The Battle of Zahn

Antono DaWeir jumped visibly when the shuttle docked with the space station circling his lifelong home of Zahn. A female voice announced in standard, "Welcome to Yueqao station, please debark the shuttle in an orderly fashion." The message paused for a few seconds, then repeated twice more. Antono stood up in the lower than standard gravity and pulled his rucksack out from the luggage compartment above him. Around him the other forty nine cadets were doing likewise, then they formed an orderly line and went into the station proper. In the corridor near the access were several Petty Officers with digi screens broadcasting information on who was to follow whom. Antono checked his palmo device and stayed put as instructed. Three other cadets also detached themselves from the stream with good natured 'goodbyes' and 'good lucks' passed all around. Within minutes the docking station was empty except for the four of them, two young men and two young women.

Antono didn't care for the other man, Samuel, he was known as arrogant, yet somehow passed the psychological exams to be one of the one hundred cadets graduated to the Federated Space Corps, the women were okay, Sui Len and Ami. All four were of different specialties. Antono had trained as a ships gunner, having spent over a thousand hours on the trainer shooting down enemy fighters, close in space marines and even taking a few shots with larger capital weapons against enemy vessels. Of course most vessels regarded gunners as obsolete, with the ship's Artificial Intelligence taking over that role, it was only on the smaller vessels that human gunners were still used. AIs were not cost effective for small ships. For Antono that was okay he was also trained, and good at, repairing the guns, with secondary training in other ship repairs. His new ship, the Laredo II, was of the 'Raft' class, the smallest of frigates with a crew of only a hundred at full capacity. Antono had a full history of the Laredo II on his palmo, he screened it again, looking for arrival times, after noting it would be another hour before the ship itself docked he went over to a row of lightweight plasticine seats and sat down.

The others joined him soon after, no one spoke for awhile, until finally Ami broke the silence, "So Ant do you think you will fill one of the gunner slots?"

'Ant' was his nickname, like Samuel was 'Sam' and Sui Len was 'Sue', Ami, by benefit of having a short name did not have a nickname at all.

"I was looking over the gunnery roster and it does not make any sense to me, it shows only eight gunners under Petty Officer Randall Worth. He runs the Point Defense batteries, I would presume I will be on the standard cannons, not the Flak Cannons, it is where they usually start recruits. Other than that I could not find out why there are not any positions with the Hellbore battery." The Raft class of ship was primarily designed for providing cover against fighters, incoming missiles and drones, however it did mount one massive Hellbore cannon to engage other capital ships when the opportunity presented itself.

"Oh I am going to feel much safer with you on fighter defense!" said Ami to which Sam just snorted in a contemptuous manner. "Oh come on Sam! He scored the best in the group on Point Defense!"

"Yeah, but without engines he wouldn't get anywhere, the Raft class is all about maneuverability."

"Yes." said Sue, "We all know what a tinfoil tank we are going to be serving on. Raft's don't even have a shield generator. One hit by virtually anything and they suffer crippling losses."

"Well I will feel better with Sam in engineering and Ant working the defense. Sue you will do just fine as on board security, I hope it never comes to that!" said Ami.

"What did you draw Ami?" asked Sam. Ant looked away embarrassed for Ami, it was obvious that Sam had not checked the others assignments.

"Commissary." she answered bluntly.

"Oh." said Sam, he did not look elated, he looked crestfallen and that raised Ant's opinion of him immediately, "Oh Ami, I didn't know."

"What?" she said defensively, "You'll see me more than any of the others, every ship has to eat, without me you can't keep the engines running, Ant can shoot the drones down and Sui cannot bust heads when people get drunk. Its okay Sam, we all play our part."

"But I thought, I thought your scores on electronic counter measures were high...." Sam ventured.

"High yes, but not high enough. Openings are slim for ECM personnel. I am lucky to have been offered a berth at all." Ami said. This was true and each of them thought for a few moments about the fact that only half of the one hundred requested cadets had been brought up to Yueqao station this morning. No explanation had been give for the last minute change, but the cadets had been sent berthing offers and those who had accepted fastest had been sent up to the station to board ships, the others had been given ground side positions manning the weapon platforms scattered about the planet. Rafts were not the only weapons of war to use the massive Hellbores and the weapons platforms mount guns even larger than the biggest dreadnought class. Ami continued after a moment, "I selected an ECM position first, then was told none were available, however I was one of the first fifty to respond and was given ten seconds to accept an offer in the Commissary. I did not hesitate. It took me about two seconds to figure out anyone who didn't make it into space today would be stuck ground side for another six months at least, and then they would have to test against the new recruits for a spot. My scores were just not that strong and I couldn't risk not going. This has been my dream since I was six. I am in space now, I made it. So what if I serve you food as my primary duty? I am ECM third as a secondary position." This meant that if slots opened up in the counter measures area Ami could attempt to get them. They all knew her chances of this were very low, however Ami did not appeared bothered by this. With some reflection Ant agreed she was right; space was space. He would have done the same thing if he had time to rationalize it, unfortunately Ant would probably have been too slow to accept an alternate position, had it been offered.

