The Forgotten Empire: War for the Empire by Raymond Weil (children's ebooks online TXT) 📗

of thousands of missiles detonated every few seconds, and over one hundred thousand energy beams were fired by the opposing fleets. Also added in was the weapons fire from the defense grid.

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Morag Fleet Admiral Torrant was surprised at the amount of firepower the Humans were unleashing on his fleet. Keep the Conquerors back for now. I want to substantially reduce the size of the opposing fleets and their defense grid before we commit them. The Conquerors were key to destroying the planet.

On the viewscreens, Morag battlecruisers and battleships were dying. Ships exploded, torn in two, shattered by massive explosions, and literally vaporized by the tremendous amount of firepower the Humans poured into the front of the Morag fleet. Switching his gaze to the Human fleets, Torrant was satisfied to see they were suffering heavy losses as well. He could afford to lose the ships; the Humans could not.

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Derrick felt the Destiny shudder, as a number of Morag fusion energy beams slammed into the energy shield. “All ships advance to point-blank range,” he ordered. “Rear Admiral Carrie, have your interceptors launch their missiles at the right flank of the enemy fleet and then pull them back to be rearmed.”

“When do you want the ground-based interceptors launched?” asked Colonel Bryant.

“Not yet,” replied Derrick, as he watched the viewscreens. “We need to weaken the Morag fleet some, before we risk hitting them with the main interceptor force. How are we doing on taking out those light cruisers?”

“We took out about 30 percent of them in our first missile and energy beam attack. The survivors have pulled back deeper into the Morag fleet, where it’s more difficult to hit them.”

Looking at the viewscreens, Derrick noted that all the fleets were now engaged. Rear Admiral Collison was hitting the Morag’s flank, forcing them to adjust their formation. As expected, the Earth fleet’s accelerator cannons were ripping the front of that section of the Morag fleet to shreds. Already space had filled with debris from destroyed Morag ships. However, because of the Morag’s superior numbers, Collison was losing ships as well.

“What are their big ships doing?”

“Staying at the rear of their formation for now,” reported Major Nower.

This didn’t surprise Derrick. Those big ships were here to destroy Golan Four, not to engage in a space battle.

“How’s the defensive grid holding up?” Derrick knew that some of the Morag firepower was aimed at the grid in an attempt to degrade it, so their missiles could get through to the planet.

“We’ve lost a few energy beam satellites and two missile platforms so far,” answered Major Nower.

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Morag Fleet Admiral Torrant was surprised when the Human ships advanced until their forward ships were nearly in his formation. He had pulled the smaller cone formation over until it nearly touched his, so they could act as one fleet. On the viewscreens, ships on both sides were dying rapidly. One thing he could say about the Humans, they were not cowards. All ships continue to fire. We must substantially weaken the Humans fleets, as well as their defensive grid, so we can fire on the planet. At the moment the grid was too powerful to allow missiles to get through.

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In space, across the fronts of both fleets, tendrils of energy fire seemed to crawl from ship to ship, as vessels died in giant explosions or were torn apart by fusion energy beams. Battlecruisers on both sides found their shields knocked down, and then energy beam fire would blow entire sections of the hulls off into space, exposing the compartments below. Some beams drilled deep inside the vessels, setting off secondary explosions. Debris then slammed into energy shields of surrounding ships, occasionally overloading a shield and knocking it down.

Human particle beam fire was now a more concise attack. Each dreadnought had two cannons. One would fire, knocking down the screen and drilling into the ship. The second one would fire, moving across the ship and causing major damage. It usually resulted in the ship exploding or being broken in two.

Human accelerator cannons were being fired in twos as well. The first would knock down the energy screen, and the second would obliterate the ship.

However, the Morag were retaliating with massive waves of missiles and a tremendous energy beam fire. Human ships found their energy shields battered down, and then their vessels would die, as massive energy beam fire riddled the ships, or antimatter missiles would send the ships into oblivion.

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Rear Admiral Collison grew worried as the battle progressed. Due to his accelerator cannons, he destroyed two Morag ships for every one that he lost. However, the Morag could afford to lose ships on that scale. He could not.

Captain Billingsly shook his head. “We can’t do this much longer.”

Collison nodded. “I know. We’ll have to drop back to the defensive grid again shortly. I’m sure Admiral Masters is aware of that.”

The Mercury shook violently, and several red lights appeared on the damage control console. The entire fleet was taking damage. Looking up at the viewscreen, Collison had not seen such weapons fire since the battle for Earth. He hoped this one turned out the same.

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Rear Admiral Carrie looked at her dwindling interceptor force on the tactical display. SAR vessels were out, constantly rescuing pilots who had ejected or were in wrecked interceptors. Her squadrons were down by nearly 30 percent. “Get them rearmed. Crews can have a ten-minute rest, before we send them out again.”

“We’ll wear them out at this rate,” warned Major Sullivan.

“I know,” replied Carrie, showing her concern. “Maybe in the next round we can give them a longer break.”

Sullivan nodded, but he knew, as intense as this battle was, the longer break was unlikely.

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Fleet Admiral Marloo and General Gantts watched the battle anxiously, as the Human fleets were gradually pushed back now, toward the defensive grid. So far