12: Battlegroup
by
Chaoseternus
In the shadow of the events and chaos of Disclosure,
the first Battlegroup is formed...
And sent straight into action!
"Any news on the First Battlegroup?" Weir asked calmly, her expression revealing her disquiet as she leant on the doorway to the Minbari communications centre.
"No," the tall Minbari officer replied, "and I am afraid that judging by the recent ship movement reports, they have almost certainly run into resistance along the route."
Weir nodded grimly, "Thank you," she replied, before slipping quietly from the room, her expression pensive.
"Fire at will!" Jones barked, leaning forward against his restraints as the enemy ships came into range, several breaking off to engage the encroaching Tau'ri vessels.
The ship rocked around him, the lights dimming and before him, a bright line raced from the tactical displays image of the Britannica, intersecting a lurid red dot that abruptly faded grey, navigational hazard.
A clean kill with one shot, perfect.
"Enemy will have range in two seconds," Hayes noted, her hands dancing their all-too familiar patterns across her controls, "primarily Drakh Incursion type cruisers."
"Christ," Holst noted from the helm, "just slightly out-massed here."
"Nothing new there Lieutenant," Jones replied, "just hold her steady and have faith in the shields."
"Incoming fire," Hayes noted dispassionately, then stiffened, an expression of surprise crossing her face, "now reading shields on three Drakh Cruisers."
Jones nodded grimly, that was an annoying but not surprising development. Anubis was upgrading the warships of his allies, increasing their combat capabilities and therefore the likelihood of his plans succeeding. So be it.
The ship rocked, heavily, abruptly, Hayes crying out as her face slammed into the tactical console, before falling backwards in her seat, the screen in front of her going dark, inactive as blood dripped down the face of the now quiet, still tactical officer.
It took only one look at her form for Captain Jones expression to turn dark and stony.
"Secondary Bridge reports Tactical Control just went active down there," Holst reported, not glancing up from his helm controls, his expression revealing his nervousness and worry.
"Noted," Jones replied, "maintain an open vox line to the secondary bridge and summon medical and a DC team to the bridge, I need the primary tactical console back online"
Jones turned his eyes back to the tactical display in time to see a further Drakh ship vanish from the display, this time caught between the Gauss rifle fire from his own Britannica and the allied vessels behind trying to break through to the Tau'ri warships.
The ship rocked again, a voice over the open line to the secondary bridge proclaiming that shields had been reduced to sixty percent and Jones winced, he hated the Drakh weaponry, they packed far too much of a punch.
The ship rocked again and Jones hid a tight, almost malevolent smile, he was beginning to recognise the distinctive feel of the Ion Cannons fire. On the display in front of him, the icon for a Drakh cruiser vanished, replaced by two navigational hazard markers and a victorious flash crossed his face for just a moment, clean kill.
The tactical display warbled, an expanding band marching across the screen, radiating out from a fading Drakh marker, shunting ships and fighters aside as the shockwave dispassionately introduced its own brand of chaos to the fight.
Jones grinned as he watched the icons for a pair of Drakh cruisers intersect; pushed into each others path by the blast, then go dull, dark, non-threatening.
"Captain,"
Of course, he noted to himself, something had to go wrong when the enemy started killing themselves.
" Overseer is disengaging, shield failure."
"Damn," he noted to himself, glancing across to the readiness read-outs for his own ships. His eyes widened as he caught sight of the Invincible's display, low on ammo and shields greatly reduced, she would be forced to break off soon enough too.
"Do we have guidance lock?" he asked quietly, knowing that the sensitive microphones would really his words to the secondary bridge even at the low volume at which he spoke.
"Fleet guidance lock aye Captain," the reply came, "targets, a trio of Drakh cruisers however barrage effectiveness is compromised by enemy fighters and anti-missile batteries."
"I am aware of that," Jones noted somewhat displeased, "helm, bring us to bear. Tactical, fire as she bears."
He glanced back towards the display, grimacing as the icon for Britannica slewed sidewards, the better to present its missile batteries to the enemy, but it left their largest aspect exposed to enemy fire. The icons for the remaining ships of the battlegroup maintained their heads on profile, only the Prometheus tilting to give a better firing aspect.
The Britannica rocked, the abruptness revealing the movement as the result of enemy fire even as the icons representing the ships portside mounted missile batteries emptied. Jones eyebrow rose slightly in surprise as the ships icon rolled, then he grinned maliciously as the starboard batteries fired off their load-out of missiles.
He just wished at that moment that the technical division had figured out a safe and workable auto-reloader for the missile tubes. He imagined the enemies face as the ship kept rolling, launching as each battery came to bear would be a picture. As it was, he know had to wait for the tubes to be manually reloaded.
" Invincible disengaging,"
Jones grunted at the report, it was not unexpected, but each ship forced to drop back was one less hull to fire at the enemy. It was more then an annoyance.
He turned his eyes back to the tactical display, and nodded, well, the enemies numbers were too great for them to be destroyed, but it looked as if they were about to be defeated.
The Allied warships were about to break through.
"Signal the allied vessels, they are to fall back behind us, escape to hyperspace and wait for us there, as soon as the last ship is past, we will join them and move as one to friendlier skies."