The Carlson Chronicle Chapter 1
Chapter 17

12-Apr-2352

Captain Elias Musdayne, first of the OC Captains to win command of an ‘Andro’, looked out into the reds and blue-greens of the nebula, nicknamed ‘Maiden’s Folly’. His was a simple patrol mission, since as to date, the Garshans hadn’t done anything more then ‘cattle raiding’, as Colonel Storm once called their hit & run antics.

“They’re probing us. We need to be ever vigilant.” Admiral Carlson had warned. He didn’t much care for Alex, considering he lost a young son at the Ambush, but he tried to let it go for diplomacy sake. After actually meeting Alex at a formal function, and listening in as Alex re-counted the tale, he gained a new found respect for the young pilot turned Admiral of the Fleet.

Not cocky about his skills or his kills, he was genuinely remorseful for those he killed in battle, and hoped he never had to turn ship’s guns on his own people ever again. Turning at that, he introduced himself, thanked Alex for not being the brash and cocky person he miss-took him for, and right there was offered a Captain’s commission into the UDF, or Unified Defense Force, the military machine that would oppose and hopefully end the Garshans forever.

Looking out across his young bridge crew, as each one did his or her duty, he hoped this would be enough.

“Captain! Message from ‘Coronado’! They’ve completed sensor sweeps of this area, ready to move onto the next quadrant.”

“Aye, proceed to Quadrant 2-B.”

“Aye sir!” And in a slightly nauseating event, they found themselves 20 parsecs away. His task force consisted of his ship, ‘Yamato’, 3 of the Imp. ‘Graf Spee’ ships, outfitted with the best sensors you could fit into the hull, and all of it’s Reflex cannons removed in favor of a dozen more Gatling grazers, most in expanded or 360 mounts. Rounding out his force were 3 original ‘Graf Spee’ class ships. Originally given names, now they just had hull numbers, since there were well over 500,000 in the fleet.

“Contact! Bearing 215, mark 45, Inclination +25! I read 7 signatures, Garshans!” The fox on sensors called out.

“COM, relay what we found, launch COM Torp on your mark!”

“COM Aye! Message spooled, Sending!” There was barely a shudder as the COM Torp launched, took a quick star sighting, then folded.

“Red Alert! EMF’s to full, charge the mains and track these bitches. Message to ‘Coronado’, Assume flanking position Omega 3, Acknowledge!”

“‘Coronado’ reports ready!”

“Advance to weapons range! Look lively people, we’re only gonna get one shot!” Musdayne roared.

Probe Force Epsilon

Sub Captain Alicia Gerthuls, Commanding

‘Scarlet Vengeance’ class BCH, 1 of 7

Same time

Looking at her scope, Alicia Gerthuls cackled with glee. Each of her heavy battle cruisers out-massed the ‘Yamato’ nearly 10 to 1, and she was confident the Terran Empire was about to lose one of it’s best ships.

“Battle stations! Shields to full, arm the mains, bring us around! Gunners, fire as they bear!” She ordered as her helmsman maneuvered her ship into a head long approach, bringing all their AP emitters to bear.

“Captain! They’re aiming for a side long approach! They mean to make this a broad-sides battle!” His tactical officer said, smiling.

“Aye, if they want to have a go with us down the sides, I say we oblige them! Gunners, all turrets, independent action! Fire as yer’ guns bear! Spee leader, assume cover shield position!”

The cover shield position moved the escorts between the ‘Yamato’ and the Garshans, linking their EMF’s to the capitol ship, increasing their overall EMF strength while giving the battleship 6 more Fold engines to dump the excess energy into.

“I hope Anderson was right about the math!” Came the call from Engineering as the EMF Interlock circuit chimed a lock.

“Aye! We’ll know soon enough!”

As the Garshans fell into line, one behind another, Gerthuls’ ship taking lead, her gunners sweated it out until finally, their gun directors chimed with locks.

One by one, AP emitters all along her ship’s port side flared to life, azure and green beams of coherent anti particle energy streaking across the void, slamming into the EMF of the Terran ships. Energy flowed along the EMF’s of all 7 ships, filling the reserve capacitors of one then another then another of the Graf Spee’s in the cover shield, finally ending with the 4th ship shutting down the connection to the battleship.

“Ships 1 through 4 report full capacitors!”

“Aye, have them Fold back to Rendezvous point Gamma Two. Inform Command of what we’re up against here!” The Captain ordered, and before Gerthuls’ second ship could commence her run, those 4 ships folded away.

“What the devil?” She asked, as her helmsman excuted a tight turn to starboard.

“Why did they skip away?”

“I dunno Sub Captain. Their shields appear to be some form of EMF, and it’s absorbing our attacks and apparently channeling the energy into capacitors built into their FTL engines!”

“Bah! Keep firing!”

“Aye!

“Captain, we have range on the second ship, do we fire?”

“Neg, wait for the third ship, that will compromise their position.”

Her second cruiser would surely get a stern dressing down, as more then half of their AP beams missed entirely. Only one of the Graf Spee’s in the cover shield needed to withdraw, also folding back to Gamma Two.

“No since making yourselves targets on our account, Julius, Fold back to Gamma Two. We got this.”

“Understood Actual, Folding!” And the last of ’Yamato’s escorts folded away. And, as her third cruiser started it’s attack run...

“FIRE!” Musdayne roared. 8 Null’Em guns fired, stitching the Garshan heavy all along it’s port side, it’s shields stripping the Null energy off of the rounds that hit, and exposing the anti-matter contained within.

BCH-3 ceased to exist in a kaliedoscope of colors, dimming the view screens on all ships present...

“Sweet bloody Ashnals! Circle formation! Surround this ship! Continue firing you worthless peons!”

