

# Stand into Danger

# D. J. Holmes

https://www.facebook.com/Author.D.J.Holmes

d.j.holmess@hotmail.com

### Comments welcome!

Copyright © D. J. Holmes 2015

## Table of Contents:

Chapter 1 – Welcome to the War

Chapter 2 – Intel

Chapter 3 – Misdirection

Chapter 4 – Confrontation

Chapter 5 – Reunion

Chapter 6 – Close the Enemy

Chapter 7 – An Old Acquaintance

The Void War Excerpt

Chapter 1 – Welcome to the War

3rd September 2439, edge of the Ouvea system.

The Royal Space Navy warship Achilles jumped out of shift space into the French system of Ouvea. On the bridge Captain Jonathan Somerville paced back and forth as he waited for his ship's sensors to update the bridge's main holo display. His ship was returning to Earth from the Indian colonial system of Aror.

Over the last hundred years, relations between Britain and India had been little more than cordial. Yet, the two nations didn't share any space borders and so they were open to a degree of cooperation. Somerville had just spent a month carrying out war exercises with elements of the Indian Defense Force. Under different circumstances, he should have been pleased to be coming home after a successful mission. In the one on one combat simulations Achilles had outclassed her Indian opponents. Somerville had also had the opportunity to use Achilles as a flagship to command a number of Indian units in a series of simulated fleet engagements. He knew he had done well and it would look good on his personnel file, if the Admiralty ever considered him for promotion to flag rank.

Something was wrong though; he could feel it. After the month long exercises, Achilles had waited at Aror for orders to return to British space but none had come. Then the Indians had informed him that a number of expected freighters from Earth were overdue. That had been all Somerville needed to hear. He had immediately broken orbit and headed for the shift passage to Ouvea to head home.

It had taken them a week to reach Ouvea from Aror. The shift drive had been a miraculous discovery. It allowed human ships to travel at speeds that far exceeded the speed of light. Yet it had its drawbacks. It could not be engaged near gravimetric fields and objects that exerted gravity like stars, planets, asteroids and crucially, the dark matter scattered between the stars, all prevented a ship from entering shift space. With up to eighty four percent of the total mass of the galaxy consisting of the strange dark matter it limited where space ships could go with the shift drive. Finally though, they were here and as Somerville continued to pace back and forth the sensors began to fill in what was happening in the system.

The gravimetric sensors could pick up ships that were accelerating at any reasonable rate of speed. They thus provided a real time feed of what was happening. The rest of Achilles' sensors were focused on picking up and deciphering the electromagnetic radiation coming from the inner system. Travelling at the speed of light the data they picked up was often hours out of date. Still it was better than nothing.

Around the planet there were two ships that looked like they were boosting out of orbit. Further out, a third was making its way towards the shift passage that led to New France. There was also substantial heat radiation being given off by a number of orbital factories. From the data Somerville could immediately see that two heat sources were missing. Ouvea was supposed to have two orbital battlestations. Neither was radiating heat into the cold of space. At least they hadn't been several hours ago when the sensor data Achilles was picking up left Ouvea's orbit.

Before Somerville could react alarms began to go off from the gravimetric plot. He immediately shifted his attention to the display but the Sub Lieutenant manning the tactical station beat him to it. "Missile launch! I repeat missile launch. They are angling towards us!"

Somerville froze for a moment. Where did they come from? His next thought catapulted him into action as his anger kicked in. Who would dare fire on a King's ship!

"Navigation, bring us to full military power immediately, then prepare to go into evasive maneuvers," Somerville shouted. "Tactical bring up our point defense network, then figure out how many missiles we are dealing with. Sensors, have you got a fix on the ships that opened fire yet?

"Sir," Lieutenant Jackson at the tactical console called out. "There are four missiles homing in on us now. Our point defenses are beginning to track them. I'm also bringing up the Electronic Counter Measures."

Somerville breathed a sigh of relief. In the combat simulations against the Indians Achilles had been able to fend off upwards of twelve missiles. Unless these four carried very sophisticated jamming modules they wouldn't pose much of a threat.

"Jensen?" Somerville said as he looked at the Third Lieutenant, who was manning the sensor console.

"Hold on sir," she answered. "There are two ships beginning to accelerate. They must have been in stealth mode with their engines and reactors powered down. They are separating now. One is moving towards our nose while the other is angling down towards our engine sections."

Exactly what I would do, Somerville thought. The main firepower of a warship was its missile armament. Each carried a thermonuclear warhead that could cause serious damage to a ship from even a proximity hit. Each human ship had missile tubes down its port and starboard sides and Achilles, being a medium cruiser, had eleven missiles in each broadside. Her two attackers were angling to bring their full broadsides to bear on Achilles while she could only use her single forward and rear missile tubes.

"Not today you don't," Jonathan whispered to himself. "Navigation, bring our bow up seven degrees then turn to engage the first ship. Tactical, as soon as you have a clear shot fire a full broadside, I want that first ship destroyed."

By now Achilles' main computer had been able to get a read on the opposing ships and Royal Space Navy Intelligence data had identified them as Russian frigates. Somerville grunted in satisfaction. One broadside of eleven missiles would soon dispatch the first frigate. All they had to do was survive the four missiles approaching them.

Achilles completed her maneuver and brought her missile tubes to bear on the first frigate, giving Achilles' tactical officer a few vital seconds to fire his broadside before he switched his full attention to commanding the point defenses.

As Somerville watched, the space around Achilles erupted into a dazzling display of lights as the small point defense plasma cannons opened up. They threw hundreds of green bolts of super heated plasma towards the approaching missiles. Then Somerville heard the familiar pop pop sound of Anti-Missile missiles launching as they too tried to intercept the approaching Russian weapons.

A gasp from the tactical officer was the first sign that something was wrong. Somerville saw it too. As the first AM missiles reached out for the Russian missiles the sensor track on them suddenly went blurry. One AM missile still struck a Russian missile but the rest failed to hit their targets. As the three remaining Russian missiles continued towards Achilles the tactical officer fired off another round of AM missiles. Even as they were streaking out towards their targets another Russian missile was hit by a plasma bolt and exploded.

Yet again, the sensor track on the Russian missiles suddenly got fuzzy. This time all the AM missiles missed. "Shit," the tactical officer swore.

Now only thirty seconds out, Somerville knew there was no time for another round of AM missiles. "Navigation, evasive maneuvers now!" He shouted.

Even as another Russian missile exploded from a plasma bolt, Somerville feared his ship was about to take a beating. As the navigation officer threw the ship into a series of wild maneuvers Somerville overrode the safety restrictions on Achilles' ECM. A number of circuits and relays burnt out but those that continued to function threw a powerful wave of electromagnetic energy at the approaching missile, trying to confuse its guidance systems.

Whether from the flying of his navigation officer, the ECM or just blind luck the missile overshot its target. It's seeker head immediately sent an order detonating the warhead in an effort to score a proximity hit. The explosion erupted in space only a thousand meters off Achilles' starboard bow. The bridge shook and Somerville had to grab onto his command chair to remaining standing as the wave of the thermonuclear blast washed over his ship.

"Status report!" He demanded as he sat in his command chair. There was no place for standing in a naval battle. He had forgotten with everything that was going on around him.

"No hull breaches," one of the Sub Lieutenants announced. "We have lost a number of point defense cannons from our forward starboard sections but the armor held. No reports of causalities coming in yet."

Satisfied that they were ok, Somerville turned back to the main holo display to watch their anti-ship missiles as they approached the second frigate. He needed his first salvo to destroy its target so he could turn and face the other one.

Sparing a glance at the first frigate, he saw it was still trying to work its way around behind Achilles. For the moment though, Somerville had little choice but to let the frigate continue unopposed. If he turned after it before destroying the first frigate they were engaging now he would just be presenting his stern to it. He had to destroy one before going for the second.

Silence descended on the bridge as everyone watched, willing their missiles on to their target. No one had expected the Russian missiles to prove so successful. Sparing a glance at his crew, Jonathan saw that a number of them were tapping their command consoles and Jensen was biting her fingernails. No one quite knew what to expect from the frigate's defenses.

When the missiles entered point defense plasma cannon range the frigate opened up on them. Soon AM missiles were streaking away from the frigate. Eleven became ten and then nine. Two more disappeared as a plasma bolt ruptured one missile's fuel tank, the explosion taking another one with it. Still, the frigate wasn't destroying them quick enough. In the end five missiles came tearing in on it. Three got direct hits and when the fireball dispersed nothing was of the first frigate.

Somerville let out a deep sigh, only now realizing he had been holding his breath. He hadn't been sure his missiles would get the job done. The missing French battlestations and the impressive Russian missiles had him a bit spooked. They had worked though, and now it was time to send some after their second attacker. "Navigation, bring us about. Get our port missile tubes to bear on that frigate!"

"Aye Captain," navigation said eagerly.

"Captain," Lieutenant Jensen called from the sensor console. "I think I know what those missiles are doing to confuse our point defense fire."

"Yes?" Somerville queried as he looked at her. While everyone else was focused on the second Russian frigate she had her head bowed over her sensor console.

"It's actually rather simple," she began. "We use the same search radar frequency for both our point defense network and the seeker heads on our AM missiles. That way our missiles can Achilles' radar to augment their own targeting data. The Russian missiles must have some form of radar analyzer; they are determining the frequency of our radar, then, when the AM missiles get into range, they send out their own radar beams on the same frequency. The multiple returns are confusing our AM missiles' targeting computers and causing them to miss."

"Can we prevent them from doing it again?" Somerville asked as he jumped to his feet and rushed over to Jensen's command console.

"Yes sir," Jensen answered. "It's not perfect but for now we can change the frequency for our main search radar array. It will mean our AM missiles won't be as effective but at least they won't be confused when the Russian missiles beam out their own radar."

"Very good," Somerville said as he clapped her on the shoulder. "Make the necessary changes."

Just as he gave the order the gravimetric sensor beeped to announce that the remaining frigate had finally managed to reload its missile tubes and had fired two more at Achilles. It was too late. Achilles was already turning to face the threat and her main point defenses could target the incoming missiles. As she turned, her port missiles tubes came to bear and eleven missiles shot out after the frigate. Give how successful their last broadside had been Somerville knew it was overkill. He wanted to make sure all the same.

The Russian missiles were the first to reach their target. Thankfully, Jensen's alteration of the tracking radar frequencies worked just as expected. As a wave of AM missiles reached towards the approaching Russian missiles and plucked both out of existence. The Russian frigate didn't fare so well. They managed to destroy four of the eleven British missiles but the rest came crashing into the small ship. It was impossible to tell how many actually scored a direct hit but in the end it didn't matter. Nothing was left of the frigate.

"Set course for Ouvea," Somerville ordered when it was clear the frigate was no longer a threat. "Take us into orbit. We need to find out exactly what is going on here."

"Sensors," he called to Lieutenant Jensen. "Keep a close watch on the system. If there is even a whiff of another Russian ship I want to know about it immediately. I'm going to survey the damage of the ship. You all did well today, just as we have trained," he said as he stood and left the bridge.

*

Several hours later Somerville was again pacing on the bridge. As Achilles approached the French colony on Ouvea she had beamed out communications on all the channels her communications officer could think of. Yet there had been no reply. It was as if every ship and station in orbit, and every town and city on the planet, was asleep.

As he was considering what to do next, Somerville's thoughts were interrupted by the Sub Lieutenant who had taken over the communications console when the watch had changed. "Sir, I'm getting a communication from one of the stations in orbit. It looks like it is relaying a message from the planet."

"Put is on the main holo display," Somerville ordered.

Moments later the image of a large bearded man in combat armor appeared. The markings on his breastplate indicated that he served in the Russian Army, his rank insignia marked him out as a Lieutenant General. There was also a rank insignia engraved into the combat armor but Jonathan didn't know what it signified, though it did look important.

"British ship," the man began, "this system is now under the administration of the Russian Space Federation. Your presence here is illegal. I demand that you leave immediately. If you remain we will take it as an act of war. If that happens I can't be held responsible for the population of this planet."

"Short and sweet," Somerville said for his bridge crew after the Russian cut the communication. His quip had been for show though; inside he was seething. He knew what the Russian commander was threatening. The population of the planet was nothing to him. His superiors might even reward him if some of the population were to meet an untimely end. If the Russians had invaded the planet they no doubt wanted it for themselves. A native population would only get in the way once they started bringing in their own colonists.

Somerville's fists bunched up into balls and he began to grind his teeth. It was just like Radian IV all over again. Back then he had been a freshly minted Commander. In his new frigate, Brute, he had been sent to an isolated mining station to investigate reports of an uprising. When he had arrived he found six men who had fallen out with the station's administration and taken thirty workers hostage. The Captain of Brute's marines had stormed the section where the hostages were but the men had used them as human shields. In the end twenty had been killed. Seeing all those bodies torn up by plasma rifles still haunted his dreams. He hated cravens who hid behind civilians. It was the worst form of cowardice. This Russian would pay, Somerville swore to himself.

"Record this and send it," he ordered once he had calmed himself enough to control his reply.

He then stood and looked towards one of the imaging devices on the bridge. "Russian commander, this is Captain Jonathan Somerville of the Royal Space Navy. It is customary to identify yourself when dealing with foreign representatives. My ship, HMS Achilles, is in the Ouvea system at the request of the French government. Two of your naval ships fired upon my ship without any provocation. I take that as an act of war. Your presence on Ouvea is another act of war. I hope you haven't become too comfortable. We'll be finishing this conversation in person very soon. Good day sir." As he finished he made sure he projected his most confident smile.

"Message sent sir," the communications officer said. "May I ask," she continued, "do you really intend to try to liberate Ouvea?"

"Certainly not," Somerville answered. "But it won't hurt us for him to be thinking about what we might be planning."

"What action do you purpose we take then?" William Hamilton, Achilles' First Lieutenant asked from his position at the tactical console.

"We need intel," Somerville began. "We also need to hurt this confident bastard. Without naval cover his position will be very weak. If we can take out some of his ground equipment as well we may encourage the locals to rise up against him. Whether they do or not, we will have to move on. We simply don't have the manpower to take on the Russian Army. There is nothing we can do for the populace of Ouvea at the moment. If the Russians have invaded this system they are likely trying to conquer all of French colonial space. If so then there is going to be fighting at New France. That is where we are needed."

New France was France's colonial crown jewel. Outside of the Sol system it was their largest manufacturing base and generated huge tax revenues. It had been discovered sixty five years ago and since then the French government had been pouring resources into the system. The last report Jonathan had read estimated that the population had risen to over five hundred thousand. It was also the most heavily defended system in French space, with a large percentage of France's fleet based there.

"So how are we going to get any intel?" Hamilton asked. "The Russians obviously have the planet locked up tight. Not a single signal has got out. They must have some kind of jamming equipment."

Somerville brought up an enhanced image of the instillations in orbit around Ouvea. "There," he said pointing to a smaller station, "that is a transit hub for cargo and passenger freighters. The crew of those ships will probably still be on board. The station they are docked at is too small to house them all. We'll send in a force to cut out one of the freighters. We'll get our intel from the freighter's crew and sensor logs.

"Sensors," he continued, "I want you to carry out a detailed survey of the planet. Look for any heavy concentrations of Russian soldiers and material. Focus on the main cities. If the Russians have landed enough troops to subdue an entire planet there are likely to be large staging areas near the main population centers. We'll hit as many of them as we can with ground attack missiles as a distraction while our marines get us a freighter."

As everyone quickly began to put Somerville's plan into action he took a few moments to compose himself and think about this next words. With a couple of touches to his command chair he opened a ship wide COM channel. "Achilles, this is your Captain speaking. By now you all know we were attacked by Russian frigates as we entered the Ouvea system. It now seems the colony has been invaded by Russian troops as well. If the Russians had attacked this system then they have likely attacked the rest of the French colonies. That means going through whatever forces the Russians have out there is our only way of getting home. We have all trained hard to make Achilles the fighting ship she is. It's now time to stand into danger. I know you will all do me proud. Somerville out."

# Chapter 2 – Intel

3rd September, 2439, inner Ouvea system.

Third Lieutenant Jensen checked the fastenings on her combat suit for the fourth time. She hadn't worn the armor since basic training. Every naval officer had to be trained to use them in the rare case a ship was boarded by hostiles. Not that such an event was ever likely to happen. Certainly, since leaving the navy's lunar academy, she had never had to practice with the suits aboard the various ships she had served on.

Jensen was standing in one of Achilles' two shuttles, surrounded by marines in heavy combat gear. Their equipment was bigger and bulkier and yet they looked much more at home in them. Achilles had a crew of over four hundred men and women, sixty of which were Royal Marines. It was a tradition dating back to the time of the wet navy's of Earth. As well as serving as combat soldiers, the marines doubled as crewmembers for Achilles. Although their duties were light as they were expected to spend a lot of their time training for combat.

Their enthusiasm was infectious. Jensen had hoped to join the navy all her life. The idea of sailing between the stars, exploring new systems and protecting Britain's colonies had always been a romantic dream of hers. Despite the frequent boredom that came with spending months out in space, she knew that her career choice was everything she had wanted.

