Bish retook his spot by the holo-board, while Sarah took a spot closer to the shutters. As the combat shutters dropped, Bish saw the planet of harmony beyond and was impressed by the blue and green ball with smatterings of white across the whole of it. Yet as more of the planet was revealed, there were crisp orange lines that sliced all along the axises of the planet. Even Graves was struck by the damage on the planet as Bish heard him curse the IMC under his breath.
"All squadron leaders, this is Field Commander Marcus Graves. I want a defensive perimeter around Harmony with fighter cover rotations every three hours. First and Fourth squadrons clear the orbital corridor with Second and Third forming the outer section. Under no circumstances are we to break atmo of Harmony until contact. I repeat, no ship is enter Harmony air space until after contact. Are we clear?"
The squadron leaders confirmed his orders were understood.
"Very good. In the interim, I need fire damage consultants and medical volunteers to assist with the damage on the ground and ready to go as soon as the fleet is allowed to put ships on the deck. Dismissed."
"Link terminated, FC." The Comms Operator informed Graves.
"Have we identified the installations on the ground?"
"Yes, sir. There's one operating communication beacon near a mountain range thirty klicks from Nexus and three working AOD guns with another badly damaged." A sensor operator said.
"Patch into that beacon, let them know we're here."
"Aye, sir."
"Lorck, can you infiltrate their network? See what information you can gleam."
"Sure, I'm on it boss." Bish said opening his laptop and getting to work. A few keystrokes later and he was inside a few networks. A supply storage facility, a Tiffany's coffee, and forward op outside of Nexus. He also spliced into the main feed of the Annapolis and looked to see if the cache was still around or what was left of it. Bish could remember roughly where it had been.
"Sarah, you remember where the cache was left?" He asked her from across the bridge.
Sarah's arms were folded as she turned her head to Bish, "I was just looking for it too. I remember what it looked like from orbit but with all this smoke..."
"Yeah, same here. Oh wait..." Bish blew a deep breath.
"What is it Commander?" Graves had a quizzical look on his face.
"I was able to patch in to the Tiffany's Coffee network and it's got both private and military information on it from both sides."
"Such as?"
"Defensive orders from the IMC after the beacon was lost but also 'Dear Mom' letters."
"Copy it. Copy it all." Graves said somberly. "If we can, I'd like to give those people some peace someday."
"That's a nice thought," Bish said.
Graves didn't respond. He was awaiting the Comm-O to give him the go ahead to communicate with Harmony. The air suddenly was filled with a weight of tension. Bish went back to his laptop and tried to not read the "Dear Mom" letters. It'd been years but Bish tried to forget he'd come from the Core worlds at one point. Seeing letters from soldiers who'd never be able to go back wasn't something he was keen on reading. The letters stopped and then a sadder story began to develop. An IMC General, Auchenburg, had continuously pleaded for reinforcements from Vice-Admiral Spyglass believing he would never abandon a staunch IMC loyalist. Auchenburg's pleas were never answered and he constantly blamed the decline in Spectres for his failure to bring the people of Harmony to kneel. Bish felt no pity for Auchenburg but to keep pleading even when you never received a reply, seemed... insane.
"Hey boss," Bish said to Graves turning around his laptop, "you might want to see this."
Graves leaned in and read Auchenburg's pleas, when he finished Graves shook his head. "Auchenburg never did have any imagination. I'm surprised he lasted as long as he did. How did they go from this to arming merchant ships?"
"What do you mean?" Sarah said coming back from the shutters to meet them around the holo-board.
"That raid we did before the jump, I thought it must be a blacksite run as it had no route only updated way points to keep the destination a secret. That's why it had the turrets but what if it wasn't? It's possible that Spyglass may not be as in charge as we thought he was."
Sarah understood, "You mean because the arming of merchant ships wasn't a directive we intercepted?"
"Precisely," Graves rubbed his chin again, "someone else might be ordering merchant ships to be armed."
"That could be anybody in High Command." Bish frowned.
"True but it's possible the IMC may be more fragmented now than I thought."
"More fragmented? I didn't think they had any sides to begin with." Sarah made a scoff.
"Yeah, anyone who possibly cared about the Core defected when you did." Bish added.
"So, with out one side, they lean towards the other?" Graves said unconvinced.
"You saw the messages," Bish pointed to his laptop, "they're all loyalists now."
"To who? Hammond?" Graves snorted.
"Aren't they?" Sarah asked puzzled.
Graves scoffed lightly and folded his hands together in thought. Bish had never seen a man more troubled by success. Maybe he should talk to O'Connell about getting better food for the Field Commander. It might help lighten his mood.
Bish pushed away from the board and continued, "Listen we can speculate all we want on the IMC but right now – that planet has to be our main focus."
"Well put Commander," Graves said coming out of his thoughts, "Comm-O?" The operator shook his head and kept trying the beacon.
"Maybe they thought we weren't coming after all?" Sarah suggested.
"Are those AOD guns active?" Graves asked.
"No, FC, IR scans detect no heat signatures from the cannons. There are multiple heat signatures from the large base to the west. Magnifying now." The Liaison enhanced his instruments.
Bish got up from his seat and went over to the sensor operator and looked at the bright white spots amongst the grays and blacks of the IR filter. Sure enough, lots of hot spots inside the compound.
"Looks like a whole town meeting." He commented.
"Bish, you might be right." Sarah said and uploaded her feed to the holo-board. Something in Sarah's tone made him think she'd found something serious. "They might be deciding what to do with us."
"Remember they invited us here. Keep us out of range of those cannons and keep trying the beacon. Someone has to answer our call eventually." Graves said.
"Sir, with your permission, I'll be down in the CIC working up the Artemisium plan until I'm needed then." Sarah said saluting Graves.
"Carry on, Commander." Graves returned the salute.
"That's not a bad idea," Bish said, "Boss why don't you get some rest?"
"Are you relieving me, Commander?"
"Only if you can't tell me when the last time you slept or ate was." Bish smirked.
It looked to Bish that simply asking had been enough to take the usual fight out of Graves. The Field Commander exhaled and rubbed his eyes as if suddenly overcome by fatigue.
"Very well, take the bridge Commander Lorck. Alert my cabin the second the situation changes."
"Will do, boss." Bish said as he took Graves' seat on the bridge. It felt good to be in charge for a while. He made a command on his wrist-comm to play some music, "So! Who likes The Opulent Pulsars?"