Battle Group Epsilon

Chapter 8

Chapter 8

March 28 2184, 23:25 Hours (Standard Solar Time)
Aboard USNI Destroyer "Thermopylae" In Lunar HPO

Admiral Sheffield's personal quarters were in some regards plain and in other regards, unusual. There were only three pieces of furniture. On the far end was his bunk. It had simple white sheets and a simple white pillow. The second piece of furniture was a dark maple bureau that was part foot locker, part liquor cabinet, and part book shelf. The last piece of furniture was his computer desk and chair. It was this piece of furniture he was currently avoiding.
Despite the seemingly simple décor, there were several oddities. In the liquor cabinet was a wide assortment of amber filled bottles. They were all one variety of whiskey or another but nothing else. Sheffield had a sweet tooth for bourbon.
On the book shelf there were several volumes on naval warfare, history, and other dry reads that he rarely touched. Between them were the real treasures. They were fictions, mostly classics, and almost all having little to do with war or the military. He preferred Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and Steinbeck but there were a few modern reads mixed in as well.
On his desk was a framed picture of a young man and woman. They stood close together, with his arm around her waist and the ocean at there back. It was a very old picture but he still remembered taking it. In the desk, drawer beneath the picture was a small black box
Sheffield finally returned to his computer chair. There was a truckload of status reports, material requests, and orders that he had to read through and sign off on. He tapped his finger on the desk and squinted through his reading glasses at the computer monitor before him. There were reports from officers all over the ship. The crew was drilling day and night in the Destroyer. He knew the capabilities of his ship but not the enemy. Sheffield wasn't even sure who his enemy was or if they were capable of fighting on this kind of scale. Without a clear and defined enemy, they had to be prepared for anything.
The Thermopylae had 736 men and women stationed on her, and every one of them had been drilled relentlessly for the last week straight. They had simulated combat situations, test fired all of the ships weapons except the nuclear ones, and practiced maneuvering the Thermopylae in all sorts of conditions and environments. Fire teams had put out imaginary fires and mechanics had diagnosed and simulated fixing equipment that was working properly.
There were over three hundred marines on board. Sheffield had passed them down the large corridors of the ship occasionally. They practiced mobilizing in case of a boarding action and drilled different defensive maneuvers in case they were boarded.
He had thirty two Marauder fighters and they had worked just as hard as everyone else. They had engaged in live fire exercises against dummy ships when they weren't doing formation flying. Each fighter went on three flights a day so that the mechanics and specialists could practice take off and recovery.
Almost as crucial as drilling and being ready for anything the enemy could throw at them, his men and woman had to be ready for each other. The crew of his ship had been pulled from all over the Solar system; many had never even met until a week ago. They needed to work together, to get to know one another, and become comfortable with each other. That's exactly what they had done in the last few days. He was a firm believer that ships were only as effective as the soldiers that worked them.Sheffield's were to be the best.
There were so many aspects of the ship's functioning and performance and they had drilled for all of them. At least Sheffield hoped they had. He exited out of the report he was reading and leaned back in his chair. Admiral Sheffield took off his reading glasses, yawned, and rubbed his eyes.
