All That Glitters Ch. 39

"Adenomere Control, roger, what is the nature of your consignment, over,"

"Russel, that is confidential, consignment for Peotre Adenomere, over,"

It took a few minutes for Adenomere Control to return.

"Russel, this is Adenomere Control, you are authorized to use the VIP Dock. A representative of Adenomere Three will attend your needs. Follow the plot we are sending, as there is heavy traffic around the station, over."

"Russel, roger, we have your plot and will follow it in. Russel, out."

Fifteen minutes later, the Russel was in its assigned parking orbit and a shuttle was on its way to the station. The Cargo Officer and the First Mate left the cargo shuttle, moving an anti-grave pallet with several cases of high-end liquor on it to the customs point. Four minutes after arriving on station, the Marines were in station control and were completing the take-over with their Comms Techs sitting in the controller's seats. The Cargo Officer was replacing the cargo of high-end liquor back in the shuttle.

No sense letting it go to waist, the Cargo Officer thought as he secured the cargo.

A message was sent to a Valour Class Comms picket five light minutes from the station. It relayed the message via it's ICS link. Two minutes later, Task Force Adenomere was arriving in system. However, that's as smoothly as the assault went at Planet Adenomere...

"Sir, Science, I show fifty-three vessels of the Planetary Defence Force all concentrated around the Adenomere and Gordon stations. I also show an additional thirty-six named armed vessels in a single group, these are known pirate ships, sir!" Science called out.

The Tac O was fervently placing information up on the Tactical Link for the fleet as information came in.

Capt. Henadi Noor looked at the information and was not pleased by what she saw. Twenty-eight of the fifty-three Defence Force ships were the newer and more capable Handren Class Frigates, the remainder split with eight smaller Forma Class Frigates and nineteen Hadria Class Escort ships.

The pirate fleet consisted of twelve heavy ships, nine older Ballaron Class Frigates with three Fairling Class, eight Ballang Class Escort ships, and a mishmash of sixteen other ships, mostly outdated CP Navy vessels, though there were two Whippet Class Escort ships in pirate livery.

"Shit," Noor said as the Tactical display became more involved. "This is going to turn into a fight."

"Cmdre. Dostier, our cover is blown. They know we are here, and it is too late to jump back out with the older ships in our fleet having to take time to recharge," Noor advised the Battle Bridge.

"I agree, Henadi," Dostier replied. "We'll have to fight our way through. Fortunately, since we have the bulk of Citizen Slaves on this planet, we also have more fighting ships."

Task Force Adenomere's fleet was slightly heavier in resources than the other raids. She had more of everything in order to get the expected number of citizens off the planet. She had an extra thirty Whippet Class Escorts, and fifty Valour Class for a total of 254 warships in the task force. She also had more navy and civilian supply ships, making 80 rescue vessels. That gave her a fleet of 334 ships.

"Attention Adenomere Planetary Control, this is the Union Navy Task Force, Commodore Liana Dostier commanding. We are here to retrieve our kidnapped citizens illegally held on your planet as slaves.

"Any resistance by ships in orbit, by your Airforce, or by your Militia, will be met with deadly force," the Dewfall broadcast on all guard channels.

"Screw you Union!" came the reply, as the enemy ships began to take up attack formations.

"All ships, adopt fleet assault pattern Delta," Noor ordered through the Tactical Link.

"Assault groups, team up with those you have practiced with and engage as required, Dostier, out," Liana sent over the Tactical Link as her forces moved to engage the enemy. She kept the rescue ships in a tight, well protected ball.

Adenomere Estate, First House of Adenomere, Planet Adenomere, The Adenomere System

Alarms were going off all over the estate bringing confusion to the slaves and to Aurelia, who had no idea what they meant.

"See if you can contact Korman and find out what is happening," Aurelia ordered of Cierra, who immediately began sending messages to the senior PA.

"Mr. Korman says that there is a Union Raid in orbit. They are here to get their citizen slaves out, according to their purported challenge. According to Mr. Korman, they have a fleet of over 300 ships, against, a combined Defence Force of just over 90 ships," Cierra informed Aurelia.

"I'm surprised it took the Union this long," Aurelia mused. "What are Mr. Korman's instructions?"

