The Slaver Wars: Galactic Conflict (42 page)

“More of our
warriors will soon find their honor,” Trion uttered in his cold voice.

“Honor is with
all of us today,” Versith responded in agreement. He just hoped the Humans had
no other tricks waiting for them. This battle was going to be costly enough as
it was.

-

Fleet
Commodore Resmunt waited defiantly as the Human and Carethian bomber strike
came in toward his section of the fleet. Already Hocklyn fighters were engaging,
and he could see numerous bright explosions on the main viewscreens as Human
bombers and fighters were being destroyed. He also knew some of those dying
ships were Hocklyns finding honor in death.

“Our fighters
are running low on ammunition,” First Leader Ganth warned with concern in his
voice. “They will need to return shortly to rearm. The Carethians have also
launched their small warships; they're coming in with the bombers from the
station and the shipyard.”

“See to the
rearming of our fighters immediately,” Resmunt grated out, his dark eyes locked
on the viewscreens. “The fleet will continue to advance; I want to close the
range with the remaining Human ships.”

“The defenses
around the planet are very powerful,” cautioned First Leader Ganth. “There are
twelve large battlestations as well as the space station and the shipyard. All
are heavily armed.”

“We have the
ships!” replied Resmunt, sharply. “We will destroy their ships, their orbital
defenses, and then the planet!”

-

In space, the
battle raged. Major Brice groaned as he saw more bombers being destroyed around
him. Already, he'd accounted for two more Hocklyn fighters with his Hunter
missiles but enemy fighters seemed to be everywhere. It was taking everything
the Human fighters could do to protect the bombers and the small Carethian
warships, but even then some Hocklyn fighters were getting through.

“The bombers
are nearly in range,” one of the pilots spoke over the com channel. “Do we turn
back?”

“No,” replied Brice,
grimly. “This time we go in with them. The more targets the Hocklyns have to
shoot at the more likely the bombers and the warships will get through.”

“Just like
shooting fish in a barrel, but we’re the fish,” moaned a female voice over the
com. “Someone is buying me a big steak when this is over.”

“You’re on,” a
male pilot replied.

“Cut the
chatter,” Brice ordered as he moved his fighter in toward another Hocklyn. He
pressed the button on his flight control and twin lines of glowing tracers
reached out, striking the other fighter’s engine. Almost instantly the Hocklyn
exploded, flinging debris in front of Brice. Turning up sharply, Brice managed
to avoid most of it.

-

The bombers,
small warships, and fighters continued to go in. Hocklyn and Borzon ships
opened up with a massive hail of interceptor missiles and railgun fire. The AIs
added to it with a heavy barrage of energy weapons. Bombers, warships, and fighters
were exploding in fiery deaths everywhere. The AI energy beams were
annihilating everything they touched. Even a few unfortunate Hocklyn fighters that
got in the way of the incoming ordnance died.

Fourteen
hundred Human and Carethian bombers had launched from the flight bays. Eight
hundred survived to fire their missiles and then turned to flee back toward the
fleet and safety.

There were
thirty two hundred Shrike missiles inbound toward the massed Hocklyn and Borzon
fleets. Defensive fire manage to bring down over twenty two hundred of them, the
others found targets and detonated against energy shields. Numerous shields failed,
allowing other missiles to impact the heavily armored hulls of Hocklyn and
Borzon warships. A warcruiser was hit by multiple missiles, causing its screen
to weaken and allowing two other missiles to strike the armored hull. Two
bright nuclear fireballs incinerated much of the ship, leaving a floating hulk,
which was totally annihilated as its nuclear self-destructs activated. Hocklyn
and Borzon ships began to die as their formations were covered in blazing nuclear
explosions. Sixty-two Hocklyn ships were destroyed as well as twenty-six Borzon
battlecruisers in the space of just a few minutes.

The Carethian
commander of the small warships smiled, baring his sharp teeth at the
viewscreen in the ship’s Command Center. His warships had not turned around
when the bombers did. They'd continued to close the distance and now they
launched from nearly pointblank range. Only one hundred and ninety of his small
warships still survived, but each one launched ten nuclear tipped Shrike
missiles at the massed enemy fleets. Every missile contained a twenty-kiloton
warhead.

