Time Commander (The First Admiral Series) (9 page)

Once again, a great tidal wave of sonic energy had smashed into the Force Shielding of the Alliance formation. With bone-shattering violence, the electro-magnetic wave had sought out the weak points of the Alliance formation, and once more they were successful. Another of the vulnerable Star Cruisers had been blown from its station in the formation, and had been sent spinning and disintegrating into oblivion, while another Star Cruiser at the bottom right flank of the formation had been caught off guard. Having been severely shaken and jolted in the first volley, the second volley had ruptured a damaged power conduit. The proto-star matter from the reactor had been released into the power conduits causing a massive explosion. The technicians who had battled valiantly to close down the reactor, along with the rest of the gallant crew, were vapourised in the massive fireball of destruction.

In two volleys, the Ganthorans had destroyed four Alliance vessels, and had inflicted significant damage) throughout the rest of the formation.

Third Fleet, after receiving the second volley from the Ganthorans, replied with a salvo of their own. But, having lost forty high-yield pulsar-cannon from the four destroyed Star Cruisers, Third Fleet’s response was not as effective as the first two had been. Another fifteen pulsar-cannon had been damaged by the Ganthoran weapons fire and were being feverishly repaired by frantic gunners and technicians. However, the ninety pulsar-bolts that sped downrange were badly aimed; the gun crews were badly shaken, targeting systems were damaged and many vessels were off-balance. The Alliance pulsar-bolts did, however, manage to incapacitate another Cruiser, and wipe out a further ten Destroyers and forty Axe-Blades before the Ganthorans fired again.

Another of the vulnerable Alliance Star Cruisers was swept away from its station in a huge, disintegrating inferno of flame and destruction. For a few heart-stopping moments, it looked like the stricken vessel would smash into one of the immobilised Fleet Carriers. Only by diverting all power to the Force Shielding aboard the Fleet Carrier, and some heroic last-ditch steering aboard the Star Cruiser, by a fatally injured Navigation Technician, was a further devastating tragedy averted. The mortally damaged Star Cruiser grazed the Force Shielding of the Fleet Carrier before turning away to explode in a huge shower of debris and flame at a safe distance from the motionless Carrier.

Admiral Parbe’an, faced with being cut to ribbons by the Ganthoran weapons, ordered the Trionic Cannon fired again. As the Ganthorans unleashed another volley of Screaming Death, the Trionic Cannon aboard Olympus fired a stream of unstable Trions into the right flank of the Ganthoran attack. The Trionic Cannon stream cut through the onrushing wave of Screaming Death and smashed into the Ganthoran formation. Once more, a great lane of destruction one hundred metres wide scythed through the Ganthoran warships, and any debris in its path. The tell-tale signature of structures appearing to flatten preceded the annihilation of anything caught in the stream. Two more Ganthoran Cruisers were annihilated in the stream of the Trionic Cannon, with a further fifty Destroyers and dozens of Axe-Blades being consigned to oblivion. Whilst, a few moments later, the final volley of Screaming Death struck the Force Shielding of Third Fleet. Having sustained significant losses amongst the Cruisers with the heavier weapons, the final volley was not as severe as the previous strikes. Still, the Ganthorans had once again managed to inflict internal damage onto already bruised and bloodied Alliance warships.

The final salvo from the remaining fifty Alliance pulsar-cannon streaked down range, seeking out the last of the Ganthoran Cruisers. However, the Alliance gunners were about to be disappointed. The remaining Cruisers rode their good fortune one last time, and were missed by the white-hot searing pulsar-bolts that streaked past their hulls to smash into Destroyers and Axe-blades alike. The Trionic Cannon aboard Olympus fired once again, this time down the Ganthoran left flank. It could still only fire obliquely at the Ganthoran flanks for fear of hitting any of the surviving Eagles amongst the debris in front of the “Six-Cigar” Carriers. Once again, the surviving Ganthoran Cruisers managed to escape destruction.

The Ganthorans, having weakened the Alliance formation, then changed tactics. To close with the Alliance warships had been costly, so the Ganthoran commander ordered his surviving Cruisers and Destroyers back into the debris field in front of Third Fleet. The Cruisers and Destroyers needed some form of protection from the Trionic Cannon whilst they unleashed the surviving horde of Axe-Blades at the weakened enemy formation. The long- range bombardment had proved to be more costly than the Ganthorans had expected. However, with no single-seat fighter cover, the Axe-Blades could rampage through the Alliance formation and wreak havoc before the surviving Cruisers and Destroyers could return and finish off the survivors.

