by Chris Hechtl
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“Captain Hyuga has called battle stations, sir! He's sent a signal to us, but we can't hear it. We're being jammed!”
“Battle stations,” the captain stated.
“We're receiving a whisker laser from Lisbon. She's sending … sir, it's an image of the side of the Nelson. They are Horathians!”
“Frack!” the XO snarled. “I knew it!”
“Go suit up. Get my suit and get back here,” the captain stated mildly.
“Aye, sir,” the XO said, ducking under the overhead as he hauled ass out of the compartment.
“Sir, we're getting another signal, port side Benny,” the sensor officer said. He turned to the com rating.
“Sir, it's a message from Tweedle Dee. They say the enemy has control of the star system and the ships approaching are Horathian. They have been jamming the corvette's transmissions. They are sending an updated report, but the laser has been kicking a bit.”
“Frack. It is a trap. And I walked right into it,” the captain snarled.
“They are firing on Lisbon!” the sensor rating said, voice rising in alarm.
“Com, lay lasers on the other ships. Order them to defensive positions. Helm, get us on course back to the jump point and out of their basket!”
“Too late! They are accelerating!”
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The Apollo class corvette Lisbon was on point; as the ships turned away from the threat she lagged behind to interpose herself between the tangos and the freighters. The Nelsons targeted her from long range, firing their energy weapons from a distance. Lisbon's captain had his ship jinking about so the fixed graser and laser cluster in the bow of each of the Nelsons couldn't easily get a firing solution.
But the twenty laser turrets on their sides, keel, and dorsal on each ship were a different story. The laser turrets were ancient but capable of engaging the small ship if they could lock her up in their primitive fire control. They could articulate and keep track of the dancing corvette.
They boxed the dancing ship in and tore at her energy shields. Once one turret crew got a lock, they passed on their targeting data to the other turrets. The corvette writhed like a spider in their concentrated flame each time they locked on. The second time they got a lock, her shields overloaded before she could twist away.
Fortunately for the Federation ship, the Horathian's laser turrets used inferior capacitors and EPS conduits. Each time a turret fired, it drained the capacitors until they could be recharged. That meant there was a brief window between firings for each turret. But the more they fired, the more the capacitors were overheated and stressed, and the longer it took to dissipate their heat buildup and recharge them.
The two frigates maneuvered around the freighters during the turn to also interpose themselves and their point defense between their flock and the enemy wolves. The ships were outclassed, however; their defenses meager against the lasers and grasers the Nelsons threw at them as they entered energy weapons range. But the Nelsons were intent on the corvette, wisely choosing to focus their fire not divide it between multiple targets.
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“Shields are gone! We can't sustain another hit like that!” engineering said. “We're venting somewhere and we're losing our drive!”
“Get the drive and shields back up. Helm dance for our life!” Captain Hyuga snarled. They couldn't fire back; every watt of energy was going into the drive, counter measures, and shields.
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The problem with energy weapons was the only defenses against them were ECM to screw up or jam their fire control, stealth, shields, and armor. Stealth was out of the question at that distance, and ECM was barely keeping them alive. With the shields down, the armor wouldn't last more than a couple of hits.
“Bob and weave, Tom, just keep bobbing and weaving,” Lieutenant Paul Crane said quietly, watching with hopeless eyes as his friend and classmate fought for his ship and his own life. Every second they lived was precious since the enemy was so intent on killing them. He knew Lady Luck wouldn't be with them for much longer.
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“Get a damn lock! I don't care if they have ECM up, get a lock! They are right there!” Captain Kerinski snarled, waving a meaty hand at his senior tactical officer so hard and fast he made the man cringe.
“They're good, sir; they've got better specs than we do,” the tactical officer said.
“No excuses! I'm tired of playing games. Let's kill this one and get to the others,” the captain said coldly.
“We can't open fire with missiles. We're under strict orders, sir.”
