Smoke on the Wind by Sean Benjamin

Author:Sean Benjamin [Benjamin, Sean]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-07-27T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 24

Typhoon rose from subspace exactly on time. Her fleet of sixty-four warships followed her into normal space, spread out in a long, narrow group several hundred kilometers long. The ships closed on the mine web in front of them and began firing. Mines detonated or simply dissolved under the gunfire and laser hits. The Zeke fleet would withdraw the same way they went in so needed to destroy as many mines as possible so the surviving mines could not be moved around to fill in gaps and pose a threat on the way out. Once through the web, the fleet accelerated toward Rurik. Time was limited. The enemy would be alerted and preparing to meet the coming assault.

One patrol craft was behind the minefield and had immediately begun running for her Rurik base. Typhoon and two heavy cruisers took the small ship under fire and she didn’t get far. These local patrol ships were lightly armed and short range. They would be no threat to the attackers.

Tactical announced from the flag bridge ops position, “Message coming in from Juliet Seven Romeo.” Most of the bridge watch had no idea who that was, but the people in command knew. Flicker was updating the combat situation for them. She paused as she read and then continued, “An estimated forty-four ships passed us three hours and fifteen minutes ago. Formation was spread out over several hundred klicks. Direction of flight was toward Zavodila and the Metal Moon.” The bridge watch smiled at each other. The remaining ships in Rurik had departed hours prior for the Metal Moon. Tactical paused again as she worked at her screen. She then announced, “Worst case scenario is eight warships left at Rurik.”

Nobody acknowledged the information. The plan was going as briefed. Hopefully, that trend would continue. Flicker would have picked up the OrCons on sensors one hour after they departed Rurik headed for Zavodila, and they did a quick count before shutting down sensors for fear of being discovered and located. After the enemy had passed, Flicker would have surfaced and was now waiting for the OrCons to return home in response to the attack there. Flicker had sent her report based on the time the Typhoon fleet was expected to surface at the mines. The spy crew had been sending the message every ten minutes and would continue to do so until receiving an acknowledgement. Tactical would send the correct coded response.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.