With precision only an automaton could accomplish the drone matched Styker’s every movement and triggered its onboard microtractor beam. Commander Telwin felt his AF-103 shiver gently as the heavy drone attached itself to the underside and locked on tight with its grapples. From then on Styker could fly as he wished while the Mule accomplished its task. It first automatically opened each of the three internal bays and offered the pilot a choice of which missiles to load. Styker glanced over the list and quickly selected a pair of Brimstones for anti-ship assault and the other six Kiba missiles for use against fighters. These missiles were instantly loaded into the waiting magazines, causing the fighter’s ammunition display to change from Red to Green in a matter of seconds.
Its job complete, the Mule ejected itself away from Styker’s AF-103 and maneuvered away from his engagement. The drone accelerated towards its next target with purpose as the others did the same to the rest of the squadron. In only minutes each member of the Knights was fully rearmed and ready to fight at the cost of one Mule, which had been struck and killed by a passing enemy fight. Two more enemy fighters disintegrated into pieces as this rearming occurred. A third enemy kill was recorded seconds later when Styker finished off his opponent with a number of well-placed laser blasts at full power.
“Form up Knights, we’re going after the big boys.” Styker Telwin expressed and pushed his Dragonfire through the remaining enemy fighters.
“ASMs INCOMING!” Captain Hinnamen warned at the same time that Admiral Singh saw part of the Rastaban’s port side bow explode out into pieces before slowing and quickly getting pulled back towards the center of the blast. At that exact point hung a large singularity that in seconds grew to devour the majority of the destroyer’s bow, eating through the heavy armor plating and superstructure as if it had been made out of the paper.
The whole command deck grew silent as everyone watched the display screens, transfixed as to what was happening. Even though they had recently see such weapons used against the Odessa, it was still completely unnerving to see the destruction so close to home. It did not end there, however, as they all witness a bright flash from within the heavy cruiser Karabela during one of its evasive course corrections. This detonated appeared to take place directly underneath its starboard side Gauss turret and caused a gasp to resound throughout the carrier’s bridge as they watched the entire heavy turret implode into itself.
As soon as the emplacement crumpled inward a tremendous explosion erupted forth, set off by the immense compression of the gun slugs held within the weapon, and destroyed a good portion of the cruiser’s wing structure. The fire and debris disappeared just as quickly, sucked back into the vortex as it spread out within the vessel’s interior to consume everything surrounding it. Dozens of the ship’s crew perished instantly as the gravitational anomaly tore through every bulkhead in its wake. Unlike with the Rastaban, the damage was much more extensive and with greater loss of life. Thankfully the vortex seemed to wear itself out after ten long seconds and vanished from existence leaving only a large torn hole within the warship’s hull. This wound trekked almost completely through to the cruiser’s underside.
Two other similar warheads went off just as this first subsided to damage the ship further. One disintegrated part of the cruiser’s top along its midline, taking a number of vertical missile launchers with it, while the second appeared directly inside the port side hanger bay. Along with the destruction of reserve spacecraft, the micro singularity caused a number of darmatium fuel cells to detonate. These explosions proceeded to rip great holes inside the hanger and Admiral Singh watched fire erupt from both sides of the open hanger bay before being sucked back in. The damage was extensive, thankfully however, none of these alien weapons had hit critical areas. Karabela was bruised, but not yet beaten. She fought on furiously almost without respite. Even as her damage control teams responded to the attack she continued to unleash waves of fire against the far away enemy.
Other warheads went off just above the Karabela having missed their intended detonation point by the Saber cruiser’s sudden change in course and caused no further damage. Regela registered other injuries to the fleet, however, and quickly began to display them on the large tactical screen. Besides those two warships two others had taken fire. The Redemption class frigate Gualver had seemingly taken an unlucky detonation almost exactly dead center inside it. The vortex warhead exploded beside the internal bridge and vaporized the entire command crew with it. Reports were flowing in and indicating that the auxiliary bridge near engineering was being brought online to take over partial command of the ship. Meanwhile the Gualver was still somewhat combat functional with some systems still active and being managed by the vessel’s SMS.
