“Understood, out.”
“All fighters, this is Alpha Leader, move into position!”
It was a short yet simple command and was acted upon instantly. Groups of fighters broke away, setting course for their targets in the middle and rear of the fleet. Unlike before, fighters moved around the flanks rather than attacking directly. This simple change gave the capital ships a clear line of sight to the Biomantas for their surprise. Captain Evans couldn’t quite believe what he was seeing when the big guns started their bombardment. Unlike before, the particle beam emitters were being used on a much lower powered firing mode and in a more dispersed pattern, so they could deliver long bursts of energy. Rather than seeing substantial explosions on the targets, there were hundreds of much smaller flashes across half of the Biomanta fleet.
That should keep them busy enough. Now it’s our turn!
“All squadrons; start your attack runs.”
The fighters moved closer and closer to the predatory Biomech ships. The shuttles were now almost all gone from the repeated defensive gunfire of the enemy vessels, and it was the turn of the actual fighters to take the damage. Two vanished in the first twenty seconds, and then the nearest ship was in range. Captain Evans targeted the damaged locations from the raking attack run and sent the data to his wingmen.
“Fox One!” said the first of the pilots in the formation.
It was a brevity code used to indicate the launch of a semi-active radar guided missile. First one missile launched, and then there were more than thirty, all of them heading directly for the Biomanta. Impacts from the particle beams caused continuous damage and scorch marks to the surface of the ship, and though half were shot down, at least a dozen struck in and around the damage already sustained. The fighters split apart as they traveled past the damaged ship.
“Good work, Alpha Group, onto the next wounded bird.”
* * *
Jack gazed out of the window at the side of the Mauler with a look of stunned disbelief on his face. Many more craft moved with them, along with a much smaller group of Biomech fighters that struggled to keep up with the accelerating Alliance vessels. The mixture of marines, Jötnar, and Helion soldiers was bizarre but nothing compared to the look of joy he could see on Gun’s face. Jack’s body ached from the battle and the battering he’d sustained, yet even after all they’d been through, he couldn’t for the life of him see why Gun would be so happy.
“Glad we got out of there?” he asked finally.
“Huh?” muttered the battered Jötnar, “No, not much point in staying behind to die though.”
Jack thought he could see something resembling regret on the warrior’s face. The craft shook violently, and the alert sensors started to blast. The interior speakers activated to the sound of a worried pilot.
“We just took a major hit. The gun targeting system is offline. We need gunners!”
Another impact shook the craft, and it lurched to the left before the pilot could right it. A patter of rain ran along the hull, a sure fire guarantee of gunfire hitting the thick armor plate.
“She’s a strong bird,” said Gun with amusement while looking at the marines inside the craft. “Well, maybe somebody should get on them?”
Jack and Callahan were the first to deactivate their clamps and fixed their straps to the rails overhead, in case another impact threw them about. A Navy crewman and a marine from another unit moved to the corners where small hatches led to the gunnery control turrets. Jack pulled himself to the rear starboard turret and clambered inside. The strapping was similar to the seating in the Mauler, and it only took a few seconds to get into position. The gunnery system was based on the tried and tested yoke system, but the computer system was offline.
Great! What about the servos?
He pulled on the yoke, and the entire gun turret mount to his side moved quickly and smoothly.
Okay, that’s a start.
The visual display system was also offline, so he pulled on the shutter lever and opened the plating. It revealed the view from the tiny array of thick transparent layers. They were protected from dangerous radiation, but even so were far less useful than using the conventional display system. In the center was a grid marking the angled and distances for type of ammunition.
“Here they come, three targets, seven o’clock!”
Jack swung the turret mount around to find him staring at a pair of Biomech fighters. Both flashed repeatedly as they fired bursts into the flank of the armored Mauler. Jack leaned a little to the left and pulled the trigger. The turret shook slightly, and the quadruple gun system released a cloud of hardened slugs at the attackers. The burst was way off.
Come on, you fool. Hit them.
He took aim once more, and just as one was about to move from sight, pulled the trigger again. This time a few rounds struck the fighter’s engine mount, and he cried out with satisfaction as it split apart into three large sections and vanished into the night.
“Yes!”
The other fighters disappeared from view, and the Mauler shook as yet more rounds clattered into her armored hull. Jack’s stomach turned each time they were hit, but none made it through, and he was able to take aim at another fighter moving in to launch a rocket at point blank range. This time he didn’t even have to lead the target, and it exploded into a thousand pieces as his hardened shells smashed into the engine and weapons of the fighter. Scattered debris clattered uselessly against the Mauler, and then they were free.
“Good work, people. We’re in orbit. Now for the rendezvous.”
The passengers cheered, but Jack remained silent. From his position, he had the perfect view of the Alliance fleet. The others might think the ships were waiting patiently for them, but he could see the reality. All around them were the vast shapes of cruisers and Battlecruisers intermixed with Biomanta warships. Fighters screamed about in all directions, and arcs of light flashed all about them. But it was not the ships or the guns that caught his eye, it was the explosion-riddled shapes of a dozen Biomech warships that he couldn’t believe.
