by gerald hall
“The enemy probably already knows that Hidden Blade is not an ordinary Conestoga-class cargo shuttle after it fired at one of the enemy battlers earlier.” Joanna noted.
“I am aware of that. But the Syndicate captains have no idea of the full capability of Lieutenant Winter’s ship, much less that of our other two Q-ships. We already know how potentially vulnerable our ships are. But the enemy has no idea of what they are carrying underneath all of that false plating either.
In any event, we have little choice. We must protect the colonial jump tenders and support ships. Otherwise, we may win this battle, but the Syndicate will have won the war by gutting the Kepler’s jump tender fleet.”
“Yes, Sir. Orders have now been sent to the Q-ship detachment.” Joanna replied.
“Thank you. Let’s hope that these Q-ship conversions are all that Colin promised us. So far, he hasn’t let us down yet.”
Under the orders of the Syndicate flagship, the Broadsword-class battler Cassius turned to make a run at the Kepler support ships. The Cassius’ captain Lieutenant Commander Leila Berlin had a predatory smile on her face when she received the orders.
“Lambs to the slaughter. We are going to strand those damned colonists in this system after we destroy their jump tenders. Then we can finish them off at our leisure after we have forced them to give our Syndicate all of the concessions that we want.”
“Yes, Captain. We are picking up something on our sensors. It appears that several shuttles are moving to put themselves in between us and the Colonial jump tenders. A couple of those shuttles are Conestogas which are substantially larger than we are.”
“It doesn’t matter how big they are. They are just more targets for us. Focus your mass driver on that one big shuttle. We already know that those privateers have put a few missile tubes in her. But she won’t be able to stand up to a real fighting ship.”
“What about the other two shuttles with her? They don’t seem to be backing down any either.”
“We will destroy them too in due time.” Leila confidently replied.
On the other side, the captains of the three privateer Q-Ships were not quite as confident. But they were more than determined enough to do the job.
“They can’t maneuver against all three of us and avoid at least one of us getting into close range with her. Then we can knock them out of the fight.” Hidden Blade’s captain said to the others on his ship’s bridge.
“I know, Sir. But how many of us will that battler knock out of the fight at the same time? We can’t possibly go toe to toe using a Q-ship like ours. It just doesn’t have the armor necessary.”
“We will do what we have to do. Now, fire capital missiles from both tubes at that enemy ship. Let’s make them feel like they have been nudged a bit.”
Hidden Blade had just fired a pair of capital missiles at Cassius when a mass driver projectile fired by the Syndicate battler struck the Q-ship. Everyone on the stricken Q-ship’s bridge found himself or herself being hurled around within the straps that held each crewman in their acceleration chair. Still, the blow battered and bruised every one of the bridge, including Lieutenant Commander Winters
“We just lost one of our capital missile tubes. We have also taken heavy damage to two of our fighter bays, our fore-starboard DFM battery and several of our fuel tanks. We have also suffered six dead and another fifteen wounded from just that one hit. We can’t take another mass driver hit like that, Sir.”
“We need to break off our attack then. But now that enemy battler is in optimal position for our other two Q-ships to make their attack. Tell them, good luck and Godspeed.”
“At least we did some good. One of our capital missiles was able to hit that enemy battler. It didn’t do a lot of damage. But at least it did some.”
“Hopefully, it was enough to make a difference. Now, let’s get the hell out of here.” Lieutenant Winters replied bitterly. He wanted Hidden Blade to be able to stay in the fight. But that heavy mass driver hit had done just too much damage to the Q-Ship’s systems.”
Colin had done some work on the engines of all three Q-ships. While their speeds still paled in comparison to a purpose-built battler, Colin had managed to increase the acceleration of all three Q-ships at least ten percent from their original numbers. The captains of all three Q-ships put that extra acceleration to good use. The badly hurt Hidden Blade turned and sped away to avoid being destroyed. But her fellow Q-ships used their upgraded engines to unexpectedly close with the Syndicate battler.
