Chapter 22

William Johnson stood in the Revenge's main wardroom, with holographic displays portraying the fleet's admirals and senior captains. They had to discuss the recent attack and figure out what to do next. This was going to unequivocally change the plans for the mission.

There were two other admirals within the fleet. Vice Admiral Davis Stuart, commander of the second task force and Vice Admiral Valentina Rosa, commander of the first special task force. There were also a number of senior captains, the commanders of all the battleships, carriers, and heavy cruisers.

"Thank you all for being here, I first want to go over the damage each ship has suffered." Johnson said. "Captain Haffard unfortunately is in sick bay with a concussion, so I will be reporting the state of the Revenge for him. We were hit on the forward aft section on frames 12 to 30 by dozens of Imperial torpedoes. Most were stopped by our shields and armor, but a few managed to penetrate and cause damage. One of the main power conduits was hit, causing a temporary loss of power, but most of the hits impacted on our food and medical storage. There was a warhead that failed to detonate but lodged itself in one of the storage compartments not far from the bridge. It was luckily disarmed by our bomb squad before it could detonate, and they determined it was likely a dud. We currently have 26 dead and 7 injured, mostly due to a lack of oxygen." He paused. "The damage is minimal and should only require a few holes being patched. It won't reduce our combat effectiveness. Who wants to go next?"

"The Yamato got hit in similar areas, though a fuel line was also hit." Admiral Stuart said. "Unfortunately it seems there is an electrical fire in several compartments, though it will soon be under control. We have more casualties though, 37 dead and 43 wounded. Besides the fire, the damage shouldn't take long for repairs, and our combat capabilities have not been affected."

"The Iowa took a hit to one of it's secondary aviation fuel tanks, which caused a big explosion and fire." Captain Matthew Kissinger, it's commanding officer said. We have about 69 dead and 113 wounded. Several of our main and secondary guns have been knocked out, as they were close to the fire. Extensive repairs are going to be needed. We're still combat capable, but probably about 80 percent of what we used to be."

"The Bismarck has taken only minimal damage, as we had ou 's undergoing preparation for combat." Captain Hunt Godfrey, the ship 's commanding officer said. "Between them shooting down many of the torpedoes and our escorts doing the same, the few that hit didn't penetrate our shields or breath through our armor. We are fully combat capable. Because of my ship's status, I'd recommend trading places with Iowa so that we can take more damage instead of them."

"The Implacable took several torpedoes, but not as many as any of the battleships." Captain Zeng Hong said. "There were only a few penetrations past the armor and shields, and those have been very minor. We don't currently have any casualties and our combat capabilities have not been affected at all."

"Same with the Invincible. We haven't taken much damage, and so far have no casualties. We are fully operational and ready for combat." It's captain, the commander of the sister Implacable's sister ship said.

"The Hong Kong had several torpedoes impact on it, but none of them caused any damage." The captain of the heavy cruiser said.

"The Senali took a volley of torpedoes to her rear engine block. It's down to ten percent of it's normal thrust, making it several times slower than the slowest of bulk freighters when fully loaded." It's captain said. "We might need to sit this battle out. Her hyperdrive is still functional though, so we will not have any trouble relocating."

Johnson winced at that statement. The captured Interdictor Cruiser would be effective in stopping the Imperials from fleeing the battle.

"The São Paulo had several impacts on it's aft sections near the main engine block, which lead to heavy damage there. We still do not have casualty reports, but it is likely to be steep. Three of our main engine blocks are offline, and it will likely take an entire dry dock to repair them. That's almost half of our sunlight acceleration gone. We lost a few guns, but most are still operational." The Captain of the Hong Kong's sister ship said.

"The Los Angeles has taken several hits, also all minor. No casualties have been reported yet." The heavy cruiser's Captain reported.

"We have reports of damage across a number of other smaller ships, about a dozen in total. Two frigates and one corvette have taken critical damage and likely will be forced to withdraw." Sing reported. She looked at Johnson. "Our fighters have found and destroyed over half of the attacking TIE's with no losses, and more are being discovered as we speak. What do we do next?"

"We continue with the attack." Johnson said. "All told, our losses have been minimal." He looked at the nervous captain of the São Paulo. "Is your ship still combat capable?"

"Yes sir, though it might have a hard time keeping up with the fleet due to some of the engines being disabled." He replied.

"Move to the rear of the fleet, Captain." Johnson ordered. "Same for the Iowa. I don't want either of those ships taking more damage than they can handle. Have the Senali and the three smaller ships withdraw, they are only going to be sitting ducks if they stay here. Unless anyone else has any other concerns, we will continue with the attack.

No one else had any other issues, so Johnson moved back to the bridge. He moved over to the comm stations with intent.

"Patch me through to Commander Davis." He ordered the comms officer. He wanted to get information from th about what was happening out there away from the fleet.

"Deadlock here. What can I do for you Admiral?" The pilot asked.

