Buckler immediately switched to offensive missiles, and targeted destroyers on the left side of the enemy line who were now at the end of the line as it moved to the right.
Bond spoke from behind the Admiral. “We’ll be out of the Buckler missile envelope in three minutes.”
Levant nodded and talked with regret. “Can’t be helped. Our job is to protect Signe not protect ourselves at their expense.”
“Wish we had fortifications on Signe,” Bond said wistfully.
Levant reflected on the Signe natives who wanted the protection of the Empire without any of the cost or inconvenience to themselves. They had steadfastly refused to cooperate in any military project with the Aurora Empire because they knew the Empire would never abandon them. Levant turned to his OpsO and smiled a small bitter smile. “Right now I bet they wish they had fortifications too.” The OpsO smiled back and nodded. Both men knew the Signe government was following the fight on sensors and were probably quite unhappy right now as they saw destruction coming their way. Neither man felt sorry for them.
The Buckler attack on the end of the battle line achieved hits on two destroyers, but then the enemy warships moved around the planet and out of the line of sight for the base. Malinsky achieved her purpose as Levant moved his forces out into open space to block the path to Signe. The two fleets continued to exchange missile strikes as the Zekes stayed on the defensive while the third round of interceptors fell into position in the makeshift missile batteries on the three pirate freighters.
Hawkins moved at high speed toward the rear of the enemy line. He would have pushed the speed higher if he could have. He saw what was coming. Not only were the Zeke warships at risk, but his own three freighters were as well. The five pirate ships were closing fast as Hawkins covered his plan with his captains. “We’ll pull up on the edge of missile range and engage long distance. We can’t make a real difference here but we’ll do what we can.”
Chapter 40
The Zekes were clear of Buckler and her missile support, so the two flotillas squared off again. Admiral Malinsky knew this was the culmination point of the battle. It had all come to this. The grand plans, the computer battle simulations, the sneak march to get here, the battle maneuvering, the fire support plans…, and the losses. It led to here and now. She spoke into her comm with a snarling vehemence. “All offensive. We win it now.”
Admiral Levant was of the same mind. The equal losses up until now still meant his fleet was slightly smaller. He knew if he went all defensive waiting to repeat the fire plan using the freighters, it was a plan for defeat. His ships could hold out for a while, but the enemy had slightly more missile launchers then he possessed. The constant battering would create cracks in his defenses. The OrCons would exploit the fissions and they would widen. Then ships would be knocked out, the number deferential between weapons would widen, his defenses would eventually collapse, and it would be done. Yes, he had the smaller force now, but he had faith in his people and his ships. Also in the pirates, their ships, and their missile boats. He talked over his command net. “Captain Takahashi, fire when able. All ships, go all offensive.”
The two fleets locked horns and began the final clash.
~ ~ ~
Predator and her escorts were almost to missile range when the first titanic exchange happened. Missiles flew in continuous streams between the two foes. There was no deliberate targeting, no conservation of ordnance, no fire discipline. There was utter and complete destruction, mindlessly applied, and savage in results. Each side had lost approximately one third of their ships up to now. They would each lose the same number again in the next fifteen minutes.
“Goddamn,” muttered Hawkins as he stared at his screen. He had never seen anything like this. He had never heard of anything like this. Two fleets had just started throwing everything they had at each other. The shifting of many of the bridge crew as they stared transfixed showed they had never seen anything like it either. All the pirates could feel the intensity of the struggle despite being thousands of kilometers away. Hawkins thought it was a frenzy straight from hell, but then decided the devil could only wish he was capable of generating something like that. He knew he would see this in his dreams for a long time.
As they watched, the first two victims were claimed. A Zeke heavy cruiser and an Orion light cruiser disappeared in a series of explosions. Not a pod got off of either ship.
The twin losses shook Hawkins out of his trance. “We empty as soon as we get in missile range. We continue to fire from extreme range until we are empty of ship killers or the battle is over.” All captains acknowledged the order as Tactical softly said, “Thirty seconds.” Her tone caught all their despair at the delay. They wanted to fire now. It would take ten minutes for the missiles to get to targets and nobody was sure the battle would still be going on when they arrived.
“Close the gap,” Hawkins spoke to Eli at helm. “We got to draw off some of their fires.”
“Hopefully not too much of their fire,” Baby Doll said from her station. Hawkins nodded. If they got too close and the OrCons turned a full broadside on them, there was no way they would survive that. Hawkins was gambling his ships wouldn’t get too close and that the enemy couldn’t spare the fire assets for a few small ships.
The sheer volume of fire seemed unsustainable, but it was being sustained by both sides. All ships were taking shield hits and some were penetrating to the hulls. Another Royal Navy cruiser succumbed as a complete shield collapse lead to multiple hits and explosions. An Orion destroyer completely disappeared in explosions. Then an Aurora battlecruiser took over twenty shield hits and penetrations. She fell out of line after three internal explosions. Then a Zeke destroyer also fell out of line as her engineering section took a hit. Slowly, the slight numbers were tilting the battle to the Orion forces. Then the three missiles boats rose from behind their guardians and over two hundred interceptors flew downrange. The pirate volley dove into the stream of incoming Orion missiles. They created a gap in the oncoming torrent. Not much of one, but it didn’t take much of one. The gap stopped Orion missiles from hitting Zeke ships for three seconds, but three seconds allowed shields to regenerate and Zeke guns, lasers, and decoys to reach out farther to intercept incoming fire. The OrCons received no such break. They had three ships fall out of line as they continued to take constant punishment.
