by gerald hall
The lights dimmed for an instant while everyone felt a mild jolt as Phoenix’s spinal mass driver fired a thousand kilogram long rod penetrator with a depleted uranium tip at more than fifteen thousand meters per second towards one of the Syndicate battlers.
The targeted vessel had little time to react to the incoming round. The mass driver round fired a brace of rocket thrusters at the last moment to make final adjustments to its impact point in accordance to its own onboard terminal guidance system. The heavy round then struck the bow of the Class-5 battler and tore through its armor and internal bulkheads like a knife through hot butter. The Syndicate warship suddenly erupted in a series of explosions as white-hot fragments of metal ripped into its ammunition magazine and set off several capital missile warheads.
The burning and shattered hulk of the Syndicate battler began to tumble end over end as it lost thrust and control. The rest of the Syndicate fleet began to take evasive maneuvers to avoid the debris being shed by the still disintegrating battler and any more of the heavy mass driver rounds from Golden Phoenix. The Syndicate’s careful defensive formation had been disrupted by just one round from Alec’s combat tender. But the ranges kept dropping between the two fleets. Other weapons would soon be brought to bear by all of the combatants.
Capital missiles were now being fired at long range by both sides. Rapid-fire point defense weapons picked off most of these heavy guided missiles. But even at these relatively long ranges, a few missiles were already getting through.
“The Kepler ships are starting to take some hits. Our point defense continues to work well so far.”
“Tell the Kepler commanders to close up their formation so that they can take advantage of mutual support from every ship’s point defense. We also need to deploy decoys and engage our ECM equipment to confuse the enemy’s targeting systems. How about the enemy ships?”
“We are scoring hits on the enemy too. We haven’t inflicted any critical hits on them yet with our missiles. We are now getting into energy weapons range however.”
“Tell all of our ships to focus their fire on the lead enemy battler. Let’s see if we can take her out of the fight now.”
Aboard the Belair Syndicate combat tender flagship Gainsborough, Lindsey Buckman was a very unhappy woman.
“Why didn’t we know that those privateers had a damned huge combat tender, not to mention a Lion-class heavy battler?” She angrily asked while sitting in the bridge command chair normally reserved for an admiral.
“We had never seen either ship used in operations by these privateers prior to today, Ma’am?” Captain Robert Ashton, Gainsborough’s commander replied.
“We still do outnumber them and their colonial allies, don’t we?” Lindsey asked.
“Yes, Ma’am. Even with the loss of York, we still have thirty-two battlers of various types and seven combat tenders in addition to our conventional transport jump tenders. That gives us a two to one advantage in major combatants. Our drones have also not been committed yet.”
“Then take advantage of our greater numbers to break the backs of those privateers and the colonials with them. Close the range and kill them. Send the drones ahead to take lead. Obviously, they are much more expendable than our manned ships.”
“Ma’am, if we close with the enemy like that, we will also lose a lot of ships as well as drones.”
“I don’t care if we only have one ship left if we can utterly destroy those ships out there. We can always build more. You heard my orders. Make it so.” She demanded.
“Yes, Ma’am.” Captain Ashton reluctantly replied before giving the requisite orders to the rest of the Syndicate fleet.
“It looks like they are eager for a close battle right away, Joanna.”
“Yes, Sir. It does. But if the heavy weapons and armor arrays that Colin put on this ship are anything like he claims, closing with us is going to be the worst possible thing that those Syndicate crews could possibly do.”
“Well, then, let’s show them the error of their ways.” Alec replied with a predator’s hungry smile. “Jill, go ahead and sing your siren song to those enemy drones while you are at it. We don’t need them interfering with our objective, do we?”
“Of course, Alec.” The combat tender’s cloned AI replied with a silky voice that revealed her eagerness to show off her latest capabilities.
