April 18th, 009 SDE; EFS Enterprise on Final approach to the Lodge:
Countryman studied his monitors, the last month had been mostly uneventful, aside from an incident a couple of weeks back. Nothing that unusual; it was par for the course with the storm. The new sensors had given them warning, but not enough for his taste. The Hyperspatial Eddy had been spotted a mere 3.28901 seconds before it emerged into local space. Only automatic helm control adjustments prevented the Eddy from tearing open the hull. Instead of it opening on top of them, it had hit right off the bow, which was still close enough to cause damage. They’d lost three batteries of particle cannons and suffered a hull breach. Minor damage overall, and much less than a drifter cruiser that hadn’t been so lucky. The cruiser in question hadn’t been able to change course as fluidly as the Enterprise could at those speeds, and it sailed right into the eddy. The shields had helped for a moment before being breached, the entire prow of the ship had ruptured before they cleared the anomaly.
Sadly these things happened and they couldn’t be changed. The admiral's battle plan wasn’t going to be significantly altered by the event either. The damaged cruiser was trailing behind the main group and should be alright with some repair, but it wasn’t the only ship hit. The eddy had been a rather large one, class 14. Six more vessels had taken minor damage from being too close to the erupting energies. By and large they were lucky they hadn’t lost any ships, a class 14 hyperspatial eddy was big enough to tear the Enterprise apart if they hadn’t avoided plunging right into it. A reminder of how dangerous the storm was.
Loss of life and limb aside the incident wasn’t without its positives. Having witnessed a class 14 eddy with the new sensors they had more data to work with. Developing sensors able to peer into other layers was one thing but they just didn’t have the data they needed to really predict what the storm would do. It was just like predicting the weather, anyone could make a guess but how accurate that guess was depended on the data you had to inform the guess. One must however point out that you could have all the data in the world and still be wrong, especially if you didn’t understand what you were looking at. Right now they were a bunch of laymen given access to and responsibility for a weather station and it showed. Not that anyone on the ship would understand that reference, just another reminder of his age.
Incidents aside, he focused on the coming battle. Greyman had negotiated with them to engage the Folian battleship. Countryman had reviewed the intel they had on the ship and he had to admit it wasn’t a bad opponent. The other ship was built for slugging matches, relying on high yield weaponry and regenerative hull armor to give it an edge in close to medium range engagements. The Enterprise however was the more agile ship with longer range torpedoes, but more importantly, he had access to two hangars full of strike craft. Greyman may have left the admiral with the impression they’d be going with a torpedo duel but that wasn’t the answer.
The Folian vessel was based partially on organic technology. That presented a weakness he could exploit. While organic vessels might have many strengths. Merely being organic made them vulnerable to certain weapons in a way mechanical vessels were not.
Two such weapons were in his arsenal. One of them would require the Enterprise getting into slugging range, a bad idea in his opinion, better to rely on torpedoes than use it. The other was much more flexible, since it was mountable on fighters. That was their edge, and it played into his battle plan. A combined assault using fighters supported at range with high-yield anti-ship torpedoes. He had twenty Vulcans to work with as well, and he had plans for them as well.
Countryman turned from the displays and surveyed the bridge. It was clearly the calm before the storm, the familiar faces of his bridge crew working away at their consoles. Greyman stood by the strategic display studying a map, a depiction of the local storm with glyphs marking out the locations of known vessels. The Lodge was also on the map and it clearly showed they were getting closer. Meanwhile Misaki was studiously working at her console, while over at the tactical stations, Kaori was preparing for battle. Making sure all batteries were on standby, ensuring their torpedoes were ready to be armed at a moment’s notice. Charging the reserves and bringing all reactors to hot standby. The moment he gave his orders she would be ready to carry them out. Over by the engineering station, his engineers were doing much the same with the engines and armor. Richards had organized the damage control parties and placed them on standby throughout the ship. They were as ready for a battle as they would ever be.
Eri looked up from the helm, “Entering the Lodge ‘system’ now, sir.”
“All hands battlestations. Kaori: stand ready to fire on my command, Misaki: status of our strike complement?”
“Alpha and Beta wings are fully armed and ready to launch on your orders sir.”
“Deploy both wings and have them form up with our escorts. Formation Delta-Six.”
“Aye sir!”
Countryman glanced at the displays, “Have we located our target?”
“Yes sir, the Blooming Flower is in formation with nineteen other ships and she’s spotted our friends. The ship is on an attack vector and closing, distance 24 million kilometers.”
