Star Crusades by Michael Thomas (whitelam books txt) 📗

that smashed into the enemy ships,causing a series of small blasts all over their hulls.

“That’s more like it. Let’s seehow the Skils handle a fairfight.”

She turned to her XO.

“Put us on an intercept course.It’s time for us to join battle. The onlyway we can beat them is to focus our force.”

The look on the face of FirstLieutenant Meredith bordered on utter joy at the news.

“Aye,Captain.”

She looked back to the others.

“Helm, bring us about, and plot aparallel escort course for the heavies. Fall in with the other IABships.”

The enginesroared, and the ship began a short, butsudden spurt of acceleration. Long streaks of flames pushed fromthe thrusters of the other IAB escort ships as they moved in thesame direction. The six Morato ships fired barrages of missilesfrom their motorised ordnance bays towards the enemy ships, with analmost constant stream provided by the well-stock internalstores.

“It’s time to see what our ships are made of,” she said happily, noddingto the columns of ships already on their way into battle, “We cando this.”

The ships boretheir Alliance colours and weresurrounded by multiple squadrons of fighters and smaller escortships. Even a number of gunships were moving into battle. But ofthem all, the mighty dreadnoughts continued to draw the XO’sattention. They were the most unusual part of the fleet, and by farthe biggest.

“Beautiful. Those dreadnoughts…they’re a far cry from the old WarlordBattleships.”

“Well, those were an emergency wartime measure,” said Captain Regina, “Twonearly completed battlecruisers, joined at the hip. Trust me,whatever you read about them, they were not as special as you mightthink. Personally, I’d rather have two lesser battlecruisers than asingle target with nearly the same manpower.”

“The dreadnoughts…what would I give to command one ofthose!”

Captain Regina pulled on the bottom ofher tunic and sighed.

“A ship is a ship, FirstLieutenant.”

The XO appeared a little chastened bythe comment. And as Captain Regina looked to her, she could tellher words may have sounded a little harsh.

“But I agree, they are quite thesight. Nautilus is no slouch, though. We have the protection of acruiser, the firepower of a heavy destroyer, and the transportcapacity of a light assault transport.”

She started to say more just asthe pair of battleships opened fire again. This time six heavy cruisers and two battlecruisers joinedthem. Their combined gunfire ripped into a trio of attack ships,causing significant damage.

“Perfect,” said the XO,“Perhaps this battle will not be quite as brutalas we had hoped.”

A beam of lightextended out to one of the cruisers and remainedthere like a cutting laser for nearly three seconds. When itfinally stopped, it had left a deep scar of burnt and molten metaland cut away huge chunks of its port side.

“Those capital shipshave cutting beams of some kind,” said ChiefEngineer Linus, “It’s a laser weapon of incredible power, not muchdifferent to the mining lasers used to cut shafts intomoons.”

“Lasers?” Captain Reginaasked, “How is that now athing?”

The second alienbattleship fired, and its beam struck a frigate.By the time it had stopped, the ship had been sliced clean intwo.

“Okay, that is a problem,” shesaid in surprise, “Helm, if that beamhits us, you will take any and all evasive measures to avoid takingcontinuous damage.”

“Yes,Captain.”

The Alliance ships fired again,and for close to three minutes the twomassed formations of ships exchanged fire. Heavy slugs frombombardment cannons mixed with lasers, particle weapons, and more.And into their firestorm came hundreds of torpedoes and missilesthat hunted their prey through the fire and destruction. Randomshots came close to Nautilus, and two bursts from shard cannons hither frontal armour, causing light damage.

“Have you ever seen anything like this?” First Lieutenant Meredithasked.

“Unfortunately, yes, Ihave. I just hope we come out of thiswith more than half of our ships.”

Those last words sent a chilldown the XO’s back. The loss of a singleship would be devastating, but half of the ships would mean manythousands of deaths, and potentially a blow the Alliance wouldstruggle to recover from. And then there was the thought ofsustaining heavy damage to their own ship, something none wouldwant to think about. Her attention was taken back to the enemyships as the first barrage from the dreadnought slammed into thealien fleet. Crackles of light and hundreds of small explosionsripped through them to a chorus of cheers from the bridgecrew.

“Beautiful,” said Captain Regina, “Truly beautiful.”

Astheir gunfire hammered into the alien vessels, a fresh announcementfilled the interior of Nautilus. It was a voice few were familiarwith, but something about it demanded their attention.

“Captains, this is Admiral AniHurik of the Alliance dreadnought Triumph. The battle has begun,and we will not stop until this entire system is cleaned of theSki’lig menace.”

Her voice was stern, lacking any discernible emotion, and the languageshe used showed nothing but contempt for the enemy they had come tofight.

“Who?” First Lieutenant Meredith asked, “I thought Rivers was incommand of this operation. Isn’t he the most experienced commanderin the Alliance now?”

Captain Regina shruggedwhile looking at the details of the woman nowspeaking with them. There was surprisingly little in her publicrecord, though what was there quite impressive.

“General Rivers is anot a naval commander. It makes sensethat we would put somebody more experienced in the strategy andtactics of ship on ship combat, now that we are here. His expertiseis the science of ground warfare. And trust me, he is themaster.”

She was about to saymore, but the Admiral continuedspeaking.

“The Ski’lig fleet must be keptaway from the Rift control station at all costs. Every ship,including my own is considered expendable until the Spacebridge toEpsilon Eridani is opened.”

Captain Regina didn’t likethe sound of that, and when she looked to herXO, she could see First Lieutenant Meredith felt thesame.

“None of us is expendable,” she said.

“Agreed,” said the Captain, “But the Admiral is in charge, notus.”

“Without reinforcements, we areleft in a precarious position and against a sizable alien fleet. Iam taking over command of this engagement as per standing navalorders. A General cannot command a fleet.”

“There you have it,”said Captain Regina.

“All captains check your orders.I have provided rally points and positions for our fleet. We willadvance on the enemy in three assault columns, with our heavies atthe fore to bear the brunt of the alien