The Slaver Wars: First Strike (The Slaver Wars Book Four) (23 page)

Ariel had
listened to the brief conversation and knew that her friends were scared. She
couldn’t blame them; they were in a bad situation. She needed to talk Jeremy
into letting her have control of the ship.

-

War Leader
Bisth felt great satisfaction as he watched the humans advance to meet his
fleet. One thing about these humans, they were not cowards. They were worthy
warriors and deserved respect as such. Much honor would be gained in defeating
such an enemy.

“We’re in extreme
weapons range,” reported First Leader Gresth, looking over at War Leader Bisth.
“What are your orders?”

Gresth was
pleased and excited. Honor was within easy reach, and he could already taste
the victory. The Hocklyn fleet had superior numbers and firepower and too many
of the human ships were damaged.

“Continue to
close to optimum firing range, target their capital ships with our first
salvos. I want all energy beams focused on their two surviving battle cruisers,
that’s where their commander will be,” Bisth ordered from his command pedestal
as he gazed out triumphantly over the War Room. Honor would soon be forthcoming
now that his victory was assured.

“What about
these two new ships?” Gresth asked as he put one of the strike cruisers up on
the main viewscreen. “They are 1,000 meters in length and heavily armed.”

“A new
development of their Monarch cruiser,” replied Bisth, dismissing the new ship
as a major threat. “Once the battle cruisers are destroyed, switch our energy
beams to deal with them.”

-

Both fleets
continued to close with neither firing. Jeremy watched impassively as the
numerous red and green icons on the tactical display gradually grew nearer.
“Stand by to fire,” he finally ordered. “All power beams are to focus on their
war cruisers. We will get the dreadnoughts later.” Jeremy knew that by
destroying the more numerous war cruisers it would take some of the pressure off
his lighter units. With the powerful screens the dreadnoughts were equipped
with, it would be a waste of time for his lighter units to fire upon them.

“Hocklyns are
launching fighters,” Lieutenant Walters reported as numerous red threat icons
began leaving the Hocklyn ships.

“Fighter count
is 328,” Colonel Malen informed Jeremy as she read the data coming across the
tactical computer. “That’s a lot of fighters, Sir.”

“How many do
we have?” asked Jeremy, knowing his fighters would be badly outnumbered. The Independence had only one squadron to send while his carrier, the Retribution, had yet to
commit her fighters.

“Only 212 to
send against them,” Malen replied with narrowed eyes. Then she asked her next
question. “Do we send in the bombers?”

“Yes,” replied
Jeremy heavily, knowing he was probably sending them to their deaths. “Have
them target the Hocklyn’s escort cruisers only; the capital ships have too much
defensive firepower.”

“Hocklyns are
firing!” Lieutenant Preston called out in warning from Tactical.”

“Return fire,
all batteries,” Jeremy ordered, his eyes focusing on the tactical display. Then
they took on a deadly glint of determination as he realized what had to be done.
There was only one way they were going to survive this. “Contact the Nemesis
and have them put Devastator Three missiles into six of their missile tubes and
regular Devastator missiles in six more. I want our tubes loaded the same.”

“Devastator
Three’s!” Malen responded her eyes widening in shock. “We don’t have permission
to use those in this battle!”

“It’s a
command decision,” Jeremy replied, his eyes holding steady. “I want to target
all four of their dreadnoughts. If Devastator Threes are supposed to knock down
an AI shield, then they should smash the shields on a dreadnought. I want a follow
up strike from our power beams and railguns; we need to destroy those four dreadnoughts.
It’s the only way we’re going to win this.”

Even as Jeremy
finished speaking, he felt the Avenger shudder from weapons fire striking her
shields. He looked up at the main viewscreen and Ariel. “Ariel, once the Devastator
Three strike has been launched, I am turning control of the Avenger over to you.
Can you take control of the Nemesis as well?”

Ariel smiled
in anticipation. “Yes, Lieutenant Johnson and I have prepared a special program
just for this; it has already been loaded in the Nemesis’s mainframe.”

Jeremy merely
shook his head; even now it seemed that Ariel and Katie were one step ahead of
him.

