-
On the Vengeance, First Leader Shrea had smiled when the com operator reported that they had picked up what seemed to be a distress beacon from the planet. He had already sent the location of the beacon to his protectors down on the ground. Shortly, the survivors from the shuttle would be captured and then they would be brought up to the Vengeance for interrogation. He doubted if they would survive it very few did.
-
“They’re nearly here,” reported Kevin, peeking back over the boulder at the Hocklyns working their way up the steep slope. His palms felt sweaty, and he was feeling scared.
Jeremy nodded his head. This was it. They had run out of time. He glanced down at the pistol in his belt. It had a full clip in it and he had two more if needed. It was hard to believe that everything was going to end this way. He wished he could have spoken to his father and mother one last time. There were so many things he would have liked to have said to them.
“Kevin, I need you to take out one or two of them with the rifle. That might buy us some more time.”
“Okay,” Kevin said as he laid the rifle on the boulder and took aim at a Hocklyn several hundred meters down the slope. Then, glancing over at Jeremy, “I just don’t think anyone is coming, Jeremy. I know what Kelsey told you. If you have to use that pistol, make it quick. Start with Katie so she won’t have to see the rest of us die.”
Jeremy nodded. He didn’t know what else to say.
Kevin took careful aim and steadied his breathing. He tried to remember everything his father had taught him about hunting. Sighting in his target, he carefully squeezed the trigger, hearing the sharp report of the assault rifle. He let out a deep breath as he saw his target fall.
The other Hocklyns yelled and pointed up the slope toward the cave. They instantly started scrambling over the rough terrain. Kevin fired several more rounds, striking another Hocklyn who fell wounded to the ground.
Jeremy and Kevin both ducked as a fusillade of return fire struck the boulders and the surrounding Cliffside. They hunkered down behind the boulders, knowing it was over. The Hocklyns now knew exactly where they were and were rushing up the slope. They would reach the cave shortly. Jeremy pulled the pistol out of his belt and clicked the safety off. He looked over at Katie, who was standing just inside the cave entrance. He hadn’t known she was standing there, and she was staring at him with sudden understanding in her eyes.
“I’m sorry, Katie,” Jeremy said softly as he raised the pistol.
“I love you, Jeremy,” replied Katie, closing her eyes as a tear rolled down her cheek.
“Hold your fire!” a strange voice yelled from above them.
Jeremy looked up, shocked to see four heavily armed marines descending rapidly on ropes to land just behind the boulders. At the same time, he heard additional weapons open up from above. Jeremy let the pistol drop from his hand as he gazed in astonishment at the marine who was coming toward him.
“I’m Corporal William Sanders from the WarStorm. I take it you must be Jeremy Strong?”
“Yes, sir,” replied Jeremy, feeling stunned. The other marines had taken up positions behind the boulders and, along with Kevin, were laying down a withering fire at the Hocklyns below.
Katie opened her eyes and upon seeing the marines, started crying.
Kelsey hurried over and put her arms protectively around the teenager. She looked questionably at the marine corporal. “Did you say the WarStorm is here?”
“It will be shortly,” replied the corporal as more heavily armed marines rappelled down into the cave. “Our mission is to hold this position until the WarStorm can send reinforcements.”
Angela walked over to Kelsey, gazing in disbelief at the marines. She suddenly threw herself at Corporal Sanders, hugging him and sobbing uncontrollably.
“You’re safe,” Sanders said, knowing all five of these young people had been through a horrendous ordeal. “It’s not over yet, but my marines and I will make sure the Hocklyns never make it up here.” He looked over the cave and nodded in satisfaction. This was a good defensive location, particularly with the large boulders concealing the entrance.
“Corporal Sanders, what’s your situation?” a tense voice asked over Sanders mini-com.
“We’re in a small cave with good cover, Captain Gaines,” Sanders reported as four more marines made it down to the cave and took up firing positions at the boulders.
“It’s not so good up here,” Gaines replied. “We have some inbound fighters closing in on us. I’m going to blow the scouts and then we will be coming down to you.”
