The Ganthoran Gambit (The First Admiral Series)

by Benning, William J.

  The weakness, once again, was the slow cooling process of the high-yield pulsar-cannon. With two hundred and eighty high-yield pulsar-cannon able to fire safely only once every fifteen seconds, the mathematical advantage was still with the Combined Frontier Fleets. If a large enough number of them could survive the initial barrage, they might well be able to break through the Alliance position. The Alliance trap would then fragment, allowing more and more Frontier Fleet vessels through the Wormhole to strengthen their position.

  And, if that happened, then the technological advantages of the Alliance ships would be lost; swinging the tide of the battle against them.

  By the time Billy reached the other side of the Wormhole, the first Frontier Fleet Destroyers had already emerged from the buffeting and shaking of their journey, only to be annihilated in Parbe’an’s well planned and designed trap. And, with the first straggle of the lead vessels already passed through, greater and greater numbers of Frontier Fleet Destroyers began to emerge from the great, gaping maw of the Calyx Wormhole. The constant blast of Screaming Death from Grobbeg’s vessels tore and shredded relentlessly at the hulls of the emerging Frontier Fleet ships. And, so it was that for the Frontier Fleet crews, the shaking and turbulence of the Wormhole gave way to the hammering of the Screaming Death after only a moment’s respite. With very little chance for the Frontier Fleet crews to respond, the pulsar-bolts came hurtling towards the vulnerable Destroyers, smashing them to oblivion in short order.

  As they emerged, the small but powerful warships began to lurch and weave drunkenly as the Screaming Death wave from their former comrades began to interfere with the hull structure and guidance systems. From that point onwards, it was simply a matter of moments before the high-yield pulsar-bolts from the Star-Cruisers, or the hordes of low-yield bolts from the Eagles, smashed them to destruction.

  There was no need for the Tactical Computers to work out the Threat Potentials of the enemy ships. This was simply a case of firing the weapons to send out a blanket of death and devastation. Every gunner and Eagle pilot knew that they had to keep up the punishing rate of fire to hold off the enemy. Every gunner and pilot on the Alliance side could feel the cold, cloying sweat of terror, knowing that if the Combined Frontier Fleet ships broke through their cordon, it would be a free-for-all against the huge swarms of Axe-Blades and Destroyers. The Alliance gunners simply had to keep firing- there was no other way for them to survive.

  In their turrets, consoles, and cockpits, their guns roared and flashed, sending an unending stream of death and destruction at a vulnerable enemy who was too strong and ruthless to offer any quarter or mercy to.

  “WATO, keep them firing.” The anxious First Admiral stared intently at his War Table image.

  Billy Caudwell, now that he had arrived on the scene, had to take charge of the battle as it unfolded. He knew that he had to keep up this murderous rate of fire on the enemy ships.

  It was one of those frustrating times for Billy Caudwell, when he knew that he could have no further personal impact on the battle. He had created the situation, manufactured the strategy and tactics, and had brought the Combined Frontier Fleets to this place to engage his own forces. That was his job. Now, he had to leave the rest of his command to do their allocated jobs, whilst he stood back or paced anxiously at his War Table awaiting the outcome. The joy and celebration of luring the Combined Frontier Fleets through the Wormhole had now subsided, and had been replaced with the anxiety and worry of a battle commander defending a knife-edged position. It was a fundamentally sound strategy, and Parbe’an had organised the position well, but the lack of Star-Cruisers frustrated and annoyed Billy Caudwell.

  It also annoyed Billy that he had two of the largest and most powerful warships in the entire universe, and they were completely useless in this battle. The two Star-Destroyers; Colossus and Olympus, like his Fleet Carriers, were too big to fit neatly into the Star-Cruiser formation that was choking off the Wormhole. The Star-Destroyers had no high-yield pulsar-cannon, and to use the Trionic Cannon so close to the Wormhole would have devastatingly destructive consequences.

  The waiting, however, Billy suspected would not be too long. The Ganthoran Destroyers were still coming through the Wormhole, and being shot to pieces by the Alliance Eagles and Star-Cruisers. From the War Table image, Billy could see that the Alliance hemispherical formation blocking the Wormhole exit, whilst laying down a savage rate of pulsar-cannon and a barrage of Screaming Death. From the wide view of the battle, it appeared as if a constant stream of bright light was being funnelled into the mouth of the Wormhole from the formation of vessels that were clustering around it. The relentless bombardment seemed to light up the mouth of the Wormhole like a huge searchlight.

