“Hotel Two thru Six targeted, sir,” said Captain Hinnamen from his own Tactical Command station.
“Engage at your discretion Captain,” Achyuta ordered softly without looking away from the forward screen.
“RAPs outbound,” Regela called out a few seconds later and the admiral saw the map update once again with dotted flight paths plotted through the enemy space between the two opposing forces.
The twenty RAPs, Rocket Assisted Projectiles, of both medium and heavy calibers fired out of their cannons at almost one-third the speed of light. At that velocity Admiral Singh knew that it would take the projectiles no more than ten seconds to cover the million kilometers that now spanned between the Federation and Alien formations. While the Karabela, Sirius, and Rastaban reloaded and recharged their capacitors for another barrage the carrier’s bridge continued to monitor the situation. For a number of seconds nothing changed in their movements, however, with only four seconds remaining until impact, Regela began to detect a shift in the alien battle line. Achyuta instantly knew that somehow they had detected the incoming projectiles and were taking evasive action. He saw each of the five ship representations alter slightly in course away from the RAPs flight path.
Guided by electro-optically assisted laser designators the projectiles followed these movements with minor course corrections by their built in micro-thrusters. As they continued to close on their targets rear rocket motors ignited on each shell and propelled them even faster. With seconds remaining, first one and then another of the RAPs disappeared from the sensor display before impact as defensive fire from the enemy ships began to greet the projectiles. Achyuta watched as more of them vanished with every passing second, sparking large distant explosions. Still more than half of the original number remained and pressed their assault. Everyone on the bridge held their breath as the ships and RAPs intercepted on the forward display.
“Enemy jump signature detected,” Regela calmly spoke out.
Achyuta couldn’t help but hear the groans of disappointment as they all saw the enemy ships blink off the sensors before reappearing thousands of kilometers later even closer to Regal’s formation. The projectiles, unable to turn back to retarget the ships continued on through space, no one seemed to notice that one heavy projectile was missing. Suddenly, however, one of the enemy ships detonated among its peers and the admiral watched its remains spread out through space, now detectable on all sensors. What no one could have known was that due to a miscalculation the enemy ship had actually jumped directly into the speeding projectile. Its destruction finally brought back some life to the bridge that had somewhat been extinguished ever since Rahias had been annihilated.
“Energy spike detected, Hotel Three and Hotel Four!” exclaimed one of monitoring stations just before a pair of great red-violet lances fired out from the front of two of the larger alien ships.
The first deadly beam crossing the vast distance was directed at the Saber heavy cruiser, while the other slammed into the less massive Cosmos class destroyer, Sirius. Disaster struck for the Sirius as the beam impacted its starboard shields just as it was firing another round of RAPs at the still surviving enemy vessels. Four shells hit the large beam directly before they could even make it through the destroyer’s shields and instantly detonated. The whole ship rocked violently in space as the explosions washed over its bow and starboard hull. Captain Hinnamen quickly zoomed on the Sirius. For a moment only the warship’s brightly flaring shields could be seen beneath the weight of the laser fire. Just as suddenly as it had come the beam stopped, giving the Sirius much needed recovery time.
The Karabela happened to be luckier at that particular moment. It too was in the process of reloading and reacquiring its target when the enemy attacked it. She had just unleashed her projectiles only a fraction of a second before the beam hit her dead center at the front. Unlike the Sirius, these heavy rounds traveled through the cruiser’s shields before the alien weapon passed through them and hit the shields. Everyone on the Regal’s bridge watched the massive explosions blossom and the blast wave slam into the Karabela’s protective barrier. Her heavy shields held, however, even under the tremendous onslaught and everyone saw them ripple towards the rear of the vessel. Even so sensors and some communications equipment on the cruiser failed temporarily as the intense radiation particles of the alien beam filled the space around the ship.
Just like with its comrade the Sirius, this enemy beam quit its assault after another second and allowed the Saber cruiser’s shields to start their slow recovery. At the same time damage reports began to flow in from both ships. Those from the destroyer were easily confirmed by looking at the forward display. Achyuta’s eyes moved over the ship’s hull and took in the blackened, fractured, cratered areas that now covered parts of the surface plating. A number of these blasts had even punctured clear into the vessel itself, opening up decks to space. The damage report from the vessel indicated all of these damaged sections and also the fact that multiple weapons systems had also been destroyed or put out of commission as well. Repair crews were immediately dispatched to the areas in order to contain any further spread of the damage.
It was only by sheer miracle that there were only five casualties in total onboard the destroyer. The other formation ships fired their gauss cannons without fault, but none managed to score hit do to the enemy’s defensive fire and quick maneuvering. Captain Hinnamen took it upon himself to call out the complete damage report to the admiral as the two formations continued to close the distance separating them. On the tactical overview Achyuta watched the colorful representation of both forces moving through space. He could also see Knight Squadron and the Odessa making their way closer to a station point on his battle line’s left flank. It was apparent that the Knights refused to fly too far ahead of the damaged corvette and stayed close enough to provide immediate support should it be needed.
