“Negative, Commander, help escort your wing in. Use the kinetic barrier.”
“It won’t work, sir. We wouldn’t cover a wide enough area. The lasers are what we have to worry about and it’s useless against that.”
“Rayne, orders are orders.”
“Totally agree, sir. And since I am still discharged from the Fleet and you loaned me this ship, you can’t order me to do anything. Now please don’t disturb me. I have work to do.” He cut the Fleet frequency.
“Ensign,” Aaron called. “Stand by to light the blink drive, pinpoint jump, right behind the main enemy cruiser formation on the starboard flank. Ahead one third, cut engines and then bring the bow around. I want to be staring right at them after we blink.”
“Aye, Commander, accelerating one third, and coming about,” the Ensign said, his voice faltering slightly.
Aaron watched as Phoenix maneuvered to turn away from the enemy. Some of the Imperials might even feel they were retreating. He was retreating—right into the enemy formation. As Phoenix reached adequate combat maneuvering speed, and the thrusters brought the bow around, he gave the order.
“Jump, Ensign.”
“Aye, sir, Phoenix jumping. Three, two, one. Jump!”
Phoenix vanished in a brief but bright flash of energy.
****
The first five Imperial cruisers didn’t even know what hit them. Phoenix had used the blink drive to reposition instantly among an unsuspecting formation. Her bow was now on the enemy stern and a mere fifty thousand kilometers separated them. Well inside effective railgun range.
Precision railgun salvos wrecked the enemy cruisers and moved on to new targets who finally took evasive action. Those evasive maneuvers proved futile as a volley of havoc missiles, launched at less than one light-second from their target, destroyed their engines and struck their main reactor.
“Not bad for the first pass! Great shooting, Lee!” Miroslav squealed.
“Alright, Flaps,” Lee said. “I’ll concede . . . that was some nice flying.”
“Lasers, Commander, they’re lighting us up!” Vee shouted.
“Ensign, you know she’s quick, get us in there. Lieutenant, fire as we bare at any target of opportunity. Plenty to choose from!”
A squadron of Imperial cruisers now vectored in from above the ship. The triple redundant interlocking thrusters made Phoenix almost as nimble as a fighter. And a nimble fighter with Flaps at the helm only doubled down on the implication it had for the Imperial ships.
“I love this ship!” Miroslav shouted, as he dived the ship below a looming Imperial cruiser just as Lee raked the underside of their target with a full railgun volley.
Enemy lasers, which struck Phoenix, didn’t make contact long enough to challenge her reflective polarized armor. Unknown to the Imperials, breaking her armor would require sustained contact with their lasers. A marked difference when compared to their effectiveness against the rest of the United Fleet. The reflective polarization proved almost impenetrable to glancing shots. Miroslav ensured they would get only that by keeping transversal velocity high enough to foil the tracking Imperial laser turrets.
Phoenix continued to harass and wreak havoc throughout the Imperial squadrons approaching the left flank. This made it difficult for them to focus fire on the desperate charge of the United Fleet battleships and heavy cruisers. Aaron denied this formation of the Imperial fleet the turkey shoot they sought. Soon the United Fleet heavy cruisers blazed into the brawl at full speed announcing their arrival with destructive and painfully accurate railgun barrages.
However, the return fire from Imperial lasers now took its toll on United Fleet ships as they were at knife fight range, less than 900,000 kilometers. The battle for the left flank spread out over an area of three million square-kilometers of space.
The Imperials weren’t the only ones advantaged by the close range, United Fleet ships discharged far less railgun projectiles to score direct hits. And that meant the United Fleet wouldn’t be exhausting its ammo reserves any time soon and didn’t need to reload the magazines as often.
When the blink drive charged again, Aaron slammed his fist on the command seat arm.
“Ensign,” he said. “Cut main engines and bring us around ninety degrees starboard. Maintain current z-elevation relative to hostiles. I’m sending over the targets to helm and tactical now.”
