“Oceania is taking fire, Sir,” called out the tactical officer.
Captain Schaffer checked his own viewscreen to see the luxury liner take two impacts from automatic cannons. As he watched, one of the anti-ship missiles was destroyed just a hundred metres from her hull. The damage from the wrecked missile hurled itself against he flank of the vessel and tore a section the size of an assault shuttle out of the metal.
“Gods, she doesn’t stand a chance. Where the hell is she going?”
“Towards the Union fleet. Captain Hobbs must have been able to override the helm controls, at least until she left with her prisoner,” explained the tactical officer.
“I don’t like it, just a few direct hits and she’s finished. Get me through to who is in charge over there. They need to save whoever they can before it’s too late.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Nobody doubted that after Euryale, the Jötnar would forever be considered a critical part of the Confederate military. As in centuries past, however, there would always be inter-service rivalry that could cause a rift that even the great commanders could not resolve. The first of these occurred at the very beginning of what historians would later call ‘the Battle of the Centauri Spacebridge’. The Biomechs had given the Zealots and their Union the military capability to win their war. There are few that cannot fail to see the irony in their own creation being used in the Jötnar units to fight against them in the closing days of the war.
The 1st Jötnar Battalion
A massive explosion tore through the main habitation module and smashed the rotation hardware. In an instant those on board became weightless, as did any loose parts, tools or weapons. Spartan lost his footing and spun into the nearest wall. Gun and Khan grabbed onto a damaged bulkhead, and the rest did their best to hold on.
The internal emergency alarm triggered.
“This is Sergeant Lovett of the Confederate Marine Corps. Oceania has sustained substantial damage. I have been authorised by Captain Schaffer of CCS Santa Cruz to initiate an immediate evacuation. All crew and personnel are to abandon ship using the nearest available lifeboat…”
The message continued but broke up with excessive static and noise. “Enemy ships inbound, I repeat, all personnel are to evacuate immediately. Auto-pilots will take lifeboats to the Yorkdale.”
“Lieutenant!” called one of the marines further back in the ship. He pulled out a utility belt and threw it towards Spartan. With a lack of gravity, it spun slowly and drifted in a flat line. Spartan reached out and caught it. The belt was nothing substantial, just a variant of the belts used by Confederate crewmen and workers. It did contain a pistol holster and both a micro-size datapad and communications device. He checked the pistol and then grabbed the radio unit.
“Sir, Sergeant Lovett is on the horn.”
Spartan pulled out one of the earpieces fitted to the unit and pushed it into his ear. The sound of a desperate message poured out.
“Lieutenant Spartan here,” he replied, instantly interrupting the message.
“Good to hear from you, Sir. What’s your status?”
“Hobbs and Misaki have escaped. They’ve taken Teresa as a hostage.”
“Yeah, Crusader is tracking the lifeboat. Looks like it is heading for the Leviathan. Several fighters from the Santa Cruz tried to block it, but there’s just too much gunfire out there.”
Their conversation was interrupted as something substantial smashed into the ship’s hull. Powerful vibrations rumbled along the floor and knocked the ship several metres off course. Spartan did his best to hold on, but it still shook him enough to crunch his left hand against his ribs. He cried out from the intense sense of pain in his joints.
“What the hell is going on out there?” demanded Spartan.
“As soon as the lifeboat launched, we came under heavy fire from the frigates. Our engines are out of commission as are the landing bays. They knew how to hit us and fast. Yorkdale is on her way, but the Union ships are trying to hold her off. Half the systems here are fried. She’s not going to hold it together for much longer.”
Spartan looked back to Gun.
“We’re under fire. The ship is lost.”
Gun grimaced, angry either at having to leave or at the idea of leaving a ship they had only just managed to recapture. He took a breath before giving his order.
“Abandon ship, this isn’t a warship.”
Khan turned to the rest of his unit to give them their orders. Gun nodded to Spartan.
“Lovett, issue a mayday then give the order to the crew. Full evacuation, immediately.”