The battle with the Russian frigates had been icing on the cake. She had never longed to see combat but she had been training for it all her adult life. It had been satisfying to finally test her abilities for real. Yet the marines' thirst for battle was unlike anything she had ever seen before. After the battle with the Russian ships, when she had been able to get some time alone to think over what had happened, she had almost had a panic attack. In the heat of the moment the danger hadn't really sunk in. Alone, in her quarters, the shock had hit her. She knew it would be something she would be dreaming about.

Yet almost all of the marines had seen combat before. They knew what to expect from this mission and still they were excited. Sure, she was excited about the upcoming mission. It wasn't often an officer got to go off ship. If they succeeded in capturing their goal she would also get the chance to command her own ship, albeit only for a few hours. Though maybe the Captain would find it useful to keep the freighter for a while and she could continue to command it.

But the marines weren't just excited about the mission. They were thirsting for the promise of combat. Almost all of them were boasting about their skills, about how many Russians they would personally take out and how they would single handedly complete the mission. No doubt some of it was macho showmanship, even from the female marines. Yet they were just different to naval personnel. While Jensen trained to test her tactical awareness and skills against a faceless, distant opponent, the marines trained to match their bodies and reflexes against someone up close and personnel.

As Jensen listened to their bravado, she realized they had to believe they were the best, for anything less would mean death. The devastatingly powerful plasma rifles all of Earth's armed forces carried ensured that when it came to hand to hand fighting, there would only be one survivor. If the marines were full of thoughts about not being good enough or not making it back, those thoughts would become self-fulfilling prophecies.

Keying her COM unit Jensen opened a channel to the rest of the naval personnel who were on the shuttle with her. "Listen up everyone," she began, "the marines know their business. When we get to the freighter stay behind them. Let them carry out their mission. Once they have cleared the frigate then it's our turn. Neither the marines nor I need any heroes getting in the way. Is that understood?"

After a chorus of 'Yes sirs' came across the COM unit Jensen allowed everyone to go back to their thoughts. They would be launching from the ship in minutes.

*

Surveying the planet before him, "have you managed to locate any targets for us?" Somerville asked the Sub Lieutenant who had taken over Jensen's position at the sensor console.

"Yes sir, I'm putting the data on the main holo display now. Tactical already has the targeting information." came the reply.

Somerville simply nodded and then began to study what the Sub Lieutenant was able to decipher about the Russian positions. As he suspected, there were sizeable landing zones around some of the major population centers. The images showed the Russians frantically trying to move most of their equipment away from the landing zones and into the populated areas. They knew Achilles would never fire on civilians, especially not friendly civilians. However, some of the equipment looked too big to be moved quickly. There were prefabricated barracks, large supply dumps and heavy artillery. Somerville would be happy to relieve the Russians of those.

Sir," the First Lieutenant said, breaking into his thoughts. "Its time to launch the shuttles, shall I give the order?"

"Proceed," Somerville said. After punching a number of commands into his command chair he continued. "Tactical, I want you to hit these targets first. Make sure you take everything out. Then you can move onto targets of your choice. Keep hammering them until we run out of ground attack missiles or targets. These Russians have pissed me off."

"Aye sir," the Lieutenant manning the tactical station said with glee.

"Begin firing in thirty seconds. I want everyone's attention on us," Somerville said and then switched his attention to the shuttles that were just lifting off. They fired their thrusters to re-orientate themselves towards the docking station and then went silent. The plan was for them to use their momentum to coast up to the station, firing off their engines only at the last second to bring them to a halt. If there were any Russians on the station they would know they were about to be attacked, but they should only get a thirty second warning. That would give his marines the element of surprise.

On his command chair, he opened another holo display so that he could watch the progress of the ground attack missiles. The first salvo was still five minutes out but Russians were already beginning to flee from the landing zones. Any thought of saving more equipment had been abandoned. Ground attack missiles didn't have a nuclear warhead; in its place were conventional explosives. However, by the time the missiles hit the planet's surface they would have accelerated to a significant speed. Alone, the explosive force from the impact would be several megatons, the conventional explosives would add to that ensuring everything in the target zone was destroyed.

*

Sitting beside the pilot in shuttle one, Marine Lieutenant Cassells was raring to go. His men would have the hardest job, but he was ok with that. While the marines and naval personnel in the other shuttle would dock with one of the French freighters and take control of it, he was tasked with capturing the docking station's main control room. Every freighter berthed at the station was held in place by docking clamps; they meant capturing the freighter wasn't enough. Whoever was in the control room could override the docking clamps' release mechanism and keep the freighter trapped. Cassells' guess was that the Russians already had the clamps locked down.

"Sixty seconds," the pilot called out to the marines in his ship. "Beginning deceleration burn in three, two, one."

Cassells was thrown forward in his seat and he heard a number of marines crash into each other behind him. Like all spaceships the shuttles were equipped with inertial dampeners but the pilot was operating his shuttle at its limit so as to give the Russians as little warning as possible. He struggled to push himself back into his seat but the force from the deceleration burn was too much. Instead he allowed the seat's restraints to hold him until the shuttle hit the docking station with a thud.

"That was close," the pilot said with a grin on his face. "Borders away!" He then shouted over the COM channel.

Cassells swore into his helmet. Pilots! His men didn't need any orders. As he took off his restraints and made his way to the boarding ramp the pilot had lowered his men were already pouring onto the docking station's hull. Stepping off the shuttle onto the hull, Cassells felt the boots of his combat armor immediately switch on their magnets to give him grip. The marines were already splitting into two groups and sprinting to their targets.

Taking the lead in his squad, Cassells took off towards their target. Sargent Hughes was already on his knees planting the shaped charges when he got there. The Sargent's squad, accompanied by Cassells, was to take the control room while the other squad would form a blocking force. From the schematics they had been able to get of the docking station, there was only one place where a sizeable force of defenders could be housed. If they wanted to get to the control room to help defend it they would be limited to a couple of corridors. The second squad was already above those corridors, about to blast their way into them and set up defensive positions.

When Cassells jumped away from the charges and held up three fingers everyone crouched down. The shaped charges went off with an explosion of light, but the concussive force and sound Cassells was used to from training on planets was missing. He barely registered their absence though, he was already jumping through the access hole they had blown in the station.

Pausing inside to make sure all his men were with him, he stepped to the front, "I'll take point."

Rushing down the corridor, he held his plasma rifle ready to blast anything that moved. As he rounded the first corner he came face to face with a large composite door that had automatically locked in place when the station detected a hull breach. Clicking his COM unit he asked, "how's it coming Jones?"

"Almost done sir," came the reply, "just a couple more seconds... There it's attached."

Cassells nodded to Hughes, who keyed the device he had connected to the door's controls and overrode the locking mechanism. Jones had been left behind to place a membrane over the breach. It stopped the atmosphere from leaking into space and allowed them to trick the station's central computer into opening the sealed doors.

As the door opened Cassells sprinted on. Rounding the next corner he immediately threw himself to the floor. Two Russians in combat armor were already there and bringing their plasma riffles up to aim at him. His sudden drop meant their fire went over his head. His return fire tracked in on one of the Russians, the superheated plasma burning right through his armor. Before the second Russian could track his fire down onto Cassells, one of the other marines rounded the corner and opened fire, taking him out.

"Good shooting Jackson I owe you a beer once we get back to Achilles." Cassells said. As he approached the downed Russians and turned the next corner he brought up the schematics of the station on his HUD. The soldiers must have been guarding the control room for its entrance was right in front of him.

"Ok marines, this is our target." Cassells said over the squad COM. "Remember, check your aim. Your plasma bolts will shred the command consoles in there. We need to be able to access the docking clamps after we capture our objective."

Stepping back, he allowed Sargent Hughes to come forward again. This time he pulled out a long cord of plastic explosives. He fixed the cord in place roughly shaping out a rectangle the height of a marine's combat armor.

"Brace yourselves," he said over the COM as he stepped back. Again everyone crouched down as the explosive went off. Only a fraction the size of the explosives that had been used to breach the hull, the blast was still impressive in the confined corridor. It blew the door into the command room and almost toppled some of the marines. Yet, as soon as the concussive wave washed over them, they were on their feet and storming into the room.

Three Russians had been blasted off their feet and another was in a crumpled heap with part of the large door on top of him. Further into the room, three Russian soldiers in combat armor were still more than ready for a fight. Plasma bolts came raining down on the marines and the first two through the door both caught bolts to the head and chest.

Cassells didn't have time to mourn them for he was the third man through the door. Immediately he swept to the right and took cover behind a command console. In front of him explosions erupted as plasma bolt tore into it. Gritting his teeth, he moved further to the right and jumped up to engage the Russians. He couldn't allow them to destroy all the command consoles.

As he jumped up he saw one Russian go down from a plasma bolt to his knee. Another, who was pouring fire into the doorway, tried to switch his aim to Cassells as he rose but Cassells beat him to it and plasma bolts tore into his armor and blasted through him.

The final Russian realized the hopelessness of his situation and let out a string of Russian curses as he charged the doorway, trying to take out as many of the marines who were still trying to enter as possible. With a swing of his rifle Sargent Hughes cracked the Russian's rifle out of his hands. He then performed a perfect roundhouse kick, catching the charging Russian in the face and knocking him to the ground.

Cassells looked at his Sargent as the rest of the marines poured into the command room. "What?" Hughes asked, "You said we were to check our fire."

Cassells shook his head while chuckling, "show off," over the COM for all the squad to hear. Dismissing the Sargent's antics from his mind, he shifted his focus to look for the command console that would access the docking clamps. Pleased to see that the console hadn't been hit in the fire fight he said a silent prayer of thanks. It only took him a couple of seconds to switch the console on and navigate his way through the controls to the one he wanted. Mission complete, he thought as the console informed him the docking clamps had been released.

Switching his COM to the mission channel he spoke to Lieutenant Jensen, "Cassells here, the docking clamps have been released. We're making our way back to the shuttle now."

After her reply he contacted the Sargent leading the blocking force. "How are you doing Grant?" he asked.

"We're coming under heavy fire sir, Corporal Fisher is down but we are holding them off."

"Ok, we've secured the control room. Fall back to our position and then we'll evac to the shuttle."

"With pleasure sir," the Sargent replied.

*

A few minutes earlier Jensen received a call over the COM channel from the Lieutenant leading the marines from her shuttle. "Lieutenant Jensen, we have secured the freighter. No Russians were onboard, I'm moving my men to the docking hatch in case they try to force their way in when they realize what we're trying to do. The ship is yours."

"Good job Lieutenant," she replied. "I'm making my way to the bridge now."

With a wave she led her team of navy personnel off the shuttle and onto the freighter. It only took her a couple of minutes to get to the bridge. When she did she was pleased to find three French traders awaiting her.

"Ah Lieutenant, am I glad to see you," the eldest man said extending his hand. "I am Pier, the most senior crewmember left on this of the freighter. The Russians took our Captain and Executive Officer away when they captured the station."

"Nice to meet you," Jensen said. "Do you mind if we borrow your ship?"

"Not at all," Pier replied, "if it means we get out of here."

"It sure does," Jensen said, turning to her team she continued, "spread out. I want all the command consoles manned. Power up the engines and inform me when we are ready to move."

As she sat in the Captains chair her COM unit beeped. "Yes?" she said. When Lieutenant Cassells informed her the clamps had been released she immediately ordered the freighter to back away from the station and make for open space.

*

Somerville was watching the visuals of the docking station anxiously as Achilles continued to pound the Russian positions on Ouvea. It had been almost ten minutes since a flash from the station had indicated the marines had blown their way onboard. Any minute now the freighter should be powering up and undocking if the mission was going to plan.

"Signal from Lieutenant Jensen," the First Lieutenant called. "She has captured the freighter and is about to disengage from the station. She is requesting coordinates for a rendezvous."

"How many targets are left?" Somerville asked the tactical officer, relieved to have finally heard from the Third Lieutenant.

"Just three more sir, we'll be able to break orbit in two minutes."

"Navigation, set a course for the shift passage to Cartier. Engage once we have hit the last target. Send your course to Jensen as well. She can break orbit and match our course."

"Aye sir," the officer replied.

As the freighter detached from the docking station and began to accelerate out of orbit, Somerville sat back in his seat to enjoy the images of the last missiles raining down destruction on the Russians.

When the last missile hit and Achilles was breaking orbit he opened up a COM channel to the planet, knowing the Russian commander would be listening. "Don't think we're finished here, we'll be back and I will be seeing you soon."

# Chapter 3 – Misdirection

8th September, 2439, edge of the Cartier system.

Somerville was awoken by the alarm he had set before retiring to his quarters. It was time. Donning his uniform, he made his way to the bridge. When he got there he sat in the command chair and reviewed the sensor displays. Everything was exactly the same as when he had left five hours ago.

Instead of jumping to the edge of Cartier's mass shadow – the closest point to a star the shift drive would work. Achilles and the French freighter, Clara, had exited jump space ten light hours away from Cartier's star. There they had spent ten hours carrying out the alterations to the freighter that were necessary for Somerville's plan.

Cartier was a critical system. Shift passages led away from it towards Russian colonial space and New France. Apart from the shift passage from the Alpha system into Russian space, Cartier was the only avenue of invasion if the Russians were determined to expand their federation. Whatever else they were about to find in Cartier, Somerville was sure there would be Russian warships. Achilles and Clara were preparing a welcome for them.

"Has the work been completed?" Somerville asked the officer of the watch.

"Lieutenant Jensen contacted me ten minutes ago with a situation update. The Chief Engineer is still over with her but they expect to be ready in another half hour at the most," came the reply.

"Very good, send a general signal to the crew, inform them we will be going to battle stations in an hour. Let them get something to eat now while they have the chance," Somerville ordered. He loved to read about naval history, for centuries before man had set foot on the moon it had been a custom in the British navy to send the crew for a warm meal before battle. As far as he could he liked to keep those traditions alive. Plus, it just made sense. His plan called for a lot of waiting around and if his ship had to cross swords with another Russian warship it was likely to be a lengthy affair, for Somerville was determined he would only fight on his terms.

The Russians still hadn't found their own source of valstronium. The discovery of the metal in rare asteroids at the very edge of the Sol system and, later, in other systems had revolutionized ship design. Without the metal the Russians were forced to armor their ships in nano-carbon titanium composite. Their ships were thus bulkier, meaning they weren't as maneuverable. Compounding this problem, the lack of valstronium meant lower top speeds as the metal provided much greater protection against the cosmic particles that a ship encountered in space. The faster a ship traveled through space the more damage would be caused to the ship or the crew by a cosmic particle strike. As valstronium provided greater protection it meant ships armored in the metal could reach higher top speeds. Achilles could max out at 0.28 the speed of light. The Russians would be lucky to get to 0.20.

Of course, when it came to a missile duel the difference in maneuverability and top speed counted for little. What mattered was who could force the most missiles through their opponent's point defenses first. Yet the advantage Achilles had over whatever Russians warships were in system meant she could choose when and where the missile duel took place. Unless they got very lucky, or Somerville made a mistake, he knew he could avoid action until his time and place of choice. Though that meant the crew could end up spending hours at their battle stations waiting for the right time to strike.

As Somerville was reviewing his plans one more time he didn't notice the time passing. When someone entered the bridge and he looked up he was surprised to see it was the Chief Engineer.

"Captain," he began, "I've finished up over on Clara, she is ready to go."

"Excellent," Somerville responded. "I guess it's time to get this show on the road."

"Communications, open a channel to Jensen for me, then ask the First Lieutenant to report to the bridge," Jonathan ordered.

Hamilton had come to him and requested command of the freighter when Somerville had detailed his plan to the senior officers. Jonathan had denied his request. If Achilles was involved in a pitched battle in Cartier, or more likely in New France, Hamilton would be vital. He was too important to risk on Clara. Jensen had proven herself commanding the freighter in Ouvea and overseeing the alterations Jonathan had requested, she deserved her chance to stay in command. Besides, Somerville had to admit to himself, he had a growing soft spot for the young officer. She had a fine future ahead of her.

When her face appeared on the holo display Somerville smiled. "Excellent work Lieutenant, I hear you are ready to go?"

"Yes sir," she answered. "We are all set on this end."

"Very well, you may jump immediately. We will be half an hour behind you. Happy hunting. Achilles out," Somerville said as he closed the COM channel.

As Clara disappeared off Achilles' sensors Somerville set a timer. They didn't want to appear right behind the freighter. The idea was to let Jensen get away whilst still threatening her. Five minutes before the timer reached zero he called his ship to battle stations. Then, when the time came, Achilles jumped into the Cartier system after the freighter.

Everyone on the bridge was silent as they waited for the sensors to update the main holo display on what was happening in the system. The first thing to appear was Clara. She was further into the system, accelerating at more than her maximum safe limit, screaming out on every COM channel for help. Somerville didn't have to listen in to the COM signal to know what was being said. He didn't speak Russian so he couldn't understand it anyway.

