The Chronicles of Heaven's War: Hell Above the Skies
Page 67
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Nazareth’s battle plan worked better than expected. Although costly in terms of lives lost, it managed to completely remove two of Asotos’ largest armadas from attacking the MueoPoros defenders. It also prevented Asotos from being present to direct the battle and using his mental powers as he had planned.
The ninety-something fighter attack force Nazareth sent against Asotos’ returning fighters proved themselves devastating. Just as she had calculated, the enemy exhausted its ordnance and fuel supplies on the lengthy combat it faced from the First Fleet’s defenses. Terey’s fighter squadrons, although not a surprise, had fought with ferocity beyond expectation. When finally engaging the fleet and not finding the anticipated number of support ships from the other armadas, Asotos’ fighters were forced to provide added support to the heavies, depleting extra fuel and munitions.
They had been told there would be no resistance on the return journey. Believing this, many of the fighters exhausted their missiles on earlier targets and their guns were empty. Asotos’ fleet was also supposed to be closing the distance between them, cutting their return time. For this reason, the squadron leaders hadn’t bothered to fly in a way to conserve fuel. The radar blips they saw on their viewers were at first taken for the approaching armada. When they realized their mistake, there was no time to regroup into a better defensive formation.
DTB’s were frontline fighters for Nazareth. Many of her ships were relics worthy of museums. XTT’s made up better than a third of her entire fighting force, with T4’s and T6’s composing another third. If the Endikos 23’s had been sufficiently fueled and armed, it would have been a turkey shoot for them. As it turned out, it was the single biggest defeat for the 23’s before the introduction of the Baby Pearl.
Dropping on the enemy in their half ‘V’ flying goose formation of four fighters each, Nazareth’s ships avoided the returning heavies, fearing their powerful defensive cannons. Instead, they went for the much superior Endikos 23 squadrons. At first, the 23’s took the upper hand, shooting several of Nazareth’s fighters to pieces. Soon, though, the tables turned.
Not able to drive Nazareth’s nuisance ships away and dangerously low on fuel, the 23’s were forced to fall out and flee for home. What few 23’s still had loaded weapons used them in an attempt to chase the opposing fighters away. Nazareth’s fighters refused to be driven off though. When the enemy’s guns went empty, they turned tail and fled, with the nuisance ships in hot pursuit.
With full fuel tanks and magazines, the ancient fighters lumbered along after the much faster 23’s. Eventually, one and then another Endikos 23 would fall behind, engines flaming out. Drifting helplessly in space, it now became Nazareth’s turn to have a turkey shoot, which was what happened to the first few enemy ships that ran out of fuel. Then the squadron leader issued other orders.
As the DTB’s and T4’s continued chasing the enemy fighters, the T6’s and XTT’s began gathering up the disabled enemy ships. If an enemy pilot surrendered and jettisoned his remaining ordnance, the old, big T6’s would take them in tow. By the end of battle that day, Nazareth had added forty-four new fighters and sixteen heavies to her oddball navy. Thirty-one of those fighters were Endikos 23’s, mostly from Asotos’ personal carrier, AugustOne.
Nazareth’s Dredges Battle Group I fought a heated contest, suffering terrible losses, but the new, mystery Navy earned its reputation that day. Closing fast, the Chisamore delivered a shot from the port rail gun into a first-rate cutter (an imperial cutter would be the same class fighting ship for the Children’s Empire). The mendelevium bullet entered the cutter just below the bridge. Traveling lengthwise through the ship, it exploded about amidships, blowing the cutter in two.
With Nazareth at the helm of the Chisamore, the battle group dove into the middle of Asotos’ armada. The commodore gripped the captain’s rail, eyes closed, watching the battle play out inside her mind. She could see each of her ships, the enemy’s and what they were attempting, and she could hear the orders being issued by all commanders on both sides.
Throughout the entire combat, the commodore stood the bridge. James watched spellbound as his mother directed the war without speaking a word. Suddenly, a gunnery officer would shout out a directive or the bridge captain would order, “Engines full!” or “Hard to port!” On and on it went like this for the entire battle.
Not everyone felt comfortable seeing the commodore leading the battle in such a peculiar way. And then there were the ghostly green and white energy shrouds that drifted up and down her body at times. From toe to head, back to her toes they would go, making eerie, crackling noises. And there were other things happening - even more disquieting things...
Nazareth and the Chisamore were as if one in mind and spirit. When the ship took a strike or was damaged in some other way, the commodore would moan or cry out in pain. At times, the ship heaved to port or starboard or changed course with such force, the gravity machines could not maintain equilibrium, pitching the crew this way and that. And it happened without the captain giving any orders to the helm.
When another ship in their battle group was severely damaged or destroyed, Nazareth would begin a wailing that could last several minutes. She writhed in agony when the cutter AbBram was torpedoed, killing all on board. Bloody sweat ran in rivers down her face while capillaries ruptured in her ears and nose. Still, the commodore held the bridge, her clairvoyant leadership having a telling effect on the enemy.
Right at the beginning of the attack, the Chisamore crippled the AugustOne. Punching its way through the armada’s outer defenses by taking out the enemy cutter, it blasted through the flaming debris field straight for Asotos’ flagship. It closed to within two thousand yards before firing its starboard rail gun. The Chisamore passed the AugustOne at such close range that some of the crew on the lower decks sustained injuries from the rail gun’s concussive blasts. But the damage delivered to the enemy proved catastrophic.
The upper port engine pod on the AugustOne was ripped from its mountings and drifted away to the stern of the ship, and the lower port engine pod was put out of operation for the remainder of the contest. Asotos was so unnerved by the bold strike on his ship that, along with the music dancing in his head, he surrendered any control of the battle around him, leaving the fight up to each individual captain.
But it was not only Nazareth and the Chisamore that earned the Dredges their reputation that day. Typical of the bravery, sacrifice, and ferocity of the captains and crews of other ships was the account of the marauder, Hell’s Half Sister. During the combat, a missile strike ruptured its radioactive core, instantly killing the engine room crew. The first mate quickly checked the damage and then read the gages to the captain.
Displaying no emotion, she reported, “The rads are past redline and rising.”
Resting her hand on the forward control panel, Captain SusannaTerezz sighed. “There’s nothing else for it. Can you man the engine room?”
The first mate nodded, “With a radiation suit, I can give you about five minutes. I don’t think anyone can survive past that time in there. I’ll also need a helper.”
The communications officer stepped up. “I’ll go. You do what you need to do, Captain. We’re all with you.”
Captain Susanna thanked them, and they hurried away. She ordered the gunnery mate to arm all the warheads. “We’re going for the cherry!”
When the engines were up, Hell’s Half Sister banked hard to its port and down. “Engines full!” the captain shouted.
The last thing Nazareth heard in her mind was the cry from the captain, “We’ve got ya, you bastard!”
Hell’s Half Sister tore into the forward hull of the enemy battle cruiser, DikaioSune (Righteousness), killing its captain and all the bridge officers as well as the upper hangar deck crews. The leaking radioactive core split apart, spilling death and destruction throughout the ship, forcing its abandonment. It was
several months before the radiation spill was contained and cleaned up and several more before the ship could see action again.
As the battle of Gorgon Pass raged on, Nazareth’s agony and suffering visibly increased. James began to wonder if his mother was going to survive the day.