Convoy snippet 2

Still in the Prologue:

"We're not getting an IFF from the other ship and she's still backing off. CIC reports it is a North Hampton," the tactical officer reported.

"I don't believe..." the captain frowned. "CIC, run the class of ship past our known war book for the Tau Gather Fleet."

"No ships have come up that match the class sir," the CIC rating reported a moment later.

"Vampire! I say again Vampire!" the sensor rating said. "Multiple missiles incoming!"

"Is she insane?" the XO demanded.

"Apparently. And apparently not one of ours. Tactical, I want options," Captain Lafayette snarled.

"Target is Fancy," the CIC rating reported. "Ten missiles inbound. Tango has raised shields and is continuing to back off. We're getting sensor hits outside the shields."

"Cytheria and Fancy on defense. That leaves Seydlitz to carry the ball," the captain ordered as Doctor Wilhelm and Doctor Goethe came storming onto the bridge. He turned to look at them briefly out of the corner of his eye but the majority of his focus was on the unexpected engagement.

"What is going on?" Doctor Wilhelm demanded, eyes wide as he stared at the plot.

"Our unexpected visitor turned hostile. Now be quiet or get off my bridge," the captain ordered coldly as he turned to his tactical department. He noted Lieutenant Troykov had his head down so he turned to the plot. Weapons fire from the 3 ships spat out. He didn't like the stream from Cytheria, the destroyer didn't have the right angle and apparently hadn't had all her defenses online. Her captain was also conserving the counter missiles in his inventory.

"Missiles... they are good," Lieutenant Troykov the tactical officer muttered.

"Not something I like to hear guns," the captain muttered.

"Sorry skipper but its true," the tactical officer said, clearly sweating. The only sign of the occasional interception was a blink, otherwise the man was totally focused on the incoming missiles. "Damn it, they are deploying decoys!"

"Frack," the captain muttered.

"Two missiles are inside the outer engagement zone. Too close for counter missiles... they are changing course!" Lieutenant Troykov said, suddenly surprised and apparently caught off guard. "It's a fake out! Frack Cytheria you are the real target!"

Captain Lafayette and the personnel on the bridge watched as the 2 missiles spat decoys and weaved, then when they got to the outer edge of the PDL their warheads shed their shell and then an 8 pack of sub-munitions were kicked out. Suddenly the destroyer's Point Defense Lasers had 16 targets instead of the 8 plus the decoys they'd expected. The ship tried to turn to give her port broadside lasers a better angle to fire as well.

Four of the missiles were cut down in the outer engagement zone. Fancy caught two more but then the rest were obstructed by the destroyer's bulk. The remaining 10 got through everything the ships could fire to detonate. 4 were slightly ahead of the others so they went off and tore at the ship's shields.

Cytheria's bow shields were weak after the series of long jumps. Something failed in a pair of overstressed emitters and the shield buckled and fell, collapsing to allow the tumbling 6 warheads through. The ship tried to turn but she was too slow on the helm and that was the worst thing she could do at that moment. Two of the missiles hit her bow and detonated, a third was hit by a phaser and exploded, but the last 3 hammered into her spine and lightly armored boat bay. The nuclear charges easily breached the thin metal walls as if they were tissue paper and tore at the interior of the ship's boat bay, destroying her compliment of shuttles. Fuel and explosive materials in the boat bay were added to the mix.

Captain Lafayette and the other people on the bridge only saw the fireball in the guts of the destroyer before something let go and her spine broke. The ship broke in half, each part twisting away.

"Son of a fracking..." Lieutenant Troykov whispered.

Captain Lafayette licked his lips then turned to the plot. His momentary inattention when he had watched Cytheria's demise had taken his eyes off the enemy ship and Seydlitz's engagement. Seydlitz had fired only 6 missiles at the enemy ship initially, but had then fired 10 more. The enemy ship's point defense was lethally accurate, cutting down the incoming fire as it spat 10 more missiles to come at them.

Two of Seydlitz's missiles detonated in the face of the enemy fire, momentarily blinding the light cruiser. 2 follow up missiles survived passing through the rapidly expanding cloud of plasma to hit the ship's shields. The shields wavered under the impact of nuclear fire, but held.

"Returning fire," Lieutenant Troykov said, ignoring the order to remain on the defense. Ten missiles fired back at the enemy ship before the ship's tactical department shifted back on defense. Counter missiles and point defense lasers interdicted the 10 incoming missiles. Decoys were deployed but the missiles ignored them.

