by Ivan Kal
“We need to change the flow, and soon.” Adrian said.
“Their ships evading patterns are too random, and each time we hit they start rolling the ship spreading out the beam. We can’t keep our laser beams locked on them for enough time to inflict significant damage.” Iris said.
“We need to close the distance, our ships can take a lot more than theirs. And our weapons more effective up close.” Adrian said.
“But Nel ships can’t, they will take heavy casualties.” Iris warned.
“I don’t see much choice now.” Adrian said.
Adrian reached out to open a channel to Retsar Isani when his command board flashed. He turned his eyes to the map just as an update popped up, the Nel light cruiser Pride had sustained heavy damage. It was now trying to get behind one of the heavy cruisers. Before he could ask Iris said, “Sowir battleships have started firing their particle weapons.”
Adrian looked at the damage to the Nel light cruiser, its maneuverability was greatly reduced. And they stopped firing their lasers. Looking at its position, and the position of the heavy cruiser that was moving to cover it. He knew that it wouldn’t make it, but one of his ships was in a much better position above the Nel light cruiser. Just as he was about to send the order to the ship, he saw that battleship Protector had started moving to cover the Nel ship. A moment later Adrian received a message from Force Leader Krylov that he was moving to provide cover for the Nel ship. Agreeing with the call, Adrian sent orders to his other ships to close the gap from the Protector. The Sowir particle weapons had changed the flow, his ships had now started to accumulate damage. Seeing that he needed to turn the flow Adrian opened a comm to Retsar Isani telling him his plans, and then executed a series of commands that would hopefully turn the tide of the battle.
***
As orders from Adrian’s command board went out to his ships and their commanders moved to execute them, it seemed as if a shiver went over the battlefield. Adrian’s light cruisers Sting, Swift, and heavy cruisers Freedom and Enterprise started accelerating on a course that would take them above the field of battle. While Leviathan, battleships Battle Song and Protector, and heavy cruiser Valkyrie turned and started accelerating directly towards the Sowir force. Retsar Isani spread his ships below the plane of battle, pushing his own battleship, two heavy cruisers and five light cruisers forward parallel to the Leviathans course, but held back a bit, while his damaged light cruiser and frigates stayed back providing missile and laser pressure on the Sowir alongside the First Fleets light cruisers Conqueror and Talon. The abrupt course change took Sowir by surprise, which allowed Adrian’s ships to overwhelm Sowir defenses for a few moments. Multiple missile strikes hit the Sowir ships from the combined fire of human and Nel, with Leviathan’s heavy lasers inflicting significant damage to the two Sowir heavy cruisers. But soon Sowir adapted, and their six battleships turned and set a course to intercept the Leviathan and its escorts. The two Troop transports had kept back shielded by the light cruisers, but as Leviathan grew closer, they also changed course and four out of six light cruisers followed. Their new course brought them through the hole that Leviathan made in his forces wall, and then straight to Nuva.
***
As he saw the new course of the Sowir light cruisers and the two transports Adrian knew that he had made a mistake. His ships wouldn’t be able to fire upon them as the six battleships kept pressure on them, the taskforce he sent above the plane of battle was too far away and turning them back now would serve no point. Retsar Isani’s ships were following Adrian’s and were likewise engaged. The only ships that could intercept them were Retsar Isani’s frigates, one damaged light cruiser and Adrian’s two light cruisers, Conqueror and Talon. The damaged light cruiser couldn’t achieve the acceleration enough to intercept, which left Conqueror, Talon, and four frigates. Frigates had already almost expended their missile loads, and their light laser turrets were not up to par, not to mention their lightly armored hulls. Which meant the bulk of the work would fall on Adrian’s ships. Two against four. Adrian knew that he had no choice. He manipulated the command board and sent the orders. It would be up to them, he couldn’t control their battle.
“Iris, I need a way in.” Adrian said. He kept looking for room to get Leviathan inside the Sowir formation, but there was none. A couple of seconds later Iris spoke in his mind. “Follow this course.” Iris said, as a course appeared on his map.
“Iris, that will take us on a collision course with their battleships.” Adrian said.
“Trust me, they won’t be there when you get there.” Iris said.
