There was a collective hiss of disbelief on the Defiant’s bridge as one of the Luex-class boomers opened up with a full broadside from her particle cannons. The shields on the ConFed battleship flared brightly against the onslaught. While the cannons pounded on the 405th battleship’s shields, it couldn’t return fire to try and disengage from the Imperial ship. Her captain seemed to realize this as well, and the ship moved off, trying to put distance on her tormenter, only to run headlong into two Imperial destroyers, which had been coming around in a pincer maneuver that had been camouflaged by the four cruisers that appeared to be moving out of the battleship’s path. Now, the cruisers went to block three ConFed ships coming down to bail out their battleship. While the destroyers went to work, their plasma cannons slammed shot after shot into shields already overtaxed from the particle beam attacks.
“That’s it,” Essel said calmly. “The shields are down…she’s done.”
As her captain predicted, Kellea watched as the destroyers let loose a full salvo of ship-to-ship missiles now that the shields were gone. A few were picked up by the battleship’s point defense guns, but at such a close range, most of them found their target. The hull rippled and undulated as the missiles tore into her, secondary explosions bursting from weak points before the powerplant containment fields failed and the ship disappeared in a brilliant flash of light and gamma radiation release.
The Imperial ships redeployed to try and take down the other 405th battleship, while a dozen smaller skirmishes between the destroyers and cruisers lit the tactical display up. The Eshquarians had lost nine ships already, but all their more powerful classes had managed to escape without much damage in the opening exchanges, while the ConFed was already down a dreadnaught, a battleship, and six destroyers. The fight was still anyone’s to win, but the momentum seemed to belong to the Imperial Navy.
Kellea realized what she was seeing and hated the fact she'd been right in her prediction. Beyond two fleets of ships, beyond two groups that had hated each other for millennia, she realized she was watching the opening battle in what would be a long and bloody civil war for control of the quadrant. Despite Crisstof’s attempts to train her, she’d never been much of a political strategist or a schemer, preferring instead the honesty of commanding a warship. Since her ascendency to admiral, however, she’d become much more aware of how shortsighted her disinterest had been. If she could see that this was heading for war, then others must have already come to that conclusion long ago.
“Captain Essel, please have the rest of the taskforce join us.” Her voice was calm, but her heart was hammering and her mouth was suddenly dry. “Instruct them to form up on the Defiant, standard spread.”
“Admiral?” Scleesz asked hesitantly.
“A precaution, Councilman,” she assured him. “We must be prepared to defend ourselves depending on who wins this engagement.”
“Of course,” he said, his voice betraying the fact he didn’t believe her at all.
BOOM
“Jason we can’t keep taking hits like this,” Kage warned. “Either end this or get us out of here.”
The Phoenix thundered over the sparsely populated southern hemisphere as the remaining fighters continued to harass her. The ConFed pilots were highly skilled and learned quickly, discovering right away that their main cannons had just a bit more effective range than the gunships aft guns. Now they were rotating positions, letting two drop back to cool their shield emitters while a fresh pair would come forward, absorb the depleted shots from the DL7 while hammering at her aft end with their more powerful cannons.
It was like being chased by a pack of small, stinging gnats, but it was taking its toll. The shield emitters and the generators were being taxed beyond their limits and heat buildup within the ship was becoming a problem. They'd already had to dial back the available power on the main drive as the cooling loops struggled to shed off all the thermal energy the ship was producing so deep within an atmosphere. The result was that, not only did Jason have trouble reaching out and hitting the ships behind him, but he'd also lost his speed advantage. If he didn't think of something soon, it would be 'death from a thousand cuts' and, eventually, all four fighters would swarm and finish them off.
The pursuit from craft that Jason had assumed his ship could crush without breaking a sweat and just showed some glaring holes in their strategy when they'd rebuilt her. Unfortunately, that realization did nothing to help him now.
Boom—BOOM!
