HGE - Episode 03 - Saint Louis Station
The Holy Galactic Empire
Episode 03 - Saint Louis Station
Episode 03 - Saint Louis Station
"Ma'am, request from Fleet HQ."
"Yes?" Captain Brisbin said. She turned her head towards the young ensign. Ensign Keller was fresh out of the academy on his first tour as an officer of the Twins Ducal Navy. The captain thought him a promising new officer, but he had been as nervous as a mouse around her from day one. She noticed that even now, the ensign was tapping one of his toes slightly as he stood at attention. Alison was quite certain the ensign's unease stemmed more from her being Countess Brisbin than Captain Brisbin. While her naval chain of command was the same as every other ship captain in the Twins Ducal Navy - up through local admirals through the Admiralty HQ and then eventually to the Duke, her oaths of fealty were sworn directly to the Duke. At the time she had first sworn them independently she had been the youngest noble to ever swear independently to any Duke of Twins. That tends to happen when you personally execute kill your regent. The old slob had it coming and then some. It was soon decided that while the execution was irregular it was justified - as if there was any doubt. In the aftermath, it was decided that she no longer required a regent (not that there had been a long line of volunteers for the job). Even the brief flicker of the old memory across her mind caused a grimace to flash across her face.
The grimace did not help the young ensign's self assuredness. "They are requesting us to investigate a small signal ghost," the Ensign Lee managed not to stutter. He sent the details of the request to the captain's screen.
Alison glanced it over. The whole of Saint Paul Fleet was on edge because of the raids. The fact that the raiders had pulled of each raid without the Saint Paul Fleet being able to respond in kind was frustrating to say the least. There had been no blame dished out. Not publicly at least. Alison had her suspicions though. As Alison saw it, the were only two possibilities. The first - and least likely in Alison's considered opinion - was that the raiders had some sort of bleeding edge stealth tech that let them traverse through sensor nets which routinely detected asteroids smaller than some ships. It's not that Alison disregarded that such tech was possible, it was more that it didn't make sense to debut it here against these targets. Alison's preferred second theory, was that there was an inside man. Occam's Razor strikes again. Her only real question was who it was. It had to be someone in the Fleet HQ. There had been four specific communications from HQ that Alison had found suspiciously advantageous to the raiders. At the time, they would have seemed perfectly reasonable. Much like being tasked to investigate a sensor ghost when they were worried about stealthy raiders.
Alison silently sent the data over to Paul Wright, her Executive Officer. The two had discussed the raiders and had come to the same conclusion. Paul looked over the data for a few short seconds, grimaced, looked up at Alison, and nodded.
"Acknowledge HQ's request," Alison said, "Inform them that we will be investigating in stealth."
"Yes, ma'am," the ensign said before scurrying back to the comms section.
"Take the ship into full stealth," Alison commanded. The Osprey was one of the Duchy's stealthiest ships. Ranked against some other ship types in the navies within the Empire, it had room for improvement. The Twins Ducal Navy didn't specialize in stealth like certain other navies. Stealth tech by its nature isn't widely advertised but the word still gets around. The Royal Portlandia Navy was rumored to have some truly incredible stealth tech. When the Osprey went full stealth all outbound communications were shut down. Much of the hull was covered in what amounted to a Faraday cage which prevented stray signals from escaping the ship. When the Osprey wanted to be extra quiet, those few places in the hull which weren't covered in the cage were covered with a synthetic Faraday cage with gravity generators. It wasn't as good as the in built Faraday cage covering the rest of the ship but it drastically cut down the stray transmissions which left the ship. In addition, the synthetic gravity on the ship was turned down to 40% of normal. This drastically cut down the power requirements and minute gravity waves the gravity system produced. There were of course various other subtler changes the ship went through to make it as hard to detect as possible.
