“Launch Devastator strike,” Admiral Streth ordered through clenched teeth. This Hocklyn commander was a clever one. By launching his interceptors first, it would allow them to take out more of the slower moving Devastator missiles.
Instantly from the StarStrike, twenty-four Devastator missiles with ten-kiloton warheads left the ship’s launch tubes. Every ship in the two Human fleets released a full spread of missiles. In moments, space became full of fiery missile trails as they rocketed toward the Hocklyn fighter and fleet formation.
Over two thousand of the deadly Devastator missiles were inbound, but the Hocklyns had launched nearly a thousand fighters in an attempt to intercept them. Bright flashes began to occur between the two fleets as the missiles were intercepted and destroyed. Then several bright flashes went off in the center of the Hocklyn fighter formations.
Hedon closed his eyes briefly as a number of glaring nuclear explosions played out on one of the large viewscreens. Nukes were going off, destroying entire squadrons of Hocklyn fighters with each fiery blast. Others were beginning to reach the waiting Hocklyn fleet. Intense defensive fire was bringing down many of them, but now some were reaching the fleet and exploding against energy screens. Nuclear detonations became widespread as the nuclear strike slammed into the shields of the massed Hocklyn fleet.
“Fire Devastator Threes,” ordered Hedon grimly, seeing that the missile strike was not causing as much damage as he'd hoped. The Hocklyn defensive fire was just too heavy. Between the fighters and the warships, the Hocklyns had managed to intercept the majority of the Devastator missiles.
From the StarStrike and the other capital ships in the two Federation fleets, Devastator Threes launched. There was a brief blur in the missile tubes and then the missiles seemed to vanish as their miniaturized sublight drives kicked in.
On one of the main viewscreens, massive explosions began to pummel the Hocklyn fleet formation as Devastator Three missiles aimed at the shipyard impacted Hocklyn ships that were in their flight path. Then they were through and the Hocklyn shipyard became aglow with massive releases of energy as the missiles struck their target. Over two hundred Devastator Threes were launched. Seventy-two impacted the densely packed Hocklyn warships defending the station, the other one hundred and twenty-eight detonated on impact when they struck the metal hull of the shipyard. In just a matter of moments, the twenty-kilometer shipyard was turned into burning debris and shattered wreckage.
“Shipyard has been destroyed,” Captain Reynolds reported as the large red icon on his sensor screen broke apart and begin showing as hundreds of smaller blips.
“They won’t be using that place to build ships again,” Colonel Trist grunted as he turned to face Hedon with a satisfied look on his face.
“Fire a second round of Devastator Threes at the defending Hocklyn fleet and then make for the next target,” Hedon ordered. He wanted to damage this fleet as much as possible so he wouldn’t have to worry about it later.
-
“Those damn hell weapons,” growled War Leader Trion in anger as he gazed at the burning ruins of the shipyard. He felt as if he had been kicked in the stomach as he watched the shipyard die. Over twenty thousand Hocklyns had been on board the station. Now they were gone, sent to find their final honor by the Humans.
“We have our own hell weapons now,” Commodore Versith replied his eyes focusing sharply on the tactical display. “Order all dreadnoughts and warcruisers to target the Human ships with our new sublight antimatter missiles.”
“We only have a few,” cautioned War Leader Trion. “Probably not enough to make a difference.”
“I know,” responded Versith his large dark eyes focusing on his War Leader. “But if we don’t cause this Human fleet to withdraw we are going to lose all of the shipyards. Order all ships to spread our formation and accelerate toward the Human fleets. Launch our new missiles as soon as we have a target lock. Concentrate our fire on their heavier ships.”
Second Leader Jaseth grinned in satisfaction. He'd just received the order to fire the new missiles. The Viden had six of the deadly new sublight missiles and Jaseth intended to make the best use of them. He quickly targeted the Human battleship. It had to be the Humans' flagship and he was going to destroy it!
-
Suddenly between the Human fleets and the advancing Hocklyn ships, several massive explosions occurred in open space. The viewscreens in the StarStrike instantly dimmed to cut down on the sudden influx of light.
