Admiral's War Part One

by Wachter, Luke Sky

  “Then they’ll have to focus on targets of opportunity,” I amended without skipping a beat. “I refuse to let the enemy be the only ones to have their way here.”

  On the screen, the Aegis Flagship ejected another fusion core. Then her sister ship was hit by a particularly vicious, four-ship broadside and explosions rocked the Battleship from front to back.

  “Sweet Murphy avert and save them,” Hammer said as the entire enemy group, scenting weakness, focused the fire of all sixteen Battleships on the beleaguered Aegis warship.

  “Get me the Captain of that ship; I need a report on their status,” I said, feeling a cold lump in my stomach.

  “On it, Admiral,” said the petite Comm. Officer. Her face a little white, Steiner turned back to me. “I’m sorry, sir, but all I’m getting from her is an automated signal,” she replied with tight lips.

  “Well, what is it, Lieutenant?” I demanded when she failed to elaborate. “What’s the message?”

  “All hands: abandon ship,” she said meekly.

  Those four, heavy words like were waves breaking on a reef. They caused a great deal more emotional and morale-busting noise than if they simply had landed on the shore.

  “Well…” I began, looking back as shuttles and escape pods started falling out and moving away from the beleaguered Battleship.

  Unfortunately, only a relative handful escaped before their Battleship received a series of turbo-laser strikes that punched through one side of the hull and out the other. Seeing the success of the barrage, the rest of the enemy fleet focused on the damaged area and pounded it relentlessly.

  More explosions rocked the Aegis Battleship from stem to stern. There was a temporary pause, as if the ship was rallying despite the damage, and then one massive explosion broke the back of the ship. Ruptured into two sections from the forces at work deep inside her, the two halves of the Battleship began to slowly separate.

  “Admiral Dark Matter reports he is releasing the bucking cables,” stated Lieutenant Lisa Steiner in a stressed voice.

  I stared at the screen for a long moment and then sharply shook my head in negation. “Instruct the Admiral to split up the load. Each half of a Battleship to be towed by one of his ships,” I instructed.

  Steiner shook her head after relaying the message.

  “The blackwood Admiral says that he’s already lost a number of bucking cables and the secondary engines on one of his ships were disabled; the halves he would be towing are highly unstable. If they explode they could destroy what is left of his engines,” she reported.

  “Tell him it’s either risk the ship halves and possible engine damage, or totally lose his engines when the enemy finds him,” I said harshly.

  There was a pause after she relayed this info but after several second no reply. Then…

  “The Admiral asks if it is your intention to stop the ships and jump out of this star system, no matter the cost,” she finally said quiet voice.

  “It is,” I nodded.

  Moments later, a new Battleship grabbed one of the halves while Blackwood’s flagship slowly stabilized the section it was still positioned in front of. The fragments of the Aegis warships swung wide as their trajectories slowly stabilized, and large portions near the former middle of the ship sloughed off. But after almost a minute the remains were relatively stabilized.

  I breathed a sigh as our hedgehog formation slowly stabilized once again. I could feel sideways glances cast in my direction from all sides, but no one said anything.

  My Flag Captain, however, seemed to be made of less reticent stuff—or perhaps it was just that the crew on the flag bridge trusted me to a degree that the newly arrived Confederals and Border Alliance recruits simply hadn’t reached yet.

  “I support your decision, sir, but towing the Aegis contingent ships to their doom…it’s a bad way to treat any warship, if I may say so,” said Leonora Hammer.

  My face tightened. “This is no time to lose our stomachs, Captain,” I said harshly.

  Leonora stiffened in her chair, but before she could continue she was interrupted from Comm.

  “Priority message from Admiral Dark Matter!” said Steiner urgently.

  “What is it?” I demanded, rounding on the Comm. Officer.

  She was interrupted by the Sensor Officer before she could speak. “A ship—no, two Battleships from Dark Matter’s contingent have stopped decelerating and turned to face the enemy!” declared the Sensor Officer.