Of the twenty-five thousand Axe Blades that had joined the attack on Third Fleet’s position, fifteen thousand had survived the terrible destruction amongst the Cruisers and Destroyers. Fired up to avenge their comrades lost on the approach, the Axe-Blade pilots were ready to create a little bit of mayhem and destruction amongst the Alliance ships. As the surviving Cruisers and Destroyers turned and scampered for cover, the surviving Axe-Blades flung themselves forward at the line of damaged and shaken Alliance warships. With the cohesion of their formations broken in the approach to the Alliance ships, the Axe-Blades swarmed forwards in a great chaotic straggle.

Except that Admiral Parbe’an had his own method of dealing with fighter attacks on his large vessels. Unknown to the onrushing Axe-Blade pilots, the hull of every Alliance warship was studded with small low-yield pulsar-cannon turrets. Known as Self-Defence Turrets, each turret carried two low-yield pulsar-cannon of the same calibre as those aboard Alliance Eagles. Each Star Cruiser carried nine hundred Self-Defence Turrets. The Fleet Carriers had close to three thousand Self-Defence Turrets and the Star-Destroyer over ten thousand.

With the vast majority of the Self-Defence Turrets operated remotely by the Alliance warship’s Tactical Computers, there were very few actual live trigger fingers to be dodged and outwitted by the Axe-Blades.

Aboard the Olympus, the Senior WATO on Admiral Parbe’an’s staff was well aware of what was approaching. It had taken her only a few seconds to pass the order to link all of the Tactical Computers in Third Fleet to the tactical Computer aboard the Olympus. As the Ganthoran Axe-Blades streaked into their attack, the linked Tactical Computers were rapidly crunching the number and permutations; calculating the Threat Potential of every Ganthoran fighter. Based on the known capabilities of the Axe-Blade fighter, the Tactical Computers could approximate how threatening each individual fighter was to the Alliance formation. With its speed, weaponry, and expected proximity to every vulnerable Alliance ship, the Tactical Computers allocated a Threat Potential Score; this, in turn, was fed into the Firing Solution. The remotely operated Self-Defence Turrets would target each individual fighter based on its Threat Potential Score. The higher the Threat Potential of the fighter, the higher up it appeared on the targeting priority in the Firing Solution. The more dangerous you were, the sooner the Self-Defence Turrets would seek you out.

As the horde of Ganthoran Axe-Blades approached Third Fleet’s position, the billions of calculations and permutations were being calculated every second.

Aboard the Olympus, Admiral Parbe’an held the Self-Defence Turrets in readiness when the Axe-Blades were close enough not to be able to avoid the weapons fire. First Admiral Caudwell had used a similar tactic against the Bardomil almost a year before, with devastating results. Almost twenty thousand Bardomil Harpoon fighters had fallen to the guns of the Aquarius and two hundred Eagles in that battle.

In the war Room aboard Aquarius, Billy Caudwell was watching the Ganthoran Axe-Blade attack being pushed home on the three-dimensional War Table image. He had just seen Third Fleet drive off the Ganthoran Cruisers and Destroyers. The losses in Third Fleet had been heavy; four Star Cruisers was more than any Fleet had lost, to date, in the Universal Alliance military. However, Billy considered it could have been much worse. Like everyone else, he had stopped breathing for those few seconds when the stricken Star Cruiser had almost crashed into one of the Fleet Carriers. The battle in the debris field in front of the Ganthoran Carriers was still going on; the Eagles of Third Fleet were still somehow surviving in the maze and warrens of debris against the hordes of single seated Axe-Blade fighters’ pitched against them.

Now, the real battle was back in front of Third Fleets’ formation. The great cluster of Ganthoran Axe-Blades was rapidly cutting down the distance to Third Fleets’ position. In a few more seconds, they would be within range to utilise their Screaming Death weaponry. However, Billy Caudwell knew that against the Force Shielding of Third Fleet, it would be less effective than if they had support from Destroyers and Cruisers. Billy knew that Parbe’an would wait until the Axe-Blades couldn’t avoid the Self-Defence Turrets of his surviving ships. Then, in a few moments of sheer cold-blooded murder, Parbe’an would blast the single-seat fighters to oblivion.

