“The array is coming into range,” Kesh said. “Focus as much fire as possible at destroying it!”
Although there were still enemies shooting at the fleet, the Francescans shifted their fire forward and started to shoot at the array. Its shields held and didn’t seem to register any noticeable damage. The Francescan shots were scoring but it was a matter of whether they had enough firepower to overwhelm the shields before the enemy ships destroyed the Francescan fleet.
“We’ve gotta take the heat off our ships,” Feln said.
“Roger,” Valisia said.
“Gunship G-799 is with you,” came the reply from the gunship, still flying next to Denxeiter.
“Good to have you along, and thanks for the earlier assist,” Feln said.
The group of three peeled away from the rest of the fleet and closed in on a squad of four alien ships similar in size to heavy cruisers.
“Concentrate fire on the ship in the lead,” Feln said as he fired a shot from his gun. G-799 and Valisia opened fire as well. The ship’s shields held longer than those on the possessed Francescan light cruisers, but were still weaker overall than a Francescan heavy cruiser.
The shield eventually burst and Feln said, “I’ll finish it off. You two work on another.”
“Roger,” they both replied and streaked away.
The ship’s shields were down, but it was still able to fire. Feln streaked around and dodged the shots. One came very close and singed the cloak where Denxeiter’s left arm used to be.
Through all of the jarring maneuvers, Aaltskog managed to say, “Heh, kinda lucky there wasn’t an arm there, or it would have been destroyed.”
“Hmph,” was all Feln could get out while pulling hard on Denxeiter’s control sticks to dodge another shot. He unsheathed Ganxeiter’s rapier and landed on the side of the alien ship. He jammed the sword in and started to fly along the surface, cutting the ship open as he went. The ship hemorrhaged flame out of the deep cut as Feln reached the end of the hull. He fired a shot from his gun into one of the engine nacelles.
The ship started to heel over out of control on a course with the cruiser Valisia and G-799 were attacking. Dammit! “Watch out!” Feln called and his two comrades cleared out just as the ship Feln had fought smashed into its partner. It was already on fire from Feln’s damage and exploded when it hit the other ship. The explosion soon engulfed that ship, and it too exploded.
The final enemy had now shifted all its fire toward Feln and his allies, but a group of beams lanced through it from below and the ship exploded. Feln looked down and realized they were over the colony. The engineers in the fleet had managed to arm the colony with some salvaged weapons from destroyed ships lost in previous battle, much like they had cobbled together a gun for Denxeiter. However, the colony wasn’t supposed to use any of those guns unless absolutely necessary as it had been the aliens’ operating procedure to only attack military craft that posed an immediate threat.
“Governor,” Feln called to the colony, “Thanks for the help, but why did you fire? Now the aliens will see you as a threat too.”
“I know, Captain,” Zalk replied, “But I was told in no uncertain terms by the crew and colonists that if we didn't do our part to help save the fleet, we weren’t worth saving in the first place. I tend to agree, so there you have it.”
Feln watched in horror as the aliens started to shift some of their fire to the colony. The colony had some shields, but were mostly just higher powered deflectors to protect the hull from wayward asteroids and similar objects. The alien beams started to register real damage on its body. However, Zalk’s plan had worked. The enemy was in disarray trying to deal with this new threat and had actually positioned themselves with their backs to the colony. Any who didn’t turn to face the colony fast enough were destroyed instantly.
The colony’s home guard launched and the small fighter planes zoomed out to attack the alien ships. Feln, Valisia, and the G-799 all joined in the attack and Feln was happy to see a lot of enemies explode under the concentrated fire from the colony, the home guard, and Feln’s team. The colony was on fire in various places, but seemed to be holding up well overall.
Feln saw a bright flash out of the corner of his eye and realized that one of the Francescan heavy cruisers had exploded. Right after that, he saw another Francescan ship catch fire. The Artemis!
“You two stay here and help the colony,” Feln ordered.
“Where are you going?” asked Valisia.