“I know. Just do your damn job,” the captain snarled, scrubbing at his beard in frustration. He wanted it over and done with. Why hadn't they folded? They knew they were outgunned and outclassed. They should have surrendered and thrown themselves to whatever mercy the Horathians had. But they hadn't. His ship was in for the first real fight of his career. He didn't like it. He didn't like an unfair fight or a fair fight.
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“We're entering extreme missile range, sir,” Ensign Wacomba said, looking at the captain.
“Then open fire,” Captain D'lif'ther stated. “Coordinate our fire with the other ships,” he ordered a half second too late. Rose immediately opened fire with the other two ships slightly behind her.
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“Missiles incoming! Ten, twenty, thirty plus inbound!”
“Damn it! Counter measures! All lasers cut them down!” Captain Kerinski snarled.
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“Sir, they've stopped firing! We've got a ….”
Captain Hyuga nodded. His ship's heaters were overloaded; it was like a sauna in the ship. It was only a moment of time before some electronics overheated and broke down. The crew were all in skinsuits, it was the only way to stay functional in the sweltering heat. “Reprieve I know. Tell engineering to make the most of it. Tactical, lock them up and fire. Give them everything we've got, don't hold back. I don't think we'll have long so make it count.”
“Yes, sir.”
“The good news is we'll be losing some mass when we fire. The bad news is we'll have to hold still momentarily,” the ensign stated as he finished the firing solution. “Firing now!”
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“I feel so fracking helpless,” Sergeant Farsea muttered over and over. Jethro grunted. The Marines were all suited up but were spectators in the fight. Bast kept urging him to get in his armor, but he told her quietly to lock it up.
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Captain Tion's eyes bulged as the missile swarm came in. His lasers cut at them, and they were easier to hit than the damned corvette since they were coming right at him. They tore at the missiles from the frigate and other corvette cutting them down in swaths, but it was close. They couldn't get confirmed hits until the missiles were almost on top of him.
But then the corvette he and Kerinski had wounded had her turn. She was closer, and they had ignored her for too long. Suddenly she stopped skittering about space and fired everything she had in one massive salvo.
“Kill that mother fracker!” He snarled as the missiles came in hard and fast. “Counter missiles now! All missile tubes fire one shot and one shot only! Target half on that corvette and the rest on the freighters!”
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“Sir, they are firing a spread into the transports!” the tactical officer said, looking over his shoulder to Captain Hyuga.
“Get us in there, protect those colliers.” There were only eight missiles, but that was more than enough to kill both of the unarmed colliers. He watched his own missile swarm get in to the enemy's shield and batter the nearest Nelson's shields down. The hellfire blast from two missiles got through as the shields buckled and collapsed, wiping away her port laser turrets and equipment like a scouring blowtorch. The armor covering her dorsal side protected her vitals but wreckage fouled her port boat bay and wrapped wreckage up and around to foul her upper two dorsal turrets.
�
��We have a hit!” the tactical officer announced with a tired grin.
“Yeah!” the com rating cheered.
“Sweet!”
“Good work, guns. Keep firing our beams. Target the missiles,” the captain ordered, all business. That sobered his crew instantly. The realization that it wasn't over; it was just beginning.
“On it, sir.”
They cut down one, then two more of the missiles. But two changed course abruptly, cutting their drive to do an end-over-end flip and then retarget them. The ensign yelped as the missiles went into sprint mode and then their warheads went off. He had just cut down the last three missiles with their phasers, but the flip had made him misjudge where the last two missiles were going to be. And it took him a moment too long to retarget them.
Lisbon bucked like a wild thing as two megaton nuclear missiles went off under her stern. Her unshielded armor tore like tissue paper and her drive thrusters crumpled like wadded paper or tore away to float off into the void.
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“We've got a big piece of the lead corvette, sir.”
