Between the huge capital ships, a multitude of vicious dogfights between Starfury and Sentri sprang up, little pockets of fire flashing across space as fighters were destroyed. The Starfury pilots were confident in their training and the capabilities of their fighters but, lacking communication with their controllers or squadron leaders, their response was sluggish and poorly formed. The pre-briefed Centauri pilots, though outnumbered and pushing their tiny craft to their limits, began to inflict significant losses on the Earth fighters.
Having turned to face the Centauri, the
Eros
and
Corax
joined the fight, pulse cannon chattering as they mashed the lead battlecruiser. Fires raged from several areas of its wide, flat hull but it kept moving forward, switching targets to engage the carrier and cruiser thundering towards it. A squadron of Thunderbolts had followed the
Corax
, and they ignited their afterburners, speeding forward to launch missiles against the battlecruiser, adding their weight to the match.
The Centauri particle weapons lacked the raw punch of the Earth ship’s pulse cannon, and they were susceptible to interception but made up for this in accuracy, and every ship in the task force was showing signs of heavy battle. The Centauri’s battle lasers recycled once more, draining their advanced capacitors as they gushed energy into generators and focussing lenses. Red light tore across space to spear into the
Eros
and
Persephone
. The
Persephone
was lucky once more, taking a glancing hit to the rear engine section that immediately arrested its acceleration. The
Eros
was lanced by the lasers of two of the battlecruisers, their combined fire punching through the ship’s prow to skewer the hull right down its length. When the lasers finally exhausted their energy, the
Eros
hung in space, listing slightly to starboard. Its hull was a shattered wreck, fires burning from broken armour plates all down its length. What few crew survived were trapped in sealed sections, praying that the Centauri looked to another target or showed mercy.
The bridge of the
Corax
rocked constantly from the recoil of its pulse cannon and enemy fire impacting its hull. Wilson sprang from station to station, monitoring the positions of the fleets, the status of the
Corax’s
weapons and incoming damage reports. In truth, he felt a little helpless. Still unable to break through the Centauri jamming , he could not direct his fleet--and once his own crew had been given a target, they were competent enough to go about their duties without constant management.
The designers of the Poseidon ships had not seen fit to mount thick armour plating on the carrier, and Wilson was now beginning to regret their decision. He was just thankful that most of the Centauri fire had so far struck the mostly empty hanger bays. While that might pose a problem later when the fighters had to return to base, it did not significantly affect the fighting performance of his ship.
‘Hangers 12 through 37 now on fire, Admiral.’
‘Send damage control teams but keep most stationed near engineering, the turrets and the rotating section,’ Wilson responded. ‘We can stand to lose a few hangers now but if we lose anything else...’
‘Sir, I am getting life signs on the
Eros
.’
‘No, we can’t do anything for them now.’ Wilson felt pity for the people of his task force but the stricken cruiser would have to wait. ‘If we send shuttles out to retrieve the survivors, they’ll just get cut to pieces by those damned Centauri fighters.’
He consulted the tactical station once again and saw the
Corax
had manoeuvred into the middle of the Centauri ships. Though it placed the
Corax
in the middle of their concentrated fire, it also meant that, at last, the
Corax
could use all of its own weaponry. It was also out of the line of sight of those dreaded battle lasers, and if the
Corax
could soak up more of the secondary weapons fire, it might relieve the pressure on his other ships.
‘We are in position,’ he announced. ‘Weapons batteries, open fire, time on target.’
‘Time on target, aye.’
An exterior camera view on the tactical display showed the pulse cannon tearing into the three Centauri ships, one salvo catching a battlecruiser on the thinly armoured underside of its hull. Centauri interceptor technology lagged far behind that of Earth’s, and Wilson’s time on target order ensured that the
Corax’s
batteries fired simultaneously, giving the defence systems little time to respond. A stream of energy punched through the forward section of one battlecruiser, and Wilson felt relief as a single bright explosion announced the detonation of generators driving its lasers. An entire section of the battlecruiser s hull spiralled away into space. At least one of the enemy ships was rendered toothless, and the bridge crew gave a ragged cheer when they realised their efforts were paying off.