Corporal Weir had been the best Russian speaker they could find among Achilles crew and so she had remained on board Clara with Jensen. At the moment she was shouting in her thickest Russian accent about a British destroyer that had attacked the system picket force in Ouvea and bombarded the planet. With any luck, she would be able to trick whatever warships were in the system into thinking Clara was under Russian control and had just managed to escape from Ouvea.

As the sensors continued to update the bridge on what was happening further into the system, he guessed that their ploy was working. The gravimetric sensors showed two ships accelerating from Cartier's inner system towards the fleeing freighter. Judging by their acceleration profiles one was a light cruiser while the other was a destroyer. Larger than the frigates they had engaged at Ouvea the destroyer would have four or five missiles and the light cruiser seven or eight on each broadside. Alone, they would be no match for Achilles, together they could give her a run for her money. If Somerville's plan worked that wouldn't be a problem he would have to worry about.

If they believed the report from Clara that Achilles was only a British destroyer, they would be in even more trouble. In order to help the ruse Achilles had many of her systems powered down and one fission reactor switched off. To anyone looking at the levels of electromagnetic radiation coming from her she would look like a smaller warship. Everything was set for the Russians to walk right into their trap.

Further into the system things were harder to make out. None of the planets were habitable and so there was no colony with its orbital industry. Nevertheless, because of the strategic importance of the system, the French had set up a military base in orbit around the sixth planet. It was a gas giant and they had also built a gas mining facility to extract He3 to fuel the fission reactors of their ships. The military station and gas mining station were both clearly still intact as they were radiating heat into space. Around each station there were numerous ships, picked up by the gravimetric sensors as they maneuvered about. Many of them were only appearing briefly and then disappearing off the plot as they used their engines sparingly to alter course or enter orbit.

"Sensors, I know it will be hard but try and identify as many of those ships around the gas giant as you can. If we deal with these warships we need to know what else might be coming after us."

"Yes sir," the officer acknowledged.

"Ok, navigation, time to play our part. Take us after Clara, remember, not too fast. We don't want to catch them before they get to the Russian ships."

*

For the next two hours Achilles and Clara raced into the system, one behind the other. On an opposite course, the two Russian warships charged out to meet the British warship. To further aid the deception, Clara begun to beam out her sensor recordings of the battle that had occurred around Ouvea. The Russian ships were already coming under full acceleration but if they could have, Jensen was sure they would have tried to come even faster after seeing their ships destroyed and their ground troops bombarded.

Sitting on the bridge of the freighter Jensen was getting more and more nervous as the two Russian ships closed the range. If they got suspicious, all it would take for them to destroy Clara was one missile or heavy plasma bolt. The freighter would crumple and break apart in seconds. Yet, so far, they were holding their fire. If would only take another twenty minutes for them to come into range of Clara's modifications.

Those twenty minutes were the longest of her life. Every second seemed to take an eternity. Not knowing if each would be her last; she tried and failed to quash thoughts of her family and friends. Finally, the moment of action came.

"Pilot, take us out," she commanded.

The pilot of the shuttle gently fired its maneuvering thrusters and lifted off from the freighter's deck. What had originally been one of the freighter's cargo sections had been cut open to allow the shuttle to be flown into the empty cargo hold. Gently, the pilot took his ship out the same way he had taken it in. Then, once they were in open space, he killed the engines and allowed the shuttle to drift away from the freighter.

"We're out," he needlessly announced to Jensen and the crewmembers who had been manning Clara. Forty minutes before they had all left their posts and crammed into the shuttle. Now they all turned to look out the viewer towards the freighter.

Jensen waited as long as she dared before triggering the second modification that Achilles' Chief Engineer had made to Clara. When the timing was just right she pressed the button in the shuttle's cockpit that sent the signal to Clara. Immediately, a small explosion erupted from the nose section of the freighter. Too quickly for the Russian ships to react, a part of the freighter's frontal armor flew off into space revealing three large anti-ship missiles. Without electromagnetic acceleration tubes they would have to get to their target on their own acceleration however, Jensen had waited long enough that the Russians would have next to no chance.

As soon as the frontal armor cleared out of the way, Jensen hit her second button and all three missiles ignited their engines and raced away from the freighter. The Russian ships were headed almost directly for the freighter at 0.2c while the freighter was travelling at 0.17c. The velocities meant the closing speed of the missiles was the equivalent of 0.37c, even before they fired off their engines. With their engines going immediately to full burn the flight time would be just over fifty seconds.

Silently, Jensen willed the missiles on to their targets. Things weren't going to go all her own way though. Someone onboard the light cruiser had quick reflexes its point defenses began to open up on the incoming missiles. There just wasn't enough time however, for, although they managed to take out one missile, the other two came crashing into the light cruiser.

Jensen had targeted all the missiles at it for she knew Achilles could handle the destroyer on her own easily. One of the missiles over shot its target and detonated just behind the light cruiser. Still, as the blast wave hit the cruiser it visibly shook on the screen Jensen was watching. The final missile was right on target. It hit the light cruiser amidships and its momentum ensured it penetrated deep into the cruiser's side armor before it detonated. The explosion tore a giant hole in the ship, ripping the spine right out of it. As its engine continued to accelerate the rear of the ship, the pressure on what was left of the central superstructure snapped the remaining support struts. In front of Jensen's eyes the cruiser broke in two. Both halves began to spin away from each other, venting debris and bodies into the cold of space.

The Russian destroyer, unharmed by the missiles, obviously still saw the freighter as a threat for she quickly turned to present her port missile tubes at Clara. A full broadside of four missiles quickly homed in on the freighter and ensured she came to a quick end. Jensen couldn't help but feel sorry for the freighter as it broke apart under the explosive force. Watching the Russian light cruiser break apart had been tragic. It was a waste of good lives. Yet they had brought it on themselves. Clara was her ship; she had an emotional connection to the little freighter that she couldn't explain. She had only captained her for five days and even so, as the last sign of the ship faded from the shuttle's sensors, she felt an overwhelming sense of loss.

*

The lost freighter was the last thing on Somerville's mind. Coming in hot behind Clara, Achilles was about to enter missile range of the destroyer. He wanted to make this a clean sweep and take it out before it could do Achilles any damage. After the battle with the two frigates at Ouvea, he knew their missiles could penetrate the Russian point defenses. One broadside should do it.

"Fire!" he shouted as soon as the destroyer came into range. The exhaust plums of the eleven missiles that streaked off towards their target momentarily blinded the ship's sensors. When the sensors cleared they showed four Russian missiles bearing down on Achilles. As both ships had fired at extreme range the destroyer managed to fire another salvo before it had to raise its point defenses to protect itself. Somerville could have fired another salvo too but he wanted to see what damage his first one caused before wasting more missiles.

His judgment proved correct as the destroyer's point defenses only managed to take out five of the British missiles. The rest closed with their target and at least one got a direct hit, causing enough damage to put it out of the fight.

Achilles fared much better. Her point defenses were designed to take on many more missiles than the two salvos of four that tried to destroy her. In the end none of them managed to get even close enough to score a proximity hit.

As the last missile exploded from a plasma cannon hit the crew on the bridge cheered. Somerville let them enjoy the moment but he knew that they were getting carried away. As yet Achilles hadn't come up against an equal foe. The light cruiser and destroyer together would have given her a real test but ,thankfully, Jensen had taken care of it. If they had to face similar odds again Somerville knew they couldn't count on being so lucky.

When the crew had calmed down he gave the order for the sensor officer to send a signal to Jensen and her shuttle. They had been drifting without any systems powered up so the Russian destroyer wouldn't detect them. Now it was time to get them home.

Leaving the retrieval of Jensen to the junior bridge officers, Somerville brought up the sensor data that had been collected on the ships further into the system. As soon as the two Russian warships had been destroyed the remaining warships had broken orbit from around the gas giant and began to make for Achilles. The rest of the ships had scattered. The sensor officer's readings suggested that the ships fleeing were military freighters while the warships were another light cruiser, a destroyer and two frigates. Achilles could never take them all on and hope to survive.

Turning to his first officer Somerville asked, "what do you suggest we do now?"

Hamilton was a good tactician. Somerville had already recommended him for promotion. Aggressive and yet careful to apply it at the right time, he was just the sort of officer the RSN was trying to get into command positions.

"We could make a run for it," he began as he manipulated his own controls, altering the main holo display. A dotted line appeared in front of the representation of Achilles, bending away from the approaching ships towards the shift passage to New France. "They wouldn't be able to get into range of us so we would make a clean get away. We have already caused enough damage to be satisfied here. As you have already said, we could be needed elsewhere.

"However," he continued slowly, "Those fleeing military freighters make a very tempting target. If the Russians are bent on conquering New France I would bet they are filled to the seams with soldiers or at least the supplies they need for the soldiers they already have in New France. We could cause them a lot of damage if we could take out even one. It would be a shame to pass up such an opportunity."

"So what do you purpose then? I don't intend to risk this ship unnecessarily, no matter how juicy the targets are," Somerville asked.

"We have the speed and maneuverability advantage. I say we use it. We keep heading for the remaining Russian warships. Let them think we are willing to go toe to toe with them. Why not? We have already destroyed a light cruiser and a destroyer. Who's to say we shouldn't be over confident?

"Then, at the last moment, once they are committed, we can maneuver up and over them. Look at these three freighters here," Hamilton said, pointing to three freighters that were scrambling away from the gas giant towards the shift passage to New France.

"We can make for them. As soon as we try to out maneuver the warships the freighters will alter course, but by then we should have built up enough speed to get into range and fire off a broadside at one or two of them as we pass. Then we can just head on to New France."

"And what if the Russians release their frigates? They are faster than their light cruisers and destroyers. They could catch us and do some damage. If they managed to score a hit on us we could fall back into the clutches of the light cruiser and destroyer," Somerville pointed out.

"That's a risk sir," Hamilton conceded, "but one I think we should consider taking. Even if they released the frigates to use their full acceleration they would be allowing them to get into range of our missiles. We would make quick work of them."

"Ok," Somerville said making up his mind. Standing he vacated the command chair. "You have the bridge Lieutenant. I want to see you put your ideas into practice."

"Yes sir," Hamilton said eagerly. Every Lieutenant in the RSN knew to grab an opportunity to exercise command authority with open arms. There was fierce competition for promotion and command experience always looked well on a Lieutenant's personnel file.

# Chapter 4 – Confrontation

15th September 2439, New France system

Eight days later Achilles was once again sitting at the edge of a French system as her sensors updated the bridge crew on what was going on around them. Hamilton had pulled off his plan perfectly. After dancing around the Russian warships he had managed to get into range of one of the freighters he had identified as a target. A single missile had taken it out. Somerville hoped the Russians would feel the loss.

In anger, the two Russian frigates had tried to fire their missiles at Achilles but they had misjudged the range. Two minutes before reaching the British ship the missiles ran out of fuel and went ballistic. A small course change from the navigation officer had avoided them.

After destroying the freighter they had headed for the shift passage to New France. As Somerville peered at the sensor data he knew he had a dilemma. New France was a hive of activity. There were tens of ships moving around in orbit and more moving about the inner system.

Crucially, there was no sensor data on the large battlestations that should be around the colony. There was also a large gathering of ships about a light hour from New France facing the shift passage that lead further into French colonial space and all the way back to Earth. It looked like they were prepared to engage anything that came through the shift passage. The implications were obvious. Whatever fighting had occurred in the system was now over. The Russians had firmly established themselves as the owners of New France.

The loss of the system meant that it was Somerville's duty to get past the Russians and head for friendly space. He had no doubt that Britain and America would stand by France. Neither power wanted to see the Russian Star Federation get any stronger. There would be a fleet coming to liberate New France. Judging by the size of the naval forces the Russians had amassed in the system the fleet would need all the help it could get. The RSN had only eight medium cruisers. There were more under construction along with two new heavy cruisers that had just been designed. Yet it would take months for them to be finished. Achilles, therefore, constituted a significant proportion of the RSN's firepower. She would be needed in the coming battle. Somerville couldn't risk her here and now. However, he was still thinking about the dilemma before him.

If a combined fleet were on its way to New France they would need as much intel on the Russian defenders as possible. Somerville had a duty to collect that information. He also felt a duty to the people of New France. No doubt the Russians had landed ground troops just as they had at Ouvea. The populace would be going through a tough occupation. Somerville wanted to find a way to give them some hope, to let them know they weren't on their own.

"Captain," Lieutenant Jensen called from her position at the sensor console. "I'm picking up thermal blooms from the planet. There were four of them in quick succession. All were in a region near one of the ships in orbit."

"Ground strikes," Hamilton informed her. "The Russians are bombarding the planet. It means there must still be some resistance from the French. RSNI intel from before the invasion suggests the French had over eighty thousand troops stationed on the planet. They must still be putting up a fight. Though I imagine it is a living hell down there, trying to fight a ground war with ships in orbit bombarding you every time you move."

Suddenly, Somerville didn't feel torn anymore. He knew what he wanted to do. "Navigation, lay in a course for the shift passage back to Earth. Though don't plot a direct route. Make it look like we are trying to avoid the main Russian fleet and make sure our course takes us close to the sixth planet."

"Yes sir," the navigation officer said a little confused.

The sixth planet was a large rocky planet with a thick layer of ice up to five kilometers deep in places. Its surface temperatures were far too cold for a colony, although the French had set up a couple of mining facilities on its surface. Importantly, at its present position, it lay almost directly between the shift passage Achilles had just exited and the shift passage that eventually lead back to Earth. Therefore, it wouldn't look too strange for Achilles to plot a course close to the planet.

"Here's my plan," Somerville said to the confused faces on the bridge. "As soon as we light off our engines everyone in the system will pick us up on their gravimetric sensors. Our course will make it clear we want to get out of New France and to safety. Whoever the Russian commander is, he will see an opportunity to destroy a large British warship isolated and alone. He'll no doubt move his main fleet to intercept us and may even dispatch a flotilla to harry us and make sure we don't try to attack their ships in orbit. We're going to play along, at least until we get near the sixth planet."

*

Three hours later, the time came for Achilles to make her course change. Sure enough, the Russian commander was moving the main part of his fleet closer to the shift passage that would be Achilles eventual route of escape. He had also dispatched a smaller force to move closer to the colony in case Achilles tried anything. As soon as she turned her nose towards the sixth planet the smaller fleet reacted. They immediately began to decelerate hard to swing deeper into the system. Rightly predicting she would use the planet's gravity to go for the Russian ships orbiting the colony. They hoped to intercept the British ship before she made it to the colony. Up to this point though Somerville had been holding back Achilles' full potential. Once she swung around the sixth planet, using its gravity to sling shot her towards the French colony, he ordered the engines to full power. The extra thirty percent thrust from the engines caught the Russians off guard. They had no answer and so were quickly left astern of the charging Achilles.

The Russian commander had been taken aback by Achilles sudden burst of speed for his response was slow. Eventually, four destroyers began to move out of orbit around New France and formed up to engage Achilles. The freighters and military transports also began to break out of orbit and move away from the planet, escorted by a light cruiser and two frigates. That left only two more destroyers in orbit.

Jensen continued to report thermal blooms, indicating the remaining destroyers were continuing to bombard the defenders. Several had been close to the larger cities and one had been right on top of a small town. The Russians had never signed the UN resolution on Interplanetary Warfare but it was still shocking to see them bombarding a planet so ruthlessly. Even if the town they had hit had been evacuated, and Somerville hoped it had been, there was no need to destroy civilian homes and businesses. Another missile struck near to the capital city of Lozere and Achilles was now close enough to watch the shock wave roll into the city. Homes on the edge of the city were crumpled and the wave of damage and destruction continued on for almost a kilometer into the city, tearing roofs off houses, smashing windows and no doubt causing many injuries and deaths as it went.

That was the last straw, Somerville said to himself in anger. Standing, he gripped his hands into fists and gestured to the navigation officer. "Change of course. Take us directly for those four destroyers."

Somerville had planned to avoid them, fly past the planet and make contact with whoever was leading the ground resistance to get all the intel they had. Then he was going to high tail it out of there.

Now, he had seen enough. The commander of the Russian forces had made a mistake. If he wanted to deter Achilles he should have sent the light cruiser with the destroyers. Escorting the freighters, it was too far away to have any impact on the coming battle. A part of Somerville wanted it to try and come back once the Russians realized he was going to fight. If he could take it out as well all the Russian freighters and military transports would be at his mercy.

Nevertheless, his mind was made up. Those destroyers had caused the last damage they were going to do to the planet. "Tactical, target the lead two destroyers, as soon as they come into range open fire. Then switch to the next two with your second salvo. Two broadsides should deal with them, we can mop up whatever is left after that."

"Is this wise sir?" Hamilton asked.

"Probably not but we can't just fly by and watch the planet and the populace be bombarded into rubble. We've already shown Achilles can handle herself against the Russians, now we just need to prove we can handle a few more," Somerville answered.

"I want you to take control of the point defenses personally," he continued. "Our tactical officer can handle our own missiles. You just make sure none of the Russians get through."