“Reload each missile rack with ten offensive missiles only,” Riki ordered her three ships. “We got to get missiles out.” She knew some missiles now were more important than more missiles later. There may not be a later. She knew her ships understood the stakes. They were hiding behind two battlecruisers each with destroyers further out in front, but if those ships were taken out, the enemy would make quick work of the freighters. They were taking the same risks as the Zeke ships with none of the shield protection. Eternity ticked by as measured in seconds.
The missiles from Predator’s group were now arriving on target. The Orion ships could do one of two things. They could go with an active defense, but that would take missiles and guns from the main fight as they would have to turn weapons systems 180 degrees, or they could ignore the attack and hope shields were enough to fend off the small number of missiles coming in. They chose the latter or, more likely, circumstances chose the latter for them. They could not take anything away from the main attack.
The second course of attack of going with shields only might have worked if the attack had been spread among numerous ships, but Hawkins had the entire attack aimed at one target, the Congress class battlecruiser Duma. Missiles bored in on her. There were no destroyers on this side of the battle line to provide additional defense and to shield the large ships. Only lasers and a few decoys were deployed against the pirate attack. The great majority of the pirate missiles hit Duma. Her shields did their job, but the ship had absorbed hits on her port side from the Zekes and the shield system had been weakened. After fifteen hits, two sections disappeared and pirate missiles impacted b
are hull. The ship took multiple hits and slowed as engineering systems failed. The missiles still hit the ship and she took multiple impacts amidships. Still the stream of pirate missiles impacted the battlecruiser as she started to break apart. Escape pods scattered from the dying vessel. Only then did the missile impacts stop as they could no longer lock onto and track debris. The missiles flew through the space formerly occupied by Duma and hit the destroyer on the far side of the OrCon formation.
Chapter 41
The four Lodnyy class destroyers had seen the missiles flying off Hawkins’s ships and moved to engage that group as fast as they could through the drifting wreckage. Gunfighter was leading the slower group toward Predator. They were now in clear space on the edge of the debris field. Once sensors confirmed the four enemy destroyers were heading toward Hawkins, Ross Landry led the five trailing ships back into the debris. He wasn’t worried about the four enemy destroyers getting the jump on Raferty Hawkins while Landry closed in on them. He knew that would never happen. Ross would engage the enemy in the debris while allowing Hawkins to continue to fire at the main enemy fleet from the edge of missile range.
“Spread out with Cottonmouth in the middle. We’ll see if these guys want to fight,” Landry ordered over the command net. He knew Hawkins would hear the command and adjust accordingly. He also knew Hawkins would not take command but let him run the fight.
The five pirate ships slowly moved to contact. The four enemy destroyers popped up intermittently on sensors as they maneuvered toward Hawkins.
Tactical addressed Raferty from the middle of six floating screens. “Do you want to move to the debris field and grab some cover from our closing friends?”
Hawkins shook his head. “Let’s act as bait. If we move to cover, the bad guys might slow up or be content to sit where they are. Let’s give Ross and his gang the opportunity to hit these guys. We will send Rogue and Renegade to support if needed while we continue to fire here.”
The four Orion destroyers came straight at Predator’s formation. Gunfighter’s force continued to move forward to hit the enemy on their starboard flank. The interference from the newly created space junk made sensors fairly useless as a tracking device. If the opportunity presented itself, targeting would be equally a challenge. The enemy had a clear sensor return on Predator in open space and were moving to a good position to engage the pirates while still having cover for themselves. Gunfighter’s formation continued to close on the OrCons’ flank.
As the ships closed, the wreckage made mutual support difficult to impossible for both sides. Landry recognized the fact and spoke to his command. “We are gradually losing each other as we move from cover to cover. If you get a good shot, take it. A coordinated assault will be impossible and we can’t let these guys hit Raferty.”
Just as Flint Colfax was about to acknowledge the order, an OrCon destroyer bounded over the wreckage in front of him and both crews were surprised. “Shoot!” Colfax hollered at nobody in particular. The forward 75-millimeter guns opened up and missed at point blank range. The Orion guns replied and hit the forward shields three times in rapid succession.
“Break left!” screamed Dallas Keitel from her operations station. The helmsman slammed the ship to port as he rolled it to near ninety degrees so the keel of Corsair was facing the enemy. The belly gun engaged the destroyer and scored two hits in six rapid shots. Sensors could not pick out targets among the drifting ship pieces and the crew was still recovering from the shock. Corsair started to roll away from the enemy.
“We’re here, Corsair. Come around hard to starboard.”