"Engine three is losing containment!" Kage called. "Plasma pressures are climbing!" Jason took a cursory look at his engine management panel to know that number three was lost, and just shutting it down wouldn't help.
"Twingo! Jettison Engine Three!"
Even amid the rocking and rolling of the ship straining in the turbulent atmosphere, Jason could feel the explosive charges thumping through his seat as the panels were blown free from the starboard nacelle and two more hard bumps as the cutting charges blew engine three clear of the ship, sending it tumbling into to the slipstream.
To make sure he wasn't dragging the engine behind him, Jason rolled to the left into knife-edge flight and yanked the stick back into his lap. The Phoenix groaned under the g-loading as she veered to port hard, vapor pouring off the upper hull as the she compressed the air. He glanced at the aft view on the center instrument stack long enough to see his jettisoned main engine impact the ground and explode with enough force to send trees, rocks, and earth billowing into the sky. The fighters behind him lost a little ground dodging the debris, but not enough to help him now that he'd just lost a quarter of his engine power.
"They're all closing in now." Kage's voice was oddly subdued. "They know we're about done."
"She's not fucking done yet," Jason snarled. "Cas! Standby, I'm going to put them in range for the forward turrets."
"Standing by, but you'd better hurry," Cas said, its voice coming from the intercom speakers on the bridge.
Jason throttled back just a touch more to let the fighters continue to close, but not telegraph his next move so clumsily that they realized what he was up to. He'd done this once before with the Phoenix, and she never liked it. The last time she'd puked out the entire starboard grav-drive emitter array and left him stranded. The new drive Twingo had installed was much more robust, but it wasn't indestructible.
"Here goes nothing," he said once the fighters had closed and the flankers had moved out to come in at him from both sides. "Tighten your straps, everyone!"
"Oh, shit," Kage muttered and grabbed the crash handles at his station with all four hands.
With a quick break, Jason pulled the main engines to idle, threw the grav-drive to full-reverse bias, and cranked the power to maximum. The results were instantaneous as the full power of the drive reversed directions. He was thrown against his restraints so hard his vision swam, and he had trouble keeping the ship oriented while it decelerated to almost noting in an instant. Through the haze there were muted pops from within the ship and something that sounded like a medium sized explosion, but he still kept the power up.
Cas, immune to the effects of his dangerous and desperate maneuver, was ready when the fighters zipped by. The pilots were good and immediately understood the danger they were in, each electing to go into radical, evasive maneuvers as they overflew the near-stopped gunship at close range. Cas was easily able to target each fighter individually and opened up with the two upper turrets and the chin turret as the big gunship floundered in the air from the grav-drive losing power.
Two fighters were destroyed, a third hit hard enough that it was forced to make an emergency landing in the forest. The fourth had only taken superficial damage, but the pilot apparently didn't like one-on-one odds with the heavily armored gunship and streaked away from the engagement, popping up and climbing for orbit well out of weapons range.
"You blew out the drive…again," Twingo said over the intercom. "Repulsors have kicked into take up the slack, Engines One, Two, and Fou
r are still in the green."
"I really wish you'd find some other way to bail your ass out of these situations than destroying the ship with that little stunt," Kage said, rubbing his shoulders.
"Yeah…me too," Jason said, leaning back for a second and letting out a long, shuddering sigh. That had been too close for comfort. The Phoenix was badly damaged, and it was only his desperate maneuver that saved their lives. He had honestly thought the ConFed fighters were just going to be pushovers that would do what he'd always seen them do: fly simple attack patterns that were ineffective against his shields and let themselves be torn to shreds by his guns. The ships he just faced, however, made him realize that not all ConFed fleet units were as inept as those he'd faced in the past. He just got a free pass out of a situation he had no right to walk away from. He'd best learn his lessons from this engagement before it happened again.
