-
“Inform the interceptors to go in as soon as our missile attack ceases,” ordered Rear Admiral Leeson. He wanted to give them as much covering fire as possible.
From his fleet’s safe position near the Earth’s moon, he had watched the Confederation split their fleet to attack the space station and the ODPs. It gave him an opportunity to inflict some major losses on the enemy, particularly in conjunction with the attack of the interceptors. An opportunity he couldn’t help but take advantage of. He hadn’t even informed Admiral Reynolds of his plan. Leeson would worry about the consequences later.
-
Admiral Malleck was forced to switch his fire from the incoming attack craft to the Human fleet that had suddenly appeared in front of him. Once more the front section of his fleet was under heavy attack. Between the space station and the Human fleet, the firepower was just about even.
For several long minutes the two fleets slugged it out with heavy losses on both sides. Then suddenly the Human fleet stopped firing and pulled back toward the space station. Malleck was confused at the strategy, until hundreds of attack craft entered his fleet formation, and fusion-tipped missiles began hitting his damaged ships. Ship after ship was blown apart in the attack, as it was nearly impossible to fire on the swiftly dodging vessels. They flew complicated attack patterns, weaving back and forth, making them almost impossible to hit without the weapons fire striking another Confederation ship.
“Pull us back!” Malleck ordered, as he saw his ship losses mounting. He never saw the full squadron of attack interceptors whose commander had figured out his ship was the flagship of the fleet. Eighty fusion missiles exploded against Malleck’s ship’s energy shield, with three of them penetrating the weakened parts of the ship’s screen.
In three brilliant flashes of novalike light, the Lormallian flagship blew apart, with Admiral Malleck never knowing what happened. One moment he was giving orders to withdraw, the next a brilliant flash of burning light swept through his Command Center as his flagship ceased to be.
-
Rear Admiral Leeson saw the sudden breakdown in organization of the Confederation fleet. “We must have taken out the flagship. All ships press forward and hit them as hard as we can. Interceptors are to return to the space station to be rearmed.”
Leeson gazed at the viewscreen, which revealed the now-shattered formation of the Confederation fleet. The loss of their flagship had momentarily caused major confusion in the enemy ranks. “As soon as the interceptors are rearmed, they are to launch and to pick out targets of opportunity.” Leeson intended to take full advantage of the enemy’s confusion and annihilate as many of the Confederation’s warships as possible.
“Helm, take us in, and find us a battleship to destroy!”
-
Admiral Reynolds watched everything from Pallas. He was stunned when Rear Admiral Leeson had jumped his fleet back in to engage the Confederation fleet attacking Ganymede Central.
“Should we order Leeson back?” asked Colonel Bryson, as she studied the tactical displays, as well as the viewscreens showing the battles raging around Ganymede.
“No, Leeson spotted a weakness and took advantage of it. Get me Admiral Everett. I’ll order Seventh Fleet to reinforce Rear Admiral Leeson. We just might have a real chance of saving Ganymede Central and most of Ganymede itself.”
Colonel Williams looked concerned. “That will leave Pallas wide open to attack.”
“Perhaps,” replied Reynolds. “But we have the heaviest defenses in the Solar System. Perhaps we can lure the Confederation fleets to attack us here, believing, with our defending fleet gone, they can take us out.”
“A trap,” said Williams, realizing what Reynolds suggested. “Do you think it will work?”
“We’ll find out,” Reynolds replied. “Now, let’s get Rear Admiral Everett on the move. Leeson can use his ships.”
A few moments later, Reynolds’s gaze moved to the tactical display of the defenses around Earth and Rear Admiral Collison’s fleet. Another idea entered his mind. Perhaps he could give Rear Admiral Leeson an even bigger advantage.
-
Rear Admiral Leeson was surprised when Rear Admiral Everett and Seventh Fleet jumped in.
“Admiral Reynolds sent me. He wants to try to keep Ganymede Central intact,” Everett informed Leeson. “It looks as if you can use some assistance.”
