Chapter 4 - First Blood

Borneo was now some distance behind, and CSS Archerfish was definitely in Sa'arm space. They were approaching a previously unscouted star to see what trouble they could get into.

The crew, both Navy and concubine, were at battle stations, in sealed battle armour, plugged into the ship which provided environmental support and power to their suits, and sitting secured to acceleration chairs. All missile tubes were full, as they had been since before the Archerfish had left drydock weeks before. All hatches were sealed and even the battle shields were at full power.

Captain Koenig chewed his lip and ordered, "Drop to normal space."

The light returned to normal and Helm reported, "In normal space, Sir."

"No encroachments on forward sensors, Sir."

"No encroachments on aft sensors, Sir."

"Good. Passive sweep for sign of a Sa'arm ship." Koenig breathed a little easier. He still rubbed his chin - or rather the armour protecting his chin - thoughtfully with his gloved left hand.

"Passive sweep for sign of Sa'arm ship, aye."

The pause did nothing to ease the tension on the ship.

"Sir! Thruster trace identified. Probably Sa'arm. Ship is likely carrying less than 100, possibly about 60."

"And this ship would be where, exactly?" asked a frustrated Koenig

The concubine at the forward sensor station activated a flashing red light near the fourth planet. A window opened showing a close-up of the reading.

"Optically confirmed as Sa'arm, tentatively as Sa'arm advance scout. Vacuna class."

The planet had three small moons and a larger one, and a poisonous atmosphere, at least for humans. Koenig pointed to the smallest of the three natural satellites.

"Bring us in behind that moon. When we get to the point where we're going to lose visual, launch Probe One to retain contact."

"Aye aye, Sir. Probe One will be needed in five minutes twenty-one seconds."

In the probe bay in the keel of Archerfish, Probe One began warming up. It was about three metres long and had no supraluminal drive, but like Archerfish herself was as stealthy as Confederacy technology - at least that level released to the Human contingent of the Confederacy - could make it. The Confederacy referred to it as a Remora-class probe. Hopefully the Sa'arm never found out about it to call it anything.

"Visual cutoff... mark."

"Launch Probe One."

"Launching Probe One." The hatch on the keel of the ship snapped open, the probe's mounting bracket dropped, the probe fired its tiny engines... and as fast as that the bracket retracted and the hatch slammed shut. Nothing must break the smoothness of the midnight-black covering protecting the fragile ship and crew from detection.

For the next couple of hours the Archerfish and her little Remora played tag with the larger, clearly more powerful Sa'arm ship. Finally they'd gotten to the point where they would have to expose themselves to enemy detection and fire. But Captain Koenig had a smarter idea. At least, he hoped it was a smarter idea.

"Here's what we do," Koenig suggested to Lieutenant Quinn. "We program the torpedoes to go around this moon, picking up speed from sling-shotting around it, and hit the target amidships. We don't expose ourselves because we stay behind the moon, with only the Remora visible."

"Sounds doable. If nothing else, we can always outrun anything that shows up. Let's do it." Like his captain, he'd started to think of the missiles as "torpedoes".

"Weapons, program course and speed into torpedoes One, Two and Three."

"Programming course into missiles One, Two and Three." Obviously Gunner's Mate Sheila Smith was on the ball and still able to distinguish between torpedoes and missiles.

"Open doors One, Two and Three."

"Doors One, Two and Three opened. Missiles report ready to fire."

"Fire automatic spread, tubes One, Two and Three," Koenig ordered, his entire body as tense as a bowstring. "Fire one!"

"Fire One, aye," Sheila acknowledged.

"One away. Missile One fired electrically," her concubine Charles reported from the Weapons Sub-Systems station.

"Fire two!"

"Fire two, aye," Sheila repeated, punching the button for the second launch tube.

"Two away. Missile Two fired electrically."

"Fire Three!"

"Fire Three, aye."

"Three away. Missile Three fired electrically."

"Close outer tube doors, re-pressurize and reload tubes One, Two and Three."

"Outer doors closed, tubes One, Two and Three. Re-pressurizing tubes One, Two and Three."

It was easier to focus on mundane things while waiting to see if the new missiles would work as advertised.

"Sensors, any other Sa'arm spotted?" Koenig was worried about other targets showing up and turning the hunter into the hunted.

"All sensors say clear aside from target."

"Depressurizing Tubes One, Two and Three, Captain. All tube outer doors closed, otherwise ready for launch."

Clearly the tiny black silhouettes of the probe and missiles were hard to spot against the inky blackness of space. The Sa'arm ship didn't make the slightest reaction until the first missile slammed into her navigational shielding. The initial charge punched through her comparatively weak navigational shielding and fired the energy from the second warhead through to the unprotected hull below. Most of the manoeuvring thrusters promptly failed.

With the navigational shielding down, the second missile punched into the engineering spaces of the vessel, destroying all control the creatures on board enjoyed over their engine. Shrapnel sliced into the fuel tanks aft of the engineering areas, sparking a massive fire that boiled soundlessly into space. Helpless and now completely inert, the ship began to tumble, its life-giving gases venting from dozens of gaping holes. The force of the escaping air acted like a retro-rocket, slowing it down and causing its orbit to decay toward an inevitable fiery contact with the atmosphere of the planet below.

The third missile slammed into the crew area at a point just abaft the bridge, at an acute angle pointing aft. The penetrating charge punched a neat hole in the hull and the second charge's DU shards sliced through the internal bulkheads of the unfortunate vessel from stem to stern. The ship began to break up from the dynamic load stresses, and all remaining compartments vented to space. It now began to slowly spin as it tumbled. Before it could get much farther the fuel tanks finally exploded, shattering the hull. The forward fifth of the ship survived longest before the friction of the atmosphere turned it into flaming shards.

The Archerfish had her first kill.