Time Commander (The First Admiral Series)

by Benning, William J.

  “Well, let’s save it until we’ve beaten them shall we, Marrhus?”

  From the image on the War Table, Billy could see that the three Alliance attacks had formed up and were about to be launched against the advancing Ganthorans. With over four thousand Eagle fighters at his disposal, Admiral Parbe’an had split them into three attack groups. With fourteen hundred Eagles in each group, Parbe’an had a significant punch to deliver at any enemy. The closing distance to the Ganthoran forces was less than ten thousand kilometres, and would take the Alliance Eagles less than three minutes to engage. Each ten fighter Eagle squadron was in its traditional formation: The leader would take pole position with three fighters to his left wing and six fighters to his right wing. From above, the formation looked like an inverted “V” with one arm significantly longer than the other. In a combat situation, when the Eagles engaged, the right wing of the squadron could attempt to outflank, and try to loop around to the rear of the enemy formation.

  Billy Caudwell watched with increasing satisfaction as the Alliance Eagle attack wings began to close the distance on the Ganthoran formation.

  “How long until we can engage Trion Drives?” Billy asked.

  “Another twelve minutes, sir.”

  Biting back his frustration and anger, Billy Caudwell watched helplessly as the Eagles closed the distance with the Ganthorans. For seconds that seemed like hours to Billy Caudwell, the small Alliance Eagle fighters on the three-dimensional War Table image rushed towards the advancing Ganthoran formation. Billy knew that it would be a straight direct rush to the Ganthorans until the weapon fire opened up. Once engaged, the Eagles would be in their element to dodge, weave and engage targets of opportunity until they either fell to the enemy’s weapons or broke through to the “Six Cigar” Carriers. But first, they had to run the gauntlet of the initial impact.

  “Ganthorans are deploying weapons, sir,” the WATO said.

  On the War Table image, Billy Caudwell focussed on the Ganthoran formation. With the magnification available, he could see rows of Ganthorans begin to extend the arms from the sides of their vessels. Each slowly extending arm carried one of the red tear-drop pods that carried the Screaming Death. As Billy stared at the vessels extending the weapon arms, it immediately struck him: Some of the Ganthoran vessels were not deploying their weapons.

  “They’re too close to each other, they’ve hemmed themselves in.” The realization dawned upon Billy that the Ganthoran Destroyers of the first three or four ranks were the only ones who could safely fire upon the Alliance Eagles. The heavier weapons of the Cruisers would be unable to deploy.

  “Why haven’t they launched fighters?” Lokkrien asked quizzically.

  It was the same question Billy Caudwell had just asked himself.

  “Unless the Ganthorans believe that they can do sufficient damage with the initial contact to break and scatter the formations, then hunt down the survivors through their Destroyer formations,” Billy said.

  “They obviously don’t know Third Fleet’s Eagle pilots,” Lokkrien said.

  “Eagles within effective weapons fire range,” the WATO announced.

  The Alliance Eagles had closed to within five kilometres of the advancing Ganthorans. On the three-dimensional War Table image, it looked like the two forces would race towards each other and crash into each other in one massive impact. A heartbeat later, Billy saw that the Eagle images were opening fire. Tiny white beads of light darted forward from the six low-yield pulsar-cannon aboard each Eagle fighter. Twenty-four thousand pulsar-bolts were heading towards the front rank of Ganthoran Destroyers. Set on rapid-fire, the Alliance Eagle pulsar-cannon could fire six bolts per second.

  “Eagles are firing, sir,” the WATO said.

  Billy Caudwell never heard her announcement. For as the Alliance Eagles opened fire, so did the Pulsar-Cannon Turrets of the fourteen Star Cruisers. In an astonishing move, Admiral Parbe’an had ordered the Star Cruisers to fire down the channels between the three Eagle attack wings. Both high-yield pulsar-cannon on each turret had opened fire sending a massive broadside of one hundred and forty high yield pulsar-bolts screaming downrange towards the Ganthoran Destroyer screen.

  “Magnificent!” Billy marvelled at the action. “He’s got the drop on them.”

  Admiral Parbe’an was using some very creative gunnery to shatter the first ranks of Ganthoran defenders. Parbe’an had fired first in the hope that he could knock the Ganthorans off-balance and allow his Eagles to puncture the front ranks of Destroyers with as few casualties as possible.

