"This is Bobcat. Is there a problem up there Captain?"
"Richards told me he had you install a device on your fighter that can detect the anomalies. Is that true?"
"It is Captain."
"Good. Then I have something I want you to do."
Chapter Twenty-One
Gibraltar Sector
Cockpit, X-71 Fighter
"Sounds like fun," Bobcat said as she cut the comm. She pressed a button on her console opening a channel with her squad. "New plans boys. Wellard wants us to fly up close to each of the frigates. He wants to see if my new toy goes off."
"Roger," Switch said. "Guess we're off attacking duty for now?"
"Negative, Switch. I intend to take us on a path to do damage to the frigates as we pass. Focus our efforts on their lasers since they seem to be the only thing doing any damage to the Endeavor."
"On it, boss. Forming up on you now."
Moments later her squad formed up behind her in their standard diamond formation with her at the lead. Pulling off from her current target, she turned her craft around and aimed it at the lead frigate. On her way to the first vessel, her weapon systems chirped as they locked onto potential targets. She assisted the computer by manually choosing three sets of laser batteries as they closed in and sent the targets to her squad.
"Hit them all in turn. One through five. After we pass you are on your own for targeting."
"Easy enough," Fireball said. "Not like we have any of those damned drones trying to shoot us down."
"Yeah, too easy." As soon as the words left Switch's mouth, the frigates fired their mass transfer weaponry on them.
"Evasive maneuvers. They're trying to swat the flies." Tegan jerked the controls erratically, trying to throw off the targeting systems of the frigates. "These bastards are fast," Switch said, his craft spiraling around Tegan as Fireball did the same. Lancer was the only one maintaining his path though she suspected he would switch it up soon.
"Lasers in range," Lancer said. "Open fire."
Lancer fired first, launching a thermal torpedo at a beam cutting into the Endeavor. As the torpedo sped towards the lead frigate, the ship stopped firing on the fighters and focused on the torpedo. The rest of the team used the brief reprieve to unleash everything they had at the beam. Dozens of laser strikes slammed into the silo, ripping it free from the frigate in a fiery explosion.
"Nice shot boys, focus on target two." Tegan twisted her fighter around, putting it a few dozen meters away from the frigate as she made her pass. Being close to the ship would make it hard to react if it made any sudden moves, but would allow her to avoid the worst of the fire as she made her approach.
Once the battery was in range, she pulled the trigger unleashing a burst of laser fire into the battery. Her fire slammed into the weapon, knocking off a large chunk of the shielding, but failed to destroy the weapon. Her targeting systems switched to target three as one of her squad mates completed the kill.
They approached the third laser and once again fired in unison, trying to destroy it with their combined fire. This one, however, stopped its assault on the Endeavor and retracted into the ship as they closed in. Its red blip disappeared from her radar as they passed only to reappear once they had moved onto the next ship.
They repeated the process on the remaining ships, firing at any weapons that were in range while simultaneously avoiding the frigates' return fire. Each time Tegan closed in with a frigate, her device failed to go off. After the fourth, she wondered if they were wasting their time. Sure, they were doing a number on the enemy weapons, but they were doing so on their own without the support of the Endeavor or the other fighter pilots. If they hadn't knocked out several enemy beams, she was sure the frigates would be focused on her. As it was, they were running out of room. The moment they passed the last frigate they'd be out in the open until they could turn around and begin another pass. It would only take a few seconds, but those seconds were sure to be hell.
Still, as far as things go, she knew they could always be worse. Then two more ships appeared out of nowhere, meters away from her hull.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Gibraltar Sector
Bridge, NECS Endeavor
"I don't know how the hell they are pulling that off, but we need to destroy a few before we find ourselves outnumbered."
"I think this counts as outnumbered, Captain," Richards said from his station. The man was punching in commands on his console trying to hack into one of the other ships. So far they had no luck other than the first.
"I appreciate your insights, captain obvious, but I'd appreciate if you kept them to yourself. This is not a time to joke."
Richards bit his lower lip then nodded. Wellard didn't mean to be so harsh on the kid, but if he was going to be on the bridge, he would have to learn when it was time to speak and when it was time to keep his mouth shut. This is why he was against the commander's request to move him to the bridge. Since then he'd proven his worth on more than one occasion, though this wasn't one of them.
"Vaughn believes a large part of those ships is dedicated to storing enough power to make the jumps possible." Bremerton tapped a few buttons on his console, sending a set of basic schematics to Wellard's console.
Wellard scanned the documents in front of him, but little of it made sense. Even if they had an engine core the size of the ship, it should've been impossible to make the jump.
"Midshipman Ritter, do a comprehensive scan of the nearest frigate. I want to know if any part of that ship is using significantly more power than the rest." Ritter wasted no time getting to work.
"I'm not sure how much that will help us now," Bremerton said. "Even if we find out where they're storing the power it's not like it's going to stop any more from jumping in."
"No, but it may keep them from jumping out."
"Sir, I've completed the first scan. From what I can tell the lower decks seem to hold the most power, but from what I can tell, it isn't significantly higher than it should be."
