Brenna's Gambit

[champgm]

Hello All,
This is my first X2 story. It's part 1 of... possibly more than one. Feel free to offer feedback, but please try to keep it constructive. Thanks!

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Eagle’s Nest, this is Eagle One: Checking in.

Copy, Eagle One, Eagle’s Nest confirms. Everything going ok out there?

Roger that, Eagle’s Nest. All’s quiet out here. We’re going to make one more sweep past the north jumpgate, then we’ll call it a day.

Copy, Eagle One. See ya in a few Mizuras.

Commander Jess Brenna stood unmoving at the front of the bridge, staring out the viewport. Everywhere she looked, the view outside was stunning. This particular sector existed within a large pocket of empty space that was completely surrounded by a gas cloud. Ultraviolet rays from the system’s star reacted with the gas, causing it to glow a bright red-orange, which in turn gave the sector its name: Red Light.

She was the commanding officer of the Argon Titan-class destroyer Inquisitor, stationed in Red Light on temporary patrol duty while the Colossus-class carrier that normally patrolled the sector was laid up in space dock at Argon Prime for some minor refit and repair work. The Inquisitor was a thing of beauty in Commander Brenna’s eyes, almost as much as the view out the front viewport. She was everything a warship should be: Massive but sleek, powerful but elegant, deadly but beautiful. It mounted eighteen weapons in six turrets as its primary offensive capability. Anything from the awesome power of the gamma-class Photon Pulse Cannon down to the unmatched anti-missile capabilities of the rapid-fire mass driver, or the anti-starfighter capability of the high energy plasma thrower. The ship also mounted several missile racks as a secondary offensive capability, and over six hundred megawatts of shields on top of a good amount of hull armor ensured that the Titan-class destroyer could see almost any fight through to the end. Aside from its already-impressive abilities, the Inquisitor also carried four Nova-class heavy fighters for reconnaissance and defense.

Eagle’s Nest, this is Eagle One: We’ve completed our sweep around the northern jumpgate. No trouble to be found out here. Just a few freighters and a Goner ship.

Copy, Eagle One. We don’t see anything either. Why don’t you guys go ahead and pack it in.

Roger, Eagle’s Nest. We’re on our way home. Eagle One, out.

The words of the patrol pilot echoed in Commander Brenna’s thoughts. “No trouble to be found...” But suddenly she had that feeling in her gut that people get when something’s about to happen. She couldn’t explain what, but something just didn’t feel right. She said, “CAG, As soon as those birds get back, I want them prepped and ready to go again right away.” She then added, almost as an afterthought, “And put the other two Novas on ready-alert.”

“Aye, Captain” answered the CAG.

Captain... She still hadn’t gotten used to being called that. It had been less than a Mazura since she had been given command of the Inquisitor. Before then, she was the executive officer, and the captain was Antony Breschnev, a good man and a brilliant warrior. But Captain Breschnev had been killed at President’s End, thrusting her unexpectedly into the command seat of the Inquisitor. Though she still officially held the rank of Commander, protocol specified that, since she was the commanding officer of the ship, she would be addressed as Captain while aboard.

Her own executive officer Lt. Commander Tarna, was approaching the front of the bridge where she was standing. He was tall, lanky, and young. Too young in her opinion. But at only twenty-two Jazuras herself, most people thought the same thing about her, so she kept her opinion to herself. It wasn’t that Tarna wasn’t a capable tactician, quite the opposite, in fact. He often beat her in simulated space battles... soundly, at times. But Brenna didn’t believe he had the experience necessary to make the hard decisions when the time came. What scared her more was that she didn’t know if she could make them herself.

“What’s on your mind, Captain?” Tarna asked.

Brenna shook her head slightly, lowering her voice, “Something doesn’t feel right.”

“Trouble?”

“I don’t know. Just a feeling.”

“Would you like me to put the ship on yellow alert?” He asked.

Brenna shook her head again, saying, “No, not yet. No need to put everyone on edge. If something happens, we’ll have time.”

