The Ganthoran Gambit (The First Admiral Series) (21 page)

“Activate the Self-Defence Turrets, and open fire with the Trionic Cannon,” Lokkrien ordered.

“Yes, Admiral,” the WATO said.

On the War Table image, Billy could see the approaching Frontier Fleets with the two huge Star-Destroyers placed strategically to prevent their access to the Wormhole and the remainder of his vessels. The two Trion Streams carved a lane of destruction through the centre of the advancing Ganthoran warships.

“WATO, concentrate on the flanks of the enemy formation,” Billy ordered.

“Why the flanks, sir?” Lokkrien asked. “There are more targets clustered in the centre of their formation.”

“That’s true, Admiral, we have a saying back on Earth that goes: A chain is only as strong as its weakest link,” Billy explained. “If my calculations are correct, then our friend Sal’nor’s Frontier Fleet will hold the centre ground. Generals Kav’al and Timmeg, will have been subordinated, and, will be holding the flanks. That will anger them no end. If we target the flanks, it should feed into their resentments against General Sal’nor.”

“Of course, divide and conquer.” Lokkrien smiled in appreciation. “Hammer the subordinates until they break ranks, and the whole formation falls apart?”

“Something like that.” Billy watched as the lanes of destruction from the Trionic Cannons carved through the centre of Sal’nor’s forces.

The question now was; how would the Frontier Fleets respond to this new Alliance challenge? The Ganthorans had already seen what the two Alliance Star Destroyers could do to their smaller Axe-Blade and Destroyer formations. Would they now dare to risk another all-out assault on these monstrous fortresses in space?

“The enemy are stopping, sir. Range; eighteen hundred kilometres,” a Scanner Officer called from behind her console in the darkened War Room.

“We’ve stopped them!” Lokkrien celebrated.

“Yes, for the moment. We need to make sure that they’ll stay stopped. Full Force Shielding, WATO.” Billy looked on as another Trion Stream smashed through the flanks of the Ganthoran formation.

Billy Caudwell did not share the jubilation of his Chief of Staff.

The Ganthorans have halted, and they are definitely up to something
, Billy considered.

The two forces could stare at each other, at virtually point blank range, and every second that Billy could buy through sheer force of will and nerves of steel was another second that allowed the Star-Cruisers through to finalise the formation of his trap. But, it was what happened in the next few minutes that would determine the course of this battle. The running battle had brought them to the edge of the Wormhole, and Billy Caudwell needed the wily Frontier Fleet Generals to follow them through to Parbe’an.

The Trionic Cannon from the Colossus had just ploughed another furrow of annihilation through one of the Frontier Fleet formations on the right flank, when the entire right wing of the Ganthoran line began to move forwards.

The Trionic Cannon stream had once again ripped indiscriminately through the Cruisers, Destroyers, and “Six-Cigar” Carriers of the right flank of the combined Frontier Fleets. After three Trionic Cannon Streams, one of the Frontier Generals; Kav’al, had taken enough punishment for one day, and now saw his only chance of survival being to attack the huge slowly-spinning Alliance warship with the nightmare weapon.

Holding his breath, not daring to hope that his hare-brained scheme might actually be working, Billy watched the War Table image expectantly. Slowly, the left wing of the Ganthoran Combined Frontier Fleets began to move forwards. They were breaking station, and more importantly, breaking up the formation. In his mind’s-eye, Billy could imagine Frontier Generals Sal’nor and Timmeg calling for their comrade to maintain station, but their comrade had seen almost one third of his fleet vapourised. The Frontier General on the left flank had been goaded into action by his losses. He wasn’t prepared to stand his ground and be blasted to pieces.

“He’s taken the bait!” a small Court staff officer squeaked with excitement.

Billy Caudwell could see that the left flank elements of the Combined Frontier Fleets were moving forwards toward the Colossus.

He’s buying it, or, at least one of them is,
Billy thought as more and more of the left flank Frontier Fleet ships headed towards the Olympus and the Colossus.

