Time Commander (The First Admiral Series) (8 page)

Then, taking a long drink from the cold misted glass, John felt the ice cold liquid scalding the back of his throat and chilling all the way down into his stomach. When his throat could no longer stand the pain of the chilled liquid assault, he relented and let out a long relieved sigh. And, as he walked over to the other sofa in the square of seating surrounding the huge glass-topped coffee table, he noticed the white envelope above the open fireplace. The open fireplace was one of the few fixtures in the home of which John approved. He did like a nice roaring, searing-hot, real fire. In their previous homes, they had been forced to make do with gas or electric fires, and central heating, which were all a poor imitation of a real fire. And, like young Billy, he could sit and stare, mesmerised at the leaping, dancing flames of a real fire all evening. The men of the house had no need for televisions or other entertainment when the fire was on.

Propped up at the front of the white-painted mantle-piece was an envelope that caught John’s curiosity; resting on one of the hideous porcelain dogs Elizabeth’s mother had given them as a wedding present. Careful not to disturb the photograph of Elizabeth, Billy and himself with the last new car they had bought, John took down the note. The unsealed envelope had “John” scrawled across the front in Elizabeth’s spidery writing in the dark blue of one of her cheap ballpoint pens.

Setting his half-empty glass of cola on the mantle-piece, he opened the unsealed flap and extracted the folded white sheet.

“
John,

Am off to New York on sudden and unexpected business. Be back in five days.

Will phone tonight.

Love

Elizabeth

xx
”

Well, isn’t that just fine and dandy
, John Caudwell considered angrily screwing up the note and tossing it onto the unlit fire.

“
Exiting Trionic Web, sir. Stealth mode activated!” The much-relieved Navigation Officer announced.

Using the Trion Drive and the Trionic Web were not without dangers for Universal Alliance vessels. Although the accident rate was miniscule, there was still the theoretical risk that the Propulsion Officers and Technicians could miscalculate and set the Trion Frequency just a shade too close to that of the vessels’ own hull. In doing that, the Navigation specialists would achieve the same effect as striking the hull with a Trionic Cannon stream. Thus, the Navigation Officer had every reason to sound relieved at their safe arrival. And, in accordance with Standard Operational Practice, the Trion field around the warships was set to reflect the Trion frequency of the surrounding area. This, in effect, rendered the vessel invisible to visual and electronic scanners.

“Activate War Table, please,” Billy requested.

“
War Table activated!” The War Room was once again plunged into darkness.

It took a few moments for the three-dimensional image of the battle area to come into sharp, clear focus. When the image did become clear, it was apparent to Billy Caudwell had he had not missed any further important tactical developments. The Alliance Eagles, still contained within the confines of a large contingent of shattered Ganthoran warships were still fighting gallantly against almost ten times their own number of Axe-Blade fighters. What had previously been a twenty-to-one fight had now become a ten-to-one fight, and those were odds that gave an Alliance Eagle pilot a reasonable chance of survival. The battle being fought between the hulks of the Ganthoran ships was far from over, and Billy Caudwell was beginning to revise his original pessimistic prediction of the final outcome.

From a distance, the battle did look like thousands of tiny insects darting and weaving around each other amongst the enormous hulks of the crippled and shattered Ganthoran vessels. The bright flashes of Eagle pulsar-bolts seemed to stretch out in front of the fighters like bright-yellow, looping and bending chains as they sought out enemy targets. The Ganthoran Screaming Death being a sonic and electro-magnetic weapon could not be seen by the naked eye. At close range it looked like a watery distortion of the light. However, the effects were just as deadly to an unshielded hull as a pulsar-bolt. With every passing second, tiny explosions were occurring, like little bursts of red and yellow dust that disappeared as quickly as they had blossomed. Sadly, Billy Caudwell knew that every little burst of powder was a vessel being destroyed, and in all probability a pilot dying.

In front of Parbe’an’s formation, the Ganthorans were lining up a formation to attack. This was what Billy Caudwell considered would be the slugging match of the battle.

The larger ships of both fleets would be going toe-to-toe with one another. Parbe’an had already seen the danger developing in front of his position. The Trionic Cannon from the Star-Destroyer Olympus was continuing to fire obliquely at the flanks of the Ganthoran formation. Although Parbe’an would have liked to have been able to turn the Alliance’s terror weapon on the formation developing in front of him, he knew that the Trionic stream that he fired would most likely sweep away large numbers of his own Eagles.

