Carinae Sector: 02 - Admiral's Fury - Part 3 - Fleet Action (22 page)

Mary called out for another message to be sent the Jerecab, as she noted that the Barus cruisers were still carving their way well into the rear of the armada. The Barus had already lost four cruisers, and their heavier hulls exploded with much greater violence than the detonations of the Jerecab frigates. She now checked the status of her other forces, and noted that a third of the big guns on the moon had been destroyed and two of the four cruiser strength bases orbiting the moon were now gone.

Mary fought down the grief and anger she was feeling as she realised that nearly all the smaller ships around her destroyers had also been destroyed. She told herself that she would deal with the losses later, if they survived at all.

The view screen finally came online and once again, she looked at a very surprised Admiral Baunrus, and Mary quickly offered her opponent a full formal bow and repeated her earlier demands as politely as she could.

‘Great and wise Admiral Baunrus, your armada faces imminent destruction and I once again politely call on you to surrender. All your ships and their crews will be permitted to leave here in safety upon your surrender.’

The Jerecab admiral looked pressured and deflated as he held his silence for a long moment. He soon replied in halting English after giving her a nod of respect.

‘Your forces have fought well Admiral Neilson and you have led us on a merry chase. The Sspol cruisers are withdrawing and I still think we can win this battle, so the answer is no…’

Mary interrupted Baunrus and she could tell that he did not like it.

‘Admiral with all due respect the Cephrit will arrive in a few hours and then the remnants of your once great armada will be destroyed…’

Mary was going to continue speaking, but Baunrus pulled a laser pistol and the view screen went blank as he shot at it. So instead, she turned to Rick Gordon and made a pithy observation.

‘Well we tried to save their lives, but now the whole thing is going to hell.’

Lieutenant Gordon grimaced as he now placed the latest combat simulation on the screen to muted cheers from the other bridge crew. The simulation now clearly showed that the defenders of Earth would leave very little of the armada intact for the Cephrit to clean up when they eventually arrived. Mary quickly questioned Rick about the simulation by highlighting some of his numbers at the bottom of the screen.

‘So are you sure that their point defences are largely destroyed? This is as it seems like a flawed prediction based on our earlier attacks against the Jerecab.’

Rick gave her a confident smile as he hauled up figures from the second wave of Long Lance missiles that had arrived several minutes earlier. The two of them looked over the figures and Mary felt elation as she realised the significance of the data. She steeled herself to remain calm as the missiles swept past her ships and encountered the armada.

The swarm of missiles raced for the forty remaining moderately damaged frigates at the core of the Jerecab armada. The frigates put up a weaker than usual wall of defensive fire, but even as they did so, they were assailed from the rear by the Barus cruisers and then from the front by the scattered fragments of the human forces.

The swarm of missiles tore into the central formation and a wave of cascading tactical nuclear explosions ripped into the centre of the armada. The series of overlapping explosions tore the heart out of the Jerecab formation and it collapsed into chaos. The tattered wing formations of frigates broke off and headed in opposite directions as they now sought to distance themselves from the fierce battle.

Admiral Baunrus screamed in fury as his armada was now blown apart around him. His flagship rang with two explosions and it started to slowly spin out of formation. Baunrus responded by first yelling again at his bridge crew and then over the increasingly bad video link to the other frigates.

‘Maximise all forward shields, get damage control down to engineering, stabilise our course, the wing formations are to return to their correct positions…’

Admiral Baunrus was still yelling orders when four more missiles arrived and his flagship was destroyed. He only felt a momentary flash of tremendous heat and pressure as the forward part of his powerfully built frigate was blown into fragments.

                                                                     ***

Admiral Mary Neilson had watched the destruction of the core of the armada for several long and tense moments, and she watched in sadness as two more Barus cruisers were also destroyed, with the human missiles contributing heavily to the loss of the allied ships. Lieutenant Rick Gordon updated the view screen and reported the joyous news.

‘Admiral, the back of the Jerecab armada has been broken and the survivors are fleeing in all directions. Only a few frigates are holding formation near were those two lifters were destroyed earlier.’

Admiral beamed as she quickly stood and punched the air in triumph, and her bridge crew cheered her loudly. She motioned for calm and Rick Gordon yelled loudly across the bridge.

‘Admiral on the bridge and attend to your stations.’

The crew quietened down immediately as Admiral Neilson gave a curt order.

‘Hail that last formation of Jerecab ships as we need to urgently locate their second in command.’

Ricked saved his last simulation for prosperity and the view screen went blank for several long moments as another Jerecab commander was sought. The screen came online showing a second shocked and surprised Jerecab commander and Mary immediately stated her demands in strong terms.

‘I assume you are next in command and I immediately demand the surrender of your remaining ships and their crew. We will ensure their safe return to your own worlds but you must surrender now. Note that the Sspol cruisers have not withdrawn fully and may attack again shortly. We need time to instruct our allies to stop their attacks, so I recommend you surrender right now!’

There was a moment’s hesitation, as the officer looked fiercely around his own bridge, and Mary had no doubt he was staring down potential rivals as he quickly spoke to them in series of hisses and growls. The Jerecab officer seemed to be thinking furiously before he then hoisted his laser pistol in view of the humans as he carefully replied, this time in broken English.

‘I am Captain Neanres and I am second in charge of the armada. I now speak with absolute authority for the Red Jerecab and all our ships will obey my every command. We surrender to the humans of Earth and request that we be later allowed to leave with all surviving crew and ships. Our frigates will drop all their shields in five minutes and the shields will remain down. This war with the humans was ill advised and ultimately it may well have destroyed the Red Jerecab. I also request assistance from the Cephrit and the Barus commanders to help us return home.’

Admiral Mary Neilson, defender of Earth, gave the Captain Neanres a full formal bow and spoke slowly in agreement.

