The Slaver Wars: Galactic Conflict (32 page)

“Fire a second
round of Devastator Threes at the defending Hocklyn fleet and then make for the
next target,” Hedon ordered. He wanted to damage this fleet as much as possible
so he wouldn’t have to worry about it later.

-

“Those damn hell
weapons,” growled War Leader Trion in anger as he gazed at the burning ruins of
the shipyard. He felt as if he had been kicked in the stomach as he watched the
shipyard die. Over twenty thousand Hocklyns had been on board the station. Now
they were gone, sent to find their final honor by the Humans.

“We have our
own hell weapons now,” Commodore Versith replied his eyes focusing sharply on
the tactical display. “Order all dreadnoughts and warcruisers to target the Human
ships with our new sublight antimatter missiles.”

“We only have
a few,” cautioned War Leader Trion. “Probably not enough to make a difference.”

“I know,”
responded Versith his large dark eyes focusing on his War Leader. “But if we
don’t cause this Human fleet to withdraw we are going to lose all of the
shipyards. Order all ships to spread our formation and accelerate toward the Human
fleets. Launch our new missiles as soon as we have a target lock. Concentrate
our fire on their heavier ships.”

Second Leader
Jaseth grinned in satisfaction. He'd just received the order to fire the new
missiles. The Viden had six of the deadly new sublight missiles and Jaseth
intended to make the best use of them. He quickly targeted the Human
battleship. It had to be the Humans' flagship and he was going to destroy it!

-

Suddenly
between the Human fleets and the advancing Hocklyn ships, several massive
explosions occurred in open space. The viewscreens in the StarStrike instantly
dimmed to cut down on the sudden influx of light.

            “What the hell was
that?” Hedon demanded his hands gripping the armrests on his command chair.

“I have
Admiral Cleeteus online,” Captain Duncan suddenly spoke aloud. “He is reporting
that the Hocklyns are firing antimatter sublight missiles. His ships are
attempting to intercept them.”

“Crap!” oathed
Colonel Trist his eyes widening in concern. “They must have got them from the
AIs.”

Hedon leaned
back in his chair and took a deep breath. This was an unexpected development
and could put the entire mission in jeopardy. It all depended on how many of those
missiles the Hocklyns had.

-

In space, four
of the fifty-megaton missiles struck the battlecruiser Trinity. Her reinforced
shields flickered and then failed under the massive energy release. The next
missile blew the valiant battlecruiser apart, killing all on board. Moments
later, a light cruiser died in a fiery explosion as its shields were easily
overwhelmed by the powerful missiles.

“Battlecruiser
Trinity is down,” Captain Reynolds reported, his eyes wide with shock. “Light
cruiser Archer is down.”

“Our next
strike of Devastator Threes is going in,” Colonel Trist added his eyes glued to
the tactical screen. “We’re in optimum combat range of the Hocklyn fleet.”

Hedon eyed the
tactical display worriedly. He couldn’t afford to get tied down in a major fleet
battle with the Hocklyns, not as badly outnumbered as he was. Just then, the
deck heaved under Hedon and he found himself flung forward against the restraining
straps holding him in his command chair. He felt a sharp pain in his chest and
then things settled back down.

“Multiple
breaches along the forward hull; we’re venting atmosphere,” the Damage Control
officer reported. “Damage control teams are responding.”

“No reduction
in combat efficiency,” Major Weir reported from Tactical.

“Shields are
at sixty percent and climbing,” Colonel Trist informed Hedon with relief in his
voice. “We took two hits to our screens from their missiles. They held, but just
barely.”

“Firing power
beams,” one of the tactical officers reported.

The space
between the fleets was now full of flying ordnance. Railgun rounds, energy
beams, power beams, pulse laser beams and flying missiles. The remaining
Hocklyn fighters were hurrying to get out of the way of the embattled fleets.
It was suicide to stay between them.

-

Jaseth swore
in anger as he saw that his attack upon the Human flagship had failed. Two of
his missiles had been intercepted; he guessed by the Altons. True, he had
managed to damage the ship, but it was still fighting and he had only two of
the new sublight missiles left. He quickly targeted a smaller escort ship as
the Human flagship was now out of range. Firing the two missiles, he watched on
a small viewscreen above his console as they struck the small cruiser,
destroying it in a wave of fire.

