Sonya’s Combat Command

Sonya sat quietly in the captain’s chair, CIC bathed in the dim amber of running dark mode. Two days of fruitless sweeping had left the watch tense and tired, yet something gnawed at her—like an itch she couldn’t name, a warning whisper just beneath hearing. Her piercing sapphire eyes flicked across the reports scrolling on the armrest display, then to Irola at weapons. Greg had juggled rotations so Irola could gain experience while Sonya was in command of the watch. Hammerly had shown up anyway, grumbling about the finicky advanced DRADIS displaying ghosts, and Martines had drifted in minutes later, helping Intel chase intercepted chatter.

Sonya double-checked heading and search grid. Everything matched the plan… except that whisper. Telling her there was danger toward port.

She switched the main viewscreen to portside optical. Stars glittered coldly against absolute black. Running dark meant passive sensors only, and a vague hunch wasn’t worth using active sensors.

Hammerly just finished recalibrating the sensors when a faint contact ghosted across one of her secondary screens and vanished. She looped the data, ears cupped in her headset. “Brief transmission burst, bearing zero-four-five, mark three-zero. Range roughly fifteen klicks.”

A handful of stars blinked out for half a heartbeat, then reappeared.

“Hammerly,” Sonya said, voice low but sharp, “Something just occulted the starfield.”

Hammerly’s fingers danced over her sensor controls. “Working it, if they’re running fully dark it will be tough to pick them out, but I’ve got a few tricks. Give me thirty seconds.”

Sonya rose smoothly and walked to the tactical holo table. “Nav, distance to nearest jump point?”

“Fifty klicks and closing, bearing zero-one-five, mark zero-zero-five.”

“Helm, roll us positive thirty. Make it look lazy—like we’re just stretching our legs.”

“Aye, ma’am. Lazy it is.”

The deck tilted gently, sometimes the inertial dampeners lagged half a second behind. Sonya watched the advanced DRADIS update. Empty space… empty… then the DRADIS flared with crimson icons, unknown contacts.

“Multiple contacts!” Hammerly snapped. “Sizes match heavy cruiser and destroyer classes—still dark, right where that ghost was.”

Sonya’s hand hit the coms. “Action stations! Set condition One-Echo throughout the ship! All hands to battle stations!  I repeat, set condition One-Echo!”  Condition One-Echo was a version of Condition One which kept all active sensors and any systems that would give away their position off-line.  She didn’t want to reveal they were on to them just yet.

She turned to Irola who was starting to get up to cede her station to Sonya, “With Striker’s help, can you hit them with only passives?”

Irola dropped back into the seat and started working on the calculations, “I think so ma’am, but shouldn’t you take over weps?”

Sonya looked up at the DRADIS, “Until I’m relieved, I’m still in command.  Let me know when ready.”

Seconds later Irola checked her and Striker’s calculations one last time. “It’s rough but after the first volley we’ll be able to fine tune.”

Greg strode through the hatch just as Sonya called, “Light them up!”

“Firing!”

The Avenger’s massive broadside erupted; reflex and particle beams, along with turbo laser bolts stabbed across the void. Unshielded hulls flared white where they struck. Two destroyers staggered instantly, their spines cracked open by precise hits; secondary explosions rippled along their lengths. The heavy cruisers weathered the volley better, but glowing scars vented atmosphere across her flanks.

Greg practically ran to the table. “Set full condition one!  Hammerly who are we looking at?”

Hammerly immediately went active on her sensors as the order was relayed. The DRADIS icons updated with hostile IFF—Fourth Task Force, Third Fleet.  The tactical holo table updated with the details of the active scan giving them a 3D view of the battlespace.

When Greg got to the tactical table he called out, “I have CIC.”

“Captain has CIC,” Sonya answered as she stood next to him.

Greg’s voice cut like a blade. “Launch fighters, starboard catapults. Irola, keep the pressure on.”

Irola called out “Port shields are online at 95%.”  

The next salvo shredded another destroyer and hammered one of the heavy cruisers as the enemy desperately clawed power up from running dark.  Hammerly called out, “Enemy shields are online.”

Greg looked over at Sonya with a crooked grin, “Nice work. Remind me never to try to sneak up on you, Hammerly, and Irola together.”  

Sonya returned the smile, “I will sir, thank you.”

Commander John Wilson entered as if it was just another shift.  He got to the tactical table and took a look at the carnage, “Excellent job getting the jump on them sir.”

Greg looked back at the holo, “Don’t look at me, Sonya was in command and ordered the strike as I got onto the bridge.”

John rounded on Sonya. “You should’ve waited for authorization from one of us!”

Greg didn’t look up from the holo. “We could have lost the initiative and allowed them time to power up. New standing order: Lieutenant Blade has full tactical authority in my absence.”