Commander Tarna nodded, saying, “Aye, Captain.” He turned and moved back to his command chair. Brenna knew that he’d start running pre-battle diagnostics as soon as he got there. There was no need to give the order. She also knew that he’d do it discreetly. It was nice to have an XO that she could rely on. She looked up and out the viewport again. She could now see the two Novas approaching the ship, leaving faint blue-white ion trails as they burned through space toward the hangar bay in the aft section of the ship. The Inquisitor was currently positioned well below the ecliptic, the plane along which the jumpgates were aligned that served as the central marker of the sector, and also gave everyone a common reference for “up and down” This position kept the Inquisitor out of the way of normal space traffic, but they were close enough to everything to respond to a threat if necessary.

Brenna continued to stare out the window as the two Novas passed by the bridge. She was searching for the source of her uneasiness, but nothing out of the ordinary was jumping out at her. She was about to turn away from the viewport when she noticed that it was something very ordinary that was causing her bad feeling. A lone Argon Mercury, the standard light freighter built and sold by the Argon, was crawling through space toward the Inquisitor. They weren’t near any of the space stations located in the sector, so the ship really didn’t have any reason to be dropping off the ecliptic like it was. While it was certainly free to fly wherever it wanted, being on a direct approach to an Argon warship was certainly suspicious enough to warrant caution. She turned and said, “Commander, get me an ID on that Mercury in sector seven. Helm, drop us another few kilometers off the ecliptic.”

The crew jumped to carry out their new orders. The Inquisitor began dropping further away from the stations in the system, and a few moments later, Commander Tarna said, “I have an ID for you, Ma’am. The ship is registered as the Morning Star to an independent trading company. They’re not responding to hails, and they are maintaining a near-intercept course... they’re not going to run into us, but they’re going to be pretty close. Current range: Fifteen kilometers.”

Brenna looked up at the incoming freighter, saying, “Commander, I think I’ll take you up on that Yellow Alert now. Launch the alert fighters and continue hailing the freighter. If he breaks ten kilometers, we move to Red Alert.”

“Aye Captain.” The bridge buzzed with activity now as preparations were being made. Commander Tarna said, “Captain, the freighter is still not responding to hails, and is now picking up speed. It has exceeded the maximum rated speed for a Mercury and is continuing to accelerate. It’s approaching the ten-kilometer mark now.”

Brenna said, “Red alert. Shields up.” She looked out the window, saying, “CAG, have the alert fighters intercept that freighter and disable it. Ion disruptors only, please. How long before the other two birds are ready to fly again?”

The CAG responded, “Eagle One and Two will be ready for launch in five mizuras, Captain.”

Brenna shook her head and said, “Too long, CAG. Get them up in two Mizuras or they won’t do us any good.”

The two Novas were approaching the incoming Mercury. Right away Brenna saw that they weren’t going to be able to keep up with the souped-up freighter. The Nova was the heavy fighter of the Argon navy. In fact, all races built and used a heavy fighter, and the Nova was easily the heaviest of them all. It had 50% more shield capacity than any of the others, and it was also the only fighter to mount a rear weapon. Unfortunately, the Nova was also the slowest of the heavy fighters. White-hot ion bolts lashed out from the Novas as they passed the ship, wreaking havoc on the freighter’s shields and electrical systems, but once they shot past the freighter, they weren’t able to get turned around in time to stay in range. The freighter kept coming, and it was going to be close.

Tarna shook his head, saying, “Captain, scans don’t show anything in the freighter’s hold. No explosives, no missiles, nothing that can really hurt us. The engines are giving off some strange emissions, but it could be from the modifications.”

“What sort of strange emissions?”

“It seems to be shedding graviton particles, ma’am.”

Brenna thought for a moment, Graviton particles? Why would engines be giving off gravitons? The only thing that uses gravitons are the jumpga- She turned a bit pale as she realized what was about to happen. She immediately began barking orders, “Helm, come right thirty degrees, roll plus forty-five degrees. All ahead full. Port batteries, stand by to fire. CAG, Your fighters are weapons-free, take out that freighter now!”