The other assaulted ship, the Odin class corvette Fenris, had fared far worse. Regela did not know what occurred at the moment, but the ship was no longer in one piece. The corvette had detonated from the inside and fractured itself multiple sections, creating a dangerous field of debris for other ships of the CBG. When three more warheads exploded due to the Regal’s defense screen, Achyuta knew that it wasn’t yet over. His formation continued to alter course at random times to throw off the incoming missiles, but still kept on coming. That fact was proven suddenly the large carrier shook beneath his feet. This was quickly followed by the horrible sound of metal tearing and cracking from all around the bridge. Lights throughout the command deck flickered off as did the surrounding display screens. Slowly, however, each one began to flash back to life as power was rerouted around the vessel.
It was then that damage reports began to appear on the holographic displays. Regela in the meantime verbally called out each section of the ship that had sustained damage. Two enemy warheads had gone off inside the Regal herself and casualties were mounting. Multiple weapons systems had simply disappeared from existence and others remained irreparably wrecked. Two of her six main plasma propulsors had been destroyed as well after one of the missiles detonated near the starboard side engineering room. The reactor core on that side was nearly missed, though, so there was no risk of critical failure and further danger to the vessel.
The admiral glanced back at the forward display, his fingers gripping the command chair tightly in anger, and saw that his fighter groups were already engaged in full combat with the enemy’s own fighter groups. Also because of her ability to multitask Regela had visually identified the enemy warship formation. He could see that two of its vessels had drifted farther away along the starboard flank. Quick thinking and experience suggested that their intent was to flank his force in order to trap it inside a crossfire.
“Captain Chulovski, dispatch Trident Squadron and escort to Two Four Zero Eight. Stop those ships,” Admiral Singh instructed his Flight Operations Commander, “launch all reserve fighters.”
Acknowledgement came rapidly when all ten Valkyrie bombers of Trident Squadron dropped in the formation and turned towards the new coordinates. Another group, Ranger Squadron, followed them in Dragonfire assault fighters. The Rangers took up an escort formation around the bombers and continued with them.
“Mules confirm contact with Knight Squadron!” exclaimed Ensign Balka. “Commander Telwin relays that the Odessa has been destroyed. Sir, he states that the enemy has engaged the escape pods. They are murdering the surviving crew.”
She barely finished the sentence when everyone turned in her direction, as if wondering whether the ensign had made a mistake. There was no mistake however.
“This only further gives notice of who or what we are all up against,” Admiral Singh slowly said as he pulled himself up from his chair for the first time, fighting the increasing throbbing in his head, and looked forward at the display.
“Damage control reports all contained. All primary systems back online and in the green. Engineering reports all clear for the reactors. Propulsors five and six inoperable.”
This was quickly followed by the displaying of casualty figures, while the carrier moved forward with
the rest of the formation. Weapons fire that had died down during the enemy attack now intensified once more and lit up all of space surrounding the formation as the systems came back online. The renewed defensive fire quickly started to take a toll on the enemy fighters. Even optically guided the guns were accurate enough to destroy five of the enemy in the first few seconds. Others disintegrated moments later as the carrier’s squadrons pulled the aliens in closer to Achyuta’s battle group.
All the while Admiral Singh’s migraine slowly worsened from a nuisance to almost a hindrance. The headache intensity had been increased for the last few minutes, but in the current excitement he had failed to notice much of a change. That was until now. Achyuta’s entire head pounded harder with each passing second causing him to start feeling unsteady on his feet. It was similar to the pain he had felt when the enemy’s mind weapon had been activated. For a second he thought that he was the only one in so much pain, but noticed a few of the bridge crew look away from their stations and start pressing their hands on their head in a failed attempt to stop the suffering. On the other side of the bridge Achyuta heard a glass of coffee fall to the hard deck and bounce loudly while spilling its hot contents.