But, the part of his mind that was the dead Garmaurian First Admiral Teg Portan still urged caution.

Sal’nor is no fool, he could easily detach only a small part of his entire force to attack the two Star-Destroyers, and take the rest of his ships to the Wormhole to crush the small contingent of Alliance vessels that were still trying to pass through. Was this a clever response by Sal’nor, or had one of the subordinate Generals broken ranks?
Billy questioned. 

“Do we make our move now, sir?” Marrhus Lokkrien asked anxiously.

In the short time that he had known this brilliant young human, he had learned that, in some circumstances, timing was absolutely vital.

But, having dispatched most of the Universal Alliance contingent to what he hoped Sal’nor would consider some imagined safety, the remaining ships at the Wormhole were still horribly exposed and vulnerable.

“No, not yet, Marrhus, we wait.” An outwardly calm Billy Caudwell smiled and folded his arms, with his hands tucked under his armpits. “We’ll let out friend General Sal’nor sweat it out for a bit. We need him to commit his entire force to the pursuit, not just a part of it.”

Lokkrien knew that this was Billy Caudwell’s “tell”. When he was anxious or nervous in a battle situation, the First Admiral would fold his arms across his chest and bury his hands under his armpits. Sometimes, he would rub his left thumb down the pronounced cleft in his chin. And, Billy Caudwell had every reason to be anxious. If Sal’nor didn’t take the bait, he would return to Ganthus and claim a victory trying to intimidate the Imperial Guards with his success. He could then attempt to set himself up as Emperor. Fortunately, the other Frontier Fleet Generals would most probably not support him. If, however, they did support him, then the Universal Alliance would have to look forward to many years of hardship and bloodshed on the Ganthoran frontier. That would mean the loss of millions, possibly billions, of lives.

To Billy Caudwell’s mind, enough lives had already been lost. This was possibly the only opportunity that he had to draw the combined Frontier Fleets onto territory of his choosing, and deliver them a decisive defeat that would bring the whole Ganthoran episode to a successful conclusion.

“We need him to believe he can take us, that he can chase us anywhere, and also to believe that he can rescue whichever one of the Adjudicators is this mysterious rebel Emperor,” Billy said.

This was not quite how he had envisioned his original plan going, but, with some clever improvisation, he was now in a position to lure the Ganthorans into his trap. Now, Billy could see that part of the Ganthoran force was advancing rapidly towards the two Alliance Star-Destroyers.

However, this appeared to be a co-ordinated response to the challenge of the two Star Destroyers. What was taking shape on the War Table image was an all-out attack by one of the Ganthoran flanks. The Ganthoran General, whether it was Sal’nor or one of the subordinates, had learned from their encounter with the Star-Destroyers previously. The Frontier General was moving his surviving Cruisers and Destroyers together in a horseshoe formation. The surviving Cruisers were arranged in a rectangle at the centre of the formation to provide the massive punch of “Screaming Death” that he hoped would break down the shielding that had frustrated all the other attacks so far. Then, sweeping out like the horns of a great bull, the Destroyers were set out in lines. The Destroyers were there to encircle and try to hold the great space fortresses in place, whilst the Cruisers pounded the shielding to uselessness. Then, the Destroyers would be able to sweep in and smash the great space giants to oblivion.

But, to Billy Caudwell’s eyes, there were too few of them to make any impact on the massive Star-Destroyers. Surely, Sal’nor was clever enough to realise that if he wanted these big Alliance ships shattered he would, more or less, have to commit his entire force to do the job. To tame these big beasts, an underwhelming force like this would not be enough.

Unless
, Billy considered,
it is simply a holding action to contain the two Star-Destroyers whilst the rest of the Ganthorans launch an attack on the Wormhole
.

Unfortunately, that simply didn’t make sense. The Star-Destroyers would shatter this flimsy Ganthoran cordon and join the rest of the Alliance forces at the Wormhole.

No
, Billy finally concluded,
this has to be a breakaway formation from the main body.

“WATO- full Force Shielding. Hold your ground,” Billy instructed.

