First Principles: Samair in Argos: Book 3

by KOTCHER, MICHAEL

  “I’m reading them as well, Colonel. Twenty seconds to range. Waiting for your firing order.”

  “Target the corvette,” he ordered. “As soon as we hit range, open up, all forward guns.” Let’s get this over quickly so we can drop our cargo off at the station.

  Five seconds before Paxton pressed the firing control, Hakami suddenly spoke up. “Targets are changing vector, Colonel. The fighters are fanning out in all directions. I think they’re going to try and loop over and around us.”

  “What about the corvette?” Gants demanded, gritting his teeth. So much for a quick resolution.

  “Dove straight down, looks like it’s accelerating for all she’s worth, Colonel,” Hakami replied.

  “Fire on the corvette!” he ordered.

  “Firing,” Paxton replied, pressing a control and calling out orders into his mic down to the gun deck.

  “Clean miss, Captain,” Ykzann reported, chittering a bit. “Barely.”

  The Cavalier had dove down, heading below the plane of the ecliptic, her engines at full military power and even still, the Leytonstone nearly caught her in a hail of turbolaser fire. The rest of the group had flown out in a blossom, flying in divergent courses, all of them spreading out to go around the battlecruiser. In less than a minute, the fighters had looped back and were closing the distance on the ship, jinking their courses to make any gunnery solutions on them more difficult. The fighters leveled out as they reached attack range skimming along the surface of the battlecruiser’s shields firing their lasers. The Aploras held their missiles, waiting to strike at the cruiser’s engines, but cut loose with their cannons. Red and blue shots lanced forth, striking all over the shields. The fighters didn’t come in at any particular prescribed pattern, no, they cam in like an undisciplined mob. It showed that Korqath and his fellows might have heart, but they lacked experience. However, it did make targeting solutions by the battlecruiser’s gunners almost impossible.

  “Alter course,” Tamara ordered. “Keep us at extreme range of the battlecruiser’s weapons and bring us in to hit their engines.”

  “We’re going to have to get a lot closer to be able to reach her, Captain,” Wymea warned from his place at the helm.

  She nodded. “I know, Mister Wymea. But the fighters can’t do all this alone.”

  “They’ll have a better chance of doing damage without taking too much fire in return,” Leicasitaj pointed out.

  “True enough, XO,” she acknowledged. “But they can’t do enough damage to that ship fast enough to keep her away from the mine. Assuming they even can cause enough damage.” As she said that, two of the icons indicating starfighters blinked out.

  “Two of the Aploras have been shot down, Captain,” Ykzann reported, his voice a bit strained.

  “We can’t stand back, XO,” Tamara said, shaking her head. “Mister Wymea, carry out my orders, but put in some random evasive moves.”

  “Copy that, Captain,” the pilot said, working his controls. The ship gave a slight lurch as the engines again came on at full power. It took a few minutes with the inertial compensators screaming every time Wymea jerked the corvette around to evade incoming fire. The cat like Severite Garidhak tried to maintain grim professionalism, but she couldn’t help her ears flattening against her head as near miss after near miss lanced by them. One short, choppy turn brought the corvette into the attack vector of the battlecruiser.

  Hammerblows struck the dorsal side of the Cavalier, three of them. “We’re taking fire,” Garidhak said unnecessarily. “Shields are down, forty percent. No spotting so far.” The ship jinked again. “Another hit, but it was a graze. Shields down another ten percent.”

  Tamara swore quietly. Four shots and they were already down to half shield strength. Even half crippled and underpowered that ship was a monster. Of course, Tamara was trying to attack a battlecruiser with a corvette. She idly wondered if anyone had ever done that before. Probably. It’s just that no one has ever lived to tell the tale. Maybe we can be the first?

  In less than a minute, the Cavalier slipped and dodged its way around the capital ship. “In range of their engines, ma’am,” Garidhak reported. “I’m locked on, heavy lasers and missiles.”

  “Lock on one single point, Guns,” Tamara ordered. “I’m not interested in getting everything on the first volley. I want to bring their shields down and then we start hammering at the hardware beneath.”

