The Slaver Wars: First Strike (The Slaver Wars Book Four) (41 page)

-

“They’re
here,” reported Clarissa, trying to keep her voice calm.

She was
frightened as the two AI ships were obviously a very serious threat to the
StarStrike. If the StarStrike were destroyed, Clarissa would die with it and
her long life would be over. She wondered if she should send a farewell message
to Ariel. She did however send a message to Admiral Stillson notifying him of
the arrival of the two AI ships.

“All ships stand
by,” Admiral Streth ordered over his mini-com, which was set for ship-to-ship
communications. “We have to let them jump in, and then we will launch our
attack.”

Hedon took a
long breath. He knew that no matter what he did he was about to lose some ships.
He just hoped he could stop these two AI ships with the forces he had. If not,
then once his fleet was destroyed the AIs would move in and destroy Admiral
Sheen and Admiral Adler’s fleets. Both were trapped in the gravity well of the
planet.

“All ships
have Devastator and Devastator Threes loaded in their tubes,” Colonel Trist
reported as he gazed at the tactical display, which depicted the two AI ships.
The display next to it showed the thirteen green icons of the remaining First
Fleet ships. From two of the icons, numerous smaller icons began appearing.

“Commander
Layton and Commander Bixby are launching their bombers,” Captain Reynolds
reported from sensors.

Hedon nodded.
It was essential that he hit the two AI ships as hard as he could as soon as they
jumped into attack range. Hedon watched with calm nerves as the Command Center around him buzzed with increased activity.

“Vortexes
forming in front of the AIs,” Clarissa informed them as she walked over to
stand next to the admiral. She was growing more frightened every minute. For
the first time since she had become the AI on the new StarStrike, she wondered
if she would survive the next few hours.

“AIs have
entered the vortexes,” she reported. She had barely spoken the word when two white
spatial vortexes formed less than twenty thousand kilometers from the
StarStrike, and the AI ships were here!

“All ships
form up on the StarStrike, formation Delta Bravo Two,” Hedon ordered swiftly.
“Helm, close with the AIs at max combat speed. Tactical, prepare to fire upon
my command.”

The StarStrike
and her twelve protectors charged forward. Weapons were readied and targeting
systems locked on. The last admiral from the former Federation of worlds was
attacking his enemy; the very enemy that had destroyed the worlds he had loved
so much.

-

Admiral
Sheen’s face turned white when she saw how close the AIs had jumped to Admiral
Streth’s fleet. Even as she watched, she saw the admiral adjust his fleet
formation and move rapidly to engage.

“Hocklyn fleet
is breaking orbit and moving to intercept us,” Commander Evans spoke suddenly
as she saw the sudden movement from the remaining Hocklyn ships.

“Of course,”
Amanda replied with a sigh. “They see that their masters have arrived. It’s the
opportune time for them to attack us. They figure once the AIs have destroyed
Admiral Streth’s fleet they will jump in and begin to destroy ours.”

“The Hocklyns
will be in weapons range in four minutes,” Lieutenant Stalls reported from his
sensor console.

“Let’s go get
them,” ordered Amanda, knowing she had no other choice. There was nothing she
could do to help First Fleet and Admiral Streth.

She quickly
contacted Admiral Adler and told him to prepare his Anlon bombers for a nuclear
strike. They needed to finish off this Hocklyn fleet before the AIs could come
to its rescue. She looked back wearily one last time at the main tactical
display, which showed the StarStrike and the rest of First Fleet charging
toward the two deadly AI ships. “Go get them, admiral,” she said softly.

-

“Stand by to
fire,” Hedon ordered as they reached optimum weapons range. Before he could say
another word, two massive energy beams leaped out from the AI warships,
striking the battle cruiser Deliverance and the strike cruiser Hunter. Massive
explosions covered the main viewscreen.

“Deliverance
is down,” Captain Reynolds reported, his face turning ashen at the sudden
destruction of the powerful warship.

“The Hunter is
reporting her shields held, but just barely,” Colonel Trist added. “They can’t
take another hit like that!”

“All weapons,
fire!” ordered Hedon, grimly.

From the
remaining twelve warships energy beams, Devastator missiles and Devastator
Three missiles launched. Space lit up with energy beams and missile trails.