Shake it off, Jason. Cas's voice was back in his head. You got a little sloppy from being too easily victorious too many times. This is just a bloody nose. The Phoenix can be repaired and you can adjust your tactics from what you learned here…assuming it's possible that you can learn from you mistakes. I'm actually still on the fence about that.
"Let's get back upstairs and see what's happening before Miressa's security forces show up and finish us off," Jason said. "Kage, get me an orbital vector using three main engines and repulsors. Twingo! Are we slip-space capable?"
"Negative."
"Fantastic," Jason griped. "Doc, try to make contact with the Sarafin once we're up there."
With her three remaining engines roaring at full power, the Phoenix lumbered into the sky along a shallow vector that would put her in orbit so they could break away and escape. Jason just hoped they escaped notice from the rest of the ConFed fleet once they got up there.
25
"The Imperial ships seemed to have lost the initiative, Admiral," Captain Essel said. "Taskforce Starfire is now in formation and fully accounted for, and I have to ask…what are your intentions here?" Kellea didn't answer at first. She knew what she wanted to do, but she also realized she was a commander put in place by her government, not a dictator and not the owner of the ships within her taskforce.
"Please put me on an open channel to all bridges within the taskforce," Kellea said, holding up a hand to put off Essel's next protest.
"Channel open, Admiral."
"This is Admiral Colleran. I will make this necessarily brief," she began, scrambling to organize her thoughts. "I have been made aware of a situation that threatens us all, every living being in this quadrant. I also have strong evidence that indicates our own government within the Cooperative has not been honest with us about its intentions.
"The Eshquarians below doing battle with the ConFed fleet are fighting for their lives right now. We could turn the tide of this battle, but I can't order you to do so. If we engage, we will be going rogue. We will not be able to return to Cridal space without facing prosecution nor will the ConFed simply let us leave without wanting some sort of retribution afterwards. I wish I could fully explain it all to you, but there's no time. Any ship commander that wishes to not get involved, you are hereby authorized to break formation and return to Cridal space at once. I will give you a few moments, and then whoever is left must act."
"Admiral, what about all the crewmembers that might not agree with this course of action?" Essel asked once the channel had been closed.
"They will be returned to Cridal space once we leave this system," Kellea said. "As they are not command personnel, they will face no consequences from our government. For now, however, they will perform their jobs as ordered, as is their duty." She could tell that Essel didn't like her answer, but he kept his mouth shut in front of the crew.
"Two ships breaking formation, Admiral," her sensor operator called. Kellea looked at the display and saw she was losing a support frigate and a fast-attack corvette. All of her Fend-class destroyers and her human Victory-class cruisers had all closed ranks, however, and had signaled they were awaiting further orders. In the relatively short time that Taskforce Starfire had existed in its current iteration, she had apparently earned her commanders' loyalty to the point that they chose to follow her, willing to risk the ire of the Cridal government. Her human commanders especially had a lot to lose…the Victory-class ships were on remote detachment to her taskforce and were not owned by the Cooperative at all. They risked much, so she decided to hold them back unless absolutely necessary.
"Very well," she said, striding forward. "Taskforce Starfire, attack pattern Fireball-Six. Begin working around their edges and allow the Imperial Navy units to disengage."
At her order, the Fend-class destroyers surged out of formation and right into the heart of the conflict, opening fire on a stunned group of 405th ships that had been just about ready to try and take down one of the Luex-class battleships. Instead, they had to come about and face a pack of hungry destroyers ripping into its flank. Seeing an opportunity, the Luex turned and moved away from the engagement as Kellea hoped it would.
"Are we still not able to talk to the Eshquarian ships?" she asked.
"Just over open broadcast channels," the com operator said. "All of our known frequencies and protocols for Imperial Navy ships aren't working."
"Keep trying. Captain Essel, please move the Defiant into position to protect our destroyers."
"Yes, Admiral," Essel said. He was clearly unhappy with her actions, but he still did his job.
"Admiral, Captain Edgars of the Eagle's Talon is asking permission for his force and take down the last battleship before it's able to reach the damaged Luex."
