In a flash, the hyper plasma round passed just behind the stern of the Imperial Justice and the Command Carrier lurched as the enemy plasma attack punched a hole right through the Mighty Punisher’s shields.
“Shields compromised,” reported the Lieutenant Commander in charge of the Punisher’s shields, “rebuilding and recharging now.”
“We've taken damage to the hull just above the stern. Minor damage to the engines; Engineering is rerouting. One hundred crewmembers are marked as sustaining mild to moderate concussive damage and are being routed to the nearest sick bay as soon as feasible,” there was a pause as Damage Control continued reporting. “Environmental is reporting a slight loss in ship pressure; it looks like we sprung a few leaks in the outer maintenance hatches. They say it’ll take days to fix all the damage but it would take almost a week before they’ll become unable to compensate if left unattended.”
The Senator and his military Chief of Staff locked eyes briefly and then Cornwallis turned to the Damage Control officer.
“Show me an external view of the damage,” he instructed.
“We have an image already from one of the Strike Fighters on close-in patrol,” said Damage Control. throwing an image up on the screen.
The grey bearded Commodore nearly choked when he saw the area where the HPC struck. “That hit almost broke through the hull!” he said with disbelief.
“Indeed,” said Cornwallis, genuine surprise in his eyes for the first time.
“Well I guess we know how they beat Arnold Janeski,” said the Commodore.
“If you don’t have anything pertinent to add to the discussion you can feel free to remain silent,” said the Senator.
“Of course, your Praetorship,” the Commodore said.
The Senator started to turn, eyes filled with fire, when yet another clamor from the Sensor department forcibly grabbed his attention.
“In the name of MAN...just look at the size!” said one Sensor Officer.
“Are those what I think they are?” demanded the Commander in charge of the department with outright anger in his voice.
The Tactical Officer hurried over but, seeing the same thing the rest of them were seeing, the Senator could tell exactly what they were looking at with one glance.
“W-M-D!” the Senior Commander in charge of Tactical said with certainty.
Chapter 57: Imperial Fury
Bug Hive Fleet—Full Breakdown(???)
6 Motherships
Total: 6 warships(???)
“Bugs,” the Commodore said with disgust.
“This is a violation of the war crimes statutes on the use of Weapons of Mass Destruction and the Dictates of MAN,” the Mighty Punisher’s Captain said with righteous indignation.
“Bugs,” the Senator was nonplused, “they’re just Bugs. There’s no need to get carried away.”
“But the Dictates of MAN specifically state…” began the Imperial Captain.
Cornwallis raised a hand. “Let’s not get carried away. First, the dictates of MAN only cover humans using biological weapons within the Empire or against Imperial citizens; second, I highly doubt that these rebels care what we tell them they can or cannot do. That is the definition of 'rebels' after all,” Cornwallis shook his head.
“But sir the war crimes statutes are clear: the use of biological weapons is disallowed. Every nation in human space has signed onto the statutes,” said the Captain.
“In case it had escaped your attention, the locals have formed their own government. I’m not aware of anyone recognizing them, let alone asking them to sign so much as a single accord—including the war crimes statutes,” the Commodore helpfully pointed out to the Flag Captain.
“You can’t seriously mean you’re prepared to let them get away with this,” the Flag Captain glared at the Praetor’s Chief of Staff.
“Hardly,” Cornwallis broke in, “allowing them to do so would cut into something much deeper than a piece of paper—it would cut into the basis of Imperial power and, for that, they must—they will—be destroyed.”
The Flag Captain nodded with satisfaction and gave the Commodore a triumphant look. His triumph was only slightly diminished when he saw the Commodore was nodding along with him.
“Enough chatter,” Cornwallis' voice cut through the confusion bringing instant order, “I’m seeing half a dozen Bug Motherships on my screen, and from what I can tell they’re not moving. I want them gone—send in the Battleships.”