In the last week, two more ships had been completed and were ready for combat. The two frigates and his destroyer had practiced working together as well. The Captains of the ships were very qualified and knowledgeable. Admiral McDermott had picked them well. Synchronized firing, coordinated movement, and efficient communication were all vital to a fleet as Sheffield had learned over the years. Three ships wasn't much of a fleet but even so, Sheffield couldn't imagine anything that could challenge them.
He was very happy to be there. Being the Captain of a ship on Earth had become almost mundane. It was all routine, the same thing everyday. Here however, everything was exciting. Everyday was something different, a new challenge. There were always things to learn.
He put his glasses on again and went back to the computer. His fingers tapped away at the keyboard and he accessed Germania's Network. He logged in and went to the page that had been dedicated to the construction of his ships. He read over the status reports for each one. Two more frigates and a destroyer would be completed by the end of next week. It would take three weeks for the entire fleet to be fully constructed and ready for action. Sheffield nodded. It would take several more weeks of drills and exercises before the crews would be ready as well.
After seven days straight of hard work from his crew, he had given a day of leave for the whole ship. There were several population centers on the moon and there were shuttles on standby that had taken the men to any of them they wanted. They had deserved it; he was proud of them.
Next Sheffield went onto a civilian news site. Word about the fate of Colony C153 and the last transmission it had sent had become widespread news. So much for any military cover-up efforts he thought. The names and countries of every U.N. advisor and aid from that had died were listed there. Already, it said, the system was becoming divided. Some colonies were loyal to the U.N. but others supported the Fist of Jupiter Revolution as it had been called. In some places the site said, whole colonies were separated on the issue. Already violence had erupted on some of them. There were riots and protests on several artificial colonies. On Mars though, it had been the worst. Sheffield read that three civilians had been killed and many more injured in a riot in one of the smaller population centers.
The Admiral shook his head. This wasn't good. The Fist of Jupiter was going to start a Solar Civil War. Sheffield wondered if that wasn't their plan all along. They had to be stopped and soon.
The phone rang and Admiral Sheffield nearly jumped out of his seat. He picked it up. "Hello?"
"Sheffield, what's the status of the Battle Group?" It was the Fleet Admiral.
"The Thermopylae, the Pegasus, and the Cyclops are complete," Sheffield told McDermott.
"Are they combat ready?" the Admiral asked.
"Sir, what's this about?"
"Something's happened Admiral. A pair of cargo freighters were attacked leaving the asteroid belt. Allen," the Fleet Admiral said and Sheffield heard him sigh over the phone. The Fleet Admiral had never called him by his first name before. "It was the Fist of Jupiter. They're more powerful than we could have thought. A UNSF carrier is leaving to investigate and if you feel you're up to it, I'd like you to go too. I sent you an e-mail that will explain more."
"Wait, Admiral-" Sheffield tried to say but it was too late. The line was dead.
He logged into his e-mail account and found a message that said, "Classified: Your Eyes Only". Sheffield had to enter two separate security passwords and then do a retinal scan to confirm his identity. After that he had to run the file through naval decryption software before he could see it. Whatever was in here, the Admiral wanted to keep it secret.
There were three separate files. The first was a document from McDermott. The second was a written report from an Intel Officer aboard the Alamo. The last file was a video playback. He read the message from the Fleet Admiral first.