Suddenly, nearly eighty light drones, each armed with a lethal charged-particle weapon that could do tremendous damage to an enemy ship at short range, made a sharp turn away from the defending fleet. After clearing the main battle zone, the drones then cut their drives and coasted away to a vacant area of space.
“What the hell just happened here?” Lindsey demanded after hearing the first reports of the drones changing course.
“I don’t know, Ma’am. Our technicians are working the problem right now. But initial indications are that our command links to the drones have been hacked. As of this point, we have lost all control of our drones.” Admiral Clinton tersely replied after closely consulting with members of his bridge command team.
“Do everything that you can to get them back under control. That’s an order!” Lindsey demanded.
“We are already doing everything that we can, Ma’am.” The Syndicate military commander insisted.
The Syndicate force did not have much time to resolve this problem before Alec and his force presented them with many others.
Golden Phoenix was soon like a whale amongst minnows as she waded into the battle, although those many little minnows all had very sharp teeth. But while the Syndicate ships nibbled away at Phoenix’s armor, the big combat tender was taking big chunks out of their formation in return.
Dozens of missiles fired from Syndicate warships raced towards Phoenix. But the scores of point defense lasers that covered the combat tender’s armored hull blazed pulsed energy bolts by the hundreds to destroy the incoming missiles that had managed to pierce the outer defensive zone’s interceptor missile fire. Aerospace fighters launched from the big combat tender’s fighter support modules, thickened her anti-missile defenses and served to fend off swarm attacks by their Syndicate opposite numbers.
Just ahead of the privateer combat tender, Colin’s heavy battler Orca II drove towards the largest of the Syndicate combat tenders. The heavy battler was firing all of its weapons that it could bring to bear against any enemy target in range.
“Alright, you bastards. Come and get me or I am going to smash your ride home and all of your troops with her.” Colin was heard calling over the Syndicate force’s own command frequency that had been infiltrated by Jill early in the battle.
Six Syndicate battlers turned around and accelerated towards Colin. But even they had no idea just how heavily armed Colin’s battler was. He had taken the opportunity to upgrade the Lion-class heavy battler to make it even more formidable than its original configuration. The battler’s flank capital missile tubes spat death and destruction out at the pursuing Syndicate warships while Colin continued to accelerate towards the enemy combat tender.
“Way to go, Colin!” One of the bridge techs cried out as he saw that nearly a fifth of the enemy’s battlers had been drawn away from the main fight. The Lion-class battler fired every weapon that it had at the pursuing Syndicate battlers in addition to firing at the enemy combat tender that Colin was pursuing. Alec could see multiple flashes of light from missile detonations and kinetic projectile impacts upon Colin’s pursuers. Orca II’s point defense lasers and ECM equipment kept Colin’s battler from taking any missile hits, so far.
“I just hope that he survives this battle relatively intact.” Alec noted as the air on Phoenix’s bridge filled with the sound of multiple reports, both from within the combat tender and from the other warships in the Allied Kepler/MMG fleet.
“One of the Syndicate battlers looks like she is attempting to close from the rear and match velocities to board us. Hidden Blade is engaging her now with missiles, but is continuing to maintain distanc
e per your instructions.” A gunnery tech reported.
“Well, when that enemy battler gets close enough, hit her with DFM’s. Until then, let’s see if you can discourage such foolish behavior with our lasers and missiles first. I don’t want to kill any more people than I have to though.” Alec said.
“These people may not give us much choice in the matter though, Sir.” Joanna reminded him.
“I know. But we still have to try to maintain a certain degree of our humanity even under these circumstances.” Alec replied with a heavy sigh.
“She’s coming in close now.” Phoenix’s chief gunner reported.
“Fire as she bears then.” Alec replied.
A row of armored hull panels quickly slid aside on the starboard side of the privateer combat tender, revealing scores of short-range unguided high-explosive rockets, just as the Syndicate medium battler came abreast of Phoenix. To a student of military history, the scene was almost like from the days of sailing ships preparing to fire their broadside guns against their opponents on the high seas.