The ship formation indicated by Aaron flashed on the tactical and helm stations. With all the enemy ships around them, he had to be very specific with which formation his next tactical maneuver targeted. Flicking the information with the swipe of a hand from his terminal to helm and tactical was simple.
The blink drive worked on a similar principle as the warp drive, but needed significantly less directional momentum to activate. The bow now aimed between two Imperial ships, separated from each other by five hundred thousand kilometers at a range of six hundred thousand kilometers from Phoenix.
“Engage blink drive, Ensign.”
Phoenix blinked to the center of the enemy formation, still coasting. Each Imperial ship was on either side of her. The distance to the starboard target dropped fast as that was the direction Phoenix vectored in before the helmsman cut the engines.
Her port and starboard batteries opened up on the ships off the starboard and port while her dorsal and ventral railguns fired at other targets of opportunity.
At fifty thousand kilometers from the stricken target along the starboard beam, Miroslav fired a burn from the dorsal thrusters and pushed Phoenix below. Phoenix couldn’t shoot down lasers but Imperial ships couldn’t shoot down tungsten projectiles either.
Explosions swamped the primary targets, and other nearby ships bristled with heavy damage. Phoenix drifted out of the enemy formation leaving behind their drifting hulks and debris.
Perusing the tactical screen for more contacts, Aaron couldn’t see any that weren’t already engaged by at least three United Fleet Cruisers. Their combined maneuvers and the United Fleet ships backing them crippled and disoriented the Imperial left flank.
The enemy warships, which attempted to deal with Phoenix had been disdainfully dispatched, and allowed for other United Fleet ships to press the attack.
However, he saw Shepherd’s flagship U.F.S. Excalibur was in trouble and taking heavy punishment from Imperial battleships.
Aaron stood and moved to the ops station and called out their next move. “We’ve decimated this flank. We have to help Shepherd. Ensign, best possible speed to put us in range of the enemy formation bearing down on the Supreme Commander. Factor in an emergency deceleration on our part if you have to. I don’t want to overshoot but I don’t want to take longer than necessary to get in range.”
“Aye, sir. I’ll get us there. I’ll inform you before I begin deceleration, so you’re safe back in the seat,” he said smiling.
Aaron nodded and turned to Vee. He lowered his voice. “Vee, how are we looking, any major damage?”
Vee shook his head. “We sustained a number of laser strikes, but no structural damage. The reflective polarization has weakened in the dorsal and aft where we took the most hits, but it’s held the armor together.” He continued flicking through the interface. “No armor penetration either. However, the more hits we take, the more power the system requires to keep the field strong. One other thing. We don’t have inexhaustible power reserves, especially since we’re using all systems at full combat power.”
“Understood.” Aaron raised his voice. “We’ll do our best to take less hits. Right, Ensign?”
Flaps looked up and said, “Aye, sir!” He engaged the main combat thrusters and began to push the ship along its new vector toward Excalibur.
Chapter 27 – Excalibur
United Fleet Battleship—Excalibur
Shepherd gritted his teeth.
Two more explosions on his tactical screen signaled the end of the heavy cruisers Madison and Idaho.
“We’re boxed in from all angles, sir, we c
an’t take much more of this,” Pavel reported from tactical. The young officer’s hands trembled at the controls.
The flank charge towards the enemy fleet was the right call, but they’d still taken heavy damage and losses closing the distance. Increasingly so with the Imperial fleet flanking on the starboard relative. A satisfying opening volley from the United Fleet battleships helped boost morale. They’d obliterated an entire enemy cruiser formation who’d gotten a bit too over confident. But the others took notice and repositioned on the Imperial battleships for cover.
Now they slugged it out with the Imperial battleships as they closed the range while being harassed on the flanks by Imperial frigates. A coordinated strike from several formations of Imperial frigates was responsible for the loss of the Madison and Idaho. The USSF had no information on these new Imperial warships.
The deck lurched and alarms wailed anew.
