Twenty-Four
It took just fifteen seconds for confirmation to come through that all stations were at full readiness, a new record by far, but not unexpected. Everyone knew there were hostiles in system; they knew to be near their posts. It seemed everyone had actually been at them.
Peters nodded; she would remember to thank them, if there was a later.
"Signal the fleet, looks like we will be going for hammer and anvil again, we'll be the anvil, they can bring the hammer" Peters said, her hands swiftly working at her restraints, locking herself into her post, "Engineering, status on the starboard ammo train please"
"Not confirmed, but it looks dead. Dead motor, but it melted into position, so we can't hot swap it"
Peters froze, the cursed, fluently and vividly.
"We had best hope the Drakh don't focus on our starboard side then" she grimly concluded, "reduce firing rate on both arms by two-thirds, that should preserve the starboard ammo for as long as possible and hopefully they wont figure out for a while that starboards running low"
"Aye Commodore, should I reduce Alpha Strike for those batteries?"
"No," Peters chuckled dryly, "we should be able to kill one of those bastards dead with the initial Alpha strike"
Alpha Strike, an orgasmic burst of destructive energy poured onto some unfortunate soul by the simple process of making sure there was a missile in every single launcher, waiting until the enemy came to a decent range then salvoing the lot off in one go, joined by a full strength burst from every Gauss rifle. It was the stations version of the Hammer of God and with the Starboard ammo train out, something they would only be able to do once.
Once was often enough to get the point across.
"Targets locked into computer, we have guidance lock"
Peters nodded, grimly, "Hold off fire till they hit most effective, full Alpha Strike, pick a target and I want it to die"
Now wasn't the time to mice around with words after all.
That would empty the weapons of whatever ammunition was already inside them, Peters knew, but they would swiftly refill from the nearby Ready Lockers. Under normal circumstances, those lockers would themselves refill from the stations large main bunkers but that link was out for the Starboard arm of the station.
Nodding, she abruptly spoke, "Alpha strike a cruiser, then shift fire to the fighters, they are deadly enough but not very manoeuvrable, we should have most gone before the fleet arrives"
Her weapons officers acknowledged, and Peters turned to the tactical display, and waited.
The Red dots grew swiftly closer, and she waited.
Blue dots raced across the screen from the direction of Earth, moving far faster then the red, and Peters waited.
An Alpha symbol appeared above one of the cruisers and Peters grinned evilly, and waited.
Then, abruptly, Peters felt the only home she had known for eight years twitch, just slightly. It wasn't much, but it was enough to tell her even before her weapons officers did, that the stations mighty weapons had spoken.
One Alpha marked Cruiser vanished from the display, not even leaving enough debris to rate a navigation hazard indicator.
Stunned, the Drakh failed to return fire for nearly a full minute, but by that time, the stations main gauss rifles were already sowing death amongst the Drakh fighters, and soon, they would come into range of the Pulse Laser batteries, the dedicated anti-fighter weapons.
The Fighters charged, swiftly closing the range so that they could use their own weapons against the station, but in doing so they unmasked themselves from the protection of their cruisers and brought down the pulse batteries upon their heads.
Peters watched carefully, dispassionately, then nodded, decision made, "switch gauss fire to the Cruisers"
There were only twenty fighters left now; the pulse lasers could deal with them. The Cruisers were far more of an issue, and the fleet wasn't here quite yet. At least Anubis hadn't thought to equip his allies with shields, their armour, though exceptionally thick, was not as good as the station's multiple shields.
Peters grimaced as a swiftly silenced Master Alarm sounded; she glanced across at the weapons displays, already knowing what she would see. No ammunition remaining on the Starboard arm. Hardly unexpected, now how long would it take the Drakh to notice?
The station was rocking now, like a ship buffeted by high seas. To most, it wasn't noticeable, the inertial compensators having been upgraded to the point where most movements were no longer felt by station personnel. To the Engineering officer, it showed as swiftly rising thrusters mass usage displays as the computers fired thrusters after thrusters, obeying their programming to keep the station in its preordained position.