“Preparing to fire DFMs. I have control of navigation for final aiming.” Petty Officer Karen Hodges, the gunner in control of starboard flank weapons, reported. She made final adjustments in Phoenix’s course and attitude to ensure the maximum number of DFM clusters would hit their target.
“Firing…NOW!” she called out while almost simultaneously closing the hull panels and releasing navigation control back to Joanna. All of this took less than five seconds from when the panels opened to when the doors began to close behind the now-empty DFM tubes. The doors closed just before the Syndicate battler fired a salvo of missiles back at Phoenix.
More than two hundred unguided 25cm diameter shaped charge projectiles erupted like a giant shotgun towards the Syndicate battler. The resulting barrage of explosions shattered the entire flank of the target, including several hits on her main engine nozzles. The enemy battler was now denuded of armor and streaming atmosphere when the next blow struck. Phoenix’s flank arrays of lasers and charged particle cannons cut even deeper within the enemy warship’s unprotected hull.
A few seconds later, there were a series of internal explosions within the targeted enemy battler. After that, the Syndicate warship could be seen tumbling out of control away from Phoenix with a trail of debris following behind the stricken warship.
“Well, that should discourage any more boarding attempts for a while.” The gunner remarked while searching for a new target.
“How are we doing on that flank with our point defenses, Karen?”
“We still have five more DFM arrays available on the starboard side if necessary, Sir. Our point defense lasers are fully operational as well. We lost a little bit of armor on that flank from return fire. But there were no hull breaches as a result.”
“Very good. Let’s find our next target, please.”
Justin kept busy working with Tess as a team. Tess raced towards one of the Syndicate combat tenders while Justin trailed slightly behind. No one aboard the Syndicate warship realized that the real threat was aboard Justin’s ship rather than the missiles and DFM’s that Tess’s Longbow carried.
Tess salvoed an entire pod of guided missiles at the large enemy warship. While the Syndicate vessel was focused on evading the missiles and trying to hit the swift battler that fired them, Justin drove in hard directly towards the hull of the combat tender. Justin could see multiple points on the enemy warship’s hull where it had already taken damage as his battler closed upon its target. Before anyone of the Syndicate crew was even aware of Justin’s maneuver, they felt a heavy thump echo through their ship.
“Alright, everyone. You know the tune already. It’s time to dance.” Justin told his boarding troops with a smile.
After all of the practice that the privateer Marines had with boarding pirate ships, the ‘breaking and entering’ part had become very routine. Breaching charges were set and discharged to breach the enemy warship’s hull. Immediately after that, Justin’s small crew set up a temporary airlock, while at the same time, the first element of the boarding team entered the enemy ship.
The first element to enter the Syndicate combat tender from Justin’s battler was nearly a score of combat bots. The smaller bots scattered around, looking for concentrations of defenders and then dropping grenades of various types before returning. Larger combat bots armed with lasers, ballistic weapons and rockets followed closely behind. They would be dealing with the first enemy responders in order to allow the Marines to enter unmolested and set up for the next phase. Of course, the troops in their powered armor suits were the second element. Their job was seize the critical parts of the ship and force its crew to surrender.
“The Marines are inside now. We are pushing on to the objectives now.” Sergeant Arromanche confidently reported to Justin.
“Good hunting down there.” Justin replied.
This time, the defenders had a few combat bots of their own assisting them. As a result, the boarders took some losses among their robotic minions. But as the armored Marines pushed through, their firepower combined with that of their bots simply overwhelmed the Syndicate defenders. The Marines captured both the bridge and engineering sections in only a matter of minutes. In both areas, the personnel there quickly surrendered when they realized that they could not penetrate the armored suits of Justin’s Marines.
Once having taken control of those key areas of the enemy warship, the capitulation of the rest of her crew came very quickly.