The group continued bantering for another half an hour until the Laredo II docked. A larger ship would have sent over a ships boat to pick them up, however the Yueqao could handle Frigates and even Destroyer class vessels directly. The four stood as the air lock cycled and pressure shield back ups engaged. The first breath of air from the ship made Ant involuntarily cough, it was foul, carrying with it the odors of too many people in a small place for too long of time. A group of smiling men watched their reactions from the safety of the airlock. Ant, was certain he was looking at the phrase 'shit eating grin' personified. One of the men, elbowed another and this man turned and activated his palmo, he looked to Ant like he was transferring over some credits to the other man.

All of the men and women moved quickly out of the airlock, two of them stopped in front of the four cadets. A short man with hair as black as coal asked "Which one of you is Samuel Jose Hussein?"

Sam saluted him and replied "Here sir!"

The man looked him over, "Sir is it? Fine Joe, give your gear to one of the other kojonos and follow me."

"Yes sir!", said Sam, holding out his bag, Ant picked it up immediately.

The other man, short and stocky with sandy blond hair and dark brown eyes remained smiling at the trio as Sam walked away. "So you must be Antono and which of you girls is our new cook?"

"Me sir", said Ami.

"Don't call me sir, I work for a living. But I am happy to see you! I have the feeling you are going to be a very popular girl aboard the Laredo." the man held his hand out to her and shook hers vigorously when she grabbed it with her own, "I am Chief Petty Officer Randall Worth."

Ami hesitated, as if she wanted to say something.

"Well spit it out girl, I won't bite."

"It...well, 'girl' sir...uh, Mister Randall."

"Oh?" the chief asked with a raised eyebrow, "Whats wrong with 'girl'?"

"It is...I know you don't mean it...it is derogatory sir."

"I see, a local thing huh? Alright Ami, and as some offense was intended, I will try to knock it off. The term is a little derogatory, like 'kojonos', which roughly means 'inexperienced troops'. Look, how old are all of you?"

"Eighteen Chief Petty Officer Worth." said Ant.

"Enough, with that Spaceman First Class Antono, in fact enough with the titles all around, other than keeping you and Ami out of trouble I am on shore leave while the Laredo is repaired. So you are all eighteen. I assume that is local age, what is your age in standard?"

Thinking a moment Ant figured it out first, he excelled at mathematics, "Fourteen point twenty five Chief."

Nodding Randall nodded and winked, "Right. About what I figured, were it not for the war you would not be here right now.", turning back to Ami he said, "In most societies, on most planets you would still be a girl. Zahn is different, here you are slightly better than children, not just because of your physical age, but from an experience point of view too. However, like I said, there is a war on, so you will only be children until this ship passes through its next battle. Then girl, you won't be a girl, though you may still be a 'kojono'. So lets go kids, we need to store your gear, then I will give you a tour and show Sui where to go. After that we are hitting the local bar, no doubt an hour behind the rest of the crew, I drew short straw, but what can you do, huh?"

Ant didn't quite understand all of what the Chief Petty Officer was saying, it was not that his language skills were deficit, he spoke standard as well as two other native Zahn languages, it was the context he was missing, so he nodded, shouldered both ruck sacks and followed the man into the stinking bowels of the Laredo II.

The Chief didn't care for Sui, he didn't say that outright, but Ant caught on right away, they dropped her off with the rest of the sole squad of Marines on board and then proceeded to their new quarters. To Ant's surprise he had his own, very small room. It had a double bunk, but Randall informed him the ship was only staffed with forty naval personal and ten marines. When he asked why, Randall said to wait until after Ami was settled, then he would give them the tour. After both were ready, the next place they went was the Electronics Counter Measures station, Randall demanded and received both Ant and Ami's palmo computers, he issued them standard ship equivalents and then waited for less than a minute as they transferred personal files over to the new ones. Taking their old palmos from them he dumped them into an incinerator bin and cycled the unit, destroying them.

"What! Why did you do that?" asked Ant nervously.

"Communications security. Your palmos still interfaced with the planet below through this stations relays and nothing about the Laredo or any of the other ships for that matter, is to reach the civilians below, the less they know, the less they can tell if they are captured. Your new palmos will let you speak to anyone on board, but you cannot speak to those below without special permission. It also routes all text through the intelligence station, there is to be no direct communication with civilians, understood? We are fighting a war here children, and we fight to win."

"But, but the war won't ever come here!"

Randall stared at Ant with an incredulous look on his face "What do you mean Antono? Zahn is an outer world, do you think the Federation would have installed this base and the ground based weapons platforms for fun? Each of those bases cost more than this entire planet generates in goods and services for a year."

"I..I never thought about that, I thought what we had was standard for a colony, we've never even had a raid."

"A 'raid'? The Amon'Krie don't 'raid', they come in kill everyone and maybe put their own godforsaken form of people on the planet if it has something they need. Zahn definitely has something we need; food, the various metals and minerals are useful also, but primarily this planet helps feed the fleets. This is a sixth generation colony and it is finally starting to pay off for us. C'mon let me show you why I destroyed your palmos and less questions until we are done or there won't be anything left to drink at the bar by the time we finish."

