Warpath (47 page)

The Triton appeared
amongst the icy asteroids above and well ahead. “We’re being
directed to the Triton,” Sticky said. “The Revenge is going to be
too busy to take us in, I guess.”

“Then that’s it,”
Minh-Chu said. “We’re packing it in.”

“Jake, we’re going
to take care of this fighter problem,” Oz said as he stood in front
of his command seat on the Triton. “We’ve got antimatter alarms
going off, they’re bringing in heavier munitions to take you out.”

“Understood, where do
you want us?” Jake replied, the image of him in his captain’s
seat appearing in the middle of the Triton Bridge.

“One of those Battle
Ships is already taking a position in front of the base, so take it
out. They are covering the side of the base with the least shielding
and weaponry coverage.”

“Changing course
now,” Captain Valent replied.

Ayan sat down in the
seat to the right of Oz. “Jake,” she said to the hologram in
front of her. “You’re running your scanners so high, you should
be able to find the number of times their shields pulse per
nanosecond. If you sync your DEMP beams up with the exact time that
their shields are weakest, right before they are reinforced during
that charge cycle, you might be able to break through a little more
and knock out their shield emitters. Those DEMP beams are perfect for
overloading sensors and emitter systems.”

“Then I’ll crack
their hull open with my guns,” Jake said. “Thank you, Ayan.”

“Good hunting, luv,”
she replied with a wink.

The holographic image
of Jake faded off as he flashed a roguish grin.

“Tactical, order all
gun turrets to fire on those fighters,” Oz said. “Flak and high
explosive rounds.” He looked at the holographic tactical display
and saw that the Triton’s dorsal side was alread facing towards the
enemy fighters. They were on course to pass by.

“Aye, Sir,” replied
Lieutenant Gwen Yore.

The gunnery deck began
to fire, sending tens of thousands of rounds towards the fifty enemy
fighters that were trying to close with the Revenge so they could
fire antimatter missiles. At first, much of the anti-fighter fire
struck the asteroids that were still between most gun emplacements,
then they passed into a clear firing area. The fighters scrambled for
cover, but in seconds their number were reduced by half.

The rounds his gunners
were using barely scratched the asteroids, keeping the field of
combat calm, but the fighters didn’t stand a chance. A group of
nine broke through and headed for the Revenge, using cover.

The Revenge was moving
between asteroids so quickly, weaving as though it were a fish in
water. It was about to pass well beneath the Triton’s gunnery deck.
They started decelerating to match speed. As the nine fighters
emerged from cover to fire their payloads, the Revenge’s
anti-fighter guns tore the first three to shreds.

Something in the corner
of the tactical display caught his eye then. Minh-Chu and four of his
Samurai Wing fighters were moving in on the Revenge from above
instead of going to the Triton to land. “Ronin, you are off
mission,” Oz said. “The Revenge can take a couple small
antimatter hits if it has to, get into the landing bay, we are trying
to make a fast getaway.”

“The Revenge doesn’t
have to take antimatter strikes with us here,” Minh-Chu said as his
fighters moved in behind the enemy, holding nothing back as they
raked them with gunfire. He had trained the pilots he had with him
well. They used guns to kill the pilots or disable their engines
instead of missiles, so they reduced the chance of setting off the
enemy’s antimatter ammunition by mistake.

They killed all but one
of the fighters. The last enemy ship attempted to retreat by pulling
up and using asteroids for cover, but it made itself vulnerable to
the Triton’s turret fire. “Hold fire!” Oz ordered. It was too
late.

“Roll out!” Ronin
ordered to one of his pilots who were following the enemy too
closely.

The gunnery deck made
quick work of the fighter, but set off the antimatter missiles inside
at the same time. The fighter exploded, taking one of Samurai
Squadron’s Uriels with it.

“Ronin here,
requesting emergency recovery in Revenge’s rear hangar. I have
injured, and that blast took out my shield’s capacitor array.”

“You are cleared, we
are opening the door,” replied Lieutenant Commander Stephanie Vega.