“What the hell was that?” Hedon demanded his hands gripping the armrests on his command chair.
“I have Admiral Cleeteus online,” Captain Duncan suddenly spoke aloud. “He is reporting that the Hocklyns are firing antimatter sublight missiles. His ships are attempting to intercept them.”
“Crap!” oathed Colonel Trist his eyes widening in concern. “They must have got them from the AIs.”
Hedon leaned back in his chair and took a deep breath. This was an unexpected development and could put the entire mission in jeopardy. It all depended on how many of those missiles the Hocklyns had.
-
In space, four of the fifty-megaton missiles struck the battlecruiser Trinity. Her reinforced shields flickered and then failed under the massive energy release. The next missile blew the valiant battlecruiser apart, killing all on board. Moments later, a light cruiser died in a fiery explosion as its shields were easily overwhelmed by the powerful missiles.
“Battlecruiser Trinity is down,” Captain Reynolds reported, his eyes wide with shock. “Light cruiser Archer is down.”
“Our next strike of Devastator Threes is going in,” Colonel Trist added his eyes glued to the tactical screen. “We’re in optimum combat range of the Hocklyn fleet.”
Hedon eyed the tactical display worriedly. He couldn’t afford to get tied down in a major fleet battle with the Hocklyns, not as badly outnumbered as he was. Just then, the deck heaved under Hedon and he found himself flung forward against the restraining straps holding him in his command chair. He felt a sharp pain in his chest and then things settled back down.
“Multiple breaches along the forward hull; we’re venting atmosphere,” the Damage Control officer reported. “Damage control teams are responding.”
“No reduction in combat efficiency,” Major Weir reported from Tactical.
“Shields are at sixty percent and climbing,” Colonel Trist informed Hedon with relief in his voice. “We took two hits to our screens from their missiles. They held, but just barely.”
“Firing power beams,” one of the tactical officers reported.
The space between the fleets was now full of flying ordnance. Railgun rounds, energy beams, power beams, pulse laser beams and flying missiles. The remaining Hocklyn fighters were hurrying to get out of the way of the embattled fleets. It was suicide to stay between them.
-
Jaseth swore in anger as he saw that his attack upon the Human flagship had failed. Two of his missiles had been intercepted; he guessed by the Altons. True, he had managed to damage the ship, but it was still fighting and he had only two of the new sublight missiles left. He quickly targeted a smaller escort ship as the Human flagship was now out of range. Firing the two missiles, he watched on a small viewscreen above his console as they struck the small cruiser, destroying it in a wave of fire.
Commodore Versith groaned in frustration as another one of his dreadnoughts died. It was quickly growing obvious that the Humans' energy screens and their weapons had been greatly reinforced. It was taking the combined firepower of ten Hocklyn warships to knock down the Humans' shields on their major ships.
“We don’t have the ships to win this,” Versith spoke in frustration, his cold dark eyes rapidly calculating the odds. The AI sublight antimatter missiles could knock down a Human ship’s shield, but they didn’t have enough of them to make a difference.
“We’re losing too many ships,” Trion agreed as he watched another Hocklyn dreadnought die a fiery death on one of t
he viewscreens. Every moment, more Hocklyns were being sent to find their final honor.
Versith knew that if Fleet Commodore Resmunt had come ahead with his gathered ships they could have pinned the Humans inside the gravity well and with their numeric superiority destroyed them. They'd have suffered horrific losses, but the Humans would have died and wouldn't have been able to attack the remaining shipyards. Now Versith’s ships were paying a steep price for Resmunt’s lack of foresight.
-
“Fire one wave of the new antimatter missiles,” Hedon spoke after a moment of thought. He couldn’t afford to keep taking fleet losses and this engagement with the Hocklyn fleet was costing him valuable time. He had to disengage and move on to the next target. Fortunately, the Alton battlecruisers were intercepting a large number of the inbound sublight missiles, which had shown to be deadly to Federation ships.
“Firing,” Tactical reported.