John’s jaw worked, but he swallowed it and pointed to the weps station. “Take your post, lieutenant.”

Sonya curtly nodded and walked up behind Irola, scanning readouts.   Irola pushed her mic away and whispered, “Real stickler for procedure and protocol.”

Sonya leaned over her shoulder whispering, “Yeah, and he’s disliked me from day one.” She scanned the readouts.  Something still felt off. She leaned close as Irola seemed to feel it too as she checked her displays, “Ma’am, last I knew the fourth is a cruiser task force but I don’t see the rest of them.”

“I thought something was off.”

Irola’s eyes narrowed. “You also thinking they were going to be the bait to allow this group to take us by surprise?”

“Exactly.” Sonya straightened and patted her on the shoulder, “Finish these guys off quickly and keep your eyes open.  I’ll let the captain know.” 

She returned to the table, Greg and John were discussing their next move.  John gave her a sour look, “What do you want lieutenant?”

Sonya looked past him to Greg, “Irola and I noticed that several key ships and their escort aren’t present…”

John interrupted, “Probably didn’t want to risk them if the plan failed.”

Sonya pointed to the jump point she had put on tactical. “Irola and I think the missing ships were supposed to be the bait…”

Greg’s gaze hardened as he followed her logic, “Probably with transports so we wouldn’t use the main gun right away.  Once we were engaged this group would have powered up and hammered us from behind.” Greg turned towards the coms. “Martines—any outbound transmissions?”

“One slipped our jamming about a minute ago, sir.”

John smirked, “Probably telling them to abort.”

Sonya pointed behind the jump point, “Or updating them on our position.  If they come out far enough back to launch fighters without us being able to hit them, it could get a little hairy.”

Greg nodded once. “Helm, new course two-seven-zero, mark four-five increase speed five percent.”

Sonya straightened up, “With your permission, I’ll return to weps.”

Greg looked at her for a moment, “Belay that.  Have Omega gear up for a possible boarding action. Report to Irena when ready.”

Sonya threw a quick salute, “Yes sir we’ll be ready in five.”  She turned and almost ran out of CIC.  John watched her go, mad at himself for letting his hatred of her blind him to the fact that her logic about the bait and dropping out of hyperspace earlier was sound.

Greg turned to John, “The big question is are the transports actually carrying anything of value?  They could even be empty.”

John thought for half a second, his mind back on the task at hand. “I think they would have to have something tempting or risk a scan revealing the deception.”

Greg looked over to the Marine & Security Ops, “Colonel Bradley—ready Marines for a possible boarding action against supply transports.  Coordinate with Jan to get the assault transports ready.”

Irena Bradley’s acknowledgment was crisp. “Will do, sir.”

Greg looked back at the holographic display; The last heavy cruiser turned to run but Irola ended it with a single concentrated broadside.  Irola looked over at Hammerly, “I’m not seeing any active enemy vessels, can you confirm?”

Hammerly checked her displays, “Confirmed, I’m reading only emergency power on two of the cruisers, two destroyers and one cruiser have emergency life support only.”

Eight klicks out, in a ripple of pseudomotion, three battlecruisers, an escort carrier, four destroyers, three frigates and three heavy transports dropped from hyperspace almost exactly as Sonya had predicted. Fighter icons blossomed on the DRADIS display around the new contacts as attack craft spilled from the carrier’s belly like angry hornets as Hammerly identified the new contacts.

Irola was already shifting fire. Ion lightning crawled across the rearmost transport, freezing engines and shields in a single pass. Reflex and Particle beams slammed into the carrier’s bow and flanks; launch bays flashed and died.

John looked annoyed as he turned towards the weapons station, but Greg cut him off as Ion lightning crawled across the lead transport. “Good work Irola, once you have the carrier out of the fight start working on the cruisers.  Jan how are the launches looking?”

“We have two flights of Red and Blue and one of Gold away.  I have another flight of Blue queued up to launch.”

Greg checked the tactical display, “Launch that flight but then we need to get full shields up.”

Hammerly called out, “Battlecruisers launching missiles! Thirty plus vampires inbound!  Frigates and destroyers are moving to cover the escort carrier.”

Irola quickly switched her targeting, “Switching tertiary batteries to defensive fire. Two of the cargo transports have been disabled, third is trying to use the other two for cover.”

Greg watched the transport try to hide behind its crippled sisters. “Helm, vertical climb, give us a clear shot for the ions.”

The Avenger rose like a breaching whale giving Irola a clear shot at the remaining transport, a single volley of the Ion cannons and all three transports were disabled.  Greg looked up at the advanced DRADIS showing the multiple missiles quickly closing followed by fighters and bombers that the escort carrier had managed to launch before getting hit. The missiles were winking out on the advanced DRADIS to the tertiary batteries but not fast enough.  Irola called out, “Activating CWIS.”

