* * *
“There goes laser A,” called out the Tactical Officer as the Scranton shook from the hit.
Captain Francois Pasce looked at the damage schematic that was hanging in the air near his chair, trying to think of something he could do to change the flow of this battle, and coming up with a blank. The fact was, his ship was now the focus of the attention of a ship almost ten times its mass, and the lasers coming in were ten times more powerful than those going out.
The five destroyers were lending their fire, but even with the addition of their weapons it wasn’t a fair fight. The battle cruiser also sustained damage, very little of it going through the armor. He had known going in that the heavily armored ship would be almost immune to the lasers of his group, one of the reasons they were focusing on surface installations like the grabber units.
“Grabber unit is destroyed,” called out the Tactical Officer. “Switching targeting to next grabber.”
“Belay that,” ordered the Captain, studying the presumed damage schematic of the enemy ships. “Aim at one of the forward laser rings. Let’s see if we can take out some of their firepower.”
“Aye, aye,” replied the Tactical Officer, getting to work at targeting the large surface installation.
The next shot from the Fenri missed completely. The first shot at the enemy laser ring was also a miss, though it did hit the hull and caused a small amount of damage to the armor. The next volley from the Fenri was a direct hit to the forward section of the ship, just up from the inoperable Laser A. Two of the three beams ripped through the field and armor, blasting through sensor arrays and both plasma torpedo tubes. Armor exploded out, and the forward twenty meters of the ship were just hanging on by a few attachment points.
“Helm,” ordered the Captain, breathing a sigh of relief the that last hit had not gone through a manned section. “Change our aspect. I want our stern pointed toward that ship.” The ship started to spin around, changing aspect to make it the smallest target possible.
“Firm up the field on the stern, Tac. Migrate as much of the cold plasma as you can to that section.”
The next volley coming in was again a complete miss, slashing through where the ship would have been before changing aspect. The return shot from the light cruiser was a direct hit on the targeted laser ring on the battle cruiser. Two beams struck the actual nanomaterial of the ring, the skin that controlled the aim and frequency of the laser, generated from the collector circle of photons below. One hit cracked the spot impacted, weakening the integrity of the ring. The other hit at just the right angle and blew through the material. Bouncing photons leaked from the wound, a blast of light that soon drained the ring was if it had been filled with water.
Laser rings had many strengths, as seen already in this fight, since they allowed a ship to focus all of its light amp weapons on a single target. And one glaring weakness, in that the destruction of a ring deprived the vessel of a considerable percentage of its close in weapon power.
The return strike from the battle cruiser, this time two full strength beams and one at less than half strength, hit the upper stern hull of the light cruiser, ripping a slash through the armor and tearing the aft laser ring, D, in half.
The ships continued to trade strikes, the light cruiser getting in two more hits on the targeted laser ring, just before it lost its own remaining stern ring. The cruiser rotated again, pointing its bow toward the battle cruiser and bringing its only remaining laser ring into action.
Pasce gripped the arms of his chair as the ship once again shook from a hit. His faceplate was down and he was using his suit’s environmental system, since the bridge system was having a lot of trouble clearing out the smoke that was coming from burned out circuits. The damage schematic had so much red on it that it was difficult to pick out the individual points of interest. The Captain was surprised that they had not sustained critical damage to their power generation facilities or the missile warheads. A couple of the missile magazines had been destroyed, their stored normal space weapons shredded. The warheads themselves were stored in heavily armored compartments away from the missiles, and they were easily ejectable from the vessel if necessary.
“That’s the last laser ring,” called out the Tactical Officer as the ship shook again.
“What do you have left?”
“We have one particle beam ring left, the stern array. And, of course, the stern plasma torps.”
And I don’t think we’re going to have a chance to use them, thought the Captain as the ship shook once again. A couple of more hits would probably do it for the Scranton, and then it would be up to the destroyers to handle the enemy capital ship.
* * *
“The cruiser has been disarmed,” said the Master of Battle. “We should be able to finish them, as you ordered, in less than a minute.”
The battle cruiser shook slightly as lasers struck from the five destroyers. Each hit did minimal damage, though they were still taking out electromag projectors, close in weapons systems and here and there a missile tube. And, of course, the grabber units, which had already lost almost half their combined capacity.
“They are no longer a threat,” said the Lord of Millions. “Shift fire to the next target on the priority list.”
“As you wish, my Lord. Shifting target to one of the destroyers. This one.”
* * *
“The enemy is firing on Walter Chang,” shouted out the Tactical Officer of Angela Collins.
Chang was alongside Collins, attacking on the same vector. It was vectoring in sideways, all laser rings firing, which also made it a larger target than if it had been coming in bow or stern first.
Destroyers had been known as Tin Cans since the days of ocean navy metal warships. In those days they had lacked any armor, having only their thin hull metal, about two centimeters. All space warships carried armor over their sandwiched hull. The sandwich layer was comprised of supports and layering, with a nanometal sealant layer in between two layers of supports and hull. The nanometal sealant would automatically flow into, harden, and seal most breaches of the hull. And over this was the layer of armor, a composite of alloys, carbon nanofibers and ceramics.