‘We are in agreement then that your armada has surrendered and to the terms. We will now ask the other races to cease-fire and supply assistance to all damaged ships as required. Enough members of our races have died today and enough is enough. All allied ships fighting in the solar system, home of man, are to cease fire and maintain weapons locks on the surrendering Jerecab ships.’

The view screen went blank and cheers sounded again across the flight bridge of the Exeter. Mary watched with joy and relief as great space war ended shortly afterwards and the laser fire stopped from the ships and orbiting stations ceased. She also noted that the last of the Long Lance missiles were already gone, after having been used with terrible effect on the armada.

Mary could see that the Jerecab were as good as their word even as her remaining ships and those of the Barus reformed and maintained vigil. The admiral then buried her head in her hands and wept silent tears of relief for a few moments. She softly spoke three sentences that only a few officers nearby heard.

‘We only just got out of this and if the new missiles had failed we would have lost. So many of our ships are gone and so many lives have been lost. Oh thank god it is over and we won!’

Rick Gordon had the sense to disable the view screen, until Mary stood up and looked around the bridge as if her short display of emotion had never occurred. The admiral then called for the view screen again and now sent a video message to her remaining ships, the moon and Earth.

‘Today we won a decisive battle for our home, our planet Earth, and a warm congratulations and well done to all of you. The Jerecab will shortly be moved to a location past the orbit of Mars as they are then assisted in leaving our solar system. We will shortly begin search and rescue operations for all ships and bases caught up in the war…’

Mary was about to speak again but the view screen was echoing to cheers from the people on the surviving destroyers and the moon. For an extended period, the cheers rang out, she then idly glanced at a side monitor and noted that the four Sspol cruisers were now just maintaining their positions. Mary looked forward again as the cheers built in tempo, she merely smiled and beamed out at the view screen, as the broken remnants of the armada reformed nearby and the Jerecab commanders nervously lowered their frigate’s shields in surrender.

                                                                     ***

Chapter 11

Gindane listened to Mary’s declaration of victory and felt enormous relief that the savage space battle was now over. She gave a pair of curt orders to her remaining ships as several Jerecab missiles were still in flight nearby.

‘Someone destroy those remaining missiles and then all weapons are to be placed offline.’

Gindane then tried to contact the Exeter, but the lines were full of human communications traffic, and so she instead busied herself checking over her own remaining ships. The Barus researcher knew that the death toll among her race was high, even before the losses to Omerio’s squadron were known. All but one of her eight small destroyers had been destroyed, as the smaller destroyer Elysius had missed heavy battle by instead assisting the Maveen probe after going to the rescue of survivors from the destroyer Cairo.

Gindane knew that death tool was still climbing as dozens of Barus had been killed on the six larger research cruisers. She then quickly estimated that the humans had lost well over two hundred thousand people in space and later millions of people in their unprotected cities. After several minutes, the view screen came online and Gindane silently noted with relief that Omerio appeared to be in one piece. The Barus fleet captain exchanged full bows of courtesy with her before speaking formally.

‘Captain and Lady Gindane, please advise if you require any assistance from my fleet, noting we lost six ships and six others are heavily damaged.’

Gindane knew that Omerio had to make this offer as her research ships were all classed as auxiliary ships not full space fleet ships. She thanked Omerio for his courtesy as she formally replied for fleet protocol governed their communications even if they were good friends.

‘Fleet Captain Omerio, I thank you for your offer, but I can see you have enough problems with your own squadron. The losses amongst my own research fleet are eight destroyers and well over two thousand crew now dead.’

Omerio looked at her sadly for a moment before he spoke again.

‘Captain I am sorry to hear of the losses of so many crew and scientists. We have lost nearly double that number across my squadron and final numbers will be known shortly.’

Gindane knew that Omerio had not just called to exchange news of casualties and she waited patiently on the bridge of her research cruiser for him to speak again. Omerio looked around his own bridge for a moment as if in deep thought before he began to speak again.

Gindane and Omerio were discussing the finer points of his concerns two minutes later when the view screen on each flag ship split and Mary Neilson entered the conversation.

‘Greetings to each of you Gindane and Omerio, and on behalf of humanity I thank your for the assistance of the Barus today. We have won a great victory and it is due in large part to the sacrifices that the Barus and the Sspol made on this battle ground.’

Both Gindane and Omerio gave courteous half bows to Mary as they switched from speaking Barus to speaking English. By court custom Gindane replied first followed by Omerio.

‘Admiral we were performing our duty in defending your world, but it was also a privilege.’

‘It is an honour to serve another race by our edicts Admiral Neilson, and we congratulate your fleet on their courageous victory.’

Mary gave a polite half bow as she continued to speak.

‘As our allies you have preference for any repair work that is required. So please let us know if you require any assistance. Also we thank you for rescuing survivors from our damaged ships.’

Omerio already knew the answer and he spoke at length in reply, as he could see that something happening elsewhere now distracted Gindane.

 ‘Our ships will receive aid from the Cephrit squadrons when they arrive as they are fellow vassals and obliged to aid us. We will know more about the status of our ships shortly and we will contact you if we require assistance. As a warning watch any handling of the Jerecab as their fur has a green dander on it that is poisonous to other species. Now we recommend that you comply with sector edicts relating to the resolution of war in space, though you are doing well on this matter at the moment. Please speak to us if you require any further advice in this area.’

Omerio was now distracted by what he could see happening over near Gindane’s ships and Mary had her own pressing issues to attend.

                                                                     ***

Mary still had plenty on her plate now and soon ended the conversation with the Barus captains. Rick Gordon was ready with another data tablet, this time a listing of casualties and Mary steeled herself for the news as she read through the numbers and names of the dead.