“I’ve gotta help a friend in danger,” Feln said.
“Roger that.”
Feln flew over to the Artemis and joined his fire to the small ship’s own beam weapons.
“How bad is your damage?” Feln asked, just as Kesh also came on screen to ask the same question.
“We’re going down,” Achren said. She didn’t betray a hint of fear. “All hands are staying to make sure we make our last shot count. What is our final target, Admiral?”
Kesh paused for only a moment before saying, “The array. Please fire everything you have at it. And thank you.” He saluted before his screen went off. Kesh knew Feln and Achren had developed a friendship and had apparently decided to give them a few last moments.
“I’m sorry I’ll never meet you both in person,” Achren said. “Get married and be happy forever, okay?” The Artemis’s missile doors were opening.
“We’ll never forget you,” Aaltskog said.
Feln stiffened before finally saying, “It was an honor fighting beside you and your heroic crew, Commander Achren.”
Achren smiled, “The honor was mine. Farewell.” She saluted and yelled, “Fire all missiles at the array!”
The Artemis was awash in bright light as its missiles streamed out and raced toward the array. Just after the final missile was away, two more beams pierced the Artemis and the ship exploded. Feln looked for any escape pods, but there were none. The crew had stayed until the bitter end to make sure all the missiles were launched.
“Dammit,” was all Feln could say. He turned his eyes to watch the missiles as they streamed toward the array. They crashed into the shields and the entire area was lit up as if the array had been transformed into a sun. When the light finally died down, the array was still there, but its shields had been severely weakened.
Feln suddenly realized something. “Where are the bugs? And the possessed Aldens?”
“Maybe we killed ‘em all between the ones you were fighting and what the fleet battled at the base,” Aaltskog offered.
“Yeah, maybe. But I don’t know…the Aldens, okay, I can see that. But I can’t believe there aren’t any more insects.”
A message came from Kesh sent on fleet wide channels. “Attention fleet, we have estimated that at the current rate of degradation, the array’s shields will outlast our fleet unless something is done. The Tannhauser will therefore fire its Wave Blaster in one minute on my mark. Any ships within the damage range of this weapon is to move out now. Beginning countdown…now.”
As Kesh’s transmission ended, Aaltskog said, “Uh oh, that’s not good. That’s not how the plan was supposed to go.”
The Tannhauser’s most powerful weapon now happened to be the entire fleet’s most powerful weapon thanks to its diminished number of ships. Since arriving in this system, the Tannhauser hadn’t fired the weapon once. Kesh didn't use it in the attack on the base for fear that it might damage the base itself and valuable intelligence could be lost. Since the point of the current mission was to destroy everything including the array, there was nothing restricting its use.
But the original plan was to save the gun for after the array went down, and then to use against the inevitable alien support fleet that would arrive before the Francescan rescue fleet. If the Wave Blaster was used now, the Francescans would be at even more of a disadvantage against a newly arrived enemy fleet.
“The admiral must have decided it was still better to knock out the array and hope for the best, than to save the Wav
e Blaster for a fleet that won’t even appear if the array stays functioning,” Feln said.
He had barely finished speaking when Governor Zalk suddenly appeared on the screen in another fleet wide broadcast. “Don’t fire the Wave Blaster! You’ll need it. I’ll take care of the shield.” As the governor spoke, the colony started to lurch forward.
“Governor, stand down,” Kesh said. “The colony cannot be sacrificed.”
“All due respect, Admiral, but I’m in charge of this colony. You just take care of my colonists and save the fleet.” Small ships started to leave the hangars of the colony and take shelter near other ships in the fleet. The enemy had stopped firing at the Francescan ships and were now concentrating their fire on the colony. It gained speed as it moved toward the array and into the line of fire of the Tannhauser’s Wave Blaster.
“Governor, you’ve got time to get out of there,” Feln said. “Just set the colony’s guns to auto target any enemies and put the colony on autopilot for collision.”