"Yes sir," Hamilton said as he got up from his chair and moved over to stand beside the tactical officer.

*

Forty minutes later the Russian ships came into range of Achilles. The British missiles obviously had a slight range advantage for she was able to open fire first, sending eleven missiles tearing off after their targets. The Russians followed suit less than a minute later, sending sixteen missiles against Achilles. As each ship had fired at their maximum range the flight time for the missiles was a little over fifteen minutes. That allowed both sets of ships to fire off another salvo at each other before the first came crashing in.

Somerville watched the gravimetric plot closely as his missiles reached their targets first. As the contacts on the gravimetric plot representing the British missiles began to disappear among the Russian ships, at first nothing seemed to happen. Then a cheer went up on the bridge as one blip began to falter and lose acceleration. This was quickly followed by another blip disappearing all together. They had scored hits on both of their targets.

There was no time to dwell on their success for the Russian missiles were about to close with Achilles. At the tactical console Hamilton was sweating. He knew the first two Russian salvos were going to be a close thing. Achilles was designed to be able to defend herself against twelve or thirteen, maybe as many as fourteen separate incoming missiles. Sixteen was a lot.

As they entered the maximum range of Achilles' point defenses he opened up on them with the plasma cannons. Sixteen became fourteen and then twelve. When they were close enough the AM missiles began to fire taking down more of the incoming projectiles. In total Hamilton fired thirty of the smaller missiles. They struck eight of the Russian missiles and the plasma cannons took out another two. That still left two nuclear tipped warheads homing on Achilles.

"It's not going to be enough," Hamilton called.

"Evasive maneuvers now!" Somerville ordered.

Sending the ship into a dive and then a roll the navigation officer tried his best to throw off the aim of the last two missiles. Achilles' frantic movements, combined with her ECM, fooled one of the missiles and it continued off into space, searching for a target. The second however, didn't lose its lock. At the last second another jerk by Achilles took her out of the missile's path. Sensing it was no longer going to get a direct hit the missile detonated its warhead. The resultant thermonuclear explosion immersed Achilles' nose section in explosive force.

On the bridge, the crew were thrown around in their harness as they sat at their consoles. Once Somerville got his bearings back he called out, "damage report."

It was the Second Lieutenant who answered over the COM channel from the auxiliary bridge. "We have taken a proximity hit to our bow section. Some of our valstronium armor was burnt off but it's reshaping itself to fill the gaps now. More importantly, we have lost forty percent of our point defenses in our nose section."

"Thank you Lieutenant," Somerville acknowledged, "what about causalities?"

"I'm getting reports of two fatalities so far. There are at least several serious injuries as well. Hold on... I've just heard from starboard missile tube eleven. They have reported a fatality and damage to their missile tube. It looks like it is going to be out of action for a while."

"Very well, I'm putting you in charge of the repairs. See our injured get the attention they need. We have a battle to fight," Somerville ordered.

"How long until the next Russian missiles reach us?" he asked the bridge.

"Six more minutes," Jensen answered.

"I'm not sure we can survive another salvo," Hamilton said, "with our forward point defenses so damaged we're likely to take a second hit if another missile homes in on our bow."

"Train some of the other point defense plasma cannons to cover our damaged sections. Then get to work repairing as many of the damaged ones as you can," Somerville ordered.

"Everyone else listen up," he continued a little louder, "those Russian missiles are smaller than in our destroyers. A larger missile would have caused us much more damage. We can take maybe two more proximity hits, maybe even a direct hit, but anything more and we're toast. You all know how long we have. See what you can do to give us a chance."

Immediately, everyone turned their attention back to their consoles looking for a way to save their ship. Somerville thought he had an idea of his own so he opened up the control files for the forward missile tube. Designed to be used in a stern chase, the single forward tube allowed Achilles to fire a missile after a ship it was directly following. Along with the store of missiles in its magazine, there was also a number of survey probes that Achilles could launch into a system to explore it.

They were larger than missiles and had a much bigger fuel tank. Somerville opened up the flight software and began to rewrite some code. When he was done he ordered the probe loaded into the tube. A status symbol on his screen indicated that the probe would be ready to launch in three minutes. It would be close but it would be ready just in time. Hopefully it would work.

Unnoticed by everyone on the bridge the British missiles had already reached their targets. By the time Somerville was done both destroyers had disappeared off the gravimetric plot.

"Here they come," Hamilton shouted when the next salvo of sixteen Russian missiles was about to enter plasma cannon range. Once again they and the AM missiles reached out to try and stop the incoming missiles from raining down death and destruction on Achilles and her crew. Again Hamilton proved his skill with the point defenses, sixteen was quickly reduced to eight, then seven and even down to five.

A beep at Somerville's side alerted him to the fact that someone had accessed the secondary radar emitter without his permission. It was meant to be held in reserve in case the primary emitter was damaged. Before he could question who had powered it up, Hamilton shouted from the tactical console. "They are losing lock, the Russian missiles are losing lock on us!"

Somerville saw his chance. He triggered the forward missile tube and a survey probe launched from Achilles. The alterations he had done to its software immediately sent its engines into overdrive. Within seconds the engine housing began to melt. Moments later it catastrophically failed, the excess heat immediately causing the large fuel tank of the probe to explode in a giant fireball. In the few seconds it took the fuel to completely burn up the Russian missiles saw another target on their thermal scanners, one just as large as Achilles. Already confused, four of them locked on to the brighter target and flew past Achilles. The remaining missile tried but failed to lock on to Achilles. With no target in range it self-destructed. The blast barely touched the British warship and was easily held back by its valstronium armor.

Somerville didn't quite know what happened but he was glad to be alive. "So who wants to own up to using the secondary radar array against regulations?" he asked the bridge at large.

Everyone stared at him, clearly not sure what he was talking about. Slowly Jensen raised her hand. "Care to explain?" Somerville asked.

"Well," she began nervously, "I thought maybe I could get the Russians trick to work against them. After the first salvo I want back into our sensor data and checked the radar frequency of the Russian missiles from our previous engagement at Ouvea. The missiles they fired there and the ones from the four destroyers' first salvo here all used the same frequency when they were trying to lock onto us. I only managed to confirm they were the same sixty seconds before that second salvo was about to hit us. There was no time to try and explain to Hamilton to get him to switch the frequency of our main radar so I powered up the auxiliary array. I hope that was ok?"

"Ok?" Jonathan said delighted. "Of course it was ok. Well done Lieutenant. You have shown a lot of promise. Your personnel file is going to look a lot more impressive when we get back to Earth.

"Now," he said turning to address everyone. "Let's deal with those last two destroyers in orbit around New France and see if we can get in contact with whoever is leading the resistance down there."

# Chapter 5 – Reunion

22nd September 2439, Aurora system.

Once again Somerville was pacing back and forth on the bridge as Achilles jumped out of shift space into another French system. After taking out the final two Russian destroyers that had been bombarding the colony of New France they had barely slowed down long enough to attack some of the Russian ground forces themselves.

General Ney, commander of the surviving French army units on New France, had contacted Somerville. He had given them all the sensor data he had on the Russian fleet, as well as a situation report to be passed on to the French government. After getting a list of targets Ney wanted hit by Achilles' last six ground attack missiles, the two men had said their farewells. Neither knew if the other would survive the coming battles but they had each wished the other luck.

Somerville had been shocked as he watched a replay of the initial battle for New France. The Russian fleet had come in and smashed the French fleet in minutes. They had then moved on to the colony's battlestations and reduced them to space debris almost as quickly.

Their ease of victory was evident in the sensor data. The Russians had constructed a new type of warship. A close up of one of the ships revealed a name in Russian that someone on New France had translated as 'Behemoth'. The name was fitting. Achilles was one of the largest ships in the Royal Space Navy. She could fire a broadside of eleven missiles. Soon the first two heavy cruisers would be finished and they would take the honor of being the biggest and most heavily armed. The Russian Behemoths would dwarf even those ships.

In the replay of the battle, Jonathan had seen each of them fire thirty missiles in every salvo. The Russians had five of them and alone they could rain one hundred and fifty missiles on their enemy. After reviewing the battle, Somerville had taken a closer look at the ships in the Russian fleet that were guarding the shift passage that led back to Earth. Sure enough, the five Behemoths were there, waiting for any French ships that came to try and help New France.

Jensen had missed them before because they were powered down, conserving fuel. As soon as Achilles used the colony's gravity to sling shot herself towards the shift passage home, they had powered up and tried to intercept the British ship. Thankfully, the replay of the battle had given Somerville a vital piece of information, the acceleration and top speed of the Behemoths. He had used that data to calculate the best route around them. It had added over six hours to their journey out of the system but it had allowed Achilles and her crew to escape without having to go toe to toe with the monsters.

When the Russians had realized they weren't going to capture the medium cruiser with their larger ships they had released their smaller light cruisers and destroyers to chase her down. Jensen had used her radar trick on the first missile salvo that had come Achilles way and the return fire had damaged a light cruiser. That had given their pursuers second thoughts and Achilles had escaped unharmed.

Somerville had been reluctant to use the trick again. When they had first used it the Russian ships who had fired the missiles had already been destroyed. No one had seen what Jensen had done. Now the Russians knew they had copied their idea. It wouldn't work again.

Back in the present, Somerville suddenly grew concerned as the sensor feed for Aurora updated. It looked like the Russians had sent another fleet ahead of the Behemoths to secure the system. There were over fifty ships accelerating deeper in the inner system. Aurora was the last system in the French colonies. The next shift passage lead to the Alpha system, which, in turn, lead back to Earth. As such, the French had built a sizeable military base here on a rocky moon that orbited one of the system's gas giants. It was a natural target for the Russians to secure.

His fears were relieved when he spotted the two small battlestations the French had built to protect the military base. If they were still intact and there were no missiles flying between them and the fleet that was approaching the base then the ships must be friendlies.

"Navigation plot us a course for the French military base, take us there at eighty percent thrust," Somerville commanded.

"Aye, sir," came the reply.

Achilles was over four light hours away from the fleet that was heading into system and so it would take that many hours for any communication from whoever was commanding the fleet to contact them. His crew could enjoy their first hours of safety in peace.

"Communications, open a ship wide COM channel," Somerville requested.

When the officer nodded to say the channel was open Somerville took a deep breath and began, "Achilles, it is my pleasure to report that we have rejoined the fleet." Pausing he allowed the cheers to echo around the ship. Even the bridge crew joined in. The last few weeks had been taxing on everyone, never before had a British spaceship had to fight its way through not one but three occupied systems. Every crewmember was now a veteran of interstellar war. There wasn't an enlisted man or woman in the RSN who had seen more combat than Achilles' crew.

"In celebration, I am doubling the food rations for the day. I want all of you to prepare a feast for yourselves in your off duty hours. I also want to add how proud I am of you. We drilled hard for our war games with the Indians. Little did we know what was going to follow but you all handled yourselves marvelously. The Admiralty will be impressed with the report I am sending them and I'm sure the news broadcasters will want to interview many of you. Well done everyone. Enjoy yourselves, you have earned it. Somerville out."

Looking up at the bridge crew he held everyone's eye for several seconds. It happened that Jensen was on watch again and when he looked at her he added, "And especially well done to you Lieutenant. Without your quick thinking those four destroyers at New France would have had us."

As she looked down in embarrassment, Somerville moved on to survey the rest of the bridge crew. When he was done he stood and turned to Hamilton who had been on the bridge in case they had run into more trouble at Aurora. "You have the bridge First Lieutenant, I'm going to retire to my quarters."

"Aye sir," Hamilton said. As Somerville stood he stood too and saluted his Captain as he left. "Thank you for getting us home sir," he added.

*

When the communication from the fleet arrived Somerville opened it in his quarters. He was surprised to find that it came from the French Admiral Villeneuve. Villeneuve was well known among the British naval officers. There were regular war games between the two navies and Villeneuve was regarded as the best the French had. Somerville had assumed he had died at New France. The last he had heard the Admiral had been posted there. It was encouraging to know the Admiral would be leading the fleet into battle.

Somerville was ordered to report on board the Admiral's flagship for a conference of Captains. Included in his order was a list of the ships in the fleet. Somerville was happy to see that his guess was right. Many of the UN nations had decided to stand with the French against the Russians. There were several destroyers from Japan, Germany and Brazil. More important were the American and British medium cruisers that accompanied the three French ones. Counting Achilles, the combined fleet now had eight of the warships. Somerville wasn't sure that would be enough against the Behemoths. He sent the battle data General Ney had given him to the Admiral along with his own report of what had happened over the last few weeks. The decisions about what to do with the giant Russian ships were now, thankfully, out of his hands.

He understood the need for a conference though. Commanding Captains from six different nationalities would be a difficult undertaking. Getting them all fighting as one unit would be even harder. Still, Somerville was eager to get stuck in. Someone had to teach the Russians a lesson and he was keen to get back to the Ouvea system and make good on his promise to the Russian ground commander.

After reviewing the files Admiral Villeneuve had sent him he retired. He wanted to take a quick nap before he had to put on his dress uniform and take a shuttle over to the flagship.

*

After his shuttle had been cleared to land on Villeneuve's flagship Argonaute, Somerville was ushered into the medium cruiser's conference room. To say the seating was cramped was a major understatement. With over fifty Captains crushed together babbling in various languages the scene was more like a street bazar on the diverse Alpha colony than a naval briefing. When Admiral Villeneuve walked in, accompanied by Vice Admiral Jamison of the Royal Space Navy and Vice Admiral Hopkins of the US Interstellar Navy, the room went silent. Everyone stared at the Admiral expectantly.

"Welcome to my flagship ladies and gentlemen," Villeneuve began in perfect English. "First, let me congratulate you on your performance at the Alpha system. We only had a week to drill together before leaving Earth and you performed better than expected. Though there is still a lot of room for improvement."

Somerville already knew what he was referring too. The Russians had sent a small force into the Alpha system to occupy its orbitals and slow down any response to their invasion from Earth. He hadn't been surprised to see that the Russians hadn't actually tried to land any troops to occupy the colony. The Alpha system had been the first system discovered by the shift drive. Even though it had a planet that was just barely habitable, it had caused great excitement on Earth. Every nation had rushed to send colonists to the planet and claim a part of the landmass for themselves. When more habitable planets had been discovered the Alpha colony had quickly fallen by the wayside and no Earth government had had any interest in trying to manage it. The hodge-podge of nationalities had also caused its own problems as the different groups struggled with each other for the limited resources of the barren planet. In the end the UN had to take control of the colony and oversee its governance.

After the combined fleet had been formed out of the available warships in the Sol system the first thing they had done after spending a week drilling together was advance on the Alpha system. All the Russian forces had either been quickly destroyed or managed to escape.

"I also need to congratulate our newest addition to the fleet," Villeneuve continued. As every eye turned to Somerville he suddenly realized Villeneuve was referring to him. "Captain Somerville has shown us all how it's done. If his reports are to be believed he has already dispatched ten Russian warships. More importantly, he has provided us with vital intel on what we are going to face when we get to New France."

With a nod to one of his flag officers an image appeared on the conference room's main holo display. "This is a Russian Behemoth," Villeneuve explained. "We have all been wondering how the Russians so easily defeated the defenders at New France. Now we know. Without valstronium armor they are slow and immensely unwieldy, but they more than make up for their weaknesses with sheer weight of fire. Each ship has a broadside of thirty eight missiles. For all intents and purposes they are battlestations with shift drives attached to them. No one was expecting anything like this. It must have cost the Russians trillions of credits to construct such monsters. But that just means one thing. It will cost them trillions of credits when we blow them up."

Villeneuve's last comment brought a number of chuckles from around the room but Somerville saw something deeper in the Admiral's eyes. He recognized it from his own attitude after his encounter with the Russian commander at Ouvea. Villeneuve was angry. His country had been attacked and his people were being killed. He was eager for payback.

Going on, Villeneuve switched the holo display to show the combined fleet. "We have been promised more British ships from the Cook system and an American flotilla was expected in Earth four days after we left, so they should be close behind us. Once we have these reinforcements I plan to head to New France. We know the Russians are waiting for us. At the first battle of New France we weren't ready. Now we know what to expect, with a bit of luck my analysts believe we can show the Russians that their Behemoths aren't as invulnerable as they think.

"For now, a couple of ships need repairs at the military station that will take up to a week. During that time the rest of us will be drilling almost constantly. We still have a lot of work to do to get our fleet fighting as one. Your senior commanders have already been briefed on the details of my plan. I'm sure you are all enjoying getting to know each other so well in this cramped room, but we're going to split into our different national units. You'll find your assigned briefing on your datapad. Dismissed."

As Somerville squeezed out of the row he was sat in, a number of officers came over to shake his hand. Most of them were unknown to him but he was delighted to see a couple of American Captains he had met before. Not being a big fan of crowds, he tried to excuse himself from the fanfare but there were just too many Captains who wanted to hear about combat with the Russians. Thankfully he was saved by an aide of Admiral Villeneuve who pushed his way into the crowd that had developed around him. "The Admiral would like to speak to you before you meet with Vice Admiral Jamison," he said.