“Sir!” he replied.
A dozen holes, each the size of a man’s fist ripped apart a section of wall fifty metres further along the ship. As the section depressurised, the emergency seals activated, and an internal door that came down with a clunk blocked off the section. There were only so many of them, so they were a temporary measure to assist in damage control or evacuation.
More thuds hit along the hull and it was clear to Spartan and his team that their time was limited.
“Khan, what’s the quickest way out of here?” shouted Spartan.
Khan turned and pointed back into the ship to a narrow looking corridor. Spartan looked confused.
“Are you sure?”
Khan threw him an angry stare. “Trust me!” he growled.
The Jötnar still amazed Spartan with their ability to move efficiently in zero-g environments. Khan grabbed and pulled with his arms against the nearest walls and kicked with his powerful legs. Spartan did his best to keep up, but the large warrior moved at easily double the speed. As he moved, the earpiece crackled.
“Spartan, we’re halfway to the lifeboat. Most of he crew are clear and making their way to the fleet. Last scan showed the Leviathan making her way here. Her boarding parties will be in range in less than four minutes. You have to be off by then. If you stay on the ship, you will be captured or killed when they finish her off.”
Spartan kept pulling and saw Khan move up in a direction that would normally have been to the left if there had been gravity. He was already becoming disorientated and was having a hard time telling what was floor, wall or ceiling.
“Yeah, don’t worry. We’re not waiting to see what happens. We’re on the way to the lifeboats. What about Yorkdale? When will she get here?”
There was a short pause and Spartan used it to alter his rhythm. He used his left arm more for pulling himself along. The radio crackled with a response.
“Kowalski reckons she’s going to be here about the same time, assuming there is anything left.”
Spartan pulled himself out of the narrow corridor into what looked like a small hall. He tried to work out what it was when Gun ripped open a hexagonal door. Spartan twisted his head and realised he was upside down and in the lower evacuation zones. A colour line of green dots ran along the ceiling, but in reality it was the floor. Khan reached out and pulled him towards the door. He crashed inside the lifeboat and hit the back of one of the seats.
“Strap in!” snapped Khan in a gruff voice.
The lifeboat had little in common with the traditional design and was simply a small hexagonal pod that could carry up to a dozen people. There were six similar pods all lined up in the hall. Spartan could see movement as the rest of the rescue part clambered into the adjacent craft.
“Ready?” Gun asked. He stood near a lever with his hand on the rubberised handle. Spartan glanced around the craft, it was full and everyone except Gun was now strapped in.
“Yeah, come on Gun, do it!”
He yanked down on the lever and swung over the remaining seat, pulling the straps over his body. A series of lights flashed on the door for five seconds and the door slid shut. The craft had no main engine and was instead forced out by the change in air pressure inside the sealed launch tube. The outer hatch opened, and in the blink of an eye they were out into the vacuum of space.
“Look at her,” whispered one of the marine
s, a young woman in her twenties. She pointed out through the tiny porthole on the bow of the craft. Retro thrusters twisted the pod until they were placed on a direct course with the Yorkdale. Spartan and Gun looked through the window the exterior of the Oceania.
“Lovett wasn’t joking,” said Spartan. He was surprised at the substantial amount of hull damage and weapons fire the ship had taken. Dozens of similar lifeboats were still ejecting from the hull, but the vast majority were already almost in contact with the Yorkdale.
A bright flash lit up the window and Spartan was forced to shield his eyes. It wasn’t strictly necessary as the material automatically darkened when faced with excessive light. As it adjusted, he saw the rear section of the Oceania had just broken off from the main ship. Streaks of tracer fire from an approaching vessel ripped chunks a metre wide from her bow, yet the ship continued on its way.
“Say what you want about civilian ships, that is one tough craft.”
Further off to the right was the vast bulk of the Crusader, the flagship of the Confederate Navy. She was taking fire from nearly thirty ships and taking it like only a heavyweight like her could. Flashes and sparks ran along her hull and superstructure. For every hit she took, the battlecruiser dished out twice as much in return. Spartan turned around in his seat to face Gun.