The chief showed them around the ship, paying special attention to the point defense cannon and the kitchen areas. When they were approaching the main Hellbore cannon Ant stopped in his tracks, he was looking over the cabling and recalling the various computer stations they had passed while walking around the ship, as well as remembering what the chief had said about having half the crew.

Randall and Ami stopped and looked at him, "Yes Antono?"

"It is 'Ant', we all call him Ant." said Ami to the Chief in a loud whisper.

"It's....this..." Ant gestured at the thick wiring and black boxes mounted against the walls, "Its AI!"

Randall smiled.

A half hour later Randall had his two charges settled in the booth of the Yueqao stations only eatery and bar, the 'First Bay'. They were no civilians present in the bar, it had been taken over completely by the crew from the Laredo II. Three half empty rice based beers sat in front of them. "You know Ant, I knew I was going to like you when I first laid eyes on you, I said to myself, 'This guy is sharp' and you proved me right. I look forward to having you on my crew, if you are half as good at point defense as your record indicates you will be twice as good as half the crew I have. How is your math under pressure?"

"I won't know Chief, not really, until I have real pressure. We simulated attacks, but everyone tells me it is nothing like real life."

"That boy, is a good answer, the best in fact. I've had boys that told me they wouldn't fumble a firing sequence if there was a hole sucking vacuum right next to them. Sure as shit they are the first ones to piss their pants when we get pinged by a Amon Fleet." Randall drained his beer and said "I got the first round, whose getting the next?"

Ant stood up and nodded, then headed off to the bar to get more beer.

When his back was turned Randall, took Ant's half empty beer and drained it too, catching Ami's look he said, "I'm saving lives here." She shrugged, it didn't mean anything to her. All of the cadets had been in competition and none of them had known which ship they would be assigned to, this had created a distance between them that time would slowly change. The Fleet's capital ships were on a circuit that passed through about every six months local time, they picked up the cadets and left. So far Ami had never heard of anyone who had left that had come back, many had written or sent videos, more still had been reported lost in action or retired. It was a tough choice to go into Fleet, from Ami's perspective leaving Zahn was better than staying, she would do almost anything not to become a laborer on one of the semi-automated farms. Fleet, of course, was the golden opportunity, below that the planetary defense force was a distant second. Preparing meals for the the crew while traveling between the stars was not a life goal, however it did lead to her life goal of seeing as much of the universe as she could. Fleet pay would cover the rest of the goals when she finally decided to settle down or retire. Ant returned with the drinks, he noticed his beer was gone, but didn't say anything, then handled the beers out to the other two and sat down again. Ami sipped her fresh beer and listened to them speak.

"Why did the Laredo dock here?"

"Repairs, our air regenerator went out, the backups...well, you smelled the soup we have been living in the last four weeks. The backups don't scrub much out of the air, just refresh it so we don't suffocate. We had a bet going that when we docked you recruits would either flee or get sick when it hit you. The fact that you only got disgusting looks on your faces means things were not as bad as we thought. Anyway these fourth generations Rafts have this tendency for the air scrubbers to go down. The Master Engineer, he suspected this would happened, especially with the fluctuating power from the added draw of the AI installation. Anyway the M.E. he thinks the extra demand killed the scrubbers, we ordered a heavy duty spare, which got dropped off here about three weeks ago when they came to pick up the crops. So your boy Samuel, he went with the M.E. to pick up the parts, he looked strong."

"How is the war going?" Ant asked.

"How do you think its going when we have to pickup fourteen year old replacement crew?" Randall finished his beer and Ami rose to buy another round. When she left Randall chugged her beer as well, Ant didn't say anything, it was not like the beer was that expensive and the man was his boss.

"So that means bad right?"

"We've been fighting these squids for over ninety years now, they've killed almost two billion humans, resettled a dozen of our worlds, burned off a dozen more, cost us hundreds of quadrillion of credits, up-teen sextillions of man hours and never once offered to parley to discuss ending the war. On our side of it we've given at least as good as they gave us. We are squatting on eighteen of their former worlds, and have burned off five of all life. We have a few million of their people subjected to us too, helps in the research department for bio-weapons and stuff, even if we don't use them because of the Qui." The Qui were another race of life that humans had discovered as they reached for the stars. 'Life' was perhaps pushing the issue, the Qui were machines, the master race that had made them were forgotten even to them. The Amon'Krie traded with the Qui, the Qui traded with the Humans. No diplomacy could be sent through the Qui, they reported to the humans that the Amon'Krie would not discuss the Human race with the Qui, ever. The machine intelligence took that position literally and told the humans they would not intervene in the war. Of course individual Qui were involved, the machines were not a hive mind. Individual entities could and did fight for the humans, just as others fought against them. The Qui stated that from their observations the Amon'Krie were paranoid xenophobes, afraid of all other intelligent life forms. The key being 'life', as the Qui were not alive, technically, the Amon'Krie did not feel a need to exterminate them. They viewed the Qui as tools, complex machines carrying out assigned tasks, nothing more. From the Qui trading the Humans had been able to gather the skills needed to bring their own Artificial intelligences to a new level, that of thinking, problem solving machines, even though the machines had not assisted them directly. The Qui trading agreement also stipulated some very complex rules regarding biological weapons. The humans didn't understand why the machines were against such weapons, but the Qui were adamant on the subject. It was worth noting that the Amon'Krie also did not employ biological weapons, even though they appeared to be close to the same tech level as the humans were.