"Fine, scan the next ship. See if it's showing the same power readings as the first. If it is, move onto the third. If they are all registering the same, it's safe to assume that is where they are storing residual power, and we'll adjust our tactics accordingly."
"Understood. Scanning the second ship now."
The battle outside was going poorly though it hardly seemed that way from the damage reports flowing in. The frigates combined lasers had finally penetrated the hull, overloading the armor modulators by the sheer amount of energy coursing through the beams. In return, the fighters were dishing out a pounding, but nothing more than knocking out a stray weapon from time to time.
What made it worse is that they couldn't pour enough firepower into one ship to bring it down before the next ship in line moved to shield the one before it. The tactic was giving them enough time for their armor modulators to recover while the next ship took the pounding.
On paper, this was a battle they'd win as long as the odds didn't get worse. It was, however, going to take a very long time for that to happen. Sure, the frigates were showing signs of damage, but it wasn't enough to put them at significant risk for catastrophic failure. How they could take the firepower from the Endeavor was another matter. It meant not only did the frigates have the means to jump long distances in mere seconds, but they also had a way to mitigate large amounts of damage.
Still, what little damage they had inflicted on the smaller crafts was adding up. Especially the damage inflicted by the fighter pilots. Without the added threat of drones or enemy fighters, the pilots were having a field day on the frigates. Unfortunately, their weaker weapons were relatively useless for anything but taking out the frigates exposed weapons, which amounted to little more than a handful of gauss cannons and laser batteries.
"Sir, ships two had power readings similar to the first, but the third reads like it should. I've expanded the scans to the fourth frigate, but so far I'm not finding any further spikes of
energy."
"I wonder what's causing the power spikes in the first two," Wellard stepped closer to the viewscreen and stared at the two frigates in question. Each was the same size as the others but were different enough for the power to be routed through the ship differently.
"Pull up the visual to one of the fighters," Bremerton said, breaking the captain's thought. "Bobcat ideally since she's on anomaly duty."
"Smart. Using their eyes when our own aren't doing the trick," Wellard said. "What other tricks do you have up your sleeve?"
The screen changed to a view from the front of Bobcat's fighter as two more scavengers jumped into the fray.
"Nothing for that."
Chapter Twenty-Three
Gibraltar Sector
Bridge, NECS Endeavor
"Are you seeing that?" Bremerton asked, pointing towards a small block of metal that didn't quite match the ship. Not only was the color off, but the design and metals were also wrong. He wasn't sure if that was the source of the energy spikes, but he was almost certain it was.
"Sure do," Wellard replied. "Target that object with everything we got. Have the fighter pilots target anything similar on the other ships."
Bremerton nodded then got on the comm with the CAG who switched her fighters from harrying duties to attacking the new devices. "Not every ship has one, just focus on the ones that do. But your birds should put a set of eyes on every ship just to make sure another one doesn't exist back in the crowd. Bremerton, out."
"What'd Valarie have to say?"
"She said Bobcat was picking up odd readings on her device around those areas, but nothing to make her device chirp like before. She even tried hovering near the one on frigate seven for a while to make sure it wasn't just a fluke."
"Good, so Richards' new device can detect these things as well."
"I wouldn't say that," Bremerton countered. "The signal coming from them wasn't powerful enough to detect unless she was up close and personal with the frigate. Can't imagine it's worth risking the pilots' lives by sending them in any closer."
"You have a point," Wellard conceded. "Richards, is there any way you can amplify the signal coming from your device?"
"Sure is, Captain. I was just waiting to get some data from her use in the field before attempting to make another. To begin with, I wasn't sure what frequency…"
"Save the lessons for after the battle. I just wanted to know if it was possible."
Richards lowered his head. "Sorry, Captain. It is, Captain."
"Good. Once we're through this mess, I'll have Vaughn lend you some of his best engineers to help with creating enough of them for our fighters. Hopefully, by then you'll have one we can use on the ship."
The bridge shook violently as the two new additions added their firepower to the barrage. Without skipping a beat, the two new arrivals took up a position at the front of the line, breaking the Endeavor's focus on its current target.
"I've had about enough of their duck and cover technique." Bremerton slammed his fist against the side of his console. "Wilson, it's time to change our tactics. Have our weapon crews transfer their fire from the first ship to the second. Ensign Price, your job is to move with that ship at all costs. If they try to hide it behind one of the other ships, then ram the bastards. Make them think twice about playing their game."
"You sure that's a wise idea, Commander? Ramming one of the frigates will do significant damage to us." Wellard asked.
"They are doing significant damage now, and we've barely done any back. At least this way they'll think twice about playing hide and seek."
Wellard nodded. "And it will split up their firing lanes." Wellard glanced over at Ensign Price, who was fidgeting with her controls. "Just take aim at ship number three. Try to put our nose right in the middle of her business. Once we have them split, divide our fire into two ships. Port side focuses on frigate two while starboard hammers on frigate five. Fighters are to stop worrying about knocking out the weapons and start focusing on the thrusters. Keeping them from running is more important."