"Certainly," Somerville replied, relieved, "you'll have to excuse me," he said to the disappointment of his fellow Captains. "Another time, you can buy me a drink and I'll tell you all about it," he added with a chuckle.

The Admiral's aid led him through a side door out of the conference room and into a smaller briefing room. Villeneuve was standing talking to one of his flag officers. When Somerville came in he broke off the conversation and headed over to Somerville. "Congratulations again Captain," he began as he offered his hand.

Somerville took it and was impressed by the strength of the Admiral's grip. Villeneuve was over eighty now but he still had a strong sense of vitality. Somerville guessed the desire to liberate his people's colony had given him a new vigor.

"I wanted to tell you myself, with Vice Admiral Jamison's permission I'm giving you a field promotion to Commodore. I don't know if your Admiralty will honor the position once this war is over, but for now I need to use you. Next to Vice Admiral Jamison, you are the most experienced British officer I have and if anything happens to him I want you to be ready to lead the British forces. Understood?"

"Yes sir," Somerville said a bit taken a back. "I'll do my best."

"That's all I ask son," Villeneuve said with a grin. "I'm sure you'll do fine. Now tell me, what do you make of the Russians resolve. Do they have the stomach for a protracted war?"

"Well sir," Somerville said and then paused to buy himself some time to think. "You have seen my report. Even when the odds were against them the Russian warships I encountered were quick to engage. The fact that they have landed such large quantities of ground forces and have been so ruthless in weeding out any resistance certainly suggests they plan to stay. You know better than I that the Russians had been demanding access to valstronium for years. New France's deposits don't compare to Britannia's, but beggars can't be choosers. I don't mean to cause insult but your colonial empire is the low hanging fruit. Britain and America's navies are much more developed than yours and we can count on a larger industrial base if it came to a long protracted war.

"My guess is they thought they could grab New France and hold on long enough to build their own valstronium armored warships. You know my government can't spare too many ships to aid you. We have the Chinese to worry about. And the Americans are all the way on the other side of human space. The Russians probably decided to strike while your navy was still too weak to win on its own. They have made a mistake though. My government has no desire to share a border with Russia and China and the Americans don't want to see even a hint of a resurgent Russia. I believe we have the forces necessary to stop them."

"Agreed," Villeneuve said, "Now go and meet with Vice Admiral Jamison and the rest of your naval officers."

"Yes sir," Somerville said as he left the briefing room.

Down the corridor, Somerville made his way into the room being used by the British officers. Everyone else was already there and when Somerville sat Jamison stood to address his Captains.

"First, let me introduce you all to our newest Commodore. Stand up Somerville," Jamison said, smiling as he gestured Somerville to stand. "Admiral Villeneuve has seen fit to promote our accomplished friend to temporary flag rank for the duration of this fleet's mission, so he'll be acting as my second in command. Somerville's Achilles will be docking with the French military station. As I understand it she will need all the time in the repair yard she can get?"

Somerville sat down again and nodded as Jamison looked at him for confirmation.

"Due to Somerville's recent promotion he will be transferring over to my flagship, Custodian, so he can be involved in our fleet drills," Jamison explained. "If anything happens to me he needs to be up to speed and I'm sure we will all benefit from his experience. I trust your First Lieutenant can handle the repairs in your absence?"

"Certainly sir," Somerville answered. "He will enjoy getting out from under my watchful gaze for a few days."

"Very good." Jamison said. "Now, we're here to work out our position in the combined fleet. Let's get down to business."

*

Two hour later Somerville was sitting in one of Achilles' shuttles on his way back to his ship. Jamison had given him a few hours to gather what he would need for the next week and hand over command to Hamilton. As he was waiting for the shuttle to complete the flight between the two warships he pulled out his personal datapad. He hadn't had time to see if the fleet had brought any messages from Earth. Pleased, he saw that his wife had sent him two letters. Both were filled with news of her life and her burgeoning career as a writer. Somerville loved to read and he was slowly building a collection of old fashioned paper novels. It was how they had first met, they had both been searching for the same novel in a dusty old bookshop in London. After agreeing to share it they had then shared a meal. Her second letter was also filled with her hopes and dreams of starting a family when he got home. Apparently she had already begun renovating a number of rooms in the large seventeenth century house his father had given him. It had been in the family since they had first built it.

When he opened the next message he saw the source of his wife's pinning. His brother had sent a communication announcing the birth of his second son; James Bartholomew Andrew Somerville.

Somerville felt a sudden connection to the boy. As the second son of the heir to the Dukedom of Beaufort his future was already set in stone. While his older brother would inherit the title and most of the family's wealth, he would be consigned to a supporting position. Somerville knew exactly what that was like for he had played the role all his life.

His elder brother, James' father, had been the apple of their father's eye. All the focus and attention had been on him. He was the one who would continue the family name. He was one who would lead the family business to greater and greater heights. The younger siblings were just there to support his leadership.

It wasn't all-bad Somerville had to admit. It had allowed him to enter the navy. That was an appropriate place for the son of a nobleman to earn his family some honor. If he had been the oldest, he would have had to stay on Earth and learn to lead the family business. Maybe someday James would join the navy too. Somerville looked forward to taking the boy under his wing. Certainly, they would have a lot in common. If that was ever to happen though, he had a lot of Russians to get through first.

# Chapter 6 – Close the Enemy

9th October 2439, New France System

On both the visual feeds and the gravimetric sensors the combined fleet looked impressive as it excited shift space and formed up on the edge of the New France System. It had taken them a few days longer than originally planned but they were finally here. The Russian reaction was swift. Their fleet immediately lit off their engines and began to move to engage the intruders. Somerville's intel had already proved its worth though, for the fleet had exited shift space with the most velocity they could safely carry into the system. As soon as the fleet formed up they boosted to their maximum acceleration and angled away from the Russian ships.

Villeneuve had given the Russian commander a problem almost immediately. The French Admiral had rightly identified the Behemoths as battlestations with engines. That's how they should be used Somerville thought as he watched them try desperately to catch the more nimble coalition fleet. If they had been kept closer to the colony any attempt to liberate it would have had to go through the giant ships. As it was, Villeneuve was about to successfully circumnavigate them and make a break for the planet. The Russian commander could detach his smaller ships to chase Villeneuve but they would be outnumbered.

In the end, he chose to follow the coalition fleet towards New France. As he did, he could only watch hopelessly as hundreds of shuttles began to pour out of the coalition ships disgorging thousands of troops onto New France to take the fight to the Russian soldiers. The Russian ships that had been in orbit had already fled and were making their way to the shift passage to Cartier as they sought safety.

As Jonathan watched Achilles' two shuttles dive into the planet's atmosphere carrying his marines a beep informed him he was receiving a COM message from the planet. When he accepted it General Ney's face appeared. His uniform looked considerably more crumpled and the general appeared to have lost some weight. The passion in his eyes was the same though. "Welcome back to New France," he began, "I see you have brought some of my compatriots with you. I am in your debt mon ami."

"Nonsense," Somerville said, "I'm just doing my duty. I'm glad to see you're still alive though. I'm sure the last weeks have been a living hell. Hopefully you can have a bit more fun with the Russians now that you can tackle them on a level playing field."

"Indeed I will," Ney said with a feral smile, "They won't know what has hit them. When all this is over I'll have to have you down to the planet for a meal with my wife. We can show you around. Let you see what we are fighting for."

"It would be my pleasure, we are about to round the planet now so until then," Somerville said with a salute. As Ney saluted back he switched off the COM and refocused on his ship.

Villeneuve had taken the coalition fleet deep into the colony's orbit in order to drop as many shuttles as they could as they flew past the planet at their top speed. He then used the colony's gravity to slingshot the fleet onto a trajectory out of the system, directly towards the approaching Russian ships. If they wanted to attack the ground troops, they would have to go through Villeneuve's fleet.

"Signal from the Flag," the Lieutenant manning the communications console called to Somerville. "All ships form line of battle."

Somerville smiled. The historical reference wasn't lost on him. He loved to read books on the Earth wars that occurred during the age of sail. Back when ships were forced to go with the wind, the best way to engage an enemy fleet was to form a single line of ships to present as many cannons at the enemy as possible. In the modern era of interstellar war things were remarkably similar. Whoever could bring the most missiles to bear on the enemy fleet would likely win.

As the different sections of the coalition fleet moved into their allotted slots in the formation, a counter appeared on the main holo display. The Russian fleet would enter missile range in twenty minutes. For Somerville, time seemed to slow down as he surveyed the Russian fleet. Surrounding the five Behemoths were twenty light cruisers, thirty four destroyers and ten of the smaller frigates. The coalition fleet had nine medium cruisers, eighteen light cruisers, thirty destroyers and twenty five frigates. The majority of the French fleet had come to New France and so this battle would prove decisive. If Villeneuve lost, France would have to concede their colonies to Russia. Even if Ney won the ground war on New France the French government would have no more ships to send to support him.

As if aware of the significance of the battle, the Russian commander began to slow his ships as soon as the coalition ships began to come around the planet. He wanted to keep Villeneuve's fleet within his missile range for as long as possible. One way or another, there would be a decisive outcome to the coming battle.

When the counter on the holo display showed sixty seconds to go, Somerville took his eyes off the approaching Russian fleet. "Prepare to fire," he ordered. In his head he counted down the remaining time. "Fire!"

As one the ships of the coalition fleet opened fire and the ripple of multiple missiles igniting their engines could be seen going down every ship. Just over four hundred missiles raced off towards the Russian fleet. Moments later they replied by firing their own salvo of four hundred and eighty.

As both fleets were approaching each other on almost converging courses the flight time for the missiles was less then ten minutes. Five minutes in both salvos passed each other in the dark emptiness of space. Then, when they entered range of their target's point defenses, space lit up like a fireworks display. Green plasma bolts tore through space, trying to hit the dodging missiles, while AM missiles added their explosions to the display of color. The occasional hit that ruptured a missile's fuel cell added even larger explosions to the mix.

The coalition forces managed to reduce the Russian missiles to about thirty before they had to go into evasive maneuvers. As the remaining missiles began to explode among the fleet Somerville watched the damage reports coming in. A frigate and three destroyers were the first to be reported lost. Then two light cruisers reported taking hits. One of them blew up seconds later while the second fell out of the line of battle, no longer able to keep in formation with her engines damaged. One of the medium cruisers also reported taking a proximity hit but her valstronium armor held and she remained in position.

Villeneuve had ordered the first salvo of missiles aimed at the Russian light cruisers. Without valstronium armor they were much more vulnerable to a proximity hit and a direct hit from any of the coalition's larger cruiser missiles would knock them out of the fight. The Behemoths were much more heavily armed and were going to take much more of a hammering before they gave up. The French Admiral had other plans for them. As the British missiles came roaring into the Russian fleet their point defenses began to shred them, but not quickly enough. Twenty missiles burst through the point defense fire into the Russian fleet. Twelve of them got proximity or direct hits. The Russian fleet was still too far away for Somerville to watch the explosions in real time but on the gravimetric plot he watched as ten Russian light cruisers either disappeared or fell out of formation.

Even before the first salvo of missiles from either fleet had reached their targets both groups of ships had fired a second and another eight hundred and eighty missiles silently passed each other on their way to bring death and destruction. Their passing was what Villeneuve had been waiting for, for he instantly sent his next signal to the fleet.

"Another signal from the Flag sir," the communications officer called, "Close the Enemy."

"Acknowledge," Somerville ordered. "Navigation, execute maneuver delta four, follow the flagship's lead."

As Argonaute began to roll the rest of the coalition fleet followed suit. Using her maneuvering thrusters she completed a one hundred and eighty degree roll that presented her unfired port broadside missiles at the Russians. As they came to bear she, along with every other coalition ship, fired another four hundred missiles towards the Russians.

Ordinarily, this was not a move recommended at any naval academy. Firing a missile at a target light minutes away, travelling at a significant percentage of the speed of light, required extremely precise calculations. Turning a ship and trying to line up another set of missiles took longer than reloading the tubes that already had their targets locked in from the previous salvo.

The coalition forces weren't targeting the Russian ships though. As soon as all their missiles raced away from their parent ships they began to fan out into a uniform patter. Typically, anti-ship thermonuclear missiles were set to produce a uniform spherical explosion. The thinking was that if a missile scored a direct hit on another ship, the damage from the impact of the missile travelling at such a high speed would be so great, that losing some of the warhead's explosion into space would be irrelevant. On the other hand, if the missile missed and tried to get a proximity hit, then a spherical explosion would increase the chances of causing more damage.

Villeneuve had ordered all the missiles in his fleet's port missile tubes to be altered before they had jumped into the system. Instead of producing a spherical nuclear explosion their warheads now focused all their explosive force down a narrow angle out of the missile's nose cone. As the seeker heads on the British missiles detected the heat bloom of the Russian missiles, they detonated as one. The explosive force from the thermonuclear explosions and the resultant wave of intense electromagnetic radiation washed over the Russian missiles. Some exploded out right while many others shot off at angles away from the British fleet as their seeker heads were fried by the radiation. In the blink of an eye four hundred and eighty missiles were reduced to less than three hundred.

Seconds later the missiles that remained were greeted by a hail of point defense fire. Only ten of the three hundred made it through to attack their targets and another light cruiser, two destroyers and three frigates dropped out of the coalition fleet, either destroyed or crippled.

After the last missile exploded among the British fleet Villeneuve gave his final prearranged order. Somerville could imagine the look on the Admiral's face as he gave the order, "Close the Enemy Further."

Again the ships of the coalition forces followed the flagship's lead as she turned her nose towards the Russian ships and fully engaged her engines.

Now Villeneuve had shown his cards. The Russian Behemoths had sacrificed heavy plasma cannons for more missile tubes. In theory it made sense. With the amount of missiles they carried who would have thought anything would survive under their withering fire long enough to get into plasma range?

Yet Villeneuve's plan of luring the Russians to chase him towards New France had done exactly that. By using the planet's gravity to swing back on a direct course for the Russian fleet he had left them with nowhere to go. The better acceleration of the valstronium armored ships meant the Russians couldn't out run them and with both fleets now heading for each other there wasn't time for the Russians to fire another salvo before they got into plasma cannon range.

When Somerville was satisfied his ship was in formation he turned his attention to the Russian fleet. "Sensors," he called over to Lieutenant Jensen, "how did the Russians cope with our second broadside?" With all the commotion he hadn't been able to watch the second salvo of missiles smash into the Russians.

"We got seven more Russian light cruisers sir, and at least six destroyers by my count."

Somerville only nodded. Even lightly armed the Russian Behemoths still had more heavy plasma cannons than their light cruisers, but only a few. The initial twenty Russian light cruisers had, therefore, carried the majority of the Russian fleet's heavy plasma cannons. They had now been severely reduced.

Looking at the plot, Somerville picked out another light cruiser. "There, the fourth cruiser in their fleet. Target it with our forward plasma cannon. Then target the other two at the closest Behemoth. Fire as soon as we come into range."

Achilles was armed with three twin heavy plasma cannon turrets. Firing large bolts of super-heated plasma they had a greater range than their smaller point defense brothers. The super-heated plasma proved to be devastatingly effective at shredding another ship, whether it had valstronium armor or not. Usually if ships closed to engage each other with plasma cannons it would end in mutually assured destruction. In a fleet engagement though, if one had an advantage in heavy plasma cannons, then they could cripple their opponents quickly.

Realizing his fleet was in dire trouble, the Russian commander ordered his fleet to go to maximum acceleration. With both fleets now heading straight for each other, he was trying to limit the time they would stay in plasma cannon range. In response, Villeneuve ordered his fleet to halt their acceleration and fire their reverse thrusters. You aren't getting away that easily, Somerville thought.

Suddenly the time had come and Somerville shouted, "Fire."

The plasma bolts travelled at close to the speed of light and so there were less than a couple of seconds for Achilles' sensors to register the energy flash from the Russian ships as they too fired. Then, seemingly out on nowhere explosions filled Achilles viewing screen as plasma bolts tore through the coalition fleet.

Two struck Achilles, one amidships and one on her repaired nose section. Both punched their way through the valstronium armor and ate into the interior of the ship. The concussive force threw everyone around and Somerville saw at least one of his bridge officers smashed into a command console. The sudden loss of acceleration as energy flow to the engines was disrupted caused everyone to be thrown about again. In dismay, Somerville opened a COM channel to call for a medic as he could see at least two of his officers bent over in their harnesses apparently lifeless.

Not waiting for anyone else to give him a damage report he accessed the data himself. Already the causality count was at ten and at least three sections hadn't even begun to report in. The sensors in the forward part of the ship were indicating that the entire forward missile tube had been blown away by one of the plasma bolts that had hit his ship. The other one had impacted the starboard amidships. It had ripped its way along the starboard missile tubes, taking out at least three of them, probably with most of their crew. With a curse, Somerville realized that would be another thirty causalities to the list once someone got down there to survey the damage.

Opening a channel to the engine room Somerville called out, "Chief, are you there?"