Admiral Sheffield,
Following several leads from undercover agents aboard the colony Radiant, a special ops mission captured a member of the Fist of Jupiter along with several documents. Interrogation of the prisoner has not yielded anything but the documents are interesting. Among them are schematics for the Alamo Military base. There are also Satellite Geographical Surveys of both Mars and the Earth. Besides the documents there was a datapad. It was damaged but the information we've recovered from it is highly encrypted, really advanced stuff. They can't tell a text file from a hole in the wall. The boys down at analysis have their hands full. The prisoner keeps saying that something big is about to happen but he won't say what, only that we'll know it when it happens. I think he's full of it myself but Section Four is going to continue the questioning him until he says something useful. Needless to say, security aboard the Alamo has been raised. I'll keep you updated when I learn more.
Regards,
M. McDermott

Geographical surveys and military schematics? The enemy was up to something, but he couldn't guess what. It also showed that they had access to a good deal of resources. He shook his head and moved on to the next file.

RADM Allen Sheffield NAVID 72974220
3/28/2184 20:03 (SST) CRD: 3125, 7359, 1114 SEC: Kilo Foxtrot
Two M-Class freighters contracted by the Hiroko-Ishi Mining Corporation carrying over 45,000,000 tons of raw ore were hailed earlier today by an unidentified ship. The ship declared itself as a warship of the Fist of Jupiter and ordered the freighters to hand over their cargos. The freighters did not respond and were soon thereafter disabled by the unknown ship. A video recording along with the corresponding transmissions between the ships were picked up by a nearby sensor outpost where upon it was forwarded to Naval Command and received at 22:50 (SST). UNSF Carrier the Hippocrates was immediately sent to investigate. If you feel that you and your ships are combat ready, we insist you join them. We leave the decision up to you. Good Luck Admiral.
LTN JGD Jonathan Mirek NAVID 98347125

Sheffield clicked out of the message and started the video feedback. It was a standard mission recorder with the date and time marked at the top and the freighters name and model labeled at the bottom. It was pointed out of a starboard window in what Sheffield assumed must have been the bridge. It showed the other freighter cruising alongside it and the blackness of space behind them. A few asteroids passed by but nothing else. One of the miners spoke in the background. "Sir, we're being hailed by a nearby ship."
"Out here?" the Captain asked. "What kind of ship?"
"Unknown, I'll put it over the speakers now," replied the first voice.
"This is Fist of Jupiter Frigate Justice. At this time we ask that you cease all forward velocity and abandon ship. We are commandeering this vessel as per order of Admiral Phaeton."
Sheffield heard one of the Bridge Officers laughing. "Who the hell's this joker?"
"I'm getting no signatures of any kind," one man said. "It's just us out here."
"Orders Captain?"
"Don't do anything," the Captain ordered. "It's a little early for an April Fool's joke and this is a bad one anyway."
The voice came over the speakers again. "Comply immediately or be destroyed. This is your last warning."
A few moments passed and then Sheffield saw it happen and not happen at the same time. All of a sudden, the sister freighter that was cruising beside the camera's bridge exploded. Something blew a hole through the side of the ship and gas was sucked out, swirling into the vacuum. Sheffield had seen no missile, no munitions of any kind. The ship's integrity was not compromised, the massive silos of raw ore were unharmed, but it started to roll to its side slowly.
"Holy shit!" someone yelled. It was the last thing the recording device captured before it turned to hissing static.

What had done that? Had there been explosives on board the ship that had been detonated, a possible insurgent within the mining ships? If there was, it still didn't explain the transmission they had received. Then again, they had detected no other space craft nearby. Sheffield's head was beginning to spin.
He rewound the video to the point where the first had been neutralized. He put the tape to one tenth speed and enlarged the video to just cover where the bridge had been opened up. He hit play and watched carefully, leaning close to the monitor. The metal of the freighter in that one spot seemed to glow orange just before it exploded outward. It was not explosive ordnance. Whatever had done it had superheated the metal first, if only for a fraction of a second. He knew of no weapons that operated in such a manner.
Sheffield had an idea and rewound it again. He enlarged the feed but left it at tenth speed. This time however, he changed the setting from visible light to infrared. If something had indeed superheated the ship before destroying it, it would show up like a flare on thermals. He hit play and watched. The sister ship of the freighter glowed a ghostly purple against the cool black of space. Asteroids that passed by were just a shade lighter than black. Then he saw it. A beam of light struck the ship like lightning and tore through the bridge. He paused the feed and traced the source. It had originated from a source off screen.
What the hell was it and where had it come from? It seemed like a laser or some sort of plasma weapon, but he had never heard of any such military weapon. Usually they were too fragile to be combat effective and too power hungry to be manageable.
Sheffield exited the playback and turned off the computer. He didn't like this. There were too many unknowns and unknowns led to KIA's. At the very least now he knew his enemy was out there and he had a general idea of where. This would not be an easy fight if what he had just seen could be any sort of indicator.
Admiral Sheffield sent a confirmation to the Admiral that he would indeed rendezvous with the Hippocrates, along with his findings and analyses. He also sent word to the bridge to get all of the necessary preparations done. They would leave the dock in under an hour. He got into bed and set his alarm. His men had gotten the day off but he had the feeling it would be the last for a long while. Tomorrow, they would see if this Navy was worth everything that had been put into it.