Finding the ship on his display, he noted that down mentally. It wasn’t exactly that distance, she’d rounded down a little but the ship was roughly 80 light seconds away, well outside the effective range of any weapon he had. On paper. There was a weapon that could strike targets that far out and he did want their attention. Photons were effective against maneuvering targets up to nine hundred thousand kilometers away. That was three light seconds, but these were projectile weapons, they didn’t simply cease to be after traveling that range. With that in mind, it was possible to extend that range with a few tricks. Fuel was fuel and once the torpedo was out that was that, but they need not expend it the whole way there. “Load forward tubes, full standard volley maximum yield. Rig them for dark mode, long range transit, set them to go active once they reach 1.5 light seconds from the target.”
Kaori quickly acknowledged the orders and readied the forward launchers for a long range volley. Countryman figured he’d do only one, at this range he doubted he’d score more than a few hits. The one volley would be plenty. Laying traps occurred to him, but that would be much easier once the ranges closed to standard combat distances. More to the point, at these ranges it was unlikely any trap he laid would come into play. The battle plan didn’t call for them anyway and his advantages in small ships would help decide this engagement.
“Torpedoes ready sir!”
“Fire!” he ordered, and the launchers hummed, the deck plates vibrating just a bit as three hundred torpedoes sailed off into the storm, without their usual blue glow. Firing dark meant they’d be sailing without an active electromagnetic penetrator field, or any active scanning. Photons usually carried a linked net of sensors and sophisticated communication suites that would be constantly active, but in dark mode every emission was minimal. Guidance was done entirely by the mothership, with the torpedoes maintaining only a tight beam link between the mothership and the warhead. All to minimize energy expenditure and emissions, ensuring the warheads go undetected. Dark mode was of course his trick to expanding their effective range and it will work to a degree, so long as the target doesn’t move too far outside the travel arc of his spread of torpedoes.
Order given, he stood up and made his way down the stairs to the lower bridge. Joining Greyman by the strategic console. Greyman noted him coming, “The Drifters have already engaged the leading defenses. Several defense platforms appear to have been recovered and redeployed by the Raiders, but otherwise, it’s mostly a battle between destroyer-class ships. Both sides are holding their cruisers in reserve.”
“I see and how do the lines of battle look?”
“In favor of the drifters right now,” he pointed out a section where three glyphs blinked out. “They are hitting the main raider line hard and the raiders are taking heavy losses.”
A Drifter glyph blinked out a second later, indicating they weren’t getting out of this unscathed, “I can see that. Doesn’t mean much just yet. Neither side has really chosen to commit yet. Once the big ships come into play, that’s when things might change.”
“Agreed sir, and speaking of, the Blooming Flower isn’t paying us much attention.”
“Good chance they don’t even see us, but that will change in about,” he checked the display, “Four minutes.”
The next few minutes ticked by slowly. Countryman spent them talking with Greyman while they watched the fight unfold. Finally Kaori informed him, “Torpedoes are now nearing the target.”
Countryman nodded and focused the chart on the target’s vicinity. The torpedo volley had just crossed the 1.5 light second line mark and began going hot. Active sensors coming online, maneuvering thrusters spiking to adjust course, electromagnetic penetrator fields engaging as well. He noted that Kaori had managed to keep all 300 torpedoes on a rough line for the Blooming Flower and with those final adjustments, they looked likely to hit.
The other ship was quick to notice the warheads going active and deployed countermeasures. Almost immediately they were launching decoy drones, and activating an array of sensor jammers, electronic noise generators and holographic ghosts. The drones were soon generating their own signals, while Greyman chuckled. Countryman didn’t blame him, ECM wasn’t the most effective defense system. Humanity still used it, but they didn’t rely on it. Modern torpedo and missile guidance systems were rarely fooled by such systems.
The main killer for ECM has been the advent of the micro-AI chip, a powerful computer brain the size of a thumbnail that was able to rapidly process information and weed out false signals. All modern torpedoes contained one as part of their guidance system precisely for the purpose of defeating ECM systems. Speaking of guidance, modern torpedoes used a complex sensor suite and tracked a target based on a multitude of parameters including size, thermal profile, electromagnetic profile, spatial resonance and they even had sensors for measuring graviton emissions. With all that data being fed into the AI chip it was hard to fool a modern warhead. However, they’d found alien missile systems tended to be far more primitive and more easily fooled. Which is why the X-1204 had been fitted with an ECM module.
