Sali shifted in the seat of her fighter, her hands flying over the controls. Warnings blinked on her hud, each one tracking an alien missile. She didn’t give them any more attention than required. Her mind was fully on the mission. Glancing briefly at the tac plot, she noted several fighters withdrawing. The Folian plasma turrets were a threat, they fired homing plasma missiles. Medium yield with a fairly high rate of fire, letting a single turret put dozens of these missiles out every minute. She’d already been hit a couple of times, nothing that managed to get through the AIF but it was something to keep an eye on.
Coming out of a spin, she watched three plasma clusters sail off harmlessly. A few were already turning around, but the warnings stopped. She spoke into the comms. Letting Fujiwara, her wing leader, know what she was doing. “I have an attack angle on plasma turrets 14 through 18, beginning my attack run.”
Her wingman replied immediately, “Understood! Covering!”
Fujiwara added her input, “Good luck!”
She hit the throttle and angled her ship in for the attack, and glanced at her weapons console. Sali didn’t need to look to know that she was fully loaded with torpedoes and that her missiles had been swapped for extra photons. Rather than arm them however, she flipped a different switch. Bright red bold letters lit up on the screen reading; Pulsars Armed.
New warnings lit up, she’d been targeted with another volley of plasma missiles. Sali ignored them, her countermeasures were still active and the energy web was still fully charged. It could deploy at any moment, instead she programmed in her targeting sequence. Distances on her hud shrank rapidly.
The ship shook a bit as the missile cluster slammed into her webs. Shockwaves from the plasma being suddenly released rocking her little fighter. Sali pulled the trigger. Blue white spheres shot from her craft as she zipped past the first turret. A second pair fired a second later as the targeting computer followed her instructions. Each round slammed into the targeted turrets at their inherited velocity. Erupting into great bursts of light upon impact. Sali blinked as she noted the damage. She’d been briefed that the Pulsars would be more effective than usual against the Folian hull, but this wasn’t what she expected.
Sali watched yet another pair of bolts slam into the semi-organic hull. The silvery armor blackened instantly as lightning arced over sections of the hull. Then a moment later the entire section caved inward, almost as if the very supports suddenly failed. Sali ran a scan as her ship zipped by, and she switched to photons. Bold red text on the weapons console now read; Photons Armed [20 remaining]
That was a little over double a standard load, but since she wasn’t carrying any missiles, they had space to fit the extra warheads. Sali quickly selected new targets as she came about. She idly noted her wingmate’s strafing of the battleship. There weren’t any fighters to worry about; the Folian ship wasn’t even being covered by Raider drones. If not for the damn plasma missile turrets, this would have been easy mode. The particle hits punched through the hull of the battleship, but they were shallow strikes. Some of them even started healing right away.
Her scan came back just as she was sending her first photons into the alien ship. Sensor readings indicated that her pulsar strikes hadn’t just disrupted systems, it had killed the biological tissue, frying it in place. The necrotic tissue left behind was interfering with the alien regeneration systems, slowing their ability to recover from damage. A moment later her latest volley of photons slammed into the hull, penetrating the armor before exploding inside of it. An entire section ruptured, plasma fires erupting out into space. The gases of the storm were aglow with fresh lights as particle rounds and explosions lit up the storm.
“Clear the firing line! All ships, I say again, clear the firing line!”
She blinked and then broke her run, joining several fighters as they cleared a new line on their hud. A second later the storm was aglow as a bright blue beam lanced across her vision. It tore into the wounded side of the battleship. The armor ruptured in fractions of a second as the beam penetrated multiple decks while sweeping across the flank of the ship. Doing far more damage than her puny torpedoes, and then as soon as it started, the beam was gone. Instead targeting some destroyer.
Fujiwara was on the line in an instant with new orders, “Sweep in! Don’t let them recover, I’m updating your tac plots with new attack orders.”
Even as she followed the new instructions, the aliens seemed to keep their wits about them. The Folian warship rolled, bringing fresh cannons to bear and unleashed a volley of high energy blasts out towards the Enterprise. Then the first fighters and bombers were upon her again. Noting a turret dead ahead, Sali locked photons and fired. Her wingman fired a pair of pulsars into the hull as they zipped past. Blowing holes in the alien hull and knocking out weapon emplacements. That was what this mission boiled down to.
_______________________
Dykes read figures off her console as she gave the helm orders for a new course. The battle was going decently enough. If you ignored the fact they were engaged with a cruiser.
The ship shook as several particle bolts slammed into the forward plating. Bell reported from his station, “Update from Enterprise! Two drone carriers have entered the engagement zone. Estimate two minutes before we have to deal with drones.”
“Understood!” she replied, while Tano looked up from her console, “Impact! Target has lost power to their main weapons!”