The ship lurched as Ensign Price pushed forward on the controls, bringing the Endeavor closer to the fleet of enemy frigates. The weapons crews stopped pounding frigate one and switched to their new targets as the weapons came into range. As if the damage was still being delivered to it, frigate one started pulling back behind frigate two, who was already taking a pounding from the port-side weapons.
Bits of armor and debris broke apart as the combination of lasers and cannons tore into the smaller ship, ripping a hole in its center. An explosion rocked the smaller vessel, tearing the ship in two as fissures erupted through the hull. Then its weapons went silent as the two halves floated away from each other, leaving an exposed frigate one in its wake.
Before Bremerton could give the order, the port crews fired on the exposed ship, ripping into its already weakened armor with ease now that it didn't have the benefit of cover. It had lasted all of ten seconds before it was torn apart by a series of violent explosions.
The Endeavor slammed into frigate three as number one exploded. The force of the impact sent Bremerton face-first into his console. He pushed himself back and noticed half the bridge crew doing the same. Onscreen, he saw the shattered remains of frigate three being pushed along as Ensign Price continued flooring the controls.
The battle on the starboard side was going as well as the port. Two vessels were already destroyed, numerous holes in each ship belched flame and debris as they floated aimlessly into the void. The remaining two frigates weren't faring much better.
Frigate six was taking a pounding from the remains of the Endeavor's starboard weapons crews. The weapons ripped into the smaller vessel, exposing the interior of the ship to the vacuum of space. Its crews had hardly given up, however, as they were still directing everything they had back into the Endeavor. Everything amounted to two of their smaller laser batteries and a single gauss cannon. Combined the weapons would be lucky to pierce a minute hole in the ship's thick armor plating if they had two weeks to cut.
Then there was frigate seven. By all accounts, the ship was still active though it wasn't trying to move or fire any shots at the fighters or the Endeavor.
"Midshipman Ritter, am I correct in assuming frigate seven is disabled?"
"That is correct, sir. All thrusters and known weapon systems have been destroyed."
"I've directed all fighters back towards the flight deck for debriefing," Wilson said from the weapons station. "Figured you'd want to have a little fun with that one."
"Good call, Wilson. Considering that little jump they made, it may be worthwhile to give that ship a complete check." Wellard glanced at the main viewscreen as frigate six was ripped into four pieces, as two sets of lasers worked inward, splitting the ship at the center. Each piece emitted a fireball that was quickly squelched by space as the four sections listed away.
"And that, my good friends, is a job well done. Direct damage control teams to decks eight and eleven, we need to get those levels hospitable as soon as possible." Wellard stood up and knocked off the fine layer of dust that had settled on his clothes. "We'll make a decent crew of you yet."
Chapter Twenty-Four
Gibraltar Sector
Bridge, NECS Endeavor
"Bridge to the CAG," Wellard said as he strolled towards the bridge doors.
"This is the CAG, what can I do for you, Captain?"
"Prepare a shuttle for me and a platoon of marines. I'll be down that way in about ten minutes."
"Understood. CAG, out."
Wellard was nearly to the door when Bremerton stepped in his way. The young commander's eyes seethed with concern as he defiantly kept Wellard from leaving the bridge.
"I'm not sure that's a good idea, Captain. The Klyptons are bigger, stronger, and faster than us. Not only that, on that ship they'll likely outnumber you six to one."
"Doubt the ratio is that bad, son. We had to have killed off a few in the attack."
"Still. Even if you bring all the marines, you'll be outmatched. Your job is to be here and command the ship, not boarding enemy vessels."
Wellard sighed and turned to face his young XO. He didn't hate the kid for calling him out like this, he just wished he hadn't done it. If nothing else he could've waited until they were both out in the hall where the chances of being overheard weren't as big. Even if the kid had a valid point.
"You saw what those ships could do, right? Jumping on top of us from halfway across the sector is nothing to sneeze at. In the hands of a more powerful ship, we would've been toast. Thankfully, it was just on the frigates."
"So you intend to take the vessel and have our people research the technology?"
"Something like that." Wellard grinned, placed his arm around Bremerton's shoulders, and led him into the hall. "The reason I'm going with the crew is to bring that technology back to the NEC. Just imagine the difference it would make in our tactics if we could jump around like these ships did. Not only would we no longer be reliant on the jump gates to travel the galaxy, but we'd also be able to initiate maneuvers like they did."
"I understand your reasonings, Captain, and I agree. Getting our hands on that technology should be a priority over everything else, including looking for clues about the attack. But I'm not sure it's worth risking one of the NEC's most decorated captains to retrieve. Not when there is another viable option available."
"You?" Wellard laughed. "No offense, kid, but you are much smarter than me. I'm nothing more than a washed-up old man who is too stubborn to retire. You, on the other hand, are the future. You have more tactical awareness in your thumb than half the captains do in their combined heads. Losing you would be much more of a risk to our future than I would be."
"Still," Bremerton replied. "I must insist you remain on the bridge if only to maintain the chain of command. Allow me to go in your place."
Infamy (The Mythrar War Book 2) Page 8