Such thoughts aside, the enemy ECM proved completely ineffective. The entire salvo ignored every drone, and false shadow the Blooming Flower put out. The distance ticked down rapidly and when the warheads passed into a quarter light second distance, the Blooming Flower deployed her close in weapon systems, rapid fire guided plasma bolts. Highly accurate but by then the torpedoes were too close for any meaningful defense. Nearly two hundred and fifty of the warheads found their marks, slamming into the Blooming Flower amidships. Entire layers of plating simply ceased to exist, while turret mounts were torn from their housings, several compartments were breached as well, spewing charred bodies, burnt system housings and broken chunks of flash melted metal into the storm.
The alien hull began to regenerate instantly, the breaches sealing in minutes. “Our Drifter friends seem to have understated how potent the Folian hull regeneration systems were,” commented Countryman as he saw that.
“Doesn’t change anything, we’d never planned to win this engagement with Photons.” responded Greyman.
Countryman nodded. They never had, but the photons did their job. They’d secured the Flower’s attention. Hard not to, given the extent of the damage they’d done. Perhaps not as fatal as he might have liked, but the Folian ship was made of stern stuff. The alien armor was quite respectable considering the amount of directed energy it had just absorbed. Sure it had been breached, but the same volley would have destroyed a lesser ship. The Valorians relied too much on shields, their ships were powerful but remarkably fragile. Any shield penetrating hit would do significant damage to a Valorian ship, many of their smaller ships would outright be destroyed. Hell, even their cruisers could be destroyed with a single well placed hit, but not every foe he had faced was so fragile. The Cathamari, being much more militant in nature, were armed accordingly. They put much more stock in a robust hull, even if they weren’t the best engineers. Their ships could take a few hits.
Meanwhile, from what he had seen, Krall ships could also take a beating even with their shields down. Yet even with them, this new foe had a much more resilient hull. The damage from those hits was more contained than he would have liked, and the alien hull was healing at a visible rate. In a way he was reminded of his time fighting other humans, way back in the colonial wars. Sure their ships didn’t heal, not like this, but the level of resiliency was on par. Something he was going to keep in mind.
“Folian Battlegroup passing five light seconds distance mark.”
“Standby forward tubes.” said Countryman before turning to Misaki, “Tell Alpha and Beta wings that they are clear to begin their attack runs. All ships weapons free!”
___________________
The ship shuddered as several plasma rounds had just slammed into the plating. Dykes glanced at her displays. She’d taken the Avalon to intercept an enemy destroyer, and for support she had the Thunderstorm and the Shadowhunter, captained by Reynolds and Drakes, respectively. Both of them are seasoned commanders with solid reputations. Dykes was aware that if history had played out differently Reynolds could be in charge of the Enterprise while Drakes had once commanded the mighty EFS Yamato.
Her XO Bell turned, “Aside from some shaking that was all bark, plating held!”
“Cortez! Hard to port,” she barked out to her helmsman. The young lady quickly carried out the orders, while she turned to the lieutenant at the weapons console. “Tano lock Pulsars and fire!”
The young woman at the console was a newer addition to her crew but she was working well with her partner on the other weapon’s station. Almost immediately she replied, “Pulsars locked!”
A moment after that, a burst of blue-white spheres shot out from the dorsal launchers. The distance between them and the target shrank rapidly. In moments the energy torpedoes slammed into the hull of the destroyer in bright bursts of light.
“Direct hit! Target has lost power and is adrift!”
Before she could say a word a bright stream of blue energy cut across the storm, lighting the gases of the storm in a brilliant pattern of swirling light. It punched through the alien destroyer on her stern ventral and cut across the hull towards the bow. Entire sections ruptured in fiery displays before the beam terminated after cutting a swath clean through the ship from stern to bow.
The broken wreck engulfed in plasma fires began to break up. Bell standing at his console spoke, “Clean hit, target destroyed, no life readings.”
“Reynolds is signalling, we have a new attack vector. Hostile cruiser on intercept vector!”
She nodded and acknowledged, while glancing at the tac plot. “What about the Blooming Flower?”
“Alpha and Beta wings are engaging now.”
Dykes gave orders to the helm for the intercept. Then had Bell bring up a tac plot on the atack run, and play the local chatter. Almost immediately she could hear the pilots talking.
“I’m hit!”
“Damage?”
“Minor penetration on the starboard wing, both cannons off line.”
“Damn! I’ll cover you, stand ready to fire those torpedoes.”
“I have an angle on that plasma turret!”
“Then fire!”
Dykes processed that mentally as she watched them come in. Guided plasma rounds were being fired defensively to cover the battleship. A few fighters had taken hits and even forced a couple to pull back. Yet most were practically dancing around the flak, then they opened up. Scoring multiple Pulsar hits in short order.
She magnified the visuals, and blinked. What was she looking at?