Commonscape
By: Griffin
Copyright notice: All characters belong to their respective owners, all
original characters and plot elements belong to me.
Note: Most of the Andromeda crew is current as far as about 2 months ago. Farscape crew is quite a bit older.
Summary: The Scarren Empire makes its first strike against the Peacekeepers .
Crashing Waves.(Part 1)
Commodore Elir frowned as he paced along the command deck of his battle cruiser.
His failure to take control of the Peacekeeper system of Fredis had resulted in his immediate demotion to Commodore and his placement aboard the light cruiser Undying Fury as the flag officer of a frigate flotilla.
He looked at his tactical holo-grid as that flotilla lead the Scarren charge into the Jeris system, the leading outpost of the Peacekeeper fleet along the Peacekeeper-Scarren border.
The fleet was just inside the maximum sensor envelope for the outer Prowler patrols. Those patrols had been spotted by the leading Strikers almost an arn ago. The Peacekeepers would likely be scrambling their picket to active status and launching their Prowler and Marauder compliments any minute now.
Elir switched the focus on his holo-grid and growled slightly at the size of the fleet behind.
While the Admiralty had blamed the loss at Fredis on his incompetence, they had ultimately learned their lesson as far as the Coalition went. They had doubled the original size of the Incursion fleet and had provided additional Striker squadrons as support.
* * * * * *
Sub-Officer Iris Penal frowned as she banked her prowler around for another look at the incoming sensor ghosts.
Her squadron had picked the ghosts up several microts earlier and was moving out to check on their identity.
Command indicated that they were probably just neutral traders in-bound from the border worlds, but had cautioned that there was a slim possibility of Scarren presence this close to the Imperial Border.
"This is Tera Seven to Tera Leader, approaching effective sensor range of contacts. Stand-by for identification," Iris told the commanding officer of the squadron, who was safely ensconced in the command chair of a marauder fifty metres behind her.
"Roger that, Tera Seven," the arrogant voice replied. "Keep your eyes open and your trigger ready."
Iris shook her head at the reminder and brought her prowler closer to the outer edge of the system, and to the sensor ghosts.
Even if the contacts were Scarren, they wouldn't be able to effectively attack her at this range, not with the energy weapons Scarren strikers favored.
Iris frowned as the contacts began to solidify in her tactical grid. At least fourteen of them were beginning to harden. That wasn't good. And they were flying in formation. That was also not good.
Trade convoys tended to either fly in clusters or in a train-like formation. They rarely, if ever, travel in formations.
She watched as the green sphere on her grid, indicating a hard sensor lock from her array, crossed over the yellow triangles of the unknown contacts.
It took the light-speed radar five seconds to reach the targets and another five to return to Iris' arrays.
And after that ten second pause, those fourteen yellow triangles turned a violent red and alarms sounded in her ear.
"Enemy ships inbound!" She announced into her com as she pulled her prowler around for a quick retreat. "Counted advance wing of fourteen Scarren Strikers in attack formation."
"Acknowledged," Tera leader announced. "All ships return to base. I repeat, all ships return to base."
Tera squadron, twelve prowlers and one marauder, turned quickly back toward the safety of the fleet, their com systems announcing the coming battle to all of the Coalition ships in-system. * * * * * *
"Arma wing has reported contact with enemy prowler patrols," Commander Tirash reported aboard the Scarren super dreadnaught Rightful Conquest.
"Acknowledged," Admiral Rishu, Commanding Officer of Scarren Incursion Force One, said as he watched his holo-grid.
The outline of the Coalition fleet was vague so far, not even Scarren sensors could give him a clear picture of the opposition this early. As soon as those ships lit their drives he would have numbers, but those would be vague when one considered the possibility of stealth drives.
He watched the green formations of Strikers, frigates, destroyers and light cruisers as they spread out to feel for the enemy forces and frowned as the Coalition began lighting up.
The picket force would be at least as large as Intelligence had estimated, if not slightly larger. He had reviewed the data-chips from the Battle of Fredis and knew that taking the Coalition's combination of weapon technologies would be foolish.
His planners had been able to revise the attack plan with that data, to minimize the effects of the Coalition technology on Scarren formations. But as any battle veteran knew, the plan only held together until the first shots were fired.
Rishu watched the holo-grid as his computer tagged each lighting drive signature with estimates on size and class. He spotted at least eight Hynerian battle cruisers, three of their Carriers, three Peacekeeper Command Cruisers, twelve of their battle cruisers, five Scorvian dreadnaughts and nine Nebari battleships; as well as a host of escort flotillas.
