Warpath (55 page)

“Aye,” Frost said.
The main guns thundered, and a straight line of white light connected
the Revenge with Destroyer Alpha for five seconds while the energy
drained from all three of their directed electromagnetic pulse beams.
For the first time in his life, Jake saw the beams break through
their enemy’s forward shields and penetrate their bridge.

“Enemy shields are
down to zero on their forward quarter,” Kadri announced. “I am
getting no power readings from their bridge or any exterior systems
on their forward hull.”

Jake was about to order
Frost to turn their main guns on Destroyer Beta when they went off,
firing fifteen four hundred twenty millimetre railgun shots packed
with high explosives directly at the nose of Destroyer Alpha. He
watched the rounds close the distance and barely had time to feel
sorry for the enemy before they struck. Destroyer Alpha’s bridge
was gone, and the high speed explosive rounds broke through over a
hundred metres of the ship’s interior, creating a gaping exit wound
in the dorsal side. “Oh, that’s rude,” Frost chuckled to
himself quietly.

“Focus all firepower
on Destroyer Beta. I need that ship gone.”

Every particle beam
weapon, slug turret, pulse weapon and missile launcher aboard
Destroyer Beta opened fire on the Revenge. Jake was almost stunned at
the sight of every last bit of their firepower either getting stopped
by their shields, or glancing off because of their repellent gravity
field.

“We can take this for
another ninety,” Ayan said, “Maybe. I can’t get power to the
shields fast enough to maintain them while taking constant damage
like this.”

“Frost, main guns,
now,” Jake ordered.

“They’re loading,”
Frost said. “Slow buggers.” Their main guns howled, battering
their enemy, and Jake took direct control of their beam weapons,
burst firing them across their lower shielding. Ashley guided the
Revenge so it passed beneath them and slightly to port. The guns had
a perfectly clear close range shot. When the enemy’s shields
failed, all fifteen of their main rail guns fired at a range of
eleven hundred metres, and milliseconds later, a section of their
hull thirty nine metres wide was gone. Jake drained their beam
weapons, sending their harsh light directly into the heart of their
ship. “How is our fighter wing doing?”

“Two Uriels have
taken minor damage,” Stephanie reported from above. “We have
three new aces in Samurai Squadron, the Mad Hatters have two new
aces, and Skykeeper Squadron has three. I would say the Order of Eden
are having a very bad day.”

Jake couldn’t help
but smile as he looked at the status of the Triton on his tactical
display. To become an ace by the rules their squadron followed, they
had to make five confirmed kills. By the numbers he was hearing
alone, they were well on their way to freeing the Huntress.

The Triton was firing a
final salvo of torpedoes at the enemy battleship, which had several
large hull breaches and all but their aft shields were failing. Jake
checked on the type of torpedoes the Triton was firing to discover
that only two were high explosives, the rest were targeting a gap in
the battleship’s dorsal section, and were loaded with small bots
that would invade their power systems.

Their main rail guns
fired another salvo of fifteen shots through Destroyer Beta, leaving
the fore and aft sections of the ship attached by a thin strand of
hull.

“Aim at Destroyer
Alpha, fire one more full volley, then we move into range with those
fighters,” Jake said. “Let’s give our secondary gunners some
close range anti-fighter practice.”

“Aye,” Frost said.
“Reloading and putting Destroyer Alpha out of business.”

“Aim at only
unshielded sections,” Jake said, marking the forward section of the
ship.

“You really mean to
make a mark here, Captain,” Frost said.

“I am disarming our
enemy. We will not leave them with ships worth repairing.”

The main guns fired,
sending high speed explosive rounds through the front of Destroyer
Alpha, reducing the forward quarter to shreds of red-hot metal. The
shielding across the rest of the ship lost power, and it began to
list to her port side.

The Revenge turned and
thrust in a graceful arc. “We are on our way,” Ensign Clara
Ramone reported from navigation, looking a little surprised at
Ashley’s work.

