“Noted,” Kupin replied. “Once the fighters are onboard and restocked, I will call for the launching. I estimate that will be in two hours. We should be ready to engage the enemy at Buckler at about that time. The timing will be adjusted as needed but there will be time for the carriers to fully rearm their squadrons.”
“I’ll pass on that the launch order rests with you, Admiral,” reported the OpsO.
The chase continued with the OrCons closing slowly on the Zekes as the Zekes closed more rapidly on the three freighters. The OrCons were thirty-seven minutes in trail of the Zekes. The carriers were beginning to recover their squadrons. There were three waves to be accommodated. The first wave would be landed and shoved forward through the hangars and repositioned in the forward launch sections. The second wave would be landed and moved into the hangar spaces. The third wave would be landed and kept in the aft section of the flight tunnels. All planes would be rearmed and refueled in their sections. As each wave was launched, the other waves would be pushed forward in the flight tunnels until all fighters were again launched.
~ ~ ~
On the flag bridge of Typhoon, Admiral Levant calmly watched the developments on his sensors. He was not watching his pursuers. They were only thirty-five minutes behind now, but they held no interest to him at this particular stage of the battle. He was watching the recovery of the Stinger attack craft on the four carriers. That force was on the edge of his sensors, almost out of range, but the attack craft had formed into squadrons so their close formation did present a return on the sensors. He could see the attack craft setting up in an approach profile for landing on their carriers. He also noted the three running freighters were just ahead of his force. He nodded to himself. Soon. Very soon.
The first wave of Stingers had landed, and they were being pushed through the hangars now. The second wave was just beginning to land their planes. The third wave was flying circles in holding patterns ahead of the carriers. The carriers were closing on the third wave. The timing would work out that, as the carriers reached the third wave, the second wave would be secured on board, and the third wave would be in position for landing. The squadrons executed well, and the third wave began landing as the carriers moved abeam them.
Admiral Levant watched all this on his sensors, and then talked over his command net. “Execute signal kilo now.”
The retreating Zeke warships turned and moved at the oncoming OrCons. As they entered missile range, they turned 90 degrees and assumed a battle line. The force locked onto targets and Zeke missiles flew.
It took a few seconds for the Zeke actions to be seen by the Orion force. It took a few more seconds for Kupin to overcome the surprise. “Go defensive!” she shouted over her command net.
She sat back as the battle now took on a life of its own. She would let it develop, and then decide when to go offensive. She still had a slight edge in ships, and the Zekes were without the support of the Buckler base defenses. She agreed they had achieved a small surprise, but it was not critical that her forces get off the first volley.
Clouds of Orion missiles spat out of their launchers as the Orion force responded to the attack with defensive interceptors.
“What the hell…,” muttered the Ops Officer at his station behind her command chair.
Kupin instinctively looked down at her own long-range sensors. The three freighters that had been fleeing in front of the Aurora squadrons had turned to port and now dozens of missiles were coming from them. She stared at this new development. All the missile calculations and defensive schemes just went to hell in a hand basket.
“Who the hell are they?” she asked in wonderment. She didn’t expect an answer, but got one from one of the other operations officers working behind her.
“They are missile boats. If they are who I think they are, they just put over two hundred missiles out.”
Kupin pivoted her chair to look at the speaker. The man looked at the Admiral as she stared at him. He could see she was trying to place him. He helped her. “Captain Sergei Korlov, assistant operations officer.”
Kupin nodded as if she knew that all along. “Why are you so well informed on these missile boats, Captain?”
Korlov stood up at his station. “We saw them in the Badlands. These ships might be Zeke copies but I suspect they are the same ships we engaged there. We will know for sure when we see their targeting zone. They will be after the battlecruisers Republic and Citizen. The missile boats shoot a heavy broadside, but have a weakness in that it will take them time to reload.”
Kupin mentally flipped through her personnel files. She now recalled Korlov. Former captain of Republic in the Badlands fiasco at the beginning of the war. Despite having superior numbers and the element of surprise, that squadron managed to lose to an inferior Zeke squadron. She recalled the story from after-action reports, but never got into the details as she thought it was all irrelevant to her. A mistake that she had to act quickly to correct, as that past fight was about to intrude on the present battle.
“Why are they here?”
“They are here to hit those two ships as revenge for the losses they took in the Badlands. That also means the remainder of the pirate force is here. They are led by Raferty Hawkins. They have a vendetta against the Orion Confederation. This is the same group that hit our secret base a few months ago. The remaining pirate ships are destroyers and corvettes.”
While he talked the clouds of opposing missiles merged at mid distance between the two combatants. Hundreds of explosions showed the success of the interceptors, but a couple hundred Zeke missiles got through the initial collisions. Follow-on Orion interceptors depleted the oncoming original Zeke missiles, but their own follow-on missiles took their places. The forward edge of the Zeke attack pressed closer to the Orion raiders. The freighter missiles added numbers unforeseen by the OrCons. The slight Orion number advantage was now lost. None of this registered with Kupin as she stared at Korlov. The missile attack and the defense against it were secondary to her now. The most important thing was the location of an unknown number of pirate ships allied with the Zekes.
