Retribution (The Federation Reborn Book 3) (106 page)

Second Fleet realized quickly that even though the bear had been wounded, the wolves could still fall prey to her tooth and claws.
Star Mauler
lived up to her name as the DN thundered back her defiance against the federation ships. She turned to expose her flank and then rolled to fire at the enemy fleet. With nothing left to lose her missile tubes went into sprint mode.

Her maneuver dropped her speed so the lead elements of the federation fleet could overhaul. Up until her turn, the two fleets had been dueling with their bow and chase armaments, each trying to maneuver ever so slightly to bring their flank, dorsal, or keel weapons into play but rarely succeeding.

Now that all changed in an instant as the dreadnaught with nothing left to lose lit into the point battle cruiser division with a fury born of rage and desperation.

:::{)(}:::

Jojo swore as her eyes watched as
Justice
and
Maine
took the brunt of the enemy capital ship's initial volley.
Justice's
fire control was immediately saturated and missiles got through to hammer at her shields. As the ships closed the range, they returned fire but their own damage was too much to spit back coherent fire.

Then
Justice
entered the outer engagement zone of
Star Mauler's
energy weapon's envelope. The missiles that had been hammering at her switched to her division mate as energy weapons that could tear apart a moon licked and tore at her dying shields.

“Oh frack me,” a rating murmured, just loud enough for the others to hear.

Justice
had similar weapons but far fewer of them. And her crew's focus was on defense and survival, so no answering fire was returned. Before the gunnery crews had a chance to fire, some of the Dreadnaught's graser fire got through her armor and tore the ship apart.

“Oh, frack me sideways!” he said in bitter tones.

“That's enough of that. Order
Maine
to pull back,” Admiral White growled. “Get Second Division to focus fire on that ship until we can hammer her.” he scowled as
Maine
bucked then listed. Her return fire slacked and died so the dreadnaught switched to another target.

“Scratch that. Get everyone on that damn ship. I want it torn into splinters,” the Neochimp growled.

“Now you're talking, sir,” Garfield growled.

:::{)(}:::

Captain Samuels shook her head angrily, like a horse trying to get rid of a fly. Finally, she got her head wrapped around the fact that her ship was in sorry straights. “Report?” she croaked out.

“Do you want the bad news, the worse news, or the frack news?” Lobsterman asked.

The captain shook her head again, and then winced when throbbing pain hit her shoulder and neck. “I'm guessing bad doesn't cover it,” she said.

“The good news is the enemy is now ignoring us. They've switched to the rest of the fleet.”

“Good. I think,” Naomi said as she checked herself over. “Get DCC on a SITREP. Where are we on that?”

“It's more of a case of finding something that's still functional at this point than what isn't, Skipper,” Lobsterman said, his avatar flickering in and out.

“You're still here I see,” the captain said.

“Barely,” the A.I. retorted. “The flag bridge is … messy,” the A.I. said.

“Frack,” the captain muttered. “We'll count the breakage and mourn the dead later. Let's make sure the living stay that way for the moment,” she said.

“Amen to that,” the A.I. replied as he brought up a SITREP of the ship. “Here's what I know,” he began to report.

:::{)(}:::

Captain Knoll grinned savagely as his ship rocked. They were getting slowly torn apart, but his ship was doing what it was designed to do. She'd destroyed one battle cruiser, lamed or destroyed a second, and had crippled two more. More fire rocked his ship. He didn't have any regrets he thought as he focused the fire onto a third Battle Cruiser Division.

:::{)(}:::

“Right about now I'm regretting loosing
Bismark
,” Commodore Harris said as he limped off his dark flag bridge. “Naomi, how bad is the damage?” he demanded when he exited the compartment. He leaned against the wall to prop himself up. When a tech in a suit came flying by, he made a hole. The tech had more important things to do it seemed.

“Glad to hear you are still here, sir,” Naomi replied after a moment. He winced and looked down. His implants were holding his leg together, that and the suit. “How bad is it on the flag bridge, sir?”

“Bad. I'm the only survivor,” Harris growled. “The fleet?”

“We lost
Justice
. We're out of the fight; command has shifted to
Bismark
it seems, sir,” she said.

“Damn,” the commodore said. He started to limp to the bridge but then thought better of it. He slowly sank to the deck. He propped his good leg up. “I'm going to sit here until you can get someone here,” he said.

“Bad?” Naomi asked, voice tinged with concern.

He stared at the slowly bubbling leg. “Bad enough,” he grumbled, watching some of the blood dribble out of his leg and float before it slowly drifted to the deck. The lights flickered then went out. “Damned if I'm going to die sitting on my ass in the dark,” he growled, struggling to rise.

“Help is on the way, sir. Hang tight,” Naomi said.

“Right,” Harris said as his vision swam. “Right,” he sighed, leaning the back of his helmet up against the bulkhead. He used both hands to apply pressure to the wound. The tourniquet built into the suit had cut off most of the blood flow, and his implants were blocking the pain receptors. His eyes fluttered. He saw a med tech arrive and waved a feeble hand. “Don't mind me,” he growled. “Naomi, medical is here. Get the ship sorted out pronto.”

“Aye aye, sir,” Naomi replied as she cut the circuit.

