The Slaver Wars: First Strike (The Slaver Wars Book Four) (21 page)

“War Cruisers
are to focus on those two Monarchs,” he ordered as he studied the tactical data.
“Don’t worry about the destroyers for now. I want the DeadlyDawn and our other dreadnought
to concentrate on the two human battle cruisers. Once they are eliminated, then
we can concentrate on their lighter units.” Even as he spoke, he felt his ship
shake again, and several warning alarms began sounding as red lights began
flashing on the damage control board.

“Fire our
energy beams,” he ordered heatedly, his eyes flashing anger, realizing his ship
was taking damage. “Honor will be ours today!”

-

Admiral Tolsen
felt the WarHawk shudder violently as a nuke went off against her energy
screen. On the viewscreens, bright explosions seemed to be occurring
everywhere. All the ships in both fleets were now heavily engaged except for the
Independence, which was hanging slightly back.

“Light Cruiser
Sundowner is reporting heavy damage,” Lieutenant Anders reported. A sudden
bright flash lit up the main viewscreen. “Sundowner is down,” Anders continued
his face turning ashen as he realized that close to five hundred men and women
had just died.

Tolsen
activated his mini-com, which placed him in immediate communication with
Commander Arie. “Launch your Anlon strike.”

From the Independence, sixty Anlon bombers erupted carrying shrike missiles tipped with tactical
nukes. Their targets were the Hocklyn war cruisers. Forty Talon fighters formed
up around them for protection. Other Talons were launching from the battle
carrier as well as the other human ships to engage the numerous Hocklyn fighters
that were present.

In less than a
minute, a massive dogfight opened up as space became littered with tracer fire and
the fighter duel began.

The space
around and in between the two fleets was full of exploding ordnance and missile
trails. Energy screens lit up briefly as weapons fire smashed into them.
Missiles crashed into the screens trying to knock them down, detonating in
brilliant flashes of light. Occasionally a screen would fail, and the unlucky
ship would quickly die. Defensive lasers flashed destroying inbound missiles.

“Hammer and
Justice are down,” Lieutenant Anders reported, as the two human destroyers were
annihilated when heavy nukes struck their hulls, blowing the ships apart.

Tolsen
flinched as he listened to the damage that was being done to his fleet. Looking
at the tactical display, he saw the other Hocklyn fleet was now far into the
gravity well. He felt his heart pounding, knowing good people under his command
were dying. He grabbed the edge of his command console as the WarHawk took a
hit from a powerful missile. A console in the Command Center blew out, sending a
shower of sparks across the room. Several damage control personnel rushed over
and began putting the small fire out. Glancing over at the damage control
board, he saw several red lights glowing ominously.

In space, the
dogfight was raging furiously. Hocklyn and human fighters were locked in an intricate
but deadly dance of death that ended occasionally in a bright explosion as a
fighter was destroyed. For every two Hocklyn fighters that were blown out of
space, a human one died also.

Nuclear fire
blossomed across the wavering shields of ships of both fleets. Heavy missiles
and railgun rounds struck the energy shields and occasionally, when a nuke went
off, managed to penetrate causing major damage. Deep holes were blasted in
ship’s hulls, hammering at the delicate insides of the warships.

Orange-red
laser beams and dark violet power beams flicked out at the Hocklyn ships, only
to be answered back by the Hocklyns own heavy blue energy beams. The deadly
carnage grew worse as the fighting intensified and the two fleets continued to
close with one another.

Admiral Tolsen
watched worriedly as the final seconds ticked by and the ship damage mounted
up. Suddenly space was full of more friendly green icons behind his fleet. The
other twenty-eight warships of his fleet had arrived!

-

“A trap!”
roared War Leader Tantil in anger as he saw his numerical advantage suddenly
vanish. He had been within mere minutes of wiping the human fleet in front of
him off his sensor screen.

“The new human
warships are eight minutes from extreme weapons range,” First Leader Klessen
reported as he studied the data. “We can still destroy these first human ships
before their reinforcements can get here.”

“Honor will be
ours,” Tantil hissed loudly in agreement. “Press the attack.”