Ant waited until Ami returned to ask his next question. Randall took his beer and quaffed half of it, letting out a long sigh and saying "Good, very fucking good. I can say this for you, your beer is some of the best I have ever had and I have been to a dozen worlds."

Ami and Ant looked at each other, the 'beer' they were drinking was of the lowest quality either had ever had, no doubt sold to the Fleet station in bulk for a very low price.

"So when did the Laredo II get outfitted with a full combat AI?" asked Ant.

"Full combat AI?” Randall laughed, “It didn't. They still require too much room, what we have is more like a half an AI. It is something new straight out of the research labs. We put started putting it in when we had the Hellbore upgrade four months ago. The AI handles the Hellbore, combat maneuvering and coordinates our ship with others in the area to concentrate our firepower. It is a wonder, let me tell you. Coordinated fire from two hundred fifty thousand kilometers away is devastating, it can make six frigates with their smallest of Hellbores into a threat to even a battleship. You've never seen anything like it. We fleshy types get to shoot down the fighters, jump between the stars and let it beat us at chess once in awhile. You're lucky really, the ship is about half full of personnel. I hear the next generation of Rafts are going to only have crew compartments for fifty to save space for more supplies and energy generators."

"And maybe shields?"

Randall scoffed "Shields? Nah, no way, frigates are too small for 'em, unless something changes anytime soon. The power draw along would be too much for use right now. Besides how cost effective would it be to throw shields on a Frigate? Anything they could mount would be overwhelmed by a even a Destroyer's weapons after only a few seconds. We're better off with the Emmissive armor we got, makes the Amon'Krie's fighters next to useless against us. Still sucks to hit a mine. My round? I might finish your beers for ya, but I won't welsh when its my turn to buy! Food too even. Sit tight kids I'll be back in a minute."

When Randall was safely at the bar Ami whispered to Ant "Doesn't he have any drinking buddies? Why is he hanging out with us?"

"He said he had to watch us, I think he takes the duty seriously."

"At least he could turn his nanites up to help process the toxins for the alcohol. He is already acting strange." Each person in the military had symbiotic nanites roving their circulatory system, the small machines augmented the bodies defenses and increased the survival rate from traumatic injuries by many times. Bleeding to death with nanites was almost impossible. The drawback was the nanites had to be flushed out twice a year and, of course, turned off when any invasive surgery needed to be performed, so special facilities were required to treat military personnel. Each person's nanites could be controlled to an extent via that person's palmo, directing them to process the toxins from alcohol was one of the many functions they could do with ease. Of course they could be directed not to help detoxify too.

Randall came back with two beers of his own and another each for the younger crew members. His gait was unsteady as he arrived at the table and plunked down the beers. "I figured this way we can talk more between trips. So tell me about Zahn. Is it nice? What's the weather like?"

Ami and Ant looked at each other, shared a private laugh and then Ami gestured at Ant to go ahead. "Well chief, its always nice where we have settled, the planet is about point eight standard, with about the same in terms of gravity, we've been slowly processing soil as we spread out, but with over seventy five percent of the planet still unsettled there is a lot to do. We have stuck to the equator for the most part, why work in the temperature extremes if we don't have to? The planet has a seven degree tilt on its axis and at the equator it averages twenty-eight point five degrees. Pretty warm. Humidity is also high and So far the population is up to a hundred and ten million, a drop in the bucket for a world this size. We grow modified corn and soy grains mostly with some specialty crops. Oh, and sweet potatoes, for some reason they grow very well here, in fact we have a variety that grows in some parts of Zahn without any soil additives at all."

"Huh, sweet potatoes? What about the rice? I mean the beer is rice based, isn't that an export."

"No, it is only for local use, a diet staple, the beer is not exported, at least I don't think it gets farther than Yuegao."

"Weird, huh? I figured rice would be a prime crop here."

"It will be, however as much effort as it takes to convert the soil to a usable form, maintaining rice paddies is worse. We are blessed with sixty four percent ocean coverage, pure water not salinated. There is frozen liquid at both poles, and sometimes ice particles will fall from the sky instead of rain, but only near the poles in the cold season. Those places are not traveled much and I have never seen much variance in the seasons."

"Ice particles, you mean snow?" Ant nodded, "Yeah, yeah snow. I came from Soltun IV, you heard of it?" both nodded 'no', "A frozen mining world, very, very high in radioatives, domed cities, cold all the time. You know I never even saw a liquid ocean until I joined Fleet? Funny I always thought going to a warm world would be like paradise. So why'd you want to leave."

"To do our duty, to help Fleet win the war." Ant saw a frown on Randall's face, "Well, okay we wanted to make something of ourselves, if we stayed Ami would be getting married to churn out her mandatory three children, so would I for that matter. Our job prospects would include, farmer, miner, food processor, or possibly we could break into the education circuit. And those are the good jobs. We would, most likely never travel farther than thirty kilometers from where were born. I wanted more."

