As he was working at the pilot’s station a comm. channel signaled a message alert.
“Bridge Go,” he said not really identifying himself
“Sir, I reinstalled the A.I.’s core but I can’t get it to activate and start up,” said Chief Mendez.
“Screw it! Check that the auxiliary computer is online and operational. I want this ship out of dock in the next fifteen minutes,” he ordered.
Everyone that heard the commander words were stunned but they also knew that it wasn’t impossible. The ship was designed to operate at extreme measures and circumstances and this was one of those times.
“Sir, I’m going to take my teams and continue our sweeps of the ship,” Gunny said, “let us know if you need any help, we are mostly men from the Star Wolf and know an attack cruiser’s systems.”
“Right, get to it and get back here when your done,” he said still busy at the helm station. Bringing up the main viewer they could see that the Ark Royal had launched fighters, some of which were headed out to the main battle while a few were arching back towards the station.
“They’re going for the tanks,” Masters said pausing with his team at the door.
“The fleets fighters are too far away to help,” Cmdr. Hunter remarked rushing over to fire control to help the operator there to bring the automated firing system back online.
“Does the Star Tiger have any fighters?” Masters asked.
“We did but I don’t know if we have any now.”
“We’ll go,” Lt. Chow said stepping up with his friend Lt. Doyle moving up beside him.
“We’re both fighter pilots,” Tony Doyle said with a nod.
“I’ll show them the way,” Gunny said as they ran out the door and headed for the fighter bay.
Cmdr. Hunter didn’t get a chance to reply as he was busy with the emergency startup along with an undermanned crew to boot.
Gunny Masters led them to the bottom stern of the ship and just like the Star Wolf, her sister ship the Star Tiger had a star fighter bay with a single launch tube. As they open the inner bulkhead door it was quickly apparent that she was also equipped with fighters. Six SF-86 Sabres sat on the flight deck. There were also two armored personnel grav craft sitting in the rear of the bay. This was their standard ship’s complement finding it surprising that the station mistress had reequipped the vessel as per its MTOE.
Chow and Doyle ran over to the two star fighters closest to the launch tube while Gunny Masters went into the flight deck’s control room where he grabbed two flight suits. They could have piloted the fighters without them but it just wasn’t as safe or as effective. The young officers had already started prefight procedures when the NCO arrived and made them suit up. The suits were a little big but they’d work.
Returning to their respective jobs they rushed to get into the fight. A few minutes went by and Doyle was the first to fire up his Sabre’s engine. Lt. Chow was just a second behind him.
“Beat you again,” his friend taunted.
“Yeah, well you’re still my wingman,” Kevin Chow replied with a smile reminding him of a bet he lost in flight school.
He then taxied his fighter to the EM power launch tube and was shot out into space. A few seconds later Tony Doyle followed him as they raced to intercept the enemy fighters.
Most of the drone fighters had headed after the two closest Confederation ships that being the light cruisers Montgomery and Prescott. Those ships were battling them off with the help of dozens of Confederation fighters from an old escort class carrier that had moved up behind the cruisers.
One odd thing was that the station was firing dozens of torpedoes into an empty section of space. A quick look at their helmets’ readouts showed them that there was something in that dead space that was firing back and was shooting down the torpedoes.
“A stealth ship,” Chow commented to his wingman.
“Has to be one of ours,” Doyle agreed.
A half dozen SF-86 Sabres arrived and joined the defense of the phantom ship.
“Sabres defending the stealth ship, this is Lt. Chow from the Star Tiger and my wingman Lt. Doyle can we join the party?”
“Negative Tiger Leader, six enemy fighters have peeled off and are trying to knock out Confederation grav tanks running along the sides of the station. Please assist, and if you can knock out those damn torpedo launchers,” Lt. Usheiba, the Timber Wolf leader requested. His orders were to knock out incoming torpedoes and protect the Raven at all cost. Against so many torpedoes his six fighters were hard pressed to do that.
“We got them Wolf Leader,” Chow said as he and Doyle’s star fighters hit their thrusters and went after the six Karduan controlled star fighters.
“Be advised there are two SF-35 stealth fighters off scope on the same intercept mission,” Wolf Leader informed.
“Roger that,” Kevin Chow responded wondering what a SF-35 looked like as he had never seen nor heard of one before.
“What’s a SF-35?” Doyle chimed in poking the bear.
“Don’t ask me, I just got out of prison,” his friend replied as they closed on three SF-18 Hornet star fighters that had just made an attack run on a M45 Grav tank. The grav tank knocked down their missile attacks and launched its own anti-star craft missiles forcing the SF-18s to deploy counter measures.
“Do you notice anything odd about those Kardie pilots?” Doyle asked.
“Yep, they turn too tight and their formation is almost perfect,” Chow answered.
“Drones,” Doyle said voicing what they both thought.
It all depended on how the drones were controlled whether it was a good thing or bad thing. If they had experienced living operators who were skilled pilots, then it would be a heck of a fight. If the operators were unskilled it should be easy to knock them out. If the drone fighters were just being controlled by a central computer, it again depended on how well they were programed for dog fighting tactics. One thing human pilots felt was that their Karduan counter parts weren’t as skilled at dog fighting but were learning fast.
