Carinae Sector: 02 - Admiral's Fury - Part 3 - Fleet Action (11 page)

The armada turned slightly to focus on the other sections of the human fleet as Baunrus checked on the relative positions of the other alien races attempting to protect the humans. He noted that the Sspol were deployed north and south of his armada but he was relieved as they were not currently strafing his ships. The admiral was bemused that the Sspol still transmitted messages directly at Earth and at the Barus ships, for he knew that the humans needed help to defend themselves. The video console chimed again with another message from Neanres, but the admiral was not in the mood to listen as he watched the battle unfold.

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Greppun was thinking in the inner edge of his mind about his late father and the crew of cruiser four, when his console gave a soft acoustic alarm. He ignored the bemused tones he could sense from his own crew mates as he called out across the bridge to Captain Hallime.

‘Captain, both the Maveen probe and the Barus are signalling allied clauses to us and we can stop transmitting our own clauses. The Maveen clause is in an unusual format, and I will replay it onto the bridge after a short delay, as we are still verifying the decoding method.’

A short pause followed and Captain Hallime personally cancelled the broadcasts his ship was making to the other races. The captain then commented on the emotional tones his crew were receiving telepathically.

‘The feelings of gratitude and peace we are receiving must be coming from the ancients. The undercurrents of fear we are also sensing from Earth are different and must be coming from those humans that have latent telepathic abilities. We are to think peaceful thoughts towards the ancients; even as we defend them and the humans from the treacherous Jerecab.’

Greppun could sense the new emotional state of the ship’s crew and he added his own modest abilities to the effort. He then relayed the encrypted message from the Maveen onto the main screen.

‘Attention Sspol Captain, Earth probe three under masquerade as scout probe eleven in service to Queen Angwene. The queen thanks you for your protection and we formally confirm permanent allied status between our three races. You will no longer transmit any codes and we request you attack the Jerecab immediately. If you survive the only message we request you transmit later will be a neutrality clause to mislead the vassals.’

The message ended and Greppun noted the subdued colour change in Captain Hallime’s skin. The cadet had no doubt that the Captain was relieved at the content but peeved at the terse tone of the message. The captain’s next words to the bridge confirmed his observations.

‘Well done cadet Greppun and you are correct in your earlier assessment. All cruisers are to begin strafing the armada in turns. We seek to drive the Jerecab closer to the human moon and their defences if we can ….’

The massive silver globes of the Sspol cruisers now closed on the Jerecab and began to pick off frigates one by one. In the modified hold of the Sspol flag ship, Dave Edmonds sat back in his pilot seat of his shattered ship and watched the nearby battle unfold. The Sspol had relayed a video feed into the hold and he was getting simultaneous broadcasts from all the participants. He had jury rigged a recharge circuit for his space suit and it sat in pieces in a corner, as he now ensued his remaining recording devices were operational.

                                                                     ***

Captain Mark Hammond slowly straightened himself up from his long stint in his command chair. The small fleet under Commander Joel Everson was rapidly closing with his own assortment of ships. Mark looked over the five ships, including the two Trader ships crewed by colonists, with rising hope. The view screen came online as expected and Mark found himself speaking with Joel again, but with little lag this time.

‘Captain Hammond it is good to see that some of our forces still survive in this system. We will merge our formations in twenty minutes and immediately begin our attack on the Jerecab stragglers at the hyper jump point.’

Joel hesitated in speaking further, and Mark now filled in the missing pieces for him after giving him a warm smile and nod of respect.

‘Commander you should command this assault as my commission is as a reserve officer. You have better knowledge of what your three destroyers and the two sneak ships can do in any case. All I suggest is that we knock them over quickly so we can start rescuing the colonists. I already have my reserve mining drones inbound towards the colony and they should arrive there in five hours.’

Joel gave Mark a relieved grin of thanks and began speaking again.

‘Well thanks for that Mark and we will keep to a first name basis if that is okay? We will arrive at the colony shortly after the drones according to my own calculations. Now the Jerecab will come forward with most of their frigates as we get closer in an hour or so. I expect that at least one of their frigates will remain at the jump point to report back to the armada.’

The view screen split, and Mark was now introduced to Rick Greene, the commander of the Barede colonists on the two sneak ships. Rick wasted no time in adding his own opinions to the mix.

‘Gentlemen, we detected a Cephrit scout ship entering this system earlier and I think their cruisers are not far behind. It should be enough if we drive the Jerecab back and then make a run for the colony. It is likely that these stragglers will not be reinforced and every moment we spend at the colony means more lives are saved. We are experienced in performing rescue efforts as our own colonies have extensive mining operations.’

Joel had soon formed up his five ships around the Long Reach, and the smaller corvettes hung behind the six larger ships for protection as they rapidly closed on the damaged Jerecab ships. Mark ensured that the assorted group of men operating the Long Reach’s turrets were up to the task.

‘Now you have extra shields in place to protect you against the Jerecab, but if your turrets heat up then you should evacuate immediately. Remember that we need you all later for the rescue efforts when we get to the colony.’

The three larger destroyers led the attack and they destroyed two of the Jerecab frigates at long range with their spinal mount weapons. Mark had not seen the spinal weapons used at close range before, and he was impressed with the power of the destroyer’s particle cannons on the enemy frigates.

The battle now upped in tempo as the range decreased, with the remaining Jerecab frigates now returning fire on the assorted human ships. Mark noted that as Joel had mentioned, a Jerecab frigate hung back several million kilometres near the hyper jump point to the solar system. The remaining thirteen frigates were giving the three Earth destroyers everything they had and Joel had no trouble with his next order.

‘Mark, position the Long Reach between the enemy frigates and our ships. Rick and I will fade and strafe with our ships from behind your larger ship.’

