Star Crusades Nexus: Book 05 - Prophecy of Fire (33 page)

“Private, you were saying?”

Jack took a step closer to face him.

“Admiral, a group of Khreenk assisted in the battle. They came back with us on the transports.”

Admiral Lewis looked surprised and turned his attention over to General Daniels, who simply nodded in agreement.

“And?”

“Well, Sir, they said the Biomechs troops are only a short distance from the Helion settlements. Give it another hour, and they will leave the Fort and move on to the next target.”

“Really, you know this for certain?”

General Daniels walked to the tactical schematic and tilted it to show the surface of Eos. The main Fort was now completely red with smaller patterns around it. He slid it to the right and pointed at four green areas.

“These are the nearby underground habitation quadrants and industrial sites. As we left, my drones detected elements from the Fort already moving away and heading for these locations.”

Gun growled at this.

“They’re screwed then. Two marine battalions couldn’t hold them back, and you saw how useful the Helion Army was.”

The disparaging tone came over as more insulting than he may have intended, but it did its job. The imagery certainly supported the assessment of the marines, and the Admiral didn’t like it.

“Assuming we can win this battle, there is nothing we can do to help them. I have orders for us to join the defense force around Helios at full burn with any ship that remains. How long would it take to take on and defeat the Biomechs on the ground?”

General Daniels almost choked at that.

“Defeat? They smashed us on our own ground. We could return and attack their forces in hit and run strikes, but that won’t help the Helions. We need to stop them decisively and in less than an hour.”

He placed his chin in his hand, considering what they were telling him. He had a long-term requirement to assist at Helios, but the defeat on Eos was a stain upon the honor of the Alliance. Even worse than that, was the potential loss of the moon and all of its civilians.

How can the Helions trust us if we leave their citizens to die as we flee?

“Admiral, Commodore Hampel has started his strike on the carrier,” said Captain Marcus.

His stomach shuddered for a moment at the thought. The frigates were much smaller than the heavy cruisers that made up the bulk of his fleet, but what they lacked in size, they more than made up for in short-ranged gunnery and speed.

“Good, let us hope they can help end this before every Helion burns on Eos. I want this battle over!”

* * *

The small force of four frigates moved in a line abreast formation at a distance of just eighty kilometers apart. In space this was almost on top of each other, but it meant they could provide mutual gunnery support against the swarm of Biomech fighters that moved against them. ANS Spearfish, the lead ship in the formation, inched slightly ahead of the others and made for a direct assault course on the Ravager. Unlike the Biomantas, this ship followed a more conventional design, with no indicators showing a biological component to its twin hull. The multitude of ribs running down its flanks hit the launch tubes for fighters and gun systems. At nearly twice the size of the Biomantas, she was a ship worthy of a Battlecruiser, perhaps even a battleship from the glory days of the Great War.

“Close formation, and watch for fighters!”

Captain Jim ‘The Hammer’ Evans maneuvered his red-nosed Lightning fighter alongside the freshly arrived X57 Avenger combat drones that had now entered the fray. At roughly the same size of his craft, the Avengers were more heavily armed with a multitude of weapons fitted in their armored hulls. Their shape was something closer to a bat, and the wings contained four small engines on each side, both to propel the fighter and to power the might primary armament. The hull consisted almost entirely of a single weapon system, a quadruple barreled railgun that had been heavily modified from the weapon systems once carried on cruisers.

“All fighters report in,” he said calmly.

The drones, of course, said nothing. They were fully autonomous and only communicated directly with the controlling capital ships and the forward controllers in the fighter squadron. A pair of Hammerheads moved closely to the frigates to monitor and give tactical orders to the robotic warriors, and six more drones circled the Hammerheads watching out for signs of missiles or other craft. One by one, the squadrons reported in until he knew the fighter group was ready for the next phase.

“All squadrons, you have your targets. Break and attack!”

Captain Evans was just one of six leaders for the fighter assault, of the six he was the one with the greatest experience. He’d fought pirates, T’Kari Raiders, and now Biomechs fighters. Even he wasn’t prepared for the flak corridor put up by the Ravager. It started as a dozen turrets fired scattered shards into space and then extended to more than fifty guns firing almost repeatedly.

“What the hell!” he muttered as a chunk of his left wing tore off, exposing bare wiring. One of his missile hardpoints indicated a system failure and immediately went offline.

Screw this. We’re going in!

He hit the boost control and accelerated toward the stern of the massive carrier. His wingmen moved in right behind, the rest of the fighters moving about the carrier like flies.

“Captain, enemy fighters launching!” said Lieutenant Leary, one of the pilots in the squadron moving to the underside of the carrier. No sooner had he said the words than two-dozen Biomech fighters rushed out from the massive ship and into the formation of fighters. Captain Evans spotted the threat indicator right behind his comrade, but it was too late.

“Watch your tail, Green Three.”