"They've got our number. I'm shifting to defense plan Baker," the lieutenant ordered.

Captain Layafette watched the incoming spread of 20 missiles head to the retreating enemy ship. The 10 from Seydlitz were in the lead. They were cut down by the enemy's fiendishly effective defenses, but his ship's 10 got through the plasma and debris. Eight survived to come out the other side. Two were destroyed by point defense lasers, but then the remaining 6 detonated. The ship rolled back and forth. Her shields went down.

"Got her!" the sensor rating cheered as Seydlitz fired another 10 missiles.

"Watch the missiles, those things are expensive. We only have so many," Doctor Goethe protested.

"So are ships. We've lost one. Something tells me losing a ship is far more expensive," Commander Misaki growled darkly, pointing to the image of the tumbling debris off their port side.

Doctor Goethe scowled at her but then Doctor Wilhelm elbowed her and then pointed to the plot and the debris that had once been a destroyer. The female doctor grunted and then became quiet.

]][#]]]{OO}===}==>

Captain Loggins noted things weren't going well. When his shields went down he took the chance to spin his ship and put shield emitters that weren't as damaged in between his ship and the incoming fire, then had his ship's sublight drive kicked on at 110 percent. The ship suddenly sprinted away, throwing off the aim of the incoming missiles. 2 detonated near enough to damage Puglia further, but not enough to destroy her. He needed to get deeper into the nebula of the destroyed system. Their wake would give the enemy somewhere to look but the fine debris from the destroyed star system would obscure the Horathian sensors.

His ship just had to survive to get that far.

]][#]]]{OO}===}==>

Captain Layafette grimaced when he noted the enemy ship was getting away. He turned to the image of Cytheria. "Order 8116 to pick up the life pods. Fancy and Seydlitz away the shuttles and gigs to pick up survivors," he ordered. "We'll need DCC boarding parties to get on that ship to search for survivors. Once they've gotten everyone out we'll pick her clean and then scuttle her.

"You aren't going after them?" Doctor Goethe demanded just as the image of the enemy ship faded. The captain shook his head. "Why not?"

"She's just gone into stealth. We only have so much fuel, I don't want to waste it trying to track that ship down."

"If you split up..." Doctor Goethe suggested, clearly inexperienced.

Commander Misaki eyed her coldly. "You are that naive? If we split up we'd allow them to hit us individually. We'd invite defeat in detail. No." He could tell shock over the brief savage engagement was beginning to fade and be replaced with anger and a thirst for revenge. He understood it, he wanted it too, but he had a responsibility, an overriding one.

"I thought it was Tau pirates. Now..." Doctor Wilhelm said slowly before he shook himself.

"It wasn't the Tau Gather Fleet. We checked the war book," Commander Misaki said with a shake of her head.

"You think it was the Federation? Here? In this area?" Doctor Goethe demanded. The XO shrugged.

"We've been picking up ion trails, this ship might be one of them sir," the sensor rating reminded them, looking up from his station.

"But it came in before us, or after? Clearly it is faster... How is that possible?" Doctor Goethe demanded.

"More importantly, how did a ship like that become fully functional?" Doctor Wilhelm asked. "And why did they come out here? I thought they were bottled up in Pyrax?"

"Tell them that," the captain said with a shake of his head. The room quieted has he tugged on the hem of his jacket for a moment. "I don't have the answers. But we need to find out." Captain Layafette said grimly, turning away.

"I've got one more question," Doctor Goethe said, partially raising her right hand. The Captain turned to her. "Are there any more?" she asked.

The captain froze and then nodded slowly. "Good question," he said.

]][#]]]{OO}===}==>

Captain Loggins grimaced as he read the latest damage report. Puglia had managed to successfully limp off to hide and lick wounds, but that was the only good news. The ship didn't have an industrial replicator large enough to make the replacement parts they needed. Making them piecemeal with the food replicator and small class 1 replicator wouldn't give them all the emitter parts they needed.

The good news was that the enemy had chosen not to follow them. They could remain in stealth but the shield damage meant the hyperdrive was 'iffy'. His Neochimp chief engineer was not confident in a jump. "It looks like we're stuck here," lieutenant Groff finished quietly. A fresh pall of fear and apprehension seemed to settle on the officers in the compartment.

"Great, trapped. Just what I didn't want to hear," Captain Loggins growled as he watched the long range plot show the enemy ships scuttle the remains of the destroyer, then jump out of the star system.