Chapter 17

"Admiral, Harton reports damage to her engines. She's falling behind."

Hendrix felt the ship rock as another blast from an enemy cruiser struck the ship.

To the starboard, Harton and Katina were engaged in a slugging match with three enemy cruisers. Though the two battleships would easily defeat the smaller cruisers, all the enemy had to do was damage or knock out their engines, and wait for their battleships to arrive. Then we're done.

"We've lost bridge shields!"

"Deploy screen!" Bellowed Hendrix. Thick metal plates came down over the viewports, offering some added protection. Of course, it also meant that they couldn't see out.

"See what you can do to get those shields back up." Said the Admiral.

An extremely heavy shudder knocked Hendrix off his feet, and caused the lights to go out momentarily.

"What was that?"

"Heavy hit on the port side! Looks like the enemy battleships have started firing, sir!"

"Where are our fighters?!"

"Husky and Lightning still haven't returned from their mission, Bulldog is trying to destroy the enemy bombers, Demon and Fang Squadrons are harassing the enemy fleet, but most of the 1st Bomber is gone, sir."

Hendrix shook his head. Somewhere out beyond the titanium panels his fleet was exchanging fire with his enemies. The Great Fox was out there too, swooping in amongst the destroyers and cruisers harassing his fleet.

"Sir, Great Fox reports enemy destroyers and cruisers destroyed. Enemy battleships are continuing to fire, and our own three and returning fire with rear batteries. We have not been able to restore full power to engines or bridge shields yet."

"How much longer until we're clear to warp?"

"Three minutes, sir."

"Estimated time before the enemy battleships can open up with their full firepower?"

"Three and a half minutes, sir. The Great Fox is clearing a path through the enemy cruisers ahead of us… Wait… Bridge shields are back."

The metal panels retracted and allowed Hendrix to see out again. With the scanners being jammed, it was his only way of keeping full track of events outside.

The battleships had fallen behind his slowing carrier, assuming a protective formation behind it. Huge red lasers lanced out from small specks in the distance behind them, some missing harmlessly and some striking not so harmlessly. A triple blast caught one of the destroyers near the Decklon and utterly destroyed it. In return, his ships fired green bolts back, but Hendrix couldn't tell if they were hitting anything.

"Sir, we have a message from Husky Leader. He's inbound, low on fuel, same as the rest of his squadron."

"All right, give him orders to land, anyone in his squadrons who's not in good shape enough for a safe landing will go first, aided by our tractor beams. Order Fang, Demon and Bulldog Squadrons to come in and land."

The Great Fox assumed formation next to the Archangel, as the Katinian fleet passed the wreckage of four enemy cruisers which had moved to block them.

Almost there, almost out.

What was left of Hendrix's fighter squadrons started locking themselves down on the launch deck, protected from enemy fire by four patrolling Arwings. The ship rocked again as another enemy shot struck the keel.

"All fighters locked down sir." Hendrix gazed sadly at the deck. Fewer than half of the fighters had returned.

"10 seconds until we're clear of the anti-warp field."

"Atmosphere leaks in sectors 9 and 10 contained. Fires are out."

"Engaging warp drive."

The Archangel and what was left of the Katinian fleet plunged into warp-space again, out of the grasp of the enemy forces assembled to destroy them.

Hendrix stared silently out the viewport for a moment, then turned back to his crew.

"All right. I want damage reports and casualty lists ASAP. We'll await more orders once we get to Solar."

Hendrix sat down in his chair for the first time since the battle started. He didn't know which part of him ached more, his legs, his head or his heart. The whole thing had been a trap. Pontac was nowhere to be seen, and he was the one person in the whole fleet that had the most to answer for following the disaster.

While something inside Hendrix told him to be relieved that he had survived at all, given the trap's nature, the combination of depression and anger proved too much. He just sat there, rubbing his head, trying to ease away the nightmare and convince himself it was really over.