From the StarStrike, two of the new 100-megaton sublight missiles flashed from their tubes. Instantly, two violent explosions occurred in the Hocklyn’s formation as two dreadnoughts were torn apart. Now other Federation ships began to fire and Hocklyn ships began to die rapidly. A blazing fury of death marched through the Hocklyn fleet, devastating it and leaving behind shattered wrecks.
“Hocklyn fleet is disengaging,” Captain Reynolds reported with relief as the Hocklyns began to rapidly back away from the Human and Alton ships.
“What did we lose?” demanded Hedon, turning toward Colonel Grissim bracing himself for the news. The Hocklyns use of sublight antimatter missiles had caught them by surprise.
“Two battlecruisers, one battlecarrier, two strikecruisers, one Monarch, and six light cruisers,” Anne reported as she looked at the battle report on her console next to one of the tactical displays. “Hocklyn losses were eight dreadnoughts, sixteen warcruisers, and thirty-eight of their escort cruisers.”
“Colonel Trist, get us to the next target maximum speed,” ordered Hedon, feeling a knot growing in his stomach. He couldn’t keep taking losses like this, not if they wanted to escape this system. “From now on target the shipyards at long-range with our new sublight antimatter missiles.”
“That will cause us to use up most of them,” Colonel Trist warned, his eyes focusing on the admiral. “We may need them to escape.”
“I know,” Hedon responded with a sharp breath. “But the Alton battlecruisers are carrying full load outs of the missiles. We'll have to depend upon them to get us back out of the gravity well.”
-
Fleet Commodore Versith looked around the War Room of the Viden. The Humans had another new weapon, and this one was indeed a weapon from hell. Just a strike from one of those new missiles could destroy a Hocklyn dreadnought. He knew he was fortunate that the Viden had survived.
“Hold our current position,” he ordered. “All ships to begin repairs and then we will move out to join Fleet Commodore Resmunt.”
“There is no honor in this new weapon of the Humans,” War Leader Trion uttered in a harsh voice. “Many of our warriors found their final honor in this battle.”
“But we proved we can destroy the Human ships even after their upgrades,” Versith replied, his large dark eyes focusing on Trion. “From now on we will only target a few selected Human ships with all of our fleet’s firepower. Once that target is destroyed, we'll shift our fire to the next.”
“As you command,” Trion responded with a nod of his head. “I will pass on the order.”
Versith nodded. In order to effectively combat the Humans in the future, they would need a large supply of the AIs' antimatter missile. Versith just hoped the AIs would be willing to furnish them or future battles with the Humans could have disastrous outcomes.
-
Fleet Commodore Resmunt groaned in frustration as he watched the Humans destroy the large shipyard and then ravage Fleet Commodore Versith’s fleets. True, Versith had managed to damage the attacking Human ships, but not enough to turn them away from their next target.
“Humans are launching their new missiles from long-range at the next shipyard,” First Leader Ganth reported, his eyes red in anger. “The defending fleet is not being successful intercepting the missiles.”
Resmunt watched in silence as the second shipyard vanished as massive explosions of energy ate away at its structure. In just a matter of a few moments, all that was left was glowing wreckage. The Humans were destroying decades of work the Hocklyns had spent building the shipyards. True, they were built mostly by slaves, but they were still Hocklyn shipyards.
Resmunt clenched his fist in anger. He'd already passed the order that all of his gathered warships were to use their full allotments of antimatter missiles on the Humans as they exited the gravity well of Kenward Seven. He would make them pay a steep price for the destruction they were doing today.
-
For the next hour, Admiral Streth took First Fleet and Ceres Fleet from shipyard to shipyard, annihilating them. They stayed out of range of the Hocklyn defending fleets that seemed to have become hesitant to come out and engage the Federation ships. Hedon knew it was because of the new antimatter missiles. What commander would want to expose his ships to those?