Alison looked down at her plot to try and see a potential target for these raiders. The problem was that there wasn't a lot out here. There were about half a dozen small mining vessels working the asteroid field. Alison thought them unlikely targets. Her reading of the situation aligned with Sandar's judgement. She thought the raiders would escalate. The mining ships simply weren't big enough targets. Yes, the raiders had started with such small targets, but they were done nibbling. They were going to take a big bite this time. That was when she saw it, Saint Louis Station. Saint Louis Station was the industrial hub of the Saint Paul Asteroid Field. It was primarily a smelting factory, but it also had some small manufactures that had grown up around it. At any time, there could be 200 to 400 people on board, depending on how many ships were docked. The Osprey's course would take it directly across a likely escape course for the raiders.
"Damnit," Alison said beneath her breath.
"What was that, captain?" Paul asked.
"Saint Louis Station," Alison said without explaining further.
Paul looked back down at his plot and then he saw it too. "Agreed," he said simply.
The proposed course alteration to investigate that sensor ghost would have made it impossible to intercept.
"Course alteration," Alison announced to the bridge. She ran some quick calculations and then sent the new course to the pilot.
"Got it," the pilot said, "Altering course now."
With the course alteration, Alison suspected the raid would begin relatively soon, two hours on the outside. She would bet that the first missiles would launch within an hour. That timeline meant that the Osprey wouldn't be able to intercept where she suspected the raiders would even now be gliding through the void until after they launched their attack. There were no other naval ships in the area. If Alison was correct, all the Osprey could do would be to avenge the dead. She silently prayed to the gods that she was wrong, but she prayed in vain.
In the silent waiting and hoping that followed, Alison wondered if she should warn Saint Louis Station. But warn them of what? In reality, she had nothing more than a hunch. There was no real confirmation of what she suspected. If she sent a warning to evacuate, the station would likely laugh at her for such a frivolous request. And besides, some of her darker suspicions feared that if she sent that warning, the raiders would hear of it and know she was coming. In the end, Alison decided that silent running was the best option.
The raiders launched their first missile volley just over half an hour after Captain Brisbin's futile prayer. There were four ships in this raid, three of the small frigates, and single destroyers. Between the four ships the first volley contained 24 missiles. Immediately after launching, the small frigates turned and burned for deep space just as before. This time however, the destroyer stayed the course for a little longer. It waited until the first volley struck its targets. Then it fired another dozen missiles before turning and burning like the frigates. That second volley was carefully targeted upon the remains of Saint Louis Station. Seven of the missiles were targeted on large sections of the station that had broken off. The remaining five were targeted on docked ships that had been largely undamaged in the first volley. It was a death blow to any survivors of the first volley. The final death toll from this raid would be 273 dead, 13 wounded. Everyone on board Saint Louis Station and many of the docked ships was killed. The few wounded were from the few ships that had escaped in tact from the destruction.
As soon as Alison saw that the destroyer hadn't turned and burned like the frigates, she knew exactly what it was going to do. She watched with a cold fury as each of the last dozen missiles hammered home the attack upon Saint Louis Station. The battle stations alarm had begun sounding automatically upon the detection of the first missiles. It was largely redundant as Alison had brought the ship to high alert while she had been waiting for the raid to begin. Alison studied the plot as the raiders' courses began to become clear. It looked like the Osprey would bring the frigates into maximum missile range for only a short time. The destroyer was a different story. Its delayed turn and burn for that second volley meant that it was behind the three frigates. It was as good as dead. Especially considering it likely didn't have many missiles left at all after its two large volleys. The four raiders needed to make it to far enough away from the gravity well caused be the Saint Paul star to make it safely into subspace. Any ship entering or exiting subspace too close to a gravity well was instantly automized. How far out of a gravity well a ship needed to be before being able to safely enter subspace depended upon the size of the gravity well and the capabilities of the ship's subspace engine. The bigger the gravity well, the further away a ship needed to be to safely enter or exit the safety of subspace.
"Course alteration, prepare for max burn," Alison ordered, sending the new course to the pilot.
"Yes, ma'am, max burn," the pilot confirmed.