“Detecting smaller contacts,” Regela called out after a moment of pause as dozens of new red symbols began to appear on the display, “signatures match those of hostile fighters.”
“Direct Viper, Hydra, Bison, and Gold to meet the new contacts. Keep the rest in place to box them in. I want the St.John and Arendal to engage as well,” Admiral Singh ordered as he leaned forward in his chair, gripping the arm rests.
No sooner than the words left Achyuta’s mouth his whole head and body exploded with tremendous pain, shocking him to the core. Images of death flashed through him at the same time. He began to see his family and everyone he had ever known and cared about perishing in bright engulfing fire that spread through his thoughts. He could see the men around him as well as those manning the other ships under his command suffering in the fire of defeat. All around him similar episodes happened to the other members of the bridge. Men and women grabbed their heads in order to try to make the intense migraine go away and push back the horrible thoughts emerging almost out of nowhere. Some of them even screamed out as the agony was too much to bear. Captain Hinnamen seemed to take it the best or at least was able to control his distress better than others. From the corner of his eye the admiral could see his friend fall to on knee and clench his jaw before slowly pulling himself back up, his hands gripping the tactical coordination table tightly.
“Enemy cognitive infiltration signal detected, counter-fields activating automatically,” Regela monotonously informed as the modified jamming fields activated throughout the fleet.
Admiral Singh felt them stabilize when the effects on him began to slowly dissipate. The images of destruction and feelings of sadness and guilt receded from his thoughts along with the accompanying pain. It did not go away completely, however. The headache persisted and strong desire to flee the battle still gnawed at him from within, but he was now able to fight it more efficiently. Other crews started to recover from their ordeal as well, refocusing on their assigned tasks.
Screaming from behind him caused him to turn towards the rear of the bridge, where Achyuta saw a man, one of his e
nsigns, pounding at the rear blastdoor, demanding to be let out. He was yelling about all of them dying and needing to get to a life-pod. As he watched the man was tackled by two of the bridge’s security personnel and quickly restrained with stunners. Not wasting any time, Captain Hinnamen called for a medical team and also a replacement for the crewman.
There was no pause for the Federation force’s troubles as Regela’s feminine voice spoke out once again in warning. Admiral Singh watched crimson warning signs popup over every console and display on the bridge, each one flashing either ‘Connection Offline’ or ‘Signal Terminated’.
“Enemy Jamming in progress. All regular communication arrays and targeting sensors offline. Switching to LDL and laser optical guidance,” the Intelligence informed and conducted the work simultaneously without any input from the crew. That was gift and curse of unshackling an AI. It removed all boundaries in place established to restrict the actions of a ship management system and allowed that system to act all under its own initiative. At the same time, though, any wrong decision or action undertaken by the AI would take much longer to stop. Rogue or program damaged SMS’s could wretch havoc on their crews as well as all surrounding ships, or simply drop a ship into subspace to be lost forever. For the moment Achyuta hoped that nothing like that would happen on this day.
Regela stayed true to her mission and flawlessly continued to coordinate the battle through the laser data links between each CBG warship and spacecraft. There was barely a pause from the enemy’s relentless interference in her efforts as communication sources were switched. The friendly ships continued their progress towards the enemy formation and directed more fire against them from both hypervelocity Gauss cannons and missiles. The missiles were small, highly agile models, similar to those used on fighter craft created for the purpose of missile or fighter interception, such as was there current mission.
Almost a hundred of these interceptors arched away from their firing frigates and sped towards the incoming enemy fighters. Unable to see these fighters on their sensors, the frigates targeted some with their optical systems, but only a certain number were able to be tracked at one time. To remedy this situation and help with the burden, fighter squadrons already launched by the Regal designated targets of their own for these missiles. As if following the Federation force’s example, the enemy unleashed fighter launched missiles of their own towards the squadrons approaching them head on.
Achyuta watched most of these squadrons began to scatter in evasive maneuvers, but noticed Hydra and Viper proceed unabated. Both squadrons engaged these incoming warheads with missile and particle beam fire of their own, causing the majority of those targeted at them to explode early. The remaining few missiles were mostly avoided by skillful flying from the pilots of these Model-E Dragonfires and even newer Cyclone interceptors. As the admiral watched, one Dragonfire blinking out of existence on the screen and became another casualty of war. The pilot had turned to avoid the warhead at the last second, but was engulfed in a singularity event as the weapon detonated directly underneath him.
The other missiles launched by the alien fighters were unaffected and kept on coming towards the Federation fighter groups. Like the Vipers and Hydras before them, these craft launched interceptors of their own while maneuvering away from the incoming. Some of the pilots also redirected the frigate launched missiles towards these new treats. Together they caused dozens of these deadly projectiles to explode early in midflight. The space between began to fill with many micro black holes. Still five pilots were hit by missiles not intercepted, three of which managed to eject before their fighters were disintegrated.
