As the first wave of decoys overflew the Fighter Carriers, the second wave marked their targets and began their attack runs. Their targets were the self defence batteries on the top deck of each Fighter Carrier. These were the weapons with the greatest field of fire, and therefore, the most dangerous. They had to be eliminated first.
The decoy wave had done its job very effectively, with no reported casualties on all seven groups attacking the Fighter Carriers. Now, the first group of five Eagles attacked from the bow of the Fighter Carrier, whilst the second attacked from the stern of the large warship. By coordinating their attacks, the Eagle squadrons hoped to overwhelm the Bardomil gunners. A simultaneous attack would confuse the gunners and make them far easier targets.
Hurtling forwards at high speed, the leading Eagles, in their shallow attack dives, opened fire at almost point blank range and began to strafe the edges of the top flight decks. With the decoy Eagles overflying the flight decks, many of the self defence gunners were swivelling their guns around to try to hit a decoy Eagle as they passed over. This left the Bardomil gunners completely vulnerable to the pulsar-bolts that seethed along the edges of the flight deck like a huge river of destruction.
With each pulsar-cannon delivering five bolts per second, the edge of the flight deck looked like it was being attacked by a torrential flood of flames, explosions and destruction. With destruction and mayhem breaking loose amongst the self defence gunners, who never expected to fire their weapons, the second Eagle of the formation, following exactly three seconds behind the leader, struck.
Following the same pattern, the second Eagles went into their shallow attack dives and strafed the edge of the already devastated flight deck. Keeping their fingers on the triggers, the pilots allowed the nose of the Eagle to direct the relentless stream of white-hot pulsar-bolts into the scene of carnage on the top fight decks of the Fighter Carriers.
By the time, the third Eagle was making its approach, the entire top deck self defence capability of most of the Fighter Carriers had been eliminated.
On two of the Fighter Carriers, however, the self defence gunners showed great skill and awareness of the situation, and started to fire at the attacker Eagles as they swept down in their attack dives. Despite the courage of their gunners, the self-defence batteries fell silent as the rampaging Eagles sought out and destroyed their initial objectives.
With the majority of the self-defence guns wiped out on the top decks, the Eagles who had started as decoys began to strafe the lower deck edges of the Bardomil Fighter Carriers. The upper and lower decks were able to elevate or depress their weapons far more than those of the centre deck, and therefore, had a much greater opportunity of being able to down an Eagle. With the top deck guns eliminated, the Alliance Eagles had the advantage of being able to attack from above.
At three second intervals the Eagles swept under the lower decks of the triple-decked hulls, strafing with their six low-yield pulsar-cannons. Having been successful with decoy Eagles on the top decks, the Alliance commanders tried the same tactic again. This time, the Bardomil were wise to the manoeuvre, and held back their gunfire until the Eagles were attacking from bow and stern. Despite the courage and fortitude of the gunners, as with the top decks, the lower deck edges were quickly reduced to burning twisted wreckage by the relentless stream of pulsar-bolts. There were just too few self defence guns to give their crews any reasonable chance of survival.
This just left the central decks to be subdued and neutralised. This proved to be a lot less straightforward than the Eagle pilots had originally considered. Having neatly shaved the self defence guns from the edges of the upper and lower decks of the Fighter Carriers, the Eagle pilots were now presented with a major problem. The self defence guns of the middle deck were afforded a degree of protection by the decks above and below them, which restricted the manoeuvrability of the attacking Eagles. The Eagles would be unable to use the bow to stern strafing runs that had so successfully eliminated the self defence guns on the first two decks.
The Eagles would now have to undertake the more risky direct head on attack, which would bring them directly into the mouths of the self defence guns. It was a risky and dangerous undertaking for single seat fighters to attack self defence guns directly. However, in this situation there was no credible alternative. The First Admiral wanted the self defence guns eliminated and the flight decks ruined before he started reducing the Fighter Carriers to wreckage with the high-yield pulsar-cannons. He wanted the Bardomil crews totally defenceless.