  It appeared to be working. On the War Table image, the high-yield pulsar-bolts from the Star Cruisers were speeding down the two channels on either side of the centre attack wing. No sooner had one salvo of pulsar-bolts left the Star Cruisers, than another salvo was set in flight, followed by a third. Admiral Parbe’an was running a very high risk of damaging those pulsar-cannon by using them on rapid-fire. However, after the third salvo had been released, the pulsar-cannon ceased fire.

  “We’ll have to remember that one of the future,” Lokkrien said.

  On the three-dimensional image, the pulsar-bolts from the attacking Eagles were just beginning to strike the front line of Ganthoran Destroyers.

  However, in the heart of the battle itself, the little images on Billy’s War Table were all too real. Like a white-hot and deadly rain, the pulsar-bolts scythed into the hulls of the unshielded Ganthoran warships. The larger Ganthoran Destroyers were tough enough to sustain a hit from one Alliance pulsar-bolt. But when the bolts flew thick and fast in great streams of weapons fire, multiple hits began to wear down the resilience of the Ganthoran Destroyers’ Hulls. For some of the Ganthoran crews, it took only one or two hits to rupture the hull and release the energy they were accumulating prior to firing the weapons, resulting in catastrophic explosions.

  In the space of a few seconds, the first Alliance pulsar-bolts slammed home into the first ranks of Ganthoran Destroyers. In an instant, dozens of Destroyers began to explode in blood-red roaring flames throwing debris in every direction. Some of them, having sustained only a few hits, began to lose orientation and smashed into neighbouring vessels with fatal, fiery consequences. The narrow streams of pulsar-bolts continued to snake forward from the noses and wings of the Alliance Eagles as they hurtled towards the Ganthoran line.

  Everywhere, tear drop weapons pods were being torn from their extending arms and great gouts of metal were being ripped from their hulls. For the most unfortunate of Ganthoran crews, the pulsar-bolts began to find the frontal vents. One direct hit on the propulsion fans was a certain death sentence. With the rapidly-spinning fans damaged or destroyed, it took only a few moments for the vessel to shake itself into its explosive demise. The Ganthoran Destroyers facing the lanes between the Eagle attack wings fared no better. The three salvos of one hundred and forty high-yield pulsar-bolts hit them like a massive tidal wave. Once again, the Destroyers charging the weapons pods were hit not by the small low-yield pulsar-bolts, but by the heavier and far more destructive high-yield bolts.

  In the first ranks, many the Ganthoran Destroyers were hit squarely on the front and were annihilated instantly. For many, the high-yield pulsar-bolt grazed their hulls; tearing great gouts of metal or smashing the extending arm of the weapons system, before speeding on to strike another vessel behind them. In some cases, a single pulsar-bolt could damage or destroy two, three or even four vessels. For some Ganthoran Destroyers, the graze of the pulsar-bolt was enough to create the feedback of the weapons system that shattered their vessel in red-roaring ruination. For others, it shattered the stabilization system, that sent them careening into another vessel with equally fatal consequences for both ships.

  The Alliance ships, having fired three salvoes, led to the Ganthorans facing even greater losses. As the first salvo scythed into the first three or four ranks of Destroyers, the second and third salvoes were smashing their way into the ranks behind them. For the first six or seven ranks of Gant
horan vessels, there was carnage for the high-yield pulsar-bolts. The Ganthorans on the flanks of the formation were to fare even worse than their comrades.

  As the second salvo of high-yield pulsar-bolts was striking the Ganthoran line, Admiral Parbe’an was unleashing his final and most deadly surprise.

  “Trionic Cannon fired,” a young Scanner Technician announced from her console in the middle of the darkened War Room.

  For a brief moment, the entire War Room fell silent. Admiral Parbe’an had used the ultimate weapon in the Universal Alliance Fleets’ arsenal. On the War Table image, Billy Caudwell turned the focus onto the Star Destroyer Olympus. The image of the octagonal Star Destroyer was rotating about its central vertical axis indicating that the crew were altering the vessels attitude to bring, one of the four, Trionic Cannon that she carried to bear on the Ganthorans.