Zalk laughed softly, “Autopilot. I’m not about to trust automation for something so important. This thing might not be a corvette, but I’ll make damn sure it gets to where it needs to go.”
Kesh sighed and saluted smartly, “Governor Zalk, it is my eternal shame that I never got to know you better. I was always a great admirer of yours and you are the reason I was so happy to be given this posting in the fleet.”
Zalk returned Kesh’s salute in such a crisp manner that Feln could immediately see Zalk in his prime. “Thank you, Admiral. I was quite happy to hear you were commanding the fleet. Your service in the Cucla War was exemplary.” An explosion rocked the interior of the colony.
“All ships fire on the enemy and clear the way for the colony!” Kesh ordered. The Francescan ships had already been doing so, but Kesh’s order had made his approval of Zalk’s plan official.
Zalk smiled. “I was never meant to spend my final years in retirement. Going out with a bang saving thousands…now that’s more my style.” After a moment to adjust the colony’s course, Zalk said, “Captain Koenig, marry that little faerie princess of yours or I’ll haunt you from beyond the grave.”
“No worries, sir,” Feln said earnestly. “I’ve got it covered.” He could hear Aaltskog sobbing behind him. Along with Valisia and G-799, he’d been blasting away furiously at enemy ships, trying to protect the colony. They were scoring kills, but there were just too many enemies.
“Thanks for taking care of me when Feln was covering the colony,” Aaltskog said. “I’ll never forget you.”
“Die a glorious death and be remembered by a beautiful girl. That’s all I can ask for,” Zalk said. Despite all of the cover fire from the Francescans, the colony was becoming more and more engulfed in flame. As the colony neared its target, a swarm of insects started to pour out of the array.
“Ah, there you bastards are,” Zalk said. “We were all wondering when you’d join in. Well, you’re too late.” As the insects added their fire to that of the enemy ships, there was nothing visible of the colony anymore. It was just a giant ball of flame heading inexorably toward the array. Zalk’s image disappeared from the screen, but through the audio channel, his voice rang out in a way that would make Feln shiver whenever he remembered it. “God bless the Francescan Star Empire! May it always be His sword of justice!”
The colony slammed into the array, with an apocalyptic crash of metal and land. It was as if a small country had been smashed into the array and materials of all types flew out in a wide arc just before the colony exploded, followed soon after by the array. The explosion of these two behemoths engulfed nearly all of the enemies that were still close by and were trying to escape.
The shockwave that followed the explosion made even the largest ships in the Francescan fleet start to drift out of control. Two of the heavy cruisers collided and were severely damaged. Smaller ships and robots, Denxeiter included, went tumbling out of control. A corvette smashed into one of the support ships and both exploded. Through his crazily spinning view screen, Feln could see that Denxeiter was going to crash into another support ship.
“Darling…” he said through clenched teeth as he fought to regain control.
“I’m…working…on it,” Aaltskog said.
Moments later, Feln was able to reign in Denxeiter against the force of the rest of the shockwave. He pulled away from his collision course with the ship just as he saw Valisia’s Alden go tumbling by. He spun around and shot after her, grabbing the Alden’s hand.
“Hang on,” Feln called.
“Y-yeah…” was all Valisia could say through the severe vibration. Feln held steady and waited for the storm around them to end.
Chapter Five
After the shockwave passed, the ships in the fleet began the arduous process of reassembling into formation. Miraculously, there hadn’t been any more collisions than the two Feln saw. Some ships had been knocked clear away from the rest of the fleet and were rejoining the force.
Feln noticed that the gas in the system wasn’t as thick as before. A lot of it had been blown away by the force of the explosion, but even so, for the first time, Feln was able to see the sun at the center of the system instead of just an area of brightness in the gas. With the array no longer there to produce the stuff, the system was slowly beginning to clear. Then he started to hear the distress calls from the fleet going out. He noticed Aaltskog had activated Denxeiter’s own distress beacon as well.