He knew from previous experience with the Nebari that their stealth destroyers were a force to be reckoned with and had devoted a full squadron of heavy cruisers to the Eri-class observation ships.
Those ships had the best sensor suites available in the Scarren Empire and were usually tasked with surveillance or deep space exploration. Their vast arrays of scanners were supposed to pick up the destroyers before they became a threat.
The Eri-class ships would also serve as a counter to the extremely powerful Scorvian jamming devices that had blinded the Scarrens in the Battle of Fredis.
The thing that worried Rishu the most, however, was the Hynerians and their Attika mounts. Those excessively powerful cannons would tear his smaller ships to pieces and leave his capitol ships incapacitated.
In his planning, Rishu had instructed that a large number of the escorts were to target the Hynerian battle cruisers before they reached combat range of the Scarren capitol ships. He wanted those ships taken out no matter what the cost.
* * * * * *
Admiral Uri Polits frowned as his picket scrambled to assemble in the face of the coming Scarren attack.
He cursed his luck as he pulled his helmet on over the combat suit and watched the Coalition picket assemble.
All told he controlled ten Hynerian battle cruisers, five of their Carriers, three Peacekeeper Command Cruisers, sixteen of their battle cruisers, eight Scorvian dreadnaughts and ten Nebari battleships. Not to mention the hordes of frigates, destroyers, light cruisers and heavy cruisers, and the throngs of fighter craft.
He felt confident that he could hold the system and watched as his fighter wings began deploying from their mother ships.
Scorvian Stingers, Nebari Arrows, Hynerian Dreadhammers and Peacekeeper Prowlers and Marauders, began forming in wings among the front-lines of his combat formation.
He intended to use his massive numbers of fighters to tear the front ranks of Scarren light warships apart and throw his escorts at the Capitol ships until his heavy firepower could bring itself into range.
He frowned slightly at the thought of so many lives lost, but it had to be done.
He rotated his holo-grid ever so slightly and watched as two squadrons of Nebari destroyers drifted away from the main formation and toward the flank of the Scarren force. Those ships would utilize their stealth systems to remain hidden from the Scarrens until the Capitol ships were involved in combat. The destroyers would then attack the Scarren capitol ships from the rear and hopefully tear some of those Scarren super dreadnaughts apart.
"Admiral, fleet is assembled and ready to proceed," Uri's second in command announced.
"All right then, let's show those scum what we're made of," Uri said as he signaled the fleet forward into the jaws of the beast.
* * * * * *
Sub-Officer Iris Penal rode at her wingman's side as the formation closed with the Scarrens.
Tera Squadron had been deployed as the second Peacekeeper wave that would strike the Scarren formation and were assigned to go straight for the enemy escorts. The first wave of Coalition fighters would work at occupying the Scarren Strikers while the second wave charged in and released the missiles attached to their hulls.
The weapons were prototypes from Coalition R & D, copies of similar Alliance designs. So far the Coalition was unable to give the missiles any targeting computers, so the delivery mechanism was ballistic flight.
Against a fighter that would be nearly impossible, but against a warship, even one so small as a Scarren frigate, it would be rather simple.
Iris frowned as she ran her finger over the rather simply release mechanism attached to the four, two hundred kilo bombs that her prowler carried into battle.
One stray shot from an enemy cannon could detonate any one of those bombs and tear her prowler into pieces.
She shook her head as she recalled the short briefing on the weapon and the rather simply targeting instructions.
"Aim for the nose of the ship, press release and bug out," Commander Sina had told them as their prowlers had been rigged for battle in the hanger of the Peacekeeper flagship, the Vanguard of Victory.
She looked through the cockpit of her tiny fighter to her wingman, his grin confident as he gave her the thumbs up and locked down for battle.
* * * * * *
Commodore Elir watched as the two fleets moved closer and closer toward each other, strangely similar to the combat he had been involved in not less than a solar month ago.
But this time the formations were much different. Apparently the commander of that Coalition fleet had something else in mind than the Fleet Commander at Fredis had.
He recognized the difference almost instantly. This commander thought that he could win. The other had doubted that fact.
This defense was not a defense of all-or-nothing. It was carefully laid out to minimize Coalition casualties while maximizing Scarren losses.