  Whilst the Pulsar-Cannon fired a white-hot energy bolt that impacted on a target to cause destruction, the Trionic Cannon fired a beam of agitated Trions at a target to de-stabilise its molecular structure. A weapon that de-stabilised the molecular structure of its targets could, in theory, destroy anything in the universe. At the “waist” of the great octagonal Star Destroyer, four Trionic Cannon were housed. Each Cannon was close to a kilometre in length and was solidly secured to the floor of the Cannon Deck. With the four Cannon sitting at right angles to each other, the crew of the Star Destroyer had to physically rotate the entire vessel to bring the barrels of the Cannon to bear on the chosen target.

  Looking at the image, Billy was able to perceive that once again, Admiral Parbe’an had used some very creative gunnery. From the Star Destroyer Olympus, Parbe’an had fired the Trionic Cannon, obliquely, behind the attacking Eagles. As the Eagles’ own weapons-fire, and the pulsar-bolts from the Star Cruisers were shattering the Ganthoran front rank, Parbe’an was using the Trionic Cannon to smash the flanks of the Ganthoran formation. By firing the Trionic Cannon across the rear of the Eagle Attack wings, Parbe’an had a clear field of fire at the flanks of the Ganthoran formation. Out on the battlefield, the effects of the Trionic Cannon were immediate and devastating.

  With the beam one hundred metres wide, anything caught within its path would be annihilated. Aboard the Star Destroyer, power would be drawn from the massive proto-star reactor and stored in an Agitation Condenser. In the Agitation Condenser, the bonds between the Trions were stimulated until they became sufficiently unstable. To take the instability too far would cause a massive feedback reaction and wipe out the Star Destroyer itself. When the Trions were ready for discharge, they were sent at enormous velocity down the solid barrel of the Trionic Cannon to be focussed on the target area.

  When the beam was discharged it would travel through space until the kinetic energy behind it was dissipated. However, anything in the path of the beam would be destroyed. The stream of agitated Trions would latch onto anything they struck and try to bond with those Trions. The unstable Trions trying to connect with the stable ones created instability in the bonds of the stable Trions. This then created a chain reaction of instability throughout the target area, which broke down the bonds between the Trions on the target releasing a huge amount of energy and the molecular destruction of the target. The strike produced the distinctive appearance of the target flattening prior to annihilation that was the signature of the Trionic Cannon. When the target had been destroyed, the agitation energy of the Trions had been dissipated. The Trions involved in the explosion then became stable, once again, and found a new place within the Trionic Web. That way the Trions did not continue the chain reaction that could potentially destroy the universe.

  On the flanks of the Ganthoran formation, the Trionic Cannon beam had cut a one hundred metre swathe through the ranks of warships. The beam had cut through the Ganthoran formation like a hot knife through butter, and had carried on through space until the kinetic energy had dissipated.

  All along the path of the Trionic Cannon beam, Ganthoran Destroyers and Cruisers began to flatten and then explode; bursting like ripened melons in the cold empty, airless darkness of space. Having been struck by unstable Trions; creating instability in the structure of the vessel, the explosions seemed to take on a more significant level of violence. With a strike from unstable Trions, every atom and molecule in the vessel was exploding. Dozens of Ganthoran Destroyers and Cruisers were simply wiped away in a few brief seconds of horrifying violence and destruction. For the crews of the Ganthoran warships struck by the Trionic Cannon beam, there was zero chance of survival. Like their vessels, the atoms and molecules that made up their bodies became unstable, and the Trionic bonds broke down. Death, for the Ganthoran crews, was mercifully instant and painless.

  The front ranks of the Ganthoran formation had been badly mauled by Parbe’an’s creative gunnery. Ganthoran vessels in the fourth and fifth ranks of the formation suddenly found themselves as the front line. As such, their stunned and horrified crews reacted wildly; opening fire blindly in the general direction of the Alliance vessels. Some of the Ganthoran weapon fire landed squarely amongst their own vessels, but some of the weapon fire began to hit Alliance Eagles.

  On the three-dimensional War Table image, Billy Caudwell could see the damage done to the Ganthoran formation unfolding before him. The front three ranks of Destroyers had been torn to ruins. Damaged hulks and space debris from destroyed vessels was scattered everywhere across the Ganthoran formation front. On the flanks of the Ganthoran formation, two great empty lanes had been carved on either side. The surviving Ganthoran Cruisers and Destroyers were reluctantly attempting to plug the gap left by the beam of the Trionic Cannon. Nervously, their crews edged their vessels into the empty space left by the Alliance’s ultimate terror weapon.