The brutal battle in space turned into a vicious close range dogfight, as Mark now kept his larger auxiliary cruiser in the centre of the battle. He watched as the three destroyers would select and destroy a frigate by concentrating all their firepower. Every five minutes the Jerecab would lose the targeted frigate as the spinal mount weapons discharged. The two sneak ships would then dart out from behind the Long Reach, and gang tackle an enemy frigate with a concentrated missile attack backed by accurate laser fire, before falling back to regroup.

Mark noted that the shields on two of his drones were getting dangerously low and he also could see that the temperatures in the ventral turrets were starting to rise dramatically. He yelled an urgent order to his crew as the battle raged around them.

‘All crew in turrets two, four and seven are to leave your combat stations immediately. Pilot you will rotate the ship to protect the weakened shields.’

The Long Reach began to rotate slowly as the Jerecab frigates now attempted to regroup. Joel came onto the screen again and gave further orders.

‘The Jerecab will go last ditch shortly and launch all their missiles, so set you turret defences to fully anti missile and hang on…’

Mark quickly flipped a series of controls on his console and watched apprehensively as he noted that the turret crews had evacuated their posts. The surviving enemy frigates seemed to pause in space for several moments before a swarm of missiles erupted from them. He heard Rick calling out to the other sneak ship as he realised that the missiles were at close range.

‘Break hard and alter course northwards and we will attempt to flank the incoming missiles.’

Joel wasted no time in yelling out his own orders.

‘All three destroyers are to launch missiles at the closest five enemy frigates. Switch all defences to anti missile and prepare to waste gate in three minutes.’

Mark was aware of several of the fleet’s strategies after weeks of watching them train and he quickly ensured that the Long Reach had her own new course to move onto.

‘We will head directly in system on a southbound vector to clear the other ships. Signal the corvettes to take evasive action.’

Mark watched as the other five ships launched their own missiles and sought to bring down the thirty missiles heading in his general direction. He felt that the two sneak ships were especially effective in destroying the missiles. Several of their corvettes were racing forward, and his ship had just completed her turn and was settling onto her new course when the surviving missiles arrived. Mark gripped his command chair as the Long Reach buckled and shook around him as it was hit by four of the missiles. Emergency power came on and one of the fleet lieutenants called out across the bridge.

‘Captain, the ship has sustained moderate damage, and we can still fight. The engines are still operational though one of three docked mining drones is not responding. We also lost fifteen crew when shield pylons failed and part of the hull near engineering was torn way.’

Mark ignored the battle as the remaining turrets on the Long Reach continued to fire on the Jerecab frigates. He quickly went over his ship and noted first the state of the ventral or belly part of the ship. The drone in the ventral hold was completely dead, the ventral turrets were destroyed and the two remaining mining drones would need urgent repairs. The lieutenant gave a further report, this time of the battle in nearby space as Mark thought frantically about what he would do next.

Joel came onto the screen and began to speak, and Mark noted a number of voices in the background as the destroyer’s crew concentrated on fighting the Jerecab.

‘Mark, three of the remaining Jerecab frigates have now been destroyed, and the others are heavily damaged and are now withdrawing. The outermost frigate is not doing anything and is just waiting at the hyper jump point. The other ships also were attacked and we lost five of the smaller corvettes after they charged themselves at the missiles.’

Mark found himself thinking sombrely of the noble efforts of two man crews onboard the five small corvettes. The view screen split again and Mark found himself now also speaking with Rick. He made a decision and forced himself to appear calm as the Barede officer spoke.

‘Mark, the battle is over and the sacrifices of the corvette crews saved many lives. The other large ships are also damaged, but we now can begin our colony rescue efforts. We saw the bulk of the missiles going for your ship despite our best efforts. I think the size of your ship and those extra shields saved your lives in the attack. How badly damaged is the Long Reach and can you still supply mining drones for the rescue effort?’

Mark was about to reply when Joel interrupted across the video link.

‘Excuse me gentlemen, but the Cephrit appear to have finally arrived. I count four scout ships at the other hyper drive point and their cruisers cannot be far way.’

Mark updated Joel on the status of the Long Reach as they all intently watched the far side of the Tau Ceti system. Joel asked Mark what his next moves were and Mark had no hesitation in detailing his rescue plans. Joel considered him across the link for several moments before he replied.

‘Well you are making the most sense about now, and we will do as you suggest given your own mining background. We will arrive at the colony in three hours, so you concentrate on your repairs and Rick and I will speak with the Cephrit.’

Mark broke the telecommunications line and immediately set his surviving crew to work on the repairs. He concentrated his efforts on shields and the two surviving mining drones, as his damaged ship followed the two sneak ships in to rescue the trapped colonists.

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Chapter 6

Neanres was closely watching the armada as it attacked the human destroyers defending their large moon. He noted that the defenders were retaining their own missiles and he was concerned about this decision by the humans. He was also worried about the nearest orbiting base, obviously two larger ships joined side by side, that was launching long range attacks on the armada. A lieutenant called out across the bridge with further interesting information.

‘Captain, the Sspol have stopped signalling and the Barus cruisers will arrive at the end of the battle. Their attack vector places them right at the heart of the armada within minutes of their arrival.’

Neanres considered the news stoically, for he was already well aware of the admiral’s likely response to his further interruption. He also noted the rapidly approaching group of mining ships as he issued further orders.

‘The rear section of frigates is to alter course and place themselves across the line on the approaching mining ships. The two wing sections are to cover the rear of the armada. The central section will cover the two transports with my frigate.’

Another lieutenant, who was monitoring the rest of the solar system, called out across the bridge.

‘We have just detected six new ships at the edge of the system and they appear to be uncloaked Cephrit scout ships. The ships are accelerating but will not be here for at least five hours.’