Admiral's Nemesis Part II

by Luke Sky Wachter

  As if that was ever going to happen.

  Looking up at the screen, he could see a small group of five ships were now moving away from the rest of the old confederation forces attacking the Clover.

  As he watched, first one, and then two, and then a whole handful of warships came about, pulled back and, as soon as they were out of laser range, hurried to accompany them.

  He turned to Tactical.

  “What’s the situation with the enemy task group?” he barked.

  The Tactical Officer looked over at Spalding with a relieved expression.

  “I’m showing several ships have begun to withdraw with more attempting to follow,” he reported with a triumphant smile as more and more warships of the Glorious Fleet of Liberation either drifted back or turned tail and started to run.

  All in all, twenty warships, just under half of the survivors, turned and fled leaving their brethren to deal with the Lucky Clover without them.

  A concentrated burst of fire from the gun deck sent another pair of Destroyers reeling out of formation.

  As if a dam had broken, the rest of the warships that had been holding the line turned and hurried away, setting course as a group to rejoin their fractured forces.

  “They turned and fled, Sir!” Tactical reported joyously.

  “That they did, Lieutenant,” Spalding said shaking his head. He looked down to see a red-faced Admiral silently shouting at him. Blinking with consternation, the old engineer turned back on the volume.

  “Sorry, Sir. I must have hit the wrong button,” Spalding said in a conciliatory tone, “you were saying somethin' about surrendering? Well, I just wanted to say that if you lot are interested we’re always willing to accept a parole.”

  “Laugh all you want, Captain,” J-Pop said red in the face, “but the day will come when you rue not accepting my most generous offer. I and the 27th Lightning Task Group will return to finish what we’ve started!”

  Shaking his head, Spalding cut the connection.

  Chapter 61: The MSP Watches with Horror

  “Saint Murphy’s wretched wrench,” I breathed, watching as the hundreds of missiles fired by each of the Bug Mothership were joined by the thousands more fired by the Planetoid.

  “With that many missiles in the void something’s got to give. What I mean is something important’s going to get hit; it's just the law of averages,” Lieutenant Hart observed.

  The Imperials seemed to have realized this too, because no sooner had the Lieutenant spoke than the nearly one hundred light warships that had just arrived in the area immediately went to point defense. Firing their lasers for all they were worth, the light warships managed to ward off all but a handful of missiles, most of which impacted harmlessly on their shields.

  Then the Planetoid opened its maw and, instead of dozens of smaller ships like had come out of the Motherships, this time it was hundreds of Scouts and Scout Marauders—and unlike the Motherships, the Planetoid started releasing Heavy Harvesters as well.

  Like a horde of mindless piranha, the Bugs' only thought was to close with the enemy, eat and destroy. Enraged at the manner in which they were awoken, starting with the Scouts and working their way up, the Bug’s literally threw themselves at the shields of the warships of the Glorious Fleet.

  Multiple Bug Scouts crashed into the shields of their foes and even more were destroyed by Imperial laser fire, but as soon as the shields went down the following ships, generally Scout Marauders, threw themselves at the hulls of the enemy ships. Those ships that 'survived' the impact then disgorged their entire load of angry Bug boarders and boring beetles, which proceeded to vent their insectoid fury with boarding actions and general chaos out on the hull.

  Much was obscured by the Jamming haze, but as the Imperials identified our jamming satellites and eliminated them one by one an increasingly clear picture of carnage began to emerge.

  Motherships and Battleships traded broadsides at close range, and while the Motherships soon ran out of smaller ships to spit out the Bug Planetoid continued to send out an unending stream.

  “Sweet Murphy...what have we done?” First Officer Snyder said with horror.

  “This is war. We did what we had to do to survive,” I said stone-faced.

  “If the Bugs win this won’t just be a battle, they won’t stop until they’ve eaten the enemy—it will be genocide!” she cried.

  “If you need to take a moment to recover your composure, feel free,” I said and then, steeling myself for the inevitable, I gave the order everyone had previously been waiting for, “turn the Fleet around. This is where the battle will be won or lost.”