  On a closer image, in Real Time, Billy saw one of dozens of newly emerged Ganthoran Destroyers lurch into the pathway of a Screaming Death wave from one of Grobbeg’s Cruisers. The targeted Destroyer lurched for a moment as the wave hit, and was blasted to the left as the hull began to fragment under the sonic wave. The crew of the Destroyer, however, had no time to react as low–yield pulsar-bolts from a cluster of Eagles around the Star-Cruiser “Ajax” slammed into the already-shredding hull. Billy counted four low-yield pulsar-bolts hammering into the vessel. The first slammed neatly into the front face of the Destroyer, just above the intake for the fans. A split-second later, another low-yield pulsar bolt sheared away one of the weapons pods above the main fuselage, throwing the doomed vessel to its right.

  At the same moment, a third pulsar-bolt slammed into the main fuselage on the top centre, causing the vessel to begin to spit apart. An instant later, the final bolt smashed into the fan intake, causing a massive explosion. In less than one and a half seconds, four low-yield pulsar-bolts had smashed a Ganthoran Destroyer and killed its crew.

  And, the scene was being repeated all over the mouth of the Wormhole. However, Billy noticed one Destroyer Captain who had reacted on pure instinct during this tense situation.

  Emerging from the Wormhole with six other Destroyers, sensing the trap, the Captain pushed his Destroyer into a steep dive the moment he emerged. It was a brave and clever move on the Captain’s part, but, unfortunately, luck was not with his crew. Emerging into the Screaming Death wave from several of Grobbeg’s Destroyers, the vessel veered to its right as it began its dive. A low-yield pulsar-bolt from an Eagle caught the base of one of the three weapons pods, and pushed the vessel into a half turn where it ran straight into a high-yield pulsar-bolt from an Alliance Star-Cruiser. The other Destroyers that had emerged with the unfortunate Captain and his crew were all dispatched less than two seconds afterwards. Three of the emerging Destroyers ran straight into high-yield pulsar-bolts and were annihilated instantly in red, roaring fireballs of destruction.

  The fifth Destroyer was strafed by several Alliance Eagles. With their pulsar-cannon set to rapid-fire, the group of five Eagles opened up on the emerging Destroyer. A rapid-fire salvo of low-yield pulsar-bolts hurtled through the great blizzard-like storm of white-hot weapons fire towards the newly emerged target. The emerging Destroyer was hit by three low-yield bolts at exactly the same moment; one pulsar-bolt glanced from the rear of the Destroyer, whilst the other two hit the main fuselage, just above the fan intake, and again on the flank, just in front of the left weapons pod. Having been struck thrice, the Destroyer veered to the left, where a further seven low-yield pulsar bolts slammed into its flank in less than a second, blowing it to pieces.

  To add to the misery of the emerging Destroyer crews, the wreckage and debris from their fallen comrades’ vessels were starting to create problems. Emerging at high speed from the Wormhole, some Destroyers were colliding with large lumps of red-hot spinning space debris before the Alliance pulsar-cannon could seek them out. For some, the collisions were simply a nuisance; slight damage that was inflicted a few moments before the Alliance guns blew them to oblivion, whilst for others, the collisions themselves were fatal. The space debris, however, were providing no
hindrance to the Alliance pilots and gunners. They just kept blazing away at any target that fell beneath their gun-sights. The high and low-yield pulsar-bolts made no distinction between a piece of space debris and an intact Destroyer. The streams of white-hot destruction lanced into the melee of destruction and struck down whatever they touched.

  In the mouth of the Wormhole itself, the great tidal wave of weapons fire was only going one way. Ganthoran Destroyers emerging from the Wormhole had almost no chance of survival. The high-speed dash following the two Alliance space fortresses had led to them plunging straight into the Wormhole in their pursuit. After several seconds of buffeting and shaking within the Wormhole, the Destroyers emerged and were promptly shot to pieces. Many Destroyer crews were completely unaware of the Alliance vessels before they were killed in the hail of pulsar-bolts. Some had only a few brief moments of realisation before death claimed them.

