Misjump Read online

  “Yup, all good here. As long as the weapons system works like it did when we tested it, no problem. Are we still at twelve minutes?” asked Jax.

  “Da, twelve minutes nominal, but a little variation is to be expected. Please to standby, okay?” said Gregor.

  “Roger that, ready and waiting. Out.”

  Gregor switched to Fumi’s circuit. “Everything nominal there?” he asked.

  “Aye-firmative, captain. Everything is looking great on the monitors here. I am ready to reconnect to Iron Maid as soon as we are both in normal space.”

  “Anything that you need from me?” asked Gregor.

  “Not unless you can find a way to scratch between my shoulder blades. I am virtual. I would be perfectly good with not sweating or needing to crap. I mean, really?” she said.

  Gregor chuckled. “Yeah, I could live without those. Stand by for emergence. Out.” Finally, he switched to a ship-wide circuit. “Ivo to engineering, please. Meilin, Lori, strap down, please. Things could get a little rough.” The standard navy doctrine was to avoid waiting too close to the jump point and the reason usually given was that it avoided collisions. While that was true, officers were given the real reason. If someone wanted to be unfriendly, they could strap a large bomb to a warp engine and destroy anything too close to the emergence point. Gregor didn’t know if the greenies would follow doctrine and wanted to be ready for an attack as soon as they jumped into the system. He watched the countdown as it approached zero and then as the numbers went into the negative. There was always a degree of uncertainty with a jump, although ships that entered about the same time would typically arrive at around the same time and place. His classes had called it quantum turbulence in transitional states, but in practice, it just meant that even a clean jump might go slightly long or short.

  The emergence alarm sounded at T plus 243 seconds. Gregor did a quick visual scan and pushed the ship into a loose spiral that was up and to the right relative to the orientation of the ship, changing the spin ten seconds in. A second alarm sounded in the cockpit as a nearby object was detected. Before he could make time to check what it was, he heard Fumi’s voice from the console. “On it! Keep flying, straight and level for a moment!” There was a flare in infrared, shown as a crimson overlay on screen left and down relative to the ship and a vector bracket appeared around an apparently empty bit of space.

  "I have Iron Maid online. She got here before we did. Scanning. Immediate neighbourhood is clear … and two blips inbound, both bigger than us and no IFF beacons yet. Trying to get visual, but we are a long way out.” She could use active sensors, but it would pinpoint their position to the other ships, a debatable point given that they had to be close to the jump point but the delta V would have given a course. A warship would have a much better passive sensor array, but traders like the Sarafina didn’t have a need for them. “Okay, one is about the same size as the SBD that chased us here and the other is—” Her words were lost when a new alarm sounded, indicating that another ship had jumped in system. New vectors appeared on the screen indicating two incoming ships and a shrinking circle indicated where the new ship had jumped in. A name flashed up as the circle shrunk to a point. Tromp, the first of the new Rockhammers. Gregor sighed in relief but stopped as he read the vector information. The Tromp was over 200 km from where it should be. Another ship entry alarm sounded as he thought about the situation, resolving to an area 150 klicks away at about 100 degrees up and 30 degrees left of the current position and orientation of the Sarafina. This was nothing like the clean emergence pattern that he had hoped for, but at least four ships had made the jump successfully. The Iron Maid must have arrived before them and been picked up by the greenie sensors given how quickly they had responded. An IFF beacon tag arrived and the new ship was marked as the Blade on his display. He wondered what had happened to the Nimitz and the Fist, but at least they had four ships albeit scattered. He opened a comms channel, knowing that Fumi would be copied in.

  “Rockhammers, new vector. Make best speed to one hundred twenty, one hundred twelve degrees relative to the ecliptic. Blade, that puts you in the rear and closest to pursuit so be alert, okay?” Slowly, the vectors on the screen started to change as the rockhounds entered new courses. The new course would stretch them out in a line, which was not ideal, but there were things that they could do in that configuration. Slowly, the geometry on the screen changed. The pursuing greenie ships started to close the distance, revectoring to follow the line of ships. The SDB was accelerating more slowly than it had previously. Gregor checked in with Fumi. “SDB is slower than expected. Any idea why or what companion ship is?”