“Then by all means finish her off,” Captain Tion stated. “News from Wizard?” Wizard of Winter had rolled ship immediately to get her damaged flank up and away from any follow-on shots. She was purely on the defensive now until her engineers could get her damage under control.
“Their damage control is on it, sir. They've lost their entire port flank weapons. Fire control is out. That boat bay is fouled as is her upper guns, sir.”
“I bet Kerinski is chewing paint off the walls right about now,” the captain said dryly. “Order Wizard to stand on the defensive. We'll handle this,” he said as his guns targeted the corvette and fired. He had to kill those ships. They had missiles and better ECM than he did. Their missiles were smaller but matched his missile's range. They also had slightly better ECM and ten megaton warheads, five times what his ship had. Too many of that missile swarm had been killed perilously close in to where the warheads would have gone off.
“Tell the turret crews to do better. Let's end this.”
“Sir, they are turning away!”
“Engage with our bow graser! Cut that corvette up and then target the frigates!” The captain ordered, half rising out of his chair in excitement.
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Lisbon fell behind, her engines in ruins. She was picked off by the pirate destroyers and destroyed from long range before the other ships could respond to help her. Once she was cut apart, Idiot's Array turned bow on to Rose and cut loose with her graser. The graser was a fixed mount weapon with a cluster of five lasers around it. They tore at the frigate's shields, ripping through them to tear at her armor as her crew tried to maneuver out of range. Each millisecond she was in the fire of the graser, her armor crumpled and tore, peeling away under the onslaught. However, the angle wasn't perfect so it wasn't a direct hit. But it was close enough to do internal damage.
Captain D'lif'ther and two of his bridge crew were killed when an EPS conduit ruptured. The EPS conduit fed the life support and gravitronic plates on the bridge. With them out the compartment went dark and the gravity cut out.
Lieutenant Crane saw the carnage and managed to get clear of it before it killed him as well. “Get off the bridge!” he snarled, yanking the dazed helmsman out of his couch as the fire control system tried to deal with the plasma leak. The computer had already cut the flow so they only had the plasma floating around the bridge to avoid.
“Sir, I've got to maintain control!” the helmsman said, using his implants to maneuver the ship out of danger momentarily. He sucked in a breath as the XO dragged him backwards out of the bridge. He saw a ribbon of plasma dance over him and winced as it englobed part of his station melting it.
“DCC to the bridge! We're setting up a temporary bridge in engineering. Get there,” the XO ordered, pulling Sam upright.
“Yes, sir!” the helmsman said, moving slowly.
“You hit?”
“It's hard to use my implants to control the ship and walk, sir!” Sam replied, one hand out to touch the wall. His vision swam with the controls. He was trying to control the ship with one hand and his eyes. He winced when Lisbon's self-destruct packages went off and the ship exploded in eye searing fury.
Her death distracted the pirates long enough for the Federation ships to momentarily get out of range. Captain's Lady moved up to cover the flagship, taking damage like her division mate. The first few hits hammered at her shields, but when they collapsed she took hits on her armor and drive.
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“Well! That well and truly sucked birds eggs,” Sergeant Farsea muttered, watching Lisbon's death. “We're so screwed.”
“Not yet we're not. Bast, can you do anything?” Jethro asked.
“Bast? Who's Bast?” Tyler asked, turning to him.
“Shut up, Ty,” Jethro said, looking expectantly at the A.I. on his HUD. She silently shook her head and then projected a meter stick meaning distance. “Damn,” he breathed. “So we either need to get closer … or right down their necks,” he growled softly.
“Dude, I don't like your thinking,” Tyler said, wide eyed as he backed away. “You're nuts.”
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“Engineering reports ten minutes to get power back, Captain,” a rating said looking at Captain Tion.
“How bad is it?”
“We overloaded a couple EPS conduits when we fired so much, sir. They're not meant to take that level of abuse apparently.”
“Shoddy damn construction if you ask me. The Feds can fire better,” the captain growled. “Status on Wizard?”
