Time Commander (The First Admiral Series) (5 page)

The remaining Star Cruisers were forming another box formation around the two Fleet Carriers and the four vulnerable Cruisers. Eight of the remaining ten Star Cruisers set up the box formation facing the enemy, whilst the remaining two flanked the Star-Destroyer which sat above the rest of the vessels. Admiral Parbe’an knew that the Force Shielding of the Star Destroyer was the most powerful in his Fleet. If his smaller vessels became too vulnerable, the flagship could extend its shielding to protect them. However, if it came to a real crisis in the battle, Parbe’an could unleash the awesome power of the Trionic Cannon with a clear field of fire.

On the three-dimensional image, Billy could see the tiny moving specks that were the Eagles of Third Fleet, shielded behind the larger vessels forming into their squadrons and groups for the attack on the Ganthorans. With another deft flick of the control, Billy magnified the area where the Eagles were gathering. For a few moments, he observed how the Eagle fighters flew in elliptical patterns away from their base ships as the newly launched pilots joined up with their comrades behind their leaders.

Flicking the switch again, Billy changed the perspective to that of the Ganthoran Fleet. They were advancing in good order; a sign of well-disciplined troops. Looking at the Ganthoran arrow-head formation from above, Billy noted that the defensive screen was evenly distributed around the “Six-Cigar” Carriers. Scrutinizing the image closely, Billy could see, at least, one third of the Ganthorans’ fighting strength was deployed behind their Carriers. Had he been the Ganthoran General, there would have been a small defensive screen behind the Carriers, with the rest of the vessels pushed up front to face the enemy. That was going to be a nominal advantage for Parbe’an’s Eagles.

With significant combat power being wasted at the rear of the Carriers, the Eagle fighters would have less opposition to force their way through to reach their objectives of the “Six Cigar” Carriers. The
Ganthorans were disciplined all right
, Billy considered,
but perhaps they were just a little too disciplined
. Slavishly sticking to a uniform defensive formation like this arrow-head was indicative of subordinates who did not have much leeway to diverge from the Commanding Officers plan.

“
Compliments to Admiral Parbe’an, and ask him to note the deployment at the rear of the Ganthoran formation,” Billy instructed the Senior WATO.

“
Yes, sir.”

“
Yes, they’re a little bit too neat at the back.” The calm and professional voice of Marrhus Lokkrien broke Billy Caudwell’s concentration for a moment. “Very nice for fly-past reviews, but rather wasteful in combat.”

“
Yes, let’s hope that they’re as inflexible when the shooting starts,” Billy continued to study the image.

Behind the line of larger Alliance vessels, Billy could see three formations of Eagles beginning to develop for their initial attack. Once again, Billy found himself in agreement with Parbe’an’s tactics. To launch one huge strike would simply offer up a huge number of targets to the Ganthoran gunners. Three attacks would divide their attention and their defensive gun-fire.

“Response from Third Fleet, sir. Admiral Parbe’an says that’s more to kill and fewer to shoot back,” the WATO said.

“
You know, sir,” Lokkrien said, “I really do feel a little bit sorry for those Ganthorans.”

“
Well, let’s save it until we’ve beaten them shall we, Marrhus?”

From the image on the War Table, Billy could see that the three Alliance attacks had formed up and were about to be launched against the advancing Ganthorans. With over four thousand Eagle fighters at his disposal, Admiral Parbe’an had split them into three attack groups. With fourteen hundred Eagles in each group, Parbe’an had a significant punch to deliver at any enemy. The closing distance to the Ganthoran forces was less than ten thousand kilometres, and would take the Alliance Eagles less than three minutes to engage. Each ten fighter Eagle squadron was in its traditional formation: The leader would take pole position with three fighters to his left wing and six fighters to his right wing. From above, the formation looked like an inverted “V” with one arm significantly longer than the other. In a combat situation, when the Eagles engaged, the right wing of the squadron could attempt to outflank, and try to loop around to the rear of the enemy formation.

Billy Caudwell watched with increasing satisfaction as the Alliance Eagle attack wings began to close the distance on the Ganthoran formation.

“
How long until we can engage Trion Drives?” Billy asked.

“
Another twelve minutes, sir.”

