Warpath (Rise of the Empire Book 4)

by Ivan Kal

  Immediately Adrian realized what was going to happen. No matter how advanced his ships were they wouldn’t stand a chance against a force that was ten times greater. Frantically Adrian started issuing orders to his ships. Task force zero and one had already moved away from the task force two as it stayed behind to screen his ships movement, it would take time for his ships to turn back and aid task force two. His ships will arrive after the two Sowir forces meet up and attack the task force.

  Chapter Twenty One

  Vanguard ship Titan

  Five hundred and eighty Sowir ships met up with one thousand and sixteen warships of their main force. Together they focused on the one hundred and forty two ships of the task force two. The amount of missiles flying towards the task force increased as thousands of missiles from the main force were added to those of the smaller force. Now the Sowir fleet focused its particle and laser weapons on the Empire’s battleships, inflicting significant damage.

  Upon receiving orders from Warmaster Farkas, Commander Riss started passing them on to his task force. The Guxcacul used his six limbs to manipulate the Titan’s c-board – which was specifically designed for him. Seeing the onslaught headed to the ships under his command Riss moved the Titan in front of the formation, hoping to attract most of the fire if he presented a tempting target, while also unleashing the full extent of his ship’s abilities. Now that the enemy was no longer in between his ships and friendlies they were able to use the Empire’s most primitive and the most effective weapon. All of the battleships opened fire with their rail guns, just like the Titan used its own rail guns to fill the space in front of his task force with a screen of shells, reducing the massive amount of enemy missiles.

  But Riss saw that it wasn’t going to be enough. There was simply too many of them, and soon missiles started to pass through, hitting his ships. The Titan shrugged off any hit, both from missiles and other weapons. Its field bathing the ship in a shimmering field, dispersing laser fire, deflecting any particle and missile hits. But his other ships weren’t doing so well. The battleships were taking too much damage. But so were the Sowir, the fire from his ships rail guns reached the enemy, inflicting heavy damage as the ships had little room to maneuver in their current formation. Both the Ras’tar and the Retribution moved out of the formation to support the Titan, each firing their own powerful weapons. Ras’tar flooded the space as it started firing its Enforcer missiles, targeting the Sowir battleships.

  The exchange rate was in the Empire’s favor, but the Sowir had enough ships that it didn’t matter. Now that they were holding nothing back, Riss’s task force had destroyed more than two hundred ships, but they had already lost sixty seven battleships, leaving him with only seventy five ships. The rest of the Empire’s fleet was almost here, but Riss feared that even with another two hundred ships they couldn’t win. They needed the Nelus force to keep some of the Sowir force occupied, with their withdrawal the Sowir were free to focus all of their numbers on the Warpath Fleet.

  ***

  Harbinger

  Adrian made two mistakes. The first one was the moment that he trusted the Nel from Nelus. He knew what they were like, how their arrogance and stupidity guided their every move. And now they had betrayed him. If he had approached this battle without them from the beginning, his tactics would have been different. He would have stayed on the outskirts of the Sowir maximum range poking at them, wearing them down over time. He could have destroyed that fleet on his own, by denying it its greatest advantage, numbers. But he allowed his fleet to get tangled up with the Sowir because he counted on the Nelus fleet to keep at least a part of their fleet occupied.

  The second mistake was him holding his ships back, his fleet could have savaged the smaller Sowir force if had allowed his Vanguard ships to fight at full capacity. Instead, he wanted to hold back until the main force arrived. His plan was to move behind into the protective area of the defenders stations, by holding back he wanted the Sowir to think that they could take both his fleet and the defenses. Then when the Nelus defenders could assist with their stations he would have struck back.

  Now the Sowir fleet’s numbers were coming to bear against him in full force, as their fleet slowly tried to surround his ships.

  Adrian could turn and run, abandon task force two. But the Sowir ships would then turn back and return to their space. They wouldn’t arrive quickly enough to prevent the Empire’s invasion, but if they met up with other fleets in their territory they will become a big threat. Adrian could see the way to win, even now. But it would come at a great cost in life. His battleships had almost run out of shells, their missile supplies were already gone. He will lose a lot of battleships, perhaps even all of them. There was only one way to minimize the loss of life. And Adrian had promised not to use it.

  “You know what I need to do Iris?” Adrian asked.

  “Yes. I don’t like it though.” She responded.

  Adrian opened a channel to Invictus, now he had to tell Isani.

  ***

  Invictus

  “You are going to do what?!” Isani yelled at the vid feed, seeing Adrian flinch.

  “You must see that it is the only way.”

  “You can’t even use it for more than twenty minutes!”

  “It will be enough, when I lose consciousness you will take command of the fleet and finish what I started.”

  “Adrian...” Isani said.

  “I know, but we have no choice, you see the situation yourself.”

  Isani didn’t respond, instead he watched as Adrian gave him a smile and then closed the link. Isani closed his eyes and hoped that his friend gets out of this alive.

  ***

  Harbinger

  After passing on the command of his ship to his second, Adrian walked into the Watchtower room with Akash and Sora following close behind. He sat in the chair and the two wolions sat in front of it looking at him.