“What the hell are those two cargo ships doing? They don’t have a chance against Cassius.”
“Maybe they are trying to ram us, Sir?” Her first officer suggested.
“If they try, we will do to them what we did to that other shuttle. She might have hurt us a little with that jury-rigged capital missile that she hit us with. But we sure as hell knocked her out of the fight, didn’t we. We will do the same to the others before we get to the enemy jump tenders.”
The three ships rapidly closed on each other. The two privateer Q-Ships were wildly maneuvering to deny the Syndicate battler a clear shot for his main weapon. Lighter weapons on all sides also began to fire as the range closed. Fortunately for the Q-Ships, they were able to dodge or intercept the half-dozen capital missiles that Cassius had fired at them. But all three combatants took damage along the way.
But for all three of the combatants, the moment of truth was soon in coming.
“Coming into point blank range now, Sir.”
“Let’s get ready to give them a little surprise then. Just stay away from the muzzle of that big mass driver of theirs.”
“They still look like they are trying to ram us, Sir.”
“Then give those two shuttles a minimum target profile while we open the range a little so even their anemic weapons cannot damage us. Then we will hit them with our mass driver.”
“But, Sir. We can’t avoid both of them. They are attacking from different vectors.”
“Do the best that you can. They can’t really hurt us anyway, not with the light weapons that they carry.”
As soon as Cassius turned to avoid Buccaneer’s Dream, Papillon then turned at point blank range and opened up a dozen hidden doors in her outer hull. Scores of Dead Fire Cluster munitions raced out towards the incoming Syndicate battler. At such a short range, the vast majority of the heavy unguided shaped-charge munitions hit their target with devastating effect. The DFM’s punched through the Broadsword’s armor as though it were paper, crippling her in less than ten seconds.
The DFM’s were quickly followed by fire from the Q-Ship’s hidden anti-fighter missiles and point-defense lasers. These lighter weapons did additional damage to the Syndicate battler.
Onboard Cassius’ bridge, there was utter chaos.
“I need a report from our Damage Control. When the hell are we going to get our engines and weapons back?” Captain Berlin demanded as he looked around the Broadsword’s bridge and saw little more than red warning lights. The main lights had gone off within a few seconds of the Q-Ship’s DFM attack, leaving only the dim illumination of the bridge’s emergency lighting.
“Sir, we’ll be damned lucky if we can restore life support to most of the ship, much less repair any of our propulsion or offensive systems. I’m not even sure that I can maintain the systems that I still have operational as it is. We have fires on half of our decks. Most of the rest of the ship has been opened to vacuum due to battle damage. Who knows how many people we have also lost as well?”
“Captain, I have one of the other enemy vessels approaching. It is highly probable that they also carry hidden heavy weapons as well. We will not survive another attack.” The Cassius’ first officer reported.
“Very well. Order the crew to abandon ship immediately. Hopefully, our adversaries will rescue us before we run out of life support.” Captain Berlin reluctantly ordered.
A few moments later, more than a dozen life pods erupted from the relatively undama
ged side of the battler. The drifting wreckage was no longer a threat to the colonial jump tenders now. But the three privateer Q-ships had all received varying levels of battle damage during the fight.
“It looks like that enemy battler is out of the fight now, Sir. I’ve got a mass launch of life pods coming from her. Her energy emissions are practically nonexistent too.” One of ‘Dream’s’ sensor operators reported.
“I’m certainly glad because I don’t think that we could have handled any more damage ourselves. Let’s go ahead and start to pick up survivors. Hopefully, the person in charge of the Syndicate force will not try to send any more warships in our direction. We will have some major problems if she does.”
“Sir, our Q-Ships have reported that they have prevented the enemy battler from reaching the Kepler jump tenders.” Joanna reported.
“Excellent! What are our ships’ status now?” Alec asked as he breathed a temporary sigh of relief.
