“Prepare for the hunt!” ordered Grayseth as the first Simulin battlecruiser emerged from the vortex. “Today we find honor!”
-
Rear Admiral Susan Marks fastened her safety harness as she listened to the reports of numerous Simulin vortexes being detected inside the gravity well of Gaia. The Simulins must have been just outside the system in a light section of the nebula. The Simulins could have no idea of the massive number of particle beam weapons that were shortly going to be fired at them.
“Begin launching all bombers,” she ordered. “As soon as the bombers are clear, send out the rest of our fighters.” She adjusted her mini-comm to put her in contact with the rest of the ships around Gaia, including the Clan Protector and the battlestations. “All commands, standby to fire. We’ll let them come into optimum firing range and then open up. Make your first shots count as they won’t be expecting the amount of firepower we’re going to hit them with.”
Admiral Marks had fourteen battlecarriers under her command, and she fully intended to use her bombers to exact a painful price on the inbound Simulins. Against ships with fully powered shields, the bombers would be useless. However, attacking damaged ships with weakened energy shields they might just make a difference.
“Bombers are launching,” reported Commander Hiru Akira. “Bays will be clear in six minutes, and then we’ll start the fighter launch.”
“Time until Simulin contact?” demanded Susan, looking over at the sensor console.
“Eighteen minutes,” replied Lieutenant Brewster. “Vortexes have stopped appearing and the Simulins are forming up and are inbound.”
“Ship count?”
“Three hundred escort cruisers and seventy battlecruisers,” Brewster replied in a somber voice. “There are also twenty vessels of escort cruiser size I can’t identify.”
“Conqueror Drone carriers,” suggested Commander Akira, glancing over at Rear Admiral Marks. “That’s the only thing they can be.”
Susan nodded. “Communications, contact General McGown and inform him we’ve detected what we think are Conqueror Drone ships.”
“Sending message,” Ensign Peyton Wilde replied as she worked her console.
“All commands, standby for combat,” Susan said over her mini-comm. “We think the twenty unknown vessels are drone carriers. They’re a priority target; we can’t let them get through to Gaia.”
“The drone carriers are staying at the rear of the Simulin fleet,” announced Lieutenant Brewster.
Around the fleet, crews stood ready at their combat stations. They were fighting for a planet and their new home. They were determined to protect it from the Simulins at all costs.
-
Rear Admiral Barnes was jerked against her restraining straps as a Simulin energy beam partially penetrated the exploration dreadnought’s energy shield and smashed into the hull.
“Minor damage to outer hull, sector twelve,” Colonel Leon reported.
“Energy shield is at ninety-two percent,” added Commander Grissim.
“Firing ion cannon,” reported Major Weir.
On the large viewscreen, an ion beam reached out and struck the energy screen of a nearby Simulin battlecruiser. Right behind it, two bright blue particle beams flashed through the twelve-meter hole the ion beam had made in the Simulin ship’s energy shield. Two glowing explosions erupted from the enemy ship’s hull as the beams cut deep within, causing major damage. The ship’s shield began to flicker as too many power couplings had been severed by the beams.
“Firing Devastator Three,” called out Major Weir as he nodded to one of the weapons officers at his side.
Almost instantly, a massive explosion hid the Simulin vessel as the fifty-megaton warhead slammed into its hull. When the explosion died down, the Simulin vessel was still there but a shattered wreck. Half the hull was blown away and the rest was torn and streaming debris. Numerous fires could be seen burning deep within.
“Second missile away,” reported Weir. He’d hoped one would suffice. It only went to show just how strong the armor on the Simulin ships was.
Moments later, the remnants of the Simulin vessel were turned into glowing gas.
“Simulin battlecruiser is down,” confirmed Captain Reynolds from his sensor console as the red icon swelled up and then vanished.
“The Distant Horizon suddenly shook violently and seemed to roll to one side before the ship stabilized and began normal flight again.
“What was that?” demanded Kathryn, drawing in a deep breath. She could feel her pulse racing and the adrenaline rushing through her veins.
