The Slaver Wars: Galactic Conflict (31 page)

“They’re up
now,” Hedon said as he watched a power beam strike a Hocklyn dreadnought’s
energy screen, which glowed brightly. “We've gotten the easy kills; the rest
will be more difficult. They're also beginning to fire back.”

“We’re inside
the gravity well of Kenward Seven and moving toward the shipyards,” Colonel
Trist added as the ship shook again as a missile impacted the energy shield.

“Yes, but see
how the Hocklyn ships between us and the shipyards are taking up defensive positions
around our targets,” Hedon pointed out. “Someone recognized what we are up to
and is responding quickly.” Hedon knew the fighting was about to get much more
difficult, particularly if these Hocklyn ships had gone through major weapons
refits. Taking a deep breath, Hedon leaned forward, watching the tactical
displays intently.

“We won’t have
an easy time getting back out of the gravity well,” Trist said evenly as he
watched the swarming Hocklyn ships. “We’re going to have to fight our way
free.”

“The confusion
from our attack should give us an advantage for a few more minutes,” responded Hedon,
looking over at his executive officer. “We need to keep pounding the Hocklyn
fleet.”

“Thirty
minutes until the first shipyard is in range,” Colonel Trist added as he ran
the figures. Looking up at one of the tactical displays, it appeared as if they
were surrounded by a sea of red threat icons. He turned slightly pale at seeing
the number of Hocklyn ships around them. Jumping in had been easy; jumping back
out would be a very different matter entirely.

“That gives
them time to mount a defense and close up our exit point,” Colonel Grissim spoke
as she studied the movement of the Hocklyn ships. She pursed her lips in a
heavy frown. At least the AI ships had jumped out. That was one threat they
didn’t have to worry about.

-

Fleet Commodore
Resmunt entered the War Room and moved quickly to the command pedestal where
First Leader Ganth relinquished control.

“We've
suffered heavy losses from the Humans' initial attack,” Ganth reported. “Over
one hundred warships have been lost thus far.”

“Human
losses?”

“None,” Ganth
replied in his cold raspy voice. “There has been no honor in this battle for
our warriors. Many of our ships were caught with their shields down and paid
the ultimate price.”

Resmunt
studied the tactical display intently, seeing the Humans were already deep inside
of Kenward Seven’s gravity well and moving rapidly toward the nearest shipyard,
which was also the largest. It was twenty kilometers across and had forty bays
capable of building or repairing ships. The other three shipyards were only
slightly smaller. Resmunt took in a sharp breath. This was the only major fleet
construction base between here and the home worlds. It was a system the
Hocklyns could not afford to lose.

“The
commanders of the shipyards are screaming for us to protect them,” added First
Leader Ganth.

“Where is Fleet
Commodore Versith?” demanded Resmunt, knowing they were on the brink of a major
catastrophe. It aggravated him immensely that the AIs had fled so quickly. He
could have used their ability to jump inside a planet’s gravity well. They would
have been extremely useful in defending the shipyards. It angered Resmunt that
the AIs had no honor.

“Fleet Commodore
Versith is placing his fleet and several others between the Humans and the
primary shipyard,” Ganth reported. “Versith has ordered Commodores Parco and
Tantil to move to defensive positions around two of the other shipyards with as
many ships as they can gather. He is still in the process of assigning ships to
protect the fourth.”

Resmunt gazed
intently at the tactical display, seeing more than two hundred red threat icons
moving steadily toward Kenward Seven’s valuable shipyards. He knew from what
Ganth had reported earlier that there were also twenty Alton battlecruisers in
those two Human fleet formations, ten with each Human fleet. With dismay, he
knew with a sinking feeling that he probably would not be able to save the
shipyards. All he could do was make the Humans and Altons pay as heavy a price
as possible for them. He had over two thousand ships in the system to make sure
that happened. Unfortunately, all three of his commodores already had their
fleets assigned to defending the shipyards. He'd have to make do with the available
War Leaders to set up his counter attack.