“Ours or the Glorious Fleet’s, Sir?” asked the Commodore.
“Both,” Cornwallis said immediately, “whatever surprises they think they have, those Bugs look like they’re still in hibernation. I want them crushed before they have time to wake up.”
“The losses could be significant,” warned the Commodore.
“I don’t care. That 1800 meter ship isn’t magic, yes it can one-hit kill anything but the Command Carrier but it still takes several minutes to recharge its main cannon. If we tie it down and dispose of these Bugs I believe the battle, and thus this war, is ours,” said Cornwallis.
Orders were relayed and soon every ship in the fleet was moving forward at a rapid pace.
“It was a remarkably stupid ploy, as the Bugs are clearly still in hibernation. We just need to destroy them before they awaken and it’ll be no different from asteroid target practice… What am I missing?” he mused aloud his eyes falling on the large asteroid the locals were trying to hide behind.
He turned to his Chief of Staff.
“Find out the composition of that large asteroid their 'Super Battleship' is trying to hide itself behind,” Cornwallis ordered abruptly.
“On it, Sir,” the Chief of Staff said, “although at first glance it's rounded enough to qualify as a small planetoid rather than an asteroid but.. what’s the worst it could be? Anything that could jump here other than the Super Battleship couldn’t possibly powerful enough to…” the Chief of Staff trailed off.
“That’s right—they could jump in anything they liked if they’re using a field effect instead of an individual drive system. Such as a class one battlestation,” the Senator said sardonically.
“There isn’t a class one battlestation in the entire Spineward Region,” said the Chief of Staff, “are you sure they’re not just trying to get inside our heads and make us hesitate?”
The Senator nodded and then made a slashing gesture with his hands. “An amateur might try anything, but otherwise I don’t see for what purpose,” he mused aloud.
“Does it matter?” asked the Chief of Staff absently as he started sorting the new information on the planetoid. Then, as he was scrolling, he froze and almost dropped his data slate.
“Anything that I can’t understand worries me,” said the Senator and, then catching sight of his Chief of Staff's reaction, his head swiveled around, “what is it?”
“B...B...Bugs!” stammered the Chief of Staff.
“I know about the Bugs, I asked about that planetoid,” sneered sthe Senator.
“No, Sir. You don’t understand. That planetoid is a Bug ship!” cried the Commodore.
There was instant and immediate silence on the flag bridge of the Mighty Punisher, as almost every head in the room turned in perfect unison toward the Commodore with gaped mouths.
“Come again,” said the Senator, schooling his features in the face of such an impossibility.
“The entirely planetoid is of a similar composition to the Bug Motherships we have on file. It is a Bug, Sir,” repeated the Commodore.
There was a moment of surprise that flitted across the Praetor’s face and then, like a gust of wind, it was gone.
“And thus we finally discover the trap the locals have gambled everything on,” said Senator Cornwallis right as the lead elements both the Imperial Flotilla and Glorious Fleet reached the Lucky Clover II and opened fire. He took a breath, “Now we know...new order to the Fleet: set planetoid as a primary target to the exclusion of everything except the protection of Migh
ty Punisher. Open fire,” ordered Charles Cornwallis, “this is where we’ll break the Spine's back.”
Chapter 58: The Bugs Awaken
In flesh-filled corridors throughout the six Motherships and one giant, planetoid-sized vessel, life stirred.
Inside the Queen’s Planetoid, Droids equipped with sensor units and blasters switched off the cold-inducing, CO-2 spewing canisters, and began releasing a blue mists from the nozzles of their small work stations, introducing an enzyme that irritated the internals of both the Motherships and the Queen’s Planetoid.
A process which normally required the better part of an hour to fully awaken a Bug ship, under the efforts of Droid scientists and the chemicals they’d laboriously synthesized, was happening at a rapidly accelerated pace.
Thus, while the Lucky Clover opened fire with her secondary armament, the equivalent of the firepower of two standard Spineward Sectors Battleships and the Empire fired back, the Bug Fleet slowly awoke.
