Silence slipped away on the bridge of the Bellerophon, as the ionized atmosphere cooled from its glowing irradiance. The coriolis forces at high altitude slowly blurred the site of detonation until the patch of sky was again indistinguishable from the rest of the Dunian Atmosphere. Mission failure. The Farragut, and Anderson were lost, along with six dozen Federation souls and the fissile materials they risked their lives to transport. Edward had failed his mission, but the Bellerophon could still carry out its mission of securing the Dunian SOI, by neutralizing the enemy.
"-orders, sir?" Helmsman Siobahn's voice cut into his train of thought, illuminating to Edward that nearly thirty seconds had passed in tense silence since detonation, and his bridge crew were anxiously awaiting orders.
"Match Inclination with the Nuñez. No- belay that-" The captains voice sounded hollow, as his head indexed his academy lectures. It was fated that today would his first combat mission as a commander, regardless of his preparedness, and the fact of his immediate failure incessantly bubbled to the forefront of his mind as he considered his next move. Unworthy as he felt, he could not display anything less than captaincy, lest his crews faith in him waver.
"Siobahn; DeltaV?"
"5.63 Kilometer a second" came her swift reply
After consideration, he gave a revised order; "Burn prograde at our next orbital node, relative to Nuñez. Raise our apoapsis to just under Ike's SOI, then burn to match inclination at apoapsis, then we'll break to match orbit, and engage. We'll let them think we're running for now"
The Nuñez began to disappear over the southern horizon. As the enemy accelerated, they fought their way back above the outer reaches of the atmosphere. Their decision to intercept in the high atmosphere had left them uncontested, but it had come at the price of much of the Nuñez's DeltaV, burned fighting the tenuous upper atmosphere as they fought to maintain orbit. As consequence, the enemy commander was now being conservative, burning up to a higher, more stable apoaps, no doubt with the intention of burning prograde again to lift their path out of Duna's grasp.
Edwards decision to first fly away from the planet was in order to preserve one of his two advantages. Though he couldn't say with accuracy, he guessed the enemy to be without much fuel, and given the lack of any Union depots around Duna, they would need every remaining drop if they planned on staying at the red planet for the foreseeable future. His first instinct was to give chase without delay; burning hard anti-normal (that was, burning towards the south pole to chase the Nuñez). But such a phase change maneuver was expensive when performed so close to its parent body; much more efficient, in terms of fuel use, to raise ones altitude, and change their attitude there. Burning away from Nuñez, for now, also preserved a secondary advantage: the enemy knew nothing about him, or his intentions.
As Edward watched the Nuñez , as she slid southward. Her glowing orange radiators, which had been obfuscated by the backdrop of Dunas ruddy, iron rich surface, suddenly came into stark contrast over the white glaciers of Dunas polar ice caps for a few seconds, before disappearing into the horizon.
It took the Bellephon just under two hours to swing up, away from Duna to change phase, and another two for the return journey. During this time Edward consulted with his first officer, Gordon Kerman.
"We were able to get a good view of the ship when it came in for approach to intercept. Analysis of its acceleration suggests it's relatively light, and its missile bays seemed to take up most of the ships aft section. Tactical say the heat signature it gives off, paired with radiators of those size, means it wouldn't be able to dissipate the heat of a large laser, or the generators needed to sustain it. At most, they have modest guns."
"If I may sir-" Lieutenant Audrey interjected, and the two looked to her station, where she was in the process of turning to face them, gently pushing off from her conn and rotating 180 degrees as she floated to the dais where the captains chair lorded over the bridge. deftly locking her feet beneath one the handles on the floor, to hold herself in place as she addressed the officers
YOU ARE READING
Kerbol's Lament
Science FictionA generational, military hard scifi epic, chronicling the Kerbal Kind's discovery of extra-terrestrial progenitors, skewing ideals and sparking descent into interplanetary war, as they grapple with the origins of their species and and an apparent b...