They fought them head-to-head…and survived? he wondered incredulously.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Particle beam weapons were finally used in open battle in large numbers at the battle of Eos. Although a tactical victory for the Alliance, the Biomech warships had demonstrated their parity with the Alliance in terms of firepower, technology, and tactics. For the first time, Alliance ships were able to deal with any foe on equal terms. The reality of these deadly weapons was that battle could be decided in minutes and at impossible ranges. Many predicted this would mean the end of kinetic weapons. Only the great struggle for Helios would answer that question definitively.
Direct Energy Weapons – An Introduction
ANS Conqueror shuddered as a massive volley of explosive shells slammed into her thick armor. The spaced plating did their work and absorbed a large amount of the impact before the damage spread inside the vessel. The weight of gunfire was beginning to show though, and her hull was pockmarked with a thousand small impact craters.
“Roll her and present our underside!” snapped the XO.
Admiral Lewis nodded with satisfaction. The ship was equally protected on all sides, and so far they been struck hard on the topside and right flank of the Battlecruiser. By performing a rotation, they would be able to move the fragile damaged sections out of the line of sight and place fresh armor to face the remaining Biomantas.
“What’s our status?” he asked, though the tactical display showed him most of the data he needed to know. He just wanted to hear the words, to know from somebody else’s mouth that the battle was going the way it appeared.
Lieutenant Vitelli highlighted the primary ships still involved in the main space battle before speaking.
“Serenity and Olympus are gone, Admiral. The enemy is down to four of the Biomantas and the Ravager. The rest are heading to the surface of Eos in flames.”
He should have been happy at the n
ews, but he knew the captains and many of the officers on board those ships. Captain Alyani Tinychai of ANS Serenity had encountered the T’Kari Raider so long ago in T’Karan space, and now he was gone. Admiral Lewis could only hope against hope that enough of the crews had escaped before the ships finally blew. He was down to a dozen ships and nearly half of his fighters were either lost or had landed and were currently beyond repair.
“What about the marine extraction?”
“It’s done,” said a familiar voice from the side doorway of the CIC.”
He turned to see the still armored form of General Daniels enter. He wanted to race forward to greet him, but that would have looked bizarre in the middle of a battle.
“Great work, General.” It was the best he could manage while half of the officers in the room whooped with pleasure at the return of the officer. Right behind him followed a handful of marines, as well as Colonel Gun. All had removed their helmets or slid back their visors to reveal their faces. Gun could barely squeeze through the doorway and managed to tear a pipe off the wall as he moved inside.
“What are your casualties?” asked the XO.
The General shook his head bitterly.
“You don’t want to know, Captain.”
Lieutenant Vitelli highlighted the last four Maulers as they approached ANS Royal Oak.
“Admiral, the last four birds will be aboard Royal Oak in less than three minutes.”
“Good,” said the Admiral under his breath.
He turned about and stared with his tired eyes at the moon below them. It was a place he’d never expected to see in his lifetime, yet alone fight a series of deadly battles.
“Then it is time to leave this place.”
“No!” called out one of the marines.
Admiral Lewis was not accustomed to disagreement and looked about the group before spotting the man. He was lightly built, but the face and the eyes reminded him of somebody he knew well.
“Morato?”
“Private Jack Morato, Admiral.”
“Spartan’s son?”
Jack nodded.
But there was no time for pleasantries, and he looked back at the tactical display showing the ongoing battle. It wasn’t necessary for him to micro-manage the action, but he was determined to maintain a firm grip on what was happening.
“I want that carrier brought down.”
He selected the Fleet-wide channel that connected to all captains and fighter controllers.”
“Move the fighter squadrons in to protect the frigates and then bring down that carrier. All other ships are to eliminate the remaining Biomantas! I want this battle ended, and quickly!”
Once the responses came in, he turned his attention back to the marines.
“Private, you were saying?”
Jack took a step closer to face him.
“Admiral, a group of Khreenk assisted in the battle. They came back with us on the transports.”
Admiral Lewis looked surprised and turned his attention over to General Daniels, who simply nodded in agreement.
“And?”
“Well, Sir, they said the Biomechs troops are only a short distance from the Helion settlements. Give it another hour, and they will leave the Fort and move on to the next target.”
“Really, you know this for certain?”
General Daniels walked to the tactical schematic and tilted it to show the surface of Eos. The main Fort was now completely red with smaller patterns around it. He slid it to the right and pointed at four green areas.
“These are the nearby underground habitation quadrants and industrial sites. As we left, my drones detected elements from the Fort already moving away and heading for these locations.”
Gun growled at this.
“They’re screwed then. Two marine battalions couldn’t hold them back, and you saw how useful the Helion Army was.”
The disparaging tone came over as more insulting than he may have intended, but it did its job. The imagery certainly supported the assessment of the marines, and the Admiral didn’t like it.