“Detecting enemy intrusion signal change. Jamming no longer successful. Attempting to compensate and reconfigure to match,” Regela calmly informed, not effected in the least by the enemy assault.
“Multiple graviton bursts detected!” Lieutenant Gorzak groaned out from his station before doubling over in pain.
Before Admiral Achyuta Singh’s world exploded into excruciating pain and suffering for the second time, he observed every enemy ship on the tactical sensor display disappear. The agony caused his legs to weaken and his body to grow numb. One second he was standing there in command of his force and the next he was falling to the hard decking with his eyes reflexively shut tight, unable to support himself any longer.
XXI
January 1, 2487 S.E.D – Post Invasion Day 12
Rahias, Pisces Sector
FNV Regal - Carrier Battle Group
Achyuta felt his whole body shake and bounce on the floor even through the debilitating pain shooting through him. He could hear multiple people screaming even through the loud alarms blaring around the bridge. As before flashes of death and destruction filled his mind. People he had known and loved his whole life perished gruesomely right in front of his eyes. There was nothing he could do to stop it. Try as he might the images would return with a vengeance. In seconds he witnessed the deaths of thousands of people and the destruction of over a dozen Federation worlds. The overwhelming might of the enemy clouded his thoughts. How could they ever fight against such great beings? Achyuta knew without any doubt that the thought was not truly his own. His pride would never let him think in such a way.
“Establishing containment fields. Sealing off all critical areas. Armory on lockdown. Violent acts throughout the fleet dramatically increasing,” Regela’s voice continued recite what was occurring throughout the fleet even as she coordinated its defense.
Once again the entire vessel rocked heavily in a way only too familiar to the admiral. “Shields down to sixty percent,” the AI informed and the carrier tilted down under him, accelerating slowly.
At the same time the pain inside him began to subside, but only slightly. It was still enough to allow him to force his eyelids open in order to see the bridge again. By the time he gazed up at the forward display Achyuta was greeted with a battlefield that had rapidly changed during the previous moment. His opponents were no longer many thousands of kilometers away, but just hundreds now and closing rapidly. With just the quick glance his analytical mind instantly noted that another of his meager force had been destroyed by the enemy. The anti-fighter frigate Libertad had previously flanked his carrier, but now lay floating dead in space in ruins. It had apparently been taken revenge upon by the enemy for doing its fleet defense job with too much efficiency. In fact a good number of the enemy fighter casualties had come at the hands of the Libertad.
Other ships had also suffered further at the hands of the alien shorter range weapons, but were fighting back without pause. Weapons fire crisscrossed through open space and struck targets on both sides making shields flash into crimson and light blue. One of these dense continuous orange beams lashed out from an enemy vessel and struck the Regal at that very moment. Unlike Federation weapons this beam never actually left its point of origin. It held steady on the carrier’s port bow for two seconds before cutting off, weakening the shields further. He watched more of these orange beams fired out and strike other ships under his command.
Soft glows of missile trails became visible on the holographic displays as the Federation warships unleashed fresh barrages of ASMs against the enemy. These projectiles raced away from their ships in the mist of particle beam, plasma round, and disruption pulse fire. Achyuta watched them impact and splash against the glowing shields of the alien vessels. The Disruption pluses were unaffected by the shields and washed over the hulls in an effort to disable all operational electronics. While most alien systems remained unaffected weak points within the shields did develop, allowing some beams to punch through these heavy defense fields in order to strike the armored hulls themselves.
The missiles were once again mostly swept away by repulsion fields and defensive fire and whatever damage was inflicted by the rest was not enough to even slow the opposition. They continued their assault against his ships, concentrating on the heavier capital ships. Admiral Singh let out a deep grunt and pulled himself back to his feet, using a nearby command console for support. His eyes never left the forward display the entire time, which is why Achyuta didn’t miss the destruction of one of the enemy ships. A tremendous orange wave ignited in space around the ship before it broke apart into wreckage. The warship had been hit with a full RAP salvo from both of the Regal’s damaged destroyers, expertly targeted by Regela.