Convulsing with pain, the artificially-induced hibernation was interrupted and the Sub-Queens of the various Motherships, and the Queen of the entire swarm began to wake up filled with a sudden and immediate killing intent.
As a wide variety of Bug warriors, workers and thinkers, including a veritable horde of six footers and their smaller worker cousins, stirred to life, Droid scientists and their escorts ran for their artificial lives. Because of the untested nature of the new experimental doses spewing by aerosole, the project leader had kept them at their posts until the very last moment.
Most of the Droids made it to their escape vessels in time. Some did not.
One by one, the stealthed landers began releasing themselves from the Bug ships and moved away at the snail slow speed of their stealth systems.
Behind them, large open hatches at the stern of the Motherships began to silently slide open.
The laser strikes of the Imperial warships only served to accelerate the awakening process, and within minutes the first smaller vessels of the Bug swarm emerged.
Enraged, first by the chemical bath and later by the stinging attacks of the Imperial and Old Confederation warships, the Bugs awoke early.
And they awoke mad.
Chapter 59: The Great Escape!
Bug Plague Fleet—Full Breakdown (for real this time)
1 Queen's Planetoid
6 Motherships
19 Heavy Harvesters
58 Medium Harvesters
81 Light Harvesters
600 Scout Marauders
1,800 Scouts
Plague Fleet Total: 2,565 enraged Bug warships
He was the very model of an upgraded space engineer!
The Bug Motherships each varied in size, starting from a mere 1600 meters and going all the way up to an impressive 2300 meters. Since they didn’t need such features as shield generators or hyper drives, they had ample room inside them for other things.
Things like weapons.
Tens of thousands of individual Bugs were stirring within those blighted 'vessels,' whose internal storage spaces were filled not only with Bug warriors and workers, but also with stacks of smaller Bug ships.
“The First Mothership is coming out of hibernation,” reported Science Officer Jones, a man who’d been recruited specifically for the post by no lesser personage than Spalding himself.
“Issue the order for the defensive field to go into stealth mode. It is not to go active and stay on standby without a specific order,” ordered Spalding.
“Aye, Sir,” said the Com-Officer.
“I’ve got a squadron of Cruisers coming up on our starboard flank,” reported Sensors.
“All gun deck captains are to select targets for their deck and concentrate fire on those warships,” said the Tactical Officer.
“Which one woke up?” asked Spalding as eight Cruisers focused their fire on the Lucky Clover II at the same time. He cast a weather eye at the power levels for the shield generators one corner of the old engineer’s mouth quirked up. Those new antimatter generators were really something else. The power regulators feeding the shield generators would overheat before the power supplied by antimatter generators would even be close to overdrawn.
“The small 1600 meter one,” a pale faced Officer Jones said cuttingly, “she’s launching missiles and…” he trailed off but everyone on the bridge could see it. The Mothership seemed to violently explode as missiles shot out of her from every facing. But in addition to that, mixed in with the missiles shooting out of the front end were a dozen small Bug Scouts and Scout Marauders.
A dozen quickly turned into several dozen, and then the first Small Harvester squeezed out the front of the bloated-looking Mothership.
As if infuriated by the multiple squadrons of fast Destroyers that were attacking it and the other large Bug Mothereships, the 1600 meter Mothership visibly pulsated, expanding and contracting as more and more Scout Marauders and Small Harvesters were pushed into the void.
Then a laser struck the Mothership in the exit or the mouth and the whole ship writhed, shaking back and forth. Suddenly every weapon on the Bug Mothership was pointed at the Destroyer that hit her and opened fire at the same time. More than 20% of the lasers, those that were mounted on the rear and rear sides of the giant Bugship couldn’t swing or depress far enough to reach the Destroyer. But every other laser opened fire on the same target.
