by Rodney Smith
After a few seconds, the plasma blinding his sensors cleared and the 2nd Combined Fleet stood out against the background stars not 700 million km away. G’Rof ordered all ships to target the Human fleet and in seconds thousands of long-range missiles were flying through space on their way.
Simultaneously, small attack craft from the Human fleet were speeding the K’Rang fleet’s way. Seconds behind them, offensive missiles from the Human Fleet were heading, like fingers of death, toward G’Rof’s fleet. As they approached the defensive missile engagement range, missiles were launched to counter the incoming missiles. The Human small attack craft came into range and fired hundreds of ship killer missiles.
The K’Rang drew first blood when a light cruiser took two missiles amidships and broke into five pieces. A Human frigate and a support ship were the next ships to explode from multiple missile impacts. Human jammers and other countermeasures misdirected a large number of the K’Rang missiles. Fighters and defensive missiles also destroyed large numbers, but the leakers were taking a toll. Two missiles each hit three destroyers from the 7th Cruiser Battle Group, breaking them apart and sending them spinning across space.
Baron G’Rof, looking across the shoulder of one of his sensor operators, saw large groups of small attack ships approaching from two directions. He warned his commanders and reinforced their requirement to reload as rapidly as possible.
It was now the K’Rang’s turn to feel the impact of Human missiles. Two heavy cruisers in the arrowhead were hit by multiple missiles and reduced to scrap metal. A destroyer and support ship went up in one giant explosion as missiles hit them in the middle of reloading. A destroyer took three missiles to its bow and pinwheeled through the formation, smashing into two cruisers and a support ship. A frigate took a heavy missile to its bow and it peeled the ship back to just under the bridge.
The two fleets exchanged missiles again like two punch-drunk fighters slugging it out in the late rounds of a fight. The Human fleet had the advantage with its longer-range fighters and attack craft, but the K’Rang could launch more missiles. G’Rof, speeding toward the Human fleet, needed to close another 2,000,000km to engage with his drones.
The Human small attack craft were agile and hard to hit with gun or missile. A few ships had some luck using their close in defensive system, if the attack ships were foolish enough to fly in range. A few score of them had been destroyed this way.
G’Rof started losing ships to the two other groups of medium and heavy attack ships. He counted his losses as fewer than 70 ships after two exchanges and he still had four reloads left. Human losses were 85 ships, mostly capital ships. He closed the distance so he could use his drones against the carriers.
* * * * *
Admiral Chang ordered all carriers to send their A-76's against the K’Rang fleet, concentrating on the cruisers. He also ordered the other fleet’s ring ships to admit the heavy and medium attack ships. He ordered the 1st Combined Fleet and Angaerry Fleet forward to come into missile engagement range.
His massed A-76's were taking a toll on the Grand Armada, but the K’Rang advantage in offensive missiles was taking its toll on Admiral Levi’s command. He counted 78 2nd Combined Fleet ships destroyed or severely damaged and out of action. That was half of his escorts, but he still had all of his carriers. There was a momentary lull as the K’Rang reloaded. Now was the time for the A-76's to get in there and do some damage.
Admiral Chang took note of losses to his A-76's as he sent them back out again. Of 72 squadrons, 50% were missing one or more attack ships. Three squadrons were at 50% strength. One squadron was combat-ineffective, with only two ships remaining. He had lost a total of 102 A-76's, of which only 17 pilots had been rescued and returned to their carriers. He hoped more could be rescued, once the battle was over.
* * * * *
Commander Jerry McGill of the 17th Attack Squadron, flying off the Gorbachev, lined up his dozen A-76's on the K’Rang fleet and prepared to attack the leading cruisers. Missiles came up their way and they executed a series of evasive maneuvers – combined with countermeasures – and were in firing range of their targets. Commander McGill passed the leading cruisers to his pilots and took one heavy cruiser deeper in the formation as his own. He’d always wanted to take out a flagship and this heavy cruiser fit the profile. He closed within range and launched all 12 missiles.