But he also knew that the Scarren approach would be different. This time those damned Hynerians wouldn't get their heavy guns into range to bring the powerful Scarren super dreadnaughts to their knees.
He let a feral growl escape his throat and stood in front of the main holo- grid as the lead fighter squadrons reached range.
* * * * * * Sergeant Terris pulled the nose of his Dreadhammer to bear on the first Scarren Striker to enter his view.
While Hynerians were not particularly effective in ground combat, thanks to their small size and reliance on hover-chairs, they were deadly in space combat, where their neural links to their hardware eliminated any problems caused by the physical world.
And the Hynerian Dreadhammers were the culmination of years of research.
They were heavily armored, their plating tested to resist at least five direct Peacekeeper pulse blasts and Four Scarren plasma bolts. Their engines were capable of driving them to speeds that any Peacekeeper similarly constructed would be hard pressed to maintain.
And the power of their quad-pulse cannons was unmatched in fighter combat. Those weapons could easily be mounted to a Frigate as a main armament. And the Dreadhammers each carried four.
So when Terris pulled the trigger on his flight stick, the Striker in his reticule had no chance to survive.
The brilliant flash registered on every sensor within four hundred metres, but no one had the time to look. They were all busy with their own targets.
* * * * * *
Iris Penal watched as the first wave of Coalition craft entered combat with the Scarren striker wings.
Green circles and red triangles vanished from her grid as brilliant flashes erupted in space.
She watched as Hynerian Dreadhammers strafed rows of damage in the Scarren wings, Nebari Arrows darted between enemy craft, eluding plasma fire. Scorvian Stinger packs drew lone Strikers off and tore them apart with brutal simplicity. Peacekeeper Prowlers avoided enemy fire with ease while Marauders waded into combat and dealt hot death to anyone who got in their way.
But the Scarren Striker pilots were good at what they did and Iris frowned as the heavy plasma cannons tore apart ship after ship with ease.
"First wave, clear the path. Second wave, prepared to begin attack runs," a voice ordered on the Fleet-Com band.
Iris pulled her restraints in a little closer and tightened her grip on her flight stick as she prepared to make her run.
Tera squadron had been split into two groups, bombers and escorts. Six of the prowlers had been fitted with four bombs each and the other six had been fitted with sensor suites that would make them the targets.
The lone Marauder was to stay back and direct the attack.
"Lazy," was the only word Iris could utter without using more vulgar terms for the commanding officer of Tera squadron.
"Begin run now," the voice ordered and the Second wave jumped forward on increased thrust.
Only the Prowlers and Arrows had been mounted with the bombs, being the fastest fighters in the fleet. The Arrows, while being faster, were too small to mount four of the bombs. The bombers instead carried three of the bombs and sacrificed their optional belly mount plasma cannon.
They wouldn't need the cannon anyways.
Iris rolled her ship through an evasive maneuver as a Striker realized what she was carrying and tried to tag her with plasma fire.
The attack missed and moments later that Striker was destroyed as Iris' wingman took the enemy down with a hail of pulse fire.
But the other strikers quickly caught on to the Coalition plan.
They tried to break off from the First wave fighters, but that left their aft exposed.
Dozens of Strikers exploded as they were targeted from behind and killed by Coalition fire.
Iris grinned as she realized that they would be facing minimal attack from the Strikers, a smile that quickly faded as she realized the Coalition ships would be the only targets for the Scarren point-defense cannons.
Her wingman lowered into her flight path to hide her signature from the PD systems as the frigates and destroyers began firing on the incoming fighters.
Prowlers and Arrows exploded as plasma fire tore into their hulls, or smashed into the bombs they carried beneath them.
The pilots rolled and dodged their fighters, keeping the turrets tracking and limiting the number of hits scored.
Iris was one of the few pilots that had drawn the duty of making a run for the Command Deck of her assigned target.
The heaviest weapons fire was focused there and she winced as a pair of Arrows succumbed to enemy fire.
She noted brilliant explosions all along the hull of the destroyer as bombers reached their targets and released their ordinance. The un-powered bombs drew no fire from the Scarren point-defense cannons and smashed into the hull.
The bombs were basically frag shells, though slightly improved to provide stable flight. They were equipped with armor piercing tips and heavy explosives.
Iris watched as one of the other bombers assigned to make a run on the bridge got scared and released early, the three bombs falling from her arrow and slamming into one of the destroyer's main guns.
The gun exploded and with it the magazine compartment below it. Debris exploded into space and more than once Iris had to dodge a stray plasma shell that had somehow evaded death.
