A King's Ship (Empire Rising Book 2) (13 page)

Harris wasn’t looking at James, he had his head buried in his own datapad and was nodding as James spoke. “Ah, I see,” he said. “I think it might work. We only have a few minutes until contact; I need to pass this on immediately. I hope to see you on the other side Captain,” he said as he looked up at James before cutting the transmission.

“Me too,” James said to an empty screen.

Looking back at the main holo display he requested a status update from the bridge.

“Thirty seconds until our next missile salvo reaches their outer point defenses,” Ferguson informed him. “The Haven frigates are keeping station with us. So far we’ve taken out four of their cruisers and five frigates.”

James looked at the state of
Endeavour’s
missile tubes; they would be ready to fire again in two minutes. By then the aliens would almost be able to engage Harris’ fleet defending the colony. They were decelerating and it looked like they planned to enter a high orbit over Haven and sit there until they blasted Harris out of their way.
Endeavour,
on the other hand, was still tearing towards the planet at full speed and her momentum would soon take her away from the battle. That had been the plan all along. It was her speed that had allowed her to swoop into plasma range of the enemy fleet. Now though, it was a hindrance.

“Navigation, I’m sending you an updated course,” James said as he input some flight information into his command chair.

“Received Sir,” the navigation officer acknowledged, “I think it will work but it might get a little hot in here. We’ll be pushing
Endeavour
right to her limits.”

“I know,” James said, “but we can’t leave anything on the table. It’s all or nothing now.”

“COM send a message to the frigates following us,” James ordered next.  “Tell them thanks for the escort but they won’t be able to follow us on our next move. They can engage as they see fit.”

“And Julius,” James added, “if you can, fire off our last broadside before we go behind the planet. Aim everything at one of their frigates.”

*

Admiral Harris sat in his own command chair on board his flagship
Solitude
. He had been mightily impressed by the display of the British warship. He knew now that his fleet wouldn’t have stood a chance if the British fleet had discovered Haven and come claiming the system for themselves. That was all but irrelevant now however. Even if his ships survived the coming battle they would not be in any state to stop anyone from doing what they wanted with Haven.

That assumed there would be anything of Haven left. The British ship had done all it could. Now it was up to his ships. His smaller fleet of frigates and
Endeavour
had been using their speed to harass the aliens without having to worry about return fire. Now they were traveling too fast to break and enter orbit. They would get one more salvo at the alien fleet before they had to break off. 

“The alien ships will enter missile range in thirty seconds,” one of the bridge officers called out.

“Signal the fleet to fire with the flagship,” Harris ordered.

When the alien ships crossed the red line displayed on the bridge’s main holo display,
Solitude
and the rest of his ships and the two battlestations opened fire. Ninety three missiles shot towards the forty remaining alien ships.

It took the missiles five minutes to accelerate out of Haven’s orbit and reach the point defense envelope of the approaching alien ships. Before they got there the aliens had opened fire themselves and over one hundred and fifty missiles were homing in on Harris’ fleet.

Hundreds of AM missiles shot from the alien ships to try and knock out the Haven missiles intent on destroying them. Initially they had some success taking out twenty, but by then the Haven missiles had been able to analyze the radar being beamed out by the alien ships, altered their own ECM emitters and bombarded the AM missiles with the exact wavelength of electromagnetic radiation their seeker heads were following. The AM missiles had been using the radar signals from their parent ships along with their own limited radar as it bounced off the approaching missiles to track them. Suddenly they began to get numerous false readings and many of the AM missiles lost lock on their targets all-together. Only twenty five managed to take out incoming missiles, leaving forty eight ship killers to explode among the startled alien ships.

Harris pumped his fists as the holo display projected multiple explosions among the alien fleet. “How many did we get?” he called out.

“Six of the alien ships are dropping out of formation, our sensors have lost track of another three. I think they have been destroyed outright. Other ships are showing signs of damage but they are holding formation,” one of the sensor officers reported.

“Good, get ready to hit them again. Only equip half our missiles to try the same trick this time. If they catch on to what we did it’ll not work a second time so I want to hedge our bets,” Harris ordered.

“Enemy missiles being engaged by point defenses,” someone on the bridge called out.

Without plasma weapon technology Harris’ fleet depended solely on AM missiles to fend off incoming ship killer missiles. His technicians were still dumbfounded over how the aliens managed to effectively project laser beams over such long distances but at least their previous skirmishes with the aliens had shown their ECM technology was primitive compared to Haven tech.

The alien’s hundred and fifty missiles were reduced to ninety, then forty, then twelve which made it through to their targets. Nevertheless, they still caused colossal damage as they exploded among the Haven ships.

“We’ve lost the frigates
Hawk
and
Sealion
,” the sensor officer called after the explosions stopped, “the destroyer Lightening has also taken a direct hit. She’s reporting only one of her missile tubes is functioning.”

“What about the battlestations?” one of the Lieutenants asked.

“Both have taken direct hits but are still fully functional.”

