Rumors of Honor (System States Rebellion Book 2) Read Online Free PDF Page A

Remington.
     
    “Good.
Com, notify City of Montevideo to—“
     
    “Missile
launch! Multiple missiles inbound! Too early to tell if they’re targeting us or
the freighter!” yelled Remington. She was about to say more but did a double
take when she checked the number of incoming missiles. Twenty! That couldn’t be
right. Standard patrol cruisers of the kind the Union had captured could only
fire 10 at a time.
     
    “Is
that number right, Lor?” asked the CO.
     
    She
queried her tactical computer. “Comp confirms 20 inbound, Skipper.”
     
    “Son-of-a…”
The CO shook his head in anger. “Okay…we’re obviously dealing with a new class
of warship here. Lieutenant, fire all ten then reload with HE and standby. Com,
notify Montevideo that we’re under attack and that I want her to maintain her
course and acceleration. Trafalgar will be moving in closer. Helm, bring us to
within one klick of the freighter and then match their speed and acceleration.
Keep us between her and the missiles. Understood?”
     
     “Got
it, Skipper,” said the Helm Officer in a voice that was surprisingly calm. At
this speed, moving the cruiser that close to the freighter was not a trivial
task.
     
     
    “First
salvo is away!” said Remington. She looked at the main display, which was now
tied in with her tactical comp. Tango1 was almost stationary, moving at only
2.5 kps. A red icon with the number 20 inside it was moving closer. They would
reach the two approaching ships in less than two minutes. A green icon with the
number 10 was moving towards the enemy ship. It would take almost five minutes
to reach her, assuming she would still be there by the time Trafalgar’s
missiles arrived. Remington didn’t think she would be. That was the advantage
of staying outside the hyper-zone. That ship could jump away at literally the
last second. She was sure the CO also understood the futility of firing back,
but he had to try.
     
    “What’s
the status of our terminal defense?” asked the CO.
     
    “All
six batteries are powered up, tracking and set for automatic fire, Skipper,”
said Remington.
     
    After
a brief pause, she heard the CO say, “Set the automatic fire range to maximum,
Lieutenant.” She caught her breath. That was a course of action that was NOT
recommended by the Book. Making the rail-gun cannon fire at much longer ranges
would seriously degrade their accuracy. The Book said let the missiles get
closer to have a better chance of hitting them, but then again, the Navy didn’t
have a lot of actual combat experience with rail-gun terminal defense, so maybe
the Book was wrong.
     
    “Fire
range reset to max, Skipper,” said Remington.
     
    The
CO must have been reading her mind. “With that many inbound missiles, we have
to try to stop as many of them as early as possible.”
     
    There
was no time to respond to that comment. “Terminal defense is firing!” she said.
She switched her gaze to the main display. The missiles were less than 60
seconds away now. The number inside the red icon suddenly dropped to 19. Each
magnetic rail-gun cannon was firing a nickel/iron slug every two seconds. The
slug would be accelerated up to a velocity of 976 kps by the time it left the
gun barrel. It quickly became clear that even with six slugs firing every two
seconds, very few were hitting at this range, but the range was dropping fast
given the combined velocity of the ships and the missiles. With 30 seconds to
go, there were still 15 missiles approaching.
     
    Why
isn’t that Union ship firing more missiles? she asked herself. That captain
has to know by now that we’ve got terminal defenses. Once that ship micro-jumps
away to avoid our missile salvo, it won’t be able to fire any more. No
time to ponder that question any more.
     
    “Five
seconds to zero range!” There were eight missiles left now. She noticed the
icon number drop to four, and then those four hit. Trafalgar seemed to stagger.
The inertial dampeners