"Drop stealth," Alison ordered, "Inform HQ that we are in pursuit of the raiders."
"Yes, ma'am," the comms officer confirmed.
"Designate enemy vessels: the destroyer as Alpha, the other three as Beta, Charlie, and Delta."
"Do you want to try for the frigates?" Commander Wright asked.
"Let's give them a single volley at our closest approach to give them something to worry about, but I want to concentrate on the destroyer," Alison said without hesitation.
"Prepare to target Beta, Charlie, and Delta with a full missile volley in... two minutes," the XO said.
While the raiders had been able to launch two dozen missiles between all four of them, the Osprey was a cruiser. It could fire three dozen missiles in a single volley. That meant that each of the fleeing frigates, would have a dozen missiles hunting it down. The three frigates would have almost three minutes after the missiles were fired to do what they could to defend themselves. That time to prepare and the long distance meant that destroying all three frigates was unlikely. The destroyer was a different story. The Osprey should have it in range long enough to fire off six - possibly seven - rapid fire volleys.
"Bogies Beta, Charlie, and Delta are altering course," the Osprey's sensor tech called out.
Alison glanced down at her plot. The raiders had seen the Osprey. The frigates were doing what they could to avoid her, but they would still enter the Osprey's missile range. Alpha, the destroyer, was not alter course. Her captain could see the writing on the wall as well as Alison could.
"Fire upon the frigates when ready," Alison ordered.
"Targets locked," Lieutenant James confirmed. The Osprey's computers would do the actual firing based upon the inputted targeting.
"Prepare rapid fire volleys on target Alpha," Alison said, "Begin firing immediately after the volley on the frigates."
"Rapid fire on target Alpha, immediately after the first volley, yes ma'am," the Lieutenant confirmed.
The first three dozen missiles appeared on the plot and began racing across the empty space between the Osprey and the fleeing targets. On the bridge, there was no other indication that the missiles had even been fired. 46 seconds later, another three dozen missiles appeared on the plot. 46 seconds later, another three dozen. The Osprey had fired over a hundred missiles before the enemy responded. The destroyer fired a dozen missiles in reply. The twelve missiles looked a pitiful reply against Osprey's attack.
"Prepare for incoming fire," the XO called out.
The Osprey's first volley was in final approach on the three frigates. The long range made the missiles accuracy poor. Alison would expect to be able to hit a moving target at that range with no better 50 percent accuracy. And the frigates were small nimble targets with anti-missile defences. 21 of the missiles lost target lock and self destructed. The remaining 15 missiles entered their final attack run into the teeth of the frigate's rail guns. Targets Beta and Delta had only 4 and 2 missiles remaining locked on respectively. They easily destroyed them before they could enter attack range. Target Charlie was the unlucky one, 9 of the original 12 missiles targeted kept their target lock. Charlies' rail guns destroyed seven of them. The last 2 exploded in nuclear balls of destruction, destroying the frigate entirely.
Alison smiled in grim satisfaction at the small victory. The duchy's first revenge upon these gods be damned raiders.
Then Osprey fired another three dozen missiles.
The Osprey's first volley targeted upon the destroyer was entering final attack range. The range for this first volley was marginally better than the volley fired at the frigates. 19 of the 36 missiles fired lost lock and self destructed. The remaining 17 began their final attack run. They used their last burst of speed to run through the defensive rail gun fire. The destroyer apparently had a better anti missile defense because it destroyed all remaining missiles before they could attack the raider.
The destroyer appeared to be all out of missiles because the next volley of missiles to appear on the plot were the next 3 dozen from the Osprey.
Only four of the Osprey's second volley lost lock. The remaining 32 missiles entered the last sprint to seek the destroyer's destruction. The destroyer quickly destroyed 14 of the incoming missiles before abruptly disappearing from the plot. The remaining 18 missiles from that volley quickly self destructed. The Osprey's other missiles held out hope to pick up the disappearing ship for longer, but they too uselessly self destructed.