It took the Chief Engineer almost thirty seconds to make his way to a COM station. When he did Somerville wasn't surprised to see a nasty gash on his head pouring blood down his face. "I'm here Captain. And thankfully so is my ship. Though she is a little bit worse for wear at the moment. What can I do for you?"

"We need to get the engines back online as soon as possible. This fight isn't over yet."

"Aye Captain, we're working on it now. Give us another couple of minutes and we should be able to get you least thirty percent thrust," the Chief informed him.

"That will have to be good enough for now but I want as much power as you can give me as soon as possible." Without waiting for a reply he switched the COM channel off. He needed to see what was going on with the rest of the fleet.

When he brought up the visual feed he was shocked by the devastation that had been wrought. Two of the three French medium cruisers were gone, along with Vice Admiral Jamison's Custodian. Two of the American medium cruisers were also severely damaged. Looking at the smaller ships Somerville could also see that numerous destroyers and frigates were missing. Amazingly though, Villeneuve's flagship looked unscratched. Looking back at the cluster of British ships it suddenly hit him that he was the senior British commander left. His promotion to commodore meant command of the fleet fell on him in the event of Jamison's death. Quickly, he scanned the area more closely, looking for an escape pod. Maybe Jamison was still out there. There was no sign of any of the pods. The plasma cannon bolts had done their work too quickly. No one had escaped the destruction they had wrought. Reluctantly, Somerville accepted the inevitable. He was now responsible for not just his own ship but all the British ships in the system.

As he widened the view of the sensors he saw that the Russians had fared much worse. Almost all of their light cruisers were gone and all but a handful of their destroyers and frigates had taken at least one plasma bolt. On the smaller ships even one hit did terrible damage and the Russian fleet looked like a battered collection of ships awaiting the scrap yard. Crucially though, four of their Behemoths remained. One must have been destroyed outright, but the rest, though clearly damaged, still looked functional.

"The battle is not over," Somerville announced to the bridge. Those who were not attending the wounded looked at him. "The Russians can still escape with their Behemoths intact. If they can repair them there's nothing to stop them coming back. The French fleet has been decimated.

"Communications, get in contact with all the surviving British ships," Somerville ordered. "We need to find out who is operational. Then get in contact with Admiral Villeneuve and see if he has any orders for us.

"Lieutenant Jensen, I want you to review the sensor feed. See if you can get an estimate on the damage those Behemoths actually took. We need to have a rough idea how much of a fight they will be able to put up once we come after them."

As everyone began to throw themselves into their responsibilities, Somerville had nothing to do but wait and watch. Already the Russians were beginning to stir themselves. The surviving smaller ships were separating into four groups and moving towards each of the Behemoths to provide a protective shield. Then each of the monster ships began to boost away from the colony and towards the shift passage back to Cartier. They had clearly had enough.

Villeneuve hadn't though, for as soon as the Russians altered course the communications officer was alerted to another message from the flagship, "new signal sir, General Pursuit."

"Very well Lieutenant, send our acknowledgement. What is the status of our ships?" Somerville asked.

"The medium cruiser Respite is still battle worthy and we have another three light cruisers and eight destroyers from the British fleet reporting ready for action."

"Ok, open a COM channel with all their Captains. I guess I'm in charge now. We will have to mourn Admiral Jamison later."

"Channel open sir," the communications officer reported.

"Captains and Commanders, our work isn't over quite yet. I want to form two hunting packs. The light cruiser Agincourt and the four destroyers Illustrious, Mars, Triumph and Rapid, will join Achilles, the rest of you are to form a flotilla with Respite. We'll each take a Behemoth and see if we can prevent them from escaping. If you can close to plasma range target their engines. We don't have to destroy them, just prevent them leaving. Somerville out," he said as he closed the channel.

Switching his focus back to the Russian ships he picked the two slowest Behemoths and sent of a message to Villeneuve saying he was going after them. Once he got permission he sent the orders on to the rest of the British ships and they took off in pursuit. The remaining French and American ships were soon following them.

As both fleets had flown right by each other it took over four hours for Achilles decelerate, turn and catch her target. By this stage the Russian Behemoths were strung out in a long line. They would have been safer sticking together for mutual support but that would have let the coalition fleet attack them all. The furthest Behemoth was already nearing New France's mass shadow and would soon be able to jump into shift space and safety. Villeneuve was roaring after it with his medium cruiser's top speed but Somerville wasn't sure he would catch it.

That was not his concern now. Achilles was about to enter missile range of her target. Somerville had used his flotilla's better acceleration to get ahead of the badly damaged Behemoth. Now she was decelerating to bring it into range. When he nodded to the tactical officer ten missiles shot out of Achilles' largely intact port missile tubes. The light cruiser Agincourt and the four destroyers added another twenty two.

In reply the damaged Russian ships could only fire thirty and when they reached the British ships all but two were destroyed by the point defenses. Agincourt got lucky and managed to jink out of the way of one of the missiles that got a lock on her. The destroyer Mars wasn't so lucky and took a proximity hit that vaporized the small warship.

The British missiles had all been aimed at the four Russian destroyers protecting the Behemoth and after a series of explosions rippled around the Behemoth none of the destroyers remained.

The next British salvo homed in on the Behemoth and got four direct hits and another eight proximity hits. Still, it managed to return fire with twelve missiles but they were easily swatted away by the British point defenses. A final salvo thundered out from Achilles and her consorts. It exploded into the stricken Behemoth and battered it beyond all recognition. As one of the last missiles struck the wrecked shell of the ship it exploded close enough to its fission reactors to cause a chain reaction that destroyed the ship in a giant fireball. When the sensor feed cleared their target was no more.

With his part of the battle over Somerville then turned to survey the rest of the engagement. Agincourt and her flotilla had successfully destroyed their target. The Americans had actually convinced the third Behemoth to surrender, although it looked like it wouldn't be good for anything other than scrap. Villeneuve had given up chasing the lead Behemoth and had turned back to harass the last one instead. Even as Somerville watched the lead Behemoth jumped out of the system. The Russians would be getting one of their monster ships back.

That would be all though, for Villeneuve's determination ensured the last didn't make it to shift space. Taking a risk, he charged into plasma range again and took out the Behemoth with six heavy plasma bolts that all struck the Behemoths engines. In return the Behemoth had only one functioning plasma cannon but it got a hit on Argonaute, causing a significant amount of damage. Somerville guessed Villeneuve would take the damage as a fair exchange for with its engines the damaged the Behemoth surrendered.

With the battle over, Somerville allowed himself to relax. There was a lot of work ahead of him. Achilles needed significant repairs and the rest of the British fleet was now his responsibility. Yet they had done it. It would take the Russians decades to rebuild their losses and they would think twice about invading the French colonies again. He could spare a moment to reflect on the last couple of months. As he closed his eyes to focus his thoughts he smiled when he heard the final report from the communications officer.

"Sir we're getting a final signal from the flag," she announced excitedly. "To all ships of the coalition fleet, New France thanks you."

# Chapter 7 – An Old Acquaintance

10th November 2439 AD, the Ouvea system.

Four weeks after the Second Battle of New France, Somerville was finally where he wanted to be. As soon as the dust had settled from the battle with the Behemoths, he had focused all his energy on getting enough British ships repaired to cobble together a relief force for Ouvea. With support from the ships in orbit, General Ney had systematically defeated the isolated Russian ground forces on New France. Within a couple of weeks, he had been able to free several divisions and under the command of Brigadier General Villars, they had accompanied him to Ouvea.

Somerville stood on the bridge watching the colony as his fleet approached. What Russian ships had been in the system had fled as soon as his fleet had arrived. Now, it was time to deal with the ground troops.

"Communications, send this recording to the Russian Commander on Ouvea," Somerville ordered and then spoke into the visual recorder. "Commander, I promised I would be back. This time I have brought some friends. Your fleet has been defeated at New France by a coalition of UN forces. Surrender now and I promise you, you will receive a fair trial. Threaten the civilians of Ouvea again, and I promise I will make sure you only see the end of a plasma rifle."

It took fifteen minutes for a reply to come back, when it did the communications officer summarized, "sir, we have received a communication from the planet. It's from a local French Major; he says he is leading an element of the French resistance on Ouvea. They have been fighting an insurgency on Ouvea against the Russians. They currently have the Russian commander hemmed into his command bunker. Most of his forces have been defeated but the bunker's defenses are too strong and they haven't been able to breach it."

"Really?" Somerville said with excitement. "Well then, inform Lieutenant Cassells that we will be needing his marines. We are going to pay the Russian Commander a little visit. Once you have talked to Cassells give the go order to land the rest of our ground forces. Get the French Major commanding the resistance to coordinate with Brigadier General Villars and get our men to where they can do the most good.

"Hamilton, you have the bridge, I'm going to be joining Lieutenant Cassells," Somerville said as he stood and made his way out of the bridge.

"Hold on sir, where are you going?" Hamilton asked more than a little concerned.

"There is someone on the surface I plan to get reacquainted with, I'm sure you can oversee the landing of our troops." As Hamilton opened his mouth to protest Somerville held up his hand and cut him off. "This is personal, I'm the ranking officer here and this is my call. I don't have time to debate it and I won't be talked out of it. You have the bridge." Without waiting for another word from Hamilton, Somerville quickly walked the rest of the way out of the bridge.

*

An hour later and Jonathan found himself standing in a shell of a building looking out over a scene of devastation. The Russian Commander had dug himself into an old library building in the center of Ouvea's capital city. The library had been one of the first buildings built by the initial colonists, and they had built it to last. They deserved some credit, Somerville thought to himself. After the French resistance had hemmed the Russian forces into this section of the city, they had mercilessly set about pushing them back house-to-house. The fighting had left no building untouched and many of them were no more than rubble. Plasma rifles and laser cannons would do that to most buildings.

Not the library though. It was build from a hard nano carbon alloy. From the numerous scorch marks along its walls it was clear it could withstand a few plasma bolts. Satisfied that he had seen all there was to see, he ducked his head back down and made his way to Lieutenant Cassells. Cassells and the French Major had their heads bowed together over a map of the area and were deep in discussion. After pushing his way through some resistance fighters, Somerville got close enough to hear the end of their conversation.

"They will know your forces have arrived. They will be expecting an attack by troops in combat armor. Our lack of armor has been the one thing that has prevented us from finishing them off," Major Moreau was saying.

"In that case I suggest we give them what they are looking for; at least initially. The main bulk of my men can join your fighters in a push towards the central entrance. I will take a single squad into the sewer system with our cutting equipment and some shaped charges." Pointing to the map he continued, "we can cut our way from this sewer here, towards the library's foundations. Then once we are close enough we can blow our way up into the library's basement. We'll then fight our way through their rear and meet you somewhere in the middle. You can lead the main assault and the rest of my marines will cover you."

"It would be my pleasure," Moreau said, as he shook Cassells hand. "Let me go prepare my men," he added before he jogged off in the direction of the temporary headquarters he had set up.

"Nicely done," Somerville said to Cassells. That had been his one concern. Technically, Moreau outranked Cassells and so he should command the attack. Yet Cassells' marines would be providing the real bite to the offensive and wouldn't take kindly to taking orders from a Frenchman. There were limits in how far the British and French would work together. Thanks to Cassells' plan, he would get to operate independently while the other two squads of his marines would be able to give fire support to Moreau's main attack.

"I presume you want to join my men Commodore?" Cassells asked.

"That's why I'm here Lieutenant. I suppose I should get into the combat armor you brought for me?" Somerville replied.

"Right this way sir," Cassells directed.

Ten minutes later as they jogged through the underground sewers, Somerville was acutely aware of just how ungainly he looked. The foot of standing water they were trudging through threw off his balance just enough to make it apparent to the marines that he hadn't worn any combat armor since the naval academy. He would no doubt be the butt of many jokes once the marines got back on board Achilles. Although he was sure none of them would ever reach his ears! It didn't matter though. Soon they would be putting an end to this Russian occupation.

"We're here," one of the marines called down the line as he held up his fist.

Immediately everyone stopped and parted to let the two marines who had been at the back of the group make their way up. Between them they were carrying a large plasma cutter. It was a portable version of the ones Achilles' shuttles were equipped with. Designed to be used by a shuttle to cut through a ships' hull, it would make quick work of the library's foundations.

As the machine was set up, Somerville took a moment to replay the brief communication he had had with the Russian commander, now more than two months ago, in his head. His anger boiled within him again. It was one thing for a state to invade another's colonies. But it was something all together different, when innocent civilians were used as shields to protect the aggressor when they had been caught with their pants down. He was determined not to let the Russian commander get off lightly.

After what seemed like only seconds, another shout came over the COM channel announcing that the marines had cut their way into the library's foundations. As Somerville stepped into the hole in the sewer's wall, he could already see another marine setting up a shaped charge on the roof.

"Stand back sir," Cassells said to his Commodore as the demolition marine gave the hand signal for a ten second count.

All the marines crouched into a bracing position and Somerville, remembering his academy training, quickly copied them. The explosion thundered in Jonathan's ears, enhanced by the suits sensors, before its safety sub routines kicked in and muted the sound that was reverberating around the confined sewer system. Before Somerville could look around to get his bearings, the rest of the marines were already up out of their bracing position and were charging forwards.

With the amount of dust that was bellowing around them Somerville wasn't sure how they could see enough to be moving anywhere. Then he remembered his suit had built in radar emitters. With a flick of a finger he engaged them and a 3D overlay was projected onto his visual feed, mapping out the walls around him. As he followed the marines, a large hole appeared overhead and when it came to his turn, aided by his power armor, he jumped up through the opening with ease.

In front of him the marines were already fanning out. The schematics of the library suggested two likely spots where the Russian commander would set up his headquarters. A team of five marines was tasked with checking each spot. Lieutenant Cassells had already insisted Somerville accompany his team and so he located Cassells' combat armor and followed him as he made his way towards their target.

The first room they entered was full of military equipment in various states of repair. There were plasma rifles stripped down into parts, a combat armor that had its an arm blown off, and even a heavy laser turret that looked nearly intact. Counting on the element of surprise, the marines had no time to look any closer as they rushed on towards their target.

After coming to the end of a long corridor, Cassells kicked down a wooden door and inside they met their first resistance. Three Russians were watching a large holo display. By the time Somerville entered the room the marines had already dispatched them. Glancing at the display, he could see the Russians had been watching the progress of the French and British attack. Again they had no time to stop and stare as Cassells lead them onwards.

At the next wooden door Cassells stopped. "Ok, this is our target. The next room is one of the largest in the library. If this is where the Russian commander has himself set up, he is likely to have a lot of back up. We're going to need every gun we have."

With a start Somerville realized Cassells was talking about him and so he quickly spoke up, "don't worry, I'm not just here for the show."

"Good," Cassells said nodding. "Then on the count of three I'll kick the door in. Coulter, you toss in three stun grenades. When they go off I want everyone else through the door guns blazing. Ready?"

"Ready," came a chorus of replies.

Satisfied, Cassells held up three fingers. Moments later the door flew off its hinges and three stun grenades followed it into the room. Before Somerville knew it, he was rushing into the room behind the marines. As he crossed the threshold he could see one marine was down already. Just ahead of him there were several Russian soldiers in light combat armor on the ground, clearly dead. Further into the room, more than ten Russians were scrambling for cover. The marines were already pouring fire into them and Somerville lifted up his rifle to add his weapon's plasma bolts to the inferno of death that had erupted all around him.

In an almost dream like state, he watched as his shots tracked in on one and then a second Russian. Both went down with gapping holes in their armor. An armored hand then roughly reached up and dragged him stumbling down to his knees. "What are you doing sir?" a marine shouted excitedly. "Are you trying to get yourself killed?"

Only then did Somerville realize he had been standing in the middle of the room without any cover, blasting away at the Russians. With a bit more caution he poked his head around the stack of supplies the marine had pulled him down behind. It looked like there was only three or four Russians left. As he watched, Cassells and another marine threw a pair of stun grenades over to their side of the room. When the flashes went off, two marines jumped up and began to pour fire into the positions the Russians were sheltering behind. Not knowing what else to do, Somerville added his fire to theirs.

Then out of the corner of his eye he saw Cassells charging along the wall of the room. He made it right round behind the Russians before they had recovered their wits enough to react. In four controlled bursts Cassells dispatched the last opposition in the room.

As the marines began to come out from behind their cover, Somerville took a moment to compose himself. He had never experienced close quarters combat before. Before he could really calm himself down a voice intruded upon his thoughts.

"Over here," one of the marines called.

Staggering up from behind his cover Somerville made his way over to the marine. On the ground was a Russian soldier in heavy combat armor with two holes burnt into his right thigh. The armor was identical to the one the Russian commander had been wearing in the communication Somerville had played over and over again in his spare time.

Reaching down he pressed the release for the armor's helmet. Initially nothing happened but then it slowly retracted. Underneath the Russian Commander was clearly in pain but he looked like he would live.

Somerville activated the release for his own helmet and when he could look the Russian in the eyes, he smiled. "Finally we meet face to face. I promised you we would. I want to make you one more promise. You're not going to get away with what you have done here lightly. The civilians of Ouvea will see justice done."