Leeson smiled. He now had twenty more dreadnoughts and two hundred more battlecruisers. “Attack the left flank of the Confederation fleet. They are still reorganizing from losing their flagship and the attack interceptor assault.”
Suddenly four more large green icons appeared near Ganymede Central.
“Admiral, those are Fourth Fleet’s battlecarriers,” reported Captain Newman in surprise. “Admiral Reynolds must be making an all-out attempt to protect Ganymede.”
Leeson nodded as hundreds of interceptors launched from the four carriers. He knew each one held 160. Their interceptor squadrons had been increased to the maximum for this expected battle with the Confederation.
“Contact all four of those battlecarriers. I want those interceptors to hit the right flank of the Confederation fleet. We’ll attempt to trounce the center. As soon as more interceptors are armed by the space station, vector them to the right side as well. Speaking of the carriers, we can use them to rearm some of those interceptors waiting to land on the station.”
The battle quickly took on a new phase. With the heavy weapons from the space station, Second Fleet, and Seventh Fleet combined, the advantage turned toward the Humans. The small attack interceptors swooped in once more and destroyed any heavily damaged Confederation vessel not capable of defending itself.
Once their attack runs were finished, the interceptors quickly returned to the shipyard and the battlecarriers to be rearmed. Space was becoming littered with wreckage from destroyed warships, most of them from the Confederation.
-
Not all of the battle was going the Humans’ way. The Confederation had managed to destroy two of the ODPs and the ships protecting them. Once that was done, the surface of Ganymede could be bombarded with fusion and antimatter missiles. However, that brought the Confederation fleets into range of the PDCs, which inflicted heavy losses on the orbiting enemy vessels. From the surface of Ganymede, swarms of missiles and hundreds of fusion energy beams struck, inflicting major losses on the Confederation ships.
-
Zynth Admiral Laru was now the ranking admiral in the Confederation fleet attacking Ganymede. So far the fleet had managed to destroy over 40 percent of the cities on the moon below them. A third ODP was blown apart, and one of the PDCs had just vanished beneath an antimatter strike.
Several attempts had been made to strike the capital city with fusion and antimatter missiles, but the moon’s largest PDC was just outside the capital, and the capital itself sat inside a ring of heavy defenses.
“We can take this moon, but the losses will be staggering,” Laru said to his second in command. “Instead I believe we should withdraw and attack one of the weaker moons and all the mining installations our probes found around this gas giant. Once that has been accomplished, we will fall back to the large moon where Fleet Admiral Horrabe awaits. This will allow us to retain the major portion of our fleet, though our losses above this moon have been substantial.”
The second in command nodded in agreement. “We have caused substantial damage to the defenses around this moon and the Human fleets that have rallied to its defense. We have also bombarded a large number of their cities.”
Laru didn’t hesitate. The Zynth were not known for being indecisive. “Send the orders. We attack one of the other moons and the mining installations. We leave immediately.”
Above Ganymede, the mixed Confederation fleets disengaged and entered hyperspace. Within twenty minutes all the ships were gone, except a few with damaged hyperdrives that could not escape. These were dealt with, using massive attack interceptor strikes.<
br />
-
Rear Admiral Leeson looked at the tactical displays and viewscreens in disbelief. They had forced the Confederation fleets to retreat from Ganymede. Millions of lives had been saved! “We will remain where we are for the time being to see if they return. In the meantime, have all ships begin repairs. Contact Ganymede Central and see if we can use their repair bays.”
Leeson leaned back in his command chair. He knew many Confederation ships were still out there, and the battle was a long way from over. At least this part of the battle was finished for the time being.
-
Colonel Green looked at Major Gina Nelson. He could not believe they were still alive. “We made it!”
“Thanks to Rear Admiral Leeson and the interceptors. We must double the number of interceptors we have stationed on Ganymede in the future.”