"Permission granted," Kellea sighed. Her human captains were aggressive and eager. It was too much to hope that they'd be willing to sit out the conflict. They were still flying the Cridal flag, so their actions wouldn't necessarily reflect back on Earth, but once everyone saw what the Victory-class ships were really capable of, there would be some effort to figure out where they came from. So far, humans were a little-known oddity in the quadrant. Edgars was about to demonstrate that what they actually were was a young, determined species with a high aptitude for making and using weapons of war.
"Terran cruisers breaking formation now, Admiral."
The human ships raced away from her lines, falling upon the ConFed boomer like a pack of starving wolves. At first the battleship seemed content to keep pursuing the Luex and letting its defensive systems hold off the cruisers, but when the first shots from the Victory-class's main cannons started slamming into the shields, all bets were off. The humans didn't even bother with missiles, deciding instead to just make lateral attack runs at the ship's dorsal and ventral surfaces where intelligence indicated the shielding was weakest.
Kellea watched in awe as the cruisers wheeled about and hammered into the beleaguered battleship again and again, shrugging off hits and delivering crushing blows with each pass. The ConFed ship's captain seemed to understand that he was in real danger and broke off his pursuit of the Imperial ship completely, instead fleeing for the outer system and abandoning the rest of the 405th as the combined strength of the Eshquarian and Cridal fleets turned the tide of the battle.
"Admiral, we're getting a message from a ship in orbit over Miressa. It's the same DL7 we were tracking earlier. They're giving us the com protocols the Imperial ships are currently using."
"Update our protocols and get me in contact with the Imperial commander, now!"
It was a few more minutes before Captain Mavog responded to the channel request.
"Cridal fleet, we thank you for your assistance," he said.
"We're not exactly Cridal right now, Captain," Kellea explained. "My actions weren't sanctioned by my government. It looks like your forces are able to disengage and escape. Might I suggest we continue this conversation in a more neutral setting?"
"We are transmitting coordinates for a safe rally point we will be falling back to, Admiral," Mavog said. "You are welcome to join us the
re so that we may regroup and discuss what we do next."
"I accept your offer, Captain," she said. "We will continue to cover your withdraw, but it looks like the 405th is just as eager to end this as we are."
"Indeed," Mavog said. "I again offer my thanks, Admiral. I had intended to go out in a blaze of righteous vengeance, but I would much rather spare the lives of my crews."
"Channel closed," the com operator said. "We also received another message from the DL7 saying they wouldn't mind a pickup and that their slip-drive is currently inoperable."
"The ship is currently in a high transfer orbit over Miressa Prime," the sensor operator spoke up. "It's flying on plasma thrust engines only, not grav-drive signature detected at all." Kellea bit back the sarcastic, caustic comment about the ship's captain that came to mind. She was almost temped to just leave him here. Almost. Whatever Jason Burke might be, he didn't deserve to be left for dead or worse when the ConFed finally ran him down. She would actually feel guilty about Twingo's fate as well. Kage and Crusher…not so much.
"I don't want that vessel or its crew aboard the Defiant. Please have one of Captain Edgars’ ships recover them on their way out of the system," she said. "Captain Essel, issue the general withdraw order and tell all ships to make their way to the rally point Captain Mavog provided. Once we've regrouped, we'll discuss how we're getting people back to Cridal space who had no part in this decision."
"At once, Admiral," Essel said, clearly relieved to be leaving a situation he never wanted to be in.
Kellea ignored the bustle about her and watched on the main tactical hologram as the fleets untangled themselves and flew away from each other at best possible speed. The dreadnaught still hung over Taus, dead in space but with power for life support. There was the temptation to take it out while it sat there, defenseless, but that crossed the line from combat to murder. She may have crossed a line today and would be disavowed by her government, but she wasn't quite yet ready to be declared a war criminal.
Omega Force: Rebellion (OF11) Page 23