His squadron’s missiles flew into the K’Rang formation. Two cruisers fired on each other as a missile ran between them to impact on the stern of one of the cruisers. The missile damage and the gun damage resulted in one cruiser dead in space and the other damaged, until another missile hit it dead on the bow. The resultant explosion and the secondary explosions sent the massive ship tumbling into a line of three frigates, damaging them severely. Two other cruisers took multiple missile hits and exploded in expanding orange blossoms of destruction to the ships around them.
The K’Rang heavy cruiser fired on by Commander McGill took evasive maneuvers and two frigates moved into the path of the incoming missiles. One frigate’s close in defensive system took out two missiles. The second frigate wasn’t so lucky and its hull absorbed three of the missiles. The resulting explosion scorched the side of the heavy cruiser. Commander McGill turned to head out of the formation, and the main gun of a destroyer caught him head on, turning his A-76 into so much confetti.
His XO took over the formation and led the somber squadron back to the Gorbachev. The XO marked that destroyer for special attention on their next attack. Pilots agreed to save one missile for that destroyer, no matter what their targeting instructions.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Tammy’s 112th Heavy Attack Ship Squadron led the way through the Sirius gate and out the 1st Combined Fleet ring ship. She oriented on the Grand Armada and led her wing in the attack. Her wing’s other two squadrons flew echelon left behind her and trailing off to the left. She had orders to put priority on cruisers, so she aimed her ship at the head of the K’Rang formation, where the majority of the cruisers were. She called up the ship classifications as she bore in on the Grand Armada. Fear gripped her like an ice-cold iron glove, but she worked through it to find the best targets for her squadron’s missiles.
She found the cruisers at the lead of the K’Rang formation and passed targets around to her squadron. Each of her ships would fire all 24 missiles at its own target. They would all ripple fire on her command. She passed her targets back to the second squadron in formation behind her. She closed the range and ripple fired her missiles at the lead cruiser in the K’Rang formation at optimum range and turned away as the last of her squadron’s ships fired at their designated targets.
She switched her monitor to rear view and watched her missiles home in on target. Sue, her tail gunner, gave her a blow-by-blow description of the battle they left behind. As the wing completed firing and pulled away, 20 K’Rang cruisers and 10 destroyers would no longer be a part of the battle. As she departed through the 1st Combined Fleet ring ship, a wing of A-120's turned onto attack headings and took out another 15 cruisers and a drone carrier. The K’Rang armada was taking a beating, but so was the 2nd Combined Fleet.
* * * * *
Admiral Levi looked to what he could do to inflict more damage on the K’Rang then they on him. This slugging match was taking its toll on his formation. He urged his carriers to increase sortie turnaround rates for their A-76's. He beat up cruiser captains to reload and launch offensive and defensive missiles as rapidly as possible. He had to maintain his missile exchange rate. He especially wanted to be ready to fire during the inevitable lulls while the K’Rang were reloading.
His cruiser groups were doing a great deal of damage to their opposite numbers. His dedicated defensive cruisers kept up a defensive shield in front of the fleet, while his battle cruisers’ offensive missiles, with their built-in countermeasures and jammers, had good success punching through the K’Rang defensive fire and into key targets.
He made good use of his jam
ming ships spoofing the K’Rang missiles guidance, causing them to turn 90 degrees from the intended path and occasionally causing one to self-destruct. They also had the capability to blank the screens of K’Rang ships with barrage jamming and spoofing. He would need every trick he could muster to survive this battle.
* * * * *
Angie led her squadron to a position a million kilometers above the Grand Armada. From there she could monitor the battle and await the introduction of the drone ships. Three other squadrons, one below and one each on either side of the Grand Armada, maintained position awaiting the drones. Squadrons of F-53's flew inside the 2nd Combined Fleet to provide defense in depth.