“Is it working?” he asked. “Is anybody receiving this?”
After a few moments, Aaltskog said, “Yeah, the signal’s getting out slowly. It looks like it’s going to take some time for the array’s effects to go away completely, but the signal is starting to break through.”
Some green beams lanced across Feln’s view, the brightest he’d seen them since arriving in this system thanks to the diminished gas cloud. The few enemy ships left had drawn themselves into formation and resumed shooting. Although the enemy fleet was much smaller than when the battle began, they still numbered about twenty ships to the Francescans’ remaining seven warships that were still battle ready. The two cruisers that had collided in the shockwave were still trying to extricate themselves from one another and were out of action. Valisia’s Alden seemed to be the only carrier craft left and there were three planes left from the colony’s home guard.
“Attention fleet, keep firing and sending out your distress calls,” Kesh said. “We’re almost through this.”
Feln looked around to see G-799 had survived and was nearby, firing at any smaller enemy ships that got near. “G-799, are you still up for some fast hits?” Feln asked.
“Roger,” came the answer.
“Valisia?”
“I’m running really low on ammo, but I’m good for now,” she answered wearily.
“Good then follow—“
“Attention Planetary Colonizing Fleet #198. This is Imperial Naval Command. We have received your distress call and attached information packet on the enemy,” a voice broke in.
Feln had already started heading toward the enemy fleet when the message came. “Oh thank God,” he breathed.
“We have a fleet readying to jump to your location, but we’re still having trouble locking in the exact coordinates due to residual interference,” the voice from Command continued.
“This is Admiral Wrettid Kesh, of Heavy Assault Carrier two-five, the Tannhauser. It’s good to hear your voice, Command. Can you give us an ETA of your arrival time?” Kesh asked.
“We estimate 1.3 hours,” Command responded.
Feln had just finished slicing apart an enemy destroyer with Ganxeiter’s rapier, while G-799 and Valisia destroyed two other nearby enemy ships. He aimed his gun at an approaching light cruiser and opened fire, his two cohorts joining in to destroy the ship.
“1.3 hours…this is gonna be close,” Feln said.
Just then, the space near the fleet began to shimmer.
“Aaand here comes the enemy
backup fleet,” Feln said. “Now it’s gonna be even more fun.”
Since the aliens already knew where the system was, it was easier for them to jump there now that the array was no longer jamming their systems. Out of the shimmer of the space jump emerged a fleet of fifty ships, all of them larger than anything the Francescans had left.
And with a flash, over half of those ships were instantly incinerated.
The Tannhauser had fired the Wave Blaster. Kesh must have felt it was safe enough to do so without warning the fleet and it was better to hit the enemy while they were still getting their bearings.
“Attention Command, new enemies have just arrived,” Kesh said. “We have used the Tannhauser’s Wave Blaster to kill about half of them, but we’re still dealing with twenty ships comparable in size to our medium battleships while the Wave Blaster recharges.”
“Roger, Tannhauser, please stand by,” came the response.
“Princess, it’s been a great life with you and I’m sorry I was such an idiot for so long,” Feln said.
Aaltskog reached forward and put her hand on his shoulder. “Don’t worry about it. I’m here with you now and we’ll Leave together. Thats all that counts. So let’s go.”
“You got it.”
The enemy battleships started firing on the Francescans. The two Francescan cruisers that had collided earlier were destroyed instantly.
“Valisia, 799, you guys stay behind and work on those smaller ships. Don’t try anything crazy.”
“What are you going to do?” Valisia asked.
“I’m gonna sink at least one of those big bastards.”
“Yeah, ‘don’t try anything crazy’,” Valisia said.
“Don’t follow me. Believe it or not, I don’t intend to die.” Feln wasn’t sure if he was just lying to Valisia, or himself. Or maybe both.
“Okay, well, if I don’t see you again, look me up in the next life, okay?”
“Sounds good.”
Francescan War Chronicles 1: Space Knight Denxeiter Page 30