Phantom chapter 2 (standard:science fiction, 2472 words) [2/5] show all parts
Author: St George	Added: Mar 12 2003	Views/Reads: 2725/1998	Part vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
Phantom's story continues.

Click here to read the first 75 lines of the story

the stellar navy on building such a superb piece of machinery. On board 
Phantom the champagne was flowing, if they could get that close to an 
experienced Anduril crew and make a torpedo run, then they could do the 
same to any one of those bits of space-junk the Megaerans called 
starships. What no one realised was how soon they would be asked to 
prove it. 

Archer went into her office and closed the door. On her desk monitor was
displayed a small yellow rectangle on which she put her index finger 
and Chrysys identified her fingerprint. A communiqué from the admiralty 
appeared, it read: 

CAPTAIN ARCHER, K. YOUR VESSEL IS TO PROCEED TO AN29 WITH ALL POSSIBLE
SPEED. YOU HAVE TRAVEL CLEARANCE IN ALL SECTORS. STOP FOR NOTHING. YOU 
WILL BE TASKED UPON ARRIVAL AT ACOLYTE STATION. SOLARIAN NAVY 
ADMIRALTY. 

Something told her that this was special, otherwise she would have been
given a mission as well as a destination. In fact, unknown to Archer, 
the outcome of the mission wasn't nearly as important as the attempt 
itself. 

Operation Kretschmer as it was called was very simple; Phantom was to
proceed into enemy territory and make as big a nuisance of herself in 
the supply lines as she could. Alliance incursions into Megaeran space 
were becoming more and more infrequent as the war progressed, largely 
due to the defensive destroyer/frigate packs that now patrolled the 
front line. With her ability to slip by, undetected by the ever 
watchful sentries, Phantom was the alliance's new hope. If she could 
convince the admiralty that such a tactic was practical, then the 
Phantom class would be put into full production. Any cargo ships or 
warships she destroyed were classified as ‘bonus'. 

“Chrysys, give me ship-wide intercom.” “Ready Captain.” “Attention
Phantom, this is the Captain. 90 years ago the Reichsmarine invented a 
new kind of war, and a new kind of warship. One that could move 
undetected, kill without warning and escape unseen. They say history 
repeats itself and today it has. We have been ordered to go into the 
heart of the enemy's supply lanes and prove that the smallest ship in 
the fleet is the most deadly. Helm, lay in a course for ME87 and woe 
betide anything foolish enough to wander into our crosshairs!” 

As the ship flitted through hyperspace, Archer was poring over a
large-scale holo-chart of ME87. Intelligence was sketchy but it was 
known that although most Megaeran facilities were spread evenly 
throughout their territory, a big part of their raw materials were 
mined in three solar systems within sector ME8. Because of this there 
were several well used supply routs originating in the sector. Also 
present in the map room were the chief gunnery officer, the navigation 
officer and Chrysys' holographic avatar. On the holo-chart were lines 
representing where the supply routes were thought to be, though this 
map was based on old information from Hunter fleets Five, Six and 
Seven, and that was months ago. They had already decided to target the 
line designated Sierra Lima Eight and now it was a case of deciding 
attack tactics. Phantom was smaller and more fragile than almost any 
conceivable adversary so they wanted to pick targets that couldn't 
shoot back; therefore the task became that of identifying convoys with 
the least escort. Fortunately that didn't seem to be a problem. The 
first convoy they detected was of seven ships and not one of them was 
armed. 

“Con, epdar, new contacts designated tango one through seven!” “EH now!
Raise the mast, lets have a look at them.” The mast showed the 
seven-strong convoy silhouetted against the blue of hyperspace; the 
range was about twenty light seconds. “Gunnery, do we have a firing 
solution on the lead ship?” “Negative Captain.” “Helm, get us closer, 
put us on their ten, 125 K off. Depressurise and open all forward 
tubes.” Phantom only had two 122cm and four 65cm tubes in the bow, so 
even if all tubes were used there would be one enemy left unengaged. 
“Helm, bring us to 50 K.” Because the targets were ‘alone' their 
shields were down. It takes a few seconds to raise shields and Archer 
wanted to hit them before they could do it. “Con, Helm, 50 K.” “Firing 
solution loaded.” Reported the torpedo room. “Torpedo room, fire the 
Harbingers at the closest targets, fire Reapers at tango 3,4,5 and 6 on 
my mark.” The Harbingers should be able to track unaware cargo ships on 
their own. “Torpedo room, fire all tubes!” “Torpedoes away.” The 
unfortunate freighters really had no chance. All six were obliterated a 
few scant seconds after the torpedoes appeared on their sensors. The 
last one raised its shields and started to drop into real space while 
transmitted a mayday, but no help would come in time. “Helm, real 
space, de-activate the EH. Gunnery, ready the cannon!” When the 
freighter entered real space she found Phantom already there. The gun 
crew engaged the cargo ship immediately and although her shield was 
intact, her Captain realised the situation was impossible and ordered 
abandon ship. 