But the Osprey's crew didn't have time to wonder at the sudden disappearance of the raiding destroyer. The incoming dozen missiles were entering attack range. Only one of the Alpha's dozen missiles appeared to loose lock and self destruct. The remaining eleven were quickly dealt with by the Osprey's anti-missile defences. Alison could feel the vibrations of the rapid firing rail guns defending her ship. The rail guns were primarily computer operated, with minimal human intervention. The computers prioritized the targeting of the most dangerous incoming missiles. The Osprey's defences had been designed with much larger volleys in mind and was able to easily destroy all incoming missiles at a safe distance.
The computer had automatically held the next volley of missiles once bogey Alpha had disappeared from the plot. The logic being you can't hit what you can't see.
The three frigates were still on the plot, but they were now far out of maximum missile range and gaining distance. Alison watched quietly as the two remaining frigates ran for it. Almost three minutes after the destroyer had disappeared the two remaining frigates entered the safety of subspace. Subspace splashes were detected on both of them.
"All target's clear."
"Stand down from battle stations," Alison ordered after a moment, "Alter course to search Charlie location. Prepare away parties."
"Message from Fleet HQ," Ensign Lee called out.
"What is it?" Alison asked.
"Admiral Skrede orders that we immediately return to Fleet HQ," the Ensign Lee reported.
"He what?" Alison said, a look of anger flashing across her face as she glanced back towards the Ensign.
"The Fleet Admiral orders us to return immediately to Deephaven HQ," the Ensign said as he almost shrunk into his seat away from his Captain.
Alison took a calming breath. She had just landed the first blow against these gods be damned raiders and the Admiral wanted her to run home. "Alter course for Deephaven at cruising speed," Alison said finally before she stood up from the captain chair. "Lieutenant James, you have command. See us into HQ."
"I have command," the Lieutenant confirmed.
"Commander, with me," Alison said to her XO as she left the bridge for her office.
Alison looked down at her plot to try and see a potential target for these raiders. The problem was that there wasn't a lot out here. There were about half a dozen small mining vessels working the asteroid field. Alison thought them unlikely targets. Her reading of the situation aligned with Sandar's judgement. She thought the raiders would escalate. The mining ships simply weren't big enough targets. Yes, the raiders had started with such small targets, but they were done nibbling. They were going to take a big bite this time. That was when she saw it, Saint Louis Station. Saint Louis Station was the industrial hub of the Saint Paul Asteroid Field. It was primarily a smelting factory, but it also had some small manufactures that had grown up around it. At any time, there could be 200 to 400 people on board, depending on how many ships were docked. The Osprey's course would take it directly across a likely escape course for the raiders.
"Damnit," Alison said beneath her breath.
"What was that, captain?" Paul asked.
"Saint Louis Station," Alison said without explaining further.
Paul looked back down at his plot and then he saw it too. "Agreed," he said simply.
The proposed course alteration to investigate that sensor ghost would have made it impossible to intercept.
"Course alteration," Alison announced to the bridge. She ran some quick calculations and then sent the new course to the pilot.
"Got it," the pilot said, "Altering course now."
With the course alteration, Alison suspected the raid would begin relatively soon, two hours on the outside. She would bet that the first missiles would launch within an hour. That timeline meant that the Osprey wouldn't be able to intercept where she suspected the raiders would even now be gliding through the void until after they launched their attack. There were no other naval ships in the area. If Alison was correct, all the Osprey could do would be to avenge the dead. She silently prayed to the gods that she was wrong, but she prayed in vain.
In the silent waiting and hoping that followed, Alison wondered if she should warn Saint Louis Station. But warn them of what? In reality, she had nothing more than a hunch. There was no real confirmation of what she suspected. If she sent a warning to evacuate, the station would likely laugh at her for such a frivolous request. And besides, some of her darker suspicions feared that if she sent that warning, the raiders would hear of it and know she was coming. In the end, Alison decided that silent running was the best option.
