Star Crusades by Michael Thomas (whitelam books txt) 📗

entered the system. Mostwere frigates and cruisers led bybattlecruisers. But many more vessels pushed through and openedfire, even at this massive range. He looked back to the alien shipand took aim. It was over two hundred kilometres away, yet he feltlike he’d crash into it at any moment. It had enough weapons tofire on every ship in the system and continued to hammer anythingheading towards it.

“Fire at will!”Firefly Leader said.

Jack selected one of thedesignated targets and launched twoStarfire missiles. He then rolled to the right, moved down towardsthe hull, and opened fire with his Gatling guns. The others aroundhim did the same as they strafed its surface. The damage was onlysuperficial, but it pulled away enough guns from the rest of thefleet to buy them some time. One of the missiles hit, and Jackcheered as explosions wracked the surface. A moment later a streamof armour-piercing slugs reached out to a cruiser, ripping open itsleft flank. Explosions wracked the hull, but then shots hit Jack’sfighter, turning all his attention to his ownpredicament.

“I’m hit!”

He rolled left andright, struggling to move his fighteraway from the mighty torrent of fire. Most missed, but enoughstruck the rear of the craft to rip away two of the small angularwinglets and knocked out a main thruster. Warnings sounded, and fora second he thought it was all over. The enemy vessel appearedbriefly, and then vanished as the view ahead continued tochange.

I’m in trouble now!

It took all his training andself-control not to panic, and he rolledthe fighter around and headed towards the nearest destroyer. Itsmassive array of automatic cannons were firing non-stop towards theenemy ship as it struggled to defend itself against the alienonslaught.

“Fireflies! Fall back to the escort ships. This is too hot,” saidFirefly Leader, “Move it!”

The squadron of fighters broke formation and spun about as theymade their way towards the escort ships. Two groups of gunshipswhooshed past them, ignoring the order to fall back. They openedfire with their powerful railguns, and combined with the hits fromthe heavier vessels in the fleet poured fire into the Ski’lig ship.Hundreds of small blasts covered its surface, and yet the shipremained only superficially damaged.

“Get out of there!”Jack yelled over the tactical channel,“There’s…”

It was too late. Streams ofcarefully controlled fire reached out and split apart four of thegunships. In seconds they wereobliterated, and the remaining craft spun away while being shotapart.

Jack shook his head as he watched a battle line of cruisers unleash theirpowerful particle weapons against the ship. As he watched, henoticed it begin a long, slow turn away from the planet.

“Wow! That thing is massive!”

Jack glanced down and looked atthe growing levels of data coming fromthe ship. Clearly the vessel had been coming right for them, but asit turned, it revealed more of its beautiful and elegantprofile.

“Twenty-two kilometreslong.”

He kept shaking his head as helooked at the design. It was long, like asyringe, with only the last third thickening up into sections thatseemed to grow organically from the hull. There were wide domes,surrounded by bone like ribs and fingers along the outside of theship, plus an array of arched winglets and translucent sails thatwere bigger than any ship in the Alliance. More shots came nearby,and he pushed his nose down and hit the burners. There were twodestroyers ahead, both engulfed in clouds of gunfire.

“Stay close to the destroyers,”said Firefly Leader, “Flak patterns arechanging…now!”

Jack looked to the ships, and tothe projected gunnery patterns around them. While the cruisersengaged the alien ship, these smallervessels performed a quite different function. They unleashedexplosive flak rounds that detonated at a pre-set distance from theship, creating puffs of energy and debris that would rip apart ordetonate incoming projectiles. Jack watched carefully as thedestroyers flagged the gaps in the corridors. They were quitenarrow but allowed him to travel through the area of explosivedevastation in relative safety. The others did the same, and withina few minutes they were ten kilometres from the ships andregrouping.

“That was close,”said Lieutenant Levstrom.

Firefly Leader moved in front ofthem, and Jack’s eyebrows rose as henoticed the scars along the flanks of her fighter. That remindedhim of the damage he’d already sustained. A cursory look showed hehad lost nearly a third of his thruster power and half of hisordnance. Apart from that, the rest of the damage was relativelyminor and could be repaired back on the ship in a matter ofdays.

“Fireflies, stay backand guard the destroyers until our heavies canget the attention of that beast.”

He watched with interest as thefleet continued to advance. The cruisersand battlecruisers moved ahead in two columns, their powerfulweapons appearing roughly matched with the guns of the alien ship.The smaller escort ships moved along the flanks of the formation,half a dozen forming a skirmish screen at the front of theadvancing force. He watched the enemy ship and then blinked. He wassure something had detached from the hull, and then his scannersbegan issuing warnings.

“Pilots. The enemy ship is launching attack ships. Prepare toengage.”

Jack gulped nervously. He’d read the specifications of these smallerships. Though the size of a frigate, they apparently matched anAlliance cruiser in a ship engagement.

“On my mark…”

A series of fresh alerts sounded, even as Jack’s fingersmoved to the boost controls. He looked back and smiled as twomassive Alliance ships entered the system, ships that he’d neverexpected to see out here. They were half a kilometre long andlooked nothing like any of the other ships in the fleet. For thelast century, warships had looked similar to the design ofocean-going vessels. Cylindrically shaped hulls, with top-mountedsuperstructures and various arrays of weapons. The dreadnought wasan entirely new breed of ship that had taken the flatter shapes ofthe Byotai battleships, and combined them with a mixture ofpowerful weaponry. Though still carrying a massive volume ofparticle blasters and smaller gun turrets, their mains weapons werethe fourteen massive turrets that covered their hulls.

It can’t be. We’vegot dreadnoughts!

As faras he understood, only one dreadnought was currently in servicefollowing her maiden voyage earlier in the year, and had sustainedheavy damage during her first operation. It was well known thatother ships were in production after the government on Terra Novahad