A frontal assault would prove very costly, even against the inadequate Bardomil self defence guns. With twenty Eagles allocated to each Fighter Carrier, which had seventy or more still functioning self defence guns, the odds were slightly against the Alliance fighters. With the additional protection of the decks above and below them, the self defence gunners of the middle deck were well entrenched in their defensive positions.
The Eagle squadron commanders, faced with the problem, decided that misdirection and subtlety were far better weapons than brute force. Once again, the Eagle pilots would use decoy tactics to draw the Bardomil gunfire, whilst their comrades targeted the guns and eliminated them. The solution to the problem was as inventive as it was dangerous for the decoys. The orders had been to eliminate the self defence guns and to deny the enemy the use of those flight decks by destroying anything that stood on them, as well as shattering the infrastructure itself. The First Admiral had not stipulated that the achievement of one objective should precede the other.
The two lower decks of the Bardomil Fighter Carrier were spaced with around one hundred feet of clearance between the, which was ample room for launching or recovering Harpoon and Flying Devils. It did, however, present a dangerous challenge for fast moving Eagles which were about to set down a liberal course of weapons fire onto the covered decks. The two lower decks were separated from the deck above by huge thick columns spaced at regular intervals of one hundred yards. Had the decks been enclosed, then the job of the decoy Eagles would have been completely impossible. The Bardomil, had, however, left the support columns uncovered giving the Fighter Carrier an almost skeletal structure and appearance.
The bow of the Fighter Carrier was almost three hundred yards wide, and with a one hundred foot ceiling, there would be no real hindrance to beginning the deck strafing run.
The decoy Eagles would pull the self defence gunner’s attention away from the attacker Eagles that would then attempt to strafe the self defence guns from the flanks of the Fighter Carrier. The problem for the decoying Eagles was that at the end of the deck was the central superstructure that linked the decks, whilst flanking their runs would be the columns that supported the deck above them and the self defence guns. A fast moving decoy Eagle would have to find a way out of the run between some of the columns before they ran into the central superstructure. That was not going to be easy.
In the War Room of Aquarius, Billy Caudwell switched to Real View mode and watched anxiously as the first pilot flew straight and true into the space between the top and middle decks of a Fighter Carrier. For a few heart stopping moments, the War Room and the pilot’s comrades watched as the tiny Eagle fighter, dwarfed by the huge burning Fighter Carrier, vanished into the depths of the Carrier’s lower deck. At the same moment ten of his comrades began a steep climbing attack run on the flank of the Fighter Carrier to slam their streams of white-hot pulsar-bolts at the distracted self-defence batteries. Six heartbeats later the tiny Eagle fighter emerged from behind the second-to-last support pillar with a trail of fire and explosions thundering in its wake.
The watching Eagle pilots then let out a great cheer and whoop of celebration as their victorious comrade climbed sharply in a huge Victory Roll. Meanwhile, his comrades were strafing the self defence guns, and tearing them to ribbons. The self defence gunners; distracted by the decoy strafing the deck behind them had reacted instinctively to protect the take-off and landing surface. They swung their guns around to k
nock down the speeding Eagle as it hurtled over the deck with all pulsar-cannons blazing.
The damage inflicted by the brave Eagle pilot was minimal to the actual deck surface, but he had destroyed any armaments and fuel that had been left on the deck by the fleeing service crews. The massive explosion that followed his courageous run had shaken the entire deck, whilst his pulsar-cannons had left only minor pot-holes.
Aboard the Aquarius, the subdued Thexxians quietly celebrated. Many of them had never seen a Bardomil Imperial Fighter Carrier before, let alone take part in the destruction of an entire fleet of their most hated enemies. With the first attack run successful, more Eagle pilots began to attack the middle decks of the Fighter Carriers. Always following the same pattern, the Eagle attacking the deck was supported by ten comrades who would attack the Fighter Carrier from the flank. Time and again, the Eagles pressed home their attacks against the middle decks of the Fighter Carriers.