“They’re circling us Captain!”

“All stop! Transfer auxiliary power to secondary shields and SIF generators! Marcus! Give me a spread on that lead ship!”

“Torps 1-20 spinning up, arming warheads, I have a firing solution!”

“FIRE!” As 20 fusion warheaded torpedoes launched from the VLS system in the stack, Gerthul’s force had succeded in circling ‘Yamato’, her EMF taking a beating...

“Captain! Calculations are complete! Their AP beams deal anywhere from 20-30,000 Mega-Joules per hit. Our EMF is rated to 10,000,000 Mega-Joules, not counting reserve capacitance, or the Fold Capacitor!”

“Translation Shirley!” He demanded of his squirrel engineer.

“30 seconds and we’re an expanding ball of gas!”

“Make it 90! Shunt all excess power into the aft Reflex gun turrets, fire them on full overload if you have to! We need to buy Fleet Command some time!”

“We’ll melt down the barrels for sure!” She replied excitedly.

“Melt them down then!”

“Torpedoes?!” Alicia shouted, as 20 of the nasty things closed on her ship.

“Tractor! Tractor those things!”

“I only have 5 emitters on the side, and I have 5 locked! Brace for impact!”

Her ship shuddered under her feet, as 15) 10 megaton fusion warheads detonated all along their shields on the port side of her ship...

“Damage Control! Report!” She bellowed.

“Port side shield is down, the generator is slag! We need to turn about!”

“Helm! Hard over, roll us about!” She ordered, and in an instant, they were upside down, relative to the rest of the battle...

“Direct hits with 15 warheads, we stripped her shields on her port side!”

“Yes, but she’s still in the fight. Dorsal 2, index to Starboard and Fire!”

Four Null’Em balls streaked across space, slamming into ship #5, blowing the mighty vessel into two pieces, it’s amidships completely consumed in anti-matter destruction...

As a cheer echoed off the walls of the bridge, Ship #6 found it’s mark, piercing their EMF, and stitching ’Yamato’s side, three beams slamming into Dorsal 2...

“Dorsal turret 2 hit, out of action! I’m reading no life signs there Captain!” The young woman in the tactical pit said, tears rolling down her face.

“Who was in Dorsal 2?” He asked her, as she tried valiantly to stay focused and professional.

“My fiancee`.” She said, as her lower lip began to quiver.

“Seal off turret two, automate the guns, we need it back in action!”

“Ay...aye sir.” She choked, sealing off the turret from the rest of the ship, setting the guns to automated action, and linking gun director 3 directly to the turret. It indexed suddenly to neutral, and fired a 4 round grouping at the bow of ship #5, blowing the bow of the crippled ship to fine metallic mist. The stern Reflex guns slammed into Gerthuls’ battered ship, venting atmosphere and causing a long string of problems for her DC teams...

“Port side Fusion Pile is scrammed, we’re losing gravity on most of port side habitation! Life support is failing on decks 2 through 12, and I only have partial power for maneuvering engines! We’re a mess ma’am!” Her lead DC team officer told her, as she weighed her options.

“Fix what you can, we still hold numbers here.”

“Aye ma’am!”

“Fire control! Give me a good firing solution on that ship’s bridge!” She ordered, as a shocked gasp rang out across her own bridge.

In civilized warfare, shooting directly at the control center of an opponent’s vessel was, even to Garshans, considered very bad form, since it opened your command & control areas to be targeted by the enemy. Even in the TE, when they fought the Colonies, shooting the bridge was never done.

Alicia Gerthuls was about to doom her own people, and she didn’t even know it.

“I...I have a lock!” Her tactical officer declared, though he scarcely believed he dared utter the words.

“FIRE!” She roared, just as her ship came abeam of ‘Yamato’...

“INCOMING!” Shirley yelled, seeing the beams lance all around the main bridge view screen. Several were absorbed by the EMF, another pair were deflected by the secondary shields, but a half dozen found their marks, savaging the bridge and the officer’s country one deck below. People were literally sucked out of their chairs through the ragged holes in the view screen, as the pressure doors slammed down. Captain Musdayne picked himself up off the floor, blood trickling still from around his eyes and ears.

“Com...Computer, lock main gun on that ship. Blow that fucking bitch straight to Ozum’s arms!”

“What is that energy collecting in those bow holes?!” Gerthuls’ asked, though no one had a ready answer.

“Maybe it’s a weapon?” Her helmsman answered, as the collection seemed to peak, and then a pair of beams, each nearly a meter in diameter streaked across the short expanse separating her ship from the ‘Yamato’, slamming directing into their already weakened port side. In one instant, everything she knew, saw and had done was erased forever from the universe...

As Ship #1 exploded from the Reflex spinal mounts, Captain Musdayne took stock of his situation: Damage reports were coming in from all over his battered command; most of his main armament was offline, only Dorsal 1 and SC batteries 1-2-3 were still operational. The Fold engine was offline, as was the TCU (Total Conversion Unit) and AFR 1 (Auxiliary Fusion Reactor). He had explosive decompression sickness, and was missing half of his bridge crew.

The good news was, after his main gun attack on Gerthuls’ flag, the rest of the Garshans bugged out.

“Captain. Incoming COM. ‘Andromeda’ is here. She brought our escorts with her also. She also reports a Fleet Repair Dock is enroute.”

“Aye.”

Standing on the bridge of his ship, James Carlson surveyed the damage to the ‘Yamato’. She was battered and bloody, like her namesake many centuries before, but unlike that ship, at least this one was still space worthy.

“Send word back to Fleet Command. Tell Alex I said this: “Damn fine design we got here. This Yamato survived her Battle of Okinawa.” End message.

“Message Spooled, and sent Captain.”