Con-Red: Recourse (60 page)

Approaching the enemy ship at a now increasing rate Styker continued to fire his particle cannons, matching their deadly force to those already being fired from the
Odessa
.  It was then that his sensors registered Buoy Twenty-Two disappearing from its former position in space as the alien missile finally hit it.  That whole quadrant of space was now completely exposed to infiltration by the enemy forces.  A fresh flash of sudden bright light instantly caught Styker’s peripheral attention from the five o’clock position as he began his evasive approach on against the enemy.

By the time his focus shifted to the area from where the light had come, it had already faded.  In its place, however, was another singularity that had opened up directly in front of the
Odessa
.  This one was much larger than the previous ones he had witnessed only moments ago sent up against his fighters.  What he wasn’t prelude to as the fact that the corvette had detected multiple new missile launches from the enemy ship and had responded with interceptors and defensive fire of its own in an effort to shoot down as many warheads as possible.  This spinning vortex of destruction was actually a testament to the self-protection determination exhibited by the
Odessa’s
crew as they had struck one of the incoming anti-ship missiles. 

Styker w
atched the large naval vessel try to maneuver up and over the top of the singularity.  It continued to fire its weapons against the now drifting alien ship, but these energy beams appeared to curve around the stationary black hole and veer of target.  Beams fired closer to the anomaly were actually drawn into it and disappeared completely.  He was actually somewhat stunned a second later when he saw the corvette itself start to decelerate in its upward momentum as it creased over the top edge of the vortex.  The massive amount of gravity emitted from it was enough to pull the entire
Odessa
towards the center of it.  Styker saw the bow of the vessel dip downward as the gravity dragged the whole ship forward against all resistance.  To his relief the singularity faded at that moment just before the vessel’s body could touch it, finally allowing it to start leveling back out.

That relief did not last long.  He was about to turn aw
ay from the corvette when another flash of light ignited, this time emanating directly from inside the vessel’s forward section.  The entire bow became encased in what looked like a solar flare.  Before it could completely dissipate Styker witnessed a series of deep cracks expand along the outer hull plating in every direction.  He could almost hear the
Odessa
creep and groan as its structure began to warp right in front of his very eyes.  The thirty or more meters that made up the whole forward section of the vessel seemed to shake and collapse inward.  It tore away completely from the rest of the ship’s superstructure and broke into multiple pieces, each of which was pulled into a new micro-singularity at the center of the destruction.  He could see small explosions going off around the damaged hull section as missile magazines were breached and got emergency jettisoned into space before detonating.

It was truly a sight to behold and one that the commander had never witnessed before.  Even from this distance he
was able to make out debris getting sucked out from the damaged bow before its containment fields and bulkheads could fully engage.  Some of that debris was actually moving as it floated further into space. 

The assault continued without a moment’s pause, as was instantly witnessed by Styker as he continued to maneuver closer to the alien ship, when two solid uninterrupted lances of orange energy slammed into the
Odessa
.  They were aimed at the damage forward area of the vessel, but missed slightly as the corvette turned to present its port side to the enemy and instead hit a single point along the lower side edge where one of the ship’s two hanger entrances was located.  Its already weakened shields rippled throughout the area, but seemed to hold for what seemed like minutes before finally collapsing under the concentrated onslaught.  With the shields down the two beams slashed into the corvette’s now exposed hull.  The molecularly bonded armor was able to absorb a great deal of punishment, but the energy released by the alien weapons proved too much.  They vaporized and fractured this strong protective alloy within a second before burning their way into the ship itself.  Styker could see these two beams slice through the hull towards the rear as the Griffin class vessel continued its turn.  Internal components and air inside the outer compartments ignited to release small explosions along the entire path of the beams as they cut their way across the
Odessa
. 

Suddenly, as the lasers made their way through the port hanger, a single large explosion finally blossomed from the ship’s underside and rocked its entirety.  As the fireball expanded out Commander Telwin
thought for sure that it had broken the corvette’s kneel.  Thankfully that wasn’t so.  Even after so much damage the small capital ship stayed in the fight, a testament to her design and the people that had built her.  Turrets large and small along her port flank rotated towards the enemy and began to fire once more in a dedicated broadside of resistance.  From the top half of the vessel more anti-ship missiles leapt out and curved in towards the enemy.

If he had still been a young fresh rookie his emotions would have overtaken him instantly, but thankfully for Styker those days were long behind him.  His lack of self-control had been the main reason his parents had forced him into the military academy.  He had tried to fight them tooth and nail on the matter, but in the end he was made to recognize that it was all for the better.  The academy had taught him how to
regulate and channel his emotions properly in order to make him a better fighter pilot.  That’s exactly what he did at that moment as he looked away from the fighting
Odessa
and back towards the enemy vessel. 

He traced the two orange beams back to their point of discharge and saw the lights that run around the ship previously holding steady now, pulsing brighter and harder.  It was then that he realized that they were actually feeding power to the beams
.  Styker also saw the corvette’s guns splashing away at the enemy’s shields and those barriers were now radiating a softer crimson than before.  Responding to his instincts he rolled out of the way of another defense beam and accelerated into an assault vector, targeting Hotel One’s starboard side with his particle beam cannons.  All around him the other members of Knight Squadron formed up in pairs on their own attack runs along with the four remaining Pegasus drones.

