Authors: Max Feinstein
“Lau
nch the ready squadrons, while the rest scramble. I want all of our squadrons deployed immediately,” the admiral quickly commanded as he looked out towards the large continuous display that almost ran around the entire bridge. “I want the Vampires and Tridents outfit for ship assault.”
“
Captain Chulovski reports Tempest and Hydra Squadron away!” the captain called out and Achyuta watched the two ready squadrons accelerate past the carrier’s bow into the space beyond, forming up a preliminary fighter screen.
Admiral Singh monitored the situations from the rear of the bridge, while his captain issued orders of his
own throughout the carrier. Captain Hinnamen was a perfectly capable commander and Singh let him have as much autonomy as possible for the time being. The four main control stations at the center of the command deck instantly went to work carrying out the captain’s orders. Moving his eyes back towards the expansive display before him Achyuta watched as the variable sized hulls of his CGB’s escorts moved into view. Each ship slowly maneuvered to reposition itself within the Singh Line, as it was now called, while the previously held formation shifted to realign with the newly expected enemy vector. The
Regal
itself centered the line, but hung back slightly in a command role with the rest of the warships arrayed in front and to either side of it.
In actuality the formation was crescent shaped with three staggered horizontal lines floating on top of each other. The longest of the battle lines was the central one,
centered by the
Regal
herself with two of the battle group’s frigates flanking it. Anchored this primary formation spine on either side were the pair of Cosmos class destroyers. The lone heavy cruiser attached to the carrier group was now part of the top most line, which contained another of the Redemption frigates as well as a pair of Odin corvettes. What remaining, the three other escorts and an aging Ridge class frigate joining them from the Pisces SDF, comprised the lower formation layer to provide defensive firepower. All of these warships now moved as one under the coordination of the
Regal’s
AI.
“Captain, Commander Telwin is requesting orders for Knight Squadron,” the ensign manning communications relayed.
“Twenty-four just went out!” exclaimed Lieutenant Andrio Gorza from the sensor station at almost the exact same moment, “detecting second single graviton burst.”
“They already have a ship in system,” Admiral Singh said as a matter-of-factly.
“Divert the
Odessa
to Twenty-three’s vicinity and find that hostile. Instruct Knight Squadron to assist in the hunt,” Captain Hinnamen ordered.
These new orders were instantly sent out and Admiral Singh watched the distant Griffin corvette quickly turn in open space before accelerating towards the sensor buoy location on the holographic display. The much smaller Dragonfire fighters of Knight Squadron came around together at the same time and sped past the
Odessa
in order to take up a preemptive screening position ahead. In the meantime the squadron’s Pegasus drones flew even further head as lead scouts with Regela helping to guide them along the way.
“Time until TF Five Five arrives in-system?”
“Three hours twenty minutes,” the captain confirmed of the reinforcements after checking with the ship’s AI.
“Possible e
nemy contact detected, relaying location to all available closest assets for confirmation,” the carrier’s sophisticated artificial intelligence said calmly.
Unclassified Contact Detected
designating Echo One
,
appeared on Styker’s canopy display along with a scanned profile view of an alien ship. The detection had been confirmed by the five ACVs now flying ahead of the Knights. This rounded and blister topped two hundred-sixty meter long vessel was a perfect match for the sort of designs used by the enemy invasion force. With its exact location now identified and distributed, Commander Telwin’s squadron of AF-103Es were able to train their spectrographic arrays on that location. Immediately the stealthy contact lit up the sensor display and finally presented a traceable target to every Federation Naval craft and vessel in the area.
Unlike his own craft
Echo One had no problem detecting the incoming fighters and corvette and it didn’t take long before an orange lance of light shot out from seeming darkness beyond towards them. Styker slammed the controller sideways and tossed the Dragonfire away from the incoming bolt as his other pilots did the same.
“Contact is definitely hostile
Regal,
redesignating as Hotel One,” Commander Telwin called out as his fighter leveled out once more.
The fire was not directed at the Knights, however, and he turned his head back
in time to watch it slam into the
Odessa’s
forward shielding. It lit up brightly while dissipating the deadly energy and began to return invisible when another such beam impacted against it. This one was fortunately a glancing blow along the portside bow. Styker quickly turned head back around, following the solid beam of light directly back to its point of origin. Just as the
Federation
captured footage had shown them all previously this weapon discharged from a coalescence of multiple other lines of light traveling around the alien ship’s circumference.
Instructing the Knights to follow he maneuvered out of the line of fire of both larger warships
and instantly saw the enemy’s distinctive crimson shielding ignite atop its whole side as the
Odessa
began to return fire. The large corvette unleashed a heavy barrage from its forward facing weapon systems. It had been designed with firepower in mind and was able to bring its entire main armament of dual particle beam turrets to bear on targets at any point around the vessel. Four of the Griffin’s five dual particle cannon emplacements traversed to face the front of the ship before discharging all in a simultaneous salvo. Eight of these devastating beams hammered against the alien vessel as it began to accelerate away from its current position. Guided by laser designators from the Pegasus drones the corvette’s weapons were able to target the enemy with greater precisions.