Iris watched carefully as the orange circle in her targeting screen approached. That was her release point.
"Seven tighten up!" Her wingman shouted over the com as point defense fire erupt from ahead of them.
"I am fine, Eight!" She replied gruffly as she dodged a launching plasma shell.
"Seven, tighten your run!" Tera Leader ordered and Iris flipped off her com.
Iris focused intently on the orange circle before her. Fifty metres until she could drop.
She rolled through a hail of fire and swore as her vector changed. She pulled herself back into her run and hit a serious of switches. Only her life support, targeting and engines were left on-line. She wasn't going to need her weapons, and the reduced energy signature would make her a smaller target.
Forty metres.
Tera Eight dodged out of the attack run and Iris blinked as a plasma bolt enveloped the Prowler. Her wingman had deviated from his approach. It was his own fault.
Thirty metres.
The Command Deck was visible now. A tower raising from the hull of the light cruiser like a horn.
Not long now.
* * * * * *
"Shoot that Prowler DOWN!" Elir yelled as he made out the approaching fighter.
It carried four of the Peacekeeper bombs that had been tearing his flagship apart. One of those would destroy his Command Deck. Four would obliterate any trace that it had ever existed.
"We can't!" His tactical officer yelled back. "She is too small a target. She killed non-essential systems. Our targeting computers aren't even reading her."
"Then target manually!" Elir yelled.
"She is dodging all attempts to manually target. Our gunners aren't fast enough and she is too close to the hull. We risk collateral damage if we aren't careful."
"I don't care about collateral damage. I want that ship brought down!"
Twenty metres.
* * * * * *
She could see the Command Deck now. If she had the time she could probably magnify the image and see the panic stricken faces of the Scarrens inside.
She rolled her ship into launch position and pressed the safety key on her left. The trigger was on her right.
The point defense turrets had obviously been turned over to manual control because the shots that missed her prowler were slamming into the hull of the light cruiser, tearing into the ship.
Ten metres.
She realized quickly that four bombs would be overkill and grinned softly. She quickly typed in a time-detonation sequence for the two bombs and then pressed the release keys for two of the bombs, the outer two.
The high explosive ordinance fell and slammed into the hull of the light cruiser. But they did not explode. If they had, Iris would have undoubtedly been annihilated.
One of the bombs found itself buried in the side of a main plasma gun, the crew scrambled to escape before the ordinance blew them to pieces.
The other hit just right and fell down a transport shaft, deep into the bowels of the ship.
Anyone who reviewed the data-chips would say that it was blind luck that the bomb lodged itself in the wall of a reactor chamber.
Zero metres.
Iris howled in triumph as she slammed the two remaining release keys and pulled her fighter into a steep climb.
She slammed her thrusters to full and tore away from the falling bombs, the point defense cannons firing in her wake.
Iris growled as her prowler spun. One of those point defense cannons had tagged her belly, right where the bombs had just been attached.
The prowler was still flight capable, but the weapons were off-line now. She growled as she turned her fighter back toward the fleet and dodged in and out of enemy fire, not watching her bombs fall. * * * * * *
The two remaining bombs Iris had dropped were also set on a timer.
Elir was thrown to the back of the command deck as the two bombs pierced the armor and sat there, monuments of Peacekeeper bravery.
He had time for one last thought of his life before the four bombs detonated as one.
The two bombs lodged in the command deck tore the spindle apart like so much nothingness. Only a tiny stub was left to even mark the spot where the command deck had once stood.
The bomb that was lodged into a main gun exploded right into the primary ammo magazine. A brilliant explosion was seen throughout the battle as over eight hundred plasma rounds exploded in their storage racks.
But the most damage came from the fourth bomb. The bomb that had somehow found its way down a transport shaft to lodge itself in the side of a reactor chamber.
That bomb exploded with simplicity. The reactor followed.
The brilliant explosion of a fusion reactor chamber was seen as far away as the Vanguard of Victory. The ship cracked in half as its back was broken by the detonation.
The primary reactor tore most of the ship apart. What was left was not even enough scrap to think about looking at twice, much less salvaging. * * * * * *
Uri smiled as his plan unfolded before him.
The fighter-bombers were tearing a gaping hole in the escort ranks of the Scarren fleet. Already over a dozen of those ships had exploded and many of the rest were crippled. They would be little challenge to the undamaged escorts of the Coalition.