The name of the game was still to hold the Ganthorans at bay from the Wormhole. Olympus then fired her Trionic Cannon and cut another one hundred metre swathe through the advancing Ganthoran formation. Three Cruisers at the centre of the advance went through the classic flattening process before being smashed to smithereens by the internal explosion.

“Enemy vessels firing, sir!” a Scanner Technician called.

The shimmering haze of the wave of “Screaming Death” surged from the weapons pods of the thirty massed Ganthoran Cruisers and hurtled downrange towards the Olympus. Less than a second later, the wave struck the front face of the Olympus. Like a massive sledgehammer striking a bell, the crew of the Star-Destroyer was shaken and jolted from their action stations by the sonic wave hitting the Force Shielding. Billy Caudwell was forced, once again, to fiercely grip on to the edges of his War Table to maintain his balance, whilst Marrhus Lokkrien was flung to the floor; landing painfully on his left shoulder.

“Damage!?” Lokkrien clutched his shoulder, wincing with the pain.

“Minor damage on several decks, no reports of casualties, Admiral!” the WATO responded.

“Enemy firing again, sir!” The Scanner Officer just had enough time to make his announcement, before the Olympus was shaken by another massive jolt.

Billy, clinging on to the side of the War Table, saw the second shimmering wave of “Screaming Death” hurtle towards the Olympus on the flickering image of the Table.

Once again, the Olympus shook under the violent impact of the sonic wave.

“Navigation, take us back two thousand kilometres, one percent light speed!” After shouting his command, Billy was flung violently sideways.

“Yes, sir!”

The shuddering and shaking from the “Screaming Death” wave stopped almost immediately, and Billy was able to regain his composure.

“Remind me to get one of those Personal Environment Suits of yours.” Lokkrien continued to clutch and stretch his shoulder.

“You all right, Admiral?” Billy asked openly.

“I’m getting too old for this, sir.” Lokkrien smiled, wincing through the pain.

Around the War Room, Officers and Technicians were regaining their seats behind heir consoles, and helping colleagues and comrades, before checking that their systems and communications channels still functioned.

“Maybe, but we’ve hopefully encouraged the Ganthorans to throw their entire Fleet at us the next time,” Billy said.

“Next time!?” Lokkrien’s reply was slightly louder than he had intended.

“Yes, Admiral, with any luck they’ll throw everything at us including the kitchen sink.” Billy smiled. “Are the Star-Cruisers through the Wormhole yet?”

“Not quite, sir, maybe another couple of minutes,” a voice replied.

“Well, tell them to hurry it up.” Billy began to get agitated. “We’re getting our backsides kicked out here!”

“Sir, arriving new location,” another voice announced.

It sometimes astonished Billy Caudwell that a vessel could cover thousands of kilometres in a few seconds.

It had been just over a year ago that it had taken him the better part of an hour to walk the three kilometres from school to his home, and the fastest he had ever travelled was at over one hundred and sixty kilometres per hour in his grandfather’s car. Now, covering vast distances in space were a common occurrence for First Admiral Caudwell.

The War Table image quickly stabilised as the shaken and jolted systems quickly re-established themselves. And, the image that Billy saw could hardly have been better. The thirty Ganthoran Cruisers from the left wing of the formation were being joined by the remaining Cruisers from the other two Frontier Fleets. Two good heavy blasts of “Screaming Death” had driven the two Alliance space fortresses away in confusion. General Sal’nor was now massing every Cruiser he could find into one massive spearhead, with four pincers of Destroyers. The two pincers to the flanks were joined by a further two pincers above and below the Cruisers in formation.

Billy, or the part of his mind that was Teg Portan, immediately recognised that the Ganthorans would use the Cruisers to shake and rattle the two Star-Destroyers, whilst the four pincers would reach out, like a claw, to attack from the four directions simultaneously. It was exactly what Billy Caudwell would have done. However, the part of his mind that was Teg Portan would probably have included the single-seat fighters to add extra nuisance value to the defenders of the space fortresses.