More nuclear
explosions rolled across the Hocklyn and Borzon shields from this new attack. A
Hocklyn dreadnought vanished under a series of powerful nuclear explosions;
other ships around it also began to die.

-

Fleet
Commodore Resmunt stared in silent fury at the most recent losses to the
Hocklyn and Borzon fleets. Additional dreadnoughts, warcruisers, and escorts
were gone and the Borzon had lost more of their battlecruisers.

“Almost within
engagement range,” First Leader Ganth reported. They'd been staying just
outside of the range of the heavy weapons on the orbiting stations while they divided
the fleet to take on the new Human warships. Now they were ready to go back on
the offensive.

“Take us in,”
Resmunt ordered, his eyes glowing with fire. “All ships are to advance and
engage the enemy.” He'd already lost more ships than he'd planned. He felt
anger at the Human commander for ruining his battle plan. Now he would send
that commander to his death.

The Hocklyn
and Borzon ships entered engagement range and instantly fell under fire from
the shipyard and the space station. Power beams, pulse lasers, and Devastator
Threes struck the Hocklyn and Borzon fleet formations. The Alton battlestations
began firing as well as the Human fleets. Space became filled with deadly ordnance.
The few fighters still engaging instantly turned and fled the suddenly hostile
space. No fighter could survive long between the two fleets.

Then the space
station as well as the Alton battle stations opened up with their particle beam
weapons. Bright blue beams struck Hocklyn shields, cutting through them like
butter. Shields failed and each time one did, a Devastator Three was fired to
finish off the enemy ship.

“What was
that?” Resmunt screamed in anger as several dreadnoughts were blown out of
space.

“The space
station has a number of weapon installations similar to the ones the Altons
have been using to destroy the AIs,” First Leader Ganth responded. “Our ships
have no defense against those beams. The AIs have reportedly said that it is
some type of highly advanced particle beam weapon. The battle stations have the
same weapon.”

“Order
Commodore Tantil to target that station!” Resmunt ordered his eyes showing
growing fury at the way the battle was going. “All other ships are to keep
firing their antimatter missiles at the Human ships. I want them destroyed!
Resmunt could feel a growing rage inside of him. He would not be defeated by
the Humans this time!”

-

Federation
ships began to die as sublight antimatter missiles damaged or knocked down
shields. A battlecruiser saw its shields stripped away and then was battered by
multiple railgun rounds, which tore through the armored hull. Finally, the ship's
self-destructs detonated destroying it in twin fireballs of nuclear fire.
Monarch cruisers and light cruisers were suffering the same fate. The entire
sky above Careth was aglow with exploding weapons and dying ships.

-

“Battlecruisers
Houston, Wayne, and Eternity are down,” Captain Reynolds reported, his throat
feeling dry.

“We’re losing
a lot of ships,” Colonel Trist warned as the StarStrike shuddered violently,
nearly throwing him to the deck.

“The Hocklyns
and Borzon are losing more,” Colonel Grissim responded as she studied the
tactical displays intently. “The battlestations, shipyard, and the space
station are hurting them badly. They have no defense against the particle
beams.”

Even as Hedon turned
his attention to the main viewscreens, a series of bright explosions swept over
the nearby space station. When the screen cleared, two of the type two battlestations
were gone and a section of the space station had a jagged wound in the hull.

“Grayseth
reports a nuke penetrated the energy screen,” Janice reported from Communications
her face looking pale. “The screen's back up and they're sending repair crews
to the damaged part of the station. Their weapons are still functional.”

Looking at the
tactical display, Hedon saw that Amanda’s bomber strike was going in against
the outer Hocklyn fleet. It didn’t take him longer than a few moments to realize
he wasn’t going to be able to hold Careth. His ships were too badly outnumbered,
even with the addition of Amanda’s fleets. For a moment, he toyed with the thought
of ordering Amanda to retreat and jump back to Federation space. The Federation
couldn’t afford to lose so many ships in just one battle, not with all that was
at stake. But he didn’t; he had a strong suspicion that Amanda would disobey
that order. He knew that Admiral Strong would, Jeremy had come to relieve Careth,
and he would die in the attempt if it was necessary. Hedon let out a heavy sigh
as he searched for a possible solution to the dilemma he was in.