The ship rolled to the right and began to turn as the calls from the fighters came in over the comm:

Eagle Three confirms weapons-free
Eagle Four confirms weapons-free.
Copy, Eagle Flight. Fire when ready.
Roger that, Eagle’s Nest. Eagle Three has a lock: Fox Three!
Eagle Four has tone: Fox Three!

Brenna left the viewport and returned to her command chair. She could see the missiles tracking the freighter on the ship’s sensors, it was down to five kilometers now. She shook her head, saying, “Too late. Stand by port batteries, I think we’re about to have a new target...”

Commander Tarna asked, “A new target? What-“ He was cut off by a bright flash out the viewport. Where there had been empty space a few moments before there was now a Xenon K destroyer. As powerful as the Inquisitor and much faster.

Brenna said, “Target that K and open fire!”

The Xenon warship began launching fighters of its own, and before Brenna could get the orders out, it was already filling the space between them with bright blue photon pulse bolts. The Inquisitor returned fire and began evasive maneuvers. Blue energy spattered off the shields of both ships as the two behemoths passed by each other

“Helm, come left, keep them in range as long as you can. I want the starboard batteries on missile defense, those fighters will be here any moment. CAG, where are my other Novas?”

“Eagles One and Two are launching now, Captain.”

Brenna nodded and looked at the tactical holos. The freighter winked out of existence as the missiles from the Novas slammed into it, but one sezura before they impacted, another ship flashed into existence next to the fireball that was the Mercury.

“Captain, a Xenon J-class carrier just arrived. It’s launching fighters.”

“Great” muttered Brenna. She then spoke up so everyone could hear, “CAG, put your novas on missile defense, they need to protect us long enough to take out one of these ships. Helm, come right another twenty degrees, roll minus thirty. Put us right between them. All batteries open fire.”

Brenna smiled as her ship executed the maneuver. The Inquisitor slid between the two Xenon warships, catching them in its broadsides while they were only able to bring bow and stern weapons to bear. What was even better, she could fire at will, but as long as she could stay between them, any shots from the Xenon ships that missed her would likely hit the other Xenon ship. Another quick check of the tactical holotank showed that the fighter danger wasn’t too bad yet. She said, “CAG, have Eagle flight strafe the J with their ion disruptors. Bring down its shields and we’ll finish it off.

Eagle One copies, Eagle’s Nest. Eagle flight, spread formation, switching to ion disruptors.
Eagle Two, standing by.
Eagle Three, standing by.
Eagle Four, standing by.
Eagle Flight, this is Eagle’s Nest. Commence your attack run now.

The four novas spread apart and blue-white ion trails propelled them toward the Xenon carrier. White-hot lightning burned from their disruptors and lashed across the Xenon ship’s shields like electro-whips. Brenna watched the tactical as the J’s shields rapidly drained down to nothing.

“Launch Hornet missiles” commanded Brenna. A moment later, twenty hornet missiles fired from the port missile batteries and locked onto the Xenon J. Brenna counted quietly to her self, “three... two... one...” then louder, “Port batteries, cease fire!”

The problem with using missiles was that the massive fire that was exchanged in a capital ship battle usually destroyed any missiles that were fired between the ships. But Brenna and her crew had spent countless hours in the simulators perfecting this very tactic. The J would shoot down a few of the missiles, but it only had one weapon facing them. Most of them would find their mark, and with the timing down to nearly a science, there was little danger that the Inquisitor would shoot down its own missiles. The Novas were able to keep the J’s shields down for the few sezuras that it took for the missiles to cross the distance, and as predicted, sixteen of the twenty missiles slammed into the hull of the Xenon carrier. Hull plates on the J buckled under the impact. Some pieces ripped free, others vaporized in the explosions. Then something inside the J went off, and the ship was literally blown in half as a series of new explosions ripped through the ship. Cheers went up across the bridge of the Inquisitor as the carrier was vaporized, but the cheers quickly died down as the ship rocked under new impacts. Not only was the K back in firing position, but the fighters that the carrier had managed to launch were also hammering on the ship with missiles.