The two AI
ship’s screens suddenly blossomed with a multitude of brilliant flashes as the
nuclear ordnance and the energy beams struck. The screens wavered in a couple
of areas, but refused to go down.

“AI ship’s
shields are holding,” Colonel Trist oathed worriedly, looking over at the
admiral. “Even the Devastator Threes are failing to get through.”

“Anlon bombers
going in,” Captain Reynolds reported. On his sensor screen, 280 bombers each
equipped with four nuclear tipped Shrike missiles hurtled determinedly toward
the two AI ships.

“AIs are opening
up some type of defensive fire,” Tactical reported.

Hedon watched in
horror one of the large tactical displays showing the bombers. In multitudes,
they were being wiped out.

“Bombers
launching their missiles,” Colonel Trist reported, his throat suddenly feeling
very dry. “They are attempting to withdraw.”

In seconds,
more nuclear explosions covered the powerful energy screens of the two AI
ships. The screens were glowing a steady white from all the energy that was
being released. Another AI energy beam leaped out and the strike cruiser Hunter
vanished from the screen as her weakened shields were penetrated and her hull exposed.
The energy beam shot completely through the ship, cutting her into.

The StarStrike
suddenly shuddered violently, and the lights in the Command Center appreciably dimmed.

“We got hit by
an energy beam,” reported Clarissa, nervously. “Shields are holding at eighty
percent.”

Hedon nodded
and took a deep breath. “Continue to close,” he ordered unwaveringly He would
ram one of the AI ships if he had to. His eyes focused intently on the main viewscreen,
which now showed the two AIs. He was determined that these two AI ships would
not be leaving this system, no matter what the cost.

-

Fleet
Commodore Resmunt allowed himself to smile, knowing that victory was once more
within easy reach. The remaining ships in his fleet were nearly within
engagement range of the humans. He had sixty-three warships still under his
command, including twenty-three capital ships. It was time to make the humans
pay for what they had done to his shipyard and fleet a few days earlier.

“Honor is
before us,” he spoke as he prepared to give the word to fire on the two human
fleets before him.

“Honor is
before us,” First Leader Ganth agreed. Ganth was feeing jubilant. He reached
down and ran his right hand over the jeweled hilt of his knife. With the AIs
here, victory was assured. Much honor would soon be coming their way.

-

Admiral
Stillson had jumped his fleet into the outer periphery of the system. Long-range
scans already showed Admiral Streth was already heavily engaged with the two
AIs ships.

“Status of
First Fleet!” he demanded as he gave the order for the navigation officer to
plot a jump as close to Admiral Streth’s position as possible.

“First Fleet
has already lost three battle cruisers and one strike cruiser, other ships are damaged,
and the StarStrike is under heavy attack,” Colonel Jarvington replied in a
stunned voice as he studied the scans that were coming in. “I think Admiral
Streth intends to ram one of the AI ships!”

“Prepare to
jump,” ordered Stillson, worriedly. He couldn’t let Admiral Streth sacrifice
himself. The drive core could still handle a short micro-jump, and he intended
to jump directly into the fire. “All weapons to target the AI ships as soon as
systems come online. Use of Devastator and Devastator Three missiles is
authorized.”

“Jump
plotted,” the navigation officer reported.

“Jump!”
Stillson ordered. He had to save Admiral Streth! The Federation couldn’t afford
to lose its greatest hero.

-

Hedon felt the
StarStrike take another heavy blow. Smoke was drifting across the Command Center as the ship’s systems were pushed to their limits.

“Shields are
at forty percent,” reported Clarissa, worriedly. She was hurriedly shifting
power feeds and cutting out what she considered non-essential systems all in an
attempt to strengthen the weakening energy shield.

“Battle
cruiser Matterhorn is reporting heavy damage, their shields are down,” Colonel
Trist spoke, his face drained of color

“New contacts!”
yelled Captain Reynolds. “Its Admiral Stillson from New Tellus, he’s brought
eight battle cruisers, four strike cruisers, and one carrier!”

“He’s turning
to engage the AIs,” Trist reported as he gazed with relief at one of the
tactical screens. It should take some of the pressure off the StarStrike, at
least enough to allow them to recharge the ship’s shields.

Clarissa felt
the attack ease. With the advent of the new ships, the AIs were shifting their
fire. She could sense the energy screen on the StarStrike quickly strengthening.
She would live a little bit longer.