“Hull breaches along the forward starboard section,” his ops officer reported. “Our forward armor is completely compromised. We’ve lost forty percent of our railgun batteries on the forward section—those Imperial frigates are cutting us to pieces slowly. Main power just fell below forty percent.”
Shepherd glanced quickly at the tactical display. Two Imperial battleships over reached. He could do some significant damage before they peeled back Excalibur’s hull.
“Helm, full lateral roll. Bring her hard over starboard. Angle our compromised armor away from the battleship formation best you can. We can take some hits from those frigates but strikes from those beasts will remove us from this fight sooner than we ought to be.”
The United Fleet Excalibur-class battleship would roll, and it would turn—at the speed of evolving ecosystems. But what she lacked in maneuvering capabilities she made up for with firepower. Arrayed along her hull were anti-capital ship railguns, much larger variants than cruisers or frigates were capable of mounting, with greater power demands. Many smaller railguns and CIWS littered the rest of the hull for close in brawls, paired with new havoc heavy missile launchers. Despite the showdown, the distance of the engagement remained between four to five light-seconds. The havoc missiles wouldn’t be useful at this range and within such a thick mass of ships—didn’t want to miss an enemy target and instantly strike a friendly.
A hostile inbound missile would instantly trigger an audio alert to any helm operator’s headset. A full powered burst—for even half a second—from any maneuvering thruster would push any ship a few thousand meters off vector. At such speeds, the havocs couldn’t alter course in time. Upon missing its mark, the tactical officer could trigger the missile’s onboard computer to self-destruct. It wouldn’t do to have the missile continue on a ballistic course and slam into some distant world—colonized long after the missile fired. Once the engagement progressed to phase three—within one light-second—havocs wouldn’t miss. Until then, both sides held onto their precious reserves of missiles.
Despite the close in brawl, ships still maneuvered to mitigate exposing themselves too much as a target. Two hundred thousand kilometers was knife fight range for space battles. However, at that distance, a twelve-hundred-meter ship still didn’t have much of a profile. Significantly less so if you kept your bow towards your enemy with careful strafing either to port, starboard, dorsal or ventral.
A minute later the ship completed its roll and brought a fresh set of railguns to bare on the overreaching Imperial battleships.
“Pavel, full broadside bombardment, all rails, empty the magazines. Target both of them—and fire!”
Excalibur cut loose with everything in her arsenal—a surgeon with a scalpel—the facing sides of the Imperial battleships peeled back. Secondary explosions ripped through the length of each enemy warship. But they reached out to Excalibur with their dying embrace. Laser strikes obliterated her freshly exposed armor and burned into the hull through and through.
United Fleet heavy cruisers seized the opening and closed for a point-blank barrage against the stricken Imperial battleships, ending their carnage against Excalibur. This exposed them to concentrated Imperial laser strikes and they too joined the doomed Imperial battleships as smoldering hulks littering the void.
The United Fleet hadn’t lost any battleships yet, but most of them bristled with heavy damage. A particularly annoying formation of Imperial frigates maneuvered close in and hammered Excalibur’s engines. Battleship engines were an easy target for the frigates at such a close range. However, the daring Imperial frigates paid a heavy price as the point defense cannons shredded them as they passed, but the damage was done.
“Main engines are down, maneuvering on thrusters only.”
The report from engineering sealed it.
“Sir, there’s no way I can restore engines; they got a clean precision strike. Spacedock is the only thing which can fix this.”
If they had their escorting ships intact, those frigates would never have got that close, but they didn’t and they did.
“Main bulk of the Imperial heavy formation picking up speed. Vectoring directly for us.”
Shepherd lowered his face into his hands. “Indeed. Time for the coup de grâce.”
More Imperial lasers dug deep into Excalibur’s hull, but she held.
“Sir, another wing of ships closing on our starboard side fast, we can’t take even one solid hit there.” He paused. “It’s Delta Wing!”
Shepherd raised his head as Delta Wing plowed directly into the stern of the Imperial ships hammering Excalibur. A devastating unified volley obliterated several Imperial cruisers and crippled many more.