"Me too." said Ami, "I don't want to have kids yet, I want to see things, go places and have good stories to tell my children when I do have settle down."

"Well that sounds more like it! Country bumpkins trying to get off the farm and see the big ole galaxy. Still there are days I wish for a hot, humid place to settle down and have the little woman push out a few squalling brats. So no man waiting for you back on Zahn Ami? No girl left behind for you Ant?"

Ami stifled a laugh, putting her hand over her mouth.

"What?" Randall asked, mystified as he gulped down another half a beer.

"No, no one for me. I am getting away from that, remember? And Ant, well Ant is duanbei."

"Duanbei? What's that mean I haven't heard..." a loud klaxon sounded in the First Bay. Ant and Ami didn't know what it was, they looked at each other, then at the Chief. The color had drained out of his face, which they recognized as a side effect of the nanites activated from a superior officer; Randall was suddenly, forcibly sober.

"Gods, I hate it when they do that! I was just getting a good buzz on!" Randall said, "Lets go kids, my palmo says battle stations and that means we detach from the space station."

"Chief, is this a drill?" asked Ant.

Grumbling the chief led them back onto the ship, he pointed Ami to the galley and took Ant with him to the point defense weapon stations which were clustered in one area along the main corridor, just a few short strides from the bridge. Below the corridor floor ran the length of the Hellbore cannon, aiming it was a simple matter of pointing the ship at what the captain or AI wanted to hit. As the ship was nimble and highly maneuverable it was not unheard of for the captain to fire it into swarms of fighters with great effect. The Amon'Krie were not overly fond of fighters, their technology ran more towards massive shields and only the heaviest fighters Fleet fielded were effective against anything larger than their destroyer class vessels. Both humans and aliens used masses of missile launchers, which point defense weapons were also useful against. Arriving at the point defense station Ant was introduced to the others on his team with curt nods. Ant was surprised to see only four other gunners report for duty, his palmo had indicated there were eight enlisted men under Chief Randall.

"Alright men, and Kaylen.", said Randall nodding to the only female on his gun crew, "I am going to man the Flak Cannons and I will take Ant with me.", Looking directly at one of the other men, Ceryl, who ranked out at Spaceman, Randall continued, "Able Spaceman Ceryl, you will be in charge of the Point Defense Cannons with your crew." Randall smiled, "And if we get into combat you can be assured of making Petty Officer Ceryl, so don't mess up and don't let your crew mess up." Ceryl nodded and ushered his crew into the Point Defense station, Ant noted that there were two empty seats, even when the four spacemen had sat down and strapped into their position.

Ant followed Randall into the Flack Cannon Point Defense station on the other side and took the position that Randall indicated. "You've tested out on these, I know from your record." Randall said, "But I also know all your training was virtual and I don't think you have ever actually fired one of these before."

"No Chief. It was all virtual."

"Okay then the thing they don't tell you, the one very important thing is that you have to fire these in bursts, fire for two seconds, hold for a least a second, then fire again. They have a serious heat problem and if you fire all out without giving the heat coolant a chance to do its work you will melt the barrels right off, plus there is a feed problem with the ammo. We think we got that worked out, but we might not." Randall gestured at the two empty seats in the station, "Be prepared to move over a seat if your weapon jams, you are starting on starboard side, I have the forward guns, if you have to move head to the aft guns here. If mine jam I will go to the port guns. Of course if you jam two guns and I haven't moved yet you just keep moving over. If you melt the barrels off your two pairs of guns do not move to the third seat. I won't risk you melting the barrels of three sets of guns. Oh and if you do melt off both your guns I will bust you down to the standard Point Defense until you learn how to fire as I order. You clear?"

"No questions sir. Fire two, rest one pattern, move to the aft gun if I jam or melt the starboard gun down, move to the next gun if you haven't moved and I have jammed the port gun and aft guns, but not if I melt them down. If I melt the two guns down assigned to me, I will be on the standard Point Defense until I get additional training on the Flak Cannons."

Randall nodded "Perfect. Now the guns are in pairs, just like you trained on. The range finder compensates for the targets velocity and drift, each set has enough ammo for a hundred and twenty one two second bursts, which gives it a combat life of about six minutes per gun with the one second cool down interval, together we have only about twelve minutes of active life in the battle. If we use all the ammo available you and I are are going to run to the physical location of the port and starboard guns and cycle the ammo bins, which is not quite automated yet. Frankly the chances of us having to do that are pretty low, the battle will be over by then and we should have time to process the ammunition between skirmishes if we use more than expected. We are out of formation right now. There are two other frigates docked with the Yuegao and we will take up formation with them providing any cover fire that we can." Randall's palmo chirped for his attention, he brought it up and read some data then returned focus to Ant "As I thought, because we are short handed on our point defense, the AI has assigned us rear position in a reverse triangle formation, with us three kilometers below and six behind the two other frigates."

"Did they...did they say anything else? Is this a drill or a raid? Are the Amon'Krie here?"