  “The Demon Murphy strikes again,” I swore with feeling as I felt what remained of my fleet disintegrating around me, “what was that message again, Comm.!?”

  Steiner flicked a switch and the image of Rear Admiral Dark Matter appeared on the screen. “Due to taking damage severe enough to keep them from making the jump through hyperspace, two of the finest ships and crews I have had the great honor to serve with have made the decision to turn and face the enemy in an attempt to stall them,” the other Admiral said with pain in his eyes. “They have vowed not to falter in their task, nor will they surrender until the rest of the fleet has been given the chance to escape. For their courage in the face of the enemy, I have no words great enough to describe them other than to say: go with the space gods, my fine friends.”

  The Rear Admiral bowed his head and the image on the screen disappeared.

  For a long moment, no one did or said anything. We silently watched the pair of Battleships from Dark Matter’s squadron approached the enemy warships. Soon after their turn, they concentrated their fire on one of the enemy ships and moved to close the range.

  “Well…I guess that explains that,” I said faintly.

  Hammer shot an evil glare my way, but using it as a spur I ignored her indignity and stood up. They wouldn’t slow our opponents for long, but if the Reclamation Fleet didn’t focus on them they were going to feel the hurt.

  “The sacrifice of our comrades on our behalf will not be forgotten,” I bowed my head for a moment before lifting it allowing a firm resolve shine through my eyes. “They are giving us the opportunity to escape, and once we do I vow that we will regroup, rearm, and defeat this fleet of Imperial invaders and that we will find any members of this fleet who fell behind and bring them back home.”

  I sat back down and, with a frown, looked back at the screen. It was all up to luck, those two Battleships that had moved to cover our retreat, and the space gods on whether we would survive to escape this system so that I could fulfill my promise.

  The fleet was slowing to a stop; the dice were in the air and everything now rested in the hands of Murphy.

  I didn’t know if I could survive another series of captures and tortures by the enemy…but after our comrades’ brave sacrifice, even that fate seemed somehow less intolerable than it had been just a few minutes earlier.

  Chapter Seventy-nine: Fully Stopped

  “They’re trying everything they can think of to wriggle away,” Goddard said dismissively.

  High Admiral Janeski glared at the screen with hot and angry eyes as a pair of Grand Fleet Battleships came about and moved to engage his warships. The Battleships of the pursuit force had the choice of slowing down, moving out of the way, or allowing the enemy to pass them at close range and then make a run for it.

  “I wonder if the boy has gained access to a competent military adviser,” Janeski grunted in response.

  “What? They’ll never escape our forces. We have them out numbered two to one,” said Goddard with surprise.

  “They’ve neutralized the majority of our fighters, throwing them up against them again while their anti-fighter flagship platform is still in action would be suicide. I’m not yet willing to simply throw away the lives of our highly trained fighter pilots for the ‘chance’ of taking out a pimple like the Governor,” the High Admiral growled and then added almost grudgingly. “There is a chance—a slight one, mind you—that this Grand Fleet will escape.”

  The Imperial Command Carrier Captain’s eyebrows rose for the rafter
s upon hearing this. “If you say it then I believe it, but it’s hard to see how they can possibly escape the trap we’ve…you’ve laid for them,” amended the Flag Captain.

  “It will all depend on the actions of those two Battleships, and the response of the commander on the scene,” the High Admiral mused, leaning forward in his chair.

  “I’m sure they’ll succeed,” Goddard declared confidently.

  “I don’t care if one or two escape to spread fear and terror at facing us,” Janeski said grudgingly, “just so long as that strangely-armored flagship of theirs is captured or destroyed.”

  If they failed to do that, it would become a thorn in his side that continued to fester. Best to lance these things quickly, completely and—most importantly of all—surely.

  ****************************************************

  Two starship captains faced each other through the miracle of holo-technology—but high technology was the last thing on their minds right at that moment.

