Authors: Max Feinstein
Out of the initial salvo two missiles managed to survive the defensive fire. They had been too close to one of the shuttles and as such had not been targeted due to the increased risk of friendly fire. Both of these sophisticated killers struck the rear of the shuttle milliseconds apart. The first succeeded in taking down the craft’s rear shield and scaring the hull, while the second impacted the ship within resistance. The explosive force was powerful enough to knock the large craft slightly off course and opened up a gaping hole along the starboard stern.
Through this structural puncture a number of small cargo crates were sucked out and thrown into space before the internal atmospheric shields engaged, preventing more air from escaping the damaged craft.
Onboard the
Marauder
Damian watched the entire event unfold and was relieved to see the hit shuttle continue in its flight back to the cruiser. At the same time another pair of shuttles were already starting to dock at the topside docking bays. These two had been from the closest of the Federation freighters and so had reached the
Marauder
ahead of the rest. The personal display projected from his command seat showed them touch down and maglock on the docking platform before being retracted back into the ship. As these heavy lifts moved into the internal shuttle hanger a series of blastdoors closed above them to seal up the lift shaft.
Just as these docking bay doors locked closed a loud warning alarm rang out across the bridge. “Missile launch detected!
Six Anubis inbound,” exclaimed the technician monitoring the sensor station.
Damian looked up at the forward display in time to see the
missiles eject from a set of vertical launch tubes along the top of the
Cambridge
. Three pairs of the large anti-ship missiles emerged one after the other and accelerated up into space above the corvette for fraction of a second. At a preset distance away from the vessel they all flipping around ninety degrees and igniting their thrusters to blast away towards the
Marauder
.
The bridge crew reacted to this immediate threat with swift professionalism without Damian needing to utter a single command. He watched the specific stations input the proper commands and relay relevant orders if need be to other areas of the ship. Most of the defensive response was transferred to the automated defense system, which responded with an initial launch of the
Marauder’s
own IMIs. The Missile Interceptors ejected from a rear facing launcher group and accelerated on intercept courses with the incoming ordinance.
Just after the IMI volley launch the defense system opened up with the limited number of rear facing plasma cannons and a pair of particle beam weapons. The vessel’s design was meant to allow a maximum proportion of weapons to be brought to bear only during a broadside. As such the rear section of the ship had been left heavily under gunned, making it highly susceptible to enemy fire
. This limitation quickly became apparent when only one of the incoming missiles disappeared from the tactical display at the front of the bridge.
All of the blame could not be placed on that single drawback, though; the missiles themselves were some of the most advanced in the Federation’s arsenal. The
Anubis ASMs were actually more like drones than actual missiles in the old sense of the word. Instead of a single sensor array, they featured a full AFC as well as a small shield generator. This Autonomous Flight Computer had an integrated sensor array that allowed each missile to perform various advanced evasive maneuvers in midflight and avoid incoming fire. Like the Legion’s own Weaver missiles they constantly changed their positions in space and as such prevented the
Marauder’s
weapons from targeting them properly.
Damian watched as some of the plasma flack bursts detonated beside a small number of the
Anubis only to be deflected by the missiles shield systems. His own IMIs had better luck, with their ability to match the enemy missiles movements they managed to destroy another pair of projectiles. They would have destroyed them all, but unfortunately the Sideswipes had closed to within a preset distance from the
Marauder
and triggered their separation phase. The actual purpose of each missile was to function as an automated delivery system and as everyone on the bridge witnessed, the outside skin of each weapon peeped away thanks to a number of explosive bolts. Within the internal structure lay four smaller warheads, all of which quickly detached and accelerated away at an even faster velocity.
The three remaining missiles had now turned into twelve and decreased the time remaining until they reached the cruiser’s shield perimeter.
In response the defensive system retargeted the energy based weapons and kept throwing up a wall of fire to prevent the warheads from getting through. During their rapid flight many of these incoming projectiles had already spread out to cover a larger volume of space, making it that much harder for the few defensive weapons to protect the
Marauder
.
An alarm finally rang out across the ship as the onboard sensors detected an imminent impact. Damian got ready to issue a command in response, but
Srita beat him to it.
“Emergency turn to port! Shift all sh
ields to port side and lay down a full plasma flack screen. Have the Raplers engage all warheads that get through,” Srita dictated with full authority and calmness.
She reached out to grip her station with both hands just as the entire vessel rolled slightly sideways and turned rapidly to present its port side to the incoming missiles. Everyone on the bridge felt the g-forces push them all back into their seats before the inertial compensators could react to the change in gravity force.
Out in space the entire side of the
Marauder
lit up with plasma fire as over a dozen such systems discharged their fire in the direction of the inbound warheads even before the ship completed its full turn. That much firepower proved to be much more effective, evidenced by the six secondary explosions that lit up the flack cloud a second later.
Six remaining warheads survived this
heavy barrage and pierced the deadly plasma fire directed at them. Red stitches of laser beams shut out from three separate locations along the side of the cruiser in the direction of the warheads. These rapidly fired laser bolts connected with their first three targets almost instantly as each Rapler emplacement locked on to its own target. On the bridge everyone watched intently while three of the missiles detonated prematurely. Another warhead disappeared from the display a split second later as one of the Rapler’s quickly shifted targets, but it was already too later for the others.
