“Finishing our turn, sir,” Lt. Thornton said from the helm station, his face was covered in drying blood from the cut to his forehead.
Mike took his seat in the center of the bridge looking to the main viewer. His didn’t have a tactical holo map and had to rely on his eyes, the computer read outs and the reports from his men. Opening his command channel to engineering he said a quick prayer.
“Rufo, can we fire the main gun?” he asked but his signal just showed a smoky engine room as no one came to answer his call.
“Enemy ship is closing as well as another flight of carrier based missiles which are five-minutes out,” Chac-Ras called out.
“Full stop, let us go on momentum. Power down all systems except weapons,” Lt. Collins ordered wanting to appear dead. His turrets were mostly gone and his anti-missile defenses were all but useless.
“Escort destroyer is firing as she closes,” Ensign Steven called out.
The Randori rocked and groaned from the fusion blast impacts. Mike ordered all crewmen to pull back into the interior of the ship. Temporally giving up on damage control and hoping for a safe haven for them to weather the storm.
“Hold on,” Mike ordered as his ship was being slammed by the approaching Karduan warship. The escort destroyer aligned to its portside and continued to fire at close range. Her long range guns had also been damaged and now her ship mistress wanted to move in with fusion turrets and savor the kill at close range.
The ship rocked as another enemy barrage hit the port side’s weakened armor. The ship’s auxiliary bridge filled with smoke and anti-fire measures were kicking in as the crew fought not only the battle damage and their smoking consoles but also the Karduan ships around them.
Sitting in the captain’s chair, Lt. Michael Collins’ blue eyes dashed from the main view screen to his chair’s computer screen as data came pouring in on the condition of his ship and on the enemy ships around him.
His ship’s portside guns were all but knocked out. He had hull ruptures in the port, aft and starboard sides. Damage reports came rushing in from all over the ship along with casualty reports.
“Any sign of help?” he called to his maser operator. Hoping for the appearance of the Star Wolf and a last minute save.
“No sir, its just us!” the enlisted man yelled back with panic sounding in his voice.
His bridge crew was doing a great job but they had just been outnumbered and outgunned. Hitting his comm. switch with a direct channel to engineering he hoped for good news.
“Cappillo, what’s the status of the bender drives? I need the main gun right now!”
Only static answered his call and Mike knew he was on his own. At that moment another barrage of missile strikes hit his port side and shook the ship as its thrusters kicked into life stabilize her keel and stop her from going into a roll.
“Sir, port armor is all but gone, structural integrity is becoming compromised,” someone called out to him.
“They are closing in on us to finish us off,” the maser operator added seeing the enemy ship angling closer to them.
This was it he thought as his mind desperately tried to find a way to turn defeat into victory. He had trained his entire adult life for this moment. Graduated with honors from Harpers Military Academy. Even at his young age of just twenty-four he had already been in a dozen battles and had cheated death numerous times but this time he couldn’t see a way out. He had wanted to be a leader and he had wanted this command. It had felt good but now it left a sour taste in his mouth as he knew what he had to do.
Swallowing hard he gave his next orders.
“All wounded to escape pods, all other crewmen immediately make your way to the engineering section!”
Surprisingly, his bridge crew didn’t move as they knew their captain was still sitting in his command chair. No signal of surrender had been sent and they all waited to see what last trick he had up his sleeve.
Mike nodded to himself at their loyalty and their constant bravery.
“Well, the only place we still have intact armor is the bow so let’s use it!” he stated standing up from his seat. “Helm, bring us about twenty-five degrees to port and full maneuver drives ahead! Give her every ounce of speed we got left!”
The bridge crew let out a little gasp but quickly followed his orders as they turned the ship’s bow towards the enemy’s portside and engaged what was left of the fusion drives.
As the front of his ship rocked from the enemy fire Mike moved up and stood next to the helm station.
“All right, let’s do it! Ramming Speed!” Collins yelled as his ship lurched from enemy hits as it rushed towards its doom.
The Q-ship lurched back into action, burning all thrusters and engaging what was left of the in-system fusion drives. The escort destroyer continued to fire its remain guns and was surprised that this lifeless hulk had once more started to move.
Angling the Randori towards the enemy ship’s engine section they closed on a collusion course.
Lt. Collins moved up and stood by the helm station watching the main viewer as the enemy ship grew in size as they got closer. Glancing down he noticed a flashing green light on the helm station’s gunnery panel.
“Mike, the spinal cannon is back online!” Rufo Cappillo’s voice shouted across his command channel.
Collins didn’t wait a second longer and hit the helm’s fire control pad. At this range he didn’t need to aim.
The particle blast was just a hundred or so meters away and tore into the enemy’s starboard engine section and ripped it completely off. It also had a secondary effect of the engine section’s explosion catching and bending the bow of the Randori. The Q-ship continued on course and scrapped the jagged remains of the escort destroyer aft section.
“Captain, the spinal cannon is badly damaged and is inoperable,” Ensign Stevens called from the sensors station. It was nice way to say that the bow was bent and the chambering coils were broken. Any shot attempted now would result in the ship blowing up.
