Connection Unknown: Chapter 2 Part 1 of 2 (Patreon)

Chapter: 2

08/03/2242

Dana ‘Iron Admiral’ Huang sat in the Command Information Center of the Destroyer Star Burst.

“Second battlegroup has finished transition.” A communications officer said. “They are moving to join the fleet.”

Her fleet stood at one frigate, three destroyers, and nine corvettes with two more battlegroups on their way to meet at their deep-space rally point.

Dana’s command mask didn’t betray her growing her excitement as she reviewed her plans on the coming raid. It would be the biggest live and non-simulated fleet she had ever led once complete.

She’d carefully cultivated a mask of neutrality, letting nothing affect her expression. She was hard on her crews and harder on herself. Getting permission for the raid had been hard, and working with the Star King Guildmates harder. They cared more about their view-time than training. Playing it up for the streams and believing in their cultivated skills instead of growing more.

After a year she still wasn’t happy with their training, but she needed a win to show them that following her was the right way.

Now they were on the cusp. The battlegroups formed up on one another, waiting for the next battlegroup.

“Wormholes detected?” The sensors officer shot a look at the communications officer.

“None of the other battlegroups said they were on the move.” The two of them looked at Dana as her mask hardened in place.

“Non-Guild wormhole’s detected.” the communications officer said in quiet disbelief.

She might be the youngest admiral of the Star King Guild, but she was a veteran admiral. She’d learned to roll with chaos, to dance with it and turn out some advantage, some gain. Her eyes snapped across the map, searching for it, even as she rattled off orders. Any action was better than inaction.

“Send messages to the rest of the fleet, cancel their jumps and return to their ports. Have our corvettes create a defensive formation around our destroyers. All destroyers and frigates are to charge their wormhole projectors.”

So soon after their jump to the rally point it would take precious minutes for them to charge up their capacitors again for the wormhole projectors to punch a hole through space and back to a friendly system.

She worked her jaw. Space was big—huge, even. Between systems, it was nearly impossible to find anything, but the Iron Cross fleet had just happened to jump into Dana’s secret rally point between star systems.

Someone had betrayed them.

The ships slid out of the wormholes, twisted spheres of starlight from another region of space, blended with the stars this side of space.

“Enemy force is emerging from wormholes. Markings indicate they’re Iron Cross.”

Outwardly, she showed little reaction. Her eyes dropped to the screens around her command platform, to the sensor readings on the enemy force. Two carriers, three cruisers, supported with five frigates and ten destroyers. I knew they wouldn’t be playing around.

She studied the plot, moves running through her mind.

Mitigating the losses was all she could think of.

A glance at her communications terminal to the Captain of Star Burst showed Captain Chen on the bridge with a grim impassive mask. A welcome reprieve.

Usually, he would be yelling all over the place to get more time on the stream. Guess he doesn’t want to be associated with me or this loss.

She just had to save as many ships as possible for further actions. Well, that and so Minnie wouldn’t yell at her as much. Minnie regularly complained about how long it took to build warships in Fleet Commander.

Her guild wouldn’t be too happy with her losing the ships either, as only her third battle she was brand new to the Star Kings Guild. This was going to be her first major action against the Iron Cross Guild.

“They’re broadcasting,” a communications officers said in a strained voice.

Dana changed her settings to listen to the enemy.

“Iron Admiral? You think you can still call yourself Iron! You lost your chance and now you hide between systems! Let’s see how you deal with us now!”

Dana tapped her teeth together. She had gained the moniker of Iron Admiral because of her unbending command. Others said it was because she was as hard as iron with the enemy—and her own fleet.

Last year she had accepted a contract with the Star King Guild over the Iron Cross Guild. Iron Cross always were the jealous type.

“They’re releasing fighters!”

Dana hid her scorn, bringing fighters to space battle was, stupid.

“All cannons load flak, get the close in protection guns spinning up. Load missiles, close protection spread. Corvettes present their broadsides and move into half cigar. Destroyers to the center, present their bows.”

The fleet moved slowly to carry out her orders. Undisciplined, she could see the defeat in their movements, feel it in the atmosphere.

“We have a mission to protect as much of the fleet as possible.” She used the command channel, heard by every captain of every ship. Their movements cleaned up some. The Destoryers and Frigates were working the fastest to save their ships.

“Confirm, missiles ready?”

“Missiles are ready, Admiral.”