Battleships carried up to seven meters of armor over their three meters of hull. Battle cruisers carried about five meters of combined armor and hull, like the Fenri ship they were battling. Heavy cruisers had about four meters of protection, light cruisers two, while destroyers, the new tin cans, had less than a meter, thirty centimeters of hull overlaid by less than seventy centimeters of composite armor. Unfortunately, when pentawatt lasers were flying through space, a hundred centimeters of hull was burned through in much less than a second.
The first volley scored two hits, one with the half strength ring that didn’t penetrate fully. The other blew through the hull in an instant, missing one of the laser emitter units but going straight through the ring monitoring room. The beam blasted through the chamber, killing the three spacers in their armor instantly. The next volley missed, while the third hit squarely on the stern, knocking out one of the laser rings. The fourth was the killing shot, two full strength beams ripping through the armor over the reactor capsule and through the extra armor over that structure. Containment breached immediately, and the ship exploded outward.
Next was the Foroud Mustafa, which absorbed seven out of twelve volleys before disappearing in a cloud of plasma. And then the Mu Feng, which only took three hits to go. At that point the force, what was left of it, was almost even with the battle cruiser, and every beam hitting was at the same strength as it had coming out of the ring.
* * *
“The light cruiser force will be within range in twelve seconds, my Lord,” reported the Master of Battle.
The plot showed that force, three light cruisers and a destroyer, coming in on an angled vector that would bring them even with the battle cruiser in ten minutes after entering maximum effective laser range. Two minutes after they were within range, the four
destroyer force would also enter range, and the battle cruiser would find itself fighting two forces on opposite sides.
The battle cruiser was still a formidable fighting machine, despite the damage it had sustained. But she could at most make a hundred and sixty gravities acceleration, and one and half of her laser rings were non-operational. She had some small wounds through her armor and hull, and several areas were uncovered by electromagnetic fields as their arrays of field projectors had been destroyed.
And they were only taking laser fire from the two surviving destroyers of the force falling past her. Only one of those ships had all of its weapons, and the battle cruiser was in the process of targeting the one that was totally intact. The cruiser hadn’t taken any offensive action since it had last been hit, and was assumed to now be a non-factor.
The battle cruiser fired at the intact destroyer, a point blank target that should have been an easy hit. And missed. They didn’t get a chance for another shot.
* * *
“Everything ready?” asked Captain Pasce, sitting strapped into this chair.
“All ships have received their orders, sir,” said the Com Tech in an exhausted voice.
We’re all emotionally drained, thought the Captain. He knew he was. Part of it in his case was escaping death while expecting every moment for it to find him. And part had to do with having led so many other ships into action and losing most of them.
“Targets are locked, sir,” said the Tactical Officer. “Timers set.”
And soon they learn they should have taken us out earlier, thought the anxious commander, knowing that this might be the last action he and crew would ever take. But it was an action they had to take, their duty, even if it attracted the unwanted attention of the battle cruiser.
“Attack set,” called the Tactical Officer, hitting the commit switch and letting it take the biometric reading from his hand, acknowledging that a living sentient had given the command to attack other living sentients.
The battle cruiser fired, at the last remaining fully intact ship, and missed. An instant later the Scranton swung her stern toward the battle cruiser, approaching her closest pass of the enemy ship, less than a thousand kilometers. At the right moment to get the fire into the target at that closest approach the weapons released.
The remaining particle beam accelerator, which had been loaded with antimatter, fired first, sending a stream of anti-protons into the hull of the battle cruiser at point nine nine seven light. The shot lasted three seconds and put two kilograms of the ultimate explosive material into the hull of the battle cruiser. At the velocity it was travelling, the antimatter packed considerable kinetic energy, but nothing compared to the almost ninety megatons of explosive power that ripped through the cold plasma screen and rippled across the hull.
In the middle of that firing run the twin plasma torpedo tubes on the stern released their charges, several tons of superheated plasma each, flying across the nine thousand kilometers of distance in less than a second. Only three quarters of the load made it, the rest translating back into normal space, but even that was enough to rip a pair of holes through the armor of the battle cruiser and flood many compartments with killing heat. And finally, the four stern missile tubes fired a spread of normal space missiles that had been hot rigged to run at fifteen thousand gravities for five seconds, ten times more than needed. Each hit the hull of the massive ship, detonating with four hundred megatons of force each.
The two destroyers fired a few seconds later, during their closest approach, each putting a kilogram of antimatter, one plasma torpedo and three missiles into the capital ship. In three seconds the Fenri ship had gone from a still dangerous capital vessel to a wreck. Only one laser ring was still online, and it was only able to generate forty percent of maximum. All of the electromag projectors on the starboard side were gone, and over half on the port side.