  “I’m going to be fine.” He said with a smile, the two just canted their heads in a perfectly synchronized motion. He knew what that meant.

  “Yes I know that it is stupid, but I need to do this.” Adrian said, then pressed a button on the chair, he felt the connector at the back of the chair reach to the port on the back of his neck. In the next moment he felt the connection establish and his eyes start to close. The last thing he saw were Akash and Sora watching him.

  Again, it seemed as if time has passed when he opened his eyes to look at Iris in her fiery form, but he knew that it was just an instant. The two of them were in space and in front of them were the two battling fleets. Just like last time he knew everything that his ships sensors saw. His two task forces had rejoined task force two and he saw his last orders being implemented, the task force two was pulling behind the newly arrived ships. But he could also see that the Sowir planned to encircle his fleet, spread enough to let all of their ships fire. And he could already feel pain slowly appearing.

  “Iris, keep an eye on the Sowir tell me if you see any patterns.” Adrian said. And iris floated over to the Sowir positions and concentrated on them.

  Adrian knew that this was all in his head, it was information presented in this way to make it easier for him to handle. He put everything aside and focused on giving orders to his fleet.

  While in Watchtower with a thought he could send orders to all of his ships, he could see danger faster than if he was reading the c-board, and that allowed him to act in time to mitigate it. He was able to move his ships much faster than if he was using the board. But he also knew that the Watchtower wasn’t going to be preforming as it was meant to. It was designed to be used with drones that Adrian himself could control via the Watchtower, the battleships were operated by people and that meant that their response time was going to be slower.

  Then Adrian saw an opening that he couldn’t have had the chance of exploiting if he was using the c-board. He ordered twenty of his battleships forward, taking them through a wave of Sowir fire, but also placing them perfectly
to fire on the group of enemy ships that will move out of the way of the fire from the Tiamat in a few seconds.

  Then as the group moved the twenty battleships got a clear line of fire for a span of twenty seconds. And that was enough for the battleships laser and particle cannon to fire and destroy fifteen of their ships. At the same time on the other side of the battle, Adrian moved Valhalla back and above his ships position to cut of the Sowir ships that will soon try to move above his left flank.

  The more he used the Watchtower the worse the pain got, at the fifteen minute mark he felt the pain almost reach the point where his people pulled him out last time, but he still kept going.

  ***

  Invictus

  Immediately after the fleet started receiving orders from Adrian, Isani had noticed a change. It wasn’t apparent at first. The Empire still lost ships, but suddenly they found themselves perfectly positioned to take advantage of short lulls in weapons fire from the Sowir ships. The Empire and the Sowir now exchanged ships at the average rate of one for fifteen.

  Adrian had spread the Vanguard ships across the formation, using them to both shield the battleships and unleash devastating attacks at just precisely the right moments. The Titan, Tiamat, and Retribution followed by twenty battleships were moving at the enemy fleet, closing the range and drawing fire from the Sowir. And every time that the Sowir shifted their fire to the three Vanguard ships, the ships still in the formation punished them for it.

  The flow was shifting, the Empire’s ships were switching from defense to offense as the holes started to appear in the Sowir formations.

  ***

  Space

  As the two of the Sowir battleship groups placed in the top of their formation focused their fire at the battleships in the middle of the Empire’s formation, the Vanguard ship - Invictus launched its missiles. In a span two minutes it fired its entire load, five thousand missiles burned towards the Sowir ships. By the time that the missiles entered the range of the Sowir defenses the rest of the Empire ships punched another hole in the Sowir formation, effectively cutting off the two Sowir groups from the bulk of their forces. It was perfectly executed, with just the right timing. The missiles moved unopposed towards the two groups, as their now lessened defensive power couldn’t harm the advanced Vanguard missiles. The bottom of the Empire’s formation fired with its laser and particle weapons at the top of the Sowir formation, providing even more cover for the missiles.

  The leading wave of the missiles was three thousand Enforcer missiles, with their fields protecting them from most of the defensive fire. Out of the three thousand the Sowir managed to take down two thousand and fifty, but still almost a thousand missiles slammed into three hundred Sowir battleships. The Sowir battleships were extremely well made, and their hull upgraded and reinforced since the last time that the Empire encountered them.

  Out of the three hundred, one hundred and six were destroyed immediately, others were damaged whether by missiles or debris. It didn’t matter, because the last two thousand missiles slammed into the remaining ships unopposed. These were the newest of Warpaths missiles, the MAHEM MK 1 missiles. Each of the missiles had a powerful magnetic force generator that powered up just before impact, shaping the liquid metal core of the missile into a spearhead that then punctured through armor, delivering the explosives directly inside the hull.

  Two thousand MAHEM missiles struck at the Sowir battleships, penetrating inside their hulls and then detonating the explosives. The explosions of the remaining Sowir battleships made it look as if they were blown up from the inside.

  Chapter Twenty Two

  Harbinger

  The destruction of almost half of the Sowir battleships in a span of minutes gave Adrian the opportunity to press his advantage. He pushed his remaining battleships to take the Sowir weaker ships, their light and heavy cruisers as he kept their remaining three hundred battleships occupied with his Vanguard ships.

