by PP Corcoran
Returning her attention to her tactical plot, she was relieved to see that the first and second waves of enemy missiles hadn’t caused as much damage as they might have. The remaining Viper grazers were still firing although their shot count was nearing full capacity and they would soon have to shut down, forcing Analisa to resort to her own ship’s grazer fire. The HVM platforms were another matter entirely. The weight of the first enemy wave had been such that they had fired off the majority of their missiles. A quick look at the display sidebar showed them down to nineteen percent efficiency. Nowhere near enough to stand up to the third wave of enemy missiles which were bearing down on them. Without the HVM fire to interdict the incoming wave the grazer platforms were finished. And if they went, Fifth Fleet was all that stood between the Others and Earth.
“Tactical. Expand our defensive engagement fire to include the Viper platforms and move the remaining Bassas into a position to support your fire plan. What’s the ETA on the third wave?”
When there was no immediate reply from Tactical, Analisa searched her plot for the expected wave of missiles herself, only for her eyes to fall upon them in an unexpected place. Damn!
“OK, Tactical, they’ve tricked us. The third wave is headed for the lunar colonies. Comms let’s get a warning out to them. They have…”
“Seven minutes, ma’am,” called the officer at tactical.
“Seven minutes until impact.”
The blinking light of a priority signal from Central Command caught Analisa’s eye and she tapped the accept key. The face that filled her display was, however, not one that she had been expecting.
The impassive face of High Commander Botac looked back at her from the display. “High Commander, I’m afraid I don’t have the time to talk to you at the moment, I’m…”
The businesslike voice of the High Commander cut Analisa off in mid-sentence. “Admiral Chavez, on my own authority as the senior Benii officer present and with the blessing of Representative Hoolas, I am placing the resources of the Koslla at your disposal. If you would be so kind as to transmit your IFF codes, my Freiba are arming now for an anti-shipping strike and should be ready to launch within the next ten minutes. It would be inconvenient if your anti-missile defenses mistook them for the enemy.”
Analisa caught the eye of the comms officer and gave him a curt nod. “You should have the codes shortly, High Commander. If I may, I will also forward you our recommendations for an initial strike package. I admit that we’ve never had the benefit of a dedicated space fighter such as your Freibas, but from my briefings they pack a big punch for such a small ship.”
Botac’s lips curled upwards in a knowing smile. “Believe me, Admiral, the enemy are in for the shock of their soon-to-be-shortened lives. Now if you will excuse me, I need to meet with my planning staff to go over your recommendations. Time is short.”
Without another word, Botac cut the link, leaving Analisa with the major headache of preparing for a strike by space fighters that she had never seen in action before.
#
Minutes later, a feral smile crossed her face as she reviewed the updated strike package the Benii had sent to her for approval.
“The Koslla is launching now, ma’am… my god look, at those things move!”
On Analisa’s plot, 115 Freiba space fighters formed up into their individual squadrons with the precision that champion ballet dancers would have been proud of and began what the Commonwealth tacticians were calling the Benii dance. An intricate series of maneuvers that were designed to confuse any fire control computer. Moving as fast as an HVM the sleek little fighters speared toward the Others’ fleet.
“Time till contact?”
The tactical officer answered without taking his eyes from his plot as he marveled at the seemingly effortless grace of the Benii. “Six minutes at their current rate of closure.”
“Time till we enter the enemies energy weapons range?”
This time the officer was forced to check his readouts. “Eleven minutes fifty-two seconds.”
“Have we received any updates from Central Command in relation to the strikes on the lunar colonies?”
“Nothing since the original confirmation that the colony defenses had begun engaging the enemy missiles. Sorry, ma’am.”
Analisa went to placate the tactical officer but the blinking priority signal light on her display was illuminated again. Maybe the High Commander needed some more information? Pressing the “accept” key, Analisa was confronted by the neutral face of the Chairman of the Combined Joint Chiefs of Staff.
“Admiral Chavez. Fifth Fleet is to immediately advance and engage the enemy.”