Jeremy looked at Sanders questionably. Were they destroying their ships?
“We thought we might have to destroy our scout ships,” explained Sanders, looking back over at Jeremy. “We can’t let them fall into Hocklyn hands, so we rigged them with self-destruct charges.”
Sanders had scarcely gotten the words out when two dull explosions rattled the cave, sending some loose dirt cascading down from the ceiling.
Sanders smiled at Jeremy and said, “You know, you look a lot like your father.”
Jeremy only nodded as more marines rappelled down into the cave. The last one was a captain, and he instantly took charge of the situation as he walked up to Corporal Sanders.
“Corporal Sanders, set up some of our heavy weapons to cover the entire slope leading up to this cave. If we can hold out for two hours this should be over.”
Sanders nodded and hurried over to the other marines. He tapped Kevin on his shoulder and indicated he should move back to the other cadets. There were fourteen marines now in the cave, counting Captain Gaines.
Gaines looked thoughtfully at the four cadets and Katie. He shook his head, amazed that they had managed to survive this long with the Hocklyns searching for them. But then again he also realized who Kelsey and Jeremy’s parents were.
“You five get to the back of the cave where it’s safer,” he ordered. “It will take the Hocklyn protectors a few minutes to get reorganized before they can launch a new attack.”
“Yes, sir,” Jeremy replied, then he added. “Thank you, sir; you have no idea how glad I was to see Corporal Sanders.”
“I can imagine,” Gaines replied as he turned to go check on his marines.
-
In the war cruiser Vengeance, First Leader Shrea was livid with rage. “What do you mean a military force has landed and engaged our protectors?”
“That’s what’s being reported,” Second Leader Vrill replied as he listened to the frantic reports coming in from the ground. “A military force of unknown size landed in two large shuttles on a small plateau on the mountain. They engaged our forces that were coming up the slope, wiping them out. They then destroyed their shuttles and took up a defensive position where we think the survivors from the destroyed ship are.”
“They’re waiting for retrieval,” Shrea said, his mind racing. “Order all of our ships to form up on us; we need to get out of this planet’s gravity well. We can expect inbound warships at any moment.”
“Too late,” the sensor operator reported as red threat icons began blossoming on his screen. “They’re already here.”
“Scan them and see if you can identify what race they belong to,” Shrea ordered in a shrill voice. “We need to know if one of our subject races has built a fleet in secret, or if we are dealing with a new group of aliens.”
“We have one capital ship and four escorts inbound,” the sensor operator reported as he ran the ships profiles through the database of the Vengeance. Then the sensor operator turned pale as he read the results of the search. “First Leader, these are warships from the Human Federation of Worlds.”
“Impossible!” Shrea spoke, his voice radiating anger. “All the human worlds and their fleet were wiped out years ago.”
“Evidently not,” Second Leader Vrill replied as he studied the information coming in over the sensors and scanners. “We have a 900-meter Monarch heavy cruiser coming in, as well as four 600-
meter light cruisers of human Federation design. Some of the humans must have escaped the destruction and settled elsewhere.”
Shrea stood on the command pedestal looking with deep concern at his Second Leader. “The AIs will be extremely upset about this. The families responsible for allowing these humans to escape and become a threat to us once again will lose all of their honor and family holdings. There has been treachery on the part of at least one Hocklyn family if humans managed to escape the destruction of their worlds. Someone high up in the attack fleet back then had to know some of the humans escaped.”
“No one will know if we can’t defeat this human fleet,” stated Vrill, wondering just how powerful the human capital ship was.
“Move all of our ships into a screening formation and standby to launch our war wing,” First Leader Shrea spoke as he prepared for battle. “Today we have an opportunity to earn honor for ourselves and our families. We will not fail!”
-
Amanda gazed with cool detachment at the main viewscreen. It showed a close-up of the war cruiser as it began to pull away from the planet with its escort cruisers forming up in a defensive formation around it. The Hocklyns were already launching their fighters.