Still, the Trionic Cannon was having the effect of keeping the Ganthorans tied into their positions. The Alliance flanks were likely to be safe whilst the Trionic Cannon pinned the Ganthorans into their formation. The Ganthoran ship commanders had quickly learned that the terrifyingly powerful Alliance weapon would not strike anywhere in line with their own fighters. That meant that if the Ganthoran kept within the confines of the area in front of the debris field of the fighter battle, the Alliance terror weapon could not find them. It was a small tactical advantage for Parbe’an, and in battles even the smallest advantage can be the difference between success and failure- if exploited properly.

After only a few short minutes, the entire formation began to advance on the Alliance position. With the beginning of the Ganthoran attack, the gunners in the high-yield pulsar-cannon turrets stepped up their rate of fire. Just as had happened in the initial Alliance Eagle attack, the pulsar-bolts sped downrange to smash into the hulls of the advancing Ganthoran ships. By getting closer to the Alliance formation, they hoped to lay down enough concentrated weapons fire to shatter the fragile-looking formation, fly though, and then encircle the enemy warships. That would lead to the capitulation of the enemy commander, and the day would be remembered forever in the annals of the glorious Ganthoran Empire.

Second Admiral Parbe’an was, however, not quite ready to be listed in the histories of the Ganthoran Empire as the first defeat suffered by the Alliance. In front of him, Admiral Parbe’an could see a formation of twenty Ganthoran Cruisers, five hundred Destroyers, and almost twenty-five thousand Axe-Blade fighters moving towards his position. The high-yield pulsar-cannon turrets on his Star Cruisers were pounding mercilessly at the advancing Ganthoran force. With strict orders not to deliberately engage the great blizzard of Axe-Blades accompanying the Cruisers and Destroyers, the Alliance gunners chose their targets and wreaked havoc amongst the Ganthorans. The first salvo of one hundred and forty high-yield pulsar-bolts slashed downrange and devastated the Ganthoran attack formation. Any Axe-Blades unfortunate to be caught in the salvo were vapourised instantly. Having smashed an Axe-Blade into atoms, the white-hot pulsar-bolt would continue its journey to the intended target. There was a danger that stray pulsar-bolts could miss the entire Ganthoran attack and strike an Alliance Eagle in the debris field fighter battle, but the Tactical Computers indicate that the risk was negligible. Sweeping away dozens, possibly hundreds of Eagles with a Trionic Cannon stream was one thing, but a rogue pulsar-bolt was an acceptable risk.

All one-hundred-and-forty pulsar-bolts from the first salvo struck home. Eighty of them hit and wiped out eighty Ganthoran Destroyers. The collateral damage from these pulsar-bolt strikes destroyed four hundred Axe-Blades, and a further ten Destroyers.

Once again, pulsar-bolts streaked through the formation, smashing into unshielded vessels; tearing great gouts of metal and flame from hulls and casting terrified and screaming crew members out into the empty, freezing, airless vacuum of space, to a certain death. The closed ranks of Ganthoran warships intensified the effect of the pulsar-bolts. Damaged vessels would veer dangerously off-course and smash into neighbouring vessels with catastrophic results. All along the Ganthoran line, Parbe’an and his crews could see explosions blossoming into the emptiness of space. It was as if the entire front ranks of the Ganthoran formation had run into an invisible wall with hundreds of explosions as a consequence.

Amongst the attacking Ganthoran Cruisers, the effect was similar to that with the Destroyers. Fifty pulsar-bolts had struck home on Ganthoran Cruiser hulls. Three had been unfortunate to have been struck on the rapidly-spinning fans of the electro-magnetic engines.

In short order, they had disappeared in huge red, roaring explosions, taking any vessel in their immediate vicinity with them. Axe-Blades and Destroyers alike were all caught up in the indiscriminate holocausts of Cruiser destruction. Eight more Cruisers were struck by two pulsar-bolts. Like a boxer, in the ring, caught by a powerful punch to the face, the Cruisers were stopped in their tracks by the violence of the pulsar-bolts exploding on their hulls. Like stunned boxers, the damaged Cruisers swayed and lurched from their stations within the attack formation. Any smaller vessels in the path of the swaying and lurching Cruisers were shattered by the sheer weight and momentum of the damaged warships.