  The pain in his head was now far worse than anything he had felt the first time, but somehow he managed to function despite it. He felt as if his brain was tearing itself apart, but he couldn’t stop. He applied everything he had to block out the pain.

  The Sowir were just now moving their “dreadnought” class in range. And they still had the numerical advantage. Adrian was down to two hundred ships, while the Sowir had around eight hundred. And he didn’t know what their new class of ships could do. He knew only that they were slow, like the Empire’s dreadnoughts are, which suggested that they were heavily armored.

  He sent out orders for the Tiamat, Titan, Retribution, and their small group to move in the line of fire of the newly arrived Sowir ships. He would need to get them close enough to fire their weapon, which meant going through a group of three hundred light and heavy cruisers.

  ***

  Tiamat, Titan, and Retribution and their battleship support entered the close range of the Sowir cruisers. Immediately Retribution opened up with its most powerful kinetic weapons. Slugs of metal exploded out of its rail guns, and turrets. The rail guns fired explosive shells, while the turrets fired grav-shells.

  Hundreds of explosive shells struck the cruisers, followed by the bigger grav-shells. Once a grav-shell hit the enemy ship, the small but powerful gravity generator inside activated creating a powerful gravity event. The result destroyed the generator, but also created a small implosion at the impact point, shattering the ships armor. Then the lasers and particle beams from the battleships finished the job.

  Three Vanguard ships and twenty battleships punched through the cruisers, destroying more than half of them. The rest of the cruisers were then easy targets for the main Empire’s fleet.

  ***

  Adrian watched as his ships punched through the Sowir cruiser formation, immediately he had the battleships in his main formation focus fire and take out the disorganized remains of the Sowir cruisers. The Sowir remaining battleships were moving to support their dreadnoughts, but Adrian had other plans. He sent orders for ships to intercept them. And then he sent orders for the Specter to move out of its position back into the field of battle and engage the Sowir dreadnoughts from the rear, creating a distraction for his other ships.

  Suddenly Iris flew to stand in front of him, “Adrian something is wrong. Your implant’s connections to your brain are failing. You need to stop this now.”

  “Just a little bit more Iris.” He said, but it felt harder and harder to think and act. He needed more time.

  “But-”

  “A few more minutes!”

  ***

  Harbinger, Valhalla, Twilight, and Invictus started boosting out of their formation to intercept the two hundred and eight Sowir battleships. The laser and particle fire from the battleships hitting their fields and doing no damage. The four ships fired with all of their main weapons. Harbinger, Twilight and Invictus firing their rail guns and turrets sending a hail of metal slugs towards the battleships. The closer the four ships got to the Sowir battleships the less chance they had to evade the fire. Valhalla’s lasers constantly kept their fire on the battleships, cutting through them in seconds just as its particle cannons punched hole in their ships.

  From the rest of the Empire’s formation, the remaining battleships provided suppressing fire with their own lasers and particle cannons. Their weapons were much less effective, but still powerful enough to damage and destroy the Sowir ships.

  In a matter of minutes the Sowir battleship group was devastated, most of their ships destroyed and those that managed to escape damaged and limping. The four Vanguard ships moved to join the three ships that were about to engage the Sowir new ships.

  ***

  The Sowir dreadnoughts were the first to open fire. Their lasers and particle cannon were more powerful than those of their smaller ships, but still they were not enough to damage the Vanguard ships. Tiamat and Titan targeted the closest enemy ships and fired with all of their forward weaponry. Dozens of particle cannons and lasers exploded out of the adva
ncing ship striking at the Sowir dreadnoughts, punching holes and scorching their hulls. The dreadnoughts managed to survive the fire longer than the other Sowir ships, but in the end they too succumbed. The Sowir ships started amassing damage at a faster rate as the Retribution added its own fire, followed by the twenty battleships following behind it.

  The Empire’s group moved even closer, to allow Retribution to use its most powerful turrets. As soon as Retribution entered in the range of its main weapon it opened fire. It fired dozens of 900mm shells, followed by an increased rate of fire with its smaller caliber rail guns. Every ship that got hit by the massive shell crumbled as its hull was blown inward. The Sowir dreadnoughts started exploding at an increased rate. And then they opened fire.

  Sowir ships weapons swiveled, targeted the Vanguard ships and fired their own kinetic weapons. Hundreds of metal slugs started impacting the Vanguard ships, ignoring their field defenses. The shells were smaller and slower than their Empire counterparts, but they still started inflicting damage on the three massive ships reducing their field integrity that in turn allowed Sowir other weapons to inflict damage. The twenty battleships following behind also came upon the fire, as the Vanguard ships were too occupied to screen them. The Sowir dreadnoughts destroyed them in minutes. They were still losing ships to the Vanguard ships, but they were now inflicting damage to the previously invulnerable ships.

  Sixty remaining Sowir dreadnoughts kept the pressure on the Vanguard ships, when suddenly two of their ships were blown to bits from their rear. The stealth ship Specter had arrived firing its limited weapons with deadly accuracy. Its firing had exposed its position, but using the gravity drives it quickly moved to another position. The distraction and confusion among the Sowir allowed the three ships a moment of respite.