Carinae Sector: 02 - Admiral's Fury - Part 3 - Fleet Action (16 page)

Bel’khai grinned in good humour at the perplexing nature of the machine race, for Narindestat now knew they feared the Maveen even if they derided the senior race’s obdurate nature. The mention of the loaned ship then had Bel’khai intrigued and he asked a leading question.

‘So if your loaned ship is now damaged I assume your proper ship was also earlier damaged by a battle?’

Narindestat knew that the lead counsel was now fishing for further information as he gave a reply in a now conspiratorial manner.

‘No lead counsel the Illuria is being upgraded, and we took the Resuria instead as she is still a standard ship. We did this as we seek to mislead the vassal races as to our true abilities.’

The Trader captain now hauled up a schematic of the upgraded, but incomplete Illuria, and handed his data tablet to the nearby Altoran fleet commander. Narindestat noted the surprise of the commander as he looked through the information, before Narindestat continued to speak.

‘Of course we do not mind our local friends and allies being aware of this fact, as long as they do not pass on the news to the vassals. The Illuria will be over forty percent more powerful when we finish and we are also building all our new ships to this later specification. The Resuria merely is placed ahead of the other thirty or so existing ships as the next ship to be upgraded.’

Bel’khai gave several deep chuffing laughs and glared in amazement at Narindestat before he weakly attempted a jovial reply.

‘Rest assured my friend, the thought of speaking with vassal races is most unlikely to occur. I understand you must leave shortly and we will not detain you any further.’

The lead counsel looked around at his now silent advisors and then paused, before speaking again after tapping his official staff four times on the deck of the hangar.

‘Captain Narindestat, we will honour and respect our renewed friendship and alliance with your race and your other allies. I have spoken and my word is law. You have my blessing to now leave and journey to meet your allies.’

Narindestat felt relief but kept his response silent, as the advisors on either side intoned their formal responses to their leader’s last sentences.

‘So it is discussed, so it is agreed to by wise counsel, so it becomes law.’

Narindestat politely recovered both his data tablet and the holographic projector, before taking leave of the lead counsel and his advisors. He then gave them a polite wave that was in keeping with the reputation of his race as he went up the side door of the sneak ship. He noted grimly that the Altoran had all waved back almost too enthusiastically as the small ship’s door finally closed.

Sneak ship three was soon making the short trip back to the Resuria and Narindestat looked over at his pilot as the younger Trader spoke casually.

‘Captain you look relieved to out of that meeting. The Altoran strike me as being a race that deals from strength and they would pounce on any weakness. Our alliances with the humans and the Maveen are proving very valuable.’

Narindestat beamed at the pilot, Lieutenant Marenkestat, one of Garendestat’s best friends. The younger Trader was once again proving his worth he decided, as he replied in a polite manner.

‘Those views are certainly true pilot, and never forget that in your own dealings with the Altoran when you later become a captain.’

Back on board the Altoran star base, the lead counsel was getting a further update after detecting the subdued nature of the fleet commander.

‘Lead counsel, I amend my most recent advice on war from extremely foolhardy to extremely suicidal. The captain mentioned they have thirty or more of those battle cruisers and they are being upgraded. I think the Traders and humans alone would easily account for our forces before the extra strength of the Maveen is factored into account.’

The Altoran lead counsel noted the nodding heads of his other advisors before he also ritually nodded in agreement. The leader and his aides turned to quietly study a nearby view screen, as the Trader battle cruiser slowly altered course and followed the Maveen gate ships away from the home system of the Altoran.

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Chapter 8

Omerio was almost beside himself with impatience as he watched the nearby battle his cruiser squadron was attempting to reach in time. The fact that he and several of his crew were still suffering the lingering effects of the human virus did not help his mood either. He resisted the urge to rub his shoulders as his fur still itched mightily on occasion from the illness. The Barus ships had streamed across the solar system at break neck speed, and during the transition one of the cruisers had been struck by a head sized rock at very high speeds. The cruiser’s stout shields had absorbed most of the impact, though three crewmembers in a point defence turret were killed.

The cruisers were decelerating heavily and the Barus strained at the straps of their acceleration couches, as Omerio sought to avoid overrunning the battle and slamming his ships into the Earth’s moon. He knew that if his larger cruisers attacked the centre of the armada he might still be able to drive them back. However, the simulations also were showing that his fleet could lose up to twelve or more ships, or even the whole squadron of sixteen ships, as they were losing too much speed to disengage quickly after the attack.

Omerio had just been in a brief conversation with Gindane and advised her to press home her own attacks on the two large missile-carrying lifters. He knew that her own fleet had already lost most of her weaker destroyers to massed attacks from the enemy frigates. Gindane had given Omerio that soft smile she reserved only for him before hurriedly excusing herself as the Jerecab frigates guarding their lifters again counter attacked. He knew that Gindane and her crew were also still suffering the effects of the human virus, although no other Barus on other ships were affected due to the quarantine being implemented.

Commander Tamerio came over with his latest battle simulation showing the impact of the two surprises the humans had just sprung on the Jerecab. Omerio felt rising hope as he took in the changing odds of the massive nearby battle in space.

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Maveen probe three was still under masquerade as scout probe eleven, as the three Jerecab frigates raced at breakneck speed in towards Earth. He knew that the Jerecab were sacrificing the three small ships as a distraction in an attempt to break the cohesion of the human admiral’s defences. Already the frigates were nearby and within his combat radius as he turned and accelerated heavily to match their velocity.

Several of the smaller human ships turned to follow him, but after a few minutes the probe was already leaving them well behind. He scanned well ahead of the Jerecab ships and worked out that swarm of missiles was racing up from the surface and that the frigates were heading for south east Asia. The three Jerecab frigates had just flipped around to begin deceleration manoeuvrers as he began his attack run. Probe three used both his weapons and those of the sled in a concerted attack on the leading frigate.