The risky manoeuvre was not without losses. At high speed the Eagle fighter was highly manoeuvrable, but a few pilots did overestimate the capabilities of the Garmaurian technology in their craft. On more than one occasion, the central superstructure or one of the support columns claimed the life of a nervous or overconfident or just plain unlucky Thexxian pilot.
Despite these meagre losses, however, the Alliance Eagles quickly tore up the surviving self defence guns of the Bardomil Fighter Carriers. Against the backdrop of the battle with the faltering self defence batteries, the Eagles hammered home their advantages against the decks of the Bardomil Carriers. In Real View mode, Billy Caudwell watched the remaining seven Bardomil Fighter Carriers surrounded by a horde of swerving Eagles firing almost indiscriminately into the huge enemy vessels. Two of the huge skeletal vessels were stationary and already on fire, but, the other five, were still trying to execute some form of turning manoeuvre.
With the self defence guns being wiped out and the flight decks being put out of action, any hope that he Fighter Carrier crews had of responding to the attacks of the Alliance Eagles were rapidly diminishing. For those Fighter Carriers who had already lost their self defence capability, the Alliance Eagles were methodically tearing up the top and lower flight decks at their leisure. The Fighter Carriers were now basically defenceless.
The only force capable of striking back at the Alliance was the M-Cruisers.
Chapter 54
Having whetted their appetites for destruction; strafing the large and vulnerable Fighter Carriers, the six Explorers roared into the attack on the survivors of the Bardomil M-Cruiser box formation. The Bardomil M-Cruisers having been posted to prevent the Aquarius from bombarding the Fighter Carriers, held their stations in the face of the onrushing Explorers.
“Sir, Explorers opening fire on the M-Cruisers,” the WATO reported.
At maximum range, the Explorers opened up with their high-yield pulsar-cannons, and swept three more M-Cruisers away in explosions of red roaring destruction.
“Sir, enemy M-Cruisers breaking formation,” the Scanner Officer announced as Billy watched the split image on the View Screen, “They’re attacking our Explorers, sir.”
So, with twelve surviving and functional M-Cruisers the Bardomil commander broke formation and set off to attack the Explorers. As the Aquarius was no longer an immediate threat to the Fighter Carriers, the M-Cruiser commander prioritised breaking through the Explorer line. That way the M-Cruisers could provide some relief and support to the defenceless Fighter Carriers, who were being strafed at will by the marauding Alliance Eagles.
The surviving M-Cruisers, freed from the restrictions of the suicidal box formation swept into the attack. In order to bring their laser weapons to bear on the Explorers the M-Cruisers had to shorten the range to the enemy as quickly as possible. The sooner the M-Cruisers could get in amongst the Explorers, the greater was their chance of survival.
“Confirmed, sir,” the WATO reported, “They’re attacking our Explorers. Permission to open up with our high-yield turrets?”
“No,” Billy shook his head, “the Explorers can handle them, and we don’t want to hit our own ships.”
Bravely hurtling towards their enemy, the M-Cruisers, in a loose ragged formation, were struck by the second wave of high-yield pulsar-bolts from the Explorers. This time, however, the M-Cruiser crews were able to see the approach of the speeding bolts and take some very violent evasive manoeuvres to avoid them. These rapid actions did not, however, save several M-Cruisers from the medium-yield pulsar-bolts that rapidly followed the single, high-yield bolts.
“M-Cruisers firing, sir,” the Scanner Technician called.
The M-Cruisers returned fire with their laser weapons when they were at point blank range.
On the split View Screen, Billy watched as the weapons fire of the M-Cruisers, once again failed to penetrate the force shielding of the Explorers, although, the closeness of the M-Cruisers made the laser blasts particularly intense. In the great hail of medium-yield pulsar-bolts, a further five M-Cruisers were hit; three being completely destroyed in cataclysmic explosions, whilst two more were damaged severely enough to cripple their propulsion systems. However, the M-Cruisers that survived the onslaught managed to pass through the line of Explorers and begin to perform the tightest of turns that the framework of their vessels could tolerate.