The drones had been considered to be game changers, but they had yet to be deployed in combat. That was expected to change soon. They were assumed to have a max range of 1,000,000km from the drone carrier as reported by two scout ships engaged by them, but no one knew for certain. They would know soon because the K’Rang fleet was closing in on the 2nd Combined Fleet.
Angie saw them on her screen first and called "Tally ho!" to her squadron. She dove down on the drones to intercept them as they cleared the Grand Armada lead ships. Her squadron followed her in tight formation.
Angie’s XO came up on the commas. “Don’t you think you’re getting a little close to those lead cruisers, boss?”
She looked away from the drone she was concentrating on and saw the cruisers. They were all madly reloading, with a support ship alongside dropping cassette missile packs in the vertical launch system racks. Angie ordered her squadron to strafe the pods as they went by. A dozen F-53's fired their disruptor cannons into the partially filled cells as they swooped by on the way to the engage the drones. The resultant secondary explosions brought a smile to Angie’s face as she lined up on the lead drone.
A quick burst of disruptor fire breached the antimatter containment vessel in the nose of the drone. The explosion caused Angie’s ship to tumble through space. As she regained control, she warned her squadron not to get too close to them before firing. She recommended several hundred meters.
Angie had the only easy kill on the nimble drone ships. Alerted by Angie’s attack, the others began evasive maneuvers that the F-53 pilots could not match. The evasive maneuvers protected them from the F-53’s guns, but not their missiles. Mini-seekers reached out and destroyed drone after drone, until none of the original group were still in existence.
* * * * *
Shadow Leader K‘Pol called his drone pilots into formation. He ripped into them like a T’Reg attacking a F’Goy. His language was far from genteel, as he chewed them up one side and down the other for forgetting everything he had taught them about lead duties and wingmen duties. The Humans defeated them because they forgot the basics.
He asked if they understood and 30 chagrined pilots shouted out, “Yes, Shadow Leader!”
“Good,” he said, “Now get back in your pods and do it right!”
They rushed back to their control pods and vowed to show these Humans how K’Rang fly. The pods energized, synched with the drones in the launch tubes, and 30 drones left the tubes on their way to the Human carriers. They formed up into teams and flights, then streaked forward toward the Human fleet and the carriers within.
K’Pol warned them that Human fighters were coming in on them. The pilots threw their ships into extreme evasive maneuvers, jinking, diving, climbing and corkscrewing. Ten of the thirty never made it to the Human fleet, but twenty made it inside the fleet. Close in defensive systems took out another ten. A squadron of F-53's pursued the final ten and although they were using extreme evasive measures, they always came back to their base course. Every time they did they dropped into the gun sight of an F-53 and were destroyed.
One was left and it sped toward the Carrier George Washington. Three F-53's were on its tail, but they only got in each other’s way. The drone fired four missiles at the George Washington, then lined up with the flight deck opening. The missiles hit the Washington amidships and the drone flew into the flight deck, striking the Space Boss’ office head on. The antimatter warhead split the Washington open at the flight deck level and burst three bulkheads forward of amidships.
* * * * *
Quick reaction by the crew and damage control parties sealed the rest of the ship, saving half the crew. The fires in the flight deck were snuffed as soon as the oxygen was depleted. Frigates acting as lifeguards picked up escape pods from aft of the flight deck, containing aircraft maintainers, ordnance handlers, and crew chiefs.
A swarm of ten A-76 squadrons from the 15th Battle Group arrived just as the Washington was hit and focused their attention on the six remaining drone carriers. The ticked off A-76 pilots pushed their throttles to the stops and shot into the middle of the K’Rang formation. They were moving so fast the close in defensive system could not track the attack ships. The swarm broke into one or two squadrons per drone carrier and pressed their attacks home.
When they pulled out of the K’Rang fleet, over 1400 missiles were streaking toward the six drone carriers. As the smoke and flames cleared all drone carriers were destroyed or stopped in space and on fire. Secondary antimatter explosions wracked their hulls as warheads on the drones cooked off.