“Bring us about and behind her,” Collins ordered as they finished scrapping against her hull. He then continued, “Iron Brigade tanks move to the portside and reattach. Commence firing as we pass her starboard side.”
The Randori’s remaining thrusters burned hard trying to turn the badly damaged ship in a U around the rear of the Karduan vessel. The turn was very tight and ended up wider than he would have like but they made the turn as his eleven tank turrets opened fire.
“Mike, we have a problem,” Cappillo called across the still open link.
“What is it?” he replied wondering what else could be wrong other than his ship being ripped apart and all but defenseless.
“The starboard side’s maneuver drive and bender drive units are badly damaged and are unstable. It is all I can do to keep them from exploding. I’d say we have no more than five minutes. I’ve prepared to jettison their engine cores on your orders,” the exhausted engineer hurriedly said.
“Can you set them to explode?” Mike asked
“What?” he exclaimed in surprise.
“I have an idea,” he shared with a smile.
“I’ll see what we can do, you now have four minutes,” Rufo announced.
Mike looked down at Thornton’s bleeding face.
“Is this what you were hoping for when you convinced me to let you join the crew?”
Lt. Thornton smiled and winced in pain at the same time.
“Sort of but I’d like to survive,” he replied still smiling. He knew that no one would think of him as a coward again after this.
“Me too,” Mike said putting a hand on his shoulder, “Prepare to break contact and turn hard to starboard. Give her everything she’s got left on my mark.”
“Aye sir,” the pilot replied his hands making the necessary adjustments to the control panels.
“Captain, incoming enemy missiles from their carrier,” Chac-Ras said from the maser scope.
“Time to contact?”
>
“One minute,” came the response.
“Cappillo, jettison the starboard engine cores and have them detonate in one minute,” Collins ordered and looked to his helmsman. “Break and full thrust away!”
The Q-ship again turned slowly but had already been angling to turn away thanks to Lt. Thornton preparations. Hitting the thrusters and engaging the port fusion drive they pulled away as the starboard engine cores were expelled from the crippled express freighter.
Both engine cores exploded along side of the escort destroyer almost to the minute. The ship lurched from the impact and a huge hull breech was blown into her armored side encompassing several decks which could be easily seen as she went into a death roll.
The Randori shook violently from the impact and more alarms went off as lights on several panels started to flash angrily.
“Mike, port bender drive is fragged and port maneuver drives outputs are at fifty percent,” Cappillo stated across the command channel.
“How bad is it?”
“Bad, engineering is wrecked, half my people are dead and the other half are wounded,” Cappillo replied.
“Just hold on old friend, I’ll send some marines down to give you a hand. Keep the in-system drives going as long as you can.”
“Roger,” Rufo said as the channel went dead.
“Sir, most of the incoming missiles have been destroyed by the core explosions. The few that got through were shot down by our tanks,” Ensign Stevens called out getting a weak cheer from the exhausted bridge crew.
Mike nodded, “Helm, best speed set course for the Nathanial Green.”
The crew shook their heads in disbelief but nobody said a word in protest. Their young captain had just defeated two standard destroyers, and escort destroyer, as well as a two destroyer escorts and a freighter. All while fighting off fighters, missiles and torpedo attacks. Their ship was a wreck and didn’t even have the ability to bend out and was down to but a few turrets and tanks.
Casualty and damage reports were coming in from all over the ship and Mike could see that he had lost almost half of his original crew, over twenty-five men and women in this fight.
“All able crewmen to damage control,” he commanded, “let’s see if we can bluff our Blue friends and maybe get us a new ship.”
Lt. Grinder had just finished another run on the Green Machine. Once more ECM, tactics and TPA saved his flight from destruction but they were now out of missiles. They had come in with very tightly grouped formations, fooling any sensor locks into thinking they were one ship and then splitting as they came into range hence forcing targeting computers or any manned turrets to decide what targets to follow. It was an old trick but it still worked sometimes.
So far he had only lost four fighters but the enemy had lost all of their star fighters. Most being shot down by the Random flight pilots while several others were shot down while making runs on the Randori.
Having run out of missiles they had drawn back and were using their gauss cannons to try to shoot down torpedoes and missiles that were being launched at the Q-ship. He had set up his remaining fighters in a three tier defense. Luckily, the Nathanial Green only had standard torpedoes and not Blitzkriegs or his fighters wouldn’t have stood a chance of intercepting those incredibly fast torpedoes.
Sitting out there in space trying to protect their ship from a distance was all they could do but it gave them a clear view of the battle except for when the two engine core explosions which caused the Randori to disappear after using her spinal particle accelerator cannon to blow off the rear quarter section of the escort destroyer.
When the fusion and bender core exploded destroying the Karduan warship they had thought that the Q-ship had also been destroyed.
“She’s still there!” Will Rabb cried out, announcing it over an open channel.
“But look at her,” Ensign Pendleton remarked.
“Sir, she is headed this way,” Rabb said having calculated her course.
“Randori, what are your orders?” Lt. Grinder asked.