The Explorers, more suited to reconnaissance and exploration, were unable to match the M-Cruisers for their turning radius, and were forced into a much gentler curve to change direction. This gave the nine surviving Bardomil vessels a significant advantage over the Alliance Explorers.
“M-Cruisers firing again, sir,” the Scanner Technician called out.
The Explorers were in the process of completing their wide turns when the M-Cruisers opened up once more with their laser weapons. Again, there was no structural damage to any of the Explorers. Their force shielding effectively protected them from the Bardomil weapons, with the laser blasts deflecting away from the ships. However, the laser blasts rattled the Alliance vessels, throwing their crews off balance. In the vital seconds it took for the Explorer crews to re-orientate themselves, the Bardomil M-Cruisers were able to turn and begin the headlong dash back towards the Fighter Carriers. The stunned and shaken crews of the Explorers facing the wrong way now had to swing their vessels around to give chase. The Bardomil had inflicted no real damage on the Alliance Explorers, but they had effectively outmanoeuvred them.
On the View Screen image, Billy Caudwell watched this new development with a degree of admiration for the professionalism of the Bardomil M-Cruiser commander. It had been a bold and audacious move to face down and outmanoeuvre the Explorers. Still, the victory would prove to be very short-lived. The surviving Bardomil M-Cruisers were hurtling at full speed back to make some form of last stand defence around the Fighter Carriers. An immediate priority would have been to chase off the Alliance Eagles that were stinging the defenceless Fighter Carriers.
Aboard the Aquarius, Billy Caudwell stood at the View Screens calmly surveying the ongoing scene of devastation as the M-Cruisers scampered back to the Fighter Carriers. The self defence guns on the Fighter Carriers had been silenced and the Eagles were now tearing the flight decks of the Bardomil Carriers to ruin. Billy could not afford to let the M-Cruisers interrupt this operation.
“WATO” Billy Caudwell began, “order an immediate launch of the Eagles on Aquarius, and order Aries to detach fifty fighters to intercept those M-Cruisers,”
“Aye, sir,” the WATO responded, “target for Aquarius Eagles, sir?”
“They’re to support the Eagles around the Fighter Carriers. Contact Flight Control on Aries to integrate our Eagles into their Comms Network,” Billy responded.
There was likely to be no further danger from the Fighter Carriers, unless they blew up, and, it was unlikely that low-yield pulsar-bolts could cause that much devastation to the big Bardomil ships, no matter how many Eagles he threw at them. Intercepting the M-Cruisers would be a tremendous psychological b
low to the morale of the Fighter Carrier crews. Plus, the Aries Flight Controllers needed a bit more battle experience.
“Aries acknowledging, sir,” the WATO responded after a few seconds, “five squadrons to intercept.”
Well, that should take care of the last of the M-Cruisers, Billy Caudwell considered, turning to one of his two dimensional Tactical View Screens. On the screen, he saw fifty small light blue icons speed away from around the large red Bardomil Fighter Carrier icons and head off in the direction of the M-Cruisers. A force of fifty Eagles should be more than adequate to subdue the nine surviving M-Cruisers, Billy thought.
“Bring Aquarius forward to twenty-five kilometres from the Fighter Carriers,” Billy ordered.
“Twenty-five kilometres, sir?” the anxious WATO responded.
Twenty-five kilometres was well within high-yield pulsar-bolt range, and, perhaps, unnecessarily close to the Bardomil Fighter Carriers. Billy Caudwell, however, knew exactly what he was doing. The crews aboard the Fighter Carriers, having been stripped of their defences, were now going to be intimidated by the presence of this huge Star-Cruiser that could grind their vessels to space dust.
“Yes, WATO, twenty-five kilometres please,” Billy responded, “and prepare the pulsar-cannon crews for action.”
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