The Price of Liberty (Empire Rising Book 4) Read online

  “Still not picking up anything on sensors,” the Sensor Officer said.

  “Bring us to a halt,” Gupta commanded. “We’ll give it another twenty minutes and then we’ll signal the fleet.”

  As her self-imposed deadline approached, Gupta became a lot more confident. It was possible the Indians were hiding some warships along Aror’s mass shadow to ambush the British fleet. But her ship and the drones she had launched had been scanning the area intensively. If there were any ships out there, there could be no more than one or two, the rest of the fleet could easily handle them.

  “Bring us to heading five four point seven, then give me maximum burn on our impulse engines for exactly ten seconds,” she ordered.

  “Aye Sir,” the Navigation officer said.

  *

  HMS Endeavour, edge of the Aror System

  James turned his neck from side to side to work out some of the tension that had crept into his body. Endeavour was keeping station with the flagship and the rest of the fleet six light hours from the edge of the Aror system. Gupta and Discovery had jumped away from the fleet more than forty minutes ago and, as yet, there was no word from her.

  “Do you think something has happened?” Sub Lieutenant Scott asked. “Shouldn’t we have heard from Discovery by now?”

  “Not necessarily,” James said. “Gupta needs to be sure the Indians haven’t laid a trap; it will take as long as it takes. And if something does happen, I’m sure we would detect it, there’s no way the Indians would be able to take her without Gupta letting us know about it.”

  “I can’t stand this waiting,” Mallory said.

  “I know,” James agreed. “I would like to be able to say that it gets easier with experience, but it doesn’t”

  As if Gupta had heard the frustration in Mallory’s voice, the gravimetric plot beeped, drawing everyone’s attention to it. “New contact,” Sub Lieutenant Malik called. “I'm picking up a single ship rapidly accelerating along heading five four point seven.”

  “Has she been detected?” Mallory asked with concern.

  “No,” James answered. “I don’t think so,” he continued after checking the heading the new contact was exiting along. “It’s a signal, Rooke worked out a signaling system with Gupta. I believe that is the signal for the all clear. Get the ship ready to jump into shift space.”

  “Orders are coming in from the flagship,” Sub Lieutenant King announced. “We’re to jump into shift space in forty-five seconds, I’m transferring the coordinates to Sub Lieutenant Jennings.”

  “Coordinates locked in,” Jennings said a moment later.

  “Jump us with the fleet,” James ordered.

  When the fleet exited shift space, James eagerly studied Endeavour’s sensor readings along with everyone else on the bridge. There was no sign of any ships other than Discovery but that didn’t mean the fleet was in the clear yet.

  “New orders from the flag,” King announced. “We are to go active with our sensors.”

  “Do it,” James ordered.

  “Aye Sir,” Malik responded.

  The space around the British fleet was flooded with terawatts of electromagnetic energy as every ship in the fleet turned on their main search radars. The tension in James’ shoulders lasted for another couple of minutes, but when no new contacts appeared on the sensor plot he relaxed. “There really are no Indian ships about,” he said to the bridge. “Either they have something special planned for us over the colony, or they’re waiting for us at New Delhi.”

  “My money is on New Delhi,” Lieutenant Becket said from the tactical console.

  “As it is mine,” James said. “But maybe that’s exactly what they want us to think to lure us into a false sense of security before they spring whatever trap they have planned. So, let’s stay focused.”

  “More orders coming in from the Rear Admiral,” King said. “The fleet is to advance towards Aror.”

  Very well,” James said. “Jennings let’s follow the flagship in.”

  *

  James gave the order for Endeavour to launch a drone towards the quickly approaching colony. More than ten other drones shot from other ships in the British fleet. Rooke wasn’t taking any chances. Royal Space Naval Intelligence data suggested the Indians had two small battlestations in orbit above the colony. James guessed that the trick the Havenites had played on the Indian fleet over Haven was in Rear Admiral Rooke’s mind. He was carrying out an extensive scan of the rest of the orbital infrastructure around the colony to make sure there were no hidden battlestations or weapons platforms.

  “As far as I can tell, the rest of the infrastructure around the colony looks commercial,” Sub Lieutenant Malik reported.

  “Thank you, Sub Lieutenant,” James said. “I suspect the Rear Admiral will want his own officers to analyze the data before we make our next move. Becket, prepare the port side missile tubes, target the nearest battlestation.”

  “Aye Sir,” Becket answered.

  The order to target the battlestations came less than a minute later. Hood and her flotilla would target the nearest one, while HMS Justice, the second battlecruiser in the fleet, and her flotilla would target the second.

  “Fire,” James ordered as the order came down from the flagship.

  Endeavour’s eight missiles shot into space, accelerated to 0.2c by their missile tubes. As soon as they cleared the warship, their impulse engines kicked in, accelerating them at over four hundred gravities towards their target. They were joined by another eighty-eight British missiles.

