Talosian Chronicles 5: Raptor Squadron (20 page)

"Wait, a thirty light year lead is more than enough for us to outrun them. Why can't we simply do that?" Carl asked.

"You can't outrun a radio, Carl. All they have to do is call ahead, and we have another fleet chasing us," Jana asked. "This is a dangerous game of tag you've outlined. How long will we need to stay out here?"

Gouyen frowned slightly. "If we do not get lucky before then, about nine months."

"So, you're recommending we run a much larger gauntlet than the one set before us?" Major Sizani asked. "Have you forgotten that the Empire did send ships back to Grimaria to assist in the defense and rebuilding of that facility? Although they won't be able to find us, they will know we are there this time and be on alert for us."

"Yes, we have taken that into account. Our first targets at Grimaria will be the capitol class ships stationed there," Circe replied. "They are the ones that have the ability to do a high resolution scan that will detect us. We believe they will send in a fleet with capitol ships to replace them. At that point, we will need to hit the planet as hard as we can and jump out at least two hours before the new ships arrive."

"Well, first things first, we need to take out the ships behind us," Sizani said. "However, there is one thing about the theory of their tracking ability that is bothering me: If they can detect us that far away, how did we manage to arrive at Grimaria originally without being detected?"

The humans and AI both had to think about that. It was true, if the Empire could track ships in hyperspace, they should have detected the Raptors approach to the Grimaria system, yet they had not.

"One possibility exists. We know that the Imperial ships did not begin tracking us until we made our presence known to them by jumping away from Grimaria. It is possible we have over-estimated the resolution of their tracking system. In order for them to track us, they first had to identify us as targets. In order for them to continue tracking us, they must maintain a 'lock' on us. This could be the real reason for the ten ships currently behind us," Circe replied.

"So if we destroy them, we will be able to slip out of this trap?" Jana asked hopefully.

"There is no way to know for certain. We recommend using the Grimaria plan to assist in breaking this lock. If we can gain enough distance when we depart Grimaria to break that positional lock, perhaps we will be able to jump for Alliance space after that. We will still have to make it look like we are remaining in Imperial space," Alfred replied.

"We recommend you do not destroy the ships behind us; rather, leave as many survivors as possible," Gouyen replied. "This will also give them something to occupy some of their forces for a time."

"I'll handle the report to command; Sizani would you handle the attack on our pursuers, Carl, Cathy and Thomas can start on the strikes for Grimaria?"

"A good plan, let us go slay our tormentors, avenge our fallen and leave our enemies with nothing but pain and confusion," Sizani said.

As one, the raptors turned around and headed back toward the pursuing force. Because of the rate at which all the ships were moving, they closed with the Imperial ships in less than twenty minutes. Just before the raptors opened fire, the mines were detonated. Two of the cruisers were destroyed outright as the mines had been attached to the drive sections, thus detonating the drive core and destroying the ships. The other two cruisers were basically hulled as the mines blew large holes through multiple decks and exposed the internal structures to hard vacuum. One of the cruisers had a mine attach to the hull near the bridge and computer core.

The mines left two ships heavily damaged and drifting in the debris of their other two comrades. The six remaining ships began to spread out but did not get the chance as the raptors opened fire on them. Even through the shields and armor the mass drivers ate into the light cruisers like a cancer. The raptors targeted the command and control centers, which killed the ships in very short order. The last two cruisers began firing their weapons wildly in an attempt to hit the raptors before they too were destroyed.

The small Alliance ships lived up to their namesakes in that attack. In the span of five minutes, all eight remaining Imperial ships were dead in space, and the small squadron of raptors jumped for the Grimaria system.

The Imperial fleet command had ordered one battleship, a heavy cruiser and an assault cruiser along with multiple, smaller craft to Grimaria to provide assistance as well as protection while they rebuilt what was destroyed. The Majors used the data from the probes left behind to target the three capitol class ships that were actually the closest to the planet.

Major Sizani suggested that they build drones with small hyperdrive units on them. They would launch the small drones before arrival and they would spread out, opening return portals at the same time as the raptors, thus confusing the tracking sensors of the Imperial ships. When the raptors arrived, they would strafe the big ships with their mass drivers and lasers while dropping their remaining mines as they passed by. The mines would activate and attach themselves to the hulls of the big ships. When the Raptors were clear, they would detonate the mines. The attack by itself might not destroy the battleship or the heavy cruiser, but they would be heavily damaged and vulnerable to a second attack by the small ships.

Just to show how nasty they could be, both the battleship and the assault cruiser targeted as many of the interface portals as they could and opened fire on them as soon as anything was detected. Two of the raptors absorbed so much energy that they had to use their lasers and shields as well as the mass drivers to dissipate it. Thus doubling the normal output rating of the lasers and shields. While the specially designed lasers were designed with this use in mind, they could not sustain that energy level for long. The same was true of the shield generators, but they had much higher rating and could maintain the increased output for a much longer time.

The Imperial assault cruiser was destroyed in a spectacular explosion that was visible even from the planet's surface. The Heavy cruiser took considerable damage to its drive section and had to eject the entire thing. The move surprised the raptor teams since it had been unknown that Imperial ships had that ability.

Without it's drive section, the big ship became a very well-armed and heavily armored battle station that could not move very quickly. It would be a problem until it was dealt with, provided the teams were given that much time.

The battleship lived up to its name, having taken a horrific pounding at the hands of the raptors, it was still functional and maintained most of its combat efficiency. Major Sizani landed on it and placed two antimatter demolition charges; one near where the command and control center was believed to be, and the other near the drive section. Assuming they would be detected, neither charge was activated until it was time to detonate them.

