The ship shook, and several warning lights blinked on the display. A computerized voice read out the damage report, “Armor breached, port missile launchers offline.”
Sali barely paid that a moment's thought, and who cared about a pair of disabled launchers the missiles were already used. With a couple of quick inputs she shunted power from the energy web system to the AIF field generators. The drones weren’t using missiles, so what did she need missile protection for? With the other hand, she brought the whole ship around. The targeting computer beeped as it achieved target lock and she pulled the trigger. The cannons hummed, a pleasing whine as they discharged death at the two drones that had been on her tail.
Two kills later she let out a breath. For the moment she had a bit of a reprieve, but it wouldn’t be long before more drones swarmed her. It seemed to be the norm of this battle. The battle for Anchorage had been raging for nearly four hours by this point. In that time, of the hundred squadrons launched at the start of the battle, thirty of them were now combat ineffective, while another twenty were now at half strength. Even her own squadron was down two fighters; one of the rookies had made a mistake that had cost them his fighter and his wingmate’s. The pilots thankfully ejected before their planes exploded, but that was still two planes lost.
Still despite the beating they’ve given the enemy. They had taken quite the beating in turn, nearly half the drones first deployed were now either destroyed or combat ineffective. Unfortunately that still left them rather outnumbered, they weren’t able to do their job well enough. Two drifter cruisers were sunk by drones that penetrated their fighter screen. When it came to capital ships, the Enterprise was doing alright, but the heavy cruiser with her was taking a pounding. She’d heard over the comm channels that she’d lost shields and her armor was breached. Checking her scanners, she noted it was true. The ship had taken a pounding, she was reading multiple plasma fires, main power was down, her weapons were depleted and two of her main engines were nonfunctional. The ship was now retreating off the line and thankfully the raiders were more than willing to let the cruiser fall back.
Stormwolf and her cruiser squadron had been joined by three additional vessels. Transports by the look of it, and they were escorting them. Sali wasn’t sure what that was about, she’d heard no plans of an evacuation and three transports wouldn’t be enough, even if they were evacuating. If it had been just their people it would be plenty, but they’d picked up a large number of Drifters, displaced by the war. Some kind of ploy or bluff? Sali wasn’t sure.
Not that it was her job to worry about that, let Countryman direct the battle. He was effectively the admiral in charge, even if he didn’t have the title. She did know that he’d been given the role of commodore for this battle. He seemed to be doing a good job of leading them, even if the Enterprise was taking a pounding. Then again, the ship was currently in an extended gun duel with two battleships and their surviving escorts.
Speaking of poundings, she’d taken one as well. She was out of missiles and fresh out of torpedoes as well. She still had her pulsars but those were energy torpedoes, she’d be able to use them so long as she had fuel in the tank. The battle had eaten through a lot of that, she’d have to land soon at this rate. She’d set the computer to warn her when fuel levels dropped below thirty percent. Not that long ago they’d dropped below fifty, she was eating through energy keeping the armor charged and the cannons firing. Taking another glance at the plots she noted the nearby drones were engaged with a different squadron, giving her AIF time to recharge.
It wouldn’t help the damage she’d taken. She’d taken multiple hits to the port wing, and two penetrating hits to the main body. Portside missile launchers were down, three of her portside fuel injectors had seized and she’d lost a stabilizer. Thankfully most of her critical systems were still quite functional, “That last squadron did some damage, how’s everyone else looking?”
Fuji spoke up quickly, “My Starboard wing has been shot to hell but otherwise fine.”
One of the Rookies spoke up, “They got my engine, I can still fly but barely.”
Sali quickly recalled the design of the SF-1204. It only had a single dual-core engine, if that was hit the fighter would lose almost all propulsion. Outside of the main engine, the craft only had a pair of auxiliary thrusters, used mainly for maneuvering. Of course a single hit wouldn’t disable the engine, usually it could still function with some damage.
Fuji inquired, “How bad was the hit?”
“I’ve lost over half of my engine power.”
The other surviving rookie interjected, “I’m not looking much better. They breached my armor and knocked out the main particle generators. Backup systems are functioning, but barely.”
Fuji sighed, “We ain’t going to do much good out here then. Sali on me, we will escort them back to base, then join up with another squadron after some quick repairs.”
________________
The ship shuddered under the impact of raider guns, “Forward plating failing! Hull breaches imminent!”
Countryman was well aware of that; the AIF was under immense strain dealing with the full firepower of two battleships and eight heavy cruisers. They’d already sunk four of the escorting heavy cruisers and done heavy damage to the Raider’s screening forces. Of the 29 Light cruisers they’d arrived with, less than half had survived the initial torpedo exchanges. Since then the Raiders had learned, and following barrages had been less effective. They would now sacrifice swarms of drones to neutralize his warheads rather than try and intercept them with conventional means. Not exactly cost effective for him either, torpedoes were hard to replace using them on drones was just a net waste.
“Divert power from artificial gravity to the hull plating,” said Countryman while glancing at available power reserves, “Bring us about to heading one one six mark two eight, divert power from engines to the beam array.”
“Power diverted!”
“New heading one one six mark two eight.”
“New target heavy cruiser Alpha two, lock all beam arrays on their central magazines.”
“Target locked!”
“Fire!”
A whine filled the bridge as every available beam array fired, high intensity particle streams slammed into the targeted cruiser, her shields flaring brightly, but it wasn’t enough. Some of the beams penetrated the shields and started to burn through the armor. The ship tried to evade to little effect, as the other ships redoubled their fire on the Enterprise.