The shock of the order caused Analisa’s face to pale as the blood fled from it and she found that her voice had escaped her as she stammered to get out a reply. “But… But General. If I advance and leave the support of the Viper platforms, the enemy have the opportunity to defeat the fleet in detail. With the fleet gone, the Others can stand off and destroy the Vipers opening a hole in Earth’s defenses large enough to allow their missiles through unchallenged. I have no idea how much damage the Freibas are capable of but surely they can’t hope to cause so much damage that Fifth Fleet on its own can hope to defeat the remaining enemy ships?”
In the holo cube, the face of Keyton Joyce remained as impassive as ever but his reply said everything his expression didn’t. “Who said you would be on your own, Admiral?”
#
Tama Narath strode across the bridge of The Path of the Creator and stopped in front of the main plot. “What are those?”
“The computer is calling them small personnel shuttles, Tama Narath. Could the heretics be trying to board us?”
The idea of the heretics attempting such a thing was not unheard of. It had happened before. Rather than allowing their capture and no doubt torture at the hands of the heretics, one of the ships of the people had followed the direction of their Lesser Coltus and fought till the end or committed suicide so as to not be taken after being disabled in the system the heretics called Garunda.
“Alert the ships guard fleet-wide. Tell them to be prepared to repel boarders.”
“Immediately, Tama Narath.”
As he continued to watch the display, a satisfied grunt came from the direction of the sensor team.
“Report?”
The smiling face of the sensor team leader turned to face him. “Two pieces of fortune bless us, Tama Narath. It is my honor to report that I can confirm that we have detected multiple detonations on the surface of the heretic home world’s moon.”
Tama Narath gave a silent prayer of thanks to the Creator before returning his attention to the team leader. “You said you had two pieces of news?”
“From our readings of the heretic fleet’s drive sources they are showing a definite increase of power. I believe that they will break orbit imminently.”
Tama Narath closed his eyes as he felt the familiar presence of the Lesser Coltus enter his consciousness.
Our time is at hand, Tama Narath. The path of the Ehita is clear. Close with the heretics. Destroy their fleet and cleanse their world in the name of the Creator.
Tama Narath spun to face his communications officer. “General order. The fleet will advance and engage the heretics with energy weapons.”
#
“The Freibas are engaging now, ma’am. We’re reading hits on the primary targets. Confirmed… the Goshawks are slowing. I see sixteen dropping out of formation.”
Analisa’s fist crashed down on her armrest in celebration. The Goshawks were the enemy equivalent of her own Agis missile defense destroyers. Designed specifically for an anti-missile role, the Goshawks were based on the hull of the Buzzard cruisers but carried little in the way of energy armaments. That role was left to the larger Vultures that were the main fighting strength of the enemy fleet.
“OK people, the Benii have played their part and stripped away the majority of the Others’ missile shield. Tactical, how l
ong till we reach optimum launch range?”
“Two minutes, twelve seconds, ma’am.”
This was going to be the longest two minutes of her life.
#
“What we had thought to be personnel shuttles has in fact turned out to be armed attack craft, Tama Narath. They have attacked the anti-missile escorts with high-energy particle weapons and have caused significant damage. The majority of the escorts report damage to their engineering sections and are unable to keep up with the fleet.”
Armed attack craft! Curse the ingenuity of the heretics. No matter. We will have no need of the escorts once we have closed the range sufficiently with their major fleet units. He still outnumbered the heretic fleet almost eight to one and he had supreme confidence in his ability to wipe them clear of space. Yes, he would take casualties, but the result would be the same for their planet. The final embrace of nuclear fire.
“Do not slow. Continue the advance!” Tama Narath said confidently.
#
“Entering missile range now, Admiral.”
“Execute Fire Plan Baker! Communications. The fleet will reverse course. Tactical. Hold the enemy at maximum range and continue to fire.”