:::{)(}:::

The dreadnaught might have equivalent weapons, but the battle cruisers it was tangling with had similar ones. A
Newman
class had dreadnaught class energy weapons for turrets. Because they were BCs, they had far fewer mounts of course, but they could still extract damage from the dreadnaught.

Star Mauler's
defiant ire distracted Second Fleet during the crucial moment of their triumph. They turned on her as she tore into the third and fourth division. She tore into
Texas
and
Alaska
as they fought valiantly back and did their best to cover their wounded sister ships. Their unwounded sister ships did their best to intercept the missile fire.
Denmark
and
Dawning of a New Day
took further damage as the dreadnaught turned its fire on them.

But then it was
Quirinus'
and
Bismark's
turn.
Quirinus
was slightly closer. She opened up with her bow weapons, going straight into the other dreadnaught.

:::{)(}:::

“Focus all fire on that dreadnaught!” Captain Knoll snarled as wiring and minor explosions erupted around him. The fires were instantly snuffed out; the bridge was in vacuum. That said a lot, since the bridge of the warship was buried deep in her guts.

“It's like they are trying to ram, sir!” a rating said, coughing as she clung to her station.

“Maneuvering, emergency blow positive Z. Get us out of her basket!” the captain barked.

“She's firing!” the same rating said.

:::{)(}:::

Quirinus
like other DNs and the old
Derfflinger
class had a bow-mounted capital force beam emitter set up as a major offensive weapon. With no shields to interdict the fire, the force emitters shredded and tore at
Star Mauler's
already shredded hull. Her armor buckled and collapsed, ripping in and out as the force emitter switched from presser to tractor in micro second increments.

It was too much for the structure of the ship as the force emitter kept tearing into her, right to her already weakened and patched skeleton. Too many links in her frame were bent, torn, and cut apart. Suddenly her back broke and the ship came apart. The pieces drifted apart as
Quirinus
cut her force emitter and then reinforced her bow shields to buffer her way through the wreckage like an umbrella wielding person facing a torrential downpour.

:::{)(}:::

Amadeus sat back as tension melted away. It was done, at least part of it. His fleet had paid a heavy toll though. The entire engagement had lasted less than five minutes. Five minutes to take down the titan … but an intense five minutes of fighting.
Star Mauler
was dead. He was surprised to see the occasional life pod spit from the derelict pieces.

But her last bitter act of defiance had given the rest of the Retribution Fleet the window it had needed to get clear, charge their hyperdrives, and then escape.

“Damn it!” Jojo snarled impotently as the last ship jumped.

“They won't get far,” the admiral growled. “Get SAR out and working now. I want a SITREP on every ship. Garfield, a SITREP on the missiles too if you please—both counter and offense,” he said as he began to issue orders. The Neocat flicked his ears and acknowledgement then turned and bent over his station to get busy.

“Alec, we can slow down now. I don't want to overshoot the engagement zone now that's it's all over but the crying over the breakage. Get us to a zero zero as quickly as you can,” the admiral ordered. “Kyle, SITREP on all ships. Anyone who needs help let me know. Have the CICs work on finding any Dutchmen out there. I don't care whose side they are, but our people get priority of course.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Jojo, get with comm. Have them talk to everyone. Let the Dutchmen know help is coming.”

“Aye aye, sir,” his flag lieutenant replied with a dutiful nod.

“Next lay a comm laser on that courier we left at the Protodon jump point. Start uploading the logs to them. I know it's going to take a while, but get on that, which means we'll need downloads from the other ships. All of them I suppose,” the admiral said.

“It'll take a while to transmit all that information, sir,” Jojo warned.

“I know, so get on that now and let the comm section handle the details. Status on Dwight?”

“He's in surgery, sir. They think he'll keep the leg,” Jojo responded instantly.

“Good. Can't keep a good man down. Excellent.”

“Yes, sir. Sir, comm laser is on target. We're waiting on a handshake before we begin the upload. It will take a while at this distance,” Jojo reported.

“I know. SITREP on the other ships …,” he grimaced.

“Commodore Vargess has ordered the SAR shuttles out, sir. He's had them prepped. The carriers are moving out to cover the entire battle space,” a comm rating reported.

“Good,” the admiral said as he started on the next part of the post battle chores.

Chapter 46

Admiral De Gaulte closed his eyes briefly in pain as his fleet paid one last debt in blood for their arrogance. He couldn't bear to see
Musashi
torn apart as the battered
Newman
gave her all to escape and failed in hyperspace.

“Musashi
is gone, sir. The couriers,
Nimitz
,
Demeantor
,
Unconquered
, six destroyers, and two cruisers are still with us,” Catherine reported quietly.

“Understood. Get me a DCC SITREP. I want us moving up the octaves as soon as we can.”

“Should we dispatch the couriers and
Nimitz
to do so, sir?
Nimitz
sustained light damage and the couriers none at all,” Catherine asked. “We can have the couriers get ahead to warn the fleet train. I don't know if they can beat the enemy fleet there, but we should try, sir.”

The admiral cocked his head tiredly, and then nodded. “Okay. Upload a SITREP to them. I know we're in hyper so you have to keep it brief. Short and sweet, then get them off and running. We'll follow at our best speed.”

“Aye aye, sir,” she said.

“I feel like I ran a week-long marathon,” the admiral said. “Once we've gotten an idea on where we stand, I want everyone who can to stand down and get some rest. We've earned it,” he said.