Biting back his frustration and anger, Billy Caudwell watched helplessly as the Eagles closed the distance with the Ganthorans. For seconds that seemed like hours to Billy Caudwell, the small Alliance Eagle fighters on the three-dimensional War Table image rushed towards the advancing Ganthoran formation. Billy knew that it would be a straight direct rush to the Ganthorans until the weapon fire opened up. Once engaged, the Eagles would be in their element to dodge, weave and engage targets of opportunity until they either fell to the enemy’s weapons or broke through to the “Six Cigar” Carriers. But first, they had to run the gauntlet of the initial impact.

“Ganthorans are deploying weapons, sir,” the WATO said.

On the War Table image, Billy Caudwell focussed on the Ganthoran formation. With the magnification available, he could see rows of Ganthorans begin to extend the arms from the sides of their vessels. Each slowly extending arm carried one of the red tear-drop pods that carried the Screaming Death. As Billy stared at the vessels extending the weapon arms, it immediately struck him: Some of the Ganthoran vessels were not deploying their weapons.

“They’re too close to each other, they’ve hemmed themselves in.” The realization dawned upon Billy that the Ganthoran Destroyers of the first three or four ranks were the only ones who could safely fire upon the Alliance Eagles. The heavier weapons of the Cruisers would be unable to deploy.

“
Why haven’t they launched fighters?” Lokkrien asked quizzically.

It was the same question Billy Caudwell had just asked himself.

“Unless the Ganthorans believe that they can do sufficient damage with the initial contact to break and scatter the formations, then hunt down the survivors through their Destroyer formations,” Billy said.

“
They obviously don’t know Third Fleet’s Eagle pilots,” Lokkrien said.

“
Eagles within effective weapons fire range,” the WATO announced.

The Alliance Eagles had closed to within five kilometres of the advancing Ganthorans. On the three-dimensional War Table image, it looked like the two forces would race towards each other and crash into each other in one massive impact. A heartbeat later, Billy saw that the Eagle images were opening fire. Tiny white beads of light darted forward from the six low-yield pulsar-cannon aboard each Eagle fighter. Twenty-four thousand pulsar-bolts were heading towards the front rank of Ganthoran Destroyers. Set on rapid-fire, the Alliance Eagle pulsar-cannon could fire six bolts per second.

“Eagles are firing, sir,” the WATO said.

Billy Caudwell never heard her announcement. For as the Alliance Eagles opened fire, so did the Pulsar-Cannon Turrets of the fourteen Star Cruisers. In an astonishing move, Admiral Parbe’an had ordered the Star Cruisers to fire down the channels between the three Eagle attack wings. Both high-yield pulsar-cannon on each turret had opened fire sending a massive broadside of one hundred and forty high yield pulsar-bolts screaming downrange towards the Ganthoran Destroyer screen.

“Magnificent!” Billy marvelled at the action. “He’s got the drop on them.”

Admiral Parbe’an was using some very creative gunnery to shatter the first ranks of Ganthoran defenders. Parbe’an had fired first in the hope that he could knock the Ganthorans off-balance and allow his Eagles to puncture the front ranks of Destroyers with as few casualties as possible.

It appeared to be working. On the War Table image, the high-yield pulsar-bolts from the Star Cruisers were speeding down the two channels on either side of the centre attack wing. No sooner had one salvo of pulsar-bolts left the Star Cruisers, than another salvo was set in flight, followed by a third. Admiral Parbe’an was running a very high risk of damaging those pulsar-cannon by using them on rapid-fire. However, after the third salvo had been released, the pulsar-cannon ceased fire.

“
We’ll have to remember that one of the future,” Lokkrien said.

On the three-dimensional image, the pulsar-bolts from the attacking Eagles were just beginning to strike the front line of Ganthoran Destroyers.

However, in the heart of the battle itself, the little images on Billy’s War Table were all too real. Like a white-hot and deadly rain, the pulsar-bolts scythed into the hulls of the unshielded Ganthoran warships. The larger Ganthoran Destroyers were tough enough to sustain a hit from one Alliance pulsar-bolt. But when the bolts flew thick and fast in great streams of weapons fire, multiple hits began to wear down the resilience of the Ganthoran Destroyers’ Hulls. For some of the Ganthoran crews, it took only one or two hits to rupture the hull and release the energy they were accumulating prior to firing the weapons, resulting in catastrophic explosions.

