13: The Line
by chaos_eternus

Fourteen

Concentrated fire always tells.

There were five Ha'taks in the 2nd group; two minutes after the arrival of Britannica and her consorts there were four, a further four minutes later there were two and a cripple.

I wanted to leave the warships to it, to utterly destroy the Ha'taks… I couldn't afford too. The main group had sped up and were getting dangerously close to Earth... both groups were almost to the Moons orbit.

The 1st group, even weakened as they were, were still very much the greater threat.

A damaged Cheops, two Ha'tens and seven Ha'taks. In a straight up-fight we could possibly defeat that but would take grievous losses in doing so, they need to be whittled down further.

It is time for another missile strike, that will likely bare the larder and then it will be guns alone. So be it.

The Liberty is still having her pods replaced, I can not use her and there is not a single squadron that has completely rearmed but there are fighters in space, fighters that have rearmed, that are waiting commands.

Six Lancers, twenty F-302's, five Strikers, all four Paladin Gunboats and eighteen general usage Paladins. I debate ordering with myself about ordering them in and decide no.

If there numbers had been greater… but the enemy is wary now. Best not.

The larger group is course that will shortly place them above America … the smaller, Europe and Gaia… that must not be allowed.

If only some of her main defensive batteries were online!

And if wishes were horses…

I order the 5th Patrolcraft wing and the Sol PDF squadron to intercept the two Ha'taks and grimly placed nearly sixty lightly armoured, unshielded Shunters and Airheads directly between the two enemy warships and the skeletal structure.

They wouldn't be able to do anything about the Ha'taks but their pulse lasers made them a threat to any leaking fighters. They would have to do what they could.

At least Gaia had six Firebird platforms to call her own even if none of her Lancelots were finished.

The warships would have to deal with the main enemy fleet on their own for the moment.

Valour's Sword I finally ordered into the fight, joining in at the rear of Earth's scratch fleet, bringing it up to eight warships to deal with Anubis's ten. Not the odds I would have chosen.

Then, in the skies over Earth, battle is joined; I've played chess with my pieces and reduced the enemy as best as I can but now far more control lies with individual ships Captains then it does with me.

The two squadrons of gunboats quickly kill a Ha'tak but two of the small expensive warcraft disappear in the process, caught between Ha'taks, Al-kesh and fighters.

I see fighters trying to move on Gaia but being painfully intercepted by the gathered support craft. Britannica and her consorts swiftly manage to kill a Ha'ten, followed by a Ha'tak even as their pulse laser batteries create murderous loses amongst the enemies fighters. But Despite is forced to fall back once more, her place taken by Valour's Sword as she struggles to rebuild her shields.

I see Valour's Sword die a mere four minutes later, victim of concentrated fire from the Cheops and three of the surviving Ha'taks, I see Sentry, only just out of refit, reel out of formation, spilling escape pods and transports into space.

An icon in orbit near Thundersdawn flickers to green and I smile.

My turn once more.

A minutes later, hyperspace opens up once more this time behind the enemy fleet and out of it drops Sir Lancelot, now with only two missile pods and both of the older type that only fires Sidewinders . With her is everything that had reloaded.

Fourteen Strikers, Sixteen Lancers, Forty Paladins and thirty-nine F-302's.

The largest missile salvo in the history of the Goa'uld Tau'ri war is then launched and for a moment I almost feel sorry for the Goa'uld as seven hundred and fifty missiles are sent their way.

The enemy responds as I knew they would, turning all the guns they can bring to bear on this new threat, the fighters all racing to intercept the incoming spread.

The Goa'uld was smart; he had set a rear guard, some six Al-kesh and twenty uprated Udajeets. I watch as their icons abruptly disappear from the screen and the bulk of the massive wave of missiles simply carry on.

I see a Ha'tak vanish from the screen, then another.

The Cheops desperately rotates trying to place a working shield segment between itself and the missiles. It succeeds but for mere moments as the missile wave blows that shield apart and missiles began to impact upon the hull itself.

