It was a small formation of Rangers, out on the Ganthorans right flank that was holding First Admiral Caudwell’s attention. With all the focus being drawn to the fire-fight in front of Third Fleet, and the imminent demise of the Eagle force, the Ganthorans had appeared to miss the small formation of thirty Rangers creeping up on their flank. And, from a range of fifty kilometres, the entire Ranger formation had let fly with their medium yield pulsar-cannon at the Ganthoran Carriers. Thirty high-yield pulsar-bolts hurtling towards the “Six-Cigar” Carrier formation had alerted the Ganthorans to the threat on their flanks. None of the pulsar-bolts had actually struck one of the Carriers, but several more fortunate shots had hit three of the Cruisers, plus a dozen of the Destroyers guarding the Carriers. That fortunate shooting had been the death knell for most of the Rangers in the attack, but had produced a golden opportunity for Billy Caudwell.
Ambushed from the right flank by an unknown type of Alliance vessel; with what appeared to be heavy weapons, the Ganthoran General committed his entire defensive screen to dealing with the new threat. In a few seconds, the remaining one thousand Axe Blades and surviving Destroyers were being directed to the incoming force of the Alliance Rangers.
“Eagles launching, sir,” the WATO said.
Billy Caudwell was only aware of the WATO’s voice. Billy had suddenly begun to stare at the attack being launched by the formation of thirty Rangers from Third Fleet.
“Marrhus, come here!” Billy excitedly beckoned the Chief of Staff away from the cluster of Third Admirals around the Tactical View Screen.
Calmly, Lokkrien stepped away from the Third Admirals and over to the War Table.
“Look, Marrhus, he’s committed his defensive screen to attack the Rangers.”
The Alliance Rangers were drawing the Ganthoran defensive screen away from the “Six-Cigar” Carriers. The Ganthoran Carriers were completely isolated and vulnerable in their positions.
“Get those Eagles launched, and get those Carriers, never mind the defensive screen. Get those Carriers!” Billy’s eyes were blazing with excitement.
Like a startled fox realizing it was being pursued by a pack of baying hounds, Marrhus Lokkrien darted back to the Tactical View Screen. Returning to the three-dimensional image of the War Table, Billy Caudwell focussed his attention on the approaching Rangers. The long-range patrol crafts were still firing their medium-yield and low-yield pulsar-cannon at the Ganthorans. The medium-yield pulsar-bolts were still being effective against the Destroyers and any Axe-Blades they were able to hit, however, they really needed five or six good strikes to disable or destroy a Cruiser.
The initial attack of the Rangers seemed to have stunned the Ganthorans, leading them to commit their entire defensive screen around their Carriers. That’s very poor asset management, Billy reflected as he watched the image of a thousand Axe-Blades, plus their Destroyer comrades, hurtling into the attack against the Alliance Rangers. The Ganthoran General had either over-estimated the capabilities of the Rangers, or was more focussed on another area of the battle to notice the major weakness around his Carriers’ defences. Whatever the answer, Billy was just relieved at the lapse in the Ganthoran’s judgement. The Ganthoran Cruisers stayed beside the “Six-Cigar” Carriers; the very last line of defence. To Billy Caudwell, they were irrelevant; to deal with small single-seat fighters effectively, you needed single-seat fighters to match them against. The larger, slower, and more cumbersome Cruisers could be bypassed, effectively allowing the Eagles to run at the Carriers with very little opposition. The Axe-Blades were now committed to the Rangers, and the Carriers were wide-open.
As he watched the Rangers, the Ganthoran Axe-Blades and Destroyers fell on the Alliance Patrol vessels like hungry wolves. Immediately, on contact, the Ranger formation scattered as the weapons fire flashed and the Ganthoran defenders selected targets to pursue. It took only a few moments for the Rangers to fall into the snarling, scratching melee of the dogfight, but hopelessly outnumbered and outgunned, the survival chances for the Rangers were quite remote.
“Sir,” Lokkrien said, “the first of our Eagles are ready to attack.”
“Excellent,” Billy Caudwell replied. “WATO, signal to Third Fleet that I’m taking command, and to hold station where they are.”
“Yes, sir.”