Colonel Green nodded. He studied the main viewscreen that showed the capital. It was still intact, as were several more of the moon’s major cities. At least when the people came out of the bunkers, they would have someplace to go, and, with what survived of their infrastructure, rebuilding would be easier. “Contact the Command Bunker beneath the capital. We need our crew brought back onboard. We have some warships to repair.”
Colonel Green leaned back in his command chair. They would live to fight another day, and he knew there were still battles to be fought in the future. For now, he would savor this victory and the feeling of still being alive.
Chapter Eighteen
Fleet Admiral Horrabe watched in anger as the fleets he had sent to destroy the Human presence on the moons of the large gas giant returned. Only 52 percent of the fleet was still combat capable. The other units had either been destroyed or scuttled. No doubt this was the result of incompetence in the command structure of the fleet.
“They only partially accomplished their mission,” reported High Commander Corr. “The two primary moons of the gas giant are still intact, though the largest and most heavily populated one did sustain some damage. All the other moons, the smaller moons where small colonies or mining operations had been, were cleansed of their Human presence.”
“At the cost of nearly two thousand of our warships,” replied Horrabe. “Admiral Malleck was a fool! He should never have split his fleet and should have dealt with one problem at a time. By splitting his fleet, he weakened it, making the different parts vulnerable to attack.”
High Commander Corr stood absolutely still. His telepathy allowed him to sense the rage inside his admiral. It was best to stand quietly until that rage died down.
Fleet Admiral Horrabe gestured toward a large holographic tactical display of the entire Human system. “As you can see, the fleets that came to the aid of the Human moon remain there. It has resulted in a weakness in two key areas of their system. One is the large asteroid, which we believe is a massive manufacturing base. The other is their home planet. We must attack one, but I don’t believe we have the forces to attack both. What would you do?”
Corr was surprised to be asked his opinion. “The asteroid. It’s obviously a massive manufacturing base. The power readings from our sensor scans indicate it may be the primary manufacturing facility for spacecraft and other weapons of war in this system. If we destroy it, the result might be an end to their effort to free the former Human Empire, as it will take them years to rebuild.”
“It is a tempting target,” admitted Fleet Admiral Horrabe. “Too tempting. I believe it is a trap. Whoever is in command of the Human forces in this system has purposely left us an easy target. I suspect, if we attack, we will find out it is not such an easy target as it looks, and they will close the trap on our fleet.”
“Then we attack Earth?”
Horrabe nodded his large head. “Yes, we can’t destroy all the Humans and their weapons of war in this system. It’s too heavily defended. All we can hope to do is cause sufficient damage to their war machine to ensure that, by the time they repair it, we will have conquered all the Human Empire. We can then isolate this world. It is far from the Empire and the Confederation. At that time we can offer them a peace treaty. They stay out of our realm of interest, and we will stay out of theirs. After all, there is very little of value in the Bacchus Region. They can have it, as long as they stay away from the Empire and the Confederation.”
“Will the Great Council agree to this?”
Horrabe nodded. “Yes, Councilor Damora controls the council. They will agree to whatever we want. What I’m proposing is a path to victory and to the continued expansion of the Confederation.”
“The Confederation must expand if we want to someday control all of this galaxy.”
“Contact Admiral Laru and inform him that we will stay here for twenty hours, while repairs are made to his fleet. At the end of that time, we will attack Earth. It is time we brought this mission to an end.”
-
Admiral Reynolds was in the Command Center on Pallas, listening as the losses were reported. “Everything on Titan is gone, as well as most of its population,” reported Colonel Williams. “We did receive a brief encrypted message from the Titan Command Center, and it’s still intact. They believe a few underground bunkers are as well. They’ll need massive assistance once the Confederation ships leave. The moon’s temperature is dropping, and the atmosphere is contaminated.”
“What are the Confederation ships doing?” asked Reynolds. He hated seeing all the years of work on Titan being wiped out.
“They’re still in orbit over Titan. They’ve been joined by the ships that attacked Ganymede and the other moons of Jupiter.”