As one, Fifth Fleet flushed its missiles toward the onrushing enemy fleet. The 220 missiles that shot toward the enemy may have seemed a paltry number in comparison to the weight of missiles that had been fired at them in the initial exchanges, but the Benii space fighters had stripped away a large part of the enemy fleet’s missile defenses and more than would have were able to avoid what anti-missile defenses were left as they began to explode in the heart of the fleet. Battle armor giving way to the unforgiving battering of X-ray lasers and close in nuclear detonations.
#
The Path of the Creator shrugged off the concussions of the enemy fire as it raced along with its fellows to close the distance to the retreating heretic forces. The blue-and-white gem of the planet was nearly within reach. Tama Narath gritted his teeth as one by one, ships of the people were destroyed or too badly damaged to continue. He consoled himself in the knowledge that his followers were going to a better place. Into the warm, loving arms of the Creator. The steadily retreating heretics were remaining outside his energy weapons range but he could still reach them with his missiles and in the end, his sheer weight of fire would be enough. The heretics could only retreat so far and soon, once again, they would have their backs against the planet and have nowhere left to run.
“Incoming missiles bearing 162.4!”
What! Impossible! There were no enemy ships there! That was the wrong side of the heretics’ planet’s orbit!
#
“Admiral. Signal from First Fleet. Remain at your current position. You are the anvil to my hammer.”
Analisa Chavez gripped her seat’s armrests as she forced herself against the restraints. “Fleet order. All stop. No ship is to give an inch. Hold the line!”
#
TDF Horizon and her three sisters emerged from fold space less than 500,000 kilometers from the trailing Goshawk.
“Missiles away, sir. Detonation in thirty seconds. Mark.”
Gavin Glandinning could have leaned forward and touched his tactical officer’s chair. It wasn’t that the retrofitted Talos cruisers were short of space. The advanced artificial intelligences that had replaced the majority of the crew meant that instead of requiring some 710 sailors to man her, the Horizon got by with less than 100. But the scientists and engineers who had done the modifications obviously didn’t understand that an admiral may simply want the room to pace up and down his bridge.
Maybe he would have a word with Jeff Moore when he returned the ships to Zarmina, thought Gavin. Time to consider that later.
“Sound the collision alarm.”
The hooting throughout the ship was an unnecessary reminder to the small crew to ensure that they were securely strapped into their seats for what was to come.
“Five. Four. Three. Two. One. Detonation!” For a fraction of a second it all seemed an anticlimax, then the blast wave of ten anti-matter warheads going off in unison, wiping an area of space nearly a million cubic kilometers in size clean of anything made by man or otherwise. The massive explosion left a gap in the Others’ gravity drive-defying bubble. The shock wave rolled outwards and seemed to pick the Horizon up like she was nothing more than a leaf on the wind instead of a 24,400 ton cruiser. Alarms began going off all over the ship but this wasn’t unexpected. The same thing had happened the last time they had detonated the experimental anti-matter warheads. Unfortunately, a few individuals had ignored the order to strap themselves in and were currently heavily sedated in the ships limited medical bay. This time, no injuries were reported.
“Tactical. Congratulations. Now what say we go test this new armor on those Goshawks before Third Fleet arrive in the hole we just tore them and have all the fun?”
The grin on his tactical officer’s face was all the answer Gavin needed as Horizon increased speed to close with the enemy Goshawks.
#
John Radford gave his head a quick shake to clear it of the familiar swimming sensation of a completed fold space transit and forced his eyes to focus on the tactical display. The plan had worked like a dream. The slowly moving icons of damaged Goshawks led like breadcrumbs to the main Others’ fleet as it hammered away at Analisa Chavez’s ships. The steady missile barrage and energy weapons fire was turning Fifth Fleet into little more than useless scrap, but still they stood like an immobile cliff face.
First Fleet had just entered energy weapons range and its heavy Bismarck battleships were searing the enemy flanks while its missiles sought out the fleet command ships attempting to rip apart their command and control. Without the Goshawks that the Benii space fighters had disabled and with the unexpected arrival of First and Third Fleets, the Commonwealth forces had the upper hand and it was only a matter of time until victory was assured.