He watched his holo-grid as those escort ships reached attack range of the Scarrens and grinned.
Note: Most of the Andromeda crew is current as far as about 2 months ago. Farscape crew is quite a bit older.
Summary: The Scarren Empire makes its first strike against the Peacekeepers .
Crashing Waves.(Part 1)
Commodore Elir frowned as he paced along the command deck of his battle cruiser.
His failure to take control of the Peacekeeper system of Fredis had resulted in his immediate demotion to Commodore and his placement aboard the light cruiser Undying Fury as the flag officer of a frigate flotilla.
He looked at his tactical holo-grid as that flotilla lead the Scarren charge into the Jeris system, the leading outpost of the Peacekeeper fleet along the Peacekeeper-Scarren border.
The fleet was just inside the maximum sensor envelope for the outer Prowler patrols. Those patrols had been spotted by the leading Strikers almost an arn ago. The Peacekeepers would likely be scrambling their picket to active status and launching their Prowler and Marauder compliments any minute now.
Elir switched the focus on his holo-grid and growled slightly at the size of the fleet behind.
While the Admiralty had blamed the loss at Fredis on his incompetence, they had ultimately learned their lesson as far as the Coalition went. They had doubled the original size of the Incursion fleet and had provided additional Striker squadrons as support.
* * * * * *
Sub-Officer Iris Penal frowned as she banked her prowler around for another look at the incoming sensor ghosts.
Her squadron had picked the ghosts up several microts earlier and was moving out to check on their identity.
Command indicated that they were probably just neutral traders in-bound from the border worlds, but had cautioned that there was a slim possibility of Scarren presence this close to the Imperial Border.
"This is Tera Seven to Tera Leader, approaching effective sensor range of contacts. Stand-by for identification," Iris told the commanding officer of the squadron, who was safely ensconced in the command chair of a marauder fifty metres behind her.
"Roger that, Tera Seven," the arrogant voice replied. "Keep your eyes open and your trigger ready."
Iris shook her head at the reminder and brought her prowler closer to the outer edge of the system, and to the sensor ghosts.
Even if the contacts were Scarren, they wouldn't be able to effectively attack her at this range, not with the energy weapons Scarren strikers favored.
Iris frowned as the contacts began to solidify in her tactical grid. At least fourteen of them were beginning to harden. That wasn't good. And they were flying in formation. That was also not good.
Trade convoys tended to either fly in clusters or in a train-like formation. They rarely, if ever, travel in formations.
She watched as the green sphere on her grid, indicating a hard sensor lock from her array, crossed over the yellow triangles of the unknown contacts.
It took the light-speed radar five seconds to reach the targets and another five to return to Iris' arrays.
And after that ten second pause, those fourteen yellow triangles turned a violent red and alarms sounded in her ear.
"Enemy ships inbound!" She announced into her com as she pulled her prowler around for a quick retreat. "Counted advance wing of fourteen Scarren Strikers in attack formation."
"Acknowledged," Tera leader announced. "All ships return to base. I repeat, all ships return to base."
Tera squadron, twelve prowlers and one marauder, turned quickly back toward the safety of the fleet, their com systems announcing the coming battle to all of the Coalition ships in-system. * * * * * *
"Arma wing has reported contact with enemy prowler patrols," Commander Tirash reported aboard the Scarren super dreadnaught Rightful Conquest.
"Acknowledged," Admiral Rishu, Commanding Officer of Scarren Incursion Force One, said as he watched his holo-grid.
The outline of the Coalition fleet was vague so far, not even Scarren sensors could give him a clear picture of the opposition this early. As soon as those ships lit their drives he would have numbers, but those would be vague when one considered the possibility of stealth drives.
He watched the green formations of Strikers, frigates, destroyers and light cruisers as they spread out to feel for the enemy forces and frowned as the Coalition began lighting up.
The picket force would be at least as large as Intelligence had estimated, if not slightly larger. He had reviewed the data-chips from the Battle of Fredis and knew that taking the Coalition's combination of weapon technologies would be foolish.
His planners had been able to revise the attack plan with that data, to minimize the effects of the Coalition technology on Scarren formations. But as any battle veteran knew, the plan only held together until the first shots were fired.
Rishu watched the holo-grid as his computer tagged each lighting drive signature with estimates on size and class. He spotted at least eight Hynerian battle cruisers, three of their Carriers, three Peacekeeper Command Cruisers, twelve of their battle cruisers, five Scorvian dreadnaughts and nine Nebari battleships; as well as a host of escort flotillas.