“Hidden Blade has taken heavy damage and some casualties from a mass driver hit, but is still capable of remaining on station. Our other two Q-Ships report relatively light damage and no fatalities. They report being fully combat capable, Sir.”
“I am glad that we kept them in the rear for obvious reasons. They still did very well against that battler. Send Lieutenant Winters and the other Q-Ship commanders our congratulations, please.” Alec replied before turning his attention back to the main battle.
The various Kepler Colony warships were very much in the thick of the battle from the very beginning. They were inflicting significant damage to the Syndicate force and taking quite a bit of enemy fire in return.
But the real focus of the fight against the Belair Syndicate force remained Alec’s Golden Phoenix and the five battlers that she brought into the fight. The privateers tore into the Syndicate formation with seeming reckless abandon. But at the same time, there was a method to this madness of plunging outnumbered into the heart of the enemy force. Concentrated salvoes of weapons fire from the privateer force ripped apart the enemy invaders, one or two ships at a time.
The Kepler crews could not help but to be inspired by what they saw. Their aggressiveness increased substantially, as did the Kepler crews’ willingness to team up on individual Syndicate ships to isolate and destroy them. The Syndicate force was in shock over what this smaller force of colonials and privateers was doing to them.
No one was more shocked than the Syndicate executive who came along for what she thought would be a short, victorious little battle. She just had no idea which side would actually end up overwhelming the other.
Lindsey Buckman was constantly being bounced around within her acceleration couch with each hit that her flagship received. With each bounce and ensuing bruise, she became even angrier as well as more importantly, more afraid.
“What the hell is going on out there, Captain?” She brusquely demanded.
“We are losing a lot more ships than our adversaries have been, Ma’am. I highly recommend that we withdraw before our forces are rendered combat ineffective.” The Syndicate flagship captain explained.
“I never achieved anything worthwhile by being timid, Captain. I’m also not about to run away from this with our tails between our legs, even if you are not willing to fight. Tell the other ships in our task force that they need to destroy their opponents, even if they have to ram the enemy ship that they are currently engaged with. Those captains and crews who fail will be dealt with most severely afterwards.”
“Yes, Ma’am.” The combat tender’s captain reluctantly replied.
The defenders were not coming out of this fight unscathed, unfortunately. The Kepler force had already lost one battler and had taken heavy damage to three others. Even Alec’s force could not completely escape the wrath of the Syndicate warships.
“Sir. Tomahawk has taken heavy damage from enemy fire. One of the enemy battlers just attempted to ram her, but she was just barely able to evade. Tomahawk’s drives and weapons have been badly damaged. Her captain is requesting permission to withdraw to make emergency repairs to those and her life support systems.” One of Phoenix’s bridge communications technicians reported.
“Alright, have Captain Carson to pull back and make whatever repairs that she can. Please let Emily also know that Tomahawk has fought well. We will keep the enemy off of her back while she disengages.”
“Will do, Sir. I am receiving another message. We have one of the Kepler battlers moving up and asking if they can join in our datalink to take Tomahawk’s place.”
“Tell them to come on up. Use a tight beam communications laser to send them to datalink encryption protocols when they get into range. I guess that those Colonials want to get in on our action here. Fortunately, we don’t mind sharing.” Alec replied, causing everyone on the bridge within earshot to laugh.
As Syndicate losses continued to grow, the tide of battle became even worse for the invaders in very short order. Instead of outnumbering the Colonials and privateers by two to one, very quickly, the ratio was reversed. Now, every Syndicate warship found itself under the guns of two or adversaries. As a Syndicate vessel was destroyed or disabled, its opponents would quickly join up with other allied ships to mass their fires upon another enemy ship.
There were very few Syndicate warships remaining operational when Lindsey issued this final desperate order.
“Do whatever you have to, but kill that big privateer combat tender, Captain. Ram them if you must, but that ship must be destroyed. If that happens, it will surely break the back of the enemy resistance.”