Minh-Chu’s gunship
and his remaining Uriel wingmen looped back towards the rear of the
Revenge and slowed to approach.

The only enemy fighters
left were returning to the base. It was a low structure built onto
one of the largest asteroids with two towers above it. They both had
numerous large antennae and emitters. “Okay, let’s take those
shields out,” Oz said, selecting the base as their target. “Hold
on torpedoes, but all other weapon emplacements are clear to fire as
soon as you have a shot.” He looked at the systems summary and saw
that the Triton’s shields were fully charged with a reserve that
could regenerate them five times, all torpedo tubes were loaded, and
the rest of their primary systems were in the green. The Triton had
never been in better shape.
‘This
is not what we are here for,’
Hausgiest said in his
mind.

‘
My
intention is to make it look like this is why we’re here.’
Oz
replied.

‘
Then
why have you not signalled the Revenge that you intend to fire on the
station until you are clear of the asteroid field? Jacob Valent is
readying his most significant weapons, and will be firing soon, as
though you are here to destroy the Order of Eden installation,’
Hausgiest replied.

Oz entered a suggested
course for the Revenge that would take them up, towards the base,
then to a stretch of space clear enough to enter a wormhole.

‘
Did
you forget?’
Hausgiest asked mentally, slightly amused.

‘
No,’
Oz replied in his thoughts.
‘I wanted to do as much damage on our way through as possible, but
you’re right. Taking out one battleship and damaging a base won’t
make a difference in the course of the war, but keeping the Triton
and the Revenge in the best shape possible could.’

“Sir,” Ensign Shane
Gallow, one of the junior communications officers said. “The
Revenge acknowledges your new orders and is changing course so they
can move under cover while we clear the area. They will fire when
possible, but are making your order top priority.”

“Answering through
communications,” Ayan said. “Sounds like Jake is disappointed
that he won’t get a chance to take that battleship out.”

Their torpedo guidance
system continued to track the base and the Order of Eden Battleship,
but there were still thousands of large asteroids between them and
the Triton. The Revenge began to change course, weaving through the
mess of giant ice shards, then rotating so their main guns were
facing the base and the battleship blocking it.

The directed
electromagnetic pulse beams fired as soon as they passed between
asteroids. Oz could see that the weapon system was pouring energy
into its beam, taking the enemy shields down a two to three percent
at a time whenever it pulsed. The Revenge was struck by nine enemy
shells as it passed into the open for several seconds, but their
shields held. While they were in that opening, they fired their DEMP
beam weapon constantly, draining all the power they held in reserve.
The enemy battlecruiser’s port side shields were down to twelve
percent power as the Revenge passed back behind several asteroids.

When Jake’s ship
emerged, they were caught in the middle by a barrage of explosive
shells. Their shields were down to half power. The Revenge fired
their large railguns at the same time. Several shots struck the edges
of asteroids, but the rest struck the battleship square on, bashing
through their shields and ripping several holes in their outer hull.

A second later, the
Revenge fired its lower beam weapon, a white shaft of light with
power readings higher than he’d ever seen ran across the fore
section of the battleship then onto the base’s shields before
deactivating. The enemy battleship sustained electromagnetic pulse
damage along the fore half of its port side, and Oz could see systems
on that ship going dark, including its sensors, antennae and many
computer systems.

“Sir, we are now
close enough to the base for our torpedo guidance systems to make it
through the asteroids,” Lieutenant Yore.

“Fire all torpedo
launchers and reload with conventional warheads,” Oz said.
Thirty-six antimatter torpedoes fired from the Triton’s launchers
and began to zig-zag between the asteroids towards the station.

The base fired their
main cannon at the Revenge and the Triton, attempting to roll
asteroids in their direction, but the icy masses were too dense to
move any significant amount. Their secondary weapons – particle
beams and flak cannons – began to fill the space around them with
light and hostile shrapnel. The Revenge and the Triton were too far
away, with too many asteroids between them to take any damage, but Oz
watched the line his torpedoes must cross so the antimatter
explosions wouldn’t damage either ship if they went off closely.