“They are not in the Zeke battle line. Where do you think they are?”
A sensor operator in another part of the flag bridge beat Korlov to an answer. “There are ships coming out of subspace by the carriers!”
Chapter 25
“Missile explosions,” Maddie calmly reported as she listened on her white phones. “Far out. Must be hundreds for me to hear them this far away.”
“That’s the midstream impact between the two fleets. That’s the signal. Time to come up.” Raferty was equally calm. They had been in this situation many times before. Every Flot 1 vessel would hear the missile explosions and begin to surface.
The four attack groups had honed in on the sounds of the four carriers recovering their attack fighters. The four distinct centers of noise marked the location of each carrier, and the four Flot 1 detachments moved to their individual targets. By the time the great majority of fighters had returned to their carriers, the pirate attack forces planned to be in position astern the carriers. This was the targets’ weakest point as no shields could be employed to cover the carrier’s stern while landing fighters. Predator began to exit subspace. Rafe knew the other ships would follow suit. It took eight seconds to clear subspace. The pirates were counting on the enemy being focused on the fight happening in front of them and concerned with getting their fighters rearmed and refueled. With the many small Stingers returning to their carriers, it was reasonable to assume the enemy would have their safety lockouts engaged on their fire control computers to prevent the computers from locking onto targets and firing. With lockouts engaged, the fire control computers could not automatically shoot at pop up targets without human permission. Pirate Flotilla One began to surface from subspace.
Chapter 26
Admiral Levant’s ships had drawn first blood. The three pirate missile boats had been a surprise to the raiding force and allowed
his ships to go all offensive for the first critical minutes of the battle, as the Orion battle line was forced to deal with the larger-than-expected incoming broadside. Levant stayed on the offense for as long as he could. Follow-on salvos of missiles continued downrange at the enemy as the initial shots were now arriving at their intended targets.
Several hits were scored on Orion ships, but one ship had been singled out for special attention and that ship took severe punishment. The battlecruiser Citizen had been in the Badlands at the beginning of the war and had fired on the pirate settlement at Ulatar. The pirates had been patient in waiting for her return to battle, and now was the time to square accounts. The entire broadside from the three freighters of two hundred and twenty-five missiles had been aimed at her. Orion defenses had taken out the majority of the incoming Zeke and pirate projectiles. Only forty-six missiles impacted Citizen’s shields and began to deplete them. Just twenty projectiles managed to get through the depleted shields and impact the hull. Thirteen penetrated into the ship. Explosions rocked the battlecruiser as the missiles blew out compartments, wrecked two gun turrets, and hit engineering spaces. Fires began throughout compartments deep inside the vessel. They flared and then quickly went out as the oxygen supply was depleted. Systems shut down, as power was lost in various sections. Batteries would come on line to partially make up for the loss. Firepower and sensors were first priorities to get back on line, and so battle damage parties focused on them, but Citizen was a heavily damaged ship. She slowed and began to fall behind her companions.
Captain Riko Takahashi of Dragon was Pirate Flotilla One’s logistics and supply officer. When the three ships performed as missile platforms, Riki, as she was affectionately called, was the squadron leader. She frowned as she looked over the sensor readouts on Citizen. It was serious damage to be sure, but probably not a fatal blow. The ship would have to be hit again, but Riki couldn’t afford to shoot an entire three ship broadside at her again. She shook her head as she considered the results. “It is never easy,” she thought as she waited for her second salvo to load. She had hoped for a decisive result with the first broadside, but it was not to be. Now she had to shoot the second broadside in support of the Zekes. The missiles systems on all three freighters were makeshift affairs. Normally, the five-by-five missile racks were disassembled and stored away to allow the ships to function as freighters. When needed, the missiles racks were assembled by hand in each of the three cargo bays. This gave the ship a broadside capability of seventy-five missiles. This large salvo and the element of surprise had helped win more than a few battles for Flot 1. One of the limitations to this ad hoc set up was no rapid-fire capability. Once the seventy-five missiles were fired, the cargo bay doors had to be closed and the compartments pressurized. This allowed the missiles stored in the overhead magazines to roll down into the racks and then the cargo hatches could be opened again for firing. This took time. A second limitation was the missiles were loaded into their racks and into the overhead magazines by hand prior to the fight. There could be no switching back and forth between offensive missiles and defensive interceptors. The order of the missiles in the magazines was based on intelligence and the battle plan, and if the loadout proved wrong, nothing could be done to change over in mid-fight. The next three salvos were all interceptors to help cover the Zekes. Riki could do nothing offensively until the fifth and last salvo, if she and her ship were still alive. The three freighters had no shields and only two laser turrets each. They depended on the Zekes for protection. Riki knew the enemy would go offensive as soon as they could. She had to be ready to meet that assault.
The initial Zeke attack hit a variety of targets. Two OrCon battlecruisers had been hit repeatedly, but continued to hold position. Two heavy cruisers and one light cruiser sustained damage. Five destroyers were hit, a sixth one was hammered into pieces, and escape pods were coming off of her now. The Orion ships absorbed the attack while putting up total defense. Now Kupin gradually shifted to an offensive mode. Her flagship and five heavy cruisers were the first ships to shoot offensive missiles. Their missiles forced the Zekes to switch three ships to defense and the lessening in their attack allowed more OrCons to go offensive. So the battle went.