“Return fire,” Harris snapped.

At his request eighty five missiles rocketed out of their tubes towards their targets. On their way they passed another one hundred and thirty alien missiles heading the opposite direction.

It’s about to get real hairy!
Harris thought.

A second series of explosions ripped through his fleet and Harris was thrown about in his seat as
Solitude
took a proximity hit. “Damage report,” he called out.

“Two missile tubes are down, sections three, four and five are open to space and venting atmosphere,” someone shouted.

“Damn,” Harris swore. “And the rest of the fleet?” he asked.

“I’m not sure,” his first officer called. “Our sensors aren’t functioning properly, I’m getting unconfirmed reports that one of the battlestations is down and a number of ships aren’t reporting in.”

“The aliens have launched a third salvo,” someone else called out. “It will enter point defense range in sixty seconds.”

Before Harris could swear again the sensor officer interrupted him. “Sir,” he called in excitement. “There’s a ship rounding the planet, it’s lighting up the infra-red sensors like a miniature sun!”

*

James had gripped his command chair with white fists as he was forced to watch the battle unfold between the two fleets. The images had been relayed to
Endeavour
from one of Haven’s ground bases. After firing their final salvo he had gunned
Endeavour’s
engines up to one hundred and ten percent of their normal operating limit and plunged his ship into the planet’s atmosphere. The combination of the breaking from the engines, the friction from the upper atmosphere and the planet’s gravity had allowed him to swing around the planet and come up behind Harris’s ships.

The maneuver had burned off a couple of millimeters of the valstronium armor and the internal heat sinks were threatening to overload and boil his crew alive in their own ship. The bean counters back at the admiralty would be mad, valstronium was the most expensive commodity known to mankind and the heat sinks would no doubt need replacing. Yet it had been worth it. The maneuver meant he was coming up from under what was left of Harris’ fleet just as the third salvo from the alien ships was coming into attack range.

As the battle came into view of
Endeavour’s
sensors it was clear the Havenites were losing. One of the battlestations was an expanding ball of debris and Harris only had his flagship, one light cruiser and two destroyers left. The aliens had taken some serious losses too; it looked like they had less than thirty ships left, but they had fired a third salvo that was sure to end Harris’ fleet.

“Fire all point defenses,” James ordered.

Even before he finished speaking the flak cannons had flung their shells into space. The one hundred missiles in the alien’s third salvo were all aimed at the two remaining destroyers and the battlestation and were closely packed together. The flak cannons devastated their numbers and only fifty made it through the wall of shrapnel.

On the holo display James saw numerous plasma bolts and AM missiles from
Endeavour
and the remaining defenders reach out to pluck the rest from the plot. What had looked like certain destruction for Harris’ fleet was staved off, but there were still too many missiles for the ships to get them all. Three struck the remaining battle station. One flew into a gash caused by an earlier hit and penetrated three decks before it exploded, tearing the station apart.

Another two missiles struck the last light cruiser. To this point she had managed to survive the battle completely unscathed but as both missiles hit her hull they exploded twenty meters apart and split the cruiser in two. Both ends quickly began to be pulled into Haven’s gravity, spewing atmosphere and bodies into the cold of space.

“A missile has locked onto us,” Julius called out.

“Taking evasive maneuvers,” the navigation officer called as he threw
Endeavour
into a tight turn and roll.

The missile wasn’t fooled and it adjusted its course to match
Endeavour
but a last second twist caused the missile to overshoot its target. Sensing it would no longer achieve a direct hit the missile detonated only fifty meters off the bow. Everyone on the bridge was thrown about in their seats as the force of the explosion rocked the ship.  

“Proximity hit,” Mallory called from the auxiliary bridge after he got his wits back. “We’ve lost most of the bow point defenses and missile tube seven is down.”

“Acknowledged,” James said. “Return fire.”

As soon as the sensors burned through the dissipating electromagnetic radiation from the thermonuclear explosions Ferguson opened up with the plasma cannons. One of the cruisers took hits from four bolts that tore through the ship, turning it into a brief ball of fire.

Julius added to the carnage as she launched seven missiles at the aliens. The distance had closed enough that it only took them one minute to reach their targets and in the confusion five hit their mark, taking out another two cruisers.

“They’re accelerating,” the sensor officer called out excitedly. “It looks like they are trying to break orbit.

“Missile launches,” Julius called out. “No wait, they are from behind us. Those Haven frigates followed us into Haven’s atmosphere. They’re firing their own missiles at the aliens.”

James checked the holo plot himself, there were indeed six more Haven ships swinging round the colony. It didn’t look as if they had ventured as close to Haven’s atmosphere as
Endeavour
had but then there were only six frigates. There should have been seven. He suspected one hadn’t made it. “Match our missiles to their trajectory and fire when ready. We need to make sure those aliens don’t come back in a hurry.”

“They’re out of plasma range,” Julius reported. “I managed to get another of their frigates. Should we pursue?”