She tapped the mini-com in her right ear, activating ship-to-ship communications. “All ships, launch fighters and engage incoming enemy craft.”
On the main sensor screen, it showed thirty-four inbound Hocklyn fighters. Her own fighters would be outnumbered almost three to one. It was evident that the fighter wing on the WarStorm was far too small for this type of battle. Of course, if the New Tellus were here she would have an advantage in fighters. At the moment, she couldn’t take the risk of the inbound Hocklyn fighters closing the range and damaging any of her warships until she knew if there had been any new developments in Hocklyn ship weaponry. Her fighters would have to engage them first and keep them away from the warships.
“Helm, continue to move us in on an intercept course, I want to engage their warships within the gravity well of the planet so they can’t escape.”
“Communications, contact our other four stealth scouts and tell them to begin jamming all FTL communication frequencies.”
The stealth scouts had been launched earlier and taken up positions far outside of the gravity well of the planet to jam all FTL transmissions. Amanda knew this would stop any FTL transmissions from leaving the system, but all the ships on both sides would still be able to use their short-range communications to talk to one another.
“Combat range in twenty minutes,” Major Fields reported as he studied the information that was constantly being updated on his plotting board and entered into the holographic imager above the table. “Fighters will enter combat range of each other in seven minutes.”
Amanda nodded as she took her seat behind the command console and buckled herself in. Across the Command Center, everyone was doing the same. This was a change from the old ships. Too many crewmembers had been injured in Command Centers when they had been thrown off their feet or knocked into consoles. Richard had gone to auxiliary control, ready to take over if the Command Center were knocked out.
“Tactical, when we get within range, I want all the forward lasers locked onto that war cruiser.”
“What about the Devastator Two missiles?” Major Fields asked. He knew they were the most powerful weapons they had and could probably easily destroy the war cruiser.
“Have them ready, but we won’t use them unless we absolutely have to,” Amanda answered. She preferred to save them in case they ran across an AI ship. This was going to be an old-fashioned slugging match. Besides, she had orders to evaluate the Hocklyn’s current weapons development.
She watched the sensor screens as the red icons representing the thirty-four Hocklyn fighters and the fourteen green icons indicating her own fighters suddenly became intermixed.
“Fighters engaged,” Major Fields reported.
“Stand by on Hunter missiles,” Amanda ordered. Once they got within range, she would use the hunters to try to even the odds for her fighters. But for a few minutes, they would be on their own as they tried to turn the Hocklyn fighters away from the Federation warships.
In space, the fighters were involved in a wild dogfight as they darted and turned trying to avoid incoming missiles and cannon fire. Both sides were using small interceptor missiles, and occasionally a missile would find its mark and a fighter would explode in a bright fireball as its fuel ignited and tore the fighter apart. Both sides were losing fighters. The Hocklyns died at a two to one ratio, but there were far more Hocklyn than human fighters.
“Extreme hunter missile range,” Tactical reported. “Missiles are locking on targets.”
“Fire,” Amanda grated out as another human fighter vanished off the sensor screen.
From the WarStorm, forty-eight missiles blasted out of their missile ports and flew unerringly toward the targeted Hocklyn fighters. The Hocklyns instantly went evasive and managed to shoot a few down with their cannons, but sixteen Hocklyn fighters exploded in bright fireballs as the hunter missiles salvo found their targets.
“Thirty-three percent hits,” reported Tactical as another wave of hunters was prepared. The closer they got the more accurate the missiles would be.
“Hocklyn warships are firing missiles at our fighters,” Lieutenant Stalls reported as his sensor screens lit up with red threat warnings.
“Pull our fighters back,” ordered Amanda, sitting up straighter. “Retask our hunters to take out those missiles and fire!” She could feel the adrenaline rushing through her. She had forgotten what combat was like. Amanda felt intensely alive, her senses heightened as she became immersed in the battle.
More missiles erupted from the WarStorm and quickly began intercepting the deadly missiles aimed at the human fighters. Several fighters were unlucky and vanished in bright fireballs as the deadly ship launched missiles struck them.