Trusting her, he sent the order. As his ships changed course, he started seeing a subtle shift in the Sowir tracks. Soon he saw what Iris knew would happen. The Sowir battleships altered their course to cover the force that Retsar Isani was brining from below, to avoid being surrounded. Ironically, that was just what was going to happen. The Sowir plan was to bring in their heavy cruiser in the hole they had just made, and ordinarily they would have succeeded. But Iris saw their only available course of action, which meant that now, Leviathan and its escorts would plug the hole before the heavy cruisers arrived. Sowir battleships would be surrounded by Adrian’s ships on the one side and Retsar Isani’s on the other, while their heavy cruisers now unable to close the gap would be left outside on the Leviathan’s side. Quickly Adrian ordered his commanders to focus on the six battleships, as they were the biggest threat. Leviathan started taking fire from Sowir particle weapons in increasing amounts, but Leviathan’s heavy hull shrugged it off. A moment later, as they reached the optimal range for railgun fire, Adrian’s ships opened fire.
***
Ship Master Leia Kim, commander of the light cruiser Conqueror watched the holo as ships under her command speed towards the four Sowir light cruisers and the two troop transport they were protecting. Her command consisted of one other human light cruiser, and four Nel frigates. Although Nel ships weren’t directly under her command, they would follow her lead, their ships were not capable of stopping the Sowir ships on their own. She sent out orders to Talon and the four frigates, and the six ships started firing their missiles and lasers. One light cruiser moved to protect the transports, while the other three split off to cut Leia’s ships. Missiles from both sides started getting through the defensive fire, without the bigger ships they had very little defensive capabilities. Human ships proved better at taking down missiles, but they still took the brunt of the attack as they moved to cover the Nel frigates as they fired the remainder of their arsenal. Seeing that if they don’t get by the three ships the troop transports would get away, Leia pressed the attack, closing the distance. Invisible beams scorched the surface of the ships on both sides, even as missiles struck and exploded against the hulls. Conqueror and Talon managed to get by with light damage, while inflicting more damage to the Sowir ships. The Nel frigates didn’t fare so well, after they expanded their missiles they needed to get out of the cover provided by the Conqueror and Talon in order to fire their lasers. And each time they did so, Sowir focused fire on them. It wasn’t long until one of the Sowir beams managed to hold target long enough to burn through one of the frigates hulls, a moment later the Frigate exploded. Meanwhile Lia tried to focus one of Sowir light cruisers that appeared to have taken more damage than the others. Conqueror’s laser fire managed to disrupt the Sowir ships defensive fire long enough for Talon’s missiles to pass through and slam into the ship’s hull. The missiles penetrated and the Sowir ship exploded in a short flash of fire, leaving only a mangled husk. But that focus cost them another Frigate, and depleting the last of their missiles. But watching the holo Leia saw that the ships were now close enough that railguns could be effective. Railguns on the Conqueror and the Talon rotated and locked on the enemy ships. A moment later they started shooting at the Sowir ships. Because of the distance the Sowir ships had less time to evade the incoming fire, and soon glancing blows became direct hits, mauling the Sowir ships. But even with all that
the two remaining Sowir ships wouldn’t be destroyed in time, and their return fire had already started to impair Conqueror’s and Talon’s ability to maintain the same level of fire, with constant rotation and maneuvering to avoid the brunt of Sowir laser fire their railguns had to be retargeted constantly. Then another Frigate got hit and exploded. Looking at her holo helplessly Leia tried to find a way to get around the two Sowir light cruisers and catch up to the transports. Then she noticed a blip on the holo moving extremely fast on an intercept course with the transports. It was the damaged Nel light cruiser, accelerating at an amazing rate. After a moment Leia realized what the commander of that ship was going to do. They had overloaded their drives, gaining an enormous amount of speed while guaranteeing that their ship would not survive. She also saw the two Sowir ship moving to block its path, and she pressed the attack harder. Conqueror, Talon and the remaining Nel Frigate pushed the attack as Sowir ships tried to reposition themselves to catch Nel light cruiser. That attempt cost them everything. The three ships poured fire into their sides, lasers and railguns fire started hitting the Sowir hard, but even so the return fire from their lasers was hitting Talon hard in return, but soon the two ships stumbled under the continuous attack. Almost simultaneously they exploded, leaving Conqueror without full maneuvering and Talon heavily damaged its hull sporting gashes and melted hull. The last Nel Frigate had light damage from a few glancing laser hits. With the destruction of the two light cruisers, the Nel ship had a direct path opened at the Sowir transports. As the ship neared, the remaining Sowir light cruiser opened fire, but Nel ship ignored any form of defense instead pouring everything into offence. It opened fire with its missiles and lasers on the light cruiser as it sped past it on an intercept course with one of the transports. Leia watched the front viewer seeing as the Nel ship hit and damaged the light cruiser’s drives, even as its hull was now falling apart pieces breaking off. It sped past the light cruiser and slammed into the troop transport disappearing in a ball of fire. Leia hung her head, she knew that she had just witnessed what someone fighting for their home was capable of.