  “No ID on the companion ship. It doesn’t match anything from the database, but it is pretty damn blocky and probably well armoured. If I had to guess, I would say that it was a big frigate or a small destroyer. It might have a fitting for a cargo pod or maybe a drop tank, so it could well be jump capable. It has to be heavy though and probably can’t keep up with an SDB at full acceleration. It absolutely has missile bays,” said Fumi.

  “Okay, send visual to my console please,” said Gregor. The image appeared, blocky and graceless. “Da, is a beast. Might be based on the old Asgard freighter hull but maybe not. Am guessing that is more of threat than SDB and they don’t want to split up. You want to try that trick?”

  “You know it, captain,” said Fumi.

  “Commodore. I am commanding multiple ships, which makes me commodore now,” said Gregor.

  “Whatever. I make it six more minutes until we have a lineup and … well, I don’t know when that thing can fire but probably not very long. You want to make an estimate?” asked Fumi.

  “About the same as that. Maybe we are lucky and is more than six minutes but not feeling so lucky today,” said Gregor.

  “I guess we will see how that foamed armour works in practice then,” said Fumi.

  “Is not my first hope,” said Gregor.

  Twin timers appeared on the displays of each of the Rockhammers, set up by Fumi, who had admin access to all of the ships. The timers showed time to alignment and time to probable firing solution for the approaching hostile ships. The AIs on each of the ships adjusted their courses slightly with better than human precision. At twelve seconds to alignment and an estimated minus four seconds to a firing solution for the approaching greenie ships, a new warning flashed across the consoles. Something had jumped in, far from the jump point and with a crazy tumble that was quickly righted. Gregor started to issue an order at the same time as three missiles launched, one from the SDB and two from the new heavy ship. “Nimitz, get away and go dark. You are too far out to help and someone needs to report back. Do not reply. Just vector and go dark. Repeat, evade and go dark.”

  Fumi sent orders to the AIs of the other ships and linear accelerator rings folded down from the underbelly of each of the Rockhammers. The lights in the Sarafina dimmed as all available power was fed to the launcher, which was based on the design of the mass drivers that the miners used. A mass of 50 KG of iron slugs streamed out of the lead ship at a dangerous speed, heading for the Iron Maid. It didn’t have lights to dim, but it funnelled power into the accelerator rings and sped the projectiles on their way, adding to the considerable speed of the load. Each ship in the line pumped more energy into the mass of iron until it was travelling at a velocity that was best measured in fractions of the speed of light. The final ring of the last accelerator didn’t focus the stream of iron, instead scattering it very slightly to make a slowly expanding cloud of deadly fast mass. The metal crossed this distance between the Blade and the two greenie ships in a fraction of a second, too fast to see even if they had not been invisible in the darkness of space. The SDB puffed into vapour on one side, the other spinning away and then exploding, spraying the contents of the ship into space. The blockier ship took the hits better, the hull pitting as the reactive armour coating flashed into fire. The SDB swerved, knocked off course as debris and fuel or air vented, but it turne
d around and headed towards the Rockhammer, barely slower. The missiles had swung wide, but one had taken a slug and detonated, either from the warhead or from the fuel. Two continued to close on the Blade. They streaked forward, closing the distance much faster than any ship could. “All ships, target those missiles!” ordered Gregor. None of the human ships were in a position to bring their laser to bear, and they started to turn with what seemed like agonising slowness. Beams began firing from gimbal-mounted lasers, the light weakened by the debris from the exploded ship. The more distant ships were eating away at the casings of the missiles, but the Blade was able to punch through to the innards of one, pulsing the power to create a concussive effect. The engine exploded, the fragments spinning away into space and the Blade tried to target the remaining missile as the beams from the other ships swung towards its hull, following the threat. Poorly focussed lasers started to etch away the hull coating, the black efficiently absorbing the energy as the torpedo continued its approach, sensors long gone and continuing blindly on the same vector. The missile exploded before it could make contact with the Rockhammer, the expanding gas and shrapnel slamming into the Blade, giving it a spin. Multiple systems failed and the IFF beacon fell off the displays.

