Storm' Fury: The Shenkar War (11 page)

              “Load the torpedo tubes again and immediately fire then initiate
Prometheus
shell,” Captain Dvares said in a level voice.

              At the captain’s orders, several of the bridge crew turned to look at their captain.

              “You heard the captain, now MOVE IT!” commanded Commander Sukita.

              Captain Dvares understood his crew’s reluctance at the orders, if only there another option.

              Human scientists had been working to improve on
Meshtrell
technology. Much to the
Meshtrell’s
chagrin, they were being very successful. The
Prometheus
shell was one of those successes, but more to the exact point it was created by Steve Barrows, a
Templar
knight and husband to his commander. Taking a page from the times of great sea battles, Steve had designed a shell of interlocking heavy armored plates to cover the entire bow of a heavy cruiser. Normally these plates would be spread along the hull of the ship until activated. Once initiated, the heavy armored plates moved forward and interlocked with each other. Interlocking several times over would create a hardened battering ram that, in theory, could be used to ram enemy ships….in theory. However, it was primarily designed to ram the wreckage of foes, not one with most of their shields and armor in place. A major drawback of the
Prometheus
shell was all forward energy cannons and torpedo launchers were disabled, which made it impossible to soften up the area they planned to ram while at the same time would be taking fire of their own. Technically the armored plates should deflect any incoming weapons fire but all of this was untested as of yet. The
Okinawa
was the first heavy cruiser to have this new technology but they had been unable to test it before the second assault by the Shenkar forces.

              “Torpedos away,
Prometheus
shell locked in place.”

              “Very good, auxiliary power too forward shields and engines. Heading two four three, flank speed. All stations, brace for impact!” Captain Dvares commanded before saying softly to Kimino

              “Let’s hope your husband’s invention holds up.”

              Silence filled the bridge as the
Okinawa
surged forward, heading on its deadly run against the Shenkar battlecruiser. Captain Dvares didn’t know what kind of impact they would do. The
Okinawa
was roughly half the size of the battlecruiser so he would need to pick just the right spot to maximize their damage.

              Closer and closer the
Okinawa
got as she closed the distance. The Shenkar battlecruiser seemingly hadn’t noticed the threat until it was almost too late. The four torpedos slammed into the side of the battlecruiser, explosions all alone her side against the ships shields. Energy cannons which had recently been targeting the
Reagan
suddenly swiveled, targeted the cruiser and began firing. Luckily, as predicted, the shields and armor absorbed most of the energy directed towards them. As if realizing they would be unable to destroy the new addition, the engines of the Shenkar battlecruiser flared to life. Captain Dvares had hoped they would try that, it worked perfectly into his plan.

              “Impact in 10...9…8…7…6…5…4…3…2…1.”

              The entire heavy cruiser shook violently under the bone crushing impact as all crew members were thrown forward in their restraints. The
Okinawa’s
bow had slammed just above and before the engines of the Shenkar battlecruiser. A loud screeching sounded throughout the ship as great chunks of metal first bent in then were torn free as the
Okinawa
continued her deadly run into the battlecruiser. Men and woman continued to hold onto anything nearby as the ship continued to violently shake.

              “We have hull breach on decks three and six,” Kimino yelled over the screeching of metal.

              Soon explosions began to sound through the hull and Captain Dvares prayed none of those explosions would be big enough to finish the
Okinawa
.

              “Come on, hold together,” Dvares whispered to his ship.

              It seemed to go on forever but the
Okinawa
continued her deadly run as she broke through the other side of the battlecruiser into the open space beyond.The sounds of explosions and screeching metal that had been so loud before now ceased. It was as if suddenly turning off the sound, as the sounds dropped away.              

              “Captain, we have broken through the battlecruiser.”

              A new explosion of sound arose from the bridge crew as they cheered their captains reckless maneuver.

              “Give me a status report,” asked Captain Dvares.

              “Shenkar battlecruiser seems to be dead in space, it seems we hit them where it counts”

“What is our status?”

“We have hull breaches on several decks, emergency bulkheads are

in place. The
Prometheus
shell had also suffered significant damage, we will be unable to retract the armor plating. Port side energy cannons are down and our fold engines are offline,” Kimino explained.

              “What is the status of the
Reagan
?” Dvares asked.

              “She seems to be okay at the moment, the
Remington
and
Alexander
are taking up defensive positions.”

              “Okay, move us into position so our port side faces the
Reagan
, we can use each other as protection. How is the rest of the fleet holding up?”

              Kimino scanned the holo display for a few moments before responding.

              “We are taking a pounding sir, if we don’t get some help soon we are going to lose this fight.”

              “Captain, we have incoming Shenkar fighters, off our stern!” his operations officer warned.

              Captain Dvares sighed; if he survived this battle maybe he would retire like his wife kept asking him to do.

December 26
th
, 2013 2:41am

Terran System

              “Watch it
Arch-Angel
you have four on your tail!”