-

Jeremy saw
with deep concern that the rest of Admiral Tolsen’s ships had miscalculated
their jump and jumped in too far away from the battle. By the time they reached
combat range, Admiral Tolsen’s ships might be wiped out. The second part of
Tolsen’s fleet had been too cautious in their jump.

“Prepare to
jump,” ordered Jeremy, reaching a quick decision. “Ariel, Lieutenant Grainger,
prepare to activate our new program.”

“We haven’t
been ordered in yet, Admiral,” Colonel Malen reminded Jeremy, her eyes focusing
on him.

“We don’t have
time to wait, Colonel,” he replied, firmly. “Ariel, you have control of the
fleet take us to Caden’s World.”

Colonel Malen
nodded. She knew it was the right decision.

Instantly, swirling
blue-white spatial vortexes formed in front of the seventeen ships of Jeremy’s
fleet. Ariel quickly guided the fleet ships into the individual vortexes with
the Avenger being last, but only by a microsecond.

Above Caden’s
World and just outside of the gravity well, seventeen blue-white vortexes
formed directly behind the attacking Hocklyn fleet. Out of the vortexes stormed
Jeremy’s fleet. In less than four seconds, the sensors, screens, and weapons
were online.

“We’re in
combat range,” Lieutenant Preston from Tactical reported. “Weapons are locking
on.”

“Fire!” Jeremy
ordered, his gaze focusing on the main viewscreen, which was now focused on a
massive Hocklyn dreadnought. “All ships continuous fire, don’t let those Hocklyns
escape. We need to make these first shots count!”

From the
seventeen ships of Jeremy’s fleet, massive weapons fire erupted. Orange-red
laser beams snapped out to strike the shields of the Hocklyn ships. Dark violet
power beams clawed at Hocklyn energy shields, knocking them down and cutting
deep into the hulls. Missiles and railgun rounds filled space as an onslaught
of heavy fire rained down from behind on the now trapped Hocklyn fleet. Two
Hocklyn war cruisers exploded as they were ravaged by this sudden and
unexpected attack.

-

Admiral Tolsen
breathed a deep sigh of relief as he saw Admiral Strong’s fleet jump in nearly
on top of the Hocklyns. He wasn’t sure how Strong had managed it, but it had
saved his fleet. Even as he watched, another Hocklyn war cruiser exploded
followed rapidly by two of the escort cruisers. Commander Strong had taken the
Hocklyns by complete surprise and was making mincemeat out of their fleet.

“Move us in,”
he ordered calmly, glancing at Colonel Beck. “We don’t need to let Admiral Strong
to do all of the work for us.”

-

War Leader
Tantil blanched as he saw the new human fleet appear impossibly close to his
ships. It was impossible to plot that type of micro-jump, but the humans had
done it! He was trapped between two fleets with a third closing. A bright white
light flashed across one of the viewscreens as another escort cruiser exploded
from the withering fire of the humans. Death and destruction marched across the
energy screens of his fleet, knocking many of them down. His fleet was doomed
unless War Leader Bisth arrived soon.

-

War Leader
Sangeth gazed at the sensor screens in frustration as he saw his plan starting
to come apart. If this continued, War Leader Tantil’s fleet would be destroyed.
Once again, it seemed as if they had underestimated the humans.

“We’re at
extreme weapons range of the human defense satellites,” First Leader Rahn
reported.

Sangeth turned
his gaze back to the First Leader. They could still accomplish the mission if
he could knock out the planet’s defenses and send the Protectors down to search
for the information on the human home world. Yes, victory could still be his!
When Bisth arrived he could deal with these new human ships, but Sangeth would
have the necessary information that would lead to the human home world. Honor
was still within easy reach.

“Fire
missiles!” Sangeth ordered determinedly in a cold and deadly voice. He had
learned his lesson the last time. He would destroy the human’s defensive
satellites from long-range.

From his
twenty-four ships, two hundred missiles belched forth on pillars of fire from
his missile tubes. Twenty seconds later another two hundred missiles followed.
The humans might be able to stop some of them, but they couldn’t stop them all.
Behind the two missile barrages, his fleet followed.

-

“They launched
from extreme range,” Lucy cried as she saw a rain of destruction headed for the
orbital defensive satellites.

“Launch our
missiles,” General Abercrombie ordered with determination in his voice. He
turned to face Lucy. “It’s either use them or lose them. At least this way we
may be able to take a few of them out.”