The three pirate freighters had turned away and continued to run toward Buckler after firing their first salvo. With the two battle lines fighting it out, the three pirate ships were able to put distance between themselves and the Zekes. They had to be in missile range of the OrCons to shoot at Citizen, but could be further away for the next two salvos of interceptors as they covered the Zekes. Riki and her people were now prepared to give a defensive volley and were awaiting orders from Admiral Levant.
Chapter 27
The eight seconds took the usual eternity to pass. Pirate Flotilla One simmered into normal space within a few seconds of each other. No enemy missiles hit their bare hulls. There had been lockouts and confusion among the Orion ships, and that was all the pirates needed. Shields were raised. Orientation took a fast second. The four carriers were in a box formation of two ships above the two other ships. Nobody was surprised, as that was their standard tactical formation. This allowed each carrier to have separation from the other carriers both laterally and vertically for safe flight operations. The plan had been for Predator to come out directly astern of the carrier on the upper left side of the box. Predator had come out slightly high and too far forward. She was almost abeam on the port side of her target.
“Targeting,” reported Tactical.
Predator missiles and gun rounds flew at the carrier as the destroyer rapidly slid back and down to get into position before the carrier could react with defensive fires and shields. The two rear turrets engaged the nearest supply ship. Three gun hits scored on the supply ship’s shields and two more hits penetrated through the flimsy shields to the hull, but the supply ship scurried down and away from Predator as the other supply ships scattered.
“Predator! Predator! Predator!” echoed throughout the ship as the first missiles covered the short distance to their target in three seconds.
The initial projectiles hit the shields of the center structure on the port side of their target, but as Predator slid down and behind the target, the missiles now had a clear line for engaging the weak point of the carriers. All the destroyer guns joined in the attack. Soon missiles and 125-millimeter and 75-millimeter gun rounds were flying up the three landing tunnels and exploding inside. Stockpiled ordnance meant for the Stinger reloads was located at several points in each tunnel. These began to erupt as they were touched off by the pirate missiles. Explosions rocked all three tunnels. Stinger aircraft, equipment, and people were engulfed in explosions and flames. Fires began to rage the length of all three fighter tunnels. Thirty seconds had passed.
Hawkins scanned his tactical screens. All the carriers were being hit. Nemesis and her group had come out below Hawkins’ group directly behind the carrier below Predator’s target. Missiles flew as Nemesis moved even closer and looked as if she was setting up on a guide path for landing. Explosion rocked the huge carrier. She was not long for this fight as Nemesis poured destruction on her target. Like Predator, one of her rear turrets was taking the nearest running supply ship under fire. Hits were scored, and the supply ship took evasive turns.
Suddenly, a single message went out on all frequencies. Killian O’Hare appeared and snarled, “Die, you OrCon bastards, DIE!” Despite the demanding business at hand, Raferty smiled.
The carrier to the starboard and level with Predator’s target was being engaged by Cottonmouth. That group had surfaced too far astern and was rushing to close the gap. Rafe noticed Gunfighter was adding her missiles to Cottonmouth’s attack on the carrier as they closed on target. They were trying to get missiles on target before the carrier could turn away to hide her stern and get her defenses up. Raferty could not hold Tarrant responsible for surfacing out of position. Subspace navigation to a point target was always tricky and usually more miss-than-hit. He had n
o doubt she would make up for it as her group quickly closed the gap.
Shane Delacruz in Vindictive was below target but soon climbed up and was hammering his carrier. Scoundrel was covering Vindictive as Marauder shot at the escort ships. The five Orion escort ships at the rear of the OrCon formation returned fire but were having a difficult time. These ships were far back as the supply ships were between them and the carriers. Now three pirate ships in addition to Predator were shooting guns at the large freighters and they were scrambling like flushed geese. The distance and the supply ships gave the pirates a small respite from the full fury of the rear escorts. The forward escort ships joined in the fight, but had a difficult time targeting through the exploding carriers at the pirate ships tucked in tight at their sterns. The escorts began to maneuver to get open shots and soon the pirate destroyers were taking incoming fires from several directions. The enemy escorts were taken by surprise, but now were trying to make up for lost time. There were four destroyers and one light cruiser astern the carrier box and the exact same number ahead of them. A corvette from each pirate group engaged the front escorts. That was the way out, and the enemy ships had to be engaged there. The five ships of the rear escort were to be engaged as targeting allowed.
Rafe looked at his screens. Predator’s attack had gone very well. All three fighter tunnels were ablaze throughout their lengths. Continuous explosions there were expanding to the main structure. The large ship was doomed. “Go defensive on missiles. We’ll go guns only on the carrier.” He turned his chair to Tactical at her station. “I want to come off target early and get out of here.”
Tactical nodded. “It is getting hot, and the carriers are done for.”
Rafe turned back to his screen and spoke over his command net. “We exit toward the front now.”
Echoes from Yesterday: Pirates of the Badlands Series Book 4 Page 17