Around the
Avenger, Hocklyn missile fire spread nuclear fury across the screens of the
human fleet. Occasionally, a screen would fail and the ship’s hull would suffer
from the onslaught. The space between the two fleets was full of exploding
weapons as missiles and missile interceptors collided, defensive fire destroyed
inbound ordnance, and power beams, energy beams, and lasers leaped between the
two fleets.

-

War Leader
Sangeth watched his main sensor screen as the last human warship was destroyed
above the mining planet. The battle had been swift and brutal, with all
fourteen human ships being annihilated as well as the defensive satellites, but
they had extracted a heavy cost to Sangeth’s fleet. One war cruiser and six escort
cruisers were gone.

“Begin landing
our Protectors,” ordered Sangeth, wanting to find the needed information about
the human home world before War Leader Bisth arrived over the planet. Already
much honor had been achieved. While it was true War Leader Bisth was also
adding honor to his name, it would be Sangeth that would bring the information
about the human home world back to Commodore Resmunt.

Examining the
sensor screen, he noticed that Bisth was heavily engaged with the remaining
human ships. The humans had been much more powerful than expected. There was no
doubt in Sangeth’s mind that a heavily populated human world lay somewhere close
by. Its conquest would bring tremendous honor to his family as well as himself.
He would soon be a Fleet Commodore after this victory and extremely wealthy.

-

Captain
Krandle and General Abercrombie had made it to the underground Command Center. Unlike the operations center, this large room was staffed completely by
military personnel and heavily shielded.

“Hocklyn
shuttles are descending,” a corporal reported from his sensor console as numerous
small red threat icons left two of the orbiting ships and proceeded into the
atmosphere.

“Surface batteries
standby to fire,” General Abercrombie ordered into his mini-com. He was in
communication with all of his forces and planned to direct the battle from
here. The Hocklyns would not be allowed to land unopposed.

A bank of
large viewscreens on one wall showed scenes from across the two mining communities.
Several were showing the space above both settlements, and already contrails
could be seen from descending Hocklyn shuttles.

“Fire on
target lock,” Abercrombie ordered as his eyes focused on the screens. Every
Hocklyn Protector killed in their shuttles was one less his marines would have
to deal with on the ground.

Almost instantly,
blazing interceptor missiles launched arrowing upward toward the descending
shuttles. No sooner did they launch than horrendous explosions struck the
launching sites. Railgun fire from the orbiting Hocklyn ships was targeting
every missile firing location.

Lucy felt sick,
knowing brave men and women were dying up above in the town. She hoped Lieutenant
Simmins was still okay. Her eyes were glued to the screens as explosions continued
to rock the settlement. Several buildings had already collapsed, and others
were starting to burn. Out of the corner of her eyes, she could see the pained
look on Adam Severson’s face as the work of years was being systematically
destroyed.

General
Abercrombie was watching the screens intently. He saw several of his interceptor
missiles strike the inbound shuttles. Fiery red explosions dotted the early
afternoon sky, and then it was over.

“Hocklyn
shuttles are down,” the corporal reported. “Our defensive missile fire took out
twelve of them, but the other twenty-eight managed to land.”

“Now it’s up
to our marines,” Abercrombie stated grimly as he passed on the warning to his
people up above. He knew that shortly they would be facing a lot of heavily
armed Hocklyn Protectors.

-

Jeremy felt
the Avenger shudder again as a railgun round slipped through the battered
energy screen. He was waiting for point blank range to hit the Hocklyns with
the Devastator Threes. With their miniaturized sublight drive and inertial
dampening system, the Hocklyns would never detect the launch. He glanced over
at the damage control board, noticing a few more red lights were glowing. The
Avenger was taking some damage, even with her powerful energy screen.

“Optimum range
now,” spoke Ariel, wanting Jeremy to launch. The Avenger was taking too much
damage. Already, her weapons systems had been degraded by eight percent.

“Launch,”
Jeremy ordered softly. Around the Command Center, it became so quiet you could
hear a pin drop. This would be the first time any of them had seen a Devastator
Three used.

“Launching,” replied
Lieutenant Preston, as he pressed a series of buttons.