"How many of thos bombers have your people caught so far." Johnson asked.

"So far almost 50… scratch that, sir we have caught 50 of those bombers. This didn't look like a mission that a lot, or any of them, would be surviving on." He reported.

"Commander, I want you to keep tracking down those bombers and to scout the space in front of the fleet for anything suspicious. We don't want to repeat what happened earlier."

"Yes sir. Should I engage other TIEs if the opportunity presents itself?"

"Go ahead. That's one les we have to worry about later. I won't hold your attention any longer commander. Go make sure nothing gets back to the fleet."

Davis continued flying, searching for the rogue TIE's that had attacked the fleet. Not many were still alive, and the few that were would likely be shot down soon. T I E bombers were not very maneuverable and would not survive a serious dogfight. It appeared they had also been armed with anti-ship weapons, not missiles designed to be capable of attacking fighters. He had ordered that missiles not be used on these bombers, as doing so would be a waste of resources.

"Coroner to Deadlock, two of my guys just got hit by something out here, never mind, it looks like a small satellite." One of the squadron leaders reported to the C A G.

"What the hell?" He said to himself. If the Empire was using small defensive satellites, they must be desperate. Very desperate indeed. He had never heard of them using such irregular tactics when defending. They never had the resource issues that would convince them to do such a thing. It just simply wasn't like them. He'd have to ask some members of the rebel alliance, they might have seen something like this as they had been fighting the Empire much longer.

"All birds, apparently the Empire has had the grand idea of using low tech defensive satellites. I have no idea why, and we aren't paid enough to speculate. We're paid to destroy those bastards. They don't have very large power signatures, so make sure you see them before they see you." He said over the comms to all the fighters in the fleet, which were all under the command of him.

As he flew towards the distant Imperial fleet with his squadron in tow, he noticed a number of small rocks on each side of him. They were only a few meters large at most, and the vast majority were smaller.

Suddenly he heard a crash over the comm and noticed the rocks exploding. The explosions were not very big, but it spread a lot of very small rocks that would impact on the fighters.

Diving out of the way and avoiding most of the exploding rocks, Deadlock dodged the few that were nearby with ease. But some of his squadmates were not so lucky.

"Holy shit! Incoming! What the hell are these." Lieutenant Paul "Corndog" Dawes said in fear as his fighter dodged the exploding rocks.

"Oh fuck, my engines are fucking gone. I'm going to have to eject." Lieutenant Udloy "Krisper" Jennings said.

"I'll ge R (search and rescue) shuttle out to come get you." Deadlock said. "Same for anyone else who needs to eject.

"I'm going to need to eject as well." Lieutenant Ellen "Blitzjob" Carter said.

"These must be debris mines, they're an old type of mine that hasn't been used by anything but low tech navies for millennia." Captain Vanessa "Redeye" Sundrey, the squadron's X O said. "They have a proximity fuse that detonates whenever an object comes close, and spreads a load of rocks on whoever is nearby. Can be nasty if they hit close to you like has happened here.

"That's cool and all, but I need to eject as." Said Lieutenant Bob "Party Boy" James. A number of the other members of the squadron could be heard agreeing with the two who needed to eject.

Deadlock changed his comms from just his squadron to the entire strike force of fighters he was commanding. He could hear reports of similar incidents, with dozens of fighters reportedly destroyed or heavily damaged to the point their pilots needed to be abandoned. Soon, it would likely be over a hundred lost. This was not an insignificant loss, but also one that they could survive due to their sheer numbers and the very high kill to death ratio between them and Imperia Fighters.

He needed to reaffirm his leadership and provide guidance to the pilots under his command. They were out here dying, and he needed to help.

"All pilots, be advised, the Empire has strewn a mass of small rocks in space to try and stop us. They must have some sort of proximity fuse on them, they detonate when anyone gets too close. Already dozens of our fighters have been taken out by these things, and I doubt they will be the only ones to be destroyed. S A R birds are leaving their motherships now and will rescue the surviving pilots. Be safe and keep killing Imperials."

As he and his squadron moved closer and closer to the Imperial fleet, he saw several large objects on his sensors. They were over a kilometer long but weren't large enough to be Star Destroyers. What were they? He asked himself.

After a few moments of guessing, an answer appeared. These large objects were golan space defense platforms. Earth and the Free Confederacy had encountered several others so far within their campaign. They were large, over a kilometer long and bristling with all kinds of weapons and fighter bays.

Additionally Earth and the Free Confederacy had encountered several varieties of the smaller Carden class, which came in a number of variants that ranged from only a fraction of a size to almost as large as the golan platforms. They also were heavily armed, but not to the degree that the golans were.

His sensors showed 6 of the golans and five of the cardens in a defensive perimeter between him and the Imperial fleet. They must have been put in a blind spot for sensors, as otherwise they would have been detected already.

