Star Crusades by Michael Thomas (whitelam books txt) 📗

his fingers from his beard and reached for theintercom.

“All ships target the Ski’ligvessel. I want it damaged, not destroyed.Let it return fire. We need to test our defences.”

“Captain?” Commander Campbellasked, “Is that wise? We have the chanceto open this fight with…”

“There’s more to this fight thanvictory. The next stage of this conflictwill be the arrival of our armada. We need information before thathappens. How can we expect…”

A beam of light pulsed from thealien vessel and slammed into the bow of ANS Coventry. The forwardview vanished for a moment, to bereplaced by static. A strange hum filled the ship, and several ofthe crew must have thought it was all over for them.

“Dammit. That was a heavy hit,” said Captain Zacharias, “Tell mewe’re still afloat!”

It was a strange term to use inspace, but even today much of the oldocean-going nomenclature remained in the Alliance Fleet. Thedisplay flickered, and then the view returned to a cheer from theofficers on the bridge.

“Report,” said the Captain.

“Polarised dampening field is atseventy percent and holding,” said the Chief with a shrug, “Itlooks like it’s working, Captain.”

“Excellent. I never doubted it,” he said with a smile, “Ourturn.”

“Locking onto ship,” said thetactical officer, “They have some form ofdissipation technology. It’s making an electronic lockdifficult.”

“Can you do it?”Commander Campbell asked.

“Sure, I’m just going to need tolink the radar scans and visual trackingfor a lock…”

He tapped the unit oncemore, nodding to himself as the targetingmarkers from each of the three figures showed they were locked andready. Captain Zacharias looked at the locks with great interestbefore looking to his XO.

“These ships carry the firepower of a light cruiser, perhaps bigger.And their ECM suites are impressive. But we have the advantage ofnumbers and something old, primitive, and evereffective.”

“Gunnery?”

“Exactly, Commander.If you cannot successfully lock and track atarget, then simply throw as much lead at it as youcan.”

He pointed directly ahead andnodded.

“Missiles first, fire!”

Each ship carried a pair ofordnance tubes, much like those fitted to the larger Liberty Classdestroyers, and capable of unleashing avariety of weapons from air defence missiles through to anti-shiptorpedoes. Coventry fired first and sent a pair of anti-shipmissiles directly towards the enemy ship. A moment later the otherthree ships did the same, so that eight of the high-speed missileswere now heading for the enemy craft.

“They’re firing,” said the XO as dozens of flashes surrounded the rearpart of the main fuselage.

“Enlarge that,”said Captain Zacharias.

The forward view flickered andwas then replaced by a grainy image ofthe alien vessel, with its petal like wings swept out forward, anda ring of what looked like thrusters firingcontinuously.

“That’s new. What are they?”

“Some kind ofkinetic weapon system,” said the tacticalofficer, “High rate of fire, and it’s shredding ourwarheads.”

One by one the missiles blew apart,leaving just one to explode against the starboard hull in a flashof starlight.

“Energy pulse detected,”said the Chief Engineer, “They’re goingto fire their weapons again.”

“Here we go,” said the Captain.

Each of themwatched, but this time a thin beamextended from the tendrils at the bow of the ship, striking the bowof ANS Cairo. It struck the armour and then flashed white as itdrew a line along the hull.

“I can’t believe it. That looks like a cutting laser.”

“You’re not far off, Commander,”said Chief Engineer Thompson, “The effecton the armour is little different to a plasma cutter.”

Captain Zacharias leaned forwardand watched as the beam punched into the plates of thefrigate and then continued to move as ifit was trying to cut open a bulkhead.

“A beam cutter of some kind,”he said, shaking his head, “Very well.That’s enough. Now the gloves come off.”

He pulled the intercom to his lips.

“I give full authorisation toengage with all weapons. I repeat, weapons free! Bring that shipdown!”

The guns on each shipopened fire, pelting the ship with gunfire.Combined with the batteries fitted to their mission bays, they wereable to put down a considerable corridor of fire against the alienship, with their medium calibre artillery sending a mixture ofarmour-piercing and explosive shells. Its defensive weapons firedagain, but it could do little against such an onslaught.

“Cairo, follow us to theirstarboard flank. Chester and Calgary holdback and engaged at medium range.”

“Split their fire,”said Commander Campbell.

“Exactly,” agreed the Captain, “Let’s use our greatest asset rightnow.”

The heavyarmour-piercing slugs thumped into thealien ship, and to the Captain’s delight, it turned, extending itswings as it struggled to accelerate away. Shots from the shipscrashed into its armour, and some even tore away part of a wing,slowing its escape.

“They’re trying to flee,” said the tactical officer.

ANS Cairo rolled to starboard asgunfire raked its hull, and then itreturned fire with a mighty salvo from its combined array ofweapons. At the same time both tubes launched torpedoes atclose-range. They crashed into the stern of the Ski’lig attackship, blasting off chunks of hull.

“Hitthem again,” said Commander Campbell.

Coventry joined in, sending twowarheads into the same area and obliterated the main drive systemof the ship.

“Now take out their secondaryengines,” said the Captain, “Hammer them hard, but do not destroythem.”

Thealien vessel had taken heavy damage, but now that it could escapeit seemed to change tactics entirely. It spun around and beganattacking each of them in turn. Cutting beams would hit one ship,and then salvos of armour-piercing spikes crashed into the next. Ittook a full ten minutes of gunfire until finally the shredded andpartially burning wreckage stopped attacking and slowly driftedaway.

“Theydon’t go easily, do they?” Captain Zacharias said.

He thenlooked to his XO. “We need prisoners.”

“Prisoners?”

“Yes. If we are to reconquer thisregion and take the fight to them, we will need more intelligence.Who knows what secrets the inside of that ship holds?”

“Yes,Captain.”

The four ships manoeuvred aroundthe wreckage, with Coventry taking up a close position near the hull. The other three moved away toform a cordon to protect their flagship while the boarding actionwas undertaken. It took time to line up, but after a few minutesthe two ships were just a hundred metres apart.

“Boarding parties areready,” said Commander Campbell.

“Good. Send them in.”

Both watched as the smallexternal airlock doors opened up, and outmoved two small groups of marines. There were eight of them, alldressed in PDS armour, and with their weapons attached to mounts ontheir