“Yes, Ma’am.” Captain Carson grimly replied before ordering her helmsman to alter her ship’s trajectory into a collision course with the Golden Phoenix. The Syndicate combat tender’s commander ordered all fire focused on the privateer combat tender.
There’s one last Syndicate combat tender left. The way that she had been hanging back a little, I would guess that she was their flagship.” Alec noted as he began to think that perhaps the battle was almost won.
“Well, Sir. I don’t think that she is hanging back any more. In fact, I think that she is coming straight at us now.” Joanna replied a few moments later just before the entire ship shuddered violently.
“I just took a heavy mass driver round portside through decks four, five and six. I was very fortunate in that it hit me at an angle which kept it from punching even deeper through my armor.” Jill quickly reported with deep concern in her voice. Even the expression on the face of the AI’s avatar looked like Jill was in pain.
“What other damage did we take, Joanna?” Alec immediately asked, wanting an additional source of information beyond what the Phoenix’s AI could provide.
She quickly looked down at her ship’s systems status screen before answering.
“We’ve lost several thrusters on that side in addition to a capital missile launcher, two point defense lasers and a standard missile battery. We lost a DFM cluster on that side as well. We were lucky as hell that it didn’t go off when that round punched through them. We also had several casualties on those decks, Sir.”
“Rotate the ship to keep our port side away from enemy fire as much as possible. Prepare to focus fire on that enemy combat tender.” Alec ordered while trying to shut out the painful realization that friends that he knew just died down there.
Phoenix’s gunners began to rain as much firepower as possible upon the incoming Syndicate combat tender. The enemy warship was clearly taking a beating, but continued on the course toward the privateer flagship.
“She may be trying to ram us, Sir.” Joanna said while looking at the information from Brandon’s sensors that she had displayed in a subordinate window on her MFD screen.
“Then we have to stop her….hard. Mister Gridley, set us up to fire our spinal mount mass driver down that combat tender’s throat. But I want to wait on lining up that shot until the last second so she won’t know to evade until it is too late. I don’t want to get into a close-range slugging m
atch with her. That enemy ship could end up killing far too many of our people with the DFM’s that she is bound to have.”
“Got it, Sir. Charging up our mass driver now. We are continuing to fire our missiles and energy weapons at her.” Phoenix’s gunnery officer reported as the privateer combat tender continued a series of evasive maneuvers.
Aboard the Syndicate flagship, there was an air of desperation. It seemed like every couple of seconds, the entire ship would shudder from the hit of a missile. There were more red lights on the various bridge displays showing systems failures than green lights.
“How many ships do we have left, Captain?” Lindsey asked, bitter about what appeared to be a massive failure of her plans.
“We are the only combat tender from our fleet still operational. There are eight battlers left, but all are damaged except for the two escorting our jump tenders in the rear.”
“Then we have no choice. We must destroy those brigands in that big combat tender. Use any means necessary!” The Syndicate executive ordered.
“We have a firing solution on the Syndicate flagship, Sir. Mass driver is charged and ready.” Lieutenant Gridley reported at the same time from Golden Phoenix’s bridge while sitting at the main fire control console.
“Bring our ship to bear and fire now, Ethan.” Alec confidently ordered.
“Target is in the basket. Firing now!” Alan announced.
Only about five seconds after Phoenix fired, a sensor tech aboard the Syndicate flagship cried out.
“Incoming capital-class mass driver round!”
The targeted warship tried in vain to swing about to dodge the incoming projectile by firing all of its lateral thrusters. Lindsey could see the panic in their faces for about two more seconds before she was struck by a tremendous blow and everything turned black forever.
The heavy long-rod mass driver projectile punched through the warship’s hull at a slight angle from its centerline. The projectile left a white-hot trail of destruction through at least ten decks before exiting and leaving a massive hole in the opposite flank. Part of that trail passed through the heart of the ship, including the bridge, Combat Information Center and the ship’s main power distribution node.