The Eagle fighters of First Fleet had flooded out of the Landing Bays of the Star Destroyer, Fleet Carriers, and Star Cruisers like a great torrent of water. After flying their elliptical form up pattern there were now enough of them on formation to attack the Ganthoran Carriers. Timing was all important with this attack, and Billy Caudwell knew that. Ideally, he would have liked to have launched all the attacks at the same time. However, the Ganthoran Carriers would not remain vulnerable forever. The opportunity to strike them was now, and Billy Caudwell had to take it.
“Launch them at the Carriers, Marrhus,” Billy ordered.
“Yes, sir. Do we come out of stealth?”
“No, we have that advantage, let them guess where these new Eagles have come from.”
For almost a minute, Billy watched anxiously as the three-dimensional image showed the rapid progress of the thousand Eagle fighters towards the Ganthoran “Six-Cigar” Carriers. For what seemed like an eternity the tiny Eagle images crept ever closer to the Carrier images. And, as the Eagles crept closer to the Ganthoran Carriers, the Alliance Rangers were locked in the deadly scrimmage of the dogfight. Unfortunately, it was a fight that the Rangers were losing. The Force Shielding was able to protect the Rangers for a while, but it only took two or +sometimes+ three hits from a Destroyer or Axe-Blade to shatter the shielding.
Billy marvelled at how the Ganthorans could not see the swarm of Eagles that was approaching their Carriers from their left flank. Perhaps, the Ganthorans believed that the formation was a group of Axe-Blades, Billy considered, and turned his attention to the all-important battle between the Rangers and the Ganthoran defensive screen. The smaller and more agile Axe-Blades were able to run rings around the slow and lumbering Rangers. With dozens of Axe-Blades chasing each individual Ranger, the outcomes of each of these battles was inevitable. In rapid succession, the Axe-Blades and Destroyers targeted and annihilated each of the thirty Rangers that had set out on the attack. However, that took precious time, and as Billy watched the final Rangers being hunted down and destroyed, the Alliance Eagles of First Fleet struck.
The Ganthoran “Six-Cigar” Carriers were arranged in a vertical circular formation behind the remaining Cruisers of the defence screen. As Billy had predicted, they were now completely undefended from the left flank and rear. As he watched the three-dimensional War Table image, the Alliance Eagles stormed through the gaps between the enormous Carriers like hell-bound spectres. At point-blank range, the four nose-mounted and two wing-mounted, low-yield pulsar-cannon from each of the thousand Eagles sent streams of white-hot weapons fire streaking towards their large, undefended targets. Like tiny flowers blossoming against the pale grey hulls of the Ganthoran Carriers, the weapons fire from the Alliance Eagles began to explode in red and orange fireballs.
The Ganthoran Carriers, with no defensive fighter screen and very limited self-defence capability, were horribly vulnerable. The Axe-Blades and Destroyers that were currently dispatching the last of the Rangers would soon return to defend the Carriers.
However, with the Alliance Eagles already rampaging through the Carrier formation, they would be distracted whilst the heavier Star Cruisers made their attack from the flank and rear of the formation. It was a tactical advantage Billy Caudwell was determined to exploit and drive home.
The Alliance Eagles, virtually unopposed, rather than attacking their targets individually, now formed up into their ten-fighter squadrons to press home their attacks. In a shallow, inverted “V” formation, the Eagles could strafe the flanks of the Carrier, focussing their weapons fire into one particular area to maximise the effect and the damage. The more enterprising squadron commanders took their fighters into
a head-on attack against the Ganthoran Carriers. Many had seen the outrageously brave Eagle pilot from Third Fleet bring down a Cruiser by attacking the huge engine vent at the front of the vessel. If one Alliance Eagle could shatter the rapidly-spinning fan-blades of a Ganthoran Cruiser, then it should, theoretically, be possible for a squadron of ten Eagles to being down a “Six-Cigar” Carrier by the same method.
With no fighter or Destroyer screen to protect them, all that the Ganthoran Carriers could do was take the hits that the Alliance Eagles were dishing out, and the Alliance Eagle pilots were more than capable of handing out some heavy punishment. Of the twenty Ganthoran Carriers in the formation, three were already badly damaged, with another two set ablaze. The Alliance Eagles were still tearing huge lumps of metal from the hulls of the Ganthoran Carriers, However, the surviving Axe-Blades and Destroyers from the defensive screen were starting to filter back from wiping out the Rangers.