“I have to get her back. I can’t lose her, not after all of this.”
Gun nodded but said nothing. Khan struck Spartan in the shoulder.
“Don’t worry, Teresa, she is tough. You have her back, very soon,” he said in rough, slightly broken English.
Though the pod was sparsely equipped, it was fitted with an encoded communications unit. Spartan flipped through the frequencies he could remember from his training. Then the details for the Yorkdale flooded back, at least the unencoded open channel did. He entered the ID code and hit the connect option.
“Lieutenant Spartan here, are you receiving me?”
There was no response. Rather than wait, Spartan flicked directly onto the next channel and sent the same message. After three more attempts, a short message came back.
“Lieutenant, you are an on an open frequency. Enter you personal encryption code now.”
Spartan didn’t recognise the woman’s voice but hit his code in anyway. There was a faint possibility it could be an enemy ship, but he had to chance it.
“Lieutenant Spartan, this is CCS Crusader. I understand you are evacuating CCS Oceania, what can I do for you?”
“Crusader? I…I need to speak to whoever is in charge. Captain Hobbs, the traitor from Oceania, is escaping to the Leviathan. She also has Sergeant Teresa, my...my”
“I understand, Lieutenant. I’ve passed this on to the Admiral, one moment.”
The pause continued for more than a few seconds before a familiar voice appeared.
“Lieutenant, you don’t seem to die, do you? I don’t have long. I’m somewhat busy. You say Hobbs and your partner are heading for the Leviathan, do you not?”
“Yes, Admiral, they are on a captured shuttle.”
“I see. My tactical officer says the craft has already landed on the ship. We are in the process of engaging the warship. Is Commander Gun there?”
“Admiral!” shouted the Jötnar warrior.
“Good,” replied Admiral Jarvis. “Do you think your forces could secure that ship?”
Gun almost jumped from his cramped seat at the opportunity.
“We will take or destroy!” he exclaimed.
“Excellent. I will get my people to liaise with Major Daniels who should still be aboard. In the meantime, get Spartan and the rest back to Yorkdale ASAP. Prepare your troops for a major boarding party. Once we have crippled her, I want the Assault Battalion to be at the front of a massive attack that will finish her for good. If Typhon is on board, we will stop him, finally. Understood?”
“Yes,” replied Gun.
Spartan interrupted them both. “Admiral, what about Teresa?”
“Lieutenant, if you and your team are successful, we will be able to stop this fleet, remove their leader and rescue your friend. Now get to the Yorkdale and prepare yourselves, you don’t have long. Good hunting.”
The voice of the communications officer returned.
“The Admiral has gone, is that all?”
Spartan paused, trying to decide what to say, but Gun reached out and grabbed him before he could think any further, other than wanting to get onto the ship and shoot or cut down anybody that he could find.
“Spartan, you know what we have to do,” he said in a surprising moment of compassion. At least that was how it seemed to Spartan.
“We assemble Khan’s company and attack Leviathan with our best. Vanguards and Jötnar,” said Gun.
Spartan nodded with a partial grin in his face. Khan shouted over to the two.
“1st Company is ready, four Jötnar companies ready in ten minutes.”
“Commander Gun, are you there?” came a voice over the internal communications system. It was almost impossible to tell who was speaking as the signal was heavily damaged and full of noise and roughly corrected dropouts. Gun replied with little more than a grunt through the communications system.
“Excellent, Sergeant Lovett here. The ship has been fully evacuated. Estimated losses are approximately thirty on the ship and another dozen in a lifepod that one of the frigates destroyed. Did your team get out?”
Spartan hit the connection button and replied before Gun could speak.
“We all made it out of there. Admiral Jarvis wants the Yorkdale to prepare for a major assault operation against the Leviathan.”
“What, their main cruiser? Can we do it?”