“CAG, get your fighters back over here on missile defense. We still have a destroyer to take out.”

“Aye, Captain.”

Commander Tarna spoke up, saying, “Captain, starboard batteries are low on power.”

Brenna nodded and said, “Mount the mass drivers in the starboard batteries and put them on missile defense. Helm, roll plus one-eight-zero degrees. Bring the port weapons to bear on the K.”

Again, her ship responded to the new orders given. She looked at the tactical readouts and didn’t like what she saw. The Xenon destroyer’s shields were almost completely recharged, while her own had maintained some damage from the fight with the carrier. She steeled herself, this next run was going to hurt, but she was still in a good tactical position. The K was heading straight for her, which was typical for most Xenon commanders... they depend on their ship’s speed, so they tend to charge a target head-on until they get into range. The Inquisitor’s roll was nearly complete now.

“Helm, ahead three-quarters, pitch up fifteen degrees, come left fifteen degrees.”

“Aye Captain.” responded the helm officer.

Brenna quirked a slight smile, saying quietly, “Let’s see what you think of this...”

The K was back in range and both ships opened fire. The exchange was brutal, costing both ships a great deal of shield power. The K began pitching away to bring more weapons into the fight, and this was exaclty the opportunity Brenna was looking for.

The computer chimed in with its digitized voice, Warning, shields critical. Hull sustaining damage.

“Helm, pitch up five degrees, all ahead full. Come right thirty degrees.”

Commander Tarna went pale as he saw what was about to happen. He leaned over and whispered, “Are you mad?!”

Brenna ignored him, saying, “CAG, get the Novas in there with ion disruptors. Don’t worry about hitting us, we don’t have any shields left anyway. Port batteries, keep firing. Starboard missile batteries, lock on and fire!”

This had better work thought Brenna. The orders had been given, all she could do now is hope.

Whether it worked or not, this was a maneuver that was going to be memorialized in text books for jazuras to come. The Inquisitor rolled and pitched down, turning directly underneath the Xenon destroyer and passing by it at a range of less than fifty meters. The maneuver was perfect, and Brenna had managed to keep three turrets pointed at the K, while only being exposed to one of its own. Salvoes of hornet missiles sprouted from the side of the Inquisitor that was facing away from the Xenon destroyer. They flew out and away, then split apart like a flower blossoming, turned and locked onto the Xenon ship. The Inquisitor was just barely out from under the K when the missiles slammed into it. Explosions rocked the Xenon destroyer, overloading what was left of its shields and blasting through to boil away armor plating, weapons, and then it happened, the missile batteries on the K began to explode.

“Helm, pitch down eighty-five degrees, stay under it as long as you can.” shouted Brenna over the noise of her own ship being riddled with photon pulses. She thought, Come on, baby, hold together a little longer, we’re almost done...

Almost as if it heard her, the computer started chiming more damage warnings:

Warning: Hull Breach on deck Seven.
Warning: Weapons destroyed: Aft Turret
Warning: Shield Generator: Destroyed
Warning: Shield Generator: Destroyed.
Warning: Port Missile Battery: Offline
Warning: Engines damaged.

Brenna watched the K on tactical. Explosions continued to rip through the ship, but it was still firing at her, and would keep doing so until it couldn’t anymore. She was doing no less, as her own photon pulse cannons continued to hammer the underside of the Xenon destroyer, blasting gaping holes in the ship. It was a race to the end, just a matter of which ship would run out of power or explode first. Brenna said softly to her ship, “Almost there, hold together, hold together...” Then, on the tactical, she saw the Xenon ship’s power core erupt and engulf the entire ship in a huge plasma ball. Cheers went up around the bridge and even Brenna sat back and smiled.