"I told you once kid, the Amon'Krie don't do raids. This isn't a drill."

"How many ships?"

"Us or them? Well we have ten frigates here, we are a raiding and screening force. We also have the battleship class 'Harkenon', two heavy cruisers, a Fleet Repair cruiser and one retrofitted battleship carrying about two dozen space fighters. The other seven frigates are already in formation with the main group, it looks like the AI is having us linger about the station and planet to provide additional covering fire against any missiles or fighters that come in this close."

"How many ships did they bring?"

"Thirty-six, including eight battleship class, four mid range carriers, various missile light cruisers, plus a few repair-support vessels."

"Any landing forces?"

"Sorry kid, no."

Ant considered for a moment, calculating the odds, factoring in the planets weapons platforms, the military space station and the planetary fighter defense forces. "We can't win." Ant shook his head and pulled up a combat calculation program on his palmo, it took moments to gather the incoming enemy ship data and run it through the palmo in a best guess of the battle's outcome with the assets fleet had in system. The results were decisive. He whispered to Randall "Even if we fight to the last man and do everything perfect we all die and they have thirty vessels left."

"Ant I am sorry. Really more than you know. You can still do your job right?"

"Yes." Ant said softly, his eyes growing red and puffy.

Randall put his hand on Ant's shoulder and said "Then do it well, remember what I said and make them pay for killing your friends and family. It is all we can ever do in this war, make the other side pay."

Ant pulled the full helmet down over his head to hide the tears coming to his eyes, he immediately entered the guns view outside the ship, enemy vessels were painted in the starry night, so far away that individual ships could only be designated with extreme zooming. As he zoomed in to confirm his palmo's data visually he felt the frigate detach and begin moving away from the station. His view shifted until he was facing towards the planet and he noticed several shuttles, leaving the station for the surface.

The Laredo II accelerated and Randall commented in his ear, "Well kojono on the good news front, your friend Joe managed to haul the new air regenerators on board, I don't doubt the Chief M.E. will have him hooking it up too, there is some combat value to having it installed. We were supposed to have it working before we undocked." There was a pause and then Randall came back on. "I just checked, we are running without air, so yeah I guess he is going to be a busy boy your Joe."

"How much air do we have?" Ant asked, wondering, as tears rolled down his face how having clean air was supposed to be a good thing in the face losing everyone he ever knew.

"About eight hours, but it'll get dicey in about six. Lucky we are running with less than half a standard crew, it gives us all more air to breath. Okay from here on out we are on either team or one-one communications."

A chorus of "Aye Chiefs" rang out from the other Spacemen and Ant switched his communications to team, which for him was the same as one-one with his immediate superior.

As the Laredo II approached a twenty thousand kilometer range from the station the group veered slightly and started spinning and circling in five thousand kilometer radii, Ant noticed it was timed so that on their eighty second cycle they would be precisely where they needed to be in order to be the most effective when the main Amon'Krie fleet pickets arrived. There were no orders or plans on his palmo for an eighty third cycle.

Ant had some time so he investigated the Flak Cannons software, digging into the guts of the programming he found there were existing protocols for the two second, one second fire pattern that Randall had told him to use. He tweaked the protocol to wait one point one seconds between firing bursts, this would extend his weapon life an extra twelve seconds with a negligible effect on his combat effectiveness. Any alteration of this magnitude to the firing capabilities of the weapon required a supervisor's approval, so he palmo-ed it to the Chief and waited for a reply. A few seconds later Randall's voice spoke into his ears, "Alright kid, you'll do." And his firing pattern was confirmed. Ant stared as the approaching enemy ships grew closer and closer, around circle forty seven the Fleet engaged them.

Massive hellbore's ripped into the enemy ships at extreme range, focusing on one of the closest battleships to their position. That battleship's shields were overwhelmed in the long range barrage and as the Fleet ships continued to barrel towards the enemy they let loose with a second volley. The three largest ships focused on the weakened Amon'Krie battleship, one of the hellbore shots went completely through the enemy vessel and brief fires were visible on the highest magnification Ant could squeeze out of his optics. It appeared that the seven frigates had concentrated on other targets, namely three or four of the enemy frigates, their weapons, scaled down hellbore cannon, were more than enough to punch through the light, unshielded ships, one disintegrated under two solid hits. After this barrage the fleet ships split and turned as one, but not before they entered extreme missile and torpedo range of the enemy. Ant whispered to himself quietly "C'mon, come on!" as he watched not hundreds, but thousands of missiles pursue the fleeing Fleet ships. The cloud of missiles slowly gained on the ships and the point defense weapons opened fire, reducing their numbers steadily as the weapons got closer and closer. At the speed everything was moving it took less than two minutes for the missiles to impact, by the time they did less than a hundred warheads remained. A wall of dust and debris obscured Ant's optics, it took a half circle to resolve the visibility issues and pick out the surviving Fleet ships. Three of the frigates appeared unscathed, as did the repair ship. Two of the remaining frigates were simply gone and the remaining two were dead in space, with occasional flares as their oxygen supplies burned off. The battleship was still moving steadily away from the fight, but the converted carrier was off course and moving slowly. The heavy cruisers were also damaged, checking his palmo Ant saw one had complete shield loss and almost forty percent casualties, but no engine damage and the other had engine damage and twenty percent casualties, however its shields were recovering.