“The battlecruiser Cheyenne exploded,” reported Captain Reynolds. “Our energy screen was struck by some of the debris from the ship.”
“Find the Simulin ship that destroyed the Cheyenne,” ordered Kathryn, feeling anger. She had spoken to the ship’s commander several times in recent weeks. He was an older man who’d been planning on retiring in a few more months and settling down on Gaia.
“Got them!” reported Captain Reynolds. “There are two Simulin battlecruisers off our port bow.”
“They’re the ones that fired upon the Cheyenne,” confirmed Clarissa.
“Target the first one with our ion beam and then, once we’ve knocked a hole in their shield, switch to the second. I want antimatter missiles fired through those rips.”
“That will have to be closely coordinated,” commented the blonde haired AI.
“Help with it,” Kathryn ordered. “Coordinate both our ion beam and missile strikes.”
“Yes, Admiral,” Clarissa replied as she began calculating down to the microsecond of when the weapons needed to strike the Simulin warships in order to destroy them.
-
In one of the Simulin battlecruisers, the ship’s commander nodded in satisfaction at seeing one of the large warships of these strange organics fall to their superior weapons. “Target that truly large vessel which is bearing down on us,” he ordered. From the reports he’d studied this was the lone vessel that had traversed many of the inhabited Simulin worlds in this galaxy. It would be a coup if he could destroy it.
“We’re being targeted by an ion beam,” warned the sensor operator.
“It’s tearing hole in our shield,” warned the ship’s second in command as alarms began sounding.
“All weapons, fire on that vessel!” ordered the commander harshly. How could these organics possess an ion beam of this strength? It was something the Simulins didn’t even possess.
A bright light suddenly filled the Command Center and then roaring heat rushed in, vaporizing everything in its path. The Simulin commander didn’t even have time to realize what happened as he died.
-
“Two more Simulin battlecruisers are down,” reported Kevin excitedly. “The Distant Horizon has taken three of them out in the last two minutes. Their new ion beam is playing havoc with the Simulins’ shields.”
“Wish we had more,” Commander Malen said.
“Clarissa helped coordinate the attack on the last two,” Ariel said proudly.
“What’s the current status of Gaia?” asked Jeremy, glancing over at Ariel. He was deeply worried about the attack upon the planet.
“Defenses are online and ready to fire,” Ariel reported as she monitored Rear Admiral Mark’s commands over one of the encrypted fleet frequencies. “She’s allowing the Simulins to close to optimum range and she’s going to hit them with everything all at once. She’s hoping the mass attack will take them by surprise, particularly considering how many particle beams are going to be fired.”
“The bombers and fighters?”
“Already launching,” Ariel replied. “She’s holding the ones on the Clan Protector back in reserve.”
The Avenger vibrated for a moment, drawing Jeremy’s eyes to the damage control console. All the lights remained green.
“What’s the current status of Fourth Fleet and the Alton fleet?”
“Altons have lost two ba
ttlecruisers; we’ve lost one battlecruiser and two light cruisers so far. The Simulins are down four battlecruisers and six escort cruisers, most of them to Alton particle beam fire and from the Distant Horizon.”
Jeremy nodded. He knew there were already a number of damaged ships on both sides. “Hold the range at two thousand kilometers,” he ordered. “Pound them with our particle and power beam cannons. Full use of antimatter missiles is approved.” Jeremy hated using so many of the antimatter missiles as they had no way to replace them. They just didn’t have the necessary technology to create new antimatter warheads.
-
In space, the dueling fleets began to fire at each other in earnest. All weapons were now at optimal range. Particle beams, power beams, and even pulse lasers flashed out to impact the Simulin formation. Screens wavered and a few went down; when one did an antimatter missile would arrive almost instantly sending the ship to oblivion.
In the Simulin formation, an escort cruiser was hit with multiple particle beams, which sliced through the energy shield, carving up the ship. The top section of the vessel exploded and glowing debris was ejected away from the shattered hull. A power beam blasted out a large crater on the bow of the ship, breaking off two of the long spires, which held energy weapons. A fifty-megaton Devastator Three missile arrived and the ship disappeared as a small blazing sun took its place.