* * * * *
Ten missile corvettes and torpedo ships left the protection of the massed Grand Armada. The ships closed to within 5,000,000km of the Human fleet and accelerated for their attack runs. One of the missile ships was to penetrate and attack a carrier, the others to provide cover and do as much damage as possible. The missile ships fired first as they closed to 50,000km. They continued forward, drawing fire away from the penetrator. The torpedo ships fired next, firing torpedo after torpedo into the formation. Human defensive missiles had good effect on the missiles, but the slower, heavier torpedoes somehow managed to continue on until they came into gun range. Disruptors on the lead cruisers and destroyers started to cut them apart.
The penetrator and two other missile corvettes flew just behind the mass of torpedoes. Gunnery continued taking out the slow, fat torpedoes until just the missile ships remained. A close in defensive system took out one of the unarmed missile ships, but two flew on.
They lined up on the Carrier Garibaldi and were preparing to launch, when a frigate pulled into their line of fire and started firing broadsides. As they were about to climb above the frigate and launch on the carrier, a swarm of missiles hit them from above. Their engines destroyed, they drifted in space. The one armed corvette still had battery power to his missiles and its captain was waiting to drift into target alignment, when disruptor fire hit his missile tubes and blew him and his ship into thousands of pieces of debris.
* * * * *
Kelly had been given a free hand to place the Orion anywhere he chose to provide best security to the Angaerry Fleet. Kelly placed the Orion above and beyond the 1st Combined Fleet. He had counted the ships in the K’Rang Fleet and found it was about 100 ships shy of the total K’Rang inventory. He subtracted the ones he and the Angaerry defeated; plus those defeated as planetary defense forces, and still came up with 50 ships missing.
Kelly moved the Orion to where he would come out of FTL if he were unsure of the situation and speeding to the defense of his home planet. Kelly sat for three hours, monitoring the main battle, and then watched as 30 older K’Rang ships dropped out of FTL right in front of him. He fired all his offensive missiles as he called a contact report to Admirals Chang, Haddock-Halloway, and Jotil Lenkva. Two of his missiles made an older K’Rang heavy cruiser erupt in blinding gouts of flame. Admiral Chang ordered the 1st Combined Fleet to clear its ring ship to let through a wing of A-120's from Sirius to take them out. Kelly was to keep nibbling at them to keep them from joining the Grand Armada.
Kelly reloaded and fired another 100 missiles at the K’Rang fleet. Two destroyers were severely damaged and drifted lifeless in space. Several K’Rang offensive missiles came close to the Orion before Orion’s defensive missiles brushed them away
. One K’Rang missile got close before a defensive missile intercepted it. The resulting explosion buffeted the Orion and took some sensors off line. Kelly moved the Orion toward the 1st Combined Fleet and away from the Angaerry. The K’Rang turned in pursuit.
Kelly reloaded his offensive missiles and prepared to fire again, when his sensor section reported A-120's inbound. Kelly waited until the A-120's passed overhead, then made a turn to port and came around to the K’Rang’s right flank.
He lined up on the flank and monitored the A-120 attack. For older ships, they were lucky or quick enough to take out six of the A-120's. The remainder of the A-120's, though, pressed on and destroyed or damaged the entire fleet. Kelly targeted the damaged ships and fired his offensive missiles. In short order, all the damaged ships were either destroyed or damaged beyond being made combat capable. Kelly retired to the vicinity of the Angaerry Fleet, reloaded, and repaired his sensors.
* * * * *
Baron G’Rof surveyed his situation: half his cruisers were destroyed or damaged, with no chance to bring them back without a major yard. All of his drone carriers were destroyed. A fourth of his destroyers were destroyed or not combat capable. Two thirds of his frigates were destroyed. His enemy surrounded him on three sides. It was obvious to him he was not going to be able to destroy the Taurus fleet and be able to take on the Pisces fleet and whatever was this third fleet.