  “Govno! All ships, target remaining greenie ship, centre of mass, free movement. Blade, report when able,” said Gregor into the open comm. The greenie ship launched two more missiles almost immediately, but they failed to track any target, damaged by the incoming laser fire. Explosions rippled across the surface of the massive greenie ship and some of the rockhounds started to cheer. “No, continue attack,” ordered Gregor. “Is just reactive armour, no real damage to ship yet.” The greenie ship fired some sort of projectile that exploded mere metres away from its own hull. At first, the gunners thought that the lasers had nullified whatever the weapon was, but a cloud of darkness spread from where the canisters had burst. “Ablative powder. Switch to projectile if possible.” The beams were being absorbed by the powder, slowly subliming under the onslaught. The large ship rotated in place, moving with a deliberate slowness to stay within the shadow of the expanding blackness. Additional canisters were fired, shielding an ever-growing area. Missiles fired again from the big ship, this time making it clear of the tubes without damage, swinging wide of the path of the beams. Projectiles fired from mass drivers passed under the greenie ship, through the place where it had been. Fumi updated the AI’s orders, instructing them to lead the target, which could not move faster than the cloud that protected it. The sensor reading became unreliable as active scanning bounced off the expanding particle cloud. The projectiles that the Rockhammers fired now were larger, canisters of their own, each filled with mining explosives. Most detonated with little effect on the hull, but a few slipped into areas weakened by the initial high-speed attack and wrought effective damage in the confined space of the hull. The ablative canisters stopped firing, either through shortage or because of the mechanism was destroyed.

  The missiles closed with their targets, and the AIs of the Rockhammers switched their targeting to defend against the incoming danger, leaving the projectiles the only real threat to the attacking ship. The fight was turning into a slugging match, the heavy greenie warship having the mass and firepower but the coordination of the lighter ships proving a significant challenge.

  In her virtual cockpit, Fumi tried and failed to find a radio interface that would allow an attack on the greenie ship. The only emissions that she could find were active scanning systems, and they were badly compromised by the spreading ablative cloud. Even if she could get a signal into them, there was no digital data to mess with. She looked over the model of the hostile ship that the AI had been building. Almost all of the hull was covered by the reactive armour plates, but the engine area was not. That made a kind of sense to her, as the engines would get hot and coating them with explosives didn’t sound like a good idea. The cameras had only had a partial view of them as the greenie ship manoeuvred to get the missiles off, but it looked like they were more lightly armoured. There were no ships in the fight that could target them and it would take too long to get any of the ships to a position where they could get a line of sight… except for the Nimitz. It was too far away for lasers to be effective, but they could still accelerate mass. With a single ship, it would be a fraction of the speed and far less damaging, but anything that helped was welcome.

  She understood the reason for Gregor’s order, but this was a chance to make the difference. She could argue the point, but with her frame rate jacked up this high, it would be agonisingly slow and Gregor would be unlikely to agree anyway. It is always easier to get forgiveness than permission, she thought, and sent orders to the AI of the Nimitz. It would send a stream of iron slugs at the engine area and she would have to hope that the greenie ship wouldn’t move that much. With a single accelerator, the slugs would only be travelling at 1750 metres per second, but they had to do some damage to the relatively unarmoured engine section. Transit time for each slug would be twenty-eight seconds, so they would miss entirely if the big ship moved much.