  “You know what we’re about to do, Captain Strongbow?” asked the first Captain—a short, pale woman in the pin-striped uniform of her home world, Epsilon Tarantula.

  “It’s been an honor serving with you, Captain Smith,” said her counterpart, Captain Strongbow from the Blackwood star system.

  “If we can hold them off long enough, the rest of the wall of battle can escape and maybe the Sector can regroup and have a chance. Maybe our worlds will have that chance,” said Captain Smith heavily.

  “Defending our worlds and holding back the hordes is, after all, a man’s duty,” said Strongbow.

  The corners of Captain Smith’s mouth cramped and she forced something approximating a smile onto her face. “Quite,” she said shortly and then after gathering herself gave Strongbow a nod, “let’s do this then, and may the best woman win.”

  “I second that emotion wholeheartedly,” Strongbow said without an ounce of dissembling, only genuine emotion as an iron glint in his eye as he considered what they were about to do.

  By mutual decision, the two Captains cut the connection and prepared their ships for what would probably be their final confrontation.

  ****************************************************

  Like a pair of family dogs facing off against an angry wolf pack, the Blackwood and Epsilon Tarantula Battleships were outgunned and overmatched. But they were also loyal to a fault, and they stood their ground in order to let the family they protected escape danger—and when that didn’t prove enough, they prepared to close into close range.

  The two Battleships aimed themselves straight for the middle of the twin lines of enemy warships, and they took a furious pounding as they closed in.

  I didn’t know what their game plan was, but I was more than mildly interested to find out.

  At first, the Reclamation Battleships ignored the two Grand Fleet warships. From their trajectories, they fully intended to bypass them—but the two stalwarts were determined to convince the enemy otherwise.

  “Wings of Fire from Epsilon Tarantula has gone to 72% of her maximum rated acceleration,” Sensors reported as two thirds of the Epsilon warship’s engines lit off, with the others silent and cold as the grave. “She’s driving for the enemy formation to her starboard.”

  Then, in an almost mirror action, her sister ship from Aegis moved for the group to port at just over fifty percent of its top rated speed.

  The Imperial ships continued to ignore the crippled Battleships, right until the pair of them made minute course changes which clearly targeted a Reclamationist ship in the center of each formation. And because the rest of us were decelerating, after that small shift they were able to once again present their broadsides to the Reclamationist forces.

  “Enemy Battleships have broken formation they are maneuvering for effect and to avoid Wings of Fire and her sister ship,” reported Hart with triumph and relief mixed equally in his voice.

  While the Reclamation Battleships were moving to avoid being rammed, and focusing their fire on the pair of battered warships, the ragged remainder of our fleet started to pull away.

  I closed my eyes and breathed a sigh of relief.

  Behind us, broadsides slashed and thundered as the sacrifice of those two ships’ crews bought us the precious time we needed.

  Further and further the distance grew until, seemingly without warning, the fleet had come to a nearly complete stop.

  “Tighten hedgehog formation,” I ordered, my voice closer to a yelp of surprise than the deep manly voice I’d imagined giving this order as. “We need to get this right people. Point hyper dishes toward the center of the formation and use each other to block the enemy as best we can. Since we’re not moving from this position, we need to focus shield power over those dishes.”

  Almost a minute passed until I finally heard the word. “Formation secure, Admiral,” Lieutenant Hart reported.

  “Beginning to calculate the hyper jump, Sir!” reported Brightenbauc.

  “Good,” I acknowledged, but sadly all was not good. Behind us, the sixteen enemy Battleships hammered our two valiant defenders, even as they shot wide and away to swoop around them to continue onto their real target—us.

  We were finally able to begin preparing for the jump after so much sacrifice and loss, but at the same time this also made us the proverbial sitting ducks. It was now a race against time; all we needed were fifteen precious minutes, but it was a race we were destined to lose.

  Then the Blackwood Battleship that had stayed behind to stall for us put on a sudden burst of speed and rammed into the shields of one of the enemy ships.