Spartan looked at the warriors in the lifeboat. They were all tired, and there were a number of minor wounds. Every one of them sat with a look of grim determination on their faces.
“If we can’t do it, nobody can. Meet me in the landing bay as soon as you arrive, we don’t have much time.”
“Sir.”
A massive flash from the right almost blinded the passengers of the lifeboat as one of the Confederate frigates ripped apart by an unseen weapon. There were no exterior fires, but they could see flashes and sparks throughout the inside of the vessel as she slowly broke into chunks.
“Did you see that?” asked Sergeant Lovett over the audio channel.
“Yeah,” replied a muted Spartan. “That looks like the particle weapon we saw at Euryale. The reports said it could explode ships with an invisible bean of particles. We have to disable her before she is able to turn on the rest of the fleet.”
* * *
Admiral Jarvis watched in anger as the escort frigate with hundreds of crew on board exploded into small fragments. There was nothing she could do but watch as so many people were literally cut to shreds and then hurled into the coldness of space. The CiC was packed with desperate officers as they helped co-ordinate the smaller Confederate fleet against the superior numbers of the Union. She glanced at her tactical display to check on the disposition of both sides. It was clear the enemy was in no immediate rush and were content to sit back and pound her ships into submission. Captain Tobler managed his crew with ruthless efficiency, maintaining high energy levels and coordinating weapons batteries against one enemy ship at a time.
“Concentrate all weapons fire on the lead cruisers. Target their missile batteries and engines.”
His XO shouted down the intercom to the gun decks to keep up the fire. A low rumble continued through the hull as the great warship did exactly what she had been built for. The loose formation of Confederate ships was facing off against a far superior force, and she needed quick and decisive action.
“Captain, bring us around and take us to the centre of their line, maximum power.”
“But, Admiral, with that much firepower against us, we won’t even hit their first line.”
She glared at him, and without adding another word the Captain gave the orders. She hit the fleet communications channel that
would put her in contact with all the ships in her fleet.
“All Captains, form up inside the protective gun arcs of Crusader. Alter your targeting patterns for close ranged dispersal fire. Railguns switch to Sanlav rounds. I want a cloud of metal around us as we advance.”
Captain Tobler understood immediately what she was planning. The enemy was well matched for long-range combat with their powerful missiles but could be stopped with careful and controlled close ranged gunfire. If they could get close enough, the fleet could then break out and use their superior railguns to devastating effect in a close ranged gunnery duel.
“Admiral, Lieutenant Jane Matterson of CCS Furious is on the audio channel.”
“Good, I need the Furious.”
There was a short pause and more than a few crackles before the audio level lowered and became audible. A few more seconds after that and the video feed connected to show the acting commander of the Furious.
“Admiral, good to see you, we’re in a bad way.”
“No time for pleasantries right now, Lieutenant, you’ve done well. Now it is time to strike back. The Union fleet has formed up into two parallel lines in front of the entrance to the Spacebridge. They are facing us down with their broadsides pointing at Crusader. Take your cruisers and hit them from above and at the tip of the two lines. Push past the first vessels and run between the lines.”
“Admiral? They have almost thirty ships in that formation.”
“I am quite aware of that, but they are more concerned at our reinforcements. Crusader is more than a match for half of their cruisers.”
“What about Typhon’s ship?”
Admiral Jarvis glanced at her tactical screen to assess the situation.
“As expected, the Leviathan and her escorts are withdrawing back to their main line. She might be powerful, but a close ranged battle against us is too risky, at least not until they’ve reduced our numbers.”
“More ships on scanners, it’s Wasp!” cried the tactical officer.
The main screen shifted in focus from the battle to a line of glowing shapes. It was the rest of the fleet moving in reverse, and with their engines on full burn. In seconds they were just to the left of Crusader and the rest of the ships. One by one the IFF signals from each ship showed on the display, each one increasing the size of the Confederate fleet.
Star Crusades Uprising: The Second Trilogy Page 55