“Yeah!” Captain Chulovski exclaimed through gritting teeth from the other side of the bridge. Achyuta turned slowly to see the Flight Operations Commander standing there with his large arms around Captain Hinnamen, supporting his comrade who was in a weakened state.
Admiral Singh turned back to watch another enemy ship, this time a much larger cruiser or battleship well over one and a half kilometer in length, also take hits from Gauss rounds. These rounds originated from the damaged Karabela. Having now only one functional heavy turret limited the warship from causing more damage against its heavily armored and shielded target. At such close distances it took the pair of heavy slugs just a fraction of a second to impact the great vessel. Both detonated within the ship itself and caused significant injury in those specific areas, however, for a ship so massive they were barely felt. The Admiral marveled at the size of the alien combatant knowing that the Federation had nothing in its arsenal to match.
Like an enraged beast stung by hornets the enemy vessel lashed out in retaliation swiftly and savagely. Achyuta saw the pointed bow begin to glow in a mixture of red and violet to form a swirling sphere of energy. Having seen something similar in the Federation footage he knew what was about to happen even before it did. There was nothing he could do, but watch in shock as a part of this spinning energy coalesced into a solid beam and struck out at the Karabela. The massive ray hammered into cruiser’s ventral shields. For a number of seconds of the barriers actually held back the intense energy before slowly collapsing back against the ship.
Achyuta’s breath held for the entire time the beam made contact with the ship and his heart sank as the CGB TacLink showed imminent failures in the cruiser’s shield generators. In self-preservation the generators powered down. As soon as they did the heavy beam sliced into the armor plating along the underside of the port side wing. The weapon cut straight into the ship itself and came out through the top. It was as if the armor alloy was nonexistent. In just seconds the entire wing structure was severed from the cruiser’s central structure and detonated in a brilliant flash of
fire and debris. With that single blow the Regal Battle Group lost its last heavy Gauss cannon and its most powerful warship received sever damage.
The admiral took another moment to assess the situation before looking away from the raging battle outside and slowly began to make his way back to the command chair. “Regela initiate Fugiwara Maneuver,” he ordered as he turned away.
Around him others of the bridge crew started to slowly recover from the initial shock as the mind attack subsided. Whatever Regela was doing to counter it must be succeeding to some extent, Achyuta figured. However, he still observed that some were still too distraught to work. A few gradually began to resume theirs while fighting through the pains they experienced. By the time Achyuta reached his chair he could already feel the Regal slowing as the AI executed the given maneuver.
The Fugiwara Maneuver was a tactic developed decades ago by Admiral Kwaila Fugiwara. It was a based off ambush methods used by ground forces for centuries before that. A complete battle formation would have part of itself start a slow strategic withdrawal in the hopes to lure the enemy in a pursuit. Once engaged this element would pull back further and as such create a concave pocket within the battle line. This would in turn allow the rest of the formation to flank the enemy and trap it inside a crossfire. Achyuta saw the start of this effect when he finally sat down into his chair.
His central combat line flanked by the two Cosmos destroyers had already started to pull back away from the rest of the formation. All the while Regela continued to unleash a hail of fire against the enemy as they moved closer. Plasma and particle beams splashed against the alien crimson shields and gave the vessels an ominous look as they moved through black space. At the same time the top and bottom formations began to split in half and separate further to cover a larger area. Admiral Singh saw that the badly damaged Karabela lagged behind. It slowly rotated in space to present its still shielded starboard side to the enemy and was instantly harassed further by one of the enemy’s destroyer sized ships. In response the lower line’s aging Ridge class frigate Maridok accelerated two rail gun rounds towards the vessel.
Con-Red: Recourse Page 57