  Chapter Eighty: Going Out with a Bang

  Due to the near-collision, the Blackwood Battleship was drifting beside a now nearly-disabled enemy Battleship. The Wings of Fire, which had failed her own ramming attempt, was embroiled in a fierce duel with a second enemy warship.

  With more than ten minutes left to go, the remaining Reclamationist Battleships—minus two battleship that were either disabled or still locked in a close-range duel—sped forward and fell on us like starving wolves.

  “Enemy has reentered weapons range,” reported Hart ominously.

  “Ten minutes—that’s all we have to hold out, people. Stand strong and we can do this,” I said clearly and firmly. If we could survive this then…

  “We’re being scanned by enemy targeting sensors,” reported Hart.

  “Enemy warships are turning around,” said Sensors and then sudden excitement appeared on his face, “enemy Battleships have turned to begin decelerating!”

  “Looks like they mean to close to extremely close range,” Hammer said grimly even as our warships opened fire. “That will give them the best chance at knocking out our hyper dishes.”

  “Determine which ship has the lowest shield rating and have all Grand Fleet units focus all fire we have available on that target, Mr. Hart!” I ordered.

  “Aye, Sir,” said the Lieutenant.

  “I want those engines gone, Hart! Totaled, destroyed, and rendered inert,” I raged hatefully at the enemy Battleships as they careened toward us at extreme speeds.

  Everyone in this fleet had suffered a terrible blow, but we were going to get some of our own back. We would have a measure of revenge! Even if this whole thing happened because of my weak-willed compliance with politically-motivated officers, it was still my fault. But that didn’t mean I couldn’t share my pain with the enemy!

  “Designating target now,” Hart said, glaring at the enemy before transferring the information to the Comm. Section.

  “Relaying information to the rest of the combat group,” relayed Steiner.

  “Fire!” Hart barked into his microphone.

  The Royal Rage gave vent to her crew’s collective thirst for revenge with a thunderous broadside. And if a little less than two thirds of our original number of lasers fired, no one onboard was going to think anything less of her—especially not when the five remaining, functional Battleships started firing
with two from Dark Matter’s squadron and three from mine. As for the Aegis ship, it was so badly damaged that only a handful of lasers still seemed to be functional.

  “Enemy is continuing to close range with a sharp decel,” reported Leonora Hammer.

  “Half-way through calculating the jump,” reported Brightenbauc.

  “Relay to all warships that we will not be performing a unified jump. Every ship is to jump as soon as their hyper drive is ready. Again: jump as soon as your hyper drive is ready and don’t wait,” I instructed Steiner.

  The brown-skinned com-tech nodded and relayed my orders.

  Under the combined power of our warships, the shields of our target slowly lowered until the enemy was taking hits to its engines.

  However, before we could do more than cause some minor damage, the battleship pulled an about face and accelerated, shooting past our position. Clearly unwilling to suffer major damage at this time when it could simply circle around later, it hid its engines and blasted past before we could do serious damage.

  The same went for a second enemy Battleship; as soon as its shields started to fall it also turned and accelerated away.

  Down to five moderate-to-heavily-damaged Battleships, and one crippled Aegis ship against a dozen relatively unscathed ships of the wall, for several minutes the enemy seemed willing to pound us at range. The damage and destruction piled up as shot after shot punched through the armor of our ships. Then something must have changed in their minds because they inexplicably resumed their charge toward us once again.

  “This is about to get rough,” Hammer said, her mouth crimping.

  “Tell Gunnery to fire whatever they have,” I ordered the Tactical Officer, who gave a half nod in return while remaining wholly focused on his job.

  Outnumbering us two to one and knowing we had nowhere to go, we had to stay still and take the punishment the Reclamation Fleet viciously moved into close range.

  “The enemy is moving toward gaps in our coverage. It doesn’t matter how tight our formation is—we just don’t have enough warships,” Hart said urgently. “Once they get in close, they’re going to start taking out our hyper dishes.”