  The Severite flicked her ears in amusement. “Yes, ma’am. Understood.” Her furry fingers flew over her console, retargeting the ship’s weapons. “Ready.”

  “Fire at will, Guns,” she ordered. “Comms, get the fighters on the horn.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” the comms watch replied. Half a second later, he turned to his commander. “I have Leader Korqath on the line, ma’am.”

  “Aplora Lead here, Cavalier,” the zheen spoke up. “Go ahead.”

  “Bring your ships aft, Leader,” she told him. She checked her displays. The initial salvo from the corvette hammered the battlecruiser’s aft section, and the capital ship started to change vector, diving “down” below the plane of the ecliptic to bring more of its weapons to bear. “Helm, keep us in their aft.” Her display showed four heavy laser cannons on the battlecruiser’s aft section shooting back at the corvette. The ship rocked with each hit to the shields.

  “Forward shields are losing power,” Garidhak called out. “Twenty-two percent and falling. But the battlecruiser’s aft shields are spotting. Firing again!”

  “Ma’am?” Korqath asked.

  Tamara blinked. “Sorry. Bring your fighters around and launch a missile salvo. But make sure you all target the same spot. One missile each.”

  “Roger that,” the zheen pilot replied. “And if that puts big enough holes in the shields?”

  “Hit the big bastard again,” she told him firmly. “But make sure you stay in their after section. At least until and unless we can disable their main propulsion. After that, I’ll release you and your Aploras to strafe the rest of the ship.”

  “Roger that!” Korqath crowed happily.

  “Now this is so much fun!” Hukriss, second in command of the Aplora squadron and leader of Second Flight, crowed. “Boss, we need to do this more!”

  “Can it, Hukriss,” Korqath ordered, though he was unable to keep the amusement out of his voice. “We got work to do.” He keyed the squadron channel. “Aploras, this is Lead. Converge on the aft section of the battlecruiser, prepare to receive targeting telemetry. On my mark, you will all launch one missile on the following coordinates. And by the stars make sure you don’t get shot down. Their weapons in the after section aren’t as heavy as those on the flanks or the forward quarter, but they don’t need much to shoot us down. Those heavy lasers are more than enough to vaporize one of us, to say nothing of the turbolasers.”

  The nimble fighters looped around, diving and slipping and rolling around the battlecruiser and it attempted to maneuver for position against the far more maneuverable company ships. In seconds they made it to the after section and a quick one eighty on their position found them facing the eight large main propulsion units, only five of which were lit. Odd, Korqath thought, but it was well known that the Leytonstone had been all but derelict for decades. Several months had been spent on refitting the ship, but a surprisingly small amount of work appeared to have been completed. Of course, he mused, emitting a hum of amusement, I’ve gotten spoiled by watching Captain Samair and the company’s work ethic. Also its industrial capabilities. With its constructor ship Samarkand and the engineering teams on the mining station as well as the bulk freighter Grania Estelle, FP has a huge segment up on the locals. Hell, I’m a local! When did I stop thinking of myself as a local? If I hadn’t seen the Captain do her work, I would never have believed that it would be possible. Wonder how much work would have gotten done on this battlecruiser if Captain Samair and Supervisor Sterling had been allowed to do their thing.

  The four heavy laser cannons in the
after section tried to swat down the fighters and even the Cavalier when it looped back into range. The battlecruiser’s own maneuvers had been less than effective against the company ships. They were simply too large and lumbering compared to the much lighter vessels they were facing. And the fighter pilots loved every second of it. As Korqath pulled up his missile targeting system, locking the reticule on center of the aft section, an alarm went off. He yanked the pilot’s yoke to the right, just missing a heavy laser shot that had fired on the space that he just vacated. Too close. Locking back on again, in less than three seconds, a solid tone sounded and his displays showed good targeting telemetry.