Meanwhile, Admiral Parbe’an was holding his Self-Defence Turrets in readiness. The Senior WATO had repeated for the hundredth time that Optimal Firing Solution was ready. Admiral Parbe’an was already well aware that the Firing Solution would be effective, but he had his own particular twist to add to the situation.

Watching on the three-dimensional War Table image, Billy Caudwell could see the tiny Ganthoran Axe-Blades rapidly closing the range with Third Fleet’s position. In the pell-mell dash to attack the Alliance position, the Ganthoran Axe-Blade pilots were racing with one another for the honour of being the first to break into the enemy formation. All reason and military logic appeared to have deserted the Ganthoran pilots, and their fighter controllers. In an instant, the great blizzard of small single-seat fighters hurtled forwards with no regard for the possible consequences. At ten kilometres from contact, the Ganthoran pilots began to select their targets, and started to peel away to attack the individual Star Cruisers in Third Fleet’s defensive position.

Again, to Billy Caudwell there seemed to be no logic or reason for what the Ganthoran pilots were doing.
The battle madness must be on them
, Billy considered as the only explanation for the Ganthorans’ inexplicable and extraordinarily unprofessional behaviour. Billy watched the distance numerals on the side of the three-dimensional War Table image drop down to below six kilometres in range. At that moment, the Ganthoran fighters; their red, tear-drop weapons pods deployed, opened fire on the Alliance formation.

Without the heavy weapons of the Cruisers and Destroyers to support them, the Axe-Blades’ weapons fire was little more than an irritant to the Alliance warships. With Force Shielding set at only ten metres from the hull surface, the Alliance ships with functioning Force Shielding simply absorbed the blows and waited for their moment to respond. The ships with weakened Force Shielding weathered the barrage of low-level Ganthoran weaponry as best they could. Unfortunately, for the Ganthoran pilots, most of the vulnerable Alliance ships had already been dispatched by the Cruisers and Destroyers in the exchange of heavy weapons fire. What remained on the Alliance firing line may have been damaged and bruised, but they could still fight with their Self-Defence Turrets. There were going to be very few, if any, weak spots in the Alliance formation for the Ganthorans to exploit.

At two thousand metres, point blank range in space terms, Third Fleet’s surviving vessels prepared to reply to the Ganthoran fighters that were still trying to strafe their position with their hopelessly inadequate weaponry. The Ganthoran pilots had chosen the warships they planned to attack, unwittingly making the job of the Tactical Computers linked to the Self-Defence Turrets that little bit easier. One again, the Tactical Computers crunched the numbers, making the billions of calculations every second that delivered the updated Optimal Firing Solution to the Senior WATO aboard the Olympus. This, however, was the all-important Optimal Firing Solution. The Ganthorans would pass the two thousand metre mark before the Tactical Computers could calculate another one.

With baited breath aboard Aquarius and every other ship in the Alliance Fleets, the crews waited for the hammer blow to fall on the Ganthoran fighters hurtling towards their own doom and devastation.

At two thousand metres, Admiral Parbe’an gave the fire order to the Senior WATO. So, it was with one deft push of a small blue button on a console aboard the Star Destroyer Olympus that a nightmare volley of computer-targeted low-yield pulsar-bolts was unleashed. Tens of thousands of Self-Defence Turrets; set to rapid fire, lit up the Ganthoran attack like hundreds of thousands of tiny fireflies. But every single one of those fireflies spelt destruction for the Ganthoran fighters. In the face of an almost solid wall of low-yield pulsar-bolts, the first ranks of Ganthoran Axe-Blades stood little, or no, chance of survival. The first ranks of Axe-Blades simply vanished in a huge wall of tiny red and orange explosions. Like tiny stars sparkling in the evening sky, thousands of Ganthoran pilots perished in the burning maelstrom of destruction.

For most, their destruction was mercifully painless and instantaneous, but for some, who struggled to regain control of damaged fighters, their last few moments were of terror and desperation. For those who were blessed with inordinate good fortune or supremely fast reflexes, the first moments were a nightmare of destruction. They saw comrades that they had served and flown with scythed down by the Alliance’s gunfire in a few short moments of indescribable savagery. Barely aware of what was happening within a few yards of their own cockpits, the Ganthoran pilots struggled desperately to make sense of the exploding nightmare around them. Focussed entirely on survival, the more fortunate Ganthoran pilots dodged and weaved their fighters, violently, through the hail of Alliance pulsar-bolts.