“We’re not
going to be able to stop them from going into orbit, are we?” asked Lucy
nervously, knowing that soon Hocklyn Protectors would be coming down to the two
mining settlements. There was going to be a battle for control of the surface; she
hoped Lieutenant Simmins was ready.

“No, we’re
not,” admitted General Abercrombie in a grave tone, his dark eyes gazing at
Captain Krandle. “We can take out some of them, but not all.”

In space,
Hocklyn missiles began to explode as laser beams from the defensive satellites
locked on and took them out. But the lasers had to stay focused for several
long seconds on a target to destroy it. The lasers managed to take out one
hundred and forty of the Hocklyn missiles in the first wave, but the other
sixty took out forty of the defensive satellites.

Unfortunately,
the defending human ships beneath the satellites were too far out of range to
intercept the incoming missiles. Their job was to destroy any missiles that
might get past the satellites and strike the planet. Seeing the danger, the
commander of the defending task force immediately ordered his ships to move
closer to the satellites so he could add his defensive fire to theirs. But it
was already too late as the next wave of missiles arrived and forty-eight more satellites
ceased to be.

-

Jeremy was
feeling elated as another Hocklyn escort cruiser fell to the Avenger’s weapons.
The viewscreens were full of damaged and exploding ships, most of them Hocklyn.
The rest of Admiral Tolsen’s fleet was nearly in weapons range. They would
quickly annihilate the rest of this Hocklyn fleet and then proceed to engage
the Hocklyn fleet attacking the planet. Just as he thought nothing could go
wrong, red warning alarms began sounding.

In shock,
Jeremy gazed at the tactical display as more deadly red threat icons suddenly
appeared.

“Forty-eight additional
Hocklyn warships have just jumped in,” Lieutenant Walters reported from his
sensor console in a grave voice. “I am detecting four more dreadnoughts, twelve
war cruisers, and thirty-two escort cruisers.”

“Get us turned!”
Jeremy ordered heatedly as he quickly adjusted to the sudden change in the
tactical situation.

His fleet was
the only one that could turn quickly enough to engage this new fleet. Admiral
Tolsen would have to deal with the other Hocklyn fleet for now. Looking across
the Command Center, he could see a look of fear on a number of faces. He
couldn’t blame them since he was feeling the same.

-

War Leader
Bisth gazed at the sensor screen with deep satisfaction. The human fleets were
out of position, and he would be within weapons range within twelve minutes.
They couldn’t break off engagement with War Leader Tantil without risking grave
damage to their ships, and they had to finish Tantil off before engaging him.
As he gazed at the sensor screen, he knew much honor was about to come his way.
This would be a great Hocklyn victory!

Admiral Tolsen
stared in dismay at the new group of Hocklyn Warships that had just jumped into
the system. He had never expected the Hocklyns to commit so many of their
warships to this battle. Even as he watched the tactical display, he saw that
Admiral Strong was quickly disengaging and turning his ships to face this new
incoming threat.

“Admiral
Strong’s disengaging,” reported Colonel Beck, looking over at Tolsen with deep
concern in his eyes. “He won’t last long against that fleet. There are four dreadnoughts
and twelve war cruisers bearing down on him.”

“I know,” replied
Tolsen, reaching a quick decision. He took a deep breath. “Communications contact
Admiral Adler and tell him to jump here immediately. His target is that new
Hocklyn fleet.”

“Destroyer
Olivia is down,” Lieutenant Anders reported as another friendly green icon
expanded and then vanished from the sensor screen.

In space, the
small destroyer had blown apart from multiple missile strikes. All that
remained was a glowing mass of wreckage.

“What are we
still facing?” demanded Tolsen, starting to feel desperate as he tried to make
sense of the tactical situation.

Colonel Beck
glanced at his tactical computer screen before answering. “We still have two
Hocklyn dreadnoughts, three war cruisers, and ten escort cruisers engaging us. Our
other ships will be within range in another two minutes.”

“What about
our losses?”

 We’ve lost
two light cruisers and five destroyers,” Beck answered. “However, both of our
Monarchs are reporting heavy damage and are under attack from the remaining
three Hocklyn war cruisers. They won’t last much longer, Admiral.”