Content that the Russian Commander wasn't too badly hurt Somerville began to stand to allow one of the marines to tend to his wounds. He would be going back to Earth to face charges of war crimes. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the Russian reach under the side of his armor and pull out his hand. In it he was holding a small plasma pistol. As if in slow motion, he began to bring it up towards Somerville's chest and a feral smile spread across his face.

Instinctively he threw himself at the Russian. As he pounced on him he extended his right hand and a monocular blade shout out from his wrist. The blade sliced into the Russian's chest, easily cutting through the power armor. With Somerville's weight behind it, the blade penetrated through the Russian's heart, out the back of his armor and into the floor of the library. Momentarily pinned to the ground on top of the Russian, Somerville watched as the life drained from his face. With ease he summoned to mind the devastation he had seen throughout the city. "Go to hell," he said to the Russian before the last signs of life faded away.

With Lieutenant Cassells help he managed to disentangle himself from the dead Russian and retract his blade. He had forgotten all about the weapon but thankfully his instincts had kicked in at just the right moment. Looking down, he saw that the miniature plasma pistol probably only had enough charge to fire one shot. Yet one would have been enough to blast a nice big hole in his chest. With a shake he brought himself back to reality. His anger was subsiding. He had made good on his promise. Now it was time to get back to being a Commodore.

With a couple of taps on the COM unit built into the combat armor he opened a channel to Achilles. "Hamilton, this is Somerville. You can send down a shuttle to get me, I'm ready to return to the ship. You can send a message to all the crew as well, tell them; Mission accomplished, Ouvea is no longer in the hands of the Russians."

The End

Next in the series - The Void War: Empire Rising Book 1.

Set 26 years after the events of Stand Into Danger, The Void War is a full-length novel that follows the career of Captain Somerville's nephew, James Somerville. An excerpt from The Void War can be read below and here's the blurb:

It's the year 2465, two hundred years since the stars were opened to humanity by the invention of the shift drive. So began the First Interstellar Expansion Era, catapulting humanity into a deadly race for the limited resources of navigable space.

Now tensions between the human nations are threatening to boil over into open hostility. Into this maelstrom steps the exiled Commander James Somerville of the Royal Space Navy. Banished from London to the survey ship HMS Drake he is about to make a discovery that may change his fortunes and throw Britain into a deadly war with its closest rival.

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Excerpt from The Void War:

Prologue

July 11th 2456, Near Earth Orbit.

HMS Vulcan floated in high geosynchronous orbit over the British Midlands. With minimal maneuvering thrusters she wasn't really a spaceship yet her designers hadn't wished to break with tradition when naming her. If anyone asked, the explanation was that S stood for Shipyard.

Construction bay twenty seven was a hive of activity. For a number of months construction workers had been expanding its capacity to accommodate the latest designs for a new class of ship, the first British battlecruiser. A few thousand meters higher up in orbit, work was being completed on two identical giant structures, soon to be attached to Vulcan and designated bays twenty eight and twenty nine. Likewise, they too would be focused on churning out the new battlecruisers for the Royal Space Navy.

Once completed this retrofit and extension would simply become one more in a long list of alterations in Vulcan's history. Initially constructed when Britain decided to invest heavily in interstellar expansion, Vulcan had been serving the RSN for over 200 years as its main shipyard. Once the shift drive had been discovered and the stars opened to humanity, interstellar exploration had taken off. Britain had banked a substantial percentage of her GDP on gaining a lead over the other space faring nations and Vulcan was the result.

With the discovery of Britannia this investment had paid off eighty years later. HMS Vulcan had hastily dispatched her third colony ship full of handpicked volunteers from all over Great Britain as well as her Moon, Mars and asteroid colonies. Britannia contained one of the rarest metals yet known to man. Named after its discoverer, valstronium was almost as revolutionary as the shift drive.

Officially classed as a metal, though the designation was still debated in the universities, it showed a remarkable ability to protect a spaceship from the wear and tear of space travel while blocking harmful cosmic radiation from injuring a ship's crew. And, once fixed by a combination of electrical and thermal treatments, the metal actually flowed like a liquid in an effort to retain its original shape when damaged. This was a ship designer's dream as it provided the perfect armor. With traditional armors, when a thermonuclear missile or a plasma bolt hit a ship it would have to return to a shipyard in order to have the damaged armor sections replaced. Armored with valstronium, a ship could take a number of hits and keep on fighting. These attributes, combined with its lightweight and the resultant gains in shift drive velocities meant that valstronium revolutionized spaceship design.

With the discovery of valstronium on Britannia, Britain gained a monopoly almost overnight. Along with this monopoly came the military power and diplomatic capital that allowed Britain to fuel its expansion beyond the Sol system and become one of the dominant space faring nations.

Despite over one hundred and fifty years having passed since the discovery of Britannia, and two hundred since the discovery of the shift drive, the exploration and colonization race between the major space faring nations showed no sign of letting up. Paid for through valstronium sales HMS Vulcan continued to churn out all kinds of civilian and military craft to further Britain's interstellar empire. With the new construction bays about to be finalized battlecruisers would soon be added to that list.

Almost unnoticed among the hustle and bustle over bays twenty-seven, eight and nine a small ship slipped out of construction bay thirteen. Encased within its own valstronium armor HMS Drake made her way out into space for the first time. She was one of an ever-increasing number of RSN Survey Ships. With almost one hundred and fifty in commission they served the RSN by mapping the dark matter between the stars.

*

May 7th 2464. Beijing, China.

Almost eight years later Na Zhong turned from the large holographic display to face the other politburo members. As the minister for Exploration he was a junior member in the politburo and so tried to keep his head down in these meetings. Today that was impossible.

"And so you see," Na concluded. "There are four habitable worlds and over fifty two other systems with varying degrees of resources. This is the find of the century."

Most of the other members were still looking over his shoulders at the sphere the holographic projector was displaying. Within the sphere there were fifty-six white dots, four of which were flashing red.

Na looked over his fellow politburo members and started when he saw Chang staring at him. "Minister Na, what did your scout determine about the likeness of a shift passage into British space?" Chang Lei asked.

"As you know our scout vessel did not deem it wise to spend time investigating all the systems before coming back with this news. However, they did spend two weeks surveying the perimeter of the sphere in order to identify any passages that may lead to British space," Na replied to the minister of Defense. "There is at least one passage leading off in the rough direction of British space, though of course without exploring it extensively we can't know where, if anywhere, it goes." This brought all eyes back to Zhong.

"Two weeks! You mean your Commander knew about this sphere of space for two weeks and didn't think to come straight back to us?" Shouted the Minister for Foreign Affairs.

"I'm afraid not, but in his defense his mission was to seek out potential shift passages into British space," Zhong said as meekly as possible, hoping to placate Fen's anger.

"Calm down Fen," the Intelligence Minister said as he lifted his hand towards the Minister for Foreign Affairs to stop any further outbursts. "This is useful, it may be a little later than we would have liked but at least we know the British may want to join our party. So what are our options?" he asked the room at large.

Chang Lei was the Intelligence Minister for the Chinese Communist Party and currently the power behind the President. Everyone knew he would make the final decision regarding this new discovery.

Fen was the first to speak, "Well we all know what we are expected to do. Those swine at the UN will want us to publicly declare this discovery first thing tomorrow."

Smiling Chang shook his head, "You all know our attempts to grow our space empire have been falling behind the other major powers. This is not an opportunity we are just going to let pass us by. We only have six habitable planets colonized so far; this is our chance to almost double that. What other options do we have? Options that will ensure China benefits from this discovery and not those lackeys at the UN."

"Well, we could send elements of third fleet into this new area of space," began the Minister of Defense. "Once we establish military bases on each of the habitable worlds we can declare our discovery and present them with a fait accompli. No power would dare go to war with us over these planets then."

"Ha," interjected the Minister for Development, Wen Xiang, "and how long do you think it would take the British to figure out where our ships were going. It seems that we can't keep anything from them."

Chang tried to hide a grimace. The Minister of Development was his closet rival and so did not fear his wrath. Whilst Chang prided himself in the power of his intelligence services both at home and abroad, it was undeniable that the British had managed to penetrate their government and military. Not that Chang liked being reminded of that of course.

"And don't think the British won't fight for what they think is theirs." Wen continued. "Our military might out-mass theirs but whoever controls this new discovery will become the dominant power in our area of space, there can be no doubt about that. We need to present them with a fait accompli true, but one that cannot lead to war. As you all know we have one colony ship sitting in orbit waiting for just this kind of opportunity. We also have another two under construction. I suggest we rush their completion and get civilians on the ground as soon as possible. We can colonize three of the habitable planets and offer one to the UN. That way when the British demand it from the UN or us they will look like the bad guys. Plus there is no way the British will start a war over a planet already occupied by zealous Chinese nationals – even if they could win a planet from us they wouldn't want to deal with the occupation." Sitting back Wen looked over at Chang for his response.

Chang bowed his head in a begrudging sign of respect. "I think this will work. We will need a cover story for when we ask for colonial volunteers. I'm sure Minister Zhong and I can come up with something before your colony ships are ready to depart. How long until those under construction will be ready?

Wen picked up his datapad and quickly scanned through some documents. "Thirteen months," he replied. "However, we can have the Henna, which is in orbit at the moment, prepped and ready to go in five. I suggest we load her up and send her off as soon as possible. If we can establish a colony on one of the planets then we can quickly move more people onto each of the others."

"Very well," Chang said as he stood and brought both his hands to rest on the table everyone sat around. "This is the discovery we need to ensure we overshadow Britain and Germany. If we can colonize and industrialize this cluster of systems we will be able to out produce anyone else."

Everyone took this as a sign that the meeting was over and so began to stand up and leave. Chang then continued more quietly, "Minister Quin," he said to the Minister of Defense, as he was about to leave. "Please remain behind, we need to discuss some other scenarios in case Britain doesn't dance to our tune."

Outside Na exchanged a glance with Wen-Chong, another junior member of the Politburo. It seemed their worst fears were coming true. When he had expressed an interest in going into politics his father had warned him that things weren't quite as they seemed. The political minds of the upper echelons of the Community Part were changing, he had said. Over the last several of years Na had been able to see this for himself. As many of the Politburo members and leading Communist Party officials felt backed further and further into a corner by British and German expansion there had been a growing sense of isolation and hostility. China and her interests were of paramount importance. The rest of humanity could be dammed for all they cared.

This had been expressing itself in the growing border tensions with Britain and Germany, which, in turn, had spilled over into the public domain. Na knew that the Minister of the Interior spent many millions of credits each year on propaganda aimed at encouraging the general populace to see Britain and Germany as China's natural enemies. Worse, the feelings of resentment and hostility held by the leading communists had also led to successive waves of military expansion. Even though the British economy was valued at roughly one hundred and thirty percent of the Chinese, the Politburo had thrown far more credits into building up its naval forces. Of course the Politburo had also ensured that only lieutenants who agreed with the party line concerning Britain and Germany gained advancement to the rank of Captain and beyond. Every time there was a border incident Na feared that it would erupt into war for the Chinese navy now had too many trigger happy Captains who were just waiting for the chance to fire a shot at the British.

Yet Na knew there were many who did not share this view, even within the leadership of the Party. Wen-Chong was one of them. When Na had first expressed his concern to him Wen-Chong had revealed his own fears. Even so they were both junior members of the Politburo. Actually doing something to avert the self-destructive path their leaders were taking them on had seemed impossible. Now, thought Na, it didn't matter, there was no turning back, they had already travelled too far.

Chapter 1 – Loose the Dogs of War

The First Interstellar Expansion Era began in 2203 with the discovery of the shift drive. Tensions between the space faring powers were always strained and often frayed as one power sought to cut off exploration routes from another.

-Excerpt from Empire Rising, 3002 AD

15th November 2464, HMS Surprise, the Damang system.

Commander Lightfoot sat in the command chair of HMS Surprise as his ship exited shift space. As an Archer class frigate Surprise was just a baby among the fighting ships of the RSN, which meant she was assigned all sorts of menial tasks. Lightfoot had already tired of his current mission on the outward journey to their destination. Now that they were finally heading back to Earth he was beginning to look forward to his next assignment with a bit more hope.

As the sensors began to update the holo-display Lightfoot could see that almost all the ships in the convoy had excited shift space in formation. Surprise, along with the Lancer class frigate Renown and the light cruiser Resolution were escorting a convoy of nine freighters. They had made the five week journey to the British mining colony in the Reading system and were now on their way back home. Typically freighters would make their own way to their various destinations but Admiralty regulations stipulated that all freighters had to be escorted to and from Reading.

Thanks to a quirk in the UN Planetary Allocation Act, Britain had been awarded the mining rights to the Reading system even though it was only accessible by passing through Chinese territory. Given the past scuffles between China and Britain and the rising border tensions, the Admiralty had set up a convoy every three months to Reading in order to deliver supplies and pick up processed ore from the system. As a commander of a frigate in the RSN these kinds of tasks always seemed to fall to him.

Sub Lieutenant Samson, who was manning the communications console of the bridge, turned to speak to his commander. "Sir, Captain Turner is hailing us from the Resolution."

As Lightfoot nodded Samson put the feed onto the main holo-display. Impeccable as ever Lightfoot thought, as the Captain appeared in front of him, though he was careful to keep his face impassive. Captain Turner was from a wealthy noble family back on Earth and he always seemed to be immaculately dressed and turned out no matter what the occasion or hour.

"Commander," he began, "it seems we have lost one of our charges again. The Captain of the freighter Jackson has signaled to say that he picked up a shift space exit off his port bow. I'm sending you the coordinates now. No doubt someone made a miss calculation. I'm sure the freighter will start radiating heat as soon as they bring up their main drives so it won't take you long to find them. We'll wait here with the rest of the convoy until you return."

Lightfoot replied with a simple, "Yes sir," before switching off the feed from Resolution and turning to his navigation officer. "Avery, do you have the coordinates?"

"They're coming through now," Avery replied without turning round to directly address his commander.

"Very well, take us there at eighty percent thrust," Lightfoot ordered.

Two hours later Surprise had opened up a distance of twenty light minutes from the rest of the convoy. They had just picked up the freighter on their thermal scanners and sent her a message ordering her to make for the convoy when a message arrived from Resolution.

Sub Lieutenant Samson scanned over it before addressing his commander. "Sir, Resolution has just picked up a fleet dropping out of shift space. Based on the readings they obtained from the re-entry patterns they think they are Chinese. Resolution estimates there is a battleship, a battlecruiser, three heavy cruisers and at least thirty other ships that they can't make out yet, though they think some are freighters. They are reporting one more large vessel that they can't identify. It isn't a battleship but it seems to be in the same mass range."

Lightfoot grimaced. Ordinarily the opportunity to see a Chinese fleet maneuvering would provide priceless intel. Yet, ideally, he would like to get the information while lying in stealth, not while escorting a convoy that would be lighting up every sensor within a light day. Britain and China might be at peace but being out in the open so far from home made him feel a little nervous. Not to mention the battleship. The Chinese only had one of the mammoth ships in their fleet. What was it doing out here?

"Tactical orientate our optical and heat sensors towards these new comers. Let's see what our Chinese friends are doing with themselves out here in the back end of nowhere."

It would take over fifty minutes for the heat and optical data to travel from the Chinese fleet to Surprise, twenty more than it would take to reach the convoy. Yet getting so much information back to the Admiralty and the Royal Space Navy Intelligence would be priceless.

*

Aboard the Chinese medium cruiser Yang Wei Captain Zu was just receiving a communication stream from his admiral. "Captain, you know the importance of our mission and the importance of secrecy. Those British ships cannot be allowed back to Earth. You command our fastest ship, I'm detaching the Yang Wei and her sister ship the Chao Yung. I want you and Captain Kuang to destroy that convoy. Don't leave a single ship alive. I know you didn't sign up for these kinds of missions but it is essential that the British do not learn our fleet was here. No word can be allowed to get back to Earth. I'm going to jump on to our next destination once we have charged our jump drives. You are to follow once you have finished here. Understood?"

"Yes sir, they will all be turned into space debris."

The Admiral smiled as he clicked off the communication. He had handpicked his Captains for this mission because he knew they would follow him no matter what. He had just ordered his subordinate to fire on friendly naval vessels and unarmored freighters and he hadn't even blinked! Fifty years ago such an order would have been unthinkable but the British were about to find out that things had changed in China. He knew the ultimate responsibility would fall on him for what was about to happen but he did not care. That, he suspected, was why he had been chosen for this mission. His superiors knew he would do whatever it took to ensure China acquired the four habitable worlds they had discovered.

*

"Sir," Sub Lieutenant Erickson said with alarm from his tactical station aboard Surprise, "two of the Chinese ships have gone to full acceleration. They are heading straight for the convoy."

Ordinarily ships could only be detected by the radiation they vented into space. They, therefore, did everything they could to prevent any radiation escaping but when it came to heat radiation it was almost impossible. With fusion reactors and impulse drives operating at even sixty percent a ship lit up in the cold dark expanse of space like a firework in the night's sky back on Earth.