  The greenie ship deployed some kind of gantry arrangement from the sides of the craft, the angles and lines of the beams strangely curved. Gregor watched in confusion, trying to make sense of the design. There were armoured power cables and some drum-shaped device that would be at the end of the arms. What the … that has to be a weapon, but why does it need to be so far from the hull? Heat or radiation, maybe? What is with those struts? They are only showing up on infrared so they must be—

  His thought was derailed when he saw each of the Rockhammers change from black to silver to deflect lasers. Suddenly the gantry made sense of a kind. The attacking ship had to get its own lasers away from the cloud that it had created. The ablative dust would block beams from either direction. It was a makeshift solution, poorly thought through, but it added another threat that the Rockhammers would have to handle. The supporting framework would have an ablative coating to handle any return laser fire. They would be vulnerable to torpedoes, but the laser was its own missile defence and they didn’t have missiles anyway. It looked like four lasers on a side, each in a gimbal. Each one would be smaller than a proper turret laser but still dangerous. The slug throwers on the Rockhammers would be very effective against them, but that meant that the ship firing would need to be lined up with the weapon it was trying to destroy. The slugs took a finite time to travel as well, so the rounds would arrive at a different time from each ship. That didn’t look like a workable solution. Gregor opened a link to Jax. “Ready for strafing run? We are going in.”

  “Fucking A!” was the only reply from Jax.

  Gregor turned the Sarafina and started accelerating towards the greenie ship, spinning and slipping sideways to make his ship more difficult to hit. A second behind, the Iron Maid followed suit. “Tromp and Fist, make a run, port side of enemy vessel. Take out those struts. Are laser supports. Evade as needed,” he ordered over the comm. The other ships started to move towards the greenie ship, gaining speed as they went. Gregor selected Fumi’s comms channel. “Just like the training runs. To be getting AIs on defensive lasers, yes?”

  “Already done it, all systems green. Watch your ass, you old bear. You are carrying both of us so lose Sarafina and Iron Maid is toast,” said Fumi.

  “Da, da, everyone is critic. Mind your target, okay?” said Gregor.

  Jax started firing early, targeting lasers at the ship in general while he chose a better target. He knew that the beams were unlikely to do much damage at that range, but it was not like they used ammo and he might get lucky. A dedicated AI did most of the work and his main job was designating targets for the AI to find firing solutions for. It compensated for the wild motions of the ship with the greenie ship seeming almost stationary to Jax. Grey bars slid over parts of the display that were not targetable due to angle or occlusion. There was no point in targeting the front of the ship; it was too well armoured and the ablative cloud would turn his weake
ned UV laser into little more than a tanning bed. He could try for the hull sides, but they looked to have more of that reactive armour. He could perhaps get it to explode, but the hull would be designed to take that and the charges would be shaped to direct blast outward. Instead, he looked at the arms of the gantries that were now fully locked. The thickest parts had to have the most coating on them and be more resilient to incoming fire, but they would be the easiest to hit with the mass driver. However, that did use ammo and couldn’t be targeted effectively at this range, especially with the ship jumping around in the sky. He would save those for later and take the extra velocity from the ship as well. His best bet was to find a weak spot. The joints had to be less armoured surely? He selected one that looked a little skinnier than the others and set the laser to pulsed fire, ten percent duty cycle. He didn’t want it running too hot when he got closer and was able to make shots count. He checked the clock on the side of the display. They were six seconds into the run. Things would get busy soon. He took a sip of water and waited for his chance.

  The Fist and the Tromp were closer to the greenie ship and made the first run. They were crewed by a pilot and an engineer/gunner. The greenie ship launched missiles as they came in for their attack runs, the AI-controlled lasers attacking the projectiles as they came in. At range, the rockets were able to swing wide, giving the AI more opportunity to target the projectiles but a broader spread of the laser. Destroying the sensors was almost as effective as destroying the missile. The limited AI on the weapon would try to predict where the target would be, but the evasion manoeuvres were too random for it to have any real chance of success. As the ships came closer, the missiles could no longer swing wide and there was less time to target them, but the lasers were more effective. The Fist made a first approach, lasers from the greenie ship hitting the reflective coating, failing to do significant damage. No mirror was perfect and the shiny coating soon vaporised but the lasers were weakened by passing through the ablative cloud. The evasive manoeuvres changed the impact point of the incoming fire, causing it to carve shallow lines in the outer hull.