They almost didn't make it. While they were on the hull several fighter craft were launched from the heavy cruiser-now-battle station. They began patrolling close to the station and several headed for the battleship as protection. Raptor Zulu had just taken off when the fighters arrived.

As Zulu rejoined the other raptors, the demo-charges were detonated, destroying most of the battleship and all the fighters sent to protect it. Ignoring the new battle station, the raptors dove for the surface. This time, they would be hitting factories and fighter craft assembly plants. During their last attacks here, they saw that as soon as the sirens went off, these facilities had been evacuated to nearby shelters. Now they would be their primary targets, with anything else they could find to hit while they moved from target to target. In the skies around them, Imperial fighter craft buzzed around like angry bees unable to locate their tormentors.

The raptors remained on the night side of the planet, using the cover of darkness to increase their stealth. On the day side it would be possible for reflected sunlight to give away their location even while cloaked.

They had destroyed eight separate facilities when the AI told them it was time to leave. They left the planet on the far side away from the battle station and jumped for their next destination; a suspected munitions and resupply point thirty-nine light years away. Four light cruisers entered hyperspace in pursuit ten minutes later.

Jana smiled when Gouyen reported that, and the Raptors dropped out of hyperspace to wait for them.

CHAPTER NINE

TDF
Star Dancer

Assault Orbit

Hyperion, Aurigae System

Commander Jennifer Williams, Commanding

When the strange armored pods hit the ground, the real battle for Hyperion actually began.

Like Major Eischens reported, the new troops did not attempt to regroup, but instead headed for Starlight as soon as they hit the ground, no matter how far away they were. Some of the pods didn't even make it to the main continent and fell into the ocean on the far side, they fell from the sky in a deadly rain of metal war machines that left them widely scattered across the entire continent.

But once they hit the ground, they moved with frightening speed.

The pods did not have the ability to fly, but they could make very long 'jumps' that simulated flight. By using this jump function, it gave them the speed of a light aircraft while still carrying the fire power of a heavy tank. When the shadow fighters from
Star Dancer
and the
Prometheus
arrived and engaged them, they stopped jumping, but otherwise ignored the powerful fighters. Even on the ground, the humanoid-shaped, armored mecha were incredibly fast.

Their shields were back online too and most of them used those shields as plows to pass through even heavily forested areas without a major reduction in speed. In the open, the mecha reached over a hundred miles an hour, making them very difficult to hit. Yet even through forests and towns, their speed only slowed slightly. The strong shielding and armor they carried made them very hard targets to stop.

They all were headed for the city of Starlight; and the closest mecha hit the ground only eight hundred miles from the city.

"Major Eischens, if we can't get the city shield back up before they get here, I want enough shield generators down there to stop those assholes long enough for us to blow them away," Ian ordered. "Chloe, have the
Zephyr
enter the atmosphere and take position outside the city; they are to destroy as many of those mecha as they can. I'd order Gold squadron sent down as well, but as it is we have so many fighters down there, they are going to start running into each other."

"Well, they're still pretty spread out; it's a big continent after all, but it's still valid. As the enemy mecha get closer together, we're going to start having problems attacking them with fighters," Chloe said.

"Have any unassigned fighters begin patrolling the coast; we need to make sure those mecha that went swimming don't make landfall," Ian said. "Get us a count on the remaining mecha and their status, please."

A window opened in the tank with a red '96' at the top. The next line was 'destroyed' followed by a green '18'. As Ian watched, it changed to '19'. The next line was 'Unknown - water landing' with a blue '19' behind it. The last line was the critical one; 'Active threat' and a yellow '58' as the count.

"Damn, I was hoping we'd killed more than that," Eischens replied.

"They're tougher than the average bear," Ian replied.

Chloe shifted the display in the big holotank to the entire continent and marked the locations of the enemy mecha as well as the forces opposing them. To Ian, it was a mess. There was no rhyme or reason to the attack. It looked just like what it was; enemy units desperately running for their objective and ignoring everything else.

As they watched, the enemy began to change tactics. Three enemy mecha had gotten close to each other. Two of them suddenly stopped and turned on their pursuers while the third mecha continued on. Ian shook his head. "Now it's gonna get nasty. Be sure to keep someone on the runner, we can't let them use this tactic to bog down our forces."

Chloe nodded and got a half smile. "TDF
Zephyr
, we have a fire mission for your missiles." She gave out the coordinates for the two mecha that had stopped to engage the fighters, then warned the fighters of the impending attack. Very shortly, the counter listed two more mecha as destroyed. The fighters in the fight split up, half turned and headed for the far coast, and the other half went to join the fighters chasing after the one that didn't stop.

"Admiral, we just received a report from one of the destroyed mecha; the reason none of the pilots ejected isn't because they are zealots, it's because they can't." Eischens reported. "Sir, they are… the empire… grafted them into the machines. Those pilots can never leave their mecha."

"Well, that would certainly ensure loyalty among the troops; Chloe replied. "It's programmed into them."

"That's probably their version of an AI control system," Ian said and shuddered. "Poor bastards."

"The lead units are still three hours away from Starlight at their fastest observed speed. We've been destroying them as they get closer, but as more get added…" Chloe began but Star's Hologram took form beside Ian, and interrupted her.

"I apologize, Colonel. Admiral; about ten minutes ago, multiple cyber-attacks started on the Starlight city computers. They're not very good at hacking, but they're learning really fast. Normally, I would be able to handle this with little effort, but this is an imperial designed system, and the attacks seem to be increasing in both number and frequency. I believe the source of the attacks are the mecha," Star reported, she sounded strained already.

"Ask for assistance from the
Damocles'
AI, Lissa. She should be still on board," Ian suggested.