Then a grating swagger he’d heard before crackled over the comms.
“Sit tight, SC, we’ve got you covered.”
Rayne.
Phoenix appeared a hundred thousand kilometers behind an Imperial battleship and fired a volley of havoc missiles directly into her exposed stern. There was no defense against that. As the flailing enemy ship listed to port, more havoc missiles gutted her centerline and massive secondary explosions ripped her apart. Then, Phoenix surged forward faster than any ship of that size should be able to, and blasted railgun salvoes into several Imperial cruisers attempting to come about to face her head on.
Once the Imperial cruisers turned, Phoenix accelerated past them blasting from all batteries as she went. Even at 230 meters, she was as maneuverable as a 120-meter Imperial frigate, and that was her next target.
****
Aaron leaned forward.
“Hold fire until we’re right on top of them, Lieutenant.”
Phoenix vectored directly for the Imperial formation harassing Excalibur’s sister ship Arthur. The Imperial frigates were picking it to pieces just as they had done to Excalibur. The Imperial warships either didn’t notice or didn’t think Phoenix could threaten all of them at once.
They were very wrong.
“Now, Lieutenant, all rails, maximum firing rate. I want all of those targets destroyed or crippled on our first pass. Maybe they will take notice of us after this and forget about Arthur.”
At this range, no evasive maneuver was going to spare you from a railgun barrage. Phoenix shredded the formation of six lightly armored frigates within a minute.
“Congratulations, Aaron,” Vee said, “you wanted to get noticed? You got noticed. Another six enemy destroyers closing on our stern. And these seem like the new Imperial ships.”
A quick check of the blink drive revealed it wasn’t charged yet. The ship’s armor was strong but not invincible. Six Imperial destroyers with advanced and unknown weapon capabilities hammering them from this range could pose an issue. Aaron sacrificed distance and position for the strike on the other frigates. It was necessary however, if Phoenix had opened up with railguns on small agile frigates from any further, they wouldn’t have got more than one or two. Now with matching agility they couldn’t shake the six which locked on.
“Best evasive, Ensign. Don’t let them boil our armor too long.”
The deck rattled f
rom laser strikes.
“I’m trying, Commander! But they’re matching my maneuvers. These Imperial destroyer pilots are actually quite good!”
“And you’re amazing, Ensign! Get them off us.”
“Aye, sir!”
More strikes. The bulkheads groaned now.
“Polarized strength on the aft quarter down to thirty percent. It won’t hold much longer.”
The enemy formation was so tight, it was difficult to monitor all six contacts on tactical.
“Where’d the sixth one go? Anyone?” Aaron called.
Vee slapped his controls, “Not seeing him!” he said.
The pursuing contacts now appeared on tactical as only two targets, yet they were five.
Vee swore. “He’s above!”
The flanking destroyer hit hard. The stealthy Imperial missiles too close and too fast for point defense to swivel and target the ordnance. Aaron knew the strike compromised the dorsal armor.
Vee called across. “Bad news or good news?”
He hated when Vee did that. But he always obliged.
“Bad.”
“Dorsal armor is penetrated and blink drive is offline for the moment.”
Aaron held his breath. “The good?”
“They’re all behind us now.”
“Avery! We’re going to have words when this is done,” Aaron said. The XO resorted to humor during moments of extreme stress. He didn’t know whether he should laugh at the horrible attempt or laugh at the fact that someone resorted to humor when facing death.
“Lieutenant, please splash those targets or drive them off. Fire a full spread, see what we can hit.”
“Trying as well, Commander,” Lee said. “But they’re so agile any slight deviation and our shots miss, plus it’s not like we’re exactly staying still ourselves.” He added, looking over at Flaps.
“Fine,” Flaps said. “I’ll stay still and let them chew up our stern.”
Aaron shook his head but ignored their banter. He couldn’t think of an option which the enemy couldn’t simply outmaneuver. Vee had more bad news.
Border Worlds (United Star Systems Book 1) Page 23
