The admiral watched his screens carefully. He still didn’t like this battle, something felt off, yet he’d found no sign of cloaked mines or hidden defense platforms. If they were there, the phantoms had done a very good job of concealing them. Otherwise, they seemed to be winning the battle, the Phantom battleship’s armor was failing, but she was fast and sturdy. That capital ship would still be able to fight for some time. The sole Drifter Heavy Cruiser on the field was a nonfactor, the ship had pulled off the line a few minutes ago. It would be some time before the crew could put out the fires and patch her systems enough that she could even put up a fight.
The Drifter cruiser Stormwolf however had him concerned. At first he thought they were just escorting some transports, which is why he’d only sent the Unending Conquest to harass them. Yet now he had a serious question, why were they on his flank. That’s right, his flank, the cruiser squadron’s course had put them behind his main force. Well out of weapons range, but well positioned to catch any ships that tried to run or to smash into his rear while he was engaged. That was sending alarm bells through his mind.
He took another glance at the Phantom Battleship, she was actively retreating now. With her armor broken now was the perfect time to press the attack but something was telling him not to. “Helm! Reverse course!”
“Sir!? Why? We are winning!”
“I said reverse course!”
The helm officer just sat there, and then a shudder went down his spine. Something was very wrong. He stood up to do it himself, when every alarm on the ship went off at once.
“Sir! Multiple contacts! We’re surrounded!”
That report was the only thing he heard before dozens, no hundreds, of anti-capital satellites opened fire.
Right in front of him he watched the Yurifa take the first hit. A radiant blue-purple energy stream penetrated her armor amidships, an explosion rupturing the broken plate and sending debris into space. Then a second beam struck just a meter in front of her primary thruster ports. The resulting explosion shredded her main engines. The third strike penetrated her primary sensor tower, while the fourth hit her again amidships.
His own ship shuddered at that moment. “Port shield buckling! Hull breach deck 14!”
Another shudder, “Port shields are down!
“Return fire! Helm get us out of here!”
On the screen the Yurifa took three more hits, each one going right through her armor. Already her turrets were alive returning fire at the enemy sats, but it didn’t seem to be enough. Another radiant beam of energy punched through her number three turret from above, punching through the armor before exploding inside the main armor belt. More armor plating ruptured as secondary detonations ran up the main lines blowing a second turret before emergency systems kicked in containing the damage.
His ship shuddered again, “Starboard shields buckling!”
He glanced at the status indicator, they were taking heavy fire from multiple satellites. Each beam packed a wallop and his shields were draining fast, their multi-regenerative matrix just couldn’t keep up with the sheer volume of fire. It didn’t matter that the satellites needed twenty seconds to recharge after a shot, each beam was just that fucking powerful. Several white-blue energy spheres slammed into his forward shields just then. “We’ve lost forward shields!!!” A clearly panicked officer shouted.
The ship shuddered as an energy beam penetrated the forward plating and punched through nine decks. There were just so fucking many satellites and they were taking too many hits.
“The Wind of Profit has cleared the field!”
He glanced at the plot, the Wind of Profit was a fast light cruiser, armed with pulsed plasma guns. When they’d first acquired the cruiser her armor left a lot to be desired but she had strong shields. He didn’t think those shields had helped her here but rather her speed, she was the fastest ship in his fleet. Only it seemed the Stormwolf was intercepting her. Not that he had time to focus on another duel. He had to keep his ship alive.
He glanced to the Yurifa, her hull was burning and breached in multiple locations, her turrets falling silent, as two more beams pierced her forward magazine. In a glorious fireball her entire bow section ruptured, yet the ship kept moving. The next beam punched through her ruptured aft plating, piercing several decks, just as escape pods started launching. The ship wasn’t sunk yet but the Yurifa was going down.
“Reset forward shields! Engineering! We need more engine power, give me everything you’ve got!”
“We don’t have it admiral! Engines are already running at a hundred and ten percent!”
“Redline them, take power from the weapons, we need more speed!” he declared while taking a quick look at the tactical plot.
Suddenly the ship rocked, they hadn’t been hit but the prow was gone. “We’ve lost decks 1-70 sections alpha one and beta through 79 alpha and beta! Forward shield generators destroyed!”
The ship shuddered, “Aft shields failing! Hull breach deck seventy, section 978 beta. Emergency bulkheads, gone!”
Another shudder, “Plasma fires! Port side fuel lines!”
“Damage control, contain those fires!” he ordered yet he couldn’t help wondering if it would be enough.
The ship shook heavily under his feet as in the next instant fifteen energy streams slammed into the hull penetrating his failing shields, tearing through meters of hardened armor and ripping into the core layers of the Maiden. The damage was pouring in faster than the crew could report it, and containment systems were being overwhelmed. “Deck fifteen has lost power! Primary power manifolds on deck sixteen have been destroyed. Sublight engine number three is no longer responding!”
He glanced at the engineering display, entire sections of the ship had gone red, the forward prow having turned black since it just wasn’t there anymore. In that moment he knew; the Maiden wasn’t going to make it, they’d taken too much damage, worse they were now down an engine. “All hands abandon ship!”
_________________
December 27th, 008 SDE; 1341 hours:
Countryman watched the sensor feed as a final energy beam penetrated the engineering deck of the Maiden. The once powerful battleship was burning and on fire, overwhelmed by a few well-placed mines and a network of DP-12 Sentinels. It was the first time he’d ever seen them used against a capital ship before they might have fired on a couple of scout ships but nothing this large or well-protected.
The Maiden was launching escape pods even as the beam destabilized her main reactor, the resulting overload was near instant. A series of secondary detonations ripped through the ship sending debris flying off into the storm, a particularly large piece went flying through several escape pods, and others were cooked by the explosion. Less than a dozen pods managed to actually make it outside the blast radius before the ship had blown. Of those inside the radius a mere four survived the destruction of the Maiden by virtue of being far enough away that the shockwaves only shook them up a bit.
“Raider Flagship, the Maiden has been destroyed, sir. Enemy fleet in disarray.”
“Cease fire, send a demand for their immediate surrender, if they do not surrender in the next two minutes destroy them.”
Understood sir!” was the immediate reply from the crew.
Misaki immediately turned to her comms and began signaling the demand for a surrender. The battle was effectively over, numerous drone carriers had sunk, both battleships destroyed. There were still Raider drones on the field but his remaining fighters were slowly mopping them up, while his platforms were shredding a good number of them with overlapping fields of pulsed particle fire.
At this point, he could relax, the enemy force was effectively neutralized and they could switch over to mop-up operations. Misaki put white markers on a number of cruisers and two drone carriers, “These ships have surrendered, they are broadcasting a white flag signal and standing down all weapons.”
“Dispatch boarding parties to relieve the command crews.”
“Understood.”
“What about the remaining ships?”
“They have not yet responded to the surrender order.”
Countryman glanced at the clock, “They have thirty more seconds, if they have not surrendered by then follow my previous order.”
“Understood sir!”
Seconds ticked by quickly and only two more ships waved the white flag before time was up. The order was given and the sats resumed fire picking apart the remaining ships.
The three cruisers that managed to clear the field, disengaged from the Stormwolf and left the field at high speed. Countryman chose to allow their retreat. It would have been difficult to pin them down.
With all vessels destroyed or neutralized, Countryman leaned back in his chair, and declared victory. The battle was won, his boarding parties were taking control of the surviving raider ships and the only remaining threats were on their way out of the system. Yet even with the battle won he didn’t let his guard down just yet. There was always the chance someone might do something stupid.