  “Aploras,” he called to the squadron. “All ships, lock on my signal and fire on my count. Three. Two. One. Now!” He depressed his trigger and one of the missiles surged out form the launcher on his port side. Korqath saw seventeen other Sepulcre’s let loose with their missiles, and five Delphons fire their lasers. “All fighters, break!” he roared, jamming the throttle forward and pulling back on the yoke, bringing the ship into a climb. The starfighters all broke off in different directions, as heavy laser shots illuminated the space they had just been in. There was a shriek that was cut off and Korqath’s display indicated that Delphon 4 was gone. Reaching up, he touched his breather mask then settled himself back into his pilot’s couch.

  “Their shields are spotting, ma’am!” Garidhak said with glee.

  “Then throw everything we have at them,” Tamara ordered. “All forward and spinal heavy lasers, all rail gun turrets that have a solution. Flush the missile tubes. Helm, once this salvo goes through, bring us out and around in a loop. I want to keep them guessing, but if you see them turn, alter our course to keep us in their stern quarter.”

  “Aye, Captain,” Wymea replied, smoothly working his console.

  The Cavalier pulled away from the much larger battlecruiser as the salvo lanced across to savage the after section of the ship. The Aploras had done the job of battering holes in the shields and now it was the corvette’s turn to hit the engines. The missiles smashed against one of the large propulsion units and exploded. The heavy lasers tore into the shredded propulsion unit, blasting through and into the hull. The battlecruiser lurched slightly, as though it had been stung.

  But she managed a turn, one that Wymea was trying to compensate for. Three of the turbolasers opened up, hammering the much smaller vessel on her port side. Once, twice, thrice they hit the shields, then hit the hull. Explosions rippled down the side of the smaller ship, fire and atmo bursting out into space.

  “Pull us away!” Tamara ordered. “Max accel!” Warnings flashed and alarms howled on the bridge, screaming about damage. The hull on the port side was completely open to space, with the larger of the ship’s canted forward wings almost to the propulsion units aft.

  “But Captain,” Leicasitaj protested. “The battlecruiser is hurt!”

  “So are we, XO!” Tamara spat. “And we can’t take a salvo like that. Not again. Comms, get Korqath back on the line.”

  “All right. Aploras, Delphons, you heard the Captain. Cavalier’s taken a lot of damage; she’s going to be out of it for a little while. It’s up to us to keep the Leytonstone company while they get themselves situated.”

  “Oh doesn’t that figure,” Hukriss taunted. “We do all the heavy lifting, and the big ship gets hit once and now suddenly it’s all up to us. I told you we should have just made more fighters, Lead.”

  “That’s enough, Hukriss,” Korqath told his second. The corvette had savaged the aft section of the battlecruiser, but had only managed to take out one of the propulsion units. A quick check of his sensors showed that the cruiser’s speed had been reduced by twenty-five percent. “All right, the big girl took a hit on propulsion. First flight, on me, we’re going to make a ragged strafing run from aft moving forward. Target shield generator nodes after we rake their engines and for Kug’s sake, don’t get shot down! We’re going to strafe the engines and move to the topside, Second flight, follow us in, but Hukriss, you go to the bottom side.”

  “Copy Leader,” the zheen replied.

  “First flight, let’s move!” Korqath said, pushing up his acceleration. As the fighter reached the after section, he depressed his triggers and his cannons opened up, azure laser shots illuminating space. The bolts scoured into one of the other propulsion units, followed by a stream of others from the other pilots in First flight, and then he was past, skimming along the upper port side of the ship, his cannons blazing away, hitting the still intact but weakened shields. His fellows were right behind racing along at max accel, trying desperately to remain on course and to stay in close to the ship, while at the same time making their attack run. Hukriss was right, it was fun. It was also much more intense than any of the sims or exercises that the company pilots had flown. If they got out of this, Korqath vowed, he would be stepping up the training regimen, and making this, a combat mission against the battlecruiser, part of that regimen.

  His speed meant that his ship covered the length of the ship in a matter of a few seconds and then he was pulling away, looping back around to make another strafing run down and under to the ventral side of the battlecruiser. The capital ship’s gunners were having a hell of a time trying to target him and another quick check out of the corner of his compound eyes saw that none of the others had been shot down, yet. So far so good. He unloaded his cannons again into the flickering shields and flicked his antennae as he saw Hukriss and his flight go screaming past, blasting away at the shields on the starboard side of the ship.