Trist looked
over at Admiral Streth. “Where the hell did Admiral Stillson come from?”

“I don’t
know,” Hedon replied confused by the appearance of the new ships. “But we need
to press the attack. This might be our only chance to destroy these two AI
ships.” Hedon quickly contacted Admiral Stillson, directing him to focus all of
his firepower on just one of the AI ships.

-

Amanda felt
the WarStorm shudder again as a Hocklyn missile managed to penetrate the energy
screen and detonate against the hull. Space between her fleet and the Hocklyns
was full of exploding ordnance and missile trails.

Both sides
were losing ships, but Second and Third Fleet had nearly a two to one advantage
in ships and were rapidly wearing the Hocklyn fleet down. If the AIs didn’t intervene,
this battle would be over in another few minutes. She tapped her mini-com,
putting her in contact with Admiral Adler. “Jacob, launch your bomber strike,
its time we finished this.”

“On their way,
Amanda,” Admiral Adler replied.

As Amanda
watched, the bombers launched. Turning her attention back to one of the sensor screens,
she saw that more Federation ships had arrived to help First Fleet. She also
noticed that nearly half the First Fleet icons were missing. Forcing herself to
focus, she turned back to the battle at hand. She needed to deal with the
Hocklyns first and then worry about the AIs. She also didn’t have the time to
figure out where the additional Federation ships had come from.

-

Resmunt
snarled in anger as another of his war cruisers vanished from his sensors as
its self-destructs went off. The battle was not going well. He had hoped the
human fleets would be distracted by the arrival of the AIs. He now realized he
should have waited longer to launch his attack. The AIs were still engaged with
the human fleets outside of the planet’s gravity well. He had thought by now it
would have been over and they would have jumped in to engage the human fleets
he was attacking.

“Move us in closer
to the human fleet,” he ordered, wanting his weapons to be more effective. “If
honor is to come our way today, we will meet it with the deaths of these
humans.”

“As you
order,” First Leader Ganth responded as he moved to comply. Even as ordered the
fleet to move closer, he saw another human destroyer vanish from the sensor
screens as the Liberator’s energy beams annihilated it. With each destroyed
human ship, more honor came to the crew of the flagship.

-

Amanda winced
as the destroyer Albright disappeared in a blaze of light on the main
viewscreen. Too many of her ships were dying. Looking over at the damage
control console, she saw a number of red lights burning steadily. The WarStorm
was still taking damage.

“Shifting fire
to Hocklyn war cruiser,” Lieutenant Mason at tactical reported.

From the
WarStorm, its twin power beams leaped out, striking the war cruiser’s energy
screen. The screen wavered, and then it was struck by a combination of Klave
high explosive missiles and four ten-kiloton Devastators. The shield collapsed
in several areas and railgun rounds as well as missiles struck the armored
hull. Massive gashes were torn in the hull and explosive decompression ran
through the outer edges of the Hocklyn ship. Then a Devastator missile
penetrated and blasted the Hocklyn war cruiser into burning wreckage. Seconds later,
its self-destructs went off and the ship was gone.

“War cruiser
is down,” Lieutenant Stalls reported in a satisfied voice.

“Bomber strike
is going in now,” Commander Evans informed Admiral Sheen as the Anlon bombers
swept past the WarStorm in their squadron formations.

Amanda nodded.
The bomber strike would deeply hurt the Hocklyns and then her warships could
move in and finish them off. This part of the battle was almost over, but the
battle against the two AI ships might just be beginning. Her eyes shifted over
to one of the sensor screens, and with relief she saw that the StarStrike was
still fighting.

-

The Avenger
and Nemesis exited two blue-white spatial vortexes just 20 million kilometers
from the AI ships.

“Status,”
barked Jeremy as the systems quickly came back online and the main tactical
display lit up.

“Both AI ships
are still intact,” reported Ariel, uneasily. “First Fleet has lost nearly
seventy percent of their heavy units. There is also a Ceres Fleet under command
of Admiral Stillson in the system attempting to take on the AIs. According to
Clarissa, Admiral Stillson has lost thirty percent of his relief fleet in the
last four minutes. She also reports that their weapons, including the
Devastator Threes, have been ineffective in knocking down the AI’s energy
shields.”