  While the bridge crew of the Royal Rage watched in horror as the Bug swarm tore into the center of the Imperial armada, determined to kill and eat everything in its path, the Bug Planetoid continued to release small, medium and large Bug ships.

  “Sir, the Spineward Sectors Fleet is coming about. They’re on a course for our position, Praetor,” reported Tactical.

  “Of course they are; why wouldn’t they be? Recall the Strike Fighters and tell them to abort. An unsupported attack on the Spineward Sectors Fleet would be suicide for them at this point. They can do much better service for us here hunting down the smaller Bug ships,” Cornwallis said, fighting down a flash of fury. The reports of Bugs boarding ships and literally eating their crews filled him with an anger the likes of which he would not soon forget, “Also bring this Command Carrier to a full and complete stop. There are plenty of the Glorious Fleet between us and the locals. No point in testing fate. Besides, I want to make sure and arrange an appropriate response to their decision to engage in biological warfare.”

  “Sir?” asked the Commodore.

  “Pass the word: no quarter. We take no prisoners today,” Cornwallis said through slitted eyes. As a Senator of the Empire, he knew that if you allowed the barbarians at the border to get away with murder once they’d just turn around and do it again and again until you—or they—were crushed. It was the same thing when it came to borrowing the power of Droids, Bugs, or aliens.

  Which in no small part was why the Gorgon Wars still raged, though Cornwallis knew that his political enemies also played some significant role in stoking the fires of the Gorgon Front so as to stall his plans for the Old Confederation. The Empire couldn’t let a few million uppity Rim Worlders defy Imperial authority no matter where they were.

  Besides, speaking quite frankly it was one thing to kill his people but another to send Bugs out to eat his crews. Any such battle plans belonged strictly to Imperials perpetrating such acts on the locals, not the other way around. In truth he wouldn’t have minded, or been nearly as outraged, as much if it had been someone else’s people being eaten and killed but the indignity of having people under his command experiencing such a fate demanded retribution. Otherwise his reputation would take a blow it might never recover from.

  “How long until the main cannon is recharged?” he asked coldly, looking back and forth between the Lucky Clover II and the Planetoid before reluctantly settling on the Planetoid. After the Sphere was destroyed he could leave the Motherships to the Confederation and put a period on the end of the Spineward Sectors Fleet.

  “Three minutes, Sir,” said the officer at the Weapons console.

  “Good. Have the helm line us up for another shot, this time on that Planetoid—and take us in close. I want to make sure this Bug surprise is neutralized once and for all time, and the main cannon is the fastest way to do that,” said Cornwallis.

  “Praetor. Are you sure you want to move closer to the Bugs?” the Commodore asked urgently. They had already entered the range of Bug lasers and any closer and the Mighty Punisher might come under attack.

  Battleships of the Glorious Fleet were already suffering. The Planetoid had a broadside equal to ten Battleships, and with over a thousand lasers of various sizes she had enough punch to knock a Battleship into a powerless hulk in, practically speaking, almost no time at all. It was fortunate
they had more than a hundred Battleships or else…

  “A good point, but practically this entire ship is made out of mono-locsium, Chief of Staff. There’s not a thing in the galaxy, especially a Bug, that can significantly damage this Carrier in the fifteen minutes it will take us to recharge and finish her off with a second shot,” said Senator Cornwallis, “have the helm slow the ship and take us to the side of that Planetoid. We’re going to hit that opening, stop more Bug reinforcements from launching, and close the maw of that Bug Sphere for good. Also, doing so will place the Planetoid between us and the only thing on the battlefield that could actually harm us: their Super Battleship. It will be nice to use their own tactics against them.”

  The Commodore hesitated. “On it, Sir,” he said, relaying the Senator’s orders.

  “How’s the main cannon looking?” asked Cornwallis two minutes later.

  “There’s some minor drift to account for; the Planetoid seems to be drifting our direction but it would take a half hour to reach us and we could maneuver away at any time. We’re ready to fire on your command, Sir,” reported the Weaponeer.