Meanwhile Viper Squadron and Hydra Squadron closed on the first group of enemy fighters, unleashing more warheads and particle beam fire from a distance. Some of these fighters scattered, but other proceeded without pause, taking the beams against their forward shields. These shields held out momentarily, but six of them fell seconds later as the missiles impacted them. More of these fighters converted into fireballs as the St.John and Arendal interceptors arrived in force right after. Both Federation squadrons accelerated further into this dissolving enemy formation, dealing more death and destruction. The Cyclones atomizer cannons pierced through the alien shields and slice deep into them. These short range weapons disintegrated almost any material on contact by disrupting the actual molecular bonds that held it together. As a testament to their effectiveness four other alien fighters seemed to break apart cleanly before exploding as the beams cut them almost in half.
In seconds the opposing fighters came together with more death and destruction before separating once again. The two Federation squadrons emerged from the rear of the enemy formation with another pilot down, this time it was one of the Cyclones that had unfortunately collided with an alien fighter. Finally they were through with no further loss and both squadrons began to turn quickly back towards the rear of the enemy fighters. This maneuver put the hostiles directly between the two groups of Federation crafts, catching them in a crossfire situation.
Back on the Regal’s command deck Achyuta Singh watched the engagement unfold. He winced inside every time another of his pilots blinked out of existence or went EV as their fighter disintegrated around them. Another Dragonfire, an older model, disappeared at that moment as well, only this time in a much larger explosion.
“Heavy singularity detected,” Regela stated in reference to the signature given off by the enemy anti-ship class missiles observed earlier against the Odessa as well as the Federation group before that. “Multiple high speed contacts. Projected course Sirius, Karabela, Rastaban, Fenris, Gualver, and Regal. Directing countermeasures.”
“Launch countermeasures. All ships, evasive now!” Admiral Singh commanded through the still throbbing headache, his vision shifting to the new threat appearing on the holographic display.
His orders were sent along immediately and dozens of decoys accelerated from the naval vessels in an effort to confuse the enemy targeting systems. At that very moment, however, the incoming missiles vanished from existence and therefore all sensors. Achyuta instantly recognized what was happening. He had been waiting for these weapons to show up again and dreading the encounter with them at the same time. He had seen their effectiveness in the combat video retrieved from the Federation and had just witnessed their use first hand against the Odessa not moments before.
“Initiate MCW Vortex,” he added and turned towards Nickolas while slightly feeling the large vessel start to maneuver underneath him. The entire bridge-wide display shifted as the whole ship pitched to starboard and readjusted its position in space to evade the incoming missiles. In the midst of this rapid course correction weapons systems around the Regal and the other ships of the battle group opened up. Hundreds of defensive beams fired out into space in overlapping fields of fire along with dozens more missile interceptors. These weapons tried their best to form multiple lays of defensive barriers between the incoming missiles, hoping to hit at least some of them as they reverted back into realspace.
“Reacquiring anti-ship contacts. They are changing course to pursue. Decoy countermeasures ineffectual. Readjusting defenses,” Regela informed.
As she finished three of the enemy missiles had already been destroyed early. Two flew into the intense barrage of particle and laser fire, while the third had been intercepted by a nearby interceptor projectile and destroyed seconds after phasing back into reality. The rest, unfortunately dissipated once more out of sight and continued on their mission. Only seconds remained before they reached Admiral Singh’s battle formation.
KNIGHT SQUADRON and its nine surviving members, along with a trio of Pegasus drones, reached the Helo Zero Five rally point just as the wave of intense migraines and pain cut through them. Styker Telwin watched some of the fighters on either side of him waver in midflight and lose formation for a second. They all recovered rather quickly, even before their jammers came online, thanks in most part to their multiple simulation fights with
similar distortions over the past few days. Styker gripped the control stick harder and clinched his jaw as the world around him exploded in pain for a few long seconds, while his mind showed him horrible images of the death of all his squadron mates. Destruction of all the entire carrier battle group appeared in his head as well, causing doubt and hopelessness to almost take over.
These feelings subsided instantly as soon as the jamming system activated itself. Data transmitted through the TacNet let Styker know that something similar had occurred on the other ships of the CBG. The still active tactical network had allowed the commander to follow the escalating combat situation at each step. Seeing Tiari Okawa launch and move to engage the enemy fighters with Hydra Squadron caused his heart to flutter slightly and Styker chastised himself for the autonomic reaction. He had intense feelings for the woman, but she was also a full-fledged veteran combat pilot and could handle her own. Even so he wished he was able to fly support for her. Commander Telwin continued to hold his breath as he watched her squadron fight through the opposing fighters and lose a pilot as a result. Whether it was actual combat stress or the enemy’s mind weapon, Styker felt it more difficult than usual to control and suppress his feelings.
He wished the thoughts away and concentrated on commanding his squadron as well as checking to make sure the Odessa was making it to Helo Zero Five alright. Because of the enemy activity the squadron that was supposed to greet them at the rally point never showed up, being held instead as support for the carrier group. Styker wondered what new orders Admiral Singh would have for them now that the situation had altered. For the moment Knight Squadron would have to hold position and be ready to respond when needed.
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