“Brace for impact!” broadcast the ship’s executive officer to the entire crew.
The moment those words left her mouth the whole ship lurched sideways violently and groaned under Damian’s seat as the two remaining warheads slammed into the shields. Each detonation was impressive when compared with the size of each missile. The energy of the blast was directed towards the ship, almost like a shaped charge and was therefore able to exert more damaged than a standard warhead. A bluish light engulfed the
Marauder
while the reinforced shield buckled under the assault and tired their best to dissipate as much of the energy as possible.
“
Stress fracture breaches section twelve and thirty-five,” reported one of the bridge stations as new alarms began to ring out, “SealPaks contained the spread and damage control dispatched.”
“Shields at forty percent and rising,”
Srita said as she turned towards Damian, “damage is minimal, sir.”
“Status on our shuttles and fighters?” Damian asked and watched the shields light up again with a renewed bombardment from the still closing
Cambridge.
“Hanger reports all shuttles docked and accounted for. Lark Squadron is inbound with two in chase.”
“Very well. I think we have overstayed our welcome in Federation space. Transit the second our fighters touch down.”
Captain Ziana and her fighters were only half a minute out, but time seemed to close to a standstill as everyone waited for their return. All the while the
Marauder
exchanged fire with the
Cambridge
and continued to drift further along its previous course, driven only by its remaining inertia. The Captain used this movement to her advantage and flew in from the exact opposite side, allowing the distance between them to decrease at a more rapid pace than normal.
“All of Lark Squadron onboard,” confirmed Srita as the bridge shook once more from another enemy salvo.
“
Drop us Commander,” Damian ordered without hesitation and prepared himself.
Lighting all over the ship flashed twice, including the bridge, to let everyone onboard know that the ship was preparing to drop out. A second later it was apparent why the Transit initiation
of the Walh-Siato Generator was termed ‘the drop’ or ‘drop in’. A sinkhole like portal opened up below the ship and caused the large vessel to drop into it, swallowing it whole before extinguishing just as rapidly. A rush of weightless washed over every member of the crew for a split second as the
Marauder
transitioned from normal space to the subspace transdimentional tunnel that allowed it to travel at faster-than-light speeds. The slight wave of nausea that followed this drop into subspace passed quickly, but Damian still remembered that his first time was not as easy. Like most people transiting for the first time, the nausea had been strong enough to make his sick and trigger a wave of vomiting. It had been a most embarrassing moment for him, but sequential trips had allowed his body to acclimate to the sensation.
Thirty seconds later the subspace portal reopened and the
Marauder
was thrown out back into real-space. Unlike the drop upon entry, this was the exact opposite. For less than a second Damian felt himself pressed down into the command chair as if the gravity onboard the bridge increased. The sensation quickly passed, however, and he looked out forward viewport. They were no longer at their start location, but just over half a light-year away in one of the neighboring star systems.
Outside the vessel a red dwarf star spired slowly in space
with two lifeless planets locked in elliptical orbits around it. The ship had emerged just beyond the orbit of the second planet and hung in space for a moment before the rear of each of its two stubby wings opened up. From each of these wings flew out a pair of large decoy drones and each one turned towards a separate vector. The Graison drones had only one mission, to mimic the electronic and engine signature of their mothership in order to prevent enemy sensors from tracking the main ship. Upon reaching a certain distance from the
Marauder
each drone active their single use Tunnel Drive and disappeared from the sensor screens, each one traveling to a different preselected destination.
“Decoys deployed, sir. All system report in the green and the hull fractures have been fully contained.”
“Set a course to Sancrage,” Damian said while breathing a small sigh of relief to himself and nodded at Srita as he rose from his command seat, “you have the bridge Commander, I’ll be in my quarters if you need me.”
The Captain’s quarters were located only a short walk from the bridge so it did not take long for Damian to reach them once the bridge blastdoor
reclosed upon his departure. He passed a number of his crew as they stood down from their assigned stations along the way before finally turning into the passageway that led to the ship’s command officer quarters. It was a short corridor containing only the quarters of the top most ranking officers. Within seconds he was at his door and placed his palm against the biometric lock.
As the security door sealed behind him, Damian felt a surge of fatigue course through his entire body almost like he had been on the training deck the whole day.
He needed sleep, but first a long hot steam was in order to drain the remainder of the stress that had built up within him. Rolling his neck slowly, Damian pulled off his lucky jacket and stood beside the room’s large viewport. While there he closed his eyes for a second and just let the swirling shades of orange and white light of the transdimentional tunnel wash over him inside the unlit room. The tranquility of the scene made all the problems of the current day disappear for just a little while.
“Music, Chezowisky please,” Damian requested of the ship and pulled off his shirt as the rockstrumental music began to fill his quarters.
He began to move towards the bathroom when a chime rang out through the speakers, letting him know that someone was at his door. Moving on autopilot he made his way back to the entrance and keyed the door to slide open. He had not queried as to who was actually at the door and was therefore more than a little surprised when he saw Srita standing on the other side of the doorway.
“I…thought I would bring you some food, sir,” she started with a shy smile on her face, holding a mess hall tray in her hands.
“I could eat, Commander,” Damian smiled back while reaching out at the same time as if to grab the tray, but instead gently took her hands and slowly pulled Srita into the room, allowing the door to slide closed behind them.