-
The commodores in charge of the fleets defending the shipyards had witnessed what had been done to Commodore Versith’s fleet and had no desire to be on the receiving end of those deadly missiles. They tried instead to intercept the missiles using fighters, missile interceptors, and heavy weapons fire, but for the most part they were unsuccessful. At the end of the hour, all four Hocklyn shipyards lay in ruins.
-
Admiral Telleck let out a long and deep breath. The last hour had been trying on his nerves as the battlecruiser Ceres and its attending fleet had attacked the shipyards along with First Fleet. Losses had been light so far, but he knew that was about to change. The two fleets were now heading back out of the planet’s gravity well and two large Hocklyn fleet formations were waiting for them. Both fleets were setting right at the edge of Kenward Seven’s gravity well, ensuring that the Human ships could not jump without coming into combat range first. Of course, the Altons ships could jump to safety; they had the capacity just like the AIs ships to jump from inside a planet’s gravity well. However, they would need the Alton ships' antimatter missiles if they were to escape.
“Both fleets have formed up and we’re moving toward the edge of the planet’s gravity well,” reported Major Carnes.
Glenn looked over at his second officer and nodded. Major Carnes had taken over Kathryn’s Executive Officer duties since she had been reassigned temporarily to her envoy job on the Carethian space station. Major Carnes was doing an excellent job, but Glenn still wished that Kathryn were here. This would have been good experience for her. Of course, she was also safe back on the space station. There was no guarantee that the Ceres would survive the coming battle and make it back to Careth.
“Have all ships load their remaining antimatter missiles into the tubes,” ordered Telleck, wishing they had more. “We'll need them to break out of the gravity well and into open space. All ships are to jump into hyperspace as soon as they are clear.”
The Communications officer, Captain Travers, quickly passed on the message.
“There’s a lot of them,” Major Carnes commented as he studied the tactical display. He looked over at Admiral Telleck marveling at how calm the admiral seemed. “If they have more of those antimatter missiles they used at the first shipyard we may have a hard time getting away.”
“We can only do our best,” responded Admiral Telleck, crossing his arms over his chest and taking a deep breath.
On the main viewscreen, the StarStrike appeared. He could see the burn marks and gouges in the forward hull along the bottom of the bow. From his brief communication with Admiral Streth a few minutes earlier, he knew the damage was only minor, though it looked a lot worse.
“The fleets that were defending the shipyards are joining together a
nd moving in behind us,” Carnes added with a worried look on his face. “If we slow up any, they might catch us.”
Admiral Telleck nodded. The Hocklyns had them trapped between their fleets. There was nothing more he could say. They would have to fight their way through the outer Hocklyn fleet and then jump to safety. Glenn had a sad feeling that many of his crews were not going to see Ceres again.
“Almost within extreme weapons range,” Captain Breen reported from Tactical.
“Prepare to fire,” Telleck ordered in a calm voice. He drew in a sharp breath as his eyes focused on the tactical screen. The fleets grew closer and then it was time.
“Fire!” ordered Telleck, feeling his heart pounding in his chest. It was time to see if they could escape from Kenward Seven.
Chapter Seventeen
Hedon gazed anxiously at the viewscreens on the front wall of the Command Center. He took two deep breaths, wondering what he had gotten his fleets into. The Hocklyns were combining their fleets into one massive grouping of ships to prevent the Federation fleets from escaping Kenward Seven. The majority were just outside of the planet’s gravity well, but several hundred were well inside and already within extreme weapons range. Not only were those a threat but the defending ships from the shipyards had also formed up and were coming up behind the two Federation fleets.
“We’re facing over two thousand ships,” Colonel Trist reported, his face slightly pale. “Any ideas?”
“Just go shoot a Hocklyn ship,” Colonel Grissim spoke in a steady voice, looking over at Colonel Trist. “Any Hocklyn ship.”
Hedon smiled at Anne’s attempt at levity. “We have more powerful shields than they do and better weapons. All we have to do is maintain our fleet formation, fight our way to just outside the gravity well, and then jump out. All the Hocklyns are doing is giving us a good opportunity to destroy a lot more of their warships.”
The Slaver Wars: Galactic Conflict Page 24