Commodore
Versith groaned in frustration as another one of his dreadnoughts died. It was quickly
growing obvious that the Humans' energy screens and their weapons had been greatly
reinforced. It was taking the combined firepower of ten Hocklyn warships to
knock down the Humans' shields on their major ships.

“We don’t have
the ships to win this,” Versith spoke in frustration, his cold dark eyes rapidly
calculating the odds. The AI sublight antimatter missiles could knock down a
Human ship’s shield, but they didn’t have enough of them to make a difference.

“We’re losing
too many ships,” Trion agreed as he watched another Hocklyn dreadnought die a
fiery death on one of the viewscreens. Every moment, more Hocklyns were being
sent to find their final honor.

Versith knew
that if Fleet Commodore Resmunt had come ahead with his gathered ships they
could have pinned the Humans inside the gravity well and with their numeric superiority
destroyed them. They'd have suffered horrific losses, but the Humans would have
died and wouldn't have been able to attack the remaining shipyards. Now
Versith’s ships were paying a steep price for Resmunt’s lack of foresight.

-

“Fire one wave
of the new antimatter missiles,” Hedon spoke after a moment of thought. He
couldn’t afford to keep taking fleet losses and this engagement with the
Hocklyn fleet was costing him valuable time. He had to disengage and move on to
the next target. Fortunately, the Alton battlecruisers were intercepting a
large number of the inbound sublight missiles, which had shown to be deadly to
Federation ships.

“Firing,” Tactical
reported.

From the
StarStrike, two of the new 100-megaton sublight missiles flashed from their
tubes. Instantly, two violent explosions occurred in the Hocklyn’s formation as
two dreadnoughts were torn apart. Now other Federation ships began to fire and
Hocklyn ships began to die rapidly. A blazing fury of death marched through the
Hocklyn fleet, devastating it and leaving behind shattered wrecks.

“Hocklyn fleet
is disengaging,” Captain Reynolds reported with relief as the Hocklyns began to
rapidly back away from the Human and Alton ships.

“What did we
lose?” demanded Hedon, turning toward Colonel Grissim bracing himself for the
news. The Hocklyns use of sublight antimatter missiles had caught them by
surprise.

“Two
battlecruisers, one battlecarrier, two strikecruisers, one Monarch, and six
light cruisers,” Anne reported as she looked at the battle report on her
console next to one of the tactical displays. “Hocklyn losses were eight dreadnoughts,
sixteen warcruisers, and thirty-eight of their escort cruisers.”

“Colonel Trist,
get us to the next target maximum speed,” ordered Hedon, feeling a knot growing
in his stomach. He couldn’t keep taking losses like this, not if they wanted to
escape this system. “From now on target the shipyards at long-range with our
new sublight antimatter missiles.”

“That will cause
us to use up most of them,” Colonel Trist warned, his eyes focusing on the admiral.
“We may need them to escape.”

“I know,”
Hedon responded with a sharp breath. “But the Alton battlecruisers are carrying
full load outs of the missiles. We'll have to depend upon them to get us back
out of the gravity well.”

-

Fleet Commodore
Versith looked around the War Room of the Viden. The Humans had another new
weapon, and this one was indeed a weapon from hell. Just a strike from one of
those new missiles could destroy a Hocklyn dreadnought. He knew he was
fortunate that the Viden had survived.

“Hold our
current position,” he ordered. “All ships to begin repairs and then we will
move out to join Fleet Commodore Resmunt.”

“There is no
honor in this new weapon of the Humans,” War Leader Trion uttered in a harsh
voice. “Many of our warriors found their final honor in this battle.”

“But we proved
we can destroy the Human ships even after their upgrades,” Versith replied, his
large dark eyes focusing on Trion. “From now on we will only target a few
selected Human ships with all of our fleet’s firepower. Once that target is
destroyed, we'll shift our fire to the next.”

“As you
command,” Trion responded with a nod of his head. “I will pass on the order.”