The raiders launched their first missile volley just over half an hour after Captain Brisbin's futile prayer. There were four ships in this raid, three of the small frigates, and single destroyers. Between the four ships the first volley contained 24 missiles. Immediately after launching, the small frigates turned and burned for deep space just as before. This time however, the destroyer stayed the course for a little longer. It waited until the first volley struck its targets. Then it fired another dozen missiles before turning and burning like the frigates. That second volley was carefully targeted upon the remains of Saint Louis Station. Seven of the missiles were targeted on large sections of the station that had broken off. The remaining five were targeted on docked ships that had been largely undamaged in the first volley. It was a death blow to any survivors of the first volley. The final death toll from this raid would be 273 dead, 13 wounded. Everyone on board Saint Louis Station and many of the docked ships was killed. The few wounded were from the few ships that had escaped in tact from the destruction.
As soon as Alison saw that the destroyer hadn't turned and burned like the frigates, she knew exactly what it was going to do. She watched with a cold fury as each of the last dozen missiles hammered home the attack upon Saint Louis Station. The battle stations alarm had begun sounding automatically upon the detection of the first missiles. It was largely redundant as Alison had brought the ship to high alert while she had been waiting for the raid to begin. Alison studied the plot as the raiders' courses began to become clear. It looked like the Osprey would bring the frigates into maximum missile range for only a short time. The destroyer was a different story. Its delayed turn and burn for that second volley meant that it was behind the three frigates. It was as good as dead. Especially considering it likely didn't have many missiles left at all after its two large volleys. The four raiders needed to make it to far enough away from the gravity well caused be the Saint Paul star to make it safely into subspace. Any ship entering or exiting subspace too close to a gravity well was instantly automized. How far out of a gravity well a ship needed to be before being able to safely enter subspace depended upon the size of the gravity well and the capabilities of the ship's subspace engine. The bigger the gravity well, the further away a ship needed to be to safely enter or exit the safety of subspace.
"Course alteration, prepare for max burn," Alison ordered, sending the new course to the pilot.
"Yes, ma'am, max burn," the pilot confirmed.
"Drop stealth," Alison ordered, "Inform HQ that we are in pursuit of the raiders."
"Yes, ma'am," the comms officer confirmed.
"Designate enemy vessels: the destroyer as Alpha, the other three as Beta, Charlie, and Delta."
"Do you want to try for the frigates?" Commander Wright asked.
"Let's give them a single volley at our closest approach to give them something to worry about, but I want to concentrate on the destroyer," Alison said without hesitation.
"Prepare to target Beta, Charlie, and Delta with a full missile volley in... two minutes," the XO said.
While the raiders had been able to launch two dozen missiles between all four of them, the Osprey was a cruiser. It could fire three dozen missiles in a single volley. That meant that each of the fleeing frigates, would have a dozen missiles hunting it down. The three frigates would have almost three minutes after the missiles were fired to do what they could to defend themselves. That time to prepare and the long distance meant that destroying all three frigates was unlikely. The destroyer was a different story. The Osprey should have it in range long enough to fire off six - possibly seven - rapid fire volleys.
"Bogies Beta, Charlie, and Delta are altering course," the Osprey's sensor tech called out.
Alison glanced down at her plot. The raiders had seen the Osprey. The frigates were doing what they could to avoid her, but they would still enter the Osprey's missile range. Alpha, the destroyer, was not alter course. Her captain could see the writing on the wall as well as Alison could.
"Fire upon the frigates when ready," Alison ordered.
"Targets locked," Lieutenant James confirmed. The Osprey's computers would do the actual firing based upon the inputted targeting.
"Prepare rapid fire volleys on target Alpha," Alison said, "Begin firing immediately after the volley on the frigates."
"Rapid fire on target Alpha, immediately after the first volley, yes ma'am," the Lieutenant confirmed.