He knew from previous experience with the Nebari that their stealth destroyers were a force to be reckoned with and had devoted a full squadron of heavy cruisers to the Eri-class observation ships.
Those ships had the best sensor suites available in the Scarren Empire and were usually tasked with surveillance or deep space exploration. Their vast arrays of scanners were supposed to pick up the destroyers before they became a threat.
The Eri-class ships would also serve as a counter to the extremely powerful Scorvian jamming devices that had blinded the Scarrens in the Battle of Fredis.
The thing that worried Rishu the most, however, was the Hynerians and their Attika mounts. Those excessively powerful cannons would tear his smaller ships to pieces and leave his capitol ships incapacitated.
In his planning, Rishu had instructed that a large number of the escorts were to target the Hynerian battle cruisers before they reached combat range of the Scarren capitol ships. He wanted those ships taken out no matter what the cost.
* * * * * *
Admiral Uri Polits frowned as his picket scrambled to assemble in the face of the coming Scarren attack.
He cursed his luck as he pulled his helmet on over the combat suit and watched the Coalition picket assemble.
All told he controlled ten Hynerian battle cruisers, five of their Carriers, three Peacekeeper Command Cruisers, sixteen of their battle cruisers, eight Scorvian dreadnaughts and ten Nebari battleships. Not to mention the hordes of frigates, destroyers, light cruisers and heavy cruisers, and the throngs of fighter craft.
He felt confident that he could hold the system and watched as his fighter wings began deploying from their mother ships.
Scorvian Stingers, Nebari Arrows, Hynerian Dreadhammers and Peacekeeper Prowlers and Marauders, began forming in wings among the front-lines of his combat formation.
He intended to use his massive numbers of fighters to tear the front ranks of Scarren light warships apart and throw his escorts at the Capitol ships until his heavy firepower could bring itself into range.
He frowned slightly at the thought of so many lives lost, but it had to be done.
He rotated his holo-grid ever so slightly and watched as two squadrons of Nebari destroyers drifted away from the main formation and toward the flank of the Scarren force. Those ships would utilize their stealth systems to remain hidden from the Scarrens until the Capitol ships were involved in combat. The destroyers would then attack the Scarren capitol ships from the rear and hopefully tear some of those Scarren super dreadnaughts apart.
"Admiral, fleet is assembled and ready to proceed," Uri's second in command announced.
"All right then, let's show those scum what we're made of," Uri said as he signaled the fleet forward into the jaws of the beast.
* * * * * *
Sub-Officer Iris Penal rode at her wingman's side as the formation closed with the Scarrens.
Tera Squadron had been deployed as the second Peacekeeper wave that would strike the Scarren formation and were assigned to go straight for the enemy escorts. The first wave of Coalition fighters would work at occupying the Scarren Strikers while the second wave charged in and released the missiles attached to their hulls.
The weapons were prototypes from Coalition R & D, copies of similar Alliance designs. So far the Coalition was unable to give the missiles any targeting computers, so the delivery mechanism was ballistic flight.
Against a fighter that would be nearly impossible, but against a warship, even one so small as a Scarren frigate, it would be rather simple.
Iris frowned as she ran her finger over the rather simply release mechanism attached to the four, two hundred kilo bombs that her prowler carried into battle.
One stray shot from an enemy cannon could detonate any one of those bombs and tear her prowler into pieces.
She shook her head as she recalled the short briefing on the weapon and the rather simply targeting instructions.
"Aim for the nose of the ship, press release and bug out," Commander Sina had told them as their prowlers had been rigged for battle in the hanger of the Peacekeeper flagship, the Vanguard of Victory.
She looked through the cockpit of her tiny fighter to her wingman, his grin confident as he gave her the thumbs up and locked down for battle.
* * * * * *
Commodore Elir watched as the two fleets moved closer and closer toward each other, strangely similar to the combat he had been involved in not less than a solar month ago.
But this time the formations were much different. Apparently the commander of that Coalition fleet had something else in mind than the Fleet Commander at Fredis had.
He recognized the difference almost instantly. This commander thought that he could win. The other had doubted that fact.
This defense was not a defense of all-or-nothing. It was carefully laid out to minimize Coalition casualties while maximizing Scarren losses.
But he also knew that the Scarren approach would be different. This time those damned Hynerians wouldn't get their heavy guns into range to bring the powerful Scarren super dreadnaughts to their knees.