  The two Indian battlestations fired off salvos of forty missiles each before the British wave of destruction reached them. Then tens of escape pods were launched from the station. At the same time their automated computers frantically fired the stations point defense weapons. Small plasma bolts and AM missiles reached out to intercept the British missiles. Thirty were destroyed, but the rest rained down on the two battlestations. Almost every missile scored a direct hit and the two battlestations simply disappeared in the resulting explosion.

  As the Indian missiles approached the British fleet, flak cannons, point defense plasma cannons and AM missiles took them out before they got close enough to become any kind of threat.

  “Captain,” Sub Lieutenant King said. “I’m picking up a new message from the flagship, it’s got visuals and audio and it’s being broadcast in the open without any encryption.”

  “Let’s hear it,” James responded.

  When King transferred the COM message to the main holo display, Rooke’s face appeared. “People of Aror,” he began. “My name is Rear Admiral Rooke. On the 4thJune the Parliament of the British Star Kingdom declared war on the Indian Star Republic as a result of your government’s illegal occupation of Haven and its territories. The British people do not wish to be at war with the people of India. However, we will not sit by and idly watch your nation invade another. What we are about today is a direct consequence of your government’s illegal actions, remember that.”

  “That’s it,” King said. “Wait, there is another transmission. This one is just text. It’s a list of both orbital and ground targets, the message is warning the Indian people to evacuate these areas. It says they have thirty minutes.”

  “Beckett,” James said as a new COM message came in for him. “I’ve just received our targets from the flagship. Prepare the heavy plasma cannons, we’re going to take out as many orbital stations as we can as we pass the colony.”

  “Aye Sir,” Becket responded.

  As the fleet continued to approach the colony, James took a moment to review the list of targets Rooke had sent to the Indians. The surface targets were all military targets, either military barracks or supply depots. In orbit, the fleet was going to take out every orbital station that looked like it had anything to do with either Indian fleet operations or the industrial output of the colony. Their economy will still be intact, more or less, James thought to himself, but Aror won’t be supplying any raw materials to
the Indian shipyards any time soon.

  When the British fleet came into range of the colony, a hail of plasma bolts descended on their targets. Due to the close proximity of many of the ground targets to population centers, tungsten spears were out of the question. Some of the bolts burst through the colony’s atmosphere to hit ground targets but the majority were focused on the orbital stations. The first two volleys of bolts destroyed almost two thirds of Aror’s orbital industry. The third and fourth volleys were targeted at the debris. Systematically, the British ships destroyed every piece of wreckage big enough to cause any damage to the surface before it entered Aror’s atmosphere.

  Once Rear Admiral Rooke was satisfied that all the targets his orders allowed him to attack were destroyed, he gave the order for the fleet to turn towards the shift passage to New Delhi. If the Indians weren’t waiting for him here, he knew they would be there.

  *

  Captain Bedi waited at the edge of the shift passage to New Delhi for a couple of hours after the British attack on Aror. From the colony, intelligence operatives transmitted a full report on the British fleet and the damage it had caused. As soon as he received it, he ordered his small corvette to jump out of the system. He was on his way to Admiral Khan and he had one message for him. The British were coming.

  *

  8th July 2467 AD, ISRS Kali, New Delhi system.

  “Damnation,” Khan swore as he threw the datapad he had been reading across his office to smash into one of his flagship’s bulkheads. “They destroyed almost everything in orbit. The cost to rebuild will be trillions of credits.”

  “It was a risk we decided we had to take,” his Flag Captain said. “And judging by the size of the British fleet. I think we made the right choice. We would have been defeated if we tried to stop them at Aror.”

  “I know that,” Khan said. “But I was hoping they would leave the colony alone. Now even if we beat them here, I will have to answer for the damage to Aror. The Prime Minister won’t be pleased.”

  “I suppose not,” Khan’s Flag Captain said, happy he didn’t have to answer to the Prime Minister.

  “It’s done now,” Khan said as he calmed himself down. “At least we know how many ships the British have. It’s time to make our final preparations. They will be here within the day.”

  *

  8th July 2467 AD, HMS Endeavour, edge of the New Delhi System.

  Unbeknown to Khan, the British fleet was already approaching the New Delhi System under stealth. James was sitting in his command chair on Endeavour’s bridge watching the sensor plot of the system in front of him. Instead of sending in a ship like Discovery to scout the Indian patrol ships, Rooke had jumped the fleet out of shift space five light hours away from the system’s mass shadow. The entire fleet was in stealth, cruising towards the mass shadow at 0.25c. As New Delhi was the capital of the Indian colonies, there was no doubt the system would be heavily patrolled. Any ship that jumped into the system near the mass shadow would have been detected. This way the Indian ships patrolling the outer system wouldn’t have a clue what the British fleet was doing until it was too late.