On the
Avenger’s outer hull, twelve hatches slid open on the ship’s missile tubes.
From six of them, there was a bright flash and then nothing. From the other six,
Devastator missiles rose up on pillars of flame their targeting sensors
reaching out and pinpointing the Hocklyn dreadnoughts.

-

War Leader
Bisth was feeling the satisfaction of victory as his ships pounded the human
fleet. Already several of their lighter units had fallen to Hocklyn weapons
fire, and their heavier units were suffering significant damage.

Suddenly a
series of bright flashes covered all the viewscreens and the WarCry shuddered
violently, then the ship seemed to be struck by a massive object, which
threatened to break the ship apart. Bisth could hear loud explosions and
wrenching sounds from the ship’s hull as he struggled to hold onto the command
console, then he was thrown violently to the deck. All the lights went out and
several consoles exploded, sending bright showers of sparks across the room. Several
supporting metal beams broke loose and came crashing down. Cries of pain and
shock filled the War Room.

“First Leader
Gresth!” Bisth rasped loudly as he stood back up, feeling a sharp pain in one leg.

The emergency
lights flashed on, and he saw the War Room was in shambles. It was rapidly
filling with smoke and several small fires were burning. Looking over to his side,
he saw Gresth with his head up against a console. From the angle, Bisth knew
the First Leader was dead.

-

Jeremy closed
his eyes briefly as brilliant explosions lit up the viewscreens on the front wall
of the Command Center. Rolling nuclear fire covered the location of all four of
the Hocklyn dreadnoughts. Even as he watched, the second wave of weaker
Devastator missiles arrived and added to the maelstrom.

“Did we get
them?” Jeremy asked intently, his eyes turning to Kevin.

“Sensors are
off line,” Lieutenant Walters reported. “There was too much of an EMP blast
from those missiles and it will take a moment for the systems to recover.”

Finally, the
tactical image above the plotting table flickered and then came back on.

“Two dreadnoughts
are down, and the other two are heavily damaged,” Colonel Malen told Jeremy as
she studied the data. “The two surviving dreadnoughts are finished; they’re
just floating wrecks.”

Jeremy smiled viciously.
“Ariel, the Avenger and Nemesis are yours. Let’s go get those war cruisers; all
other ships are to continue to pound the escorts. I want both battle carriers
to move up into optimum combat range and add their firepower to the rest of the
fleet.”

“It’s your
turn now, Ariel,” Katie spoke over their private channel. Let’s go show Jeremy
what you can do.”

Ariel felt a
flush of excitement at getting to show Jeremy what she was capable of. The
Avenger and Nemesis suddenly accelerated sharply and closed on a Hocklyn war cruiser.
Every weapon the two ships could bring to bear fired in unison, all impacting a
target only a few meters across on the Hocklyn’s energy screen. Its shields
instantly collapsed, and Ariel sent through a Devastator missile. The war
cruiser ceased to be as nuclear fire consumed the ship.

Jeremy was
silent as he watched. He hadn’t given Ariel permission to use Devastator
missiles but after seeing the result, he wasn’t going to argue.

-

Admiral Streth
nodded in satisfaction as the WarStorm’s long-range sensors detected the Devastator
Three missiles going off.

“Take us in, Amanda,”
ordered Hedon, knowing the time had finally arrived. “Let’s go help Admiral
Strong finish off those Hocklyn ships. Those missiles should have knocked their
FTL drives offline; they can’t escape now. Tell Admiral Adler he has a go.”

“You knew he
would use those missiles, didn’t you?” spoke Amanda gazing accusingly at the
admiral in surprise.

“I suspected,”
replied Hedon with a satisfied smile. “From what I have learned of Admiral
Strong, he doesn’t believe in losing. The Devastator Threes were his only
choice.”

-

War Leader
Bisth looked at the sensor screen, which had just been brought back online.
Very little else was working in the War Room. Even the heavy metal hatch was
jammed so they couldn’t get out and help couldn’t get in. Communications with
most parts of the ship were down. From what little information he had been able
to receive, he knew his ship was mortally wounded and all that was left was for
it to finish dying. He wondered just what the humans had hit his ships with and
why they hadn’t used it before. The Hocklyns possessed no weapon comparable to
what had just been used against him.