Versith
nodded. In order to effectively combat the Humans in the future, they would
need a large supply of the AIs' antimatter missile. Versith just hoped the AIs
would be willing to furnish them or future battles with the Humans could have
disastrous outcomes.

-

Fleet
Commodore Resmunt groaned in frustration as he watched the Humans destroy the large
shipyard and then ravage Fleet Commodore Versith’s fleets. True, Versith had
managed to damage the attacking Human ships, but not enough to turn them away
from their next target.

“Humans are
launching their new missiles from long-range at the next shipyard,” First
Leader Ganth reported, his eyes red in anger. “The defending fleet is not being
successful intercepting the missiles.”

Resmunt
watched in silence as the second shipyard vanished as massive explosions of
energy ate away at its structure. In just a matter of a few moments, all that
was left was glowing wreckage. The Humans were destroying decades of work the
Hocklyns had spent building the shipyards. True, they were built mostly by
slaves, but they were still Hocklyn shipyards.

Resmunt
clenched his fist in anger. He'd already passed the order that all of his gathered
warships were to use their full allotments of antimatter missiles on the Humans
as they exited the gravity well of Kenward Seven. He would make them pay a
steep price for the destruction they were doing today.

-

For the next
hour, Admiral Streth took First Fleet and Ceres Fleet from shipyard to shipyard,
annihilating them. They stayed out of range of the Hocklyn defending fleets that
seemed to have become hesitant to come out and engage the Federation ships. Hedon
knew it was because of the new antimatter missiles. What commander would want
to expose his ships to those?

-

The commodores
in charge of the fleets defending the shipyards had witnessed what had been
done to Commodore Versith’s fleet and had no desire to be on the receiving end
of those deadly missiles. They tried instead to intercept the missiles using
fighters, missile interceptors, and heavy weapons fire, but for the most part they
were unsuccessful. At the end of the hour, all four Hocklyn shipyards lay in
ruins.

-

Admiral Telleck
let out a long and deep breath. The last hour had been trying on his nerves as
the battlecruiser Ceres and its attending fleet had attacked the shipyards
along with First Fleet. Losses had been light so far, but he knew that was
about to change. The two fleets were now heading back out of the planet’s
gravity well and two large Hocklyn fleet formations were waiting for them. Both
fleets were setting right at the edge of Kenward Seven’s gravity well, ensuring
that the Human ships could not jump without coming into combat range first. Of
course, the Altons ships could jump to safety; they had the capacity just like
the AIs ships to jump from inside a planet’s gravity well. However, they would
need the Alton ships' antimatter missiles if they were to escape.

“Both fleets
have formed up and we’re moving toward the edge of the planet’s gravity well,”
reported Major Carnes.

Glenn looked
over at his second officer and nodded. Major Carnes had taken over Kathryn’s
Executive Officer duties since she had been reassigned temporarily to her envoy
job on the Carethian space station. Major Carnes was doing an excellent job,
but Glenn still wished that Kathryn were here. This would have been good
experience for her. Of course, she was also safe back on the space station.
There was no guarantee that the Ceres would survive the coming battle and make
it back to Careth.

“Have all
ships load their remaining antimatter missiles into the tubes,” ordered Telleck,
wishing they had more. “We'll need them to break out of the gravity well and
into open space. All ships are to jump into hyperspace as soon as they are
clear.”

The
Communications officer, Captain Travers, quickly passed on the message.

“There’s a lot
of them,” Major Carnes commented as he studied the tactical display. He looked
over at Admiral Telleck marveling at how calm the admiral seemed. “If they have
more of those antimatter missiles they used at the first shipyard we may have a
hard time getting away.”

“We can only
do our best,” responded Admiral Telleck, crossing his arms over his chest and
taking a deep breath.

On the main
viewscreen, the StarStrike appeared. He could see the burn marks and gouges in
the forward hull along the bottom of the bow. From his brief communication with
Admiral Streth a few minutes earlier, he knew the damage was only minor, though
it looked a lot worse.

“The fleets
that were defending the shipyards are joining together and moving in behind
us,” Carnes added with a worried look on his face. “If we slow up any, they
might catch us.”