The three Imperial ships continued to fall past, the two destroyers still firing their lasers. Less than a minute later the light amp energy weapons of Force Charlie were falling on the battle cruiser. The battle wasn’t over. It was a given that the Fenri would not surrender, and they still had weapons.
* * *
“What happened?” asked Jennifer as the icons of the Imperial ships fell past the Fenri battle cruiser.
“We’ve won the battle,” said Sean with a smile. “Whichever commander planned that last act has a promotion in his future.”
“It’s not over yet, your Majesty,” said McCullom, shaking her head. “That Fenri bastard still has teeth.”
“So it’s not over?” asked Jennifer, a troubled look manifesting itself on her face. “How many more are going to die?”
“As many as need to,” replied Sean before anyone else could speak. “This is a tiger on the loose, and we need to stop it in its tracks.”
Sean didn’t feel all that great about losing people who had sworn their oaths to him, to protect the Empire under his command. But as he had told his wife, this was a danger to the safety of his people, and it needed to be stopped. And he needed these people who were willing to put it all on the line for the Empire.
“Force Charlie is opening fire on the enemy,” called out one of the Analysts at the table. “Delta will be in range in one minute, eighteen seconds.”
And of course the battle cruiser, even if it only had a single claw, would be firing back. No, the battle wasn’t over, and there was still blood to be spilt. But at this point the end was a foregone conclusion.
Chapter Twenty
War is the business of barbarians.
Napoleon Bonaparte
“All enemy ships have broken contact,” reported the Master of Battle, the male who had been the assistant of the female who had held that post, before she became one of the many casualties on the battle cruiser.
“And nothing else on the sensors?” asked the Lord of Millions, cradling his broken arm set in its hard cast.. He couldn’t see anything on the plot other than the remaining enemy ships. The light cruiser and destroyer from the former trailing group falling ahead of them, while the severely damaged heavy cruiser fell behind. Both of the flanking groups, half their original strength, also fell away along diverging vectors. He had all but destroyed those forces, but had lost his consort cruiser, and his ship was no longer capable of fighting and winning a major action. He could see what was on the plot, but fatigue, along with the stress of constant running from the enemy and the battle, was affecting his thinking.
But we’re still capable of killing that planet that looms ahead, he thought. A last victory for his ship and people. Their families and friends might never know what had happened to them, but he would. They would.
“I want us on a least time stairstep profile for the planet,” he told his battered looking Driver. He turned to look at his new Master of Battle. “What weapons have we remaining?”
“We have partial power to two laser rings, my Lord,” announced that warrior. “Less than fifty percent energy feed to both. One particle beam accelerator left online, with two working projector nozzles. And twelve missile tubes operational.”
So we have less than a third of our original combat capability. I doubt if we can beat off another pair of their heavy cruisers, much less a capital ship. So we have to hope we can get into the system and fire on the planet before something comes along that can take us. Escape was out of the question. Dying well was all they could hope for.
* * *
“Orders from Captain Pasce, sir,” called out the Klassekian Com Tech. All four of her eyes widened as she looked back at Zhukov. “We are to alter vector and prepare to attack the enemy battle cruiser.”
Zhukov almost cursed, something one did not do when given orders by a superior, no matter how one felt. They had fallen past the enemy, and were now over five light minutes distant in hyper VI. They were well out laser range, and while still in missile range, they had no hyper capable weapons to fire. It was doubtful that the enemy had any left either. Zhu
kov had finally begun to feel some relief. They had made it through the gauntlet, they had survived. And now they were being ordered back into the hell of a close in attack on a capital ship.
The holo showed the remaining heavy cruiser, the Vincenzo, moving toward the edge of the plot. That ship was out of the battle, too badly damaged to even decel in time to have any effect. Force Charlie was down to two light cruisers and a destroyer, and were also falling away. If they altered their vectors it would still take them longer than the remainder of Alpha to close with the enemy. Same with Delta, down to a pair of destroyers, one heavily damaged. All the two ships of Alpha would have to do was decelerate, and allow the velocity of the enemy to close the distance.
“Orders, sir?” asked the Chief manning the helm. The look on his face showed he was hoping his captain would disobey the orders from the other captain.
“Prepare for deceleration. You are to follow the moves of the Scranton. If she accelerates, you do the same, understood?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Tactical Officer. Prepare all weapons.”
“That isn’t much,” complained the officer.
“It’s what we have. And what we will use.” And if we’re lucky, our ship will make it through another attack without being destroyed. Though I have my doubts about that as well.
“Scranton is starting to decelerate at three hundred and eight gravities, sir,” said the Sensor Chief over the com.
“That must be all they are capable of,” said the Tactical Officer, as the helm matched the light cruiser as to vector and decel.
“No doubt,” said Zhukov, wondering how the crew on that ship felt about what they were about to do. And knowing that they would do it, no matter how they felt.
“Time to laser range, twenty-one minutes,” called out the Tactical Officer.
Exodus: Empires at War: Book 10: Search & Destroy Page 31