  From the War Table image, Billy calculated that the main body of Ganthoran Destroyers was now emerging. The Destroyers were emerging in their hundreds and slamming straight into a wall of gunfire.

  To Billy, the death blooms of the Destroyers looked like tiny flashes of light in some distant galaxy; like twinkling stars. The tiny lights shimmered for a brief moment and then fell into the grey, misty darkness of the Wormhole’s mouth. But, there was nothing pretty or elegant about this particular twinkling light show. This was butchery. In the heat of battle, the gunners gave everything they had to keep up the relentless rate of fire that was required to cut down the emerging Destroyers. After a few minutes of constant firing, almost all of the gunners, and especially the replacements, were starting to feel the effects and stresses of combat fatigue. The heightened sense of fear was starting to affect their ability to fire their weapons.

  For some crew members, their fatigue was physical, with aching arms and joints. For others, the fatigue was more in their minds than in their limbs. Their own fears, plus the realisation that the lives of others depended upon them, caused many to completely disengage from their circumstances. A few simply stopped firing and sat down at their posts. The Officers and NCOs in charge recognized the blank and glazed expressions on their faces along with the vacant look in their eyes that the Medical Technicians called the “thousand-yard stare”. There was nothing that could be done there and then, except to push someone else into the fatigued gunners’ battle stations.

  For other gunners, the fatigue had entirely the opposite effect. The comm-links of many gunners began to ring with the maniacal laughter and the hysterical nonsensical chatter of people who had been pushed beyond their mental limits. They screamed in triumph and delight as they operated their trigger mechanisms, and blasted away at phantom enemy vessels that they imagined in their own minds. Some NCOs tried to pull the crazed gunners away from the trigger mechanisms. However, many Officers over-ruled them, and left the gunners to blaze away at the spectres in their minds; after all, the pulsar-bolts from their guns were still being fired at the Ganthorans. When the gunners actually dropped from physical or emotional fatigue, they would finally be replaced. Right now, the battle madness was upon them, and it was useful in this kind of battle.

  Billy Caudwell, only just aware that combat fatigue was starting to affect the gunners, had to do what all great commanders in history had previously done. He cleared the thoughts from his mind and focussed on the battle before him. People’s minds could take years to heal, but he needed gunfire right here, right now. The trickle of Ganthoran Destroyers that had begun to emerge only a few minutes before was now turning into a flood. The main body of enemy Destroyers was emerging from the Calyx Wormhole, and into the gun-sights of the waiting pulsar-cannon, where they were being torn to shreds in the incessant hail of gunfire.

  After ten full minutes of smashing the Ganthoran Destroyers, the first of the Frontier Fleet Cruisers emerged from the Calyx Wormhole. The bottle-neck at the other side of the Wormhole had allowed the bigger and slower Cruisers to catch up to the smaller and speedier Destroyers. It took the Alliance high-yield pulsar-cannon gunners several seconds to register in their minds, the presence of the new and larger warship. The high-yield pulsar-cannon was the only weapon available on the battlefield that could deal effectively with the larger Ganthoran Cruisers, and it would take between three and five direct hits on each vessel to incapacitate or destroy it.

  It also took Billy Caudwell several seconds to realise that the first of the Cruisers had emerged amidst the great swarm of Destroyers. And, to make matter even worse, by the time it had registered in his mind, another one of the large Frontier Fleet vessels was by its side. The high-yield pulsar gunners, accustomed to firing at Destroyers, stressed out by the constant action unfolding in front of them, and with their reflexes slowed by the combat fatigue, had failed to register the threat of the newcomers to the battlefield. The low-yield pulsar-cannon gunners of the Self-Defence Turrets and the Eagle pilots, however, were not so slow in their responses.

  The first Cruiser had emerged almost dead centre of the Wormhole, and the low-yield gunners allocated to defend that sector had opened up as soon as they had realised the danger. Instinctively, several Eagle pilots and Self-Defence Turrets gunners had moved their attention away from the horde of Destroyers that just seemed to keep on coming at them, and moved their gun-sights onto the two large Cruisers. At short range, the Eagle pilots and Self-Defence gunners could hardly miss, and they began to pepper the hulls of the large Ganthoran warships with a storm of rapid-fire, low-yield pulsar-bolts.