Greg watched as even more of the missiles quickly winked but the combination of sheer volume of missiles and the fact that they were coming in practically head on limited the amount of defensive fire that could be brought to bear.  Several missiles slammed into the bow shields as a flight of SI-202 Vipers vectored in behind the intense defensive fire to intercept the incoming bombers and fighters.

“Shields at seventy-six percent! Enemy bombers starting their runs.”

“Blue squadrons moving to intercept.”

Irola grimaced “They’re moving into the defensive fire zone! Switching off flack batteries and tightening the parameters for the other CWIS.”

The battlecruisers launched another massive wave of missiles just as one of them started to succumb to the intense fire Irola was directing at it with the primary batteries, she had the secondary batteries hammering away at the smaller craft trying to protect the badly damaged escort carrier.

Missiles from the battlecruisers streaked past the furball of Vipers and enemy fighters. Point-defense lasers and Reflex gatlings tried to turn the void into a lethal lacework again but with friendly fighters in the defensive perimeter they couldn’t effectively put up a wall of fire and even more missiles punched through. The bow shields collapsed; metal screamed somewhere forward.

“Ablative armor forward took the hits, we have minor hull breaches, decks two, four, and seven!”

Greg’s voice stayed calm. “Reroute aux power forward. Irola, target one of the undamaged battlecruisers with the lances, three quarters power. Jan the other one is yours.”

Irola nodded, “Helm turn three-two-zero.” She quickly angled the lances as the Avenger slowly turned. Seconds later the targeting indicators closed on the aft section of the battlecruiser as it was trying to bring its own broadside to bear, she flipped the safety off of the buttons.  “Firing in three, two, one.”

The heavy reflex lances glowed for half a second and fired. Twin beams sliced through shields and hull alike, dragging a molten scar halfway across the enemy ship before it detonated in a silent sun. Irola quickly shutdown the lances letting the safety cover fall back into place, “Target destroyed.”

Hammerly called out, “Confirmed, battlecruiser designated BC-241 destroyed. Secondary explosions from battlecruiser designated BC-442, she’s going down.”

Greg smiled, “Helm, move us in towards the transports.  Irola see if you can finish off the carrier before it bolts.”

Jan called out, “Enemy bombers have been eliminated, Blue is switching to fully engaging the fighters.”

Greg looked over at the holographic representation of the Avenger.  There were several yellow spots indicating minor damage and a few sensors and targeting nodes had been hit but hadn’t degraded their targeting efficiency.  He turned back to the tactical board and saw that Red and Gold squadrons were swarming the last cruiser and without fighter support it was going to go down fast.  Moments later secondary explosions could be seen as the squadrons were pulling away from it at high speed, seconds later the battlecruiser was ripped apart by three massive explosions.  Silence fell across CIC—broken only by the low thrum of engines and the distant crackle of cooling metal.

Hammerly exhaled. “Hostiles neutralized or disabled. Transports are drifting, no engine energy signatures.”

Greg allowed himself a moment of relief as he gave a small smile. “Good hunting, everyone. Hammerly, can you get a good scan of the transports from here?”

Hammerly quickly started working on her console, “Scanning…transport designations…got an initial scan, I’m putting it up on tactical.”

Greg and John looked at the initial scan of the cargo transports.  John smiled, “Looks like I was right, we’ve got military weapons and ammunition on two and the third has rations and other miscellaneous equipment for troops.  Not much value there, our priority should be the two with military equipment.”

Greg stared at the third transport’s manifests for a moment.  “Keep an eye on things, I want to talk to Irena about the deployment.”

John nodded, “Will do sir.”

Greg quickly walked over to the Marine and Security section and to the table where Irena was studying the layouts for the transports.  She gave Greg a quick nod, “Sir. I’m prepping dropships now. I have Marines going to the two weapons transports and Omega along with Marines to the third transport. Two dropships per transport.”

Greg smirked, “So you thought something was up with that transport as well.”

Irena nodded, “If they had all been decoys, they would have all been weapons transport.  They want us to focus on the other two and leave the third alone long enough for it to escape or for reinforcements to arrive.”

“And if there is something valuable it will be heavily guarded.”

“Exactly.  Which is why I want Omega as part of that force.”

Greg nodded his approval, “Launch as soon as Flight gives you the all clear.”

“Yes sir.”

Greg walked back over to the main tactical table beside John, “Jan coordinate with Marine Ops once they have a clear shot at the transports.”

“Aye, sir.  They’ll be able to launch in a moment.”

Greg nodded, now it would be up to the boarding teams to secure the transports quickly.