‘Rotate!’ called Wilson. ‘Concentrate fire on the other two, let’s see if we can do the same thing again--we might just be able to force a surrender if they lose their big guns.’
A shattering crash resounded through the bridge and Wilson was thrown over the tactical display to hit the metal wall with a dull thud. Acrid smoke filled the bridge and the atmospheric processors began to whine audibly as they strained to clear the air. Wilson shook his head as his vision swam, trying to shake off the ringing in his ears. He dimly realised he was prone against the wall, several feet from the floor. His vision clearing, he looked across the bridge to see many of his officers floating helplessly in the air, struggling to reach their station or a handy support from which to push off. His tactical officer had managed to hold her station and was scanning the incoming damage assessment.
‘We’ve gone Z-gravity!’ she shouted. ‘The rotating section has locked!’
They were lucky the bridge had not been hit directly, Wilson knew. The more immediate problem was that while the
Corax
could carry on fighting under these conditions, vital minutes would be lost as the crew recovered and readjusted to zero-gravity conditions. The shuddering of the bridge from the weapons fire became more persistent, and Wilson guessed the Centauri had realigned their targeting systems to avoid the hangers.
‘Back to your stations! Tactical, make sure the batteries keep firing--we can’t lose momentum now.’
The
Ares
had joined its sister ship, the
Persephone
, which was now drifting through space helplessly but still intent on engaging the Centauri, pulse cannon and plasma fire raining onto whichever battlecruiser presented itself as the nearest target. Forming up alongside the stricken ship, the
Ares
now added its weight of fire and manoeuvred to open up with its own heavy laser. Based on older Centauri models, it was not as powerful and the cruiser did not enjoy the same power reserves as the larger enemy ships, but it was still a potent weapon. The red beam lanced out to strike a battlecruiser, cutting through its port fins and slicing off a sizeable section of hull. Fires raged across the whole left side of the Primus, but its weapons batteries did not slow in their firing. Massed particle beams from its turrets pounded the
Ares
and
Persephone
as the three ships continued to trade fire, the space between them a lethal criss-crossing of bright energy. The hulls of all three were soon pitted and scored with black craters, though a knockout blow had yet to be landed by either side.
Continuous volley fire from the
Dowding
rolled over the battlecruiser with the smashed laser as it turned to join the third in targeting the
Corax
, simply ignoring the dreadnought’s pounding--though broken turrets and debris trailed behind it. Across the length of the
Corax
, energy bolts streamed down to flay armour plates and ignite fires. From stem to stern, the
Corax
burned, though pulse cannon and interceptors doggedly continued to return fire, throwing every ounce of energy its reactors could generate into fighting the Centauri. The third battlecruiser then matched the turn of its comrade and fired its battle lasers.
Within the bridge of the
Corax
, the crew had settled back into their stations, strapping themselves in with nylon belts used before only in drills. The knuckles of Wilson’s hands were turning white as he gripped support beams and stations to steady himself. Monitoring the tactical station, he could see how his ship was suffering under the smashing power of Centauri weapons fire. Much of the ship’s internal communications were now down, and the weapons batteries were firing more or less independently, reducing their effectiveness. His eyes met briefly with the tactical officer’s and he could see that, despite her young years, she too realised how badly the ship was fairing. Placing a hand on her shoulder, he searched for some platitude when he felt her tense.
‘Energy spike!’ she shouted.
Wilson looked down at her display to see two of the battlecruisers bearing down on the
Corax
, one making ready to fire its primary weapons.
