Part 10
Massive firepower crisscrossed in an orgy of mutual destruction. While the Ithkul's leviathans were beam heavy, their smaller ships were ridiculously fighter and missile heavy. Normally most navies favored the reverse approach, putting the beams on smaller craft that were easier to replace after the catastrophic losses that approaching a missile-group would incur, as well as helping them hide until they could reach beam range. Despite its departure from standard tactics, the Ithkul approach made a unique sense. The large beam ships were surviving the withering missile fire and fighter swarms to close far better than any normal beam taskforce, and the far smaller and lighter missile craft and carriers were swiftly moving to a significant distance, preventing beam craft from engaging them without disengaging the leviathans that were the current major threat. Kane hated having to keep them in close to the leviathans, both because of the losses they were taking and the fact that it would hurt him later when they would have to work themselves into weapons range of the missile craft, but he had no choice. He couldn't detach them without removing the screen protecting his missile craft, and exposing his relatively weak craft to beam fire. He swiftly decided to compromise the two necessities, and started snapping out orders in a crisp voice. "Detach three, no make that four squadrons of Poignards," a frigate sized mixed beam craft, using both short and long range beams along with a smattering of PD, "and send them against the retreating indirect fire groups. Have the Meklar swing around and try to entrap the leviathans. I want them pinned against our craft so our missile control can lock them up. JP-16-1, bring your fleet in, I don't think they're going to try and pull any surprises out of the starlane."
JP-16-1's mechanical voice responded, "Understood. Bringing Fleet AO-00-01 in to combat range." His flat tone sounded out of place on the flag bridge, filled as it was with human voices rich with emotion as they cursed the enemy and their own losses. Combat chatter was thrown from one end of the room to the other, as Kane sought to find and exploit any enemy weakness or mistake, and deny the enemy the opportunity to exploit any of his. The deck of his flagship shuddered as enemy fighters sought to find any holes in the shields of the Harrington Class vessel, but held. Then the impossible happened.
"ADMIRAL! Com failure, repeat, COM FAILURE!" Captain Barker cried out. "Radiation buildup on the hull has somehow short-circuited the transmission antenna. Communications reception is moderately impaired, but still functional."
Kane stood and stared, realizing what that meant. His voice snapped out, inquiring, "Has JP-16-1 taken command yet?" A power line across the bridge, near the communications terminal, overloaded and snapped, and a curtain of sparks rained down around it as the two ends fell down, emphasizing the damage.
Barker quickly checked his console. "He's querying us sir! He's standing by to take command in case of com failure." A few moments later, while Kane was still thinking, "He's formally taken command sir! Fleet is reforming under his orders. No major redisposition of forces sir, though he is switching the four Poignard squadrons you dispatched with eight Stiletto squadrons."
Kane did a double take, and sat back down, pondering. "That's a pretty good idea," he said, voice thoughtful. He watched the combat display as JP- 16-1 maneuvered the fleet around, twisting it to ensnare the enemy leviathans even better than he had managed. The eight Stilettos that JP-16- 1 had dispatched were about the same in over all force level to the four Poignard squadrons, but slightly faster and able to split up more ways. Though stilettos were little more than oversized fighters, their spinal mount maulers were much nastier than most beam weapons mounted on ships of quadruple their size, and with all their firepower focused forward they were capable of wiping out the penny-packets of enemy ships that they'd encounter quickly. Kane leaned back, and watched JP-16-1 fight Kane's battle for him.
Massive firepower crisscrossed in an orgy of mutual destruction. While the Ithkul's leviathans were beam heavy, their smaller ships were ridiculously fighter and missile heavy. Normally most navies favored the reverse approach, putting the beams on smaller craft that were easier to replace after the catastrophic losses that approaching a missile-group would incur, as well as helping them hide until they could reach beam range. Despite its departure from standard tactics, the Ithkul approach made a unique sense. The large beam ships were surviving the withering missile fire and fighter swarms to close far better than any normal beam taskforce, and the far smaller and lighter missile craft and carriers were swiftly moving to a significant distance, preventing beam craft from engaging them without disengaging the leviathans that were the current major threat. Kane hated having to keep them in close to the leviathans, both because of the losses they were taking and the fact that it would hurt him later when they would have to work themselves into weapons range of the missile craft, but he had no choice. He couldn't detach them without removing the screen protecting his missile craft, and exposing his relatively weak craft to beam fire. He swiftly decided to compromise the two necessities, and started snapping out orders in a crisp voice. "Detach three, no make that four squadrons of Poignards," a frigate sized mixed beam craft, using both short and long range beams along with a smattering of PD, "and send them against the retreating indirect fire groups. Have the Meklar swing around and try to entrap the leviathans. I want them pinned against our craft so our missile control can lock them up. JP-16-1, bring your fleet in, I don't think they're going to try and pull any surprises out of the starlane."
JP-16-1's mechanical voice responded, "Understood. Bringing Fleet AO-00-01 in to combat range." His flat tone sounded out of place on the flag bridge, filled as it was with human voices rich with emotion as they cursed the enemy and their own losses. Combat chatter was thrown from one end of the room to the other, as Kane sought to find and exploit any enemy weakness or mistake, and deny the enemy the opportunity to exploit any of his. The deck of his flagship shuddered as enemy fighters sought to find any holes in the shields of the Harrington Class vessel, but held. Then the impossible happened.
"ADMIRAL! Com failure, repeat, COM FAILURE!" Captain Barker cried out. "Radiation buildup on the hull has somehow short-circuited the transmission antenna. Communications reception is moderately impaired, but still functional."
Kane stood and stared, realizing what that meant. His voice snapped out, inquiring, "Has JP-16-1 taken command yet?" A power line across the bridge, near the communications terminal, overloaded and snapped, and a curtain of sparks rained down around it as the two ends fell down, emphasizing the damage.
Barker quickly checked his console. "He's querying us sir! He's standing by to take command in case of com failure." A few moments later, while Kane was still thinking, "He's formally taken command sir! Fleet is reforming under his orders. No major redisposition of forces sir, though he is switching the four Poignard squadrons you dispatched with eight Stiletto squadrons."
Kane did a double take, and sat back down, pondering. "That's a pretty good idea," he said, voice thoughtful. He watched the combat display as JP- 16-1 maneuvered the fleet around, twisting it to ensnare the enemy leviathans even better than he had managed. The eight Stilettos that JP-16- 1 had dispatched were about the same in over all force level to the four Poignard squadrons, but slightly faster and able to split up more ways. Though stilettos were little more than oversized fighters, their spinal mount maulers were much nastier than most beam weapons mounted on ships of quadruple their size, and with all their firepower focused forward they were capable of wiping out the penny-packets of enemy ships that they'd encounter quickly. Kane leaned back, and watched JP-16-1 fight Kane's battle for him.