The Simulins were responding by firing their heavy energy beams, knocking brief holes in human and Alton energy shields. The human battleship Canus came under the attack of ten Simulin vessels as they tried to overload the powerful energy shield, which protected the vessel. The shield glowed brightly as brilliant arcs of energy erupted forth. Then a Simulin energy beam penetrated, striking a power beam turret and blowing it to shreds, leaving a gaping hole in the hull. Moments later two more beams penetrated, damaging numerous power couplings and cutting part of the power to the ship’s energy shield. Then a pair of Simulin antimatter missiles slammed into the stern of the battleship, destroying the vessel in a fiery explosion.
-
Battleship Canus is down,” called out Kevin, swallowing hard.
Jeremy grimaced at the news. They were losing ships, but the Simulins were losing more. “Continue to fire all weapons,” he ordered determinedly. “Damaged ships to fall back to the rear of the formation.”
Ariel looked over at Jeremy, seeing the deep concern on his face. “Rear Admiral Marks is preparing to fire.”
Looking over at the tactical display, Jeremy could see that the Simulins were now in range of the defensive grid around Gaia as well as the AI ships. The next few minutes would decide the battle.
-
“Fire!” ordered Susan as she saw the Simulins were now exactly where she wanted them. The AIs had adjusted their fleet formation until the majority of their warships were on the side of Gaia facing the Simulins.
Suddenly space became lit up with several thousand particle beams. Behind the particle beams, hundreds of antimatter missiles followed to take advantage of any holes the beams might cause in Simulin energy shields.
-
In the Simulin flagship, the High Commander cursed in anger as he saw he’d led his fleet into a trap. “Those small satellites are particle beam weapons,” he declared as his ship shuddered violently and red warning lights began to flash. “It’s also evident all of the AI ships have been upgraded with particle beam weapons as well.” On his tactical display, he saw large numbers of his ships beginning to vanish as they were destroyed by the massive strike.
“Fire our planetary bombardment missiles at the planet,” he ordered. From their scans, he knew there were two small cities on its surface. “Stand by to release the Conqueror Drones.”
“The range is too great,” warned his second in command. “Many of them will not make it to the surface.”
“But some will,” the High Commander said. “They will do their duty and hunt down the organics on the planet.”
-
Major Wink Thurman was the CAG for the Retribution and was leading the bomber strike against the Simulins. “All squadrons form up and pick your target.” There were one hundred and twelve squadrons involved in the massed attack. “Each squadron, pick a damaged Simulin warship and hit it with your Shrike missiles. Keep your energy shield fully charged and focused in front of your bomber. The shields can probably take one hit from a Simulin defensive energy beam. We’ll be going in using evasive pattern S-6.” S-6 was a weaving pattern to confuse enemy targeting systems and to prevent them from getting a firm lock on a bomber.
-
“I wish I was in my fighter,” muttered Lieutenant Riley over his squadron’s comm channel. “I never should have volunteered to fly this bomber. It handles like a truck!”
“Just fly the damn thing,” ordered Captain Julie Brice, the squadron leader. “Quit complaining, we have a Simulin escort cruiser we’re going to target. Don’t mess this up or you’ll answer to me later!”
Julie looked up ahead and took a deep breath. Space was full of massed particle beam fire and now the Simulins were beginning to fire back. Numerous fiery explosions began to dot space around Gaia and she knew those were particle beam satellites the Simulins were targeting. A larger explosion off her port side startled her. Looking at her small sensor screen, she saw the green icon for battlestation B-14 vanish. The Simulins had managed to take out one of the forty Type Two stations defending Gaia.
“Missile launch detected,” warned Rear Admiral Marks over the general comm channel. “Particle beam satellites are firing on the inbound missiles. Talons, target any leakers.”
Julie shook her head. If those were sublight missiles, the Talons wouldn’t be able to touch them.