In one instance, a Cruiser, struck by two pulsar-bolts, veered to its right and ran its nose into the flank of another Cruiser after wiping out five Destroyers and dozens of axe-Blades. The nose of the stricken Cruiser, with a huge grinding shriek of tortured metal, tore a huge gouge of hull and debris from the side of its neighbour; leaving an enormous livid black scar of damage, before tearing several weapons pods from their mountings as the second Cruiser moved onwards. Having torn a huge gash in the side of its neighbour, the stricken Cruiser then continued to smash through another five Destroyers and eighteen more Axe-Blades before its momentum dissipated, and left it stranded in space. That Cruiser had, at least, survived. A further six Cruisers were struck by three or four pulsar-bolts. For all but one of them, the inferno of annihilation was instantaneous, with significant damage to smaller neighbouring vessels. The one Cruiser that did survive three pulsar-bolts was crippled; and damaged beyond repair.

Despite these losses, the Ganthoran attack pressed on.

The second salvo, with fewer targets available, was not as devastatingly effective as the first strike. With fewer Cruisers to strike, the Alliance pulsar-bolts hurtled downrange to strike any target of opportunity. Once again, the Ganthoran Destroyers and Axe-Blades took the brunt of Third Fleet’s fire. Of the six surviving effective Cruisers, a further two were hit; destroying one in a massive explosion which claimed a further twenty Destroyers and one hundred Axe-Blades. The other Cruiser received two glancing blows along the hull, leaving two long, livid black scars down each flank to bear testimony to the crew’s courage and good fortune as it bore down on the line of Alliance warships. However, the crews of two Cruisers crippled by the previous salvo were not quite so fortunate and were fatally struck by Alliance pulsar-bolts.

The third and final salvo was as effective as the second. One final Cruiser was struck on the electro-magnetic drive fans. The huge Ganthoran warship lurched forward, and exploded, casting debris and flame in every direction. The Destroyers and Axe-Blades in the vicinity felt the full devastating force of the cataclysmic explosion. Other Destroyers and Axe-Blades felt the full devastating force of Third Fleet’s gunfire, but that was to be the last salvo that Third Fleet fired unopposed. With a great strew of debris and crippled warships behind them, the Ganthorans had managed to close in to  weapons-firing range with five of their large Cruisers still combat-effective. The losses had been fearful, but the Ganthoran crews had done their job, and closed with the Alliance formation.

At weapons firing range, the Ganthorans let fly with every weapon they could bring to bear on the Alliance formation. From five hundred kilometres away, the Ganthorans unleashed the shrieking nightmare of the Screaming Death at the Alliance vessels. Every weapon that could be fired was unleashed at the Alliance formation. Aboard the vessels of Third Fleet, the first wave of Screaming Death hit the shielding like a massive sledgehammer blow. Now, it was time for the Alliance crews to suffer as the Ganthorans had.

Two of the vulnerable Star Cruisers were overwhelmed instantly by the great wave of sonic energy, their hulls starting to shatter under the extreme vibration. When the electro-magnetic wave struck, it looked as if the hull superstructure had been blown off by a huge gust of wind. One of the Star Cruisers was unable to hold position and began to spin away from the formation as it disintegrated and finally exploded. The second Star Cruiser stood its ground and disintegrated before the eyes of its comrades before it too succumbed to a massive explosion.

Aboard the other ships of Third Fleet, the sonic wave had not penetrated the Force Shielding. However, the electro-magnetic wave had caused a severe jolt and considerable internal damage to the vessels. Crew members had been shaken and jolted from their posts and even Admiral Parbe’an aboard the Star-Destroyer Olympus had been thrown to the floor by the violence of the electro-magnetic wave. All over Third Fleet, there would be fractured bones, torn skin, ruptured conduits and shattered circuits to contend with by shaken and stunned crew members. Luckily, Alliance personnel were used to Emergency Drills, and had began to react quickly to the developing situation aboard their vessels. The on-board fires would be dealt with, and repairs would begin as soon as the technicians and officers could reach the problem areas. However, no sooner had one wave of Screaming Death struck than another had been launched.