“Gunnery, target and destroy the lifepods.” “Captain, the lifepods are
unarmed!” “Gunnery, carry out my orders!” “Yes Captain.” Destroying the 
lifepods left a bad taste in Archer's mouth, the crew were civilians 
and this was not her way, but she had her orders. There were to be no 
survivors, the enemy must not be allowed any information about Phantom. 


“Activate EH, take us into hyperspace. Helm, lay in course to supply
route Mike Seven, all ahead standard. Chrysys , have Lieutenant Duval 
report to my office.” 

When the gunnery officer arrived Archer closed the door and sat down.
“At ease Mr Duval. I share your feelings about killing civilians, 
however those are my orders and you had yours. I was led to believe 
that a Second Lieutenant ranked below a Captain, was I misinformed?” 
“No ma'am.” “Then next time you will carry out my instructions first, 
then raise any ethical matters once we are out of harm's way. This is 
not an official reprimand and no mention of this will be added to the 
log. Do you have any questions?” “No ma'am. Thank you Ma'am.” “Then you 
are dismissed.” 

She had never been a strict disciplinarian but when she was Captain of
Trafalgar everybody knew where the buck stopped and nothing was going 
to change here. “Chrysys, record a log entry: Captains log, today 
Phantom engaged the enemy for the first time. We engaged seven 
Juggernaut class freighters in hyperspace and destroyed six whilst 
under EH. One remaining freighter dropped into real space and we 
pursued. We engaged the freighter with cannon fire and they abandoned 
ship; the freighter and all three lifepods were destroyed, 18 civilian 
crewmembers in total. End entry. Add the navigational log and save.” 
“Captain, what does it matter that the lifepods were destroyed? Every 
Megaeran killed is one less to fight against us?” Queried Chrysys. “It 
matters because there are rules, or there were rules anyway. You don't 
destroy lifeboats, you take the crew prisoner or you leave them out 
there but you don't kill them.” “Captain, we haven't the space for 
prisoners and your orders were not to let anyone or anything escape, 
including lifepods.” 

Extract from Captains log, Captain Archer, K: “Our first war cruise is
complete. We engaged three convoys and have expended all of our 
torpedoes, therefore I've set course for AN19 where we will rendezvous 
with SS Halcyon to take on weapons and supplies. Chrysys' VMDs have 
painted twelve victory pennants on the hull, we destroyed 13 
merchantmen but the crew voted unanimously not to paint thirteen. We've 
yet to engage a warship but this is by design. The last convoy we 
attacked was escorted and we engaged only one vessel before 
retreating.” 

“Chrysys, how long do we have before we're due to meet Halcyon?” “Four
days, 17 hours and nine minutes Captain.” “If we were to detour through 
ME85, could we still make the meet?” “Assuming no problems, yes 
Captain.” Archer walked onto the bridge and instructed the helmsman to 
change course. As far as the navy knew there was nothing of interest in 
that region apart from an insignificant solar system, but no Anduril 
vessel had been there in decades (no human vessel had ever been there) 
so if they could gather any information then that would be a real 
feather in their cap. 

Having been called to the bridge by third watch, Archer suddenly found
all thought of sleep driven from her mind. Phantom was passing through 
ME85. The GCD had detected a large hydrogen-cavity which lead to the 
star system. This contained one star and no planets, though the star 
had three distinct asteroid belts. Epdar had found something else 
orbiting the star at about 12 light minutes. “Real space,” she said, 
“ahead two thirds on turbine.” Having dropped into real space the ship 
moved on toward the target, the EH doing it's job. When raised, the 
mast showed something truly special. 

As soon as Phantom reached the Anduril border Archer sent an urgent
message to the admiralty: 

HAVE DETECTED MEGAERAN BATTLESHIP AT PORT IN ME85, LIGHT DESTROYER
COVER. REQUEST PERMISSION TO RETURN AND ENGAGE AFTER RE-SUPPLY. 

This was too good a chance to pass up, the answer was an enthusiastic
affirmative and after meeting with Halcyon, Phantom was to immediately 
set course back to the orbital dock 

Halcyon was waiting at the prescribed location when Phantom arrived, as
she was in friendly space she wasn't under EH. In general the EH shield 
was only used when an enemy was in the immediate location, when in 
transit Phantom was just like a normal vessel. Halcyon manoeuvred 
alongside the warship and extended two docking apparatuses. One, the 
anti-matter transfer umbilicus, equipped with its magnetic constrictor 
coils, the other, a more general purpose affair which connected to the 
freighter's cargo bay and through which people and supplies moved. 
Phantom's single RM3 reactor used 3½ tons of anti-iron a day to 
generate 0.8 terawatts of power which ran everything on board, 
including the ion drive and turbines. Halcyon replenished the 220 ton 
anti-matter bunker and also replaced the eight Harbingers and eighteen 
Reapers as well as food, water and atmospheric gasses. 


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