The remaining Sowir transport ship kept its course towards Nuva, there was no chance for Lia and her ships to catch it. The light cruiser that served as its escort drives were damaged and it couldn’t keep up, it slowly turned and set a course for Lia and her ships. Looking at her crew and then back at the holo she gave the order for them to meet the enemy ship.
***
Ship Master Paul Isaacs glanced at Adrian, his friend, as he commanded the fleet. For Adrian the battle was a chess match, but for Paul and the other commanders it was a lot more personal. They were fighting their ships, trying to destroy the enemy while keeping their ships safe.
“Power grid fourteen is down, we lost railguns thirteen through fifteen.” Weapons Handler reported.
“Send the repair crew, get them back online.” Paul’s High Prime ordered.
Studying the holo Paul noticed that battleship Battle Song managed to push six missiles through one of the Sowir battleships defenses, the one designated as H3. Seeing an opening Paul immediately started giving orders.
“Rotate the ship. Bring all our top weapons to bear on H3.” Paul ordered.
Almost immediately Leviathan started its rotation, turning its top towards the Sowir battleships. As each of Leviathan’s weapons got into range they started firing on the 290 meter long battleship. Railgun fire started ravaging the battle ship’s hull even as Leviathan’s lasers scorched it. And then one of Leviathan’s main lasers managed to keep a full 5 second burn on its target. The result was a flash of fire as the beam burned through the hull and ignited the air inside. A change immediately came over the ship.
“It’s point defense is offline!” Sensor Handler yelled out.
“Load torpedo tubes 1 and 3! Get me a lock.” Paul said.
“Torpedo tubes 1 and 3 loaded, we have a lock!”
“Fire!”
Two torpedoes launched from Leviathans forward tubes. The torpedoes were devastating weapons, but lacked maneuverability and evasive capabilities of missiles. But now that the enemy ship’s defenses were offline it was the perfect moment to use them. The two torpedoes sped towards their target, and then slammed into its hull. The detonations were devastating, momentarily blinding sensors of every ship close to the Sowir battleship.
In the fraction of a moment after the detonations, Iris recognized the advantage, and assumed direct command of every missiles already on its way toward the enemy ships. In the moment that sensors were blind, she changed trajectories of all the missiles, she had a virtual map of the battlefield in her memory. As the torpedo blasts expired, Sowir point defense computers tried to lock onto the incoming missiles, searching for their previous tracks. It took them a couple of seconds to realize that the missiles were no longer on those tracks, but that was enough. Hundreds of human missiles hit their new targets, inflicting heavy damage to Sowir battleships.