“Good.” She spaced out her question to break up the silence. Space battles are fleeting microseconds of action among mind-numbing lulls of boredom. The hardest thing would be to keep the crews  alert.

“Prepare to go evasive once they launch. Lets see just what our pilots can do.”

“Enemy is approaching long-range missile range. They’re launching!”

Launching this far out showed their disdain for her fleet and confidence in their own overwhelming firepower.

Markers shot out from the approaching fleet, a few to start, but they sprouted from every missile hatch, like a hedgehog had ejected all of its needles at once. Tens of markers spread out into a sheet faster than any human piloted ship could travel.

Her ships were still charging their jump drives, dead in space. It will take Forty Seconds for the Iron Cross fleet to reload their missiles.

“Admiral?” A communication officer’s voice climbed as the missiles approached.

“Missiles to close-range protection! Fire!” Dana said.

Her fleet’s missiles were a fifth of the enemy’s number, but being the target she knew the exact path the enemy missiles would follow.

“Enemy has launched another wave of missiles. They didn’t take the time for a full reload!” the communication officer on her left yelled.

Bit dramatic. Is he playing it up for the live stream?

She raised an eyebrow at the communication officer, he whitened and turned back to his console.

“Missiles are engaging.”

“Set all weapon systems to engage the missiles that make it through our screen.” Dana said as hers and the enemy missiles crossed one another, fighting a battle of domination, hers hunting theirs, theirs trying to overwhelm and reach her ships.

They did, space was a cold hard place, reminiscent of the waters of Earth in the age of sail. Whoever had the biggest ships, the most armor, the most guns, they were nearly always the winner in a head-on fight. It was why Dana liked to play from the side, cutting off corners instead of forcing a major battle. And why fighters in a space battle were more decorations when close in weapon systems could track and shoot faster than a human could speak and armor that could take impacts from nukes.

With these cold realities, she wasn’t surprised as the cannons started to spread plumes of flak to meet surviving Iron Cross Missiles nuclear spheres coloring the darkness between fleets.

“Notify me when our second load of missiles are ready,” Dana said.

Tracers from the corvettes filled the space ahead of the remaining missiles, leaving blooms of nuclear fission where they crossed.

“Our missiles won’t finish loading by the time their second salvo reaches us.” Weapons said.

“I see that,” Dana deeply wished she had her team, not just the team with the greatest subscriber numbers. “Looks like your systems will be put to the test.”

It wouldn’t be enough. The enemy was continuing to close at emergency speed, they’d be pressed into their chairs at five gravities as her main ships continued to charge.

The Star King’s weapons continued up their fire, the fission explosions getting closer and closer to them. The Iron Cross ships were dumping missiles nearly as fast as they could load them, creating a constant stream.

The smaller density of missiles made them easier to defeat one by one, but her smaller fleet didn’t have the capability to defend against such an overwhelming and sustained attack.

Two missiles made it through her fleet’s defensive actions and exploded around one of her corvettes.

“Engines are out. Cascading power failures on corvette four.”

The missiles from Dana’s fleet forced the Iron Cross fleet to focus on something other than launching missiles.

“Ships report that all missile tubes are loaded.”

“Fire. I will take guidance control. All ships on full defensive.” Dana used a screen in front to input her targeting parameters. Missile markers spread out from her fleet as they pulled into knife-fighting range, with flight time between fleets down to a few seconds.

“Friendly corvette seven and nine destroyed.”

Dana spared a glance for their expanding debris clouds.

“Iron Cross fleet is entering rail cannon range,” another communications officer rattled off.

Dana targeted all the missiles underway against a enemy carriers, adding in secondary orders.

“Corvette three is dead and one just took a hit—” The marker disappeared. “Dead.” The communications officer’s words held a bitter edge.

Dana’s corvette screen was broken. Missiles passed through the opening, right into the destroyers frantically trying to open a wormhole. Their defensive weapons blazed, but nuclear fire ran along the streams of tracers.

“Destroyer four is dead!”

The CIC shuddered with a nearby explosion.

Dana pressed her lips together, the enemy were targeting every ship but hers. Dana had only changed what ship she was on after they had left their last star system. Definitely a spy in our ranks.

The enemy’s fire slackened as they turned their defenses against the oncoming flood of missiles targeting their carrier. She’d staggered them so each missile destroyed covered those behind them.

The first missile reached the enemy carrier, cheers rang out as the massive ship started to crack apart.

“Fighters!”