“WATO,” Billy ordered, “send half the Eagles around the Carriers to run interference on those returning Axe-Blades and Destroyers.”
“Yes, sir.”
On the three-dimensional image of his War Table, Billy watched calmly as the second part of his rescue plan took shape. Another one thousand Eagles were swarming into the battle between the smashed Ganthoran Cruiser and Destroyers, with their comrades from Third Fleet. In an instant, the battle between the ragged survivors of Third Fleet’s Eagles and the host of Axe-Blades changed complexion: The hunters now became the hunted, and the First Fleet Eagle pilots were fresh and eager to hand out a little punishment for their comrades in Third Fleet.
Like a great tidal wave, the Eagle pilots from First Fleet burst into the combat area between the Cruiser and Destroyer debris. The Ganthoran Axe-Blades had no idea what had hit them. With pulsar-cannon blazing, the new Eagles broke form their traditional formations of ten and singled out individual targets. For the Ganthorans, all hell broke loose around them; having fought long and hard to gain the advantage over these highly-advanced and very dangerous Alliance fighters, the exhausted Ganthoran pilots now found themselves facing the Alliance’s reinforcements.
Once again, hundreds of Axe-Blades were swept away in the nightmare hailstorm of pulsar-bolt fire, before the new group of attackers burst amongst them like angry wasps from a disturbed nest. For many of the physically, and mentally, drained Ganthorans, this new Alliance force had been the last straw. Taken completely by surprise, the survivors of the first Alliance salvoes had begun to rapidly reassess their tactics and scatter amongst the debris of the larger ships.
They took to flight, and did what the Alliance Eagles had been doing since the beginning of this particular battle: trying to find some form of cover amongst the debris. For some, the unexpected new Eagles unleashed in them a total panic. In that panic, they became vulnerable to Alliance gunfire, or, in several cases, they collided with large pieces of debris.
The surviving Axe-Blades, having taken to flight in the debris field, now discovered just how dangerous these Alliance Eagles could be when they didn’t have a massive numerical advantage. The Alliance Eagle pilots, having selected their first individual targets, then pursued them doggedly through the warren and maze of the debris field.
For some Eagle pilots, their first kills were amazingly easy. They chased the slower and less agile Axe-Blades through the debris field, letting the six low-yield pulsar-cannon play towards the rear or flank of the Axe-Blade and rapidly track them to their destruction.
The tired Ganthoran pilots were easy kills, but the unwary Ganthorans were even easier to eliminate. In the panicked scatter from the first salvoes of the new Alliance Eagles, they had also lost the advantage of their formations. Being used to working and fighting in large clouds of Axe-Blades, the Ganthoran pilots had very poorly developed individual dog-fighting skills. With their groups and formations shattered, they became very vulnerable. In the confusion of the Alliance counter-attack, the Ganthorans now found themselves acting as separate, unsupported individuals.
Aboard the Aquarius, Billy Caudwell ordered the surviving Eagles from Third Fleet back to the Fleet Carriers of First Fleet. He also ordered the Tele-Port Technicians to prioritise the Escape Pods of Third Fleet Eagle pilots from the debris field and to alert the Medical Teams for incoming casualties. But, looking at the numerals on the holographic-image of his War Table, Billy Caudwell could see that less than three hundred Eagles from Third Fleet had survived. For a moment, even First Admiral William Caudwell was shocked. The Eagles of Third Fleet had sustained over ninety percent losses; it would take Admiral Parbe’an months to rebuild those shattered squadrons. What they had achieved had been truly magnificent, but the price paid was heavy and bitter. From a combination of guilt and admiration, Billy Caudwell wanted as many of them to survive as could be managed in the midst of this battle. But, there was still a battle to conclude. The Alliance Third Fleet had survived, and held the Ganthoran invaders at bay. Now, First Admiral Billy Caudwell had to deliver the knock-out blows that would finish the fight once and for all.