Without the firepower of the destroyer, the fighters were no threat to her now. She had lost two of her five shield generators, but the remaining three were already recharging, and the Xenon fighters had used up all of their missiles already. Their guns just didn’t have the power to do significant damage to the Inquisitor’s shields. What was left of the fight was over quickly.

Brenna closed her eyes for just a moment, letting the crew celebrate their latest victory and letting some of the adrenaline wear off. There was still work to be done, and she didn’t want to address her crew shaking like she was. Her mind was racing, though, thinking about this new technology the Xenon had discovered and its implications. What she feared most was that the Argon military’s high command was going to want to try to duplicate the technology she found today, as would the Borons, the Teladi, and every other race that found out about it. If everyone gained access to this technology, it would totally change the way wars were conducted. In fact, there wouldn’t really be any way to defend a system now, since the enemy could just show up anywhere they could get a transport parked. It was bad enough that the Khaak could already jump into a system, as far as she knew, anywhere they wanted, but at least their fighter clusters were manageable. The more she thought about it, the more she knew that they had to find out where the Xenon were developing this technology and wipe out every last trace of it. That meant that she had to lead the attack, because anyone else would most certainly try to capture the technology rather than destroy it.

She started tapping keys on the computer console built into her command chair. She pulled up the sensor data that the ship had gathered from just before the fight up until now, and with a few swift commands, locked out anyone with security clearance lower than her own. That would be everyone on the ship, and that would have to do for now. She looked out the viewport at the many stations around the ecliptic, but decided that the chances that they had noticed anything out of the ordinary prior to the Xenon ships showing up was small enough that confiscating their sensor data would only raise suspicions.

The cheers were dying down, though the crew was still lively and in good spirits. Brenna stood up and spoke to the bridge crew, “Comm, put me on ship-wide, please.”

The communications officer tapped some keys on his console, then nodded to Brenna to indicate that the intercom was open.

Brenna nodded and took a moment to compose her thoughts. “Ladies and gentlemen, this is the Captain. First I want to commend you all on a job well done. It is not often that we are forced to face the odds or the firepower that we faced today, and you all performed above and beyond in seeing us through the crisis. What we saw today with these Xenon ships is obviously a new technology that they’ve discovered, and may possibly still be perfecting. Everything you’ve seen today is classified top secret until High Command determines otherwise. I don’t think I need to tell you the implications of this technology becoming common knowledge. Doubtless, many other pilots in the sector saw it happen, and there will be rumors. But we were the only ones close enough to the event to get hard sensor data, so that’s all they will amount to: rumors. Once again, congratulations on our victory today. I look forward to many more.” She nodded to the communications officer, who promptly cut off the intercom.

Brenna turned to look out the viewport once more at the red clouds around the system. She checked the time and noted that it would be early morning at her home back on Argon Prime and remembered the old wet-navy saying: Red sky at night, sailor’s delight. Red sky in the morning, sailor’s warning. She smiled, thinking that if it were true, this was going to be a very busy tour. She turned away from the viewport, saying, “Comm, patch me through to High Command at Argon Prime. I’ll make my report from my quarters. Commander Tarna, you have the bridge.”

As she left the bridge, Brenna got the feeling that the real work was just beginning.

[RSDark_Angel]

Nice! love the capitalship combat and all the tactical commands. quality!
Cant wait for the next part.

[Antilogic]

MORE!! MORE!!!!

[The Zig]

Hey, that was awesome!
Great story, and superbly written. Very polished.

I'd certainly be interested in seeing this developed. Good stuff!

[Logaan]

I dont often read stories so the fact that I read it to the end must either mean im extremely bored at work or it was a very good story

Or Both

[Graf_Grau]

Yes this was an excellent story. Well done, it will be interesting to see where this is heading.

[KiwiNZ]

Very good start! It is indeed great to see some cap ship combat with all its tactical implications. There is one little glitch, the Titan has only five shields, not 6

Looking forward to the continuation!

[champgm]

Very good start! It is indeed great to see some cap ship combat with all its tactical implications. There is one little glitch, the Titan has only five shields, not 6

Fixed. Good catch