He let a feral growl escape his throat and stood in front of the main holo- grid as the lead fighter squadrons reached range.
* * * * * * Sergeant Terris pulled the nose of his Dreadhammer to bear on the first Scarren Striker to enter his view.
While Hynerians were not particularly effective in ground combat, thanks to their small size and reliance on hover-chairs, they were deadly in space combat, where their neural links to their hardware eliminated any problems caused by the physical world.
And the Hynerian Dreadhammers were the culmination of years of research.
They were heavily armored, their plating tested to resist at least five direct Peacekeeper pulse blasts and Four Scarren plasma bolts. Their engines were capable of driving them to speeds that any Peacekeeper similarly constructed would be hard pressed to maintain.
And the power of their quad-pulse cannons was unmatched in fighter combat. Those weapons could easily be mounted to a Frigate as a main armament. And the Dreadhammers each carried four.
So when Terris pulled the trigger on his flight stick, the Striker in his reticule had no chance to survive.
The brilliant flash registered on every sensor within four hundred metres, but no one had the time to look. They were all busy with their own targets.
* * * * * *
Iris Penal watched as the first wave of Coalition craft entered combat with the Scarren striker wings.
Green circles and red triangles vanished from her grid as brilliant flashes erupted in space.
She watched as Hynerian Dreadhammers strafed rows of damage in the Scarren wings, Nebari Arrows darted between enemy craft, eluding plasma fire. Scorvian Stinger packs drew lone Strikers off and tore them apart with brutal simplicity. Peacekeeper Prowlers avoided enemy fire with ease while Marauders waded into combat and dealt hot death to anyone who got in their way.
But the Scarren Striker pilots were good at what they did and Iris frowned as the heavy plasma cannons tore apart ship after ship with ease.
"First wave, clear the path. Second wave, prepared to begin attack runs," a voice ordered on the Fleet-Com band.
Iris pulled her restraints in a little closer and tightened her grip on her flight stick as she prepared to make her run.
Tera squadron had been split into two groups, bombers and escorts. Six of the prowlers had been fitted with four bombs each and the other six had been fitted with sensor suites that would make them the targets.
The lone Marauder was to stay back and direct the attack.
"Lazy," was the only word Iris could utter without using more vulgar terms for the commanding officer of Tera squadron.
"Begin run now," the voice ordered and the Second wave jumped forward on increased thrust.
Only the Prowlers and Arrows had been mounted with the bombs, being the fastest fighters in the fleet. The Arrows, while being faster, were too small to mount four of the bombs. The bombers instead carried three of the bombs and sacrificed their optional belly mount plasma cannon.
They wouldn't need the cannon anyways.
Iris rolled her ship through an evasive maneuver as a Striker realized what she was carrying and tried to tag her with plasma fire.
The attack missed and moments later that Striker was destroyed as Iris' wingman took the enemy down with a hail of pulse fire.
But the other strikers quickly caught on to the Coalition plan.
They tried to break off from the First wave fighters, but that left their aft exposed.
Dozens of Strikers exploded as they were targeted from behind and killed by Coalition fire.
Iris grinned as she realized that they would be facing minimal attack from the Strikers, a smile that quickly faded as she realized the Coalition ships would be the only targets for the Scarren point-defense cannons.
Her wingman lowered into her flight path to hide her signature from the PD systems as the frigates and destroyers began firing on the incoming fighters.
Prowlers and Arrows exploded as plasma fire tore into their hulls, or smashed into the bombs they carried beneath them.
The pilots rolled and dodged their fighters, keeping the turrets tracking and limiting the number of hits scored.
Iris was one of the few pilots that had drawn the duty of making a run for the Command Deck of her assigned target.
The heaviest weapons fire was focused there and she winced as a pair of Arrows succumbed to enemy fire.
She noted brilliant explosions all along the hull of the destroyer as bombers reached their targets and released their ordinance. The un-powered bombs drew no fire from the Scarren point-defense cannons and smashed into the hull.
The bombs were basically frag shells, though slightly improved to provide stable flight. They were equipped with armor piercing tips and heavy explosives.
Iris watched as one of the other bombers assigned to make a run on the bridge got scared and released early, the three bombs falling from her arrow and slamming into one of the destroyer's main guns.
The gun exploded and with it the magazine compartment below it. Debris exploded into space and more than once Iris had to dodge a stray plasma shell that had somehow evaded death.