The first three dozen missiles appeared on the plot and began racing across the empty space between the Osprey and the fleeing targets. On the bridge, there was no other indication that the missiles had even been fired. 46 seconds later, another three dozen missiles appeared on the plot. 46 seconds later, another three dozen. The Osprey had fired over a hundred missiles before the enemy responded. The destroyer fired a dozen missiles in reply. The twelve missiles looked a pitiful reply against Osprey's attack.
"Prepare for incoming fire," the XO called out.
The Osprey's first volley was in final approach on the three frigates. The long range made the missiles accuracy poor. Alison would expect to be able to hit a moving target at that range with no better 50 percent accuracy. And the frigates were small nimble targets with anti-missile defences. 21 of the missiles lost target lock and self destructed. The remaining 15 missiles entered their final attack run into the teeth of the frigate's rail guns. Targets Beta and Delta had only 4 and 2 missiles remaining locked on respectively. They easily destroyed them before they could enter attack range. Target Charlie was the unlucky one, 9 of the original 12 missiles targeted kept their target lock. Charlies' rail guns destroyed seven of them. The last 2 exploded in nuclear balls of destruction, destroying the frigate entirely.
Alison smiled in grim satisfaction at the small victory. The duchy's first revenge upon these gods be damned raiders.
Then Osprey fired another three dozen missiles.
The Osprey's first volley targeted upon the destroyer was entering final attack range. The range for this first volley was marginally better than the volley fired at the frigates. 19 of the 36 missiles fired lost lock and self destructed. The remaining 17 began their final attack run. They used their last burst of speed to run through the defensive rail gun fire. The destroyer apparently had a better anti missile defense because it destroyed all remaining missiles before they could attack the raider.
The destroyer appeared to be all out of missiles because the next volley of missiles to appear on the plot were the next 3 dozen from the Osprey.
Only four of the Osprey's second volley lost lock. The remaining 32 missiles entered the last sprint to seek the destroyer's destruction. The destroyer quickly destroyed 14 of the incoming missiles before abruptly disappearing from the plot. The remaining 18 missiles from that volley quickly self destructed. The Osprey's other missiles held out hope to pick up the disappearing ship for longer, but they too uselessly self destructed.
But the Osprey's crew didn't have time to wonder at the sudden disappearance of the raiding destroyer. The incoming dozen missiles were entering attack range. Only one of the Alpha's dozen missiles appeared to loose lock and self destruct. The remaining eleven were quickly dealt with by the Osprey's anti-missile defences. Alison could feel the vibrations of the rapid firing rail guns defending her ship. The rail guns were primarily computer operated, with minimal human intervention. The computers prioritized the targeting of the most dangerous incoming missiles. The Osprey's defences had been designed with much larger volleys in mind and was able to easily destroy all incoming missiles at a safe distance.
The computer had automatically held the next volley of missiles once bogey Alpha had disappeared from the plot. The logic being you can't hit what you can't see.
The three frigates were still on the plot, but they were now far out of maximum missile range and gaining distance. Alison watched quietly as the two remaining frigates ran for it. Almost three minutes after the destroyer had disappeared the two remaining frigates entered the safety of subspace. Subspace splashes were detected on both of them.
"All target's clear."
"Stand down from battle stations," Alison ordered after a moment, "Alter course to search Charlie location. Prepare away parties."
"Message from Fleet HQ," Ensign Lee called out.
"What is it?" Alison asked.
"Admiral Skrede orders that we immediately return to Fleet HQ," the Ensign Lee reported.
"He what?" Alison said, a look of anger flashing across her face as she glanced back towards the Ensign.
"The Fleet Admiral orders us to return immediately to Deephaven HQ," the Ensign said as he almost shrunk into his seat away from his Captain.
Alison took a calming breath. She had just landed the first blow against these gods be damned raiders and the Admiral wanted her to run home. "Alter course for Deephaven at cruising speed," Alison said finally before she stood up from the captain chair. "Lieutenant James, you have command. See us into HQ."
"I have command," the Lieutenant confirmed.
"Commander, with me," Alison said to her XO as she left the bridge for her office.
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