“Enemy fighters are
opening wormholes,” Stephanie reported. “Anyone who can is
bugging out.”

“Sir,” Liara
addressed. “We are being directed to waypoint theta to recover
fighters and prepare to enter the wormhole. The surviving crew of the
Huntress has enough control to follow us through.”

“Switch to standard
shielding,” Jake said. “You can take a break, Ayan, great work.”

“You are amazing,”
Finn told her. “I didn’t understand half of what you were doing.”

“To be honest, I
spent a quarter of the time compensating for my own mistakes,” Ayan
replied as she slowly powered their new shielding down. “At least I
know what the software we need for this has to do now. Training
someone else to do this just in case the software fails is going to
be a task.”

“I’m volunteering
to be your first student,” Finn said.

“Audio message from
the Huntress, its Captain Lawson,” Liara said.

“Put it through the
bridge intercom,” Jake said.

“Thank you for coming
to our aid, we were sure we were about to be captured. We have basic
navigational control back, and are sending one of our probes to you
with the coordinates of Freeground Alpha. I’d send it to you over
an encrypted channel, but we don’t have a common key, so the probe
will have to do.”

“Good to run into you
again, Captain Lawson,” they overheard Oz reply. “We will begin
generating a wormhole as soon as we read the data in your probe.”

“I look forward to
buying you and Captain Valent a drink, see you at Freeground Alpha,”
Captain Lawson replied.

“Channel closed,”
Liara said.

“It looks like we’ve
found what we were looking for,” Jake said, settling back in his
seat. “A good, long day.”

The Command Centre of
Freeground Alpha was silent. Every crewmember across all forty-nine
stations knew what was about to happen, they had been tracking three
special ships through a wormhole exit point for the better part of
half an hour.

The Huntress was
returning, and they had found the Triton and a new ship called the
Revenge. Fleet Admiral Rice could scarcely believe it. After
everything they had gone through since arriving in the Iron Head
Nebula, the incredible losses, and the awful trials, there was
finally a ray of sunshine.

For her tastes, the
good news was coming in a package that couldn’t be more perfect:
two significant fighting ships. According to the preliminary report
sent ahead by Captain Lawson, they made quick work of three Order of
Eden vessels, had their own fighter wing, and were fully crewed.

The Sun Spire moved
into position at the lead of a wedge of Freeground carriers,
destroyers, cruisers and other medium vessels that were set up to
welcome them. The Huntress emerged from the wormhole first, showing
significant damage. There were repair and recovery crews standing by
in service vessels for them.

The Triton and the
Revenge came through next, flying in close formation with each other.
They signalled friendly intentions the moment they were in regular
space. The staff gathered on the Command deck to witness their
arrival applauded. They truly were fighting ships. Fleet Admiral Rice
admired the smooth curves of the Triton, shaped like a Sting Ray with
extra broad wings, showing no serious damage and high power levels.
She couldn’t help but notice all the torpedo ports, the railguns
across the dorsal side, and the three hangars under her wings.

The Revenge was more
function than form. The nose of the ship had been smashed, but there
were still high energy readings, and a fantastic amount of firepower.
They also sported three smaller hangars.

“Open a channel,
please,” she said. A channel opened to the Triton and she cleared
her throat. “This is Fleet Admiral Rice. Welcome to Freeground
Alpha.”

Admiral Terry Ozark
McPatrick appeared on screen. He was all smiles. “Thank you, are
you ready to follow us back to Haven Shore?”

“More than you know,”
Fleet Admiral Rice answered. She knew that the arrival of these two
ships didn’t mean that they would make it all the way to Haven
Shore for a certainty, but it was a slim hope where there was none
before. “Just show us the way.”

“Admiral,” her
personal artificial intelligence said through her sub-dermal
communicator. “You’re shaking. Are you all right?”

Fleet Admiral Rice simply nodded.

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