Gunfire ripped into the fighter and exploded the starboard engine, instantly killing the pilot and sending shards of red-hot metal into the cockpit. The wreck twisted out of control before striking the carrier in a fiery flash. The frigates were now in range, and the tables quickly turned on the newly launched fighters. Like the carrier, they were well equipped to deal with fighters and dispatched half of the Biomech fighters with a barrage of tiny flechette rounds from their point-defense turrets. The frigates also made use of their larger caliber railguns to put barrages of gunfire into the carrier itself. Explosions ran along the length of the vessel even before the volleys of missiles and torpedoes from the fighters did their work. Three sections sustained the worst of it, with most landing near the rear. Missile after missile slammed through the defensive fire and blew out chunks of metal while the Avenger drones sent high-velocity projectiles deep inside the ship.

Captain Evans launched his final missiles before contacting Royal Oak’s CAG.

“Captain Harper, the breaches have been made. She’s ready.”

“Understood. Evans, get your people out of there. You have forty-five seconds.”

The Captain had already sent the pre-determined code, however, and the large groups of fighters circled about, turning on the last of the Biomantas that were still being struck by an overwhelming barrage of wide-band particle beams. He was halfway to the nearest of the ships when he spotted the IFF warnings on the missiles.

Nukes, about damned time!

They tracked quickly from the launch tubes aboard the Battlecruisers as they moved on the carrier. There were only twelve of them, with three times as more decoys launched from the other warships. Three made it through what was left of the defensive gunnery and smashed deep inside the stern of the ship.

Nothing happened.

* * *

Admiral Lewis watched with a bitter expression on his face as one of the frigates took the full brunt of the Ravager’s gunfire. The ship had been able to turn its guns away from the retreating fighters, and in less than thirty seconds, the frigate had sustained over five hundred separate impacts from the high-velocity guns.

“What’s happened to my atomics?” he demanded angrily.

There was no answer until finally the tactical officer spun about to look at him.

“Admiral, the activation signal has been jammed by the carrier. We can’t activate them this far away.”

“What? Are you kidding? Burn through it and trigger them.”

“It won’t work, Admiral. The jamming is coming from the bow of the ship. We need to get right against their stern to get through the jamming.”

“What about another volley?”

Lieutenant Vitelli checked his computer for a moment, calling out while keeping his eyes on the screen.

“Three minutes till they’re ready, Admiral, but they will have the same problem.”

“Then remove the safeties and set them for proximity detonation. That ship is already moving in on ANS Sentry. It must be stopped, now!”

Lieutenant Vitelli almost protested, but the bright flash of ANS Narwhal as it exploded near the Ravager persuaded him otherwise. There were now just three of the small frigates remaining, and he doubted the others had more than a few minutes of life left.

“Aye, Sir, working on it.”

General Daniels looked at the disposition of ships and pointed at the group of Hammerheads leaving the scene of the battle.

“Who are these?”

Admiral Lewis glanced at them before answering.

“They’re the controller craft from the drones, why?”

The General knew what he was about to say would consign the crews to their deaths but time was not on their side, and they were the only crew in the area.

“Give them the order.”

The Admiral looked at him and then at the flashing marker indicating the craft. He knew it was the right thing to do but hated the General for reminding him of it. He hesitated, but every second that went by saw more casualty reports coming in. He placed his face in the palm of his hand as he picked up the intercom.

* * *

Lieutenant Jim Davidson tapped in the data for the last time into the navcomputer. It was a long shot, but he was damned if he was going to lead his electronic warfare crew to their deaths on a suicide mission.

“Are you sure this will work?” he asked the two engineers sitting inside the transport section of the craft.

“It’s on a timer. As long as she gets within ten meters of the ship, it’ll work.”

The Lieutenant was one of newest pilots in the unit, but his aptitude for seat of the pants flying had almost got him the top spot in the fighter squadrons. It was only his failure on the gunnery trials that had pushed him back to the support units. Now he was starting to wonder if the fighter squadrons would be safer.

“Okay, the computer is set. Get ready for ejection in ten seconds.”

He looked out of the cockpit and at the shape of the Ravager right in front of them. It was a big ship, perhaps bigger than any Alliance ship ever built, and from this distance it might have been a moon. The timer continued to run down until it reached the last digit. His muscles tensed, and he almost panicked, thinking for a second that he’d not fitted his helmet. He reach up and found he was right.

“Oh...crap!” he groaned.

A powerful blast flew him and his co-pilot out of the bottom of the craft at the same time as the crew section detached from the rear mountings. Retro thrusters pushed them down and away from the craft as it continued forward on its course with the massive ship. Lieutenant Davidson kept his eyes and mouth closed for as long as he could manage, but the force of the escape and his own nerves reduced that to just a few seconds. He groaned as he blew out the air to find fresh, clean air coming back.

What?

He opened his eyes to see the compartment was drifting away from the ship, and his co-pilot sitting directly next to him.

You fool!

In the panic, he’d forgotten the escape sequence blew out the crew modules rather than the individual crewmembers. He knew this, and it made him feel like an idiot that he might have thought otherwise.

“Jim, look,” said Jonas, his co-pilot.

Both of them looked out of the window section as the tiny dot that was the Hammerhead crashed into the stern of the ship. It looked like they must have failed, but a tiny red flash appeared and then expanded to engulf the entire rear third of the ship. It shuddered and split as great chunks were blown off the Ravager.