The Destroyer was totally destroyed as its shields were knocked down in one rising volley of fire, and so many holes were punched through its hull that it exploded and then literally fell apart.
Unfortunately for the rest of the Destroyer squadron, Bug gunnery was as 'accurate' as always and, despite only aiming at one specific Destroyer, they fired all over the place causing all the other Destroyers in the squadron to be hit. The entire squadron was hit so many times that another warship was damaged to the point it was effectively destroyed while three more were sent limping away streaming breathable gases.
One squadron of Imperial Destroyers was gone but fifty Old Confederation Destroyers showed up to take its place. Seeing the fate of their Imperial comrades, the Destroyers of the Glorious Fleet went on the attack.
“The old Confederation Destroyers are attacking the Bug Mothership,” reported Tactical as gases and Bugship internal fluids began flowing into space at an increased rate.
“Four more of the Motherships are going active,” said Science Officer Jones.
Angry maws gaping wide, the other Motherships started firing their missiles as Bug Scouts and Scout Marauders poured from the angry black gashes in the front of the ships.
Then, one after the other, pulsing in an offbeat rhythm, Small Harvesters started extruding from the Motherships.
“That’s our cue,” said Spalding while the Lucky Clover II fired a rolling broadside that knocked half a dozen Destroyers out of commission, “let slip the dogs of war and then get us out of here.”
The five Spineward Sectors Battleships joined in the fire and fury, and a trio of Cruisers fell victim to their lasers never to rise again.
“Sir?” asked First Officer while the Com-officer relayed the orders.
“We need to get while the getting’s good. Give the gunboats our course and tell them to annihilate anything in our path,” Spalding declared, and moments after relaying the order a horde of more than three hundred gunboats came out from behind the planetoid, took up formation in front of the Battleships, and attacked.
“That’s a relief, Sir!” Science Officer Jones said with visible relief as he intruded into the conversation.
The First Officer gave him a quelling look.
“Take us out of here, Helm,” ordered Spalding and, slowly following behind hundreds of angry gunboats, the Super Battleship began to move away from the Planetoid.
“Sir, the boats will help but we’ll have to fight our way out of this,” warned the First Officer.
“I never expected anything else, son. But we need to get some distance before we show up on the Bug’s t
argeting radar of we’re in serious trouble. We’ll have to deploy jammers as we go and force our way through,” Spalding said with confidence as the five smaller Battleships formed up around the Lucky Clover and started moving away from the Planetoid.
Seeing a target of opportunity, the Weaponeer fired and another enemy Battleship was knocked out of the fight.
By the time all six of the Motherships had gone active, the first of the Imperial Battleship squadrons arrived.
Meanwhile the gunboats ran into a mixed group of somewhere around thirty Destroyers and Cruisers, and the Lucky Clover and her companions who were trying to make the great escape moved to assist.
Lasers flashed back and forth in a furious fashion, but with nine capital ships, one super Battleship, five regular Battleships and a pair of Battleships that had been modified into gunboat carriers, whatever the gunboats couldn’t deal with the larger warships certainly could. The group began to leave a trail of broken wreckage behind theme.
Not willing to let the instigators of this trap get away free, but even more unwilling to let a potential menace like the Bug Planetoid wake up, the Imperial Battleships immediately turned broadside on and opened fire.
Raking the Planetoid with coordinated broadsides of turbo- and heavy laser fire left giant scars and great, blackened holes in the living flesh that was the Bug’s massive armor.
In response, the Planetoid seemed to ripple and then disappear as the sensor computers on every warship within range temporarily went on the fritz. Moments later the sensors cleared and computers began to identify the hordes of fire-and-forget missiles launched from every facing of the giant Bug monstrosity.
Chapter 60: The Clover in Peril
“Commander! Contact—multiple contacts! Something’s coming out of the jammer fog at close range,” reported a frantic midshipman manning a Sensor console.
Admiral's Nemesis Part II Page 55