  Through the maelstrom of weapons fire and flying debris, the low-yield bolts searched out and struck the big warships like a tidal wave, amidst the exploding Destroyers. The pulsar-bolts struck the Ganthoran Cruisers’ hulls almost everywhere. There didn’t seem to be a square centimetre of hull surface that wasn’t hit by one of the low-yield bolts that seemed to blossom and mushroom from the very structure itself.

  “WATO, get those Cruisers!!” Marrhus Lokkrien commanded.

  Being a Bardomil, Marrhus Lokkrien had significantly sharper reflexes than most of the people in the War Room, including Billy Caudwell. Meanwhile, the low-yield pulsar-cannon were pitting and cratering the hulls of the two emerging Cruisers. The hail of low-yield pulsar-bolts sparked and burst on the superstructure of the Cruisers, providing at least some form of resistance to their progress. However, it was like trying to stop an armoured vehicle with slingshots. The low-yield pulsar-bolts would do little more than annoy vessels of such a size. But, the annoyance factor was enough to halt the progress of the two Cruisers, who responded with their own wave of Screaming Death to counteract that of Grobbeg’s ships.

  With weapons fire being returned, the Alliance gunners became only too aware that the heavyweight warships had arrived.

  Almost immediately, the high-yield pulsar-cannon of the Star-Cruisers allocated to defend that sector opened fire on the two Ganthoran Cruisers. The gun crews had recovered from the shock quickly, but their responses had been worryingly slow for Billy Caudwell and the senior Alliance officers. The gunners were going to have to be able to respond far more quickly if they were all going to survive this battle. Yet, despite the slowness of their crews’ responses, the high-yield pulsar-cannons quickly zeroed in on the Ganthoran Cruisers, with the first of the high-yield pulsar-bolts quickly starting to score hits on them.

  However, those first few moments of indecision amongst the Alliance gunners were now coming back to haunt them. With the first two Frontier Fleet Cruisers now drawing the Alliance’s high-yield pulsar-cannon fire, more of the large warships began to appear at the Wormhole’s mouth. With the first two Cruisers already suffering under the withering fire from the high-yield pulsar-cannon, another three Frontier Fleet Cruisers had emerged. And, being shielded from the Alliance gunfire by the death-throes of their comrades in the first two vessels, their Captains were quickly able to size up the situation.

  The Frontier Fleet Captains quickly realised that if they waited around at the mouth of the
Wormhole, they were going to be blasted to pieces by the Alliance guns. There was only going to be one chance for survival, and that was to attack. The Captains also knew that the odds were heavily against them. The Alliance ships were in a strong position, and had the technological edge. But, it was infinitely preferable to die attacking, than to sit and wait for the relentless pulsar-bolts to smash them to eternity. And, if they didn’t succeed in breaking the Alliance position, then those vessels that followed on behind them might have a better chance of winning the battle.

  Meanwhile, amongst all the flying debris, carnage, and devastation going on around them, they were, at least, able to distract the Alliance gunners away from the emerging vessels that were behind them.

  All around them, the hail of low-yield pulsar-bolts were scything down the small and vulnerable Destroyers. Many barely had time to emerge from the Wormhole before the low-yield pulsar-bolts smashed them into destruction. Now, with the massive bulk of the larger Cruisers absorbing the Alliance’s low-yield pulsar-bolt fire, many of the Destroyer Captains were able assess their situation.

  However, the window of opportunity for the Destroyer Captains was closing quickly, as the high-yield pulsar-cannon began to take their toll of the first two Ganthoran Cruisers. Their Captains had barely issued the orders to attack when the high-yield pulsar-bolts from the Alliance Star-Cruisers came hurtling through the mayhem, and started to hammer into their hulls. The Ganthoran Cruiser was a tough and formidable enemy, but the first Cruiser exploded after being struck by only three high-yield pulsar-bolts. The first pulsar-bolt landed in the centre of the main fuselage, just in front of the stalks for the weapons pod. The second pulsar-bolt smashed through the weapons pod itself, starting the chain reaction within the vessel, whilst the third bolt shattered through the fans that generated the electro-magnetic propulsion. The vessel exploded like a ripe melon, sending debris and destruction in every direction.