Seconds ticked by and once the outer armor of the cruiser was breached something exploded as the compartment behind the plating was suddenly vented into space. The Raider captain must have ordered a roll because that’s what the ship did next, it rolled its axis forcing the beams off the breached armor. Countryman ordered Kaori to use the superchargers, almost instantly the beams’ phase shifted purple and once again the armor ruptured as the concentrated firepower tore through the plating and the hull beneath. Something critical gave, and the local shields finally failed entirely, letting the full wrath of the Enterprise tear into the hull of the cruiser. The result was fatal, the beams ripped through the plating like tissue paper. Before he could even blink a massive detonation tore the center of the ship apart. The bow and stern were sent tumbling wildly in opposite directions.
Kaori shouted, “We have a kill!”
The ship shuddered, “Hull breach! Deck fourteen! Emergency bulkheads in place.”
Countryman sighed, but that breach was within his expectations. He took a glance at the plots, then gave his next order, “Target Heavy Cruiser Alpha Four, all available cannons fire for effect!”
Numerous turrets refocused their fire on the new target, unleashing a hailstorm of particle bolts. Hundreds of blue energy bolts slammed into the ship designated Alpha Four, one after another. The heavy cruiser’s already strained shields lasted seconds under the barrage. They flared brightly before buckling in a flash, the armor beneath was shredded in fractions of a second after that, numerous flash detonations turning the hull into a ruptured mess. Yet the core layers remained remarkably intact despite the heavy bombardment.
The Enterprise shook under his feet again as another barrage from the enemy hit his ship. “Hull breach decks 14, 15 and 17, emergency bulkheads holding.”
Countryman shifted, “Move us off, heading three zero mark two eight, ahead flank. Divert power from weapons to engines.”
The ship surged ahead as it moved along his desired heading. Almost immediately both battleships gave chase. Countryman smiled, and took another look at the plot. He grinned, they’d already been drawn well into the trap. All that remained was for the Stormwolf to get into position, then he could spring it, but it seemed the Stormwolf had her own duel to deal with first.
________________
Felki braced herself just before the ship rocked violently. “Hull breach! Deck sixteen, bulkheads holding, no damage to critical systems.”
“Return fire!” she shouted, “Helm hard to port!”
For a moment Felki wished she had the heavier armor the Enterprise had, the larger ship was well protected both externally and internally. It reminded her of the game they’d been playing, the rules applied here. Sure the ship had strong armor but her mass and reinforced structure meant that even after being breached she’d still be able to take a pounding.
On a different note, being bigger with better armor and weapons would certainly help against their current opponent. They’d identified the attacking raider ship as the Unending Conquest. The ship in question was a heavy cruiser armed with high yield plasma mortars, linked laser batteries, and a substantial battery of fusion torpedoes.
The Conquest might not be the most advanced ship on the battlefield but she was a respectable vessel, those laser batteries packed a fairly impressive punch, and it had those powerful mortar batteries for close range gun duels. The ship was also very heavily armored with reinforced core layers which meant she’d be able to take an extreme pounding before going down, but it was her speed that had surprised Felki. The ship was almost as fast as her ship, fast enough to catch her while she was escorting a few transports.
She glanced at the plot, the only good news was that she had friends. Bad news she’d already lost one to the Conquest. “Direct hits, enemy armor holding.”
“Standby forward tubes, coordinate with Firefox. Open fire main battery!”
The cannons whined as they discharged deadly streams at the enemy. Two other ships opened fire with their own cannons. Striking at the heavily armored hull of the Conquest.
“Forward tubes ready! Firefox reports her tubes are loaded and ready to fire!”
“Excellent! Fire!”
The deck plates thrummed and the launchers whined as they spat high yield warheads at the enemy. The Firefox, a heavily armed destroyer, fired at the same moment. In seconds a significant number of warheads were streaming towards the Conquest.
The enemy ship tried to evade, but a second light cruiser opened up with her own torpedo battery. Cutting off that angle of retreat. In response her laser batteries came to life as she tried to take out the incoming warheads.
Several exploded, but the majority got through, her screens lit up with a brilliant fireball, and when it cleared the Conquest was very much intact, her portside armor ruptured and breached, fourteen mortar emplacements and thirty dual laser turrets damaged but the ship was very much still combat capable. She opened up with a return volley of torpedoes.
“Stand by counter-missiles, reload forward tubes. Helm new heading one one six mark three, ahead three quarters.”
The missiles streamed towards them. She counted the seconds and when they crossed an invisible line she gave the order. Her counter-missile batteries hummed as they spat guided plasma projectiles at the incoming warheads. Dozens were intercepted in short order.
“Brace for impact!” she shouted as she noted it wasn’t enough.
The ship shook heavily under her feet but held. “Damage report!”
“Hull breaches Decks 13, sixteen, and eighteen. Number three and six turrets are offline! Emergency bulkheads responding. Wait! No response on deck 13 we are venting atmosphere!”
“Seal off the deck!”
She glanced at the plot again, then gave orders for a new heading and to increase speed again. “Firefox?”
“Keeping with us, she avoided damage and is ready to fire again!”
“Excellent,” she replied, giving another look at the tac plot, before giving the order. The forward tubes thrummed and they sent another barrage of high yield torpedoes at the Conquest.
Two more light cruisers joined in cutting off her best escape routes and her point defense proved even less effective. Multiple warheads slammed into her one after another, yet the ship still wasn’t dead.
“Heavy damage to the Conquest, I’m reading hull breaches on all decks, plasma fires and fluctuations in her power grid.”
“She’s moving off!”
Felki let out a breath, “Let her! Return to previous course, standby to send the signal when we are in position, and engineering! Fix those turrets!”