“They have their damage under control, sir. Dorsal turrets are offline. The hiccup in the starboard fire control has been tracked down and ironed out.”
“Good.” The captain watched with hating eyes as the Federation forces got just outside his engagement envelope. All but one. The corvette he'd gotten a piece of lagged behind. She may be playing rear guard, but CIC knew better. They reported some gas venting and some damage to her drive and shields.
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“They've stopped firing. We've got a break. We need to …,” Captain Truex said.
“What we need to do is get out of range and stay there,” Captain C'lax stated calmly, interrupting Captain Truex. With Captain D'lif'ther dead Captain C'lax on Farragut took charge of the convoy. “Status on your ship, Captain?”
“She's got some drive damage. My engineers believe we can make good on it shortly sir. Given enough time …”
“Which we are squandering covering you. I'm detaching your ship for the moment. Split off and head to the picket and militia ship. Get your repairs under control and then report back to me,” Captain C'lax stated then cut the Veraxin out of the circuit.
“Sir …”
“Save the arguments, we don't have the time,” the Veraxin stated. “I want every ship moving at 110 percent power if not better. Get us out of their range.”
But sir, leaving Captain's Lady behind with the picket ship to defend the militia ship ….”
“I said not now. They'll be fine; the enemy will undoubtedly focus on us as the greater threat. And of course our freighters are a target as well,” he said nodding to the two ship captains. “Move. Is Rose ready to keep up?” he asked, turning to Lieutenant Crane's image.
“We'll do our best, sir,” Lieutenant Crane stated. “I'm still getting a handle on damage control and setting up a temporary bridge. I'll report back in a few minutes, sir,” he said, cutting the circuit.
“See that you do,” the Veraxin clacked.
Chapter 12
After they crabbed just out of the destroyer's engagement envelope and the Nelsons dropped onto their tail for a stern chase, Captain C'lax ordered damage control to get to work and then called a senior staff meeting. He only allowed the ship skippers and Lieutenant Chaing to attend however. Lieutenant Queen was excluded to save time and bandwidth. She seethed over that exclusion but understood that they didn't
have time to play games.
“Sir, what are we going to do?” Captain Kali Shelton of Sabrina 99 asked. Her unarmed Clydesdale was the slowest ship of their convoy. Her cat eyes were round with fear.
“We can't panic. Panic will serve us nothing but waste time. We must keep a rational head. There is a way out of this.”
“And if there isn't, sir?” Captain Shelton demanded. She was fearful of the Horathians. She kept licking her lips and looking at the plot.
“We can count our blessing that they don't have fighters. Unfortunately, we don't either,” Lieutenant Chaing said. “How is the damage on Rose?”
“Bad enough. Our hyperdrive is pretty shot up. I don't think we can make a jump,” Lieutenant Junior Grade Crane, the acting captain replied tightly.
Captain Shelton hissed softly in sympathy.
“You can leave us behind. I know my duty. So does my crew, sir,” Lieutenant Crane said softly.
“He's not the only one. Captain's Lady isn't fairing much better,” Lieutenant Chaing said, eying the Veraxin. He wasn't at all happy about leaving the ship behind. Marines didn't do that. But it looked like they were about to, and there was precious little he could do about it. None at all really, he thought with sick dread.
“I have a report from Tweedle Dee and the militia freighter. Both are almost out of fuel and do not have enough to jump or run for much longer,” Captain C'lax said heavily.
“Are we really going to leave them?” Captain Blake Otto of Collier 108 asked softly. His Cygnus class freighter wasn't much faster than Kali's. He knew they'd be toast once the escorting warships were battered into wreckage.
“It hasn't come to that yet.”
“But if it does … we clearly can't win.” That admission didn't sit well with any of the officers, but it had to be said. “We're outgunned, and they know it. We're barely keeping out of their engagement basket as it is. One slip, one engineering casualty and it's over.”