As if reading her thoughts, Rear Admiral Mark’s voice came back over the comm. “Missiles are slow movers, probably some type of nuclear bombardment missiles. Don’t let any of them reach the surface!”
Julie felt her bomber shudder as the defensive screen glowed brightly. A Simulin energy beam flashed by and she grimaced as a bomber in her squadron was hit and vanished in a brilliant fireball.
“Change to evasive pattern E-7,” she ordered. This pattern was more complicated and involved more gyrations of the bomber as it dipped and swerved to avoid Simulin energy beams.
She groaned silently to herself as two more bombers in her ten-ship squadron succumbed to Simulin defensive fire. All too often, a brief fiery explosion told the end of another bomber. Scanning space outside of her cockpit, she grimaced at the number of small explosions she could see in the attacking bomber formation. A lot of her fellow pilots wouldn’t be returning to the carriers.
They were coming up and over the fighting to avoid heavy weapons fire between the two fleets and the defensive grid. From her position looking down at the battle, she could see numerous small explosions moving toward Gaia. Those would be the missiles being intercepted. She just prayed they got them all.
A soft tone suddenly sounded indicating she had a missile lock on her target. “I want a coordinated strike on target T-112,” she ordered. “It’s an escort cruiser and my scans are indicating its shield is nearly down. Let’s take it out, people. Missile release on my mark. 3, 2, 1, mark!”
Instantly from the seven Anlon bombers remaining in her squadron, twenty-eight twenty-kiloton Shrike missiles arrowed toward the damaged Simulin warship. Eight missiles smashed into the weakened shield and then it failed completely, allowing the other missiles to impact the battered ship’s hull. Moment’s later space was lit up as the escort cruiser was turned into plasma and glowing debris.
“Good shooting!” Julie exclaimed, pleased they had taken out their assigned target. Space all around them was full of detonating missiles. Looking at the tactical display, she could see other red icons designating Simulin vessels blinking out. She just hoped they were hurting them badly enough.
“Let’s head for home,” she ordered. A bright flash off her starboard wing shook her bomber. She could hear small pie
ces of metal ricocheting off the hull. Glancing at her display, she saw another bomber in her squadron was gone. “Go to turbos,” she ordered. “We need to get out of here!”
-
Above Gaia, the Talon fighters swerved and darted through space, firing their Hunter interceptor missiles at inbound targets. Particle beam satellites were also firing, wiping many of the missiles out of space before they could even penetrate the defense grid.
“Admiral,” Commander Akira said worriedly. “We’ve taken out all of the missiles, but they pulled our fighters over to one side of Gaia. We have hundreds of other larger contacts passing through the defensive grid toward the planet. We might not be able to take all of them out.”
On one of the viewscreens, a close up appeared of one of the contacts. It looked like a small shuttle except it was more egg shaped.
“Those things contain Conqueror Drones,” Susan said emphatically. “Let General McGown know what’s coming his way. He has his own fighters and defensive batteries; perhaps he can take out the ones we miss.”
-
On the surface of Gaia around the three Marine bases and the two cities laser turrets went into action. Dual ruby red beams of energy shot up into the air at the descending Conqueror Drone pods. In just a matter of a few moments, the sky was full of fiery explosions marking the destruction of some of the pods.
“Report!” demanded General McGown as he stood watching the numerous viewscreens displaying the battle occurring above the planet and in the atmosphere. He was in the underground Command Center to coordinate the activity of his Marines as well as the fighters and bombers they had at their disposal.
“We have a hell of a lot of those pod things hitting the atmosphere,” Colonel Jarrins reported. “Our fighters are up and intercepting a lot of them with Hunter missiles. We’re firing additional missiles from the three bases as targets are identified. A few have nearly made it to the ground and are being taken out by our laser turrets.”
“Are we going to get them all?” McGown could see what looked like several, which were close to making it to the surface.
“No,” admitted Jarrins, shaking his head. “The pods have a minimal profile which is making them hard to target, and they also seem to have some type of simple stealth shielding. A few will make it to the surface.”
The Lost Fleet: Into the Darkness Page 24