zone. Even though there were valuable minerals in the asteroids that M304 was involved in mining, strangely, the Viridians had yielded part of the region after losing that battle. Now Alliance ships were coming to the aid of the local starbase. This particular starbase, designated 301, was an older facility, and its defense systems and starfighter complement were several years overdue for a refit.
Somehow, Starbase 301’s attitudinal thrusters had fired, seemingly by accident. As a result, the station was now headed toward and likely going to cross, the boundary zone. Unfortunately, the attitude controls were overloaded afterward, and repairs to the section were proceeding slowly, since most of the engineers were at a conference at another station. Starbase 301’s current commanding officer, Fleet Captain Lauren, thought the situation should be under control by now, but things had progressed to the point that reinforcements were requested by the starbase commanding officer. Additionally The Viridian personnel who had previously visited the station in the past were not responding to information sent concerning the problem and seemed to be ready with deadly force for any breach of their border.
Fleet Captain Sheppard’s task force, designated Task Force Four, had been sent there as reinforcement for the starbase. The task force was made up of twelve different cruiser types of vessels: four Waterway-class light cruisers, five Heroic-class heavy cruisers, and two Legendary-class battle cruisers. The final member of the task force was one standard assault carrier with eight starfighter wings, and a space marine brigade of ground support forces. Normally, each wing consisted of twenty starfighters. The starfighters present had been constructed by several sources, including member worlds and some corporate construction facilities, like BradCorp. However, many had been constructed at any number of Alliance of Worlds shipyards, including the yards at Star One. Each of the Waterway cruisers had one wing or squadron of starfighters; the Heroic class usually had three squadron wings and the Legendary-class up to five wings, depending on size and design configuration.
Sheppard was just as good at tactical planning for starfighters as he was for the large capital ships. He had been squadron officer and eventually a highly decorated commander of twenty starfighter wings on the Constellation-class battlecarrier H’jum’pta. Sheppard plotted course and speed for the starfighter attack and ordered launch of all tactical wings. Sheppard could have had a junior officer do the task, but he thought he might need to be on top of this particular situation. After about ten minutes, all starfighters from the task force were headed to defend Starbase 301 and intercept any long-range missiles or torpedoes launched by the Viridian fleet.
Sheppard’s helm officer was a light blue–skinned, white-haired humanoid from Azura. Sheppard instructed him, “Move Endeavor into position to strike any Viridians who might clearly cross over the sixty light-second boundary zone into Alliance of Worlds space, and launch our antimissile countermeasures.” His tactical display indicated that a salvo of missiles had fired toward the starbase.
The Endeavor’s bridge was oval in general shape and consisted of several stations, including astrogation and helm, each of which had two officers who could operate the station. The other stations included communications and engineering, as well as two science stations, one for physical and the other for life sciences. The first officer’s station was adjacent to the helm, and the captain’s station was situated centrally. Both the first officer and the captain’s station allowed them to interface and to work with the other officers. Manual actions sometimes became necessary; during battle or if there was shield failure, interlinks and other computer interface devices sometimes would not function properly. Like all Alliance of Worlds spaceships, the Endeavour was an elongated rhomboid spacecraft composed of a reinforced trans-titanium alloy with multiple enclosed decks including comfortable crew quarters, with a main bridge and a secondary bridge, science and research decks, primary and secondary engineering control areas, and hangar bays for the starfighters. There were even multipurpose areas for storage of the supplies, and recreation areas for a prolonged journey.
Sheppard issued orders to the communication coordination officer. “Arrange for the other capital ships to move into defensive positions near the starbase,” he said, “although not within or across the boundary.” He knew that many of the Alliance’s weapon systems had longer effective ranges than the Viridian’s capital ships, and could strike sooner if they entered the boundary zone to strike Starbase 301, which was now approaching the edge of the sixty-light-second boundary zone. It was now too late to try to use a coordinated effort of starships to pull or tractor the starbase.
Sheppard asked, “What’s the situation on the repairs to the starbase attitude controls?”
“Sir, they still have to finish fabricating a few of the parts for Starbase 301’s attitude adjustment system,” replied Commander Adams. “The damage they incurred was more substantial than previously thought. Fortunately, they will finish within the hour, but not before the starbase moves across the boundary zone.”
“Freg!” cursed Sheppard. “This is going to be a breach, and, right or wrong, the Viridians will look on it as an Alliance of Worlds breach of territory.”
His crew watched him with anticipation.
“All ahead, Engines to full sublight,” he commanded.
“Aye, sir,” piped Lieutenant Commander Rel’kesh, the helm officer. “Accelerating from ten thousand to one-hundred fifty thousand kilometers a second.” Then he checked his instruments and reported, “Acceleration process will end in three hundred seconds.”
Sheppard noticed a few small tugs on his body as the gravitic compensators and inertial “I want to be in range to repel any attack on Starbase 301. Notify the other ships, and send this positional configuration to each of their captains,” Sheppard said as he sent course coordinates from his computer interface station that he and his tactical coordinating officer had just worked out. “From here on, each ship’s captain will have to make active decisions on how to engage the Viridian.”
He continued. “Open a channel to all the ships in the task force,” said Sheppard to Kira Benton, the communications officer.
As Sheppard waited a few seconds for the multiple contacts to the other ships to all activate, he looked at the silver star cluster on his uniform, which signified his rank as a fleet captain.
“Ready to transmit sir,” replied Lieutenant Benton.
Sheppard began speaking. “Endeavor to all Task Force Four vessels. This is Fleet Captain Robert Sheppard. I want us all to be ready for what will likely come to pass. Starbase 301 will not have full maneuvering control until it is well into the boundary zone, or even beyond that; therefore we will have to protect the base. Even now, the starbase is about to cross into the boundary zone. We need to have the cruisers support the starfighters as they surround the starbase to intercept any missiles and torpedoes. As you may be aware, the starbase’s primary defense systems are outdated compared to many of our starship weapons systems. Some of our starfighters will be used for augmenting the starbases point-defense weaponry against incoming long-range missile or torpedo attacks. As the starbase has a more predictable course, it may also become a target of particle cannons or energy disruptors used by the Viridian capital ships. I will send updates for specific starship support when we arrive at the destination. Fleet Captain Sheppard out.”
Some time passed as Sheppard’s fourth task force moved closer to the border zone. After Starbase 301 crossed into the border zone, the Viridian starships waited until it was halfway across and then launched a salvo of torpedoes as well as their own starfighters. The Viridian capital ships outnumbered the Alliance of Worlds fleet by slightly more than two to one.
The starbase activated its point defense systems to intercept incoming torpedoes, even as the engineering team was finishing repair and realignment to the attitude and thruster systems. Viridian starfighters began to engage various types