  “Then the order is given. Fire!” commanded Cornwallis.

  The Praetor watched with satisfaction as the incredibly powerful white beam of the main cannon, a weapon powerful enough to cut through common old duralloy Battleships, slice across—and through—the gaping mouth of the infernal Planetoid and erupt out the other side of the demonic bio-weapon.

  A giant laser went in and Bugs, Bug blood, and large swatches of shuttle-sized guts burst back out the side of the mouth as a result of the damage. The Planetoid tried to close its mouth but only one half of it was able to do so. Despite this, the shot stopped the flow of ever more Bug ships from out its now damaged maw.

  Immediately after the Bug Sphere was hit, it started to writhe back and forth for several long seconds before throwing itself into an uncontrolled spin.

  Hot on the heels of the main beam attack, the Strike Fighters had returned and promptly went on the attack. Missiles and Bug Scouts were shot out of the sky in equal measure as the angry fighter jocks of the Imperial Flotilla returned with a vengeance and went on the offensive.

  “That one had to have hurt. Bad. Instruct the Battleships to take aim at the entry site of Mighty Punisher’s main cannon strike and fire coordinated broadsides into the belly of that beast,” ordered Cornwallis.

  “Sir, the Planetoid!!” exclaimed Tactical Officer pointing at the screen.

  “Were my orders not clear?” demanded the Senator, looking at the screen where it soon became obvious that the Planetoid had stopped and rotating its massive, badly-damaged maw now pointed at the Command Carrier. “Yelling and pointing are not acceptable behavior in the Imperial Navy. Put yourself on report.”

  “Praetor, the Planetoid—it’s moving!” reported the over excited Tactical Officer as the Battleships surrounding the giant Sphere responded to orders and began to attack newly opened Bug spot.

  “What!?” demanded Cornwallis, looking over at the Bug Sphere that was now accelerating straight towards them. For a very long second that seemed to last for an eternity, he stared at the Bug Planetoid and then realized that the thing wasn’t a planetoid at all but instead one big, giant, oversized ship.

  “Does it mean to ram us?” the Commodore asked with dread in his voice.

  The Senator blanched. “Evasive maneuvers! We can’t let that thing hit us. Even if it doesn’t break the ship, if it hits us we’ll still have to deal with tens of thousands of Bug shock troops,” said the Senator, standing up from his chair in alarm.

  Previously the Command Carrier had been far enough away from the Bug Sphere that, considering its poor fire control, shorter-than-Imperial-ranged-lasers and complete lack of propulsion capability, the Imperial flagship had been considered safe.

  Unfortunately for the Mighty Punisher and her crew, the Senator had miscalculated. Just as bad, it took the more than 1200 meter long ship like the Imperial Command Carrier time to get going from a full stop. It took even more time to turn the ship so that it wasn’t moving straight toward the giant Bug Sphere.

  “Impossible! Completely outrageous. Bugs do not build engines into anything that large or that spherical. It’s simply not a part of their design matrix,” glared the Senator.

  “Maybe they’ve developed new capabilities. The Imperial Science Institute is always saying how Bugs are highly adaptable if given enough time to evolve, Sir,” pointed out the Commodore.

  “That’s absurd; their adaptability is strictly limited. They are unable to make significant technical advances, and designing a new ship type of this magnitude shouldn’t have been possible,” said the Senator.

  “Sir! None of that matters now,” the Commodore said as the Bugs continued to move towards them at a faster acceleration rate than anyone had counted on, “there’s still time to transfer your flag before they ram the ship. If we move now you could still hop onto a Cutter and take one of the Battleships as your new flagship if anything happens to the Mighty Punisher. Or transfer back aboard before anyone’s aware if they don’t or miss.”

  Cornwallis shook his head.

  “There’s still no sign of a Fragment. If I lose the Punisher now it won’t matter if we conquer the Spine and turn it all into new provinces. The loss of a Command Carrier will result in an automatic investigation. They’ll thank me for my service, take the provinces for the Empire, and House Cornwallis will be finished. No. My fate and the fate of this fleet lays with the Punisher. Even if they ram, we can survive it,” the Senator said with certainty, “if I run now I’ll lose the loyalty of the fleet.”