Iris watched carefully as the orange circle in her targeting screen approached. That was her release point.
"Seven tighten up!" Her wingman shouted over the com as point defense fire erupt from ahead of them.
"I am fine, Eight!" She replied gruffly as she dodged a launching plasma shell.
"Seven, tighten your run!" Tera Leader ordered and Iris flipped off her com.
Iris focused intently on the orange circle before her. Fifty metres until she could drop.
She rolled through a hail of fire and swore as her vector changed. She pulled herself back into her run and hit a serious of switches. Only her life support, targeting and engines were left on-line. She wasn't going to need her weapons, and the reduced energy signature would make her a smaller target.
Forty metres.
Tera Eight dodged out of the attack run and Iris blinked as a plasma bolt enveloped the Prowler. Her wingman had deviated from his approach. It was his own fault.
Thirty metres.
The Command Deck was visible now. A tower raising from the hull of the light cruiser like a horn.
Not long now.
* * * * * *
"Shoot that Prowler DOWN!" Elir yelled as he made out the approaching fighter.
It carried four of the Peacekeeper bombs that had been tearing his flagship apart. One of those would destroy his Command Deck. Four would obliterate any trace that it had ever existed.
"We can't!" His tactical officer yelled back. "She is too small a target. She killed non-essential systems. Our targeting computers aren't even reading her."
"Then target manually!" Elir yelled.
"She is dodging all attempts to manually target. Our gunners aren't fast enough and she is too close to the hull. We risk collateral damage if we aren't careful."
"I don't care about collateral damage. I want that ship brought down!"
Twenty metres.
* * * * * *
She could see the Command Deck now. If she had the time she could probably magnify the image and see the panic stricken faces of the Scarrens inside.
She rolled her ship into launch position and pressed the safety key on her left. The trigger was on her right.
The point defense turrets had obviously been turned over to manual control because the shots that missed her prowler were slamming into the hull of the light cruiser, tearing into the ship.
Ten metres.
She realized quickly that four bombs would be overkill and grinned softly. She quickly typed in a time-detonation sequence for the two bombs and then pressed the release keys for two of the bombs, the outer two.
The high explosive ordinance fell and slammed into the hull of the light cruiser. But they did not explode. If they had, Iris would have undoubtedly been annihilated.
One of the bombs found itself buried in the side of a main plasma gun, the crew scrambled to escape before the ordinance blew them to pieces.
The other hit just right and fell down a transport shaft, deep into the bowels of the ship.
Anyone who reviewed the data-chips would say that it was blind luck that the bomb lodged itself in the wall of a reactor chamber.
Zero metres.
Iris howled in triumph as she slammed the two remaining release keys and pulled her fighter into a steep climb.
She slammed her thrusters to full and tore away from the falling bombs, the point defense cannons firing in her wake.
Iris growled as her prowler spun. One of those point defense cannons had tagged her belly, right where the bombs had just been attached.
The prowler was still flight capable, but the weapons were off-line now. She growled as she turned her fighter back toward the fleet and dodged in and out of enemy fire, not watching her bombs fall. * * * * * *
The two remaining bombs Iris had dropped were also set on a timer.
Elir was thrown to the back of the command deck as the two bombs pierced the armor and sat there, monuments of Peacekeeper bravery.
He had time for one last thought of his life before the four bombs detonated as one.
The two bombs lodged in the command deck tore the spindle apart like so much nothingness. Only a tiny stub was left to even mark the spot where the command deck had once stood.
The bomb that was lodged into a main gun exploded right into the primary ammo magazine. A brilliant explosion was seen throughout the battle as over eight hundred plasma rounds exploded in their storage racks.
But the most damage came from the fourth bomb. The bomb that had somehow found its way down a transport shaft to lodge itself in the side of a reactor chamber.
That bomb exploded with simplicity. The reactor followed.
The brilliant explosion of a fusion reactor chamber was seen as far away as the Vanguard of Victory. The ship cracked in half as its back was broken by the detonation.
The primary reactor tore most of the ship apart. What was left was not even enough scrap to think about looking at twice, much less salvaging. * * * * * *
Uri smiled as his plan unfolded before him.
The fighter-bombers were tearing a gaping hole in the escort ranks of the Scarren fleet. Already over a dozen of those ships had exploded and many of the rest were crippled. They would be little challenge to the undamaged escorts of the Coalition.
He watched his holo-grid as those escort ships reached attack range of the Scarrens and grinned.