Peters felt each movement, she had been aboard far too long not too, become too attuned with the station, and to her, each one was a hit that could potentially put her home out of action. To her, each rock of the station was a physical blow to her own body.
It hurt.
A second Cruiser vanished off the scope, but Peters could smell smoke in the air now and there were damage indicators slowly spreading across the stations status displays. She was hurting, damaged but not out of the fight yet, not by a long shot.
The station shook, violently, being felt by everyone despite the improved dampeners. The Drakh were desperate, they had underestimated the Tau'ri, not brought enough warships, they had expected to kill the station fast and move onto the fleet, but they were wrong. Or at least, that was what Peters guessed was happening, they had certainly picked up the pace of their weapons fire.
Peters heard a whoosh and felt a burning heat at her back, she glanced behind and gasped, hands wrenching at the quick release on her restraints as fire reached for her back. Electrical, a distant part of her mind said, so very separated from the reality of what was around her, has to be, no fuel lines run by here. Out of the fire, a figure stepped, screaming, and burning like a macabre Guy Fawkes.
Shoving an Ensign out in front of her, she darted out of the Command Centre, it was in the hands of the DC teams now, she had to make her way to Auxiliary Control, and fast. She could already feel that the main weapons were not firing, their previous commands completed.
She reached Aux control just in time to see the blue dots of the Fleet start double-beating, firing. But then, so was the station, the smaller, older status displays of the Aux Command proudly proclaiming that, for only the fifth time since Thundersdawn came online, that Auxiliary Control had command.
Caught between the Anvil of the station and the hammer of the fleet, the result of the battle was inevitable, but for all that, Peters knew it wasn't over yet. The Drakh, according to the displays had six ships remaining; they could still cause a lot of damage.
"Concentrate fire and co-ordinate your targets with the fleet, if we both hammer a single ship at a time we should be able to swiftly roll them up"
"Yes M'am," Peters glanced across at the youthful tone and smiled, "Ensign Henderson, nice to see you out of hack at last"
She chuckled at the young and somewhat quick to anger officers' wince, at that age, she wouldn't have wanted to be remembered for how often she was in hack either.
"Having targeting difficulties M'am," Peters glanced across, frowning, "getting a lot of false signals off the boards in main, the filters aren't clearing them all out"
Nodding, she turned to where she knew the DC station was, to find a short, tubby officer she didn't recognise, albeit one wearing a station command badge, "DC, have your teams disconnect the main data lines to command, and fast"
Turning back to the tactical display, Peters grimaced as the icon for Yorktown separated itself from the rest, moving rather sluggishly away from the battle, its markers screaming of no shields and fires aboard. She would most likely require some time inside her stations slips.
Jinaghu darted aggressively forward, diving between two cruisers to get at the heavily damaged companion they were trying to screen. The ships icon blinked once, twice swiftly and the first unit of the Peoples Liberation Army, Space Division claimed its first combat kill.
Another cruiser vanished, swamped by the fighters of 6 th Starfighter Wing and 194 Reaver' Squadron. Peters watched as the remaining four cruisers attempted to break away, and catching Henderson's eyes, she calmly, quietly said, "No mercy"
The station and fleet fired as one, the combined fire cracking a cruiser like an egg, a second died just as swiftly, but the third turned, already crippled, it tried to place itself between the fleet, station and the final cruiser, hoping that at least their companion would get away.
Three of the Dauntless'es, the General Hammond, Stingray and Enerina's Defiant ignored the cripple and chased the fleeing cruiser down. The cripple died, as Jinaghu fired a full spread of torpedoes into its side.
This battle was over, but Peters wasn't finished.
"Recall all fighters and rig them for ground support operations," she shook her head, "and call up some Paladins, between us and the fleet we have about 150 trained soldiers and I am damn sure that the reinforcements would be appreciated at London, or Colorado, or bloody Africa. And hell, there are 100 Marines aboard Minehead alone, the Naquadah isn't going anywhere soon, so I am sure they could spare a few..."