“Let’s light them up,” Chow said getting a positive target lock. A second later he launched a salvo of missiles.
Lt. Doyle followed suit and fired from his wingman’s position. The three drone fighters split but as they rolled out and deployed counter measures the two Tiger pilots increased speed and went after one of the escaping fighters. A nearby explosion was signaled on their scopes as one of the drones was hit by a missile.
“I’ve got this one,” Chow announced and fired another set of missiles at a drone.
Again it tried to escape by jinking and zig zagging to throw off the target lock but this wasn’t the best defense in this case and both missiles hit home.
“The third one is coming up behind us,” Doyle said.
“I’m getting a message to V-split,” Chow said hearing his computer’s voice in his helmet,”
“Roger that its from the SF-35s,” his best friend said looking around his cockpit and using his helmet’s 360 battle view to see all around him. He saw a drone fighter closing but he couldn't see or get a read out from his maser on the SF-35s.
“Splitting in three … two … one,” Chow counted down as the Sabres broke off.
A moment after their break the drone was riddled by gauss cannon fire and exploded.
“Now where are the other three?” Chow asked as the data came across his helmet’s screen. The SF-35s Shadow Cats computers were quarterbacking and sharing tactical data with the other fighters.
“Great! Let’s go get them!” Doyle said as they changed course and headed to the far side of the station.
“Our fire control system is down,” the Raven’s gunnery chief called out after a torpedo explosion rocked their ship. It wasn’t a real hit as a fighter had taken it out but it was close enough to still cause damage.
The Raven had been targeted by the station’s torpedo launchers after she had fired on the system defense ship that was targeting the Culper for
destruction. Cmdr. Bannon had to admit they weren’t expecting such an attack. They had no intelligence that the station had adopted Confederation torpedo technology. It must have been one of the station mistress’s most guarded secrets.
The station had at least twelve launchers and they fired as fast as they could load at the general location of the stealth cruiser. The first twelve were Blitzens which at this range reduced their chances of shooting them down. Still the Raven’s A.I. had coordinated their firing and there were no direct hits to the cruiser.
The problem was that the Karduans had set the torpedoes to a proximity burst. When they reached the general area they exploded trying to cause significant damage to disable or destroy the hidden ship. It was kind of like depth charges of old that were used to cripple and sink U-boats in WWII.
After the first round of torpedoes the stealth cruiser had taken another close call almost having a Blitzen fly right into her engine core. The fire control system caught it but the subsequent and close explosion had damage her fusion engines forced them to take her maneuver drives off line. She was now a sitting duck as torpedo after torpedo was fired in her general vicinity.
The Raven had launched her two stealth fighters to knock out the station’s launchers. Even with their attacks on the armored launch tubes, the F-35 star fighters quickly found themselves almost out of missiles while having only disabled four torpedo tubes.
Having only guns left, the stealth fighters were diverted to aide the two Confederation fighters from the Star Tiger. The Star Wolf sent six F-86 star fighters to screen her and though they were doing a good job a few of the enemy torpedoes were still getting through.
“Damn it, I’ve had enough!” Bannon said and looked to some of his crew. “Get a gunnery crew down to the aft particle cannon and prepared to fire on my command.”
That was the problem with the NIA stealth cruiser having only one maneuver drive and not enough crew to man all of her turrets. If your fire control system was hit you could find yourself stuck.
“Edgar Allen, try to reroute fire control,” he said talking to the ceiling and to his A.I. system.
“Captain, I have laser defense turrets back online. Fusion and particle turrets will take five minutes to reroute. Missile and torpedoes will take fifteen minutes,” the A.I. said having quickly determined how to bring the guns back online despite the damage to the ship’s systems.
Jake Bannon didn’t like it but he was stuck. Reviewing his options and mission parameters he had an idea to save his ship.
“Open a channel to the station,” he ordered.
“Channel open, sir,” his comm. officer said and added, “no visual.”
“This is Commander Jake Bannon of the Confederation cruiser, Raven. Your defense ships are defeated, your fighters are being swept from space and your station is mostly under Confederation control. I now ask you for your surrender. Failure to comply will force me to fire on your station. I have targeted your command center with my particle cannons. You have one minute to consider my offer before I open fire,” he announced and then waved his hand and cut off the comm. link.
“Sir, Captain Hope is signaling he wants to speak with you,” the comm. station reported.
Bannon was expecting his call. “Open link.”
The viewer showed Captain Hope sitting in his command chair on the Wolf’s bridge.
“What are you doing?” he asked having heard his broadcast to the enemy station.
“Sir, I’m trying to save my ship and get the enemy to surrender before one of those torpedoes gets lucky and gets past our fighters. Our starships are through the minefield, the prisoners are free and safe from execution and the system defense ships are now molten slag. There is no reason not to destroy their command center and end this battle,” he justified.