I see with grim satisfaction Britannica suddenly find itself facing the section of hull it raked earlier, a section that was already without a shield generator and begin capitalising.

In that moment, I see opportunity once more.

I order the fighters in, commanded to disable the ships hyperdrives, the warships to deal with the remainder of the fleet. The gunboats, now down to nine, have dealt with the last Ha'tak of the second fleet, I select six to stay behind and mop up the Al-kesh and fighters, the final three swiftly race, not to join the main battle but to escort twenty newly launched Paladins of 31 Squadron and their embarked Marines into the fight and to the Cheops.

I watch as Jinaghu is stricken even as the last Ha'ten and a Ha'tak die. Three Ha'taks are left and now they begin to fall back, moving against Sir Lancelot. There was no need to give orders, the auxiliary swiftly turning away and moving away at full burn.

Then the Ha'taks are gone followed swiftly by the Al-kesh, escaping into hyperspace and with a relieved sigh I realize that, for the moment at least, it is over bar the moping up.

Then a thought strikes me and I feel a chill once more.

The 1st Battlegroup was only at Bernard's Star, they should have been here ages ago… and what of Alpha Centauri?

Then the screen bleeps once more and I feel the blood drain from my face as a third wave appears on the display. Two Rel'tecs with and escort of twelve Ha'tens.

I have three Destroyers, one Cruiser and a Battlecruiser, nine craft of the Blastboat and Gunner classes and several depleted squadrons of fighters to face this monstrosity and the larder is starting to run bare of missiles.

This is going to be even nastier then the first and second waves.

I glance across the display, noting swiftly the slow deterioration of the Cheops orbit even as the Paladins shuttle between the massive craft and the surface, placing more and more Marines aboard the massive ship and now doubt taking prisoners out.

The parade is occurring at a more sedate pace around two other craft, both Ha'taks. My fighters are still engaged, moping up the Udajeet and other fighters left behind by the first and second waves.

I do not know if I have warship enough but I remember thinking that about the previous waves as well and we are still here. Yet…

The bulk of the work was done by massed missile attacks and that is a capability that now escapes me. In a straight up fight between the remainder of my fleet and this third wave, I know who will win and it will not be us.

But to fight is the only option I… we have.

I give the command once more.

The fleet jumps into hyperspace; their arrival is greeted with massed fire. This enemy is wary and dangerous and I long for the old days when the Goa'uld were brash, arrogant, easy to kill.

Swift concentrated fire kills a Ha'ten but the return fire takes the 5th Patrolcraft squadron to half-strength. Then the icon for a fourth craft, a gunboat strobes and the mark of a disabled hyperdrive appears next to it.

In the middle of a fight like this, that simple icon refers to a death sentence.

I watch as the craft gathers speed, attempts to ram one of the Rel'tecs but is destroyed before it can do any damage. The remaining ships salvo off all their missiles at a Ha'ten but it is not the massed launches of earlier and none get through.

I order the retreat even as a Ha'ten dies and Invincible's shields fail. I half expect her not to reappear but she does her icon strobing with the marks of hull breeches and destroyed systems.

Then the enemy fleet stops.

I watch wearily as for four minutes, they do not move at all. In term of battle, that's no time at all but it's enough for Invincible to reform her shields and a scant handful of damage icons to vanish from the fleet.

Then five of the Ha'tens vanish into hyperspace and moments later proximity alerts sound from all five of the Lagrange sensor arrays. Moments later the platforms are gone and the Ha'tens appear in the enemy fleet once more.

This doesn't blind us but its does greatly reduce the range at which we can see and greatly increases the number of blind spots in the system. It is a worry and in more way then one. This guy is smart, real smart and I have a sudden doubt as to whether this attack is actually of Anubis's bidding.