However, as radiation only travels at the speed of light, ships were effectively limited to looking into the past. Over short distances this didn't cause a problem but for anything over a light minute away it meant that a Commander was always reacting to what his opponent had done in the past.

The only exception is when a ship wants to use anything close to its full acceleration. The impulse drives human vessels use for traveling through normal space produce huge levels of acceleration. Yet, in doing so, they create gravimetric disturbances that could be picked up instantaneously over long distances.

Cursing, Lightfoot brought up the feed from the gravimetric sensors on his own console. Erickson was right; the Chinese were heading straight for the convoy. He transferred the data to the main holo-display and let the computer crunch the numbers.

Lightfoot swore even louder. The convoy had been slowly heading into the mass shadow of the Damang system as they waited for Surprise to locate the stray freighter. A system's mass shadow was the area of space where the combined mass of the system's star and planets produced enough of a gravimetric disturbance to prevent ships using their shift drives. The Chinese had come out of shift space right on the edge of the mass shadow; almost exactly at the same position the convoy had entered the system. Even if the freighters went full burn on their drives they couldn't reach a safe place to enter shift space before the Chinese ships got within missile range. Knowing Captain Turner he guessed what was about to happen next.

"Sir," Erickson called excitedly, "Resolution and Renown have gone to full military acceleration, they are heading straight for the two Chinese vessels."

Nodding, Lightfoot had to push down the urge to rebuke Erickson for his enthusiasm. The boy really needs to grow up, he thought to himself. Battle was never a thing to get excited about!

Instead he asked, "and what are our charges doing?"

"They are beginning to accelerate now, wait, from their acceleration patterns it looks like they are scattering. Some are going for the mass shadow, others are diving into the system," Erickson answered.

"Have you been able to identify the two Chinese ships?"

"The computer has a positive match now. Their acceleration rates are higher than anything we have ever seen from a Chinese ship before. They must be the new Yang Wei class. Only three have left the construction yards according to intelligence. One of them is bound to be the Yang Wei herself. "

Lightfoot ran the numbers in his head. Resolution and Renown could only put out a combined salvo of nine missiles. RNI estimated that the British missiles had better ECM capabilities than the Chinese but that wouldn't make up for the disparity in numbers. The Chinese medium cruisers had thicker armor than Resolution, and combined, had a throw weight of twenty-two missiles.

Turner was no fool. He must know the odds too. Lightfoot guessed he was hopping that Renown's armament would cause enough of a surprise to allow Resolution to get in close. All human warships were equipped with plasma cannons. Short ranged weapons, they shot out super-heated plasma bolts that could shred even valstronium armor. If Resolution could get into plasma range she could cripple both Chinese cruisers with a single salvo allowing the rest of the convoy to escape. Resolution would never survive the return fire but she would go down fighting.

Turning to First Lieutenant Cromwell, Lightfoot sought his opinion, "what do you make of all this?"

"Well sir," he began, "it seems the Chinese don't want us in this system, or at least they didn't want us seeing that fleet of theirs. We're too far away to come to Resolution's aid but if those two ships blow through Resolution and Renown they'll be coming straight for us. I'm sure they will have picked up our gravimetric signature too."

Lightfoot nodded solemnly. "Agreed. Unless there has been a declaration of war since we left Earth those ships don't want us reporting back what we've seen. There's no good reason for them to have a fleet all the way out here, even if we are at war. We can't help Resolution so we're going to have to think only of ourselves, as hard as that is. Getting this information back to the Admiralty could be more important than all the ships in our little convoy. Given how far into the system's mass shadow we are I don't think they're going to let us get to use our jump drive, I do have a few ideas though."

Cromwell leaned in closer to his Commander to hear him outline his plan.

*

Aboard the Yang Wei, Zu was struggling to contain his anticipation. Both of the British warships were coming right for him. It would allow him to quickly dispatch them before the freighters and the other frigate could make their escape. "Hold fire until we enter optimal missile range," he commanded.

Zu knew the British had a slight advantage in missile range but he was gambling they would not want to fire the first shot. There was no way his opponents could know what their fleet was doing out here and as there had been no declaration of war there was no reason for the British ships to risk a diplomatic incident by opening fire first. That said, it was obvious the two British combat ships knew their business. They were putting themselves right between his two cruisers and the freighters they had been escorting.

Speaking to his bridge crew Zu began to bark out orders. "Contact the Chao Yung, I want them to prepare to fire on my mark. Spread the missiles between both ships."

Zu watched the range gradually drop. "Prepare to fire....Fire, missiles away."

As shouted the command to fire, Zu found himself sitting at the edge of his command chair. It would take over five minutes for the gunners to reload the missile tubes but he hoped that their first salvo would be enough to obliterate the British ships. With both pairs of ships accelerating towards each other it would only take another fifteen minutes for them to enter plasma cannon range. He smiled, he knew both British vessels would be space dust before then.

"Impact in sixty seconds," his weapons officer announced. "They still haven't opened fire."

Dismissing his concern Zu leaned closer to the holo-display. At forty seconds out both British ships began to fire off counter missiles.

Zu frowned. The frigate was putting out more than twice the amount of counter missiles intelligence said its class could. His twenty-two missiles had been reduced to ten. Then, in disbelief, Zu watched as the missiles entered the range of the close point defense batteries and all but one of his missiles disappeared off the gravimetric sensor screen before they reached their targets. The final missile detonated close to the British light cruiser but its gravimetric signal continued on strong.

After a string of Chinese curse words Zu brought up the imagery of the battle. The two pairs of ships were so close now that he could almost watch the British counter missiles fire in real time. When the missiles were twenty seconds out, space around the both British ships lit up as they fired off their point defense plasma cannons. Zu's frown deepened. Along with the bursts from the plasma cannons there were other explosions. They looked like, like, flak explosions he had seen from 20th century war films. Quickly Zu zoomed in on the frigate and let out a final curse. The frigate only had a single missile tube down its flank. Instead of the customary second one it had two large railguns mounted fore and aft.

"A flak ship," he shouted. "That frigate is a dedicated flak ship! They are firing some kind of exploding shell! Order the next salvo to be targeted on the frigate and fire immediately." Flak ships hadn't been used in hundreds of years of warfare, not since wet navies had duked it out with airplanes back on Earth. It had been deemed that space was just too big and the velocities involved just too great for exploding flak rounds to actually hit an incoming missile. The British had obviously found a way to bring the concept into space warfare and they had managed to keep it a secret too!

Looking down Zu saw that they were just waiting for number three tube to report target locked. Moments later Yang Wei Zu shuddered as she fired her second salvo at the British.

Almost as soon as the twenty-two Chinese missiles appeared on the gravimetric plot nine more appeared from the two British ships as they eventually returned fire.

Zu almost didn't notice as he was checking the distances between the two pairs of closing ships. He would have time for one more salvo before they entered plasma range. "Navigation, reduce us to ten percent thrust, we can't let them use their plasma cannons."

Reducing their closing speed would give him time for another salvo before the British would get too close. With luck one extra salvo would do it. Zhu sat back and watched his missiles approach the enemy ships. He left defending his own to his subordinates. A Yang Wei class cruiser was designed to defend itself against incoming salvos of ten missiles; his two cruisers should handle the British missiles easily.

One by one his missiles began to drop off the plot as British counter missiles intercepted them. Twelve made it through into close point defense range. Again they began to explode quicker than should have been possible yet not quickly enough. The frigate didn't seem to be doing as good a job of destroying the missiles when they were headed straight for it.

Two made it through and as they both dropped off the plot showing they had exploded, the British frigate dropped off as well. Looking quickly over to the visual sensors Zu was able to see both missiles penetrate the frigate before they turned it into an expanding ball of particles.

Zu's smile was immediately replaced with a startled snarl as the bridge shook violently. "What was that?" he demanded.

His first officer, who was responsible for the point defense, replied in a concerned tone. "The British must have had a dedicated ECM missile in that salvo. Just before we began to fire counter missiles it activated and suddenly our sensors thought we were facing fifteen missiles rather than nine. The targeting computer didn't have time to distinguish between them so it targeted them all. One got through and got a proximity hit."

"Damage report?" Zu snapped.

Again the first officer had to speak up as no one else wanted to take responsibility. "We have lost some sensor blisters on our port side along with one missile tube and a counter missile emplacement. Engineering is reporting a fluctuation in engine number three; they have had to shut it down for now. Everything is at full functionality."

"We'll soon have our revenge. Target the light cruiser and fire our next salvo when ready." Zu growled in anger.

Just then the gravimetric plot beeped to announce new contacts. Zu had to blink to make sure what he was seeing was real. The British had fired another salvo, only three minutes after their first.

"Weapons, what's going on?" Zu demanded.

"Sir, I'm not sure. Wait, we're getting active radar seekers from all nine missiles. I think they have gone into a rapid-fire mode. At this close range they aren't trying to upload targeting data from their ship's sensors. They are just pointing and firing them, letting the missiles lock on to us themselves."

Cursing Zu finally realized what the British had intended all along. They had never thought that they could make it to plasma cannon range. They had banked on their flak frigate getting them close enough to shift to their rapid-fire mode. One or both of his cruisers was about to take a hammering.

Zu watched dispassionately as the British missiles zeroed in on his sister ship. Chao Yung managed to get off another coordinated salvo before the British missiles reached her. Again they seemed to magically multiply on the sensors just before they entered counter missile range. All but two were destroyed however both proved to be real missiles not ECM illusions.

Neither managed to directly hit the Chao Yung but both got proximity detonations. The blast waves washed over her and she visibly shook on the holo-display as Zu watched. Moments later damage reports came across from the other ship. She had lost most of her external sensor nodes and sixty percent of her point defense capability. Her stabilizing thrusters were in disarray and Zu watched as she began to roll slowly.

His weapons officer brought his mind back to the fight. "Sir, our missile salvo is about to enter counter missile range."

Zu looked back to the main holo-display showing the progress of his missiles. There was no sign of any counter missile fire. Then the plot erupted with eight more contacts. The British had managed to get off another salvo!

Just as he released a sigh of relief when he saw the missiles were going for Chao Yung and not his ship, the British light cruiser erupted into a fireball. In delaying their counter missile fire to fire their own salvo of anti-ship missiles they had sealed their fate. The light cruiser had only knocked out seven missiles before the rest of his third salvo vaporized it. Yet she would have the last say in this engagement. Reluctantly Zu forced himself to watch as eight missiles closed in on the damaged Chao Yung.

*

Back on board Surprise there was a groan as first one and then both of the gravimetric readings from Resolution and Renown dropped off the plot. There was a muted cheer when one of the Chinese medium cruisers quickly followed but as the final cruiser re-orientated itself towards Surprise all eyes turned towards Lightfoot.

"You all know my plan by now. We can't hope to stand up to a single medium cruiser even if she took some damage from Resolution. Cromwell, signal the freighter and tell them we are going ahead with the plan.

As Lightfoot turned back to the main holo-display he watched as one by one the other freighters that had been with Resolution dropped off the plot, a clear sign that missiles from the Chinese cruiser had caught each of them.

On cue the remaining freighter, the one they had been sent to find, dumped all its cargo and went to full burn on its engines. They were heading towards the mass shadow at an angle that would give them the best chance of escaping into shift space. The plot on the holo-display updated to show that the Chinese cruiser would still catch the freighter before she could make her jump. Yet there would only be minutes to spare. Clearly the cruiser had taken some damage in the skirmish with Resolution as she was only producing ninety percent of the acceleration she had before.

If Surprise could delay the cruiser, even just for a couple of minutes, it might give the freighter time to escape. At least that was what Lightfoot wanted the Chinese Captain to think. In reality there was no way the freighter could sneak all the way back to Earth through Chinese space. It was just not designed with the stealth capabilities required for such a task.

As soon as the cruiser entered maximum range Surprise opened fire. Unlike the Renown she was not a flak frigate and so could bring two missile tubes to bear on the enemy cruiser. Her slight missile range advantage allowed her to get off three salvos before the cruiser was able to open fire. Surprise only carried one of the new advanced ECM missiles. The crew had whooped for joy when it managed to confuse the cruiser enough to let the second missile of the first salvo score a proximity hit. However, the joy was short lived as the cruiser flew through the explosion and relentlessly kept on coming. With Surprise now running at full speed away from the cruiser she was almost able to keep the range open enough to stay ahead of her pursuer, however, even damaged the cruiser had a slightly greater acceleration rate and, eventually, was able to get into attack range.

As the Chinese ship opened fire Commander Lightfoot turned to his first lieutenant. "Is everything in place?"

"Engineering has just reported in sir." Cromwell confirmed, "The warheads on all the missiles are keyed to detonate on your command."

"Very good. We're going to have to cut this very close so tell everyone to secure themselves into the emergency harnesses."

Lightfoot looked away from the lieutenant, trusting him to ready the crew. They hadn't been idle as Resolution and Renown had fought for their lives. From the destruction of Resolution it had taken the Chinese cruiser over four hours to catch up with Surprise. In that time Lightfoot had ordered the cargo bay and some of the surrounding superstructure to be cut away from the rest of the hull. Only a few key struts were still holding it in place.

All the missiles but those needed for the mock engagement with the cruiser had been removed from their magazines and were now being towed behind Surprise. They were all set to detonate simultaneously. With any luck the Chinese would mistake the explosion for their fusion reactors overloading. That was the plan at least.

As the Chinese ship entered range, ten missiles shot out towards Surprise. Lightfoot returned fire moments later to keep up the pretense of trying to land a knockout blow. The missiles were timed to reach the Chinese cruiser just as Surprise was going to detonate her towed missiles. Not for the first time Lightfoot prayed their missiles would disrupt the Chinese sensors enough for them to buy the fake reactor overload.

As the Chinese missiles entered counter missile range Lightfoot keyed the ship wide communications. "Everyone hold on, this is going to be a rough ride."

He watched the holo-display as one, two, three and then four missiles were knocked out by the counter missiles. Then the point defense plasma cannons opened up. Two more missiles exploded taking direct hits. Four more still bore down on Surprise.

Five seconds from impact the missiles accelerated to attack velocity. Just as they went into overdrive Lightfoot hit the switch, telling the towed missiles to detonate. At the same time the charges on the remaining struts holding the cargo bay in place detonated and the ventral maneuvering thrusters went full burn for one second.

Behind Surprise a massive fireball erupted as fifteen thermonuclear warheads exploded. Everything on the bridge went dark as the explosion disrupted power across the ship. Two of the Chinese missiles dived straight into the expanding fireball and exploded, adding their nuclear power to the detonation. The other two had their seeker heads fried by the intense radiation given off and shot off into space tracking nothing.

Lightfoot had been knocked momentarily unconscious by the g-forces caused as the explosion shook Surprise. As he came to he immediately looked around him to see if his crew was all right. Everyone looked more than a little shaken up but they were all in one piece.

"Tactical," he began, trying to keep the shaking he felt inside him from reaching his voice. "What is our status?"

It took the Sub Lieutenant almost a minute to get his console up and running again and to find all the relevant information. "Sir, it appears your plan worked. We are on a ballistic trajectory with a twelve degree rotation. All our engines are shut down and all nonessential equipment has been turned off. Our valstronium armor has been seriously fried by that explosion but most of the engines seem to be in working order. We won't know for sure until we try to fire them back up."

"Very good Lieutenant," Lightfoot said with a smile. "And what is our Chinese friend doing?"

Again the sub lieutenant spent over a minute checking his console before replying. "Sir, most of our passive sensors have been badly damaged but it looks like he's still heading for the freighter."

"Even better," Lightfoot said as his smile grew into a grin.

*

Zu finally allowed himself to relax. He had been worried that this second frigate would be a flak frigate like the first. If he had been forced to spend too long hammering another flak frigate into submission the last freighter might have managed to escape. Now his sensor officer assured him that the frigate was a tumbling ball of wreckage.

After reading through the damage reports from the last near miss he stared at the holo-display watching the distance count down to the remaining freighter. Ten minutes and he would be able to blow it to pieces. He was already beginning to compose his report to the Admiral, focusing on the successes of the mission and all the valuable intel he had managed to get about British battle tactics. Hopefully that would be enough to gloss over the loss of his sister ship.

Suddenly the sensors officer brought him back to reality. "Captain Zu!" she frantically called, "I'm picking up an energy spike from the wreckage of the frigate."

"Show me the visuals immediately." Zu demanded. He had a sinking feeling as the wreckage came up on the holo-display. The frigate was slowly rotating and even as he watched its main plasma cannon came into view. Quicker than he imagined possible it traversed to track his cruiser and opened fire.

Before Zu could call out any orders the twin plasma bolts covered the distance between the two ships and blew through the valstronium armor of his cruiser. By chance they managed to knock out the communication links between the bridge and the central firing control for the cruiser's plasma cannons. The order to return fire never made it to Yang Wei's weapons officer.

Within seconds two more plasma bolts ravaged the Yang Wei and then two more burst right through the ship causing her to explode in one more dramatic fireball.