  “Our electromagnetic sensors have detected two more ships, along with the three the gravimetric sensors have picked up that makes five patrol ships,” Sub Lieutenant Malik reported. “I’m also picking up traces of what I suspect is a sixth but the data is inconclusive as yet.”

  “Good,” James said. “Get ready everyone, if we are detecting their ships, they will soon detect us as well.”

  “Captain,” King shouted, “the flagship has just sent a signal to the fleet, ‘commence plan alpha two.’”

  “Follow the flagship,” James ordered. “Becket, follow Captain Valance’s instructions. Fire on her order.”

  After giving the order, James sat back in his command chair. As Endeavour was part of the flagship’s flotilla, there wasn’t much else for him to do. Valance had command of the ships in the flotilla, she would pick their targets and would give the order to fire.

  James focused on the Indian contacts Endeavour’s sensors had picked up. As soon as the British fleet came out of stealth and accelerated towards their targets, the holo plot came alive with Indian ships.

  They were still more than twenty light minutes away from the British ships as they patrolled along the edge of the system’s mass shadow. However, the British ships were charging straight for them and the Indian ships only had a small timeframe in which to act before there would be no hope of escape.

  Almost as one, the patrolling ships turned towards the inner system and arrested their momentum so they could boost towards safety. One ship caught James’ attention and he focused on the small holo display on his command chair. Whoever was commanding the destroyer was good, he had reacted far quicker than any of the other captains. It looked like he might escape, however, it was clear that the rest of the ships didn’t stand a chance.

  “I just received targeting data from Captain Valance,” Becket said minutes before the first Indian ships came into missile range.

  “Fire when she gives the order,” James responded.

  It almost looked like Rear Admiral Rooke was overplaying his hand. There was a constant stream of signals being sent out from the flagship to every one of the ships in the fleet. It would be obvious for anyone watching the fleet that Hood was the flagship. The problem was it might seem like Hood was trying to advertise her presence too overtly. Still, James thought with a shrug, who am I to question a Rear Admiral?

  “Launching missiles,” Becket called once she received orders from Captain Valance.

  More than one hundred and ten missiles reached towards five of the six Indian ships fleeing the coming onslaught. The Indian ships tried to shoot down the missiles but only one was successful, the other four took direct hits. The ship that survived was a small frigate. In a pathetic act of defiance, it fired two missiles back at the British fleet. They were effortlessly brushed aside. In response, Hood fired another eight missiles at the frigate, alone it was unable to defend itself against so many missiles and so was quickly dispatched.

  On orders from Rear Admiral Rooke, the heavy cruiser HMS Dragon fired twelve missiles at the remaining Indian ship. Technically out of range, Dragon’s twelve missiles accelerated to their maximum speed and went ballistic. As soon as they did, the Indian destroyer altered course to get away from them. In response, Dragon’s tactical officer sent new targeting data to her missiles. As a result, every two minutes they fired up their engines to alter course towards the destroyer before going ballistic again.

  Despite her best efforts, she only managed to get eight of her missiles into range of the Indian ship. As soon as they were able, they switched on their seeker heads, powered their engines up one final time and accelerated to their attack velocity.

  “Missile launch,” Sub Lieutenant Malik shouted.

  James didn’t need the Sub Lieutenant to tell him what was happening. When the distance between the two sets of missiles was less than two light seconds the Indian missiles exploded. In that instant, the Indian Captain put his ship into stealth and disappeared off the holo plot. Five seconds later, it reappeared heading on a very different angle away from its original trajectory.

  “There’s no way a destroyer can make that kind of turn,” Malik said.

  “That’s not the destroyer,” James responded. “It must be a drone; the destroyer is still in stealth.”

  Whilst James anticipated what the Indian Captain had done, the seeker heads on the British missiles could not. After being momentarily blinded by the thermonuclear explosions from the two Indian missiles, they tried to renew their target lock. All but one of them locked onto the first target that became available and dived after the drone that was putting out enough electromagnetic radiation to mimic the destroyer’s sensor profile.

  The final British missile must have sensed something from the Indian destroyer for it continued towards its target. As soon as the rest of the missiles were far enough awa
y from the destroyer that its Captain wasn’t concerned by them, the destroyer came out of stealth. It powered up its point defenses and shot down the missile that was threatening it.

  “That’s one lucky destroyer,” Lieutenant Julius said over the open COM channel from the axillary bridge.

  “Luck only had a small part to play in that,” James said. “Don’t forget, just because the Indians are our enemy, it doesn’t mean they don’t have good officers on their side as well. Let’s hope this Admiral Khan isn’t one of them.”

  “Signal from the flagship Captain,” King announced, “the fleet is to switch to formation gamma five three.”

  “Follow our orders,” James commanded. The escaping Indian destroyer wasn’t important anymore, it was time to make their feint towards Haven.