“Hey, Justin. We have the enemy ship secured now. All we need are a few people to come over and babysit this bunch of prisoners so that we can go someplace else to have some fun. Except for the bots that these clods had, they were easier to beat than the damned pirates that we fought a few months ago.”
“Thank you, Sergeant. Good job.” Justin replied over the short-range radio before turning to give instructions to someone else on the bridge. “Please signal to our colonial friends to send over some of their people to take custody of this vessel so that I can get my troops back onboard and get back into the fight.” Justin told his communications tech who was sitting within arm’s reach in the former Lu’non battler’s tiny bridge.
The successful capture of one of the Syndicate combat tenders was an important victory as it eliminated a large portion of the enemy force’s combat power. It also meant that at least some of the enemy battlers would not have a ride back home, if they survived the battle at all.
While Golden Phoenix and the rest of the colonial ships fought in close company to maximize their defensive fire, Alec’s battler captains fought independently to great effect against the Syndicate fleet.
Colin sat in his battler’s command chair and watched as his modified Lion-class heavy battler closed on another one of the Syndicate combat tenders. Orca II had already killed two of the Syndicate battlers that had been chasing her, one with a DFM salvo, the other warship with a salvo of capital missiles. Now, the privateer heavy battler had an enemy combat tender in the sights of her heavy mass driver.
“Are you ready to take out that enemy ship now, Vanessa?” Colin asked his chief gunner.
“Damned straight, I am.” She enthusiastically replied.
“Then let’s get that ship out of my space now.”
“Taking control of navigation now. Target ship is in the bucket. Firing mass driver now.” Vanessa confidently said.
The lights on the bridge dimmed momentarily from the huge amount of energy needed to fire the spinal mass driver. Everyone watched and waited as the dense, long-rod penetrator from the mass driver sped towards the target that was at least five times as large as Orca II.
Finally, Orca II’s electro-optic and infrared sensors picked up a bright flash from the enemy combat tender as the round hit almost dead center. The mass driver round had ripped through the enemy’s armor and penetrated deeply into her vitals. The mass driver round had no need for an explosive warhead either. White hot metal fragments from the impact
alone set numerous fires along its path of destruction, only to have them put out less than a minute later as the air escaped from all of the breached hull compartments.
The damage inflicted by that single round was catastrophic. Over half the ship had lost atmosphere pressure. Power systems were hopelessly shattered and fires still raged that threatened the ship’s ammunition magazines. The combat tender finally lost all thrust and began to drift aimlessly while escape pods erupted from its hull as her crew attempted to abandon ship.
Colin’s crew cheered. But the cheering was short-lived as the four Syndicate battlers still pursuing his ship attempted to exact a heavy price from Colin and his crew for the loss of the combat tender. The Syndicate warships were still having a difficult time in their attempts, however. The upgraded Lion-class heavy battler’s armor simply shrugged off most of the shots that hit it. Orca II’s own weapons were inflicting heavy damage upon the pursuing lighter warships in return, however.
The leader of the Syndicate force sought to change the dynamics of the battle after seeing the success of the privateers.
“Let’s make things a bit more complicated for our adversaries. Now, I see that the Kepler colony transports are sitting defenseless in the rear. I want one of our Broadswords to leave the main battle and destroy or capture those ships. That will take the fight out of our adversaries. We have more than enough battlers to afford to do this, of course.” Lindsey Buckman said from the bridge of the Syndicate flagship.
“Yes, Ma’am. I will send out the orders.” Her flagship’s commander obediently replied.
“Sir, we have one of the Syndicate battler’s breaking off from the main battle and heading towards the Kepler Colony’s jump tenders and support shuttles. I think that they intend on trying to destroy the colonists’ means of withdrawing.” One of Phoenix’s bridge sensor operators reported.
“Joanna, go ahead and order Hidden Blade, Buccaneer’s Dream and Papillon to move into a blocking position. There, our Q-ships are to wait and ambush that enemy battler.”