The Hocklyn fighters suddenly turned and returned to their warships, taking up a defensive position around them. Only twelve Hocklyn fighters remained. The six remaining human fighters retreated to the safety of the fleet, which was now beginning to enter weapon’s range of the Hocklyn warships.
“Laser lock on war cruiser,” Tactical reported.
“Fire lasers,” Amanda ordered, her eyes now focused on the viewscreen, which was showing the massive 1,000-meter war cruiser. She could see the weapon turrets and missile tubes. All of those weapons would soon be focused on the WarStorm. Amanda just hoped the new energy screen would hold.
Four bright orange-red beams of light jumped from the bow of the WarStorm, striking the shields of the Hocklyn war cruiser. The shields wavered briefly and then two of the beams penetrated striking the war cruiser’s hull, cutting deep inside.
-
First Leader Shrea felt his ship cry out in pain as its shields were ravaged and two of those deadly beams cut deep into the hull. On the damage control board, a number of red lights started flashing. He frowned to himself. Those lasers were much more powerful than the ones the humans had reportedly used in the original war. Even so, his own energy weapons were now locked on.
“Fire!” he ordered, his cold eyes locked on the viewscreen. He had the humans outnumbered, and he planned to make short work of this human fleet. If he could capture one of their smaller vessels, then his honor would be greatly enhanced.
Two light blue energy beams reached out and slapped the protective shield of the WarStorm. The shield wavered but did not go down.
-
“Shields holding,” Fields reported as he checked the power readings on the WarStorm’s energy shield. “But just barely.”
“All ships engage!” Amanda ordered as the WarStorm and her four escorting light cruisers reached optimum firing range.
Orange-red and light blue beams played back and forth between the two fleets. Occasionally a beam would penetrate an energy screen, causing major damage to the unlucky ship.
“Hocklyns are l
aunching missiles,” Lieutenant Stalls reported over his mini-com. “Some are armed with nukes.”
“Turn us broadside and bring the HG turrets on line. Fire when we have a target lock. All defensive turrets fire and bring those incoming missiles down.”
The WarStorm turned rapidly and the HG turrets began firing on the Hocklyn war cruiser. One-meter shells traveling at 10,000 kilometers per second struck the war cruiser’s shields, delivering a one-kiloton blow with each exploding shell. Defensive fire began bringing down the inbound Hocklyn missiles in bright explosive bursts. The WarStorm’s screen lit up as numerous missiles and cannon fire began to rake her energy screen. Then a Hocklyn nuclear missile detonated against the screen, causing it to waver and allowing several rounds to impact the hull.
“Minor damage to section seven,” the damage control officer called out. “We have lost hull integrity there, and we’re venting atmosphere. Damage control teams are en route.”
“Light cruiser Raven has been hit by several nukes and has lost her shields,” reported Major Fields, his face turning pale. “She is trying to withdraw.”
The Hocklyns, seeing that the Raven had lost her energy shielding, redoubled their efforts to destroy it as three Hocklyn support cruisers poured everything they had into her. Moments later, a series of powerful explosions blew the Federation cruiser apart.
“Raven is down,” reported Lieutenant Stalls, trying to keep his voice calm.
“Shields are starting to fail on the war cruiser,” Major Fields reported as he studied the inbound tactical data. “Our shells are starting to get through.”
Amanda watched as massive explosions covered the war cruiser’s hull, blasting huge jagged rents in the ship. It was starting to suffer some major damage.
-
Inside the War Room of the Vengeance, First Leader Shrea was picking himself up off the floor. Looking over at the damage control board, he saw it was covered in red warning lights. The Vengeance continued to shudder as it was pounded by the human weapons. This human warship was much more powerful than those of the past. This didn’t bode well for the Hocklyn Slave Empire in the future. The AIs kept the Hocklyn’s weapon development to a minimum. If there were more of these human ships out there, the Hocklyn fleet could some day be facing a very dangerous opponent. He needed to get word back to Commodore Rateif.
Moon Wreck: Fleet Academy (The Slaver Wars) Page 28