The four blue icons of Gavin Glandinning’s cruisers were mixing it up with the already damaged Goshawks. Swooping down on them like scavenger birds on an injured animal. The pecks of the smaller cruisers wouldn’t cause too much damage individually but just like the Benii fighters, the small pecks all added up and already two Goshawks had fallen to Glandinning.
“Communications. Fleet signal. Third Fleet will advance at flank speed. Tactical. I want a full missile and energy weapon spread on the Goshawks as we pass. Do enough damage that they can’t escape, then leave them to Admiral Glandinning.”
John eyed his tactical display. In his mind’s eye he conjured up the image of the tumultuous battle raging before Analisa Chavez. “We have bigger fish to fry.”
#
You have failed the Creator, Tama Narath. You have allowed the heretics to trick you. You are not worthy of your title as The Hand of the Creator.
The sense of failure and despair that filled Tama Narath was a physical thing. The fleet that the people had worked so long and hard to create was being destroyed piece by piece around him. What had once been massive armored leviathans were being reduced to bleeding, shattered corpses as the combined fire from two heretic fleets ripped its very heart and soul from it. Now a third enemy fleet had been detected approaching the rear. He was trapped. The situation was hopeless. He had failed his Creator.
Tama Narath had been a warrior of the Creator his entire adult life and his life was going to end in failure. He would never see Aseena. The Promised Land. Never share in the love of the Creator. His failure would mean his death and the deaths of those he had led here. His shoulders slumped beneath his blood-red cloak as his eyes fell to the symbol of the creator on his chest. The simple black circle with the red X. No! No! I refuse to die in failure!
“Signal the closest five ships. One ship will take up position directly ahead of us. The remaining four will take up flanking positions. When they are in position, we will advance at best speed. We shall blow a hole in their defenses big enough to allow The Hand of the Creator through
and I intend to crash us down upon the heretic’s home world, detonating our remaining weapons and our engines as we breach their atmosphere. They may have won the battle, but I will ensure they have no home to return to!”
#
A worried shout from tactical pulled Analisa’s gaze away from the master plot.
“There’s something strange going on at the heart of the enemy formation, ma’am.”
“Define ‘strange’?”
“Five Buzzards are converging on what we think is the fleet commander’s Vulture. Their ECM is playing merry hell with my sensors but they are definitely changing formation.”
What were they up to now? With the imminent arrival of Third Fleet, this battle was all but over. Fifth Fleet had held at a terrible cost in men and ships but it had held. Maybe the enemy fleet commander was going to make a run for it?
The strangled cry of “Oh my God!” came from Tactical.
Analisa’s eyes fixed on the blood-red icons of the accelerating enemy ships. They were going to ram!
“Communications. All ships are to fire on the approaching enemy formation! Give them everything we’ve got.”
Her orders given, Analisa could only watch in abject horror as the five enemy ships were pounded by the remains of Fifth Fleet. It didn’t take a genius to work out what the Others had in mind and the surviving ships of Fifth Fleet quickly realized the danger and the fire on the enemy ships steadily increased. But on they came. Through the expanding nuclear fireballs and the searching grazers they kept coming. First one. Then another. And another dropped out of the last desperate forlorn charge. Until only the fleet commander’s ship and a single remaining consort were still going. They were less than 2,000 kilometers from Fifth Fleet’s battle line when the fleet commander’s consort took its final victim. TDF Perseus realized the danger too late. Or maybe its captain saw the danger but chose to keep his ship in formation rather than allow the oncoming Buzzard to pass. Whatever happened, 220,000 tons of Buzzard moving at nearly 30,000 kilometers per hour struck the 37,000 ton Vulcan cruiser Perseus. When the fireball dissipated, there was nothing bigger than a ground car left, and what was left was a hole in Fifth Fleet’s line; a hole the enemy fleet commander’s ship bored through as fast as it could.
