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Back Ark Royal Save as PDF
Chapters (42)
  1. Cover Blurb
  2. Contents
  3. Chapter One
  4. Chapter Two
  5. Chapter Three
  6. Chapter Four
  7. Chapter Five
  8. Chapter Six
  9. Chapter Seven
  10. Chapter Eight
  11. Chapter Nine
  12. Chapter Ten
  13. Chapter Eleven
  14. Chapter Twelve
  15. Chapter Thirteen
  16. Chapter Fourteen
  17. Chapter Fifteen
  18. Chapter Sixteen
  19. Chapter Seventeen
  20. Chapter Eighteen
  21. Chapter Nineteen
  22. Chapter Twenty
  23. Chapter Twenty-One
  24. Chapter Twenty-Two
  25. Chapter Twenty-Three
  26. Chapter Twenty-Four
  27. Chapter Twenty-Five
  28. Chapter Twenty-Six
  29. Chapter Twenty-Seven
  30. Chapter Twenty-Eight
  31. Chapter Twenty-Nine
  32. Chapter Thirty
  33. Chapter Thirty-One
  34. Chapter Thirty-Two
  35. Chapter Thirty-Three
  36. Chapter Thirty-Four
  37. Chapter Thirty-Five
  38. Chapter Thirty-Six
  39. Chapter Thirty-Seven
  40. Chapter Thirty-Eight
  41. Chapter Thirty-Nine
  42. Chapter Forty

The battle wasn't completely one sided, he noted.  Human weapons could and did kill enemy fighters, but there were just too many of them.  The humans were overwhelmed and destroyed before they could reorganised their formation, allowing the alien starships to advance forward to engage New Russia itself.  And then the recording came to an end.

“We will be rethinking our plans in light of this development,” the First Space Lord said, with admirable understatement.  “I don't think I need to explain just how serious this situation is, do I?”

No one disagreed.

Ted stared down at his hands, wondering briefly why he hadn't taken early retirement.  It wasn't as if the navy wanted to keep him.  And he could have been on the ground, instead of standing on the command deck of a carrier.  But the navy was his life.  And he knew his duty.

I volunteered to place myself between Britain and war, he reminded himself.  And yet he’d never really faced the prospect of his own death in wartime.  Accidents had accounted for more naval deaths over the past decades than enemy action.  I don’t get to back out because it might have become dangerous.

“Dismissed, gentlemen,” the First Space Lord said.  “Captain Smith, if you and Commander Fitzwilliam will remain behind ...”

“Yes, sir,” Ted said.

He waited until the massive compartment was almost empty, then followed the First Space Lord through a guarded airlock into a tactical planning centre.  A handful of analysts were seated at terminals, working their way through the data from New Russia.  He looked at one of the screens and saw an alien carrier, a fragile-looking craft.  But they hadn't needed heavy armour to rip New Russia’s defences apart.

“Take a seat,” the First Space Lord ordered.  “We have a mission for you.”

Chapter Seven

Chapter Seven

“A mission,” Ted repeated.  “What do you want us to do?”

“The important detail, I think, is that the modern carriers simply lacked the armour to stand up to alien weapons,” the First Space Lord said.  “That, combined with their stealth systems, gave them a definite advantage over the united fleet, allowing them to tear us apart.”

His voice was curiously flat.  Ted realised, not entirely to his surprise, that the First Space Lord was too tired to really feel the deaths ... and grasp the full magnitude of what it meant for the war.  If humanity’s unarmoured ships were easy prey for alien fighters, the war was within shouting distance of being lost along with the carriers.  Once the carriers were gone, humanity wouldn't even be able to continue the war.

Understanding clicked.  “Ark Royal might be able to stand up to them,” he said.  He found himself fighting to hold back the urge to giggle in a decidedly-unmilitary manner.  “We still have our armour.”

“Indeed,” the First Space Lord agreed.  “Ark Royal might be able to survive where more modern carriers would have real problems.”