"Chief, where are the fighters?"

"Launched a few seconds after contact, you probably missed them as we came to our combat location, they are running in stealth mode. The are circling the station about ten clicks out, if we are lucky they will pick off a frigate. You thought your job was hard, huh? We just think we are going to die, those fighter pilots don't even have anywhere to land, even if the planet lives, they can't enter the atmosphere."

"They could dock at the station." Ant offered.

Randall laughed, "You're an optimist huh? I'll give you a hundred to one odds on any amount of money you care to name that not one of the fighter pilots survives."

"Fifty credits. Then you will only owe me five thousand."

"I'll take an easy fifty any day and done."

"I don't think I am going to have to worry about paying up." said Ant.

"I do, now I have a reason to live. Fifty kojono credits makes the beer taste all that much better."

Ant continued to watch the battle on the edge of the system, the Amon'Krie split off a battleship, four medium cruisers and four frigates to chase the remaining Fleet ships out of the system, their first stop was to finish off the wounded carrier and heavy cruiser, which they did with brutal efficiency, though the heavy cruiser managed to turn it's hellbores aft and fire at the pursuing ships until it one of their medium ships was disabled and a frigate was destroyed. The carrier had no options, it lacked long range armament, however it boasted a huge number of point defense weapons, it was only from those that either ship manged to survive as long as they did. The AI ordered the other ships to make for the warp point just outside of the system and get away. The mop up battle was over within ten circles of the space station, leaving Ant to another long thirty seven circles until interception by the main alien fleet to contemplate his probable very short career in Fleet.

It was only cycle before they started firing the hellbore, the Amon'Krie were coming at the three Fleet ships and space station with everything they had, the planet and station had launched missiles already, they would hit about a cycle's worth of time after the Laredo II was engaged, the fighters had also started on a steady course towards the enemy ships. Checking his palmo one last time Ant knew he was going to die before his planet did, it was a comforting thought, at least he would not have to see it die. The AI had calculated the best course of action and the remaining ships were carrying out its orders. Ant knew it was suicidal, but he tracked the enemy ships waiting for their missile and fighter launch anyway.

Thirty seconds before engagement Randall spoke to him, "This duanbei thing..."

"Yes?" Ant asked, it was about the last thing he expected his commanding Chief to ask.

"I pulled it up from the locals. Well how do you know? You are very young, I mean have you..."

"No. No it is not...appropriate before marriage."

"So you've never, huh? But how do you know?"

"It just is chief, isn't everyone evaluated before placement onto a Fleet ship?"

"Oh so it was to get placed here then? A means to an end?"

"No, not at all."

"Understood. Good luck Space Recruit DaWeir. May whatever Gods you worship see you through this alive and intact."

"And you..Chief."

And then the Laredo II fired its hellbore Mk VII cannon. Ant felt the heat, even in the sealed Flak Cannon station "Its so hot!", he commented.

"That's what she said.” Randall muttered, “No one is allowed in the corridor except in emergencies during combat, gets up to almost to eighty eight degrees in there after a couple of firings. Heat buildup is a problem. Ready for second firing, watch the incoming missiles, fire at will.", this last was addressed to all the point defense personal.

The cannon fired again, the heat was stifling. "Missile and fighter incoming!" said Randall.

The Flak Cannon had a much longer range than the regular point defense cannon and Ant heard Randall open up with his guns before he did. Although the guns were isolated from the station by distance and the vacuum of space, the computer let off a regular blip each time each gun was fired. Ant was certain he could feel a slight vibration through the hull as the guns fired as well, the blips helped keep him on task, the next two minutes could be the last two of his life. With four minutes of extra ammunition Ant decided that expending the excess on long range shots was not going to do any harm, the other defenders must have felt the same way as they let loose with the regular Point Defense Cannons the same time as Ant. With a quick press of the button Ant acquired a target and let loose a stream of two hundred and fifty millimeter rounds at where the computer predicted the Amon'Krie would be in the time it took the round to close the distance. He abandoned that target and fired into the incoming missile swarm, around the ship his projectiles were joined by those from the space station and even some from the weapon platforms on the ground. Hovering around the planet a series of satellite based missiles also launched, to coincide with the arrival of the ships. The missiles launched from the base and the missiles launched from the ground should all arrive at the same time, overwhelming the alien defenses. An impressive sixteen thousand missiles were headed towards the enemy fleet. The Fleet ships and the space station continued to fire hellbores as the distance closed, when the Amon'Krie had traveled half the distance their missiles were among the fleet frigates. Through luck, the Laredo was not hit by any missiles, most flew past the ship on course for their final destination; the Yueqao. Of the other frigates one was as lucky as the Laredo II, the other took a missile head on, the bridge exploded and the ship disintegrated in less than a second. It happened so fast that before Ant fully realized it the debris field was behind them and they were still on their way towards the enemy fleet.