Taking another broad view of the battlefield on the three-dimensional War Table image, Billy quickly scrutinised the situation. To the left of the image, Third Fleet were trading blows with the survivors of the Cruiser and Destroyer attack that were currently in the debris field of their own comrades’ vessels. The Star Destroyer of Third Fleet was still sending Trionic Cannon Streams into the flanks of the debris field. With the Ganthorans pinned down by the Trionic Cannon and high-yield pulsar-bolts of Third Fleet, Billy Caudwell had prepared one final surprise for these Ganthorans.
On the Ganthorans’ left flank, the Star Destroyer Colossus, the two Fleet Carriers, and seven Star Cruisers highlighted in pale yellow to indicate their “stealthed” status were approaching.
Moving to the right of the first Ganthoran debris field was the second debris zone. In this area, where the Ganthorans had been attacked by the Eagles of Third Fleet, the surviving Third Fleet Eagles were disengaging from combat, whilst First Fleet’s Eagles ran amok through what remained of the Ganthoran Axe-Blades.
Further to the right, the battle around the “Six-Cigar” Carriers was still underway. Five hundred Eagle fighters had disengaged from creating havoc amongst the exposed and vulnerable Carriers, and had gone to challenge the returning Destroyers and Axe-Blades that should have been protecting the Carriers. But, they were just too late the Ganthorans had discovered that their Carriers were undefended when the Alliance Eagles roared into the attack. To their dismay, worse was about to follow for the Ganthoran Carriers: from the left of the Carrier positions another seven yellow-highlighted Star Cruisers were approaching on a course to attack the rear of the Carrier formation. With a further two thousand Eagles in reserve, Billy Caudwell was about to bring the battle to a swift and decisive conclusion.
The first of the hammer blows fell on the Ganthorans sheltered in the debris field in front of Third Fleet. With two Star Cruisers to defend the Fleet Carriers, Billy Caudwell sent the remaining five, in line, between the debris field in front of Third Fleet and the debris field where the Eagles of First Fleet were hunting down the last of the Axe-Blades. With the Star Destroyer Olympus hammering the flanks of the Ganthoran position with Trionic Cannon Streams, Billy Caudwell ordered the Colossus to open fire with its Trionic Cannon into the left flank of the debris field.
With the five remaining Star Cruisers dropping out of stealth, Colossus opened fire with the first of her Trionic Cannon. The Trionic Cannon Stream seethed through the debris field, cutting and clearing a great swathe of destruction through the twisted, tumbling and rolling remains of Cruisers, Destroyers and Axe-Blades. The Stream also cut seeped through and annihilated any operational Ganthoran warships in its path. Seconds later, whilst Colossus spun slowly on her axis to bring the second of her four Trionic Cannon to bear, Olympus opened fire. Olympus’ Trionic Cannon Stream seared across the right flank of the Ganthoran position, with the characteristic flattening and annihilation of everyt
hing in its path. In the meantime, the five Star Cruisers made a slow and deliberate progress between the two debris fields to the rear of the Ganthorans trapped in front of Third Fleet. With their left flank physically blocked by Colossus, the two Fleet Carriers and two Star Cruisers, along with the right flank being cordoned by Olympus’ Trionic Cannon, there was no escape for the Ganthorans. In front of them, the Star Cruisers of Third Fleet would tear them into ribbons, whilst, behind them, five new Star Cruisers had appeared, as if by magic, to cut off their retreat.
In less than a minute, Colossus had turned sufficiently to fire another Trionic Cannon Stream into the heart of the debris field. And, once again, the Trionic Cannon Stream had cut through the metal debris like a hot knife through butter. Operational ships and debris alike flattened for that split-second, before erupting in massive and cataclysmic blasts. Having been fired at by Trionic Cannon twice, four Ganthoran Destroyers tried to make an escape from the rear of the debris field. With no warning, the Destroyers burst out of the gently tumbling and spinning debris and tried to make good an escape towards the positions of the “Six-Cigar” Carriers.
Whether it was bravery, or simply the actions of a crew who could no longer tolerate being treated as sitting ducks, the Destroyers bolted for the assumed safety of the Carriers. Like grouse having been scattered on moorland by beaters, the Ganthoran Destroyers exploded form the relative safety of the debris field at high speed. And like grouse, they were driven into the waiting line of guns, in the shape of the five Star Cruisers prowling to the rear of the debris field.
Time Commander (The First Admiral Series) Page 9