"We are to go to the basement shelter and wait out what is happening in orbit," Cierra informed her boss.

"That could take some time. Space battles are lengthy," Aurelia informed her staff. "Alright, does anyone know where the basement shelters are?"

Jirani, Kodani, and Cierra all raised their hands.

"Very well, Jirani, you can escort me down there. We'll need to bring food for ourselves and probably for the other house slaves as I am sure that the Adenomere's will not anticipate being in the shelter for long.

"Cierra, take May, Mei, Allen, Kodani, and the cook with you and round up the house kitchen staff. Get them to move enough food stock to support the household for forty-eight hours into the shelters. Use my authority to impress any slaves you need to move the necessary material into the shelters.

"If Mr. Korman asks, tell him I said the assault in orbit could last twenty-four hours or longer and we will need the extra supplies," Aurelia ordered.

The staff split up and began to do as requested, while Aurelia followed Jirani and to the basement shelter. They arrived just as Marius and Jaar did.

"Good to see that you found the shelters," Jaar intoned.

"Yes, my staff was aware of the location. Are you aware of the length of time that space battles can go on for?" Aurelia asked.

"They seldom last more than four or six hours," Marius told her in a smug tone.

"Actually, that is not correct. Small battles of up to four ships per side can last four to six hours, but the number of ships that I am hearing are involved mean this battle could go on for one or more days," Aurelia informed them. "That is what I have learned from my studies of the war."

Marius looked at his father, who called up items on his comp. His face suddenly got very pale looking.

"We will need to bring down more food stock," Jaar said to Korman.

"That won't be necessary," Aurelia informed him. "I have directed my PA to find the house cooking staff and ordered them to bring down forty-eight hours worth of food. My PA is authorized to impress any staff they require to facilitate the move."

Jaar gave Aurelia another of those long looks.

Damn but Armstrong Gordon was foolish to let this one go, he thought.

"What about the slaves in the fields?" Aurelia asked.

"There are no shelters in the barracks," Jaar replied. "The field workers have been ordered back to the barracks until this event is over."

"I hope they will still be there when this is over," Aurelia replied.

The two Adenomeres moved into a private room. Uninvited, Aurelia followed. The room was very well appointed, with couches, cushioned winged chairs, executive-level office chairs, a conference table with twelve chairs around it, and several 3D monitors on the wall, each now showing different imagery.

One was showing the battle in orbit from the point of view of Adenomere station. It clearly showed the Union forces in red. There were two fleets in blue, one listed as the Planetary Orbital Defence Forces, one listed as Armed Support Forces, a euphemism for the pirate fleet in orbit.

What surprised Aurelia was the number of 'friendly' ships that had already been damaged. It had only been an hour since the alarms had sounded, yet thirty ships had already been damaged to some extent and at least eight were no longer involved in the fray, four of which were indicated as inoperable and requiring support/rescue.

A second monitor was on the Planetary's Air Force net, watching the preparations to resist the intended assault on the planet.

A third was tied to the Militia network, indicating the level of preparedness that was ongoing to repel the assault. Not much had happened there yet, though there was a list of actions to be taken and the time it would take to complete those actions. Aurelia noted that they would start being checked off after three hours. The longer the event in orbit continued, the more prepared the Airforce and Milia would be.

A fourth was watching the Planetary Stock Markets as they responded to the event.

Two others were open on the underground bunkers of Antonius Adenomere, head of the Second House of Adenomere, showing that person and some of his sons and their wives, and Peotre Adenomere head of the Third House of Adenomere, though there was no one in the bunker at that location. There did not seem to be a monitor open on Elliott Adenomere, head of the Fourth House of Adenomere, which was quite telling in Aurelia's mind.

Half-an-hour later, there was a knock on the door and Ciara entered with May and Mei pushing a cart before them. On the cart was a tea set for Aurelia, a tea set for Jaar Adenomere, and a coffee set for Marius. Aurelia's staff set things out for the three, bowed, and left. Aurelia found tea biscuits and other delicacies on her plate, which she daintily ate, enjoying her tea.

Jaar was leery of the fact that Aurelia's staff had served them without orders. His own staff had to be ordered to do anything. That said much about how Aurelia operated and how well she had trained her staff. Once again he wondered about why Armstrong Gordon had let Aurelia go.