The Federation
had some great admirals, and today some of them were going to die. A bright
light suddenly filled one of the viewscreens as an Alton battle station
exploded. It had been under attack from four AI spheres.

“All capital
ships are free to use their particle beam cannons,” Hedon spoke. He knew that
even with the addition of these powerful weapons it wasn’t going to be enough.
Already, the particle beam satellites they had placed around the planet were
firing steadily. Their brilliant blue beams were everywhere on the ship’s
viewscreens.

Type two
battlestations, laser satellites, and missile platforms were also adding their
fire to the fleets in a valiant attempt to hold back the advancing Hocklyn,
Borzon, and the AIs. On another screen, Hedon could see a strikecruiser under
heavy attack. For a moment, it seemed as if it was going to survive, then
several Borzon battlecruisers appeared and battered down its weakening shields.
Moments later, all that remained was glowing wreckage. Then a number of blue
beams from the particle beam satellites struck the two Borzon ships,
annihilating them. The screen was clear of ships, other than burning wreckage.

-

Major Arcles
drew in a sharp breath as his bomber narrowly missed being struck by an
incoming interceptor missile. Bright explosions dotted space as Human fighters
and bombers died.

“This isn’t going
well,” Lacy spoke with a hint of fear in her voice. “We should've stayed in our
fighters; at least we could dodge better. This thing handles like a truck.” She
pressed several buttons, sending off glowing countermeasures away from the
bomber in an attempt to keep incoming interceptor missiles away from them.

“We’ll make it
back to the carrier,” Karl responded. “I promise. At least in the bomber we
have a forward energy shield.”

The Anlon
bomber shook violently and several warning lights came on in the cockpit.

“We’re losing
power,” Lacey reported worriedly as she scanned her controls. “Forward shield
has been reduced to twenty percent. We might not be able to make it back to the
Endurance.”

A set of green
lights suddenly lit up on one of the tactical displays. “We have target lock,”
Karl said as he flipped the four switches releasing the Shrike missiles. “I’m
turning us around.”

All bombers
were launching, and hundreds and then several thousand missile trails headed toward
the massed Hocklyn fleet.

“We’re still losing
power,” Lacy warned as the controls in the cockpit began to go dead. Then the
steady vibration from the bomber’s engines faded away to eerie silence. “Engines
are off. All we have is life support on the emergency batteries.”

Karl said nothing;
they were drifting in space without power. He knew they would be an easy
target. At least they were moving away from the Hocklyn fleet. He leaned back and
closed his eyes. The odds of rescue were very slim, and he knew they only had
life support left for a few precious hours. He'd promised to keep Lacy safe; he
felt gut wrenching anguish knowing he'd failed.

-

‘The bombers
really hurt them,” Commander Diaz said, looking over at Amanda. “Initial
reports say we got over ninety confirmed kills.”

“Hocklyns are
entering engagement range,” Lieutenant Stalls reported as he watched the
approaching Hocklyns on his sensor screens.

Amanda nodded.
They were still so badly outnumbered that a Federation victory was doubtful. However,
she had an ace up her sleeve, and now was the time to play it. The Hocklyns and
Borzon were heavily engaged and so far inside the gravity well that escape
would be impossible. “Lieutenant Trask, send the encrypted FTL message.”

-

Just outside
the Carethian system, Admiral Nagumo waited with the combined Federation fleet
from fourteen worlds. It had been a challenge to get the Federation Senate to
commit the ships to this battle, but in the end, with some help from the
Altons, they'd been persuaded. He had over one thousand warships under his
command. Every available ship from the Federation, except the Inactive Reserve
ships, had been called forth and sent on this mission. The only modern warships
still back in the Federation were those being built in the shipyards. In
between the waiting Federation ships and the Carethian system, a number of
advanced stealth scouts had deployed jammers to ensure the AIs would not be
able to detect the fleet. Besides the Human ships, there were another forty
Alton battlecruisers. They had larger than normal Alton crews, as the Human
part of their crews weren’t fully trained.