Styker could al
most feel the somewhat oval-shaped ship rock in space as the
Odessa
pressed its attack further, plasma cannon fire now joining the particle beams to explode against its side. It was certainly a site to see, but he had other priorities and proceeded to close on the enemy. He sent out a mental order to the rest of the squadron instructing them to obtain a laser missile lock on the alien ship’s stern. At the same time new blue contacts appeared on his visual display, letting him know that the corvette was launching its own fighters, Azure Flight, as reinforcements. It was not a moment too soon because the enemy renewed its fire, striking one of Knight Squadron’s Pegasus drones, the same one that had been limiting its evasive maneuvers in order to provide the
Odessa
with the best possible targeting. This made it an easier than normal target for the alien’s guns. That ship also reengaged the corvette trading fire as it pushed closer to sensor buoy twenty-two.
“There’s our window,” Commander Telwin called out over TacLink wh
en he saw Hotel One’s brightly lit shields began to shimmer and waver in intensity. “Release now!”
With that twenty actual missiles, staggered in two close salvos,
now dropped away from the Dragonfires and raced towards the enemy ship beyond. He also sent new orders to two of the remaining Pegasus drones and instructed them to start harassing operations. Each one instantly began to conduct close flybys on the ship, releasing hails of particle cannon fire with intermixed missiles launches. He adjusted his attack vector slightly at that moment and began to fire his own particle cannons.
Styker
witnessed the opposing vessel’s defense barrier weaken under the sustained assault from the
Odessa
, almost smiling when a number of the powerful energy beams slipped through and detonated against the hull. From their current distance he was unable to see the lances boil away the top most layer of the ship’s armor before the kinetic energy within them bent these plates inward. The stress of impacts managed to actually impart multiple fractures throughout the surrounding area of armor. Undeterred, however, and with its shields constantly aglow from the corvette’s reparative plasma bolt assault, the enemy quickly rolled to the side in order to present new shielding that had yet been untouched. At the same time it unleashed more intensive fire of its own directed against the
Odessa
, its recently launched fighters, as well as Knight Squadron.
A number of new objects th
en suddenly separated from Hotel One and appeared on Styker’s sensor window before the ship even completed its roll, causing him to yell out, “incoming!” in warning just as alarms of his own rang out within the cockpit. The wave of new missiles separated into smaller groups and veered away towards the Knights as well as the
Odessa’s
Azure flight. While tracking this new attack Styker saw that one of them was actually flying away from the current engagement and towards the nearest of the sensor buoys, that being Twenty-two.
Letting the Azure’s deal with those directed at them he instead switched his variable discharge lasers to rapid fire and focused his efforts on the ones fired against his own fighters.
The rest of his squadron scattered into pairs as they tried to evade the incoming missiles, which were closing with tremendous speed. One of these warheads appeared in front of him and he triggered his lasers to engage. With his targeting sensors degraded somewhat by the weapon’s alien construction Styker used his enhanced optics to visually track it, letting the Dragonfire’s automated systems help adjust his flight path slightly. Most of the rapidly discharging beams missed the intended target, but a couple actually struck home. He watched the missile tumble for a second before exploding.
Unlike other explosions he had seen, however, this one resulted in what looked like a miniature black hole that opened up in empty space in front of him. Utterly surprised by the occurrence Styker pitched his fighter up and flew away from the spinning vortex of white static light.
As he did, he could feel his engines already straining to propel him away from the intensive gravity fields generated by the anomaly. Ahead of his current view point Styker saw another of the enemy missiles explode among a pair of Dragonfires from Azure flight trying to escape it. In absolute horror he looked on, unable to do anything, as both fighters quickly ceased their momentum and got pulled into the vortex. The Dragonfires broke up under the intense gravity and detonated small fireballs that were instantly sucked into the center of the black hole.
Styker’s projected display came alive once more as the other pilots witnessed the same and began releasing small missiles of their own to counter those launched against them as well as other decoys. As these smaller interceptors crisscrossed through space Knight’s previous volleys finally descended on their target. The alien vessel was no
t defenseless, however, and struck out at the threats with more laser fire. Two of these continuous orange beams slashed through the evading, corkscrewing Kiba missiles taking out four of them in a single pass. The next action was rather expected by Commander Telwin and on sensors he watched his first group of warheads veer away from the intended target. They seemed to be pushed aside by an invisible hand. A number of them actually detonated from this violent shove.
For a moment he held his breath as the second wave approached. This time, however, there was no
further interference. Only the constant pulsing of the orange alien defensive fire came at the missiles. A small number of the rapidly moving Kiba missiles were destroyed along their flight, but the rest made it through. In satisfaction Styker watched seven of them strike Hotel One from the rear where its engines were presumed to be. Most were annihilated by the ship’s still powerful shields, but his sensors did manage to register two direct detonations against the hull.
Wherever they had struck must have been important because at that moment the vessel stopped its acceleration and instead proceeded to float in space from its previous momentum. With its shields still being constantly battered by the closing
Odessa
, Styker saw the ship began to turn slowly in order to face its opponent. From his now closer distance he could see the entire ship glowing in an ominous red hue as its defense field struggled to protect it from the barrage of particle beams and plasma bolt fire directed against it by the corvette. Now and again one of the beams or plasma shots would slip through these rugged defensives and hammer the enemy’s hull. Parts of it were already becoming charred and potmarked, with webs of stress fractures spreading out from each impact site. For a moment he became so unlike himself and began to actually feel pleasure as he watched a large plasma round explode against Hotel’s hull and scatter superheated plasma in all directions, coating the armor plating. He knew full well that other beings inside that ship were probably dying while simply following orders just like him, but in that moment his mind dare not care about them. The enemy had already taken many human lives and so he vowed to show them no remorse in kind.