Reynolds was almost afraid to ask. “What were our losses there?”
Williams hesitated as she looked at several printouts. “All Europa’s defenses have been destroyed, and we estimate over 80 percent of the population has been lost. There has been no radio contact with anyone on the surface. Several ships from Ganymede are currently on the way to see what they can find. Callisto survived intact.
“After what happened at Ganymede, the Confederation fleet avoided it. Its defenses are still intact as well as its cities. Io is a total loss. All its defenses have been destroyed, and we believe only a few thousand survived. Rescue efforts from Callisto are already underway. All the small mining colonies and settlements on the smaller moons have been destroyed. Rescue ships from both Ganymede and Callisto are searching through the rubble.”
“What’s the condition of Ganymede’s defenses?” Reynolds knew they had been hit hard toward the end.
“Not good,” answered Williams. “They lost three of their ODPs and two of the PDCs.”
“What about their attack interceptors?” Reynolds was surprised at how well the small interceptors did.
Williams shuffled through several printouts until she found the one she wanted. “One hundred and seven of the ones based on Ganymede survived. Of the 640 launched by the four battlecarriers, 287 of them survived. We did manage to rescue nearly 32 percent of the crews who ejected.”
“What about our fleets?” Reynolds was greatly concerned about fleet losses, as the Confederation still had a large fleet over Titan that must be dealt with.
Williams shuffled through the sheaf of printouts she held until she found the one she wanted. “Sixth Fleet lost 32 battlecruisers and 6 dreadnoughts. Other ships were damaged but are currently being repaired in the shipyards over Mars. Second Fleet took the biggest losses. From the latest reports Rear Admiral Leeson lost 27 dreadnoughts and 218 battlecruisers. His damaged ships have either returned to the shipyards above Earth or are being repaired at Ganymede Central.”
“Have the four carriers return to Earth immediately and pick up more interceptors,” ordered Reynolds. “Once that’s been done, have them return to Ganymede. Inform Rear Admiral Leeson that he’s to return to his previous location near the Moon. Rear Admiral Everett and Seventh Fleet are to remain at Ganymede.”
Colonel Bryson walked over from where she stood, examining the large holographic tactical di
splay of an expanded view of the space around Titan. “Still want them to attack us here?”
Reynolds nodded. “That’s what I’m hoping. The Confederation lost over two thousand warships trying to take out Ganymede. While they caused a lot of damage to the Jovian system, with Ganymede and Callisto surviving, it’s still somewhat intact.”
“Not much of a defense grid is left around Ganymede,” pointed out Colonel Bryson.
“True,” Reynolds said, “but still three ODPs are in orbit, plus seven of the PDCs survived. Not only that but Ganymede Central is still intact. When you add in the four battlecarriers and Rear Admiral Everett’s fleet, the Confederation might be hesitant about attacking them again and suffering more losses. Particularly with their primary targets still untouched.”
“You mean, us, Mars, the Moon, and Earth,” Bryson stated.
Reynolds nodded. “We have the smallest space to defend, and our defenses are more concentrated. That’s why I’ve reassigned Rear Admiral Everett’s fleet to Ganymede.”
“What if they don’t attack us?” asked Williams. She looked at the tactical display of the Confederation fleet still sitting above Titan.
“Then we’re in trouble. If they attack anywhere else, we could lose a lot of people and valuable infrastructure that we need for this war long-term.” Reynolds knew this was a possibility. They had never fought the Morag before, and no Morag ships had gone to the Jovian system. With a deep sigh, he turned his attention to the holographic display. All they could do was wait.
-
Rear Admiral Leeson was busy having all his ships of Second Fleet repaired, including his flagship, the dreadnought Titan. A number still were in the shipyards orbiting Earth and the Moon. These ships were just being made combat ready. Some of the damage would have to wait to be repaired.
The Forgotten Empire: The Battle For Earth: Book three Page 22