              Liam pulled hard against the stick causing his fighter to roll hard to the left. Hot energy shot past, impacting upon the energy shields of a nearby EDF heavy cruiser, Liam was unsure of which cruiser it was in the pandemonium that was this battle. Depressing his right foot pedal he sent his fighter into a tight corkscrew dive. His pursuers doggedly stayed on his tail as they continued to pour energy after him. Glancing at his radar he examined a nearby Shenkar
Shirec
cruiser that was venting atmosphere as she burned heavily. Quickly he turned his fighter towards the burning cruiser and ignited his afterburners. As expected his four shadows continued their pursuit, he had to admit, they were persistent. Quickly the cruiser loomed in front of him as he accessed his torpedoes impact ignition parameters through his computer. Once finished he quickly depressed his trigger and his torpedo spend off. The torpedo passed through a tear in the hull and impacted inside the burning cruiser. Adjusting his path his fighter shot over the top of the cruiser just as his torpedoes delay fuse ignited and exploded. The result was secondary explosions created a chain reaction igniting a reactor overload. Just as Liam’s four pursuers passed over the cruiser, it exploded, engulfing the four Shenkar fighters.

              With a moment of peace he quickly took an assessment of the situation. It didn’t look good for the small Earth fleet. Two defense platforms burned under the barrage of fire they were receiving from the Shenkar command bases. Over half the capital ships had either been destroyed or disabled and the fighter cover had been severely diminished. Of the one thousand unenhanced pilots, roughly half of their number were disabled or destroyed. If they didn’t turn this around soon they were going to lose this battle.

              A chime alerted him to inbound fighters to the battle, many more fighters. Keying his computer he pulled up the identification of new additions. Within the blink of the eye, he received his answer and trepidation filled him as a communiqué came over his headset on a secure channel.

              “Hi honey, want some help?” asked Leah.

              “What do you think you are doing?” demanded Liam.

              Jerking his flight stick over Liam narrowly avoided two oncoming Shenkar fighters.

              “Me and the rest of the cadets are going to help. I will be damned if I lose you before I get to marry you,” Leah said, not bothering to hide the irritation in her voice.

              “How did you unlock your fighters? That requires a command code.”

              “Well that I had to help with,” said a familiar voice.

              The new voice broke into the conversation at this point, a voice Liam hadn’t expected to hear as the individual was supposed to be on his honeymoon. Liam had explicitly ordered for him not to be informed of the impending attack.

              “Hey old man, thought you could use some help. Hope you left enough for me,” Evan said, his voice full of mirth.

              “You are supposed to be on your honeymoon, your new wife will kill me if anything happens to you….providing I survive this.”

              “Actually I think I would be first in line to be executed as I didn’t tell her where I was going. I couldn’t have her up here….did I mention she is pregnant?”

              Liam groaned aloud at hearing this. Crystal would flay him alive if anything happened to Evan.

              “So help me god if you die I swear I am just going to ram my fighter into the sun. It will be less painful than what Crystal would do to me.”

              “Aye Aye captain,” Evan said in his best attempt at sounding like a pirate.

              Keying the fleet net he synced up all the new additions to the rest of the defense fleet before he addressed them. Liam managed to do all this while jinking and juking his fighter through the battle. On several occasions he had narrowly avoided colliding with another fighter or debris from wrecked ships.

              “Attention Paladins, form up and follow your designated leaders. Remember your training, do not allow yourself to be pulled away chasing lone fighters.
Valkyrie
, you and
Succubus
are assigned as wingmates to
Zombie
, stay with him and cover him.”

              If Liam would have to bet he would say no one pilot could make a difference…..if Evan wasn’t part of that equation. Evan on the other hand wasn’t just any ordinary pilot. He could fly with such fluidity and perfection he made it look like art. Upon entering the battle he immediately fell upon the nearest Shenkar fighter and destroyed it within a few heartbeats. Again and again his energy cannons found their targets as he burned through space leaving Shenkar wreckage in his wake.

              Even so, with the devastation Evan was dealing, the Earth forces would be hard pressed to survive this battle unless they received some heavy support.

              Trying to monitor the new additions, Leah in particular, Liam nearly collided with a
Scorpion
fighter heading in the opposite direction, closely pursued by three Shenkar
Creeza
fighters. Accepting he wouldn’t be able to protect Leah and fight effectively he put her out of his mind, telling himself Evan would protect her. Pulling hard on his flight stick he brought his fighter around on course with the three Shenkar fighters. Although it was probably not a wise decision, Liam ignited his afterburners to quickly close the space with his targets.

              Falling in behind the three, he quickly locked his targeting reticule onto a Shenkar fighter, he then depressed the trigger. Before the Shenkar pilot realized what had happened, his fighter was exploding around him. Before the first fighter had finished burning in space, Liam had already locked his targeting reticule upon the next Shenkar fighter. In mere seconds the second Shenkar was destroyed and at this point the third and final Shenkar pursuer realized his wingmates had been killed. Breaking off his pursuit of the
Scorpion
fighter the Shenkar pilot attempted to escape Liam’s dogged pursuit. Before Liam could get a target lock the Shenkar pilot collided with a large piece if of wreckage and his fighter exploded. Not sparing anytime to think of the
Scorpion
fighter he had rescued, Liam turned and looked for another target. There were plenty of targets to pick from and Liam was turning toward one almost immediately. This was going to be a long and costly battle if they didn’t get help soon.