***
Adrian watched as quick thinking from Paul resulted in a complete change of the battle. Adrian adapted his tactics, changing orders to capitalize on the advantage they just acquired. The map showed Adrian’s ships inflicting heavy damage on the Sowir battleships from one side just as Retsar Isani and his were attacking from the other. The advantage Paul created gave Retsar Isani’s ships room to strike on the damaged Sowir ships. Focused fire from Valor and its escorts broke through defenses of Sowir battleship designated as H5. And with its destruction others started to fall, but not without a fight. Their particle beams constantly hammered both Adrian’s and Isani’s ships, a critical hit on the already damaged heavy cruiser Valkyrie caused an explosion that rocked the ship, its forward section blowing up opening the ship to space. Valkyrie spun dead in space, and Adrian hoped that the crew managed to survive, his board was still giving him status reports from Valkyrie, but no one was answering comms. All of Valkyries weapons systems were offline as were most of its critical systems. Putting the Valkyrie in the back of his mind Adrian continued to guide his ships, he had no time to worry now. Seeing the Sowir heavy cruiser entering range and starting to open fire on his ships, Adrian gave order to the taskforce he previously sent above the field of battle to cut previous order short and swing back immediately, striking the heavy cruisers from behind. Then he split his main force in two, sending the battleship Protector to keep them busy, while Leviathan and Battle Song helped Nel ships finish off Sowir battleships. He cast his eyes on the two Sowir transports and its escorts, seeing that his light cruisers and Nel frigates managed to destroy one transport and three of its four light cruisers escorts, but at a heavy price. Nel lost the damaged light cruiser and three of its frigates, while Conqueror and Talon sustained heavy damage. And now the remaining light cruiser was slowly turning to meet Conqueror, Talon, and Nel frigate. Seeing that there was no chance of his ships reaching the troop transport in time to stop it from reaching Nuva, Adrian sent a message to Company Leader Okoro, letting him know that one troop transport was on its way.
***
Light cruiser Conqueror fired with its railguns on the crippled Sowir light cruiser. It appeared that the Nel ship did much more damage. The Conqueror, Talon, and Nel frigate were pouring laser fire into the ship, with its return fire coming in short bursts. It looked like they would finish dispatch it quickly.
“Talon got hit! Their power grid overloaded, the backlash hit the core, its compromised!” Comm Handler yelled out. Leia turned sharply, there were countermeasures to prevent that.
“Are they ejecting the core?” Leia asked quickly.
“They are trying Ship Master, but -” Comm Handler started, but was interrupted as a big explosion enveloped the Talon.
“Th-they’re gone.” Comm Handler said softly.
It hit Leia hard, Julia Ness Ship Master of the Talon was her friend, and suddenly she was gone. Leia steeled herself, “Keep the pressure on the Sowir ship.” Leia said coldly.
Laser beams hit the Sowir ship, and Conqu
eror’s weapons handlers worked frantically to compensate for the Sowir ship movement, keeping the beam in the same place. Then after the third try they finally managed it, the Conqueror’s beam held and burned through the Sowir ship hull. Immediately Ship Master Leia ordered all lasers to be retargeted to the same point. All eight of Conquerors remaining operational lasers hit a target within five meters of each other. The 24cm beams burned deeper into the ship, until finally the Sowir ship couldn’t take anymore and it snapped in half. Short explosions split the ship and sent the two parts flying in opposite directions. There were no cheers among those in the Conquerors command center. Her task now partially complete, Leia sent a message to the flagship, then she looked at the holo in front of her. The Sowir transport had almost reached Nuva. There was nothing she could do about them now, it was left to the soldiers on the ground.
Chapter Twenty Nine
Nuva
Platoon Leader Sahib Adin stood in the makeshift command center on Nuva. Company Leaders Okoro, Hughes, and Mao were deciding what was the best way they can contribute to the defense of Nuva with the Nel military leaders. Nuva had just the one major city, with the rest being farms, that were mostly automated. Machines would do most of the work, people were only needed at certain points during the farming year. The two Nel Laas Rett that were in command of the militia believed that Sowir troops would drop directly into the city, as it had no defenses. It all seemed pointless to Sahib, they couldn’t possibly hold the city, their fleet was losing, if they had support from orbit perhaps. But landing troops now had no purpose other than their deaths. The two Nel Laas Rett, which translated as something like a warrior, argued for waiting and sending troops after the Sowir land, rather than spreading them out over key points in the city as the Company Leaders suggesting. Sahib had spent the time since they landed on the planet listening in to the meetings and planning sessions. And he got the expression that Nel didn’t put much stock into what humans said. They came off arrogant, but that could just be the impression he got from their emotionless faces. In the end Company Leaders had to agree to Nel plans.