The calm voice was James Concannon of Marauder. The ship was not on sensors but was probably behind Corsair now. The helmsman heard the order and obeyed without waiting for confirmation from Colfax. Corsair rolled level and then pulled back hard to regain sight of the enemy. As Corsair got the Orion destroyer in sight, Marauder began to engage her. Missiles flew at close range between the two. Many missiles from both sides locked onto hunks of wreckage and hit them.
“Guns only,” ordered Colfax. He stared at his gunnery man. “Make them count.”
The man nodded. Embarrassed by his recent performance, he concentrated on this second chance. Rounds flew from the forward gun mount and rapidly found the target. Shells hit the enemy’s shields continuously. Marauder found the range also, and the enemy destroyer took twelve gun hits before one of her shields failed and rounds began to hit the hull. The destroyer turned to run, and Marauder missiles hit her stern. The fleeing enemy maneuvered at a high speed to get cover between her and her attackers while returning fire. Corsair took hits along her starboard shields. Colfax was about to pursue when Concannon’s voice stopped him. “Let him go, Flint. He would be leading us to his squadron mates. Besides, they’ve been stopped from getting shots at Hawkins, so we accomplished our mission. Form on me.”
The two corvettes returned to Gunfighter and lined up with her as the other two ships set up on the other side. The four destroyers remained within easy missile range but neither side fired on the other. The pirates were content to keep the OrCons at bay while Predator’s group continued to shoot at the main fleet. The four destroyers knew if they pressed forward, they could easily find themselves in a close range fight with ten pirate ships. A fight they couldn’t win and couldn’t run away from. The four OrCons waited.
Chapter 42
Malinsky stared at her screen. She had thought the battle was slowly going her way. She shook her head. The missile freighters and the timely arrival of the pirate ships on the opposite side of her force had turned the momentum back to the Royal Navy. She had her ships target the ships in front of the freighters trying to create an opening to the three missile boats but the Zekes took the punishment and swapped the ships around so there was always a wall in front of those three goddamn freighters. The Zeke Admiral Levant certainly knew their value. She could not get at them no matter how hard she pushed.
The pirate ships on the other side of the OrCon formation were in open space but equally untouchable. Malinsky couldn’t spare the assets to shoot at them and, besides, as soon as missiles came at them, the pirates would simply back out of missile range or duck into the debris anyway. She watched the four Lodnyy destroyers move to engage the pirate formation that was shooting at her ships from open space on the edge of the debris field. That might give a little relief to her force but she knew that little spat behind her forces would not mean much in the big scheme. Then she saw the second pirate group closing up the distance in open space, and then move into the debris to hit the four destroyers. Now that little fight to her rear would mean nothing at all. Her four destroyers could end up in serious trouble if they chose to shoot it out. No hope there at all.
Malinsky’s lips became a hard straight line as if she was refusing to open her mouth and take the bitter medicine that was being served. But she had to admit the obvious. It was over. The raid had largely failed. They could talk about one base eliminated and a Zeke fleet largely destroyed, but the raid had fallen well short of its goals. Time to save as many ships as possible. Time to go home.
“We’re coming starboard. All ships go defensive.”
The formation turned and moved toward the debris field. The Zekes switched to offensive missiles, but the OrCons easily beat off the attacks with no hits scored. The Royal Navy ships did not immediately turn to give chase, so the distance began to grow between the two adversaries. As it became apparent that the OrCons were departing and that no further damage could be inflicted by the Zekes, each side ceased firing. The battle was over. At least this particular stage of the battle was. There would still be a fight to assign blame for the results.
Chapter 43
The OrCons were slowly withdrawing from Buckler through the wreckage marking their inbound path. A battle line of Orion ships stayed at the rear of the formation to keep the Zekes at bay. The remaining Orion ships were collecting escape pods as they trolled through the space-killing field. These shi
ps were conducting a quick pick up by magnetizing strips along their hulls, and then passing close to pods and pulling them in so they attached themselves to the strips. A rough ride for pod occupants, but the announcement of the collection method had gone out over several freqs, so the occupants should have been strapped into their seats. For overloaded pods or pods with wounded on their decks, it was a rough ride, but a stay in a Zeke prisoner-of-war camp might be a rough ride too.
The Zeke ships departed their position near Buckler and followed the raiders at a respectful distance. Nobody interfered with the recovery operation. After all, there were plenty of Zeke pods adrift in the same general area and they would need to be recovered also. This practice had been allowed in almost every fight for the last one hundred years, by all combatants, regardless of the circumstances. Nobody knew what was coming in future battles, so it was possible the roles would be reversed then, and due consideration would be expected at that time. Everyone knew that if one bad incident occurred, there would be a demand for revenge, and the last thing anyone wanted was an ongoing game of laser tag on escape pods. War was tough enough. No point in adding to the misery through stupidity. This war wouldn’t be won by the side that recovered the most pods, or by denying pod recovery to the enemy. As long as the OrCons were doing recovery only and not making any obvious moves to gain some sort of tactical advantage, the Zekes would merely observe. As the Zekes came to their own pods, light cruisers and destroyers started their own recovery operations. There were hundreds of escape pods drifting around all the wrecks. Plenty enough to keep everyone busy.
Echoes from Yesterday: Pirates of the Badlands Series Book 4 Page 24