  In the centre, Ganthoran vessels were slowly breaking apart as Billy watched the ongoing battle. Many Ganthoran warships were still valiantly fighting back at the Alliance Eagles.

  Damaged Ganthoran Destroyers were still deploying their tear-drop weapons pods and directing fire in the direction of the Alliance fighters.

  “He’s got them in! He’s got the Eagles in!” Lokkrien spotted the first Eagles passing through the ranks of damaged and destroyed Ganthoran warships.

  However, in his excitement to celebrate Admiral Parbe’an’s initial success, Chief of Staff Marrhus Lokkrien had missed the most significant tactical development of the encounter: The progress of the Ganthoran invasion fleet had been halted.

  Double checking the numerals that danced along the top of the three-dimensional War Table image, Billy Caudwell noted that the range between the two formations had stopped moving.

  At just over five thousand kilometres, the Eagles had succeeded in halting the progress of the Ganthoran formation. This is what Admiral Parbe’an had asked them to do, and they had succeeded in the first part of their mission. Now, it was a case of how long the Eagles could hold the Ganthorans away from the main body of Parbe’an’s force to allow the Alliance First Fleet to come to their aid.

  “And, he’s managed to stop the Ganthoran advance,” Billy said.

  “He’s what!? Well done, Parbe’an, well done, Third Fleet,” Lokkrien announced.

  Around the War Table, the gathered Third Admirals stamped their feet to indicate their support for Third Fleet. Billy Caudwell was not quite ready to join in with their premature celebrations. It had been a good start for the Alliance forces, but breaking into and halting the Ganthoran formation was only likely to be a temporary victory. To win the battle, the Ganthorans had to be defeated and driven off.

  The Eagle pilots had run the gauntlet of the initial contact, and had broken through the first ranks of Ganthoran Destroyers. It was a great achievement for Parbe’an, but now the world of the Alliance Eagle pilots changed dramatically. From the great vastness of open space, the Eagle pilots now found themselves confined and constricted amongst the alleyways and lanes created by the hulls of the towering Ganthoran warships. The Eagle pilots had now lost the advantage of stand-off capa
bility, where the greater range of their pulsar-cannon could keep an enemy at a distance. They had also lost the advantage of their mass formation tactics. The Eagle pilots could no longer form up in Attack Wings and lay down the devastating carpet of firepower that had helped them break into this formation. This was where the superior numbers of the Ganthoran Axe-Blades would begin to tell.

  From the War Table aboard Aquarius, Billy Caudwell saw one of the first of the Eagles falling to the Screaming Death. The Eagle, having penetrated the first line of defence, was hit by one of the wildly fired weapons from a Ganthoran Destroyer. As the Eagle darted forward to find new targets for the pulsar-cannon, the wave from the Screaming Death struck it squarely on the front slope of the wedge design. As Billy Caudwell watched intently, it appeared as if someone had thrown a loosely constructed Eagle into a high velocity wind tunnel.

  As the Eagle sped forward, the whole structure of the fighter seemed to peel away, in small pieces, from the frame and be strewn in its wake. After a few seconds, the rapidly peeling Eagle exploded in a red roaring ball of flame. The pilot of the Eagle had failed to eject, and had perished in the inferno of his fighter craft. There were to be many more such casualties before this battle ended.

  From the numerals dancing down the side of the three-dimensional image, Billy could see that Third Fleet had lost just over forty Eagles in the initial contact. This was a massive improvement on the one in five losses that the Tactical Computers had predicted. Billy had expected to see over eight hundred Eagles lost in a few seconds. Instead, Parbe’an’s gunnery had cut those losses down to a fraction of that figure. That advantage was about to be negated.

  Having forced a pathway through the front ranks of Ganthoran Destroyers, the Eagles started to fight their way through to the “Six-Cigar” Carriers in the centre of the formation. The Ganthoran General, however, had recovered quickly from the initial stunning success of the Alliance attack. The Cruisers and Destroyers he had kept at the rear of the formation were being ordered forward, whilst from the one hundred and twenty landing bays of the “Six-Cigar” Carriers, a blizzard of Axe-Blade fighters were being launched that seemed to stream endlessly into the lanes between the Carriers and the Cruiser escorts.