In the space of a few seconds, the first Alliance pulsar-bolts slammed home into the first ranks of Ganthoran Destroyers. In an instant, dozens of Destroyers began to explode in blood-red roaring flames throwing debris in every direction. Some of them, having sustained only a few hits, began to lose orientation and smashed into neighbouring vessels with fatal, fiery consequences. The narrow streams of pulsar-bolts continued to snake forward from the noses and wings of the Alliance Eagles as they hurtled towards the Ganthoran line.

Everywhere, tear drop weapons pods were being torn from their extending arms and great gouts of metal were being ripped from their hulls. For the most unfortunate of Ganthoran crews, the pulsar-bolts began to find the frontal vents. One direct hit on the propulsion fans was a certain death sentence. With the rapidly-spinning fans damaged or destroyed, it took only a few moments for the vessel to shake itself into its explosive demise. The Ganthoran Destroyers facing the lanes between the Eagle attack wings fared no better. The three salvos of one hundred and forty high-yield pulsar-bolts hit them like a massive tidal wave. Once again, the Destroyers charging the weapons pods were hit not by the small low-yield pulsar-bolts, but by the heavier and far more destructive high-yield bolts.

In the first ranks, many the Ganthoran Destroyers were hit squarely on the front and were annihilated instantly. For many, the high-yield pulsar-bolt grazed their hulls; tearing great gouts of metal or smashing the extending arm of the weapons system, before speeding on to strike another vessel behind them. In some cases, a single pulsar-bolt could damage or destroy two, three or even four vessels. For some Ganthoran Destroyers, the graze of the pulsar-bolt was enough to create the feedback of the weapons system that shattered their vessel in red-roaring ruination. For others, it shattered the stabilization system, that sent them careening into another vessel with equally fatal consequences for both ships.

The Alliance ships, having fired three salvoes, led to the Ganthorans facing even greater losses. As the first salvo scythed into the first three or four ranks of Destroyers, the second and third salvoes were smashing their way into the ranks behind them. For the first six or seven ranks of Ganthoran vessels, there was carnage for the high-yield pulsar-bolts. The Ganthorans on the flanks of the formation were to fare even worse than their comrades.

As the second salvo of high-yield pulsar-bolts was striking the Ganthoran line, Admiral Parbe’an was unleashing his final and most deadly surprise.

“Trionic Cannon fired,” a young Scanner Technician announced from her console in the middle of the darkened War Room.

For a brief moment, the entire War Room fell silent. Admiral Parbe’an had used the ultimate weapon in the Universal Alliance Fleets’ arsenal. On the War Table image, Billy Caudwell turned the focus onto the Star Destroyer Olympus. The image of the octagonal Star Destroyer was rotating about its central vertical axis indicating that the crew were altering the vessels attitude to bring, one of the four, Trionic Cannon that she carried to bear on the Ganthorans.

Whilst the Pulsar-Cannon fired a white-hot energy bolt that impacted on a target to cause destruction, the Trionic Cannon fired a beam of agitated Trions at a target to de-stabilise its molecular structure. A weapon that de-stabilised the molecular structure of its targets could, in theory, destroy anything in the universe. At the “waist” of the great octagonal Star Destroyer, four Trionic Cannon were housed. Each Cannon was close to a kilometre in length and was solidly secured to the floor of the Cannon Deck. With the four Cannon sitting at right angles to each other, the crew of the Star Destroyer had to physically rotate the entire vessel to bring the barrels of the Cannon to bear on the chosen target.

Looking at the image, Billy was able to perceive that once again, Admiral Parbe’an had used some very creative gunnery. From the Star Destroyer Olympus, Parbe’an had fired the Trionic Cannon, obliquely, behind the attacking Eagles. As the Eagles’ own weapons-fire, and the pulsar-bolts from the Star Cruisers were shattering the Ganthoran front rank, Parbe’an was using the Trionic Cannon to smash the flanks of the Ganthoran formation. By firing the Trionic Cannon across the rear of the Eagle Attack wings, Parbe’an had a clear field of fire at the flanks of the Ganthoran formation. Out on the battlefield, the effects of the Trionic Cannon were immediate and devastating.