“I want our
ships formed up into two task groups of one thousand ships each,” he said as he
thought out a plan to inflict as much damage as possible on the Human and Alton ships when they finished their attack run. Too many of his ships were too far away
to intercept the Humans inside the gravity well of Kenward Seven before the Humans
and Altons finished their attack on the shipyards.

“We engage the
Humans when they are attempting to withdraw?” asked Ganth, wondering if the
Fleet Commodore was giving up on trying to save the shipyards. “What about the
shipyards? They are essential to the Empire!”

“We can’t
reach the shipyards in time to make a difference.” Then, looking intently at
First Leader Ganth, Resmunt asked. “Where is High Leader Nartel’s ship?”

“It just
jumped out,” the Third Leader in front of the sensor console reported. He'd
watched the ship vanish from his sensors as it jumped into hyperspace only a
few moments earlier.

“Just as
well,” Resmunt muttered, relieved he wouldn’t have to take orders from Nartel.
“The High Leader has very little battle experience and none against the Humans.
He would only be in the way here.”

“At least he'll
be safe,” Ganth responded his large eyes focusing on Fleet Commodore Resmunt.
He also knew that Resmunt was correct; the High Leader would be of no use in
this battle.

-

Hedon gazed at
a large viewscreen, which showed the nearest Hocklyn shipyard. It was larger
than New Tellus Station. All four of the Hocklyns’ shipyards were.

“My God, that
thing is massive,” Colonel Trist spoke as his eyes widened upon seeing the
massive structure. “It must have taken them decades to build it.”

“It’s only
lightly defended,” Colonel Grissim reported in amazement as she studied the
scans coming in. “It has only very light point defense capability, just a few
railguns and several missile interceptor batteries. ”

“They were not
expecting an attack this deep into their territory,” Trist commented in the way
of an explanation. At least they were not facing a heavily armed shipyard; it
would make this part of the battle a little easier.

“That may be
true,” Hedon responded as he looked at the myriad of red threat icons forming
up between the two Federation fleets and their target. “But they have enough
ships to make up for it.”

“That might
work against conventional weapons,” Colonel Grissim said as she studied the
growing horde of Hocklyn ships assembling around the shipyard. But it won’t
work against sublight missiles.”

“I don’t want
to use our new antimatter missiles or the particle beam cannons yet,” Hedon
said after a moment. “We may need those for our escape.” Hedon activated his
mini-com and quickly passed on the orders that Devastator Threes would be used
to take out the shipyards. Admiral Telleck and Admiral Cleeteus quickly
acknowledged.

“When do we launch?”
Colonel Trist asked his eyes still focused on one of the main viewscreens,
which was showing the Hocklyn shipyard. Whoever was in charge of the shipyard’s
defense had pulled in nearly two hundred warships. They were setting up a
defense in depth all aimed at intercepting any inbound missiles. That might
work against conventional missiles, but not so well against sublight ones.

“We will
launch at twenty thousand kilometers,” Hedon replied in a steady voice. “That
is the maximum effective range for the sublight missiles. All ships will fire a
full spread of Devastator missiles at the Hocklyn ships and two Devastator
Threes each at the shipyard. Once the target is destroyed, we will move on to
the next one.” Hedon hoped that would do it. He wanted to avoid any prolonged
engagements with Hocklyn warships.

“Admiral, it
looks as if the Hocklyns behind us are moving to block our exit, we’re going to
have a real fight on our hands to get back out,” Colonel Grissim announced as
she watched the Hocklyns adjust their formation outside of the gravity well
into two distinctive fleets. She could feel her pulse racing as she realized it
was going to be much harder getting out than getting in.

Hedon nodded,
not feeling surprised. He knew it was a risky move attacking the Hocklyn shipyards,
but it was a necessary one. He looked at one of the tactical displays and the
myriads of red threat icons that were in rapid movement. Weapons fire had
almost come to a stop as the Hocklyn ships outside of the gravity well refused
to come in and the ones already inside were moving to take up defensive positions
around the shipyards. For the moment, there was a brief lull in the fighting.

 Hedon glanced
over at Janice, feeling a warm feeling inside knowing she was there at
Communications. Because of their growing relationship, he'd considered
transferring her to another ship or to other duties at Careth. However, so far
their relationship had been completely platonic and at times Hedon really
needed her company.