  The Commodore blinked and then drew himself up to attention. “It’s been an honor to serve you, Sir. There’s no way our story ends here. We are destined to claim the Spine for the Empire,” said the Commodore.

  Right up until the last minute, the Helmsman of the Mighty Punisher tried to evade and her Gun Decks fired broadside after broadside straight down the again-open maw of the Bug Sphere.

  And then, with a measure of inevitability truly understood only by those with a firm grasp of Newtonian physics, the Bug slammed full force into the side of the Command Carrier.

  Men and women were tossed around in their seats so violently that, despite the emergency restraining straps, they experienced whiplash.

  “We made it?” asked the Sensor department head.

  “Yes. We’re alive!” chortled the grey bearded Commodore.

  “More importantly. The ship’s intact,” Cornwallis said clenching his hand into a fist triumphantly after he ran through a quick damage control check. The ship was battered and any number of critical systems were at least temporarily functioning on backups, but nothing was broken beyond repair and everything important still worked.

  The bridge of the Mighty Punisher was still celebrating when the first boarding Bug set a chitinous foot on the hull of the Imperial Command Carrier and started walking toward a damaged hatch.

  Back on the bridge of the Royal Rage, we’d already reestablished control over one functioning secondary engine when the Bug Planetoid made its suicide run. And then, despite the Imperial Flagship’s best efforts, the insect monstrosity slammed into the side of the Command Carrier, engulfing the Mighty Punisher in its mouth.

  “Report!” I instructed.

  “Neither ship looks to have been destroyed or disabled by the Bug Sphere’s attack, but after the Sphere latched onto the Command Carrier they’ve gone into what looks like an uncontrolled spin, Grand Admiral,” reported Tactical.

  It was that very uncontrolled spin, that and the fact a large portion of the Punisher had been engulfed by the Sphere, which made it difficult to tell the precise moment the first horde of Bug boarders left their ship and then, in a seemingly unending swarm, they poured onto—and into—the Mighty Punisher.

  “Sweet Murphy...there must be tens of thousands of them on the hull alone. How many more have entered from inside the mouth of that Sphere where
we can’t see?” I asked with disbelief.

  “I don’t know. But what I do know is that the Bugs seem to have the kicked proverbial hornet's nest. Every Imperial warship we can identify, and several we can’t confirm, are all converging on the Command Carrier,” reported Lieutenant Hart.

  I took a long look at the screen. The Empire had broken ranks with nearly every Imperial warship in the Glorious Fleet, turning back to rescue their flagship and determined to pound the Bug Sphere into scraps of frozen flesh floating in the vast emptiness of cold space. This despite the thousand plus lasers the Spheroid was punching back with.

  In the meantime the Bug Motherships, Harvesters and their smaller minions were doing their best to tear through the middle of the now greatly disorganized Confederation formation.

  I had no doubt the Bugs would be overcome and completely and totally defeated…in time. Right now, though, the Bugs were still busy ramming and boarding any ship they could reach.

  In short: it was chaos, pure and simple chaos.

  We’d never get a better chance.

  “No more pussyfooting around. This is our moment. First Fleet is hereby ordered full speed ahead. Coordinate with Spalding and send him back into this mess with orders to link up with the main fleet for protection. This ends here. Now!” I commanded.

  Within less than a minute, the majority of First Fleet went to full military power. As for the rest of us with damaged or currently inoperable engines, we moved at our best speeds and followed or we drifted wherever we’d been when they disconnected our bucking cables.

  “For the Spine!” shouted the Bridge.

  “Confusion to our enemies,” I called out.

  “Rah!” they shouted.

  The odds were still long but now, for the first time since battle had been joined, we had a chance.

  Chapter 62: MSP Turns and Re-Engages

  When a fleet was down somewhere in the neighborhood of around one hundred ships damaged or destroyed, normally that would have a big impact on the fleet in question.