“Assuming we can win this battle, there is nothing we can do to help them. I have orders for us to join the defense force around Helios at full burn with any ship that remains. How long would it take to take on and defeat the Biomechs on the ground?”
General Daniels almost choked at that.
“Defeat? They smashed us on our own ground. We could return and attack their forces in hit and run strikes, but that won’t help the Helions. We need to stop them decisively and in less than an hour.”
He placed his chin in his hand, considering what they were telling him. He had a long-term requirement to assist at Helios, but the defeat on Eos was a stain upon the honor of the Alliance. Even worse than that, was the potential loss of the moon and all of its civilians.
How can the Helions trust us if we leave their citizens to die as we flee?
“Admiral, Commodore Hampel has started his strike on the carrier,” said Captain Marcus.
His stomach shuddered for a moment at the thought. The frigates were much smaller than the heavy cruisers that made up the bulk of his fleet, but what they lacked in size, they more than made up for in short-ranged gunnery and speed.
“Good, let us hope they can help end this before every Helion burns on Eos. I want this battle over!”
* * *
The small force of four frigates moved in a line abreast formation at a distance of just eighty kilometers apart. In space this was almost on top of each other, but it meant they could provide mutual gunnery support against the swarm of Biomech fighters that moved against them. ANS Spearfish, the lead ship in the formation, inched slightly ahead of the others and made for a direct assault course on the Ravager. Unlike the Biomantas, this ship followed a more conventional design, with no indicators showing a biological component to its twin hull. The multitude of ribs running down its flanks hit the launch tubes for fighters and gun systems. At nearly twice the size of the Biomantas, she was a ship worthy of a Battlecruiser, perhaps even a battleship from the glory days of the Great War.
“Close formation, and watch for fighters!”
Captain Jim ‘The Hammer’ Evans maneuvered his red-nosed Lightning fighter alongside the freshly arrived X57 Avenger combat drones that had now entered the fray. At roughly the same size of his craft, the Avengers were more heavily armed with a multitude of weapons fitted in their armored hulls. Their shape was something closer to a bat, and the wings contained four small engines on each side, both to propel the fighter and to power the might primary armament. The hull consisted almost entirely of a single weapon system, a quadruple barreled railgun that had been heavily modified from the weapon systems once carried on cruisers.
“All fighters report in,” he said calmly.
The drones, of course, said nothing. They were fully autonomous and only communicated directly with the controlling capital ships and the forward controllers in the fighter squadron. A pair of Hammerheads moved closely to the frigates to monitor and give tactical orders to the robotic warriors, and six more drones circled the Hammerheads watching out for signs of missiles or other craft. One by one, the squadrons reported in until he knew the fighter group was ready for the next phase.
“All squadrons, you have your targets. Break and attack!”
Captain Evans was just one of six leaders for the fighter assault, of the six he was the one with the greatest experience. He’d fought pirates, T’Kari Raiders, and now Biomechs fighters. Even he wasn’t prepared for the flak corridor put up by the Ravager. It started as a dozen turrets fired scattered shards into space and then extended to more than fifty guns firing almost repeatedly.
“What the hell!” he muttered as a chunk of his left wing tore off, exposing bare wiring. One of his missile hardpoints indicated a system failure and immediately went offline.
Screw this. We’re going in!
He hit the boost control and accelerated toward the stern of the massive carrier. His
wingmen moved in right behind, the rest of the fighters moving about the carrier like flies.
“Captain, enemy fighters launching!” said Lieutenant Leary, one of the pilots in the squadron moving to the underside of the carrier. No sooner had he said the words than two-dozen Biomech fighters rushed out from the massive ship and into the formation of fighters. Captain Evans spotted the threat indicator right behind his comrade, but it was too late.
“Watch your tail, Green Three.”
Gunfire ripped into the fighter and exploded the starboard engine, instantly killing the pilot and sending shards of red-hot metal into the cockpit. The wreck twisted out of control before striking the carrier in a fiery flash. The frigates were now in range, and the tables quickly turned on the newly launched fighters. Like the carrier, they were well equipped to deal with fighters and dispatched half of the Biomech fighters with a barrage of tiny flechette rounds from their point-defense turrets. The frigates also made use of their larger caliber railguns to put barrages of gunfire into the carrier itself. Explosions ran along the length of the vessel even before the volleys of missiles and torpedoes from the fighters did their work. Three sections sustained the worst of it, with most landing near the rear. Missile after missile slammed through the defensive fire and blew out chunks of metal while the Avenger drones sent high-velocity projectiles deep inside the ship.
Captain Evans launched his final missiles before contacting Royal Oak’s CAG.
“Captain Harper, the breaches have been made. She’s ready.”
“Understood. Evans, get your people out of there. You have forty-five seconds.”
The Captain had already sent the pre-determined code, however, and the large groups of fighters circled about, turning on the last of the Biomantas that were still being struck by an overwhelming barrage of wide-band particle beams. He was halfway to the nearest of the ships when he spotted the IFF warnings on the missiles.
Star Crusades Nexus: The Second Trilogy Page 45