They sat back to watch what was happening in orbit. Many hours later, it became clear that Aurelia's prediction about the length of time such battles took was turning out to be correct.

NS Mary Bright, Orbit of Planet Adenomere

The first engagement in the Battle of Adenomere was between four Valour Class, two Whippet Class, and four Handren Class ships. The Handren Class of the Defence Forces were outmaneuvered by the six Union ships, who could jump at will.

The NS Mary Bright, a new Valour Class ship, Lt.(N) Bill Sander commanding, was jumping into another engagement. Their mini-fleet was being coordinated via one of the Whippet Class, all six ships being recently constructed at Pallanders-4, so they had the latest and best of everything.

The ships jumped on one of the targets and fired on the sub-light engines, vanes, and gun turrets. The Handren Class Frigate was slightly smaller than a Fairling Class Frigate but no less powerful. They had the equivalent of two twin Mk-10's on their Dorsal Gun Deck, two twin Mk-20's on the Ventral Deck and two Mk-48's on each lateral line, port and starboard. However, because their sub-light engines were slightly underpowered, they were pigs at maneuvering in comparison to the Fairling Class. The Union mini-fleet took advantage of that as they moved in and out of contact with the individual enemy ships.

The trick for each jump was to place the ship in a location where the enemy weapons were not looking. Each time they jumped, they looked at the ship they were jumping on and placed their ship in a location just offline of the guns and tubes, coordinated with the other ships in their assault team.

Their own orientation was directed more or less at the target they wanted, allowing them to quickly acquire, fire, and jump again.

With two sets of generators, they could jump like this eighteen times before they had to jump out of the attack. The trick was to coordinate the jumps so the mini-fleet could cause as much damage as possible with the minimum number of jumps on each enemy vessel.

The priority targets were the vanes, then the large guns, the tubes, the smaller guns, and the sub-light engines. With luck, they would be able to fire twice between each jump, causing significant damage each time they jumped. It usually only took two jumps on one ship to knock it out. The maneuvering of the enemy vessels was the only thing that could upset their own attack patterns.

The Bright had jumped twice on two vessels, helping to knock out both vessels. Those ships were down to one sub-light engine, no vanes, no guns, and no tubes, most of the damage coming from the twin fifties each of the friendly ships had.

"Follow the plan and jump us to the next coordinates," Lt. Sander

The mini-fleet had jumped five times, with two of the Handren class now knocked out of contention due to damage to their engines and weapons, with each only one sub-light engine to manoeuvre with. The assault team planned to do the same to the next ship, unfortunately for the Bright, the enemy ship changed course slightly when she jumped, bringing The Bright in line with her Mk-10 turret after she reappeared...

ADFS Dark Constellation, Orbit of Planet Adenomere

The Adenomere Defence Force Ship Dark Constellation had watched as the six Union ships knocked out her sister ships, two Handren Class Frigates with suspicious ease.

"Tac O, Science, do we have anything on their pattern?" Capt. Captain Render demanded.

"Aye, sir," the Tac O replied. "They coordinate their jumps together. They take into account where our guns are pointed before they jump and try to jump so that they are not in a direct line of site of any of the guns or tubes."

"Right, watch when they jump and turn us ten degrees to port," Render ordered.

The Union ships suddenly jumped and the pilot moved the ship without orders, ten degrees to port and up five degrees. It worked perfectly as they found one of the smaller gun ship directly in the Mk-10's site.

"Fire!" Render ordered. They heard the sound of the twin Mk-10s cycling. One of the pulses struck the small vessel square on.

NS Mary Bright, Planet Adenomere

The Bright came into being only to discover that the enemy vessel had moved. Sander never even had time to think SHIT! when his ship jerked hard. All systems stopped functioning for a few seconds and then slowly came back on-line. Gravity came back with the lights, causing a moment of disorientation in its return.

"We've been hit by Mk-10 fire!" Science stated.

"Move us before they can fire again!" Sander shouted.

"Sir, Pilot, the engines are not operational!"

"ChEng, why don't I have engines?" Sander demanded.

"Dammit, Bill, we should be fucking dead and your demanding why we can't move?" Lt.(N) Mark Wesson asked.

"If we can't move, we will die!" Bill replied.