“Random Flight, hold your positions as we are coming to you,” Jansen said.
Grinder nodded to himself knowing that the fuel for his fighters was running low and that the Q-ship probably didn’t want them to waste it. It didn’t look like the E-deck was able to take them back on board and he just hoped that some other bay was undamaged where they could land.
“Wilco, Randori,” Random flight leader replied sitting back and waiting for them to arrive.
“Sir, the second enemy freighter has bended out of the system,” Chac-Ras reported.
Mike looked to the viewer. He knew that there was nothing he could do to stop them. The freighter was undamaged, had stood back and had watched the fight without getting involved. Too bad he thought as it looked like it was a human express class fast transport. It also meant that more Karduan warships could be arriving at any time. Express transports were not only in-system fast but had long range bender drives. After all it was what the Randori had started out as.
“How close do we come to that damaged Karduan transport?” he asked out loud and to no one in particular.
The distance quickly appeared in the corner of the main viewer along with an enhanced image of Karduan transport ship.
Mike touched the comm. channel on his space suit’s forearm pad. He held his breath not knowing if his friend was still alive.
“Yes boss?” Ancient Gunny Masters’ voice came across the link.
Mike had to admit the sound of his old friend’s voice made him smile.
“I need you to get together a boarding party of Werewolves, marines and whoever else can tote a gun. Take the Shaker and go over and board that Karduan freighter. See what condition they are in and if we can get her underway on her own power. Clear a landing bay for our fighters as they will need to refuel.”
“Aye sir, I’m on it. How much time do we have?” Gunny asked.
“You got thirty minutes until we are in shuttle range. Random flight will rendezvous with you and escort you in,” Mike ordered risking his men to get a ship for his fighters and a way to escape the system.
“We’ll be ready, no worries,” he said trying to sound positive.
“Out here,” he said and looked to Jansen at the communication station. “Order Random flight to pull back to the freighter and wait for our armored shuttle.
“Sir, could I go along with the boarding party?” Chac-Ras requested getting up from his station.
“Explain,” he said looking to the Blue Male.
“There are probably Karduan males onboard and if I go along I might be able to enlist them to our cause,” he clarified.
Mike nodded yes even though he needed him at the maser station. He knew that he could be a greater asset to Gunny Masters.
“Go, report to the Master Guns,” he said understanding that if there were Believer Disciples among their crew then they would indeed help them if given a chance for freedom.
“Yes sir,” the Blue male said with a smile as he ran to the auxiliary bridge’s hatch.
“Signal the Karduan freighter to surrender or be destroyed,” Collins said wondering if he could carry out his threat.
“Aye sir,” Jansen replied repeating his message to the enemy ship.
“Lt. Thornton, take over at the maser station,” Mike said.
The officer looked up at him for moment and nodded. His captain was a skilled pilot and if he had his choice he’d rather have him at the helm instead of the maser station.
“Aye Captain,” Thornton replied and quickly moved over to the maser station.
Mike sat down behind the auxiliary helm controls of the broken ship.
“Sir, the enemy freighter has surrendered,” Jansen reported much to the relief of the bridge crew.
“Prepare wounded to be evacuated to the freighter once we have her under control,” Collins ordered and then opened his command channel to engineering.
“Rufo, send someone over with th
e boarding party that can figure out if we can get that freighter repaired and underway,” he ordered.
“I’ll send Chief Bell and some repair droids,” Rufo said as his image appeared across the vid link. He looked tired and filthy but what stood out was that his face had streaks coming down from his eyes making clean trails across his cheeks. It was obvious that he had been crying.
“You Ok?” Mike asked his friend hearing the pain in his voice.
“Yeah, but Specialist Rojas was killed in that last explosion,” he said clearly upset at her death.
“Sorry,” was all that Mike could say.
He knew that the marines of the Iron Brigade were going to take her death hard as well. She had helped save them after their transport had crashed and had kept their air extraction unit working. If it wasn’t for her all of the survivors would have died. Specialist Rita Rojas was a true hero.
Rufo, nodded and cut off the signal.
“Captain, the escort carrier is moving and has set an intercept course for the freighter,” Thornton exclaimed.
Mike knew what they were doing. They had to stop the Confederation forces from getting that ship and now moved to engage in a ship to ship battle.
The escort carrier had them badly outgunned with so many of their turrets out of action they didn’t stand much of a chance. The Green Machine had taken damage to her in-system drives, bender drives and her torpedo launchers from the repeated attacks by the Wasp fighters and the Cody’s brave run. She had also been reluctant to go head to head with the Q-ship or enter the battle other than in a support role. Now she moved to intercept and attack.
Lt. Collins set a course to block the carrier’s advance.
“Order all wounded and nonessential personnel to the Mover shuttle and to head over to the freighter.”
A second later a general all call could be heard through the ship repeating his order to evacuate the Randori.
After the Mover took off his crew was probably down to less than ten navy and marine personnel. His bridge crew was now just Midshipman Jansen, Ensign Steven and Lt. Thornton.
Wolf's Run: The Chase of War (Star Wolf Sqaudron Book 2) Page 32