The frigate’ shields stubbornly held out his weapons fire as Earth loomed ahead of the four ships. The Maveen probe fired all his weapons again as the frigates fired all their own laser weapons in response at his ship. The probe was glad he had the extra shielding provided by his large sled as the lasers solidly struck against his slowly weakening shields. He was concerned that the frigates were not engaging him with missiles as the first frigate now staggered under his own savage attack. Probe three switched his attack across to the second Jerecab ship, as the three frigates began to diverge in course to make his attack harder to execute.

The Maveen’s range scanner chimed and he felt relief as the first human ships were now coming into range from his stern. He was unsure of the strength of the human corvettes in fighting the Jerecab ships, but he knew that if enough of them attacked quickly enough then the frigates would be destroyed. The main thing that worried him was that the corvettes only carried a few smaller missiles slung underneath their hulls. The Maveen attacked the second ship again, but now all the ships had reached low Earth orbital distance and would entering the atmosphere in moments.

The probe altered course slightly to attack the third and last Jerecab frigate as the enemy ships began to close up again in an attempt to protect one another. The three Jerecab ships entered the Earth’s outer atmosphere at twelve times the speed of sound and slowed dramatically as a small flight of human missiles raced past. The enemy frigates detected the human missiles very late, as the combat distance was very close. Additional weapons fire from the humans raced past and in some instances struck his powerful shields glancing blows. The human commander growled an order across the radio as the air in front of the Jerecab frigates began to glow a fiery red.

‘Easy on the laser fire and do not hit the Maveen probe. Commander to Maveen probe, you get yourself out of there!’

Four of the human missiles struck heavy blows on the two rearmost Jerecab frigates, as the Maveen probe now evaluated the swarm of rapidly approaching human missiles launched from the surface. Probe three decided that the frigates were about to be destroyed, and he applied maximum thrust to skip across the upper atmosphere and avoid the human missiles. As he altered course the human commander growled again.

‘The frigates are launching two or three missiles each. All ships are to engage those missiles.’

The Maveen probe used his rear scanners to watch the rest of the battle unfold as he returned to the safety of space. The Jerecab ships launched eight missiles and they all raced towards the human planet at many times the speed of sound. The probe was impressed as several of the human missiles altered course in the lower atmosphere and quickly destroyed five of the eight Jerecab missiles. The remaining three missiles of the Jerecab raced earthward as the frigates themselves came under renewed attack. A series of explosions quickly followed and badly damaged Jerecab frigates tumbled from the sky with limited shields.

The Maveen probe was about to lose line of sight on the battle, but the human commander provided a cursing commentary as three explosions brilliantly flared on the ground near the horizon.

‘Dammit, those were tactical nukes and they took out three of our cities. I think we lost Singapore, Beijing and Bangkok. The three frigates are badly damaged and are crash landed in Indonesia.’

Probe three kept silent as he turned to regain the best intercept location between the Earth and its moon. The Maveen thought it likely the two Jerecab fleets would attack again, but as he scanned the battle he realised that the circumstances had changed.

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Lieutenant Teanros attempted to keep the nose of the frigate up as it tore through the lower atmosphere of the human home world. He had taken control of the small ship from the command chair after the nearby pilots console lost power. The ship’s commander was already dead in the narrow passageway outside after a sabot round exploded and punched several small holes in the bridge of the ship. The advanced armour on the bridge had self sealed the leaks in moments, but nothing could be done for the commander’s head. Teanros ignored the dead commander’s blood on the floor nearby as he barked two orders across the bridge and applied the forward braking thrusters.

‘We lost all our engines and the shields are going, fortunately the attacks did not destroy the front shields and we will attempt a crash landing. Strengthen all forward shields and brace for impact.’

Water and a coastline loomed in the main view screen as the ship still had most of her cameras operating. Teanros fought to keep the frigate’s nose high, as he noted that the two other frigates were critically damaged as well and only a few kilometres way. The lieutenant quickly keyed the seat restraint for the command chair and heard the other crewmembers on the bridge doing the same thing. He only had time to ensure the front blast doors were raised as the frigate hit the ocean and skipped back into air at over four hundred kilometres per hour.

Teanros rode the wildly bucking command chair by instinct as he sought to prevent the solidly built frigate from tumbling during the next impacts. After two tense minutes, the crash was over as the squat ship slewed sideways off the ocean, up a beach, and then ploughed headlong into a dense stand of mangroves. The shields finally failed several seconds after the frigate stopped moving, and Teanros released his seat belt as the emergency lighting came on.

Another lieutenant yelled out that the fusion reactor was shutting down and Teanros hit the emergency releases on all external and internal doors while they still had power. The bridge crew streamed out the canting passageway and were met by several survivors elsewhere in the ship. The survivors all looked at Teanros for leadership as he was the senior officer still alive, and he quickly led the four other lieutenants to a nearby locker. They were soon handing out laser pistols, survival rations and limited radio equipment as the Jerecab now hissed urgent instructions and reassurance at one another.

The survivors remained together as Teanros led them from wreckage of the frigate further into the dense stand of mangroves. He paused for a moment as he took in the distant images of blue skies, white sand and water of their location. The lieutenant now knew that the photos the admiral had earlier obtained from the Barus did not do the human planet justice; for the scenery was not just spectacular it was beautiful. He also felt unease as he looked around for he was well aware that he could shortly die on this world.

Teanros’s military training now took over and he keyed a terse three clicks that was answered twice after several seconds by the survivors from the other two ships. The lieutenant surveyed the immediate alien landscape around them, for the strange large trees and the stinking mud were already making any movement slow and treacherous. His spirits soured when after ten minutes they encountered a large creek running between the trees.