Captain Hope looked at him narrowing his eyes as he looked like his namesake the hawk.
“You are right but we have a raid team on that level trying to breech the command center’s doors. If you fire you could kill them as well. The Star Wolf is now moving into position to screen you from any further torpedo attacks.”
“Sir, if we destroy the command center it will be over. We should just pull the raid team back and let loose,” he pointed out.
“Commander, there is one more reason why the raid team needs to get in there,” Hope stated.
“What’s that?”
Captain Hope shook his head thinking that the NIA officer really needed to read his intelligence estimates a little more thoroughly. He then proceeded to enlighten him.
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Bie-Tor heard the human’s demands and made a sour expression. She would never surrender to humans. She was undefeated in battle and would rather die, here and now taking as many of them with her as possible. There were at least two thousand human slaves on board the station as well as the Confederation soldiers and their accursed Black Prince. There were also at least two enemy ships in close proximity to the station so when it blew up she might be able to take them with her. Yes, this could still be a victory she thought making up her mind to die with honor.
“Mistress, we should surrender as there is no further point in fighting, the enemy has a beaten us,” one of her systems operator’s said.
“We have fought a good fight against overwhelming enemy forces. There is no dishonor in this fight,” her Third said or was she now her Second as she had killed the previous Second just a few minutes earlier.
“Computer, set the station’s fusion engines to explode on my command,” she said in loud voice.
“No!” several of her ladies yelled as they abandoned their stations and ran at her.
Bie-Tor grimaced and brought her pistol up shooting two more of her cowardly officers.
She would have continued to fire except the pistol was knocked from her hand by her Third. Other hands grabbed her and restrained her from further movement.
“Self destruction of fusion drives enabled. Awaiting your command code authorization,” the station’s main computer announced.
The old fleet mistress started to given the code when someone punched her in the face. A moment later a rag torn from a uniform was shoved into her mouth to keep her silent.
The station’s Third stood up and looked to her communications officer.
“Signal the Confederation ships that we surrender,” she ordered just as an explosion went off at the door to the command center throwing everyone off their feet and down to the metal floor.
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“Mike, you got to get in there now!” Martin Daily on board the Culper said relaying to him Captain Hope’s orders.
The raid team had blasted the fallen gauss cannon’s housing and had dug their way through the wreckage to the armored bulkhead door. The demo team moved up and placed their charges but their faces looked skeptical.
“What’s wrong?” Mike asked having some training with explosives but would have never called himself an expert on the subject.
“It is one tough door and we used up some of our stores blowing that wreckage up,” one of them explained.
Lt. Cappillo walked up and joined them.
“Need some more dynamite there Butch?” he asked with a big ass smile as he did his best cowboy accent.
Mike gave him the don’t fuck with me now look but no one saw it as he was still in the old set of powered armor.
“Give!” he said not having the time to banter it about.
Cappillo looked behind him at his team and yelled, “Collars!”
His men who had been infiltrated into the station as new slaves reached up and took their slave collars off. One of them collected them and ran them up to him.
“The collars are each packed with a breeching charge of explosives and a detonator. We made them up just in case Lt. Daily couldn’t hack the security system. If that happened we woul
d still be able to blow the cell doors open and escape,” he explained not to Mike but to the Templar demolitions team.
Placing them around the door they used the magnetic clamps that were built into the fake slave collar to attach them. They then retreated back to the end of the hall and around the corner. Again Mike was the closest to the corner of the hallway, using his armor to block anything that might be blown around the edge.
A second before he gave the command to detonate he got an urgent call.
“Mike, you got to get in there now!” Martin Daily on board the Culper said relaying to him Captain Hope’s orders.
“Roger that, we are blowing the door now!” he said and signaled the demo man to do it.
The following explosion was instantaneous and rocked their world throwing everyone except Collins off their feet from the concussive force of the blast. The corridor filled with smoke and dust but it didn’t matter as Mike was already running for the door. Surprisingly the heavy door was still there but had been bent into a C and its housing around it had been blown through. The powered armored suit hit it at a full speed run powered by the strength of a Kazad Altered with an active hardwire. The door broke from whatever was still holding it and flew into the command center.
The room was like the hallway filled with dust and smoke but the armor’s optics switched to Infrared. Mike could see that all of the Blue staff were down and most of them weren’t even at their duty stations.
Entering the room, he took just three steps when his suit’s emergency power panel popped up in his view screen. It warned that the suit’s power levels were at less than two percent and that the armor would be powering down shortly. Opening the back of the suit he stepped out while looking for threats. He realized that he was without any type of armor or firearm and his only weapon was the extension sword hanging at his waist.
Bie-Tor was already down and pinned to the floor by her once loyal staff when the command center’s door exploded sending shrapnel along with a shockwave into the area. Being on the floor with several bodies on top of her was actually a blessing as they shielded her from harm. Finding her captors suddenly thrown off of her or at the least having let go of her she knew that she still had a chance to win.
Wolf's Run: The Chase of War (Star Wolf Sqaudron Book 2) Page 53
