Out of Space 2 Contac

Second I/C (Second in-charge) Marine Corporal James "007" Bone was at the mess with the rest his Section Two mates having dinner when the XO announcement of Condition Two alerts went off. Due to his name being similar to a classic 2d movie character, everyone nicknamed him as "Double-0-7". He dropped his mess tray as he and his section mates rush out of the mess hall towards their berth where their equipment was stored. He pushed his way past several confused crew members as they stood in the way, wondering what is happening. Luckily in the Marines, they have been conditioned to respond rapidly by constant training and drills.

As he reached the Marine's berth, he found most of the platoon gearing up. "Come on! Load up!" Platoon Staff Sergeant Pike yelled at everyone at the hatch, miraculously already suited up in full battle order. Did he sleep in that gear? Thought Cpl James. Damn. He popped open his locker and started to suit up. First was the environmental wear which allowed him to survive in space or any biochemical environments, followed by his chest plate armor and load bearing harness. Lastly, he donned his fully enclosed HS3 "smart" helmet and checked his readouts in the heads up display. All green, no leaks from his suit. Good. He grabbed his personal weapon, an M7A1 pulse rifle that fires 6.5 mm cased telescoped ammunition and queued up at the armory to collect his ammunition.

"Check your ammo! Make sure it's not Armor Piercing rounds! We don't want you jugheads to put a hole through the hull and suck us all out into space!" SSGT Pike roared in his standard loud voice.

He grabbed ten 50 round magazines and checked to ensure they are not AP rounds and started slotting the mags into his ammo pouches.

"Hey, Corp!" Pvt first class Mills called out. "What's the scuttle bug? Did we get scum here? And no AP rounds? How are we gonna do shit with these pussy rounds?" He held up the mag which contained 50 ceramic frangible rounds. This type of ammunition was used to prevent shots accidentally penetrating the hull of the ship or into sensitive locations like the reactor or engine. The bullet fractures into tiny pieces upon contact with a hard object but against soft tissue, it will penetrate and fragment inside.

"Do you want to put a bullet into the reactor and blow us all to space dust?" James retorted. "Just shoot at the mouth cavity!" Actually, James was worried too. Ceramic rounds just gave those Swarm or Scums as the Marines like to call them bruises. The AP rounds will penetrate easier on lesser armored parts of the Swarm warrior drones but in a spaceship, AP rounds were a disaster to waiting to happen. "Alright! Section Two, you pigs form up! By the numbers! NOW!" he shouted.

Throughout the ship, crews milled in confusion and were yelled at by their supervisors to get to their action stations. As time went on, department heads reported back to the bridge their level of readiness and XO Ford's face grew darker and darker. He should have run more drills with the crew. They have traveled from Sol to Rammas, passing by two systems along the way for a total of two weeks. He totally regretted as he was engrossed with paperwork instead. He thought that nothing will happen behind the lines and he will just serve his term onboard before going over to command his own ship! He glanced at the captain as he thought.

Captain Blake sat on his command chair without saying anything, but his fingers tapped on his armrest constantly. He was excited about the chance of a fight. He spends over 2 months in the hospital, another 2 months in rehab on using his new prosthetic leg and an additional month doing psych-evaluation before returning to Fleet. Followed by another two months bounded as a desk jockey before he was given this command.

Fleet was sending out all their newest ships to the front line to hold back the Swarm, while mothballed ships like Singapore was taken out, given an upgrade of its drive and systems and turned into auxiliary ships. He was thankful at that time to receive a command of a ship again but soon the excitement and joy died down as he babysat new graduates and sons of important ministers behind lines.

"Captain, that five contacts will be within effective main gun range in 53 mins." 2nd Lt Randy reported. Despite his calm report, he was actually afraid inside. My dad said this was a very safe deployment. There will be nothing to do, no chance of the enemy. His father was a senior minister on Earth and pulled some strings allowing him to be posted to UNS Singapore when the Council passes a bill that all able men within the age of 21-35 have to serve in the military.

"XO set the ship to Condition One and prepare for combat." Captain Blake intoned. He looked at the tactical screen readout displaying the contacts course and frowned. If only I have some shipkiller missiles, I could start engaging them by now. He thought. The 155 mm rail guns were simple electromagnetic cannons that just shoot out projectiles that reach hypervelocity speeds. In a planetary atmosphere, rail guns dominate the battlefield as long as there is a line of sight. But in space, moving objects were easier to be tracked and dodged. The longer the distance the easier to calculate its impact course, thus the effective range of rail guns was shorter than lasers as lasers travel at the speed of light. Meaning he has to engage within 5,000 km, while ship killer missiles can be fired at targets over 15,000 km away!

For this battle, he has to get close to practically knife fighting range for ship combat. Suddenly he caught himself, I should not offer combat. His crew is too inexperienced. He only has a few of the old hands from his previous ship on board. He looked at the tactical board and started to make calculations in his head. If he turned the ship around now to the jump point out of this system, with the speed the enemy is closing in, the ship has to hold out for 15 mins at least before they can jump out of the system. Too bad he does not have any missiles, he sighs again. If not the ship chance of survival is higher.

"Navigator, plot a course back towards the jump point, flank speed. Get us out of here." Captain Blake commanded. "XO, ensure all stations are operational."

"Aye Captain." Commander Ford started to message all the department heads, chasing them for readiness reports. Each station's readiness slowly started to flicker from red and yellow to green. After several minutes, "Captain, all boards show green." he finally gave a relieved sigh.

"XO, after this I think we need to drill more. If we survive." Captain Blake gave a bleak smile to his XO.

"Yes, sir. That is for sure," replied Ford. He looked at the blinking red dots on the main tactical screen approaching slowly. "Five versus one. How did they get here? This is a dead system, other than the Ecythn jump point there shouldn't be any other way in, Fleet has surveyed this system thoroughly."

"I have no idea either. I am running up and down this sector for almost a year. This is the 1first time this has happened. I suspect the Swarm might have some kind of unknown drive that Fleet Intelligence doesn't know about." Captain Blake stood and stretched his back. He looked at the timer on the screen and said, "There is still over 30 minutes before they range on us. How about some coffee and food?"

"Yes sir, I shall order some up from the galley." Ford said, "I think everyone should have something hot in their bellies too."

"Sir, course calculated, time to the Ecythn jump point will take us 40 mins, but we will be within the enemy range for roughly 20 mins or so before we can jump." the navigator reported.

Captain Blake nodded. Not bad, plus or minus a few minutes from my own calculations. "Do it," he ordered.

"Pilot, bring us about, follow the new plot." ordered the XO.

"Aye aye. Changing course. Flank speed aye!" intoned the pilot.

Hope this old lady can hold out for 15 to 20 mins of combat. Blake thought to himself.

Chapter end