  Those shields are failing. One more pass and there won’t be any left, and then we can start stripping away the ship’s claws.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~

  “This isn’t working,” Gants said to himself. The fighters had been pecking away at his shields and there was little he could do about that. As the words came out of his mouth, one of the turbolasers picked off another one of the boxy fighters and he nodded in satisfaction, but there were far too many of them left. The corvette had limped off after the mauling his weapons had given to her but she was still fast enough to keep out of Leytonstone’s effective weapons envelope. Even at her peak, Leytonstone was fast and maneuverable, but she was still a cruiser. She could accelerate better than other large ships, but she couldn’t hope to do so as well as something as small as the company corvette, which meant that unless he could pin the corvette against something, he couldn’t engage the company warship unless they wanted to get into a scrap.

  “Helm, put us back on course for the mining station and engage at best speed.”

  “We’re still an hour away, Colonel,” the navigator reminded him as she entered in the new course.

  “I know,” he said. “But these fighters are nibbling away at the shields and we’re barely doing anything to them. We need to change the odds, force them to do something drastic. Maybe if we put their real estate in danger, they’ll be more pliable.”

  “But, sir, what about the fighters?” the tactical officer asked. “Individually, their fire isn’t that significant, but collectively, they can hurt us, especially with our shield strength so low. And with us firing almost until the guns overheat, we can’t do anything to recharge the shields.”

  Gants nodded. “Guns, cease fire. Make sure the weapons retain charge and are ready to fire on my command, but cease trying to shoot down those ships for the moment. Redirect power to recharging the shields.”

  “Aft shield generators are out, Captain,” the tactical officer reported. “Damaged. But I can get the rest of the shield coverage firmed up.”

  He nodded again. “Good, do it. If the fighters try to get at the engines, use the aft guns to try and keep them at bay.”

  Paxton pressed a few controls. “We’ve only got four heavy laser cannons active in the after section, Colonel. And so far they haven’t been great at shooting down those flyers.”

  “No, but it might keep them from coordinating any serious attack on the engi
nes and right now that’s what we need. If we can get in close enough to either the station or their freighters, we might be able to get them to behave and show us the proper respect.”

  “Status?” Tamara asked. Her displays were showing the view of the ship.

  “We’ve sealed off the damaged sections, ma’am,” Ykzann said, his voice sounding harried. There was a slight buzz in his voice. “But casualty reports indicate that we’ve lost twenty-two people.”

  Tamara nodded, repressing a sigh. There was no time for that now. She could play the blame game and brood about it all later. “Understood,” she said instead.

  The chief engineer came on the line. “Captain, we’re not in terrible shape, all things considered. “I had to reroute a whole bunch of the power conduits what with the side of the ship being blown out, so you can’t stress the shields too much. Shields nodes on that side of the ship are gone of course. So are the missile launchers and the rail guns on that side. Damn,” the engineer replied, shaking his head on the display. “We just lost the control and power linkages for two of the heavy laser cannons on the topside.”

  Tamara nodded. Her own display was showing the same information. “What about hull integrity? Can we handle combat maneuvers?”

  Fayyad al Fakhir, chief engineer of the Cavalier, nodded back to her. “Yes, ma’am. I’ve got a welding team putting up a few extra braces. We can maneuver right now, but I’d recommend against any fancy flying until we can get things secured.”

  “Understood, Chief. Keep me apprised.” She cut the connection. “Mister Wymea, lay in a course to intercept the Leytonstone, but keep it nice and steady.”

  “Aye, Captain,” he replied. “I’m getting response from the Chief, Captain. I can maintain a speed of one seventy-five.”

  “Do it.”

  “Engaging engines,” the pilot replied. After a moment. “We’ll intercept the cruiser in one hour and four minutes. They’ve been accelerating away from us since we broke contact. They’ll be just about in weapons’ range of the station by that point.”