Missile warheads detonated against the alien vessel’s
weakening shields and threw off a constant reddish hue against the ship’s dark hull.  Now flying just above this radiant defensive barrier, Styker could almost touch that smooth curved armor plating.  In truth the ship looked more like art than a weapon of war.  Its fluid form was to him a complete contrast to its designers and builders violent acts.  Being human, however, he knew all too well what kind of savagery beings of such creativity were capable of.  For a split second he wished that the enemy would just disengage and try to solve whatever grievances they had in the political arena.

That second passed instantly, though, and he triggered another burst of cannon fire before sendin
g another Kiba missile into Hotel One’s damaged aft section.  Behind him another detonation blossomed when another Sideswipe slammed into the topside shield.  That last impact proved to be too much for the ship to handle and its protective fields finally collapsed entirely.  Styker saw evidence of this when a pair of fighter launched missiles impacted the enemy’s hull off to his left as a flight of Dragonfires screamed past after them.  His particle beams slashed into the hull as well at that moment and caused one of the many blister-like structures on the vessel to explode, opening up a gaping hole in the ship’s armor.

Styker pulled up at the end of his attack run and started to turn back for another
when a second Sideswipe flew over the ship, turned ninety degrees down, and impacted the dorsal hull at extreme velocity.  The large weapon bored through the armor and disappeared into the vessel’s interior before its powerful warhead went off.  Commander Telwin jerked back on the control stick as a tremendous blast erupted from the alien craft, rocking it violently.  A thick column of fire burst out from the impact site and a plume made up of vaporized internal superstructure followed right after.  He watched this cloud of disintegrated matter spread out and expand in the vacuum.

It brought him a slight smile to see her pummeled so badly now.  Plasma
bolts and particle beam fire from the
Odessa
struck the unshielded ship repeatedly, damaging her further.  Intermixed with these weapons were white beams from Disruptor cannons, which Styker saw strike the hull and send electrical lightning throughout the enemy ship.  Adding to this increasing damage were repeated assault runs continued by the Knights.  He knew that under this unrelenting attack the alien vessel would not last long.  She was surrounded and had nowhere to run with her engines down.

That single thought crossed his mind too soon, it seemed, as his sensors lit up sharply with a detection of concentrated graviton particles.  Warning alarms quickly came on rig
ht after and Styker watched Hotel One instantly disappear from its previous location.  Blue particle beams and missiles already fired seconds before simply passed through the empty space in which the enemy had been only milliseconds ago.  Cursing under his breath Commander Telwin began to raise
Regal
on the TacNet in order to notify them of the situation when a scream form Knight Ten, Lt. Brent Revington, went out over the comms.  His visual display automatically gave him a reference as to the Brash’s location, but by the time Styker’s Dragonfire pivoted in that direction Ten’s IFF beacon was no longer being registered on the sensors.  What Styker saw in turn was another miniature black hole spinning in space only three hundred meters away with what appeared to the be the tail end of another AF-103 being sucked into it.

The enemy it seemed had left another mark of itself before departing.  The death of Brent ‘Brash’ Revington hit Styker hard at that moment.  It was his first squadron loss in many years and as such he took it as a personal blow.  Brash had been a great pilot and a trusted friend of
three years now.  All that swelling grief was suddenly pushed away and it was as if a semi-transparent veil had been draped over his thoughts.  His pilot assist programming had automatically detected the unstable emotional state and released a medical treatment for the problem.  The drug was designed to curtail feelings not conducive to optimal combat performance, while still keeping the patient’s mind completely sharp.  It was just enough to take the edge off and let the pilot focus on his duties better without completely removing the grief from his mind.  This was thought to allow them to fight harder to avenge or payback for the death of their comrade.  Styker knew that he would have much to remember and grieve more when this fight was all over.  If he stayed alive that was.

“Raven, FOPS,
end mission and regroup at Helo Zero Five,” Captain Chulovski, his commanding officer, relayed over TacNet at that instant.

“She’s jumping!” Captain Hinnamen exclaimed a second before the enemy contact disappeared from the tactical display.

Just before the jump Reg
ela had once again detected a graviton burst, giving the carrier group advance warning of the fact.  Sitting now at his command station, minimally elevated above the rest of the bridge positions, Admiral Singh continued to inspect the holographic display projected in front of him.  He had been following the entire Knight Squadron and
Odessa
engagement from the start.  Each attack and counter by the enemy was taken note of by the commander.  Singh was able to witness firsthand the destructive power of some of the alien weaponry, such as their Vortex missiles, as they were now termed by the bridge crew.  These missiles were truly impressive to behold in person.  He could only imagine what Commodore Rebeka Jonstan had felt and thought when she had been the first to see them in action against her
Federation
Task Force.

Seeing them in action this early was actually an advantage as it gave the admiral and his command staff time to work out a possible defense against them.  This counter plan was now a revised version of one they had prepared previously after watching the combat footage recorded by the
Federation
.  The brief engagement that had now concluded had also been a great opportunity for Achyuta to observe the Griffin class corvette in real combat.  Many had spoken highly of the vessel, but none had actually been tested in a full on battle until this moment.  Admiral Singh could now say truly that the corvette had been design with survivability in mind and performed superbly in its first major engagement against hostile forces.  What he had also learned, however, was that the alien designed ships were also highly effective war machines and were capable of absorbing extreme amounts of punishment.

“Registering new graviton signature,” the sensor officer called out and broke the admiral’s thoughts at that moment, just as Regela triggered another alert.

“Location?” Admiral Singh asked as he sat forward in his chair.