The space station fired its hellbores twice more, then fell silent under the missile barrage. Ant was too busy to notice as the enemy fighter had arrived. Where was their fighter support? One, two, three fighters...Ant knocked them out of space as they spun through and past the remaining two frigates, then looped around in pursuit. In the corner of his interface screen he could tell the enemy fighters were almost depleted, down to less than thirty percent effective strength in less than two minutes. Modern combat between capital ships was no place for the light fighters the Amon'Krie fielded. Then they were in among the enemy vessels, their hellbore sang a tune of destruction once more, destroying a frigate with its last planned shot as they passed through the enemy formation.

"Get to the aft! Ant move to the aft gun!" screamed Randall.

Ant removed his helmet, the air in the station was thin and full of smoke. Had they been hit? Ant couldn't remember any impacts. He unstrapped and fought against the acceleration to move to the next seat over. There was a fire, he could smell a fire, he was shamed as he wet his pants while moving to the aft seat, fear tightened his stomach and attempted to pull his testicles into the lucrative safety of his abdomen. He took a gasp of air, hearing Randall say "Don't vomit Ant. Please don't vomit or I will too. Piss I can stand, vomit will set me off." Ant hear this said out loud, not through the radio in his helmet, so at least he was spared the indignity of having the rest of his team hear the chief's comments.

Quickly he pulled the next combat hood over his face, it immediately tightened and provided him with a clean, smoke-free oxygen mix and dulled his hearing to what was going on in the chaos of the Flak Cannon station. Looking through his optics he could see that they were accelerating away from the enemy ships. Some of Fleet's heavy fighters were following, one, two, three bursts of light and they were gone, Ant stopped staring and started firing, removing the light enemy fighters from the equation as fast as he could line them up. Eight Fleet fighters pulled through, pursuing the two frigates at high gees. Jigging and dodging the fighters passed the frigates, seeking to outrun the point defense firing that would destroy them if they were inadvertently hit. Six of the fighters survived the next ten seconds of fire, five survived an additional ten and four pulled past what was arguably the maximum effective range of the Amon'Krie's point defense weapons.

Had Ant been paying attention he would have cheered, however he was concentrating on the enemies next launch of missiles. Almost eight hundred missiles launched at the two frigates. Impact was in less than eight seconds, the ships tilted and spun, dancing apart, then closer in an effort to confuse the incoming missiles. Ant fired four bursts, shots from the planet also intercepted the swarm about a tenth of a second before impact. The Amon'Krie had not fired missiles at the planet in the last volley which freed the planetary defenses to fire in support of the two remaining frigates. Planetary missile defense extended to far greater lengths than anything a ship could achieve, something Ant was thankful for. The defenses worked. Both frigates pulled through the storm of missiles, Ant didn't know how this was possible, the other frigate was venting air into space, but it kept moving. The battle of Zahn was over for Ant. The captain of the Laredo II put all power to the engines and headed towards the warp point to get the ship out of the system. It would be many minutes before transition through the warp point and during that time the ship would record the death of another Fleet world. Ant could only watch in horrible fascination as his planet died. One of the remaining fighters was unlucky enough to be struck by a Amon'Krie missile, leaving three survivors. They requested docking permission from the Laredo II which was the least damaged of the two frigates, and their request was granted. The Laredo II cycled each pilot in at the front airlock and then discarded the heavy fighters once the pilots were on board. The small vehicles were set on a limited form of AI called 'autopilot' and directed to fly into the local sun in an effort to deny the Amon'Krie any intelligence that could be gathered from deconstructing them.

"Easy come, easy go." said Randall as five thousand credits transferred to Ant's palmo. "You okay kid?"

Watching his world burn under the massive assault of the Amon'Krie ships Ant shook his head "No."

Checking the ship diagnostics Ant was surprised to find the Laredo had taken some serious damage in the course of the battle. The other point defense team was gone, simply gone, their station wiped out by an explosion that also damaged the ship's hellbore cannon. Going down the casualty list Ant was somehow not surprised to find that they had twelve known casualties, Sam had made it, but half the marine squad including Sui were dead, killed in the same forward explosion that had destroyed the other point defense crew. The Chief Master Engineer was listed as wounded and Ami's status was listed as unknown, along with the other commissary crewman. At some point during the battle the air scrubber had been installed, so breathing, at the very least, would not be a problem. "Kojono luck." Ant whispered.

"Yeah, war is a harsh bitch." said Randall, “I don't think you live through this and stay a kojono Ant. Welcome aboard.”

Randall and Ant were trapped in the Flak Cannon station, which was maintaining a seal against the vacuum of space that ran the length of the corridor over the hellbore cannon. With nothing better to do Ant watched his world die.

Lifting the hood off of the young man Randall said, "Don't watch. Remember how it was, not how you left it.”

The younger man buried his head in Randall's shoulder and cried. Randall soothed him and told him they would be back, they would avenge these deaths. He knew it was too soon to mention how fortunate Ant and the other surviving Recruits were to be alive at all. That would come later, much later when this boy had grown up and gained some perspective.

..home..   

This section was last updated on 20 MAR 2010

The content on this website is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.