"Do you all see those platforms?" He asked the surviving members of his squadron. A murmur of agreement could be heard. He turned on the comms to all the fighters under his command, repeating the question. Many answered yes, and the ones who didn't would be led in the general direction of the platforms.

"I don't want to see them, and neither does Admiral Johnson." Deadlock said. "We didn't bring anti ship missiles for nothing."

The mass of fighters accelerated towards the static space stations. After a few moments, more contacts appeared, a large number of them. Deadlock could tell the stations and the Imperial fleet were launchin fighters to protect the defenses. If they wanted to get to the stations, they needed to go through the mass o 's.

"All fighters clear thos ' s out. Use missiles and let the targeting algorithm tell you who to fire at." Most of his fighters carried six anti fighter missiles that could take ou in one hit. All his fighters had a networked targeting system that ensured that each fired a missile to different targets, which prevented an uneven distribution of fire and long delays incurred by trying to determine which pilot would fire at which target.

Each of his fighters fired one of their missiles at the approachin 's. Since the Imperial fighters lacked any form o (electronic countermeasures) they would have little chance of evading the incoming missiles. Perhaps a select few might, but the vast majority would die an inescapable death.

That was exactly what happened when the missiles impacted th 's. Over a hundred and twenty fell in the first wave of attacks, the vast majority of the defending force. In the net wave, the remaining few dozen survivors fell. None of th 's made it to gun range.

"All fighters fire anti ship missiles at the platforms." Deadlock said, pleased with the results so far. Each of his fighters carried two anti ship missiles, deadly weapons when used against capital ships both large and small.

Moments later several hundred missiles were fired. A few managed to be shot down by the point defences of the stations, but most hit the targets.

A massive explosion followed, a fireball that could be seen from both Earth and the Empire's fleets. Four of the five Carden stations had been instantly destroyed with only the fifth, a larger 800 meter model surviving. Though surviving was about all that had happened to the station, entire sections of the station were gone and the surviving parts scarred with some of them venting the atmosphere.

Two of the Golan platforms were destroyed, with four surviving.Two of these Golan platforms looked awful, while the two others had looked only moderately to lightly damaged. Their larger size had allowed them to survive better than their smaller counterparts, but this was relative. They still had entire sections of which only rubble remained, and their armor was scarred with hits and holes where missiles had broken through. Whatever combat capabilities it had were heavily reduced if not outright gone.

"Wooooohoooo!" Yelled redye as they passed by the damaged platforms. Deadlock couldn't help but smile at the victory he had just helped win. His comm beeped, and the pilot could see it was from Admiral Johnson.

"Good job Commander, you've taken out a critical objective in this fight." The admiral said.

"Thank you sir, do you want me to attack the Imperial fleet?" Deadlock asked. "They are launching what looks to be the majority of thei 's, and we have only used 1 / 6 of our anti fighter missiles and 1 / 2 of our anti ship missiles."

"Go ahead and launch the rest of your anti-ship missiles against the Imperial fleet, and mop up as many of thos 's as you can from B V R. After that, head home to the barn for reloading. Those missiles are keeping you in the fight, and it would be stupid for you to lanuch strafing runs against the Imperial fleet." Johnson said.

"Understood sir." Deadlock said, switching his comm to cover the entire fleet of fighters under his command. "All fighters, we are going to attack the Imperial fleet. Prepare to launch missiles at both th 's and the capitol ships. Don't touch any of the remaining orbiting stations, we want to take those intact. Focus on the Star Destroyers and other large assets." He said over the comm.

He could already see the waves of Imperia 's departing the various ships they were embarked on. He ordered the first wave of anti fighter missiles fired. All impacted spectacularly against th 's shredding them before they have even come close to weapons range.

Next he ordered the launching of the fighter force's anti-ship missiles, which were primarily aimed at the three Imperial Star Destroyers and the lone Tector Star Destroyer. There were a number of secondary targets as well, two older and smaller victory class star destroyers and a few cruisers.

The networked targeting algorithm did its job well. Although a few of the missiles were shot down, the Star Destroyers had notoriously bad point defenses, forcing them to rely on their escorts and survivin fighters. Hundreds of missiles broke through the defenses and impacted against their targets.

One of the Star Destroyers was outright destroyed, obliterated after being struck by a hundred anti ship missiles on its aft section near its hangar bay. Another, the Tector, looked to be drifting in space, disabled. The two others revived moderate damage, enough to make an impact but not nearly enough to take them out of the fight. The two Victory's and the cruisers had all taken moderate to light damage, and were still in the fight. The remainin fighters were cleared up with anti fighter missiles launched by Earth's fighters as they turned around to rearm.

There were sounds of cheers as Earth's pilots celebrated their victory. They had destroyed a Star Destroyer, disabled another, and damaged many other Imperial ships. They had also knocked out almost the entire Imperial force of fighters that had once been several hundred strong. The Great Garnizon Turkey Shoot, as it would later be known, was one of the greatest victories for Earth's fighter force, though it would certainly not be the last.