"The impact of the Mk-10 has fried some of the systems. Most of the damage is to the fuses, which tripped to prevent severe electrical damage. We are in the process of resetting them. However, the fuses for the sub-lights are completely fried, we will have to replace them before we can reactivate the sub-lights. That will take three minutes," Mark replied.

"We don't have three minutes!" Bill screamed in reply.

"Then use the guns! We just reset them," Mark screamed back.

"Weapons!" the Captain shouted.

"I don't have accurate input from the sensor array, sir. We have to engage manually," the Weapons O replied.

Bill could see the reticle wobbling on his monitor as the Weapons O roughly placed it over the offending enemy gun turret.

On the monitor, he could see the large guns powering up again. They didn't have time!

ADFS Dark Constellation, Orbit of Planet Adenomere

Capt. Render looked on in shock as the small ship he had just fired on trembled violently but did not break up.

"What in the seven hells just happened?" he screamed at his crew.

"Sir, they took a direct hit from one of the Mk-10's and survived! We have no idea what kind of condition they are in," Science replied.

"Then fire on them again, this time make sure we hit them with both guns!" Renders ordered.

He waited the brief seconds it would take for another charge to build up in the turret. He heard the whine of discharge as a gun fired but the expected whine of the second gun never occurred. Instead, the ship lurched as the turret that had been directed to fire on the small ship exploded.

NS Mary Bright, Planet Adenomere

The ChEng had just reset all of the fuses when the ship was hit again. Sparks flew all around in engineering as more fuses blew out or exploded.

"We've been hit a second time!" Science called out as power began to return.

"Tell me something I don't already know!" Sander grumbled under his breath.

Power was swiftly restored allow Sander to look at the imagery on the screen, only to see that the turret that had been aimed at them was now blown open.

"Sir, Comms, message from The Libertine," the Comms O called out.

"My station," Sanders ordered.

"Bill, Lander, get your ship out of here and get it back to your carrier," Cdr. Lander Rudolph ordered after seeing the little ship had been hit twice by MK-10 fire.

"Roger that, Lander, we are trying to get our systems back online, we will get the hell out of dodge as soon as we can. Who do we thank for taking out that turret?" Sander asked.

"Mark Emerson," Lander replied. "Take care of your ship and get the fuck out of here. Libertine, out."

Lt.(N) Mark Emerson was the Captain of the NS Ria Kinley, another Valour Class. Sander and his crew would owe the crew of the Kinley more than one round for this.

"ChEng, what's our status?" Sander demanded.

"Sir, I can give you two of the four sub-light engines. We've already burnt through eight master fuses for the Sub-lights and only have two left," the ChEng replied. "Our guns are back online but our sensor array is half burnt out. Not sure how she is going to handle with only two engines, I'll give you the number one and three engines to help balance her out some.

"Our gravity system has taken two severe hits and is not very stable, if we get hit again, we will lose it completely. The M/A generators are all good, for now, but let's not take anymore hits. If they blow, they will take out the entire ship.

"I've got one unconscious crew member back here, hit his head in the last impact. The corpsman is here now," the ChEng finished.

"Any other injuries reported?" Sander asked his bridge crew.

"Sir, the cook's mate has broken his leg, and one of the general duty people has a busted collar bone," the Comms O replied.

"Well shit, two impacts from a MK-10 and we only have three injuries to show for it, damn," Sander commented.

"Sir, Pilot, I have control again," the Pilot reported.

"Right, get us back to the barn, we are out of this fight for now," Sander ordered, as his ship turned and scooted as quickly as it could, which wasn't near fast enough for Sander, out of the ongoing melee...

NS The Libertine, Planet Adenomere, Adenomere System

ADFS Dark Constellation was now fighting for its life, the five remaining ships of the Union assault team taking out their frustrations on it for having damaged one of their own.

The MK-10's were knocked out first, then the MK-20's. Two of the remaining Valour Class were engaging the MK-48's while the other Whippet Class was hitting her sub-light engines. The Libertine was taking out her bow tubes, knocking them out with fire from her improved MK-12 and the final Valour Class was engaging her rear tubes.

It didn't take long before the Constellation, now down to a single sub-light engine, was flashing S - S - S on it's white lights, indicating it was out of the fight. The Libertine let it go, then jumped the little fleet out of the battle.