Some of the flak the
base was firing was beginning to get close to that line, moving in
between narrow spaces between asteroids. He was relieved to see the
first fourteen torpedoes push through or avoid the flak. The ten
behind, the ones that took wider routes around the asteroids were
still too close.

A beam weapon swept
across the front of one, and it tumbled, the guidance system fried as
it passed behind a large asteroid between it and the base. “Shut
down main sensor systems,” he ordered.

The Revenge was safe,
but the Triton was still too close. The torpedo caught the outer edge
of the asteroid and spun into open space. The base’s beam weapon
missed, sweeping wide.

“Sensors are off and
our antennae are disconnected,” replied Ensign Kessen from
communications.

A relatively small
chunk of ice, no more than twelve metres in length collided with the
antimatter torpedo, cracking it open and exposing the antimatter to
space. The explosion that followed went off against a cluster of ice
asteroids.

“Reactivate sensors,
now,” Oz said, imagining the worst. “Reconnect antennae.”

When they came back
online he saw the mess the detonation made, a wave of lighter
asteroids were spinning towards the Revenge. A shard fifty metres
long glanced off its shields, but he could see the thrusters
rotating, fighting to stay on course. “C’mon, Ash, you can make
it through this,” he whispered under his breath.

A larger boulder of ice
rolled towards them, barely slowing as it nicked a heavy asteroid.
The Revenge’s main guns rotated towards it and fired
simultaneously, cracking a small chunk that was sent spinning away
off. “They’re going to collide,” Ayan said.

To Oz’s amazement,
the aft-starboard compartments as well as the starboard launch bay of
the ship depressurized as all their thrusters pointed towards the
rear and they powered ahead. The ship turned slightly as it pressed
forward into a narrow opening between heavy stone asteroids. The
Revenge rotated to fit between them and then turned their main engine
pods again, pointing upwards this time. then stopped thrusting as the
massive ice boulder barely caught on their aft most armour plating.
The Revenge began to rotate, nose down, back up, and then they fired
their rear thrusters at maximum, stabilizing the ship. “God, I want
that woman back at my helm,” Oz said as the Revenge managed to fit
between two gargantuan asteroids, getting clear of danger.

“You’d have to
fight Jake for her,” Ayan said. “Ash is his first adopted
daughter, so I think you’d lose.”

The first of their
torpedoes went off several hundred kilometres away from the base, not
doing any significant damage. There were nine left, all approaching
from the sides of the station, and four of them made it through their
defences and detonated. Globes of white light enveloped the base.

“Now!” Oz said.
“Fire another volley and make best speed to our escape point.”

They were much closer
than the last time they launched torpedoes, but the high explosives
they were firing were not nearly as risky. With less manoeuvring to
do, they moved around the asteroids at a much greater speed. “Keep
firing as we reload,” He ordered.

The Revenge was almost
at the same height as the Triton, firing all fifteen of their main
railguns, torpedo launchers, missile emplacements and beam weapons in
the direction of the station.

“Sir, the other
battleship just came up on scanners, they were hiding behind the
station. They are making maximum thrust towards our exit point,”
Lieutenant Yore reported.

A new marker appeared
on the tactical display named the
Order
Hand
. “What kind of capabilities does that base have?”

“Their stationary
guns could do some real damage if we lose our cover for long,” she
replied.

“Helm, keep us moving
between asteroids, but get us to our exit point. We’ll deal with
that battleship when we get there.”

“We’re going to try
another high burst on that thing as soon as we’re clear to fire,”
Jake said, his hologram reappearing on the bridge of the Triton.
“It’s a bigger ship, but their hull is thinner than ours for
fairly large sections.”

“We’ll try to keep
that base blind so they have trouble getting shots off,” Oz said.
“Intensify fire on the base, try to aim for their main batteries,”
he said, marking three large gun turrets, each with five barrels,
that would be able to fire on them on their way through the
asteroids.