These forces act more like Maktenos's and we are supposed to have a truce with him. But if they are following Maktenos's combat doctrine, first they will blind then…

The icons flow across the screen once more and with regretful resignation I watch as the ships drop out of hyperspace once more around their newest target.

…then they will deal with the enemy Commanders.

They will come for me.

I give my orders once more and the tattered remnants of our Navy flashes back into being beneath the Goa'uld warships, firing up into their engines even as I feel the rumble through the floor grates of the stations own weapons beginning their own dance.

Eight sets of twin linked Gauss rifles along the arms, a further eight Gauss rifles in single mounts scattered across the stations service, of which four can be brought to bear. The twin linked turrets also have missile cells, not yet upgraded to Cobras but its still ten missiles per turret that can be fired off if needs be in a single salvo.

It hasn't been my job to command those for several years but the Captain knows his business and I smile as a Ha'ten is destroyed by pure Gauss fire before its hyperspace portal has finished closing. The station begins to rumble, jerk and shudder underneath the weight of incoming fire and the lights dim as power is diverted, every precious morsel of it being marshalled to the task at hand.

Another Ha'ten dies, shredded by the combined fire of fleet. The remaining Ha'tens are now angling downwards, turning their fire onto the warships and leaving the massive Rel'tecs to deal with us on their own.

My eyes are tracking across the screen, I know something is missing but I can not see what and with a shudder it comes to me. There are no craft of the 5th Patrolcraft squadron left.

I glance across at the stations status and frown as I watched the strength indicator drop rapidly into the yellow and continue to sink. Then the indicator vanishes entirely…

My heart drops into my shoes.

The lights completely flicker off.

There is a shudder, a heave and red lights blink around the insignia of yard 6. That'll put that Sentinel's refit back I consider grimly for a moment

The indicator jumps back into being, green… almost full strength.

Bastard… I can understand having to reform shields in the middle of a battle, dicey though it is but he could have warned us first. I make a mental note to have a word with him about it later.

Another Ha'ten dies; I see a shield one of the Rel'tecs fail but the massive ship rotates it away from us before any major damage is done. Sir Lancelot appears beside the station and adds its meagre fire to our own.

Moments later Liberty herself appears, adding her own pair of Gauss rifles into the mix. She hadn't been scheduled to arrive from Edonia for almost ten hours; surely it can't have been that long already?

I glance at the cloak and see that it has been longer. Adrenaline and a decent sense of time don't go together that well it seems.

Those Rel'tecs have to go though preferably before Thundersdawn does.

I speak once more and for almost five seconds all the Gauss rifles and Britannica's Ion cannon cease. Then, they speak as one, ignoring the Ha'tens and throwing all their weight onto a single Rel'tec.

Joining them are all eighty of the Sidewinder and Sparrow missiles from the cells mounted on the stations arms. The shield segment facing the station fails first, then the lowest most segment, I glance at the sensor readouts and smile as I watch an entire volley of the stations weapons batteries impact a small section of hull less then five meters by five meters and I know that those shields will not be coming back up.

The massive ships icon abruptly flicks to grey… and then separates into twelve large sections and assorted smaller pieces.

A kill.

But a kill at a cost as Despite once again falls back, this time purely on in-system drives. With shields down, the single concentrated salvo from the surviving Ha'tens can have only one result and one of the newest warships in the fleet abruptly ceases to be.

Then the screen bleeps again and I feel a moment of pure despair in my chest as twenty new contacts appear close behind the Goa'uld. A moment later the IFF's register and I despair no more.

With Thundersdawn and two Liberty 's firing on one side, a Battlegroup that had apparently brought home the bacon on the other and the in-system ships firing from below, the result was inevitable.

It still took twenty-one minutes by the clock and twelve hours by my own time-sense before the last enemy ship was destroyed. I expected the weapons fire to stop at that point and for a mere minute it did.

I felt it through the deckplates as the ships batteries not only recommenced firing but went to emergency overload. Saw the icons of every ship in the area flicker then turn back towards the station.

Heard the collision alarms sound.