“Excellent! Cortez, bring us to three one six mark two eight, ahead flank. Tano, Munez: Fire at will!”
“With pleasure!” Replied her two weapons officers.
As the ship swung onto an attack vector, all eight of her triple particle turrets began firing full force into the cruiser they’d engaged. In the same moment they were joined on the attack run by Drake’s ship, the Shadowhunter. Dykes watched several more pulsar launches from the Shadowhunter slam into the cruiser, just moments before the other ship raked their side. Her own rounds tore into the armor.
Bell reported, “Four squadrons of gunships now entering the combat zone and requesting orders.”
“Understood, tell them to cover us and coordinate with Drake!” she shouted, as she checked the tac plot. They’d requested reinforcements earlier when they were up against the cruiser, but now she was more worried about the drones. The X-1205 was a versatile ship and should provide decent coverage, in theory. By request, this squadron was outfitted with torpedoes, two pulsar turrets and six dual particle turrets, along with the standard spinal-mounted heavy compression cannons. That filled all the weapon slots on the 1205 and heavily lent it to a gunship/light bomber role. Normally the ventral turret mounts were left empty as those mounts would block the lower docking port, while one of the dorsal slots was often left open as well, due to power limits. In this case, they’d had an extra reactor module fitted, which solved that problem. It did mean these gunships were not carrying marines, nor could they resupply fighters. Just the standard crew of 4.
Dykes noted the ships quickly shifting into formation with their little battlegroup and one squadron began an attack run on the cruiser they’d engaged. With its main guns down, it had little to stop the ships as they unleashed a barrage of high yield particle bolts, torpedoes, and the occasional photon bomb into its hull.
Her mind however focused more on the drones she knew were coming. The cruiser was wounded and currently not a threat. Yet it wasn’t entirely out of the fight, if she gave it a chance the ship could bring her weapons back online and start doing damage. The drones were the more immediate threat. “Bell, get me a line to the Shadowhunter.”
“Aye, sir!”
Drakes appeared on her monitor a moment later. “Something on your mind?”
“We have pretty much crippled the cruiser. I am more concerned with the drones and was thinking about where to place our gunships.”
“Much in line with what I was thinking. Have any ideas?”
“Several,” she began before sharing her thoughts on formation.
It took only moments for them to agree and by the time they had the ships in position the raider drones were swarming into the combat zone. Her two weapons officers calmly started targeting the drones, as they opened up on the ship and their gunship escorts. The storm lit up as particle bolts and plasma rounds flew in every direction, leaving trails of iridescent illumination in their wake for several seconds. If not for the fact that she was in a battle of life and death, she might have stopped to admire the strangely beautiful sight.
Several drones penetrated the flak screen, and strafed her hull with torpedoes and plasma bolts.
As they passed, she barked, “Damage Report!”
“Minor damage to portside plating, AIF holding, no critical systems damaged.”
She nodded. One thing she had to say about the Vulcan is that it was built tough. Considering it was originally designed to land troops while under heavy fire, it certainly seemed the original designers had done a good job with the armor. Even if they had not envisioned the ships being repurposed as escort and patrol corvettes. One thing she did wish they’d put on these things were a couple of torpedo launchers. They might have helped against the cruiser, but the pulsars did seem to do a good job of evening the odds.
While she was watching the drones go down in numbers and keeping an eye on the cruiser. It turned out someone else went hunting the carriers. Suddenly Bell reported, “Ma’am! Reynolds reports that he has engaged and destroyed two drone carriers!”
Almost immediately, the drones started to behave erratically, making them very easy prey for her particle cannons. They were mopped up nigh instantly, allowing them to finish off the cruiser.
Just before she could give the order however, Bell reported, “Broadband transmission from the Blooming Flower!”
“Let's hear it!”
“This is the Blooming Flower to all ships, stand down we surrender! Repeat, all ships stand down, we surrender.”
She blinked, “The cruiser?”
“She’s transmitting a white flag signal as well, and opening her hangers.”
“Request a boarding party, and what’s the status of the Blooming Flower?”
Bell took a moment before reporting, “Heavy damage to her outer hull, main and secondary weapon systems offline. She’s lost main power and both primary drive units are out. Multiple plasma fires are burning across thirty-nine decks and I’m reading multiple fuel line ruptures throughout her main engineering spaces.”
In other words the warship was adrift and powerless. Surrender was likely the right move now that she was looking at the field. Her gaze turned to the main battle, “What about our drifter friends?”
“Fighting appears to still be going on in that section of the battlefield, but from the looks of it the Drifters are winning. They’ve even landed troops on the colony. Only a matter of time before the Raiders withdraw or surrender.”
She sighed, “In that case we just have to babysit an enemy cruiser until that boarding party gets here.”