The red battle lasers struck the rotating section of the
Corax
with punishing effect, cutting right through armour and decking with consummate ease. The metre-wide beams carried on through living quarters, mess hall and on through to the bridge, where they vaporised every crew member in a microsecond, boiling their atoms before they were sucked out into the void of space. The rear of the rotating section broke away from the rest of the ship, taking the engine section and reactor with it. The firing of the
Corax’s
pulse cannon ceased almost immediately as the massive ship, the pride of the EarthForce fleet, became a floating hulk.
The
Ares
and
Persephone
struggled to repel the fire coming from the battlecruiser they faced, a warship massing more than the two of them put together. One by one, the weapons batteries of the
Persephone
went offline as incoming fire either blasted turrets clear of their hardpoints or power relays detonated under power fluctuations from the main reactor, now running to dangerously unstable levels. The crew on board fought valiantly, struggling to manage the constant pounding and keep their weapons firing at all costs. Against a larger ship, they could not hope to win.
While the Centauri ship concentrated its particle arrays against the
Persephone
, it traded laser fire with the
Ares
, completely outclassing the smaller cruiser. Cycling its laser faster than the
Ares
could, the Primus speared the Earth ship with red light, smashing into its reactor and penetrating the shielding that kept its energies in check. A blossoming ball of fire from the
Ares’
rear section grew quickly to engulf the ship before a massive explosion tore it apart, sending huge parts of its superstructure spinning across space. So close to the explosion, the
Persephone
absorbed the shock wave, buckling its hull. The remaining power relays, jury-rigged by a desperate crew, finally gave out and the ship stopped firing, every light on board growing dim before dying completely.
As it had been designed to do, the
Dowding
held its line, keeping its broadside facing the nearest Centauri ship at all times. Though lacking the heavy lasers of more modern ships, the
Dowding
nevertheless possessed a huge number of weapons batteries and it unleashed pulses of energy as fast as its weapons could recycle, taking incoming fire on the chin. Now outnumbered and with jump engines offline, its crew went about their duties with a grim efficiency, intent on avenging their fallen before joining them.
The target Primus visibly shuddered under the impact of the
Dowding’s
combined weaponry, paying the price for ignoring the dreadnought. Fins were sliced off the Primus, turrets blasted apart and sections of the superstructure sagged visibly under the relentless hammering.
More pulse cannon fire thudded into its hull, and the multitude of lights emanating from the viewports along the hull suddenly flickered and died. Fires licking outwards along streams of venting atmosphere grew brighter and an explosion blasted a large piece of hull plating clear of the ship. More explosions soon followed and the Primus rocked as a chain reaction of fire leapt from section to section, sweeping through the ship to sear any Centauri inside. A bright light shone briefly from the viewports and open sections of hull as a massive interior explosion, barely contained by the superstructure, finally silenced the ship. Within the
Dowding
, the captain announced the death of an enemy ship to his crew and was met with joyous relief. The weapons teams redoubled their efforts as they sought the next target.
July 7th 2263, The Urza Jaddo, Deep Space, Narn Regime
The loss of the
Protera
had caused Barini some irritation but it did not worry him unduly. As losses went, it was more than acceptable, especially in return for the honour of destroying the huge Earth flagship. He shook his head in some wonder at the thinking of the Earth Alliance. Why go to the time and trouble of building a ship that large if it was not armed for frontline combat? The Centauri had little use for dedicated carriers in their fleet, and their naval tactics simply did not revolve around support vessels. In a Centauri fleet, every ship had to pull its weight.
Today, Centauri tactical thinking was vindicated. The vaunted Earth Starfuries were unable to consolidate their superior numbers and the Sentris picked them off squadron by squadron. Even now, they were chasing the stragglers attempting to regroup around the remaining Earth ship.
Barini recognised it as an older model and was surprised it had lasted this long. It stood up well to their attacks, but now it faced two battlecruisers. These were the kind of odds Barini favoured. It was a shame, in a way, he thought. Of all the ships he had faced today, this one seemed most Centauri in its design. Of course, it lacked the technological sophistication of Centauri ships, and he imagined the crew inside worked in primitive zero-gravity conditions, but the thinking behind it he could admire.