The StarStrike
and her two fleets continued to close with the main Hocklyn shipyard. Admiral
Streth watched with calm nerves as the Command Center around him buzzed with increased
activity. The Hocklyn fleet in front of him had formed into a dense cluster of
ships in an attempt to block any missile attack. Hedon took a deep breath; he
knew that some of the men and women in the two fleets would not be returning
home. No matter how good the new shields and weapons were, there were just too
many Hocklyn warships.

“Hocklyns are launching
fighters,” Captain Reynolds reported as a swarm of small red threat icons began
appearing on one of the tactical displays. The fighters were taking up a
position in front of the massed Hocklyn warships.

“They’re going
to be so thick our missiles might have a hard time getting through,” Colonel
Trist spoke as he eyed the growing multitude of enemy fighters. “They may throw
off the targeting computers.”

“That’s why we
hit them with our regular Devastator missiles first,” Hedon answered evenly.
“That should blow a big enough hole through their formation to allow the
Devastator Threes to reach the shipyard.”

“Missile
range,” Major Weir reported as missile targeting systems locked on and lights
began turning green indicating target locks.

“Hocklyns
fighters are launching interceptors toward us,” reported Captain Reynolds,
looking confused. “I don’t understand; we’re out of their range.”

“They want to
shoot our missiles down,” Grissim said her eyes narrowing sharply. “They’ve
calculated our most likely launch time.”

“Launch Devastator
strike,” Admiral Streth ordered through clenched teeth. This Hocklyn commander
was a clever one. By launching his interceptors first, it would allow them to
take out more of the slower moving Devastator missiles.

Instantly from
the StarStrike, twenty-four Devastator missiles with ten-kiloton warheads left
the ship’s launch tubes. Every ship in the two Human fleets released a full
spread of missiles. In moments, space became full of fiery missile trails as
they rocketed toward the Hocklyn fighter and fleet formation.

Over two
thousand of the deadly Devastator missiles were inbound, but the Hocklyns had
launched nearly a thousand fighters in an attempt to intercept them. Bright
flashes began to occur between the two fleets as the missiles were intercepted
and destroyed. Then several bright flashes went off in the center of the
Hocklyn fighter formations.

Hedon closed
his eyes briefly as a number of glaring nuclear explosions played out on one of
the large viewscreens. Nukes were going off, destroying entire squadrons of Hocklyn
fighters with each fiery blast. Others were beginning to reach the waiting Hocklyn
fleet. Intense defensive fire was bringing down many of them, but now some were
reaching the fleet and exploding against energy screens. Nuclear detonations
became widespread as the nuclear strike slammed into the shields of the massed
Hocklyn fleet.

“Fire
Devastator Threes,” ordered Hedon grimly, seeing that the missile strike was
not causing as much damage as he'd hoped. The Hocklyn defensive fire was just
too heavy. Between the fighters and the warships, the Hocklyns had managed to
intercept the majority of the Devastator missiles.

From the StarStrike
and the other capital ships in the two Federation fleets, Devastator Threes
launched. There was a brief blur in the missile tubes and then the missiles
seemed to vanish as their miniaturized sublight drives kicked in.

On one of the
main viewscreens, massive explosions began to pummel the Hocklyn fleet
formation as Devastator Three missiles aimed at the shipyard impacted Hocklyn
ships that were in their flight path. Then they were through and the Hocklyn
shipyard became aglow with massive releases of energy as the missiles struck
their target. Over two hundred Devastator Threes were launched. Seventy-two
impacted the densely packed Hocklyn warships defending the station, the other
one hundred and twenty-eight detonated on impact when they struck the metal
hull of the shipyard. In just a matter of moments, the twenty-kilometer
shipyard was turned into burning debris and shattered wreckage.

“Shipyard has
been destroyed,” Captain Reynolds reported as the large red icon on his sensor
screen broke apart and begin showing as hundreds of smaller blips.

“They won’t be
using that place to build ships again,” Colonel Trist grunted as he turned to
face Hedon with a satisfied look on his face.