Chapter 33
Aboard the bridge of the revenge, Admiral Johnson looked on in horror as the fleet led by a dreadnought came out of hyperspace. They wouldn't be able to stand up to it, 14 I S D's, and the supporting cruisers and frigates. Perhaps they could at least fight a delaying action and cause as much damage as possible to the Imperial Fleet while allowing the army forces and as many supplies as possible to be evacuated. What could not be evacuated would be destroyed and Johnson was prepared to enact a scorched earth policy both in space and land. Anything of use to the Empire that could not be taken with them would be destroyed.
Already army transports and assault ships that were landed on the ground were being loaded with troops and supplies, though large amounts of captured weapons that had not been transformed off-world would have to be destroyed. A number of soldiers and officers would be starting on the surface to form a guerrilla force to harass the Empire. Many civilians rushed to spaceports across the world, to get off the planet and get away from the Empire. They crowded onto transports leaving the world and often hung on to them even as they took off. It was a scene that was reminiscent of the Kabul evacuation that had taken place several years ago on Earth.
Johnson looked at Captain Drofa Haffard. "How powerful are the ray shields on that Dreadnaught?"
"Quite powerful and several magnitudes more powerful than the ones on an I S D."
"How many of our ion torpedoes, both fighter launched and capital ship grade, would it take to disable that ship, hypothetically." Johnson asked.
"For the fighter launched ones it would take several thousand. Capitol grade ones would be less, but still nearly a thousand. That would be unless we were able to take out their ray shield generator, which could be done with a close range attack by fighters. They may be able to use missles, if they were launched at very close range. That ship still and it's escorts still have their fighters, as well as their point defenses. But that force is still a bit far away, so I believe it would be prudent to focus on the main force, which we can still do substantial damage to."
It wasn't long before the main force of eit 's and the escorts managed to get into turbolaser range, and the main battle began. Fighters and corvettes launched fast attacks with missiles before retreating to prevent substantial damage. Things at first looked to be a stalemate but soon that ironically changed to Earth having the advantage. While they only had five large capital ships when compared with the Empire's eight, some of th 's had taken damage and were not up to full combat effectiveness. Earth and the Free Confederacy had many smaller ships and orbital defense platforms. Perhaps they would not need to retreat after all.
However, Earth and the free Confederacy were both not without losses of their own. One of Earth's captured Star destroyers, the he had been destroyed, along with a number of smaller ships such as the lone Recusant light destroyer the free Confederacy brought along. One of the Golan Defense Platforms had been destroyed, along with one of the Carden Platforms crippled. And many ships were damaged to varying degrees of severity, including both the Revenge and Harrington's flagship Warspite. They had still managed to destroy fou 's and most of the first fleet's escorts and had now switched to using ion cannons and toreados on the remainder, attempting to disable and board the.
However as this was ongoing the second force that held the Bellator Dreadnaught soon was in weapons range. It's 7200-meter form was bristling with weapons, and this task force was going to be challenging to defeat. It approached on the fleet's port side, and Harrington ordered the fleet to turn and face the dreadnought, splitting the damage on the ships in the fleet more equally. The raw firepower of the ship was intense, and many smaller ships fell to the dreadnought's secondary turbolasers. Johnson watched as the captured Nebulon B frigate Aurora, which had been serving the fleet since it's capture during the first battle of Earth, was torn apart after it's midsection had been severed. It had been a veteran ship with a well trained crew. He could see some escape pods being jettisoned, so maybe some people had survived.
But the dreadnought's main firepower was directed at Admiral Harrington's flagship, the Warspite. Hundreds of turbolasers and ion cannons were firing at the battleship from both the dreadnaught and the escortin 's, but it's shields were holding. Johnson didn't know for how long, however. But the fleet was returning heavy fire, and they were starting to cause some damage to the sword attacking fleet.
He received a comm from Harrington and he opened it. Looking at the readouts on the main command console, he could see the ship's shields were starting to fail. It was impressive that they had lasted that long.
"Admiral, what's your status?" Harrington asked.
"We've taken light damage but are still fully operational. You should make an emergency jump Admiral, the Warshite will be destroyed in a matter of minutes."
"Both our main and backup hyperdrives have been damaged, and will not be able to be repaired for hours. I've ordered the ship abandoned and I intend to personally ram it against that dreadnought." Harrington said resolutely.
"But Admiral…" Johnson said before being cut off by the feet's highest ranking officer.
"I am going to order you to shut up and listen to me Admiral." Harrington said. "This is what I needed to do. You are fully capable of commanding this fleet, and I am promoting you to the position of fleet commander." Johnson was shocked. "You are ready for this Johnson, it's been an honor to serve with you, Will." He cut off the line, and Johnson could see the ship traveling to the Dreadnaught, with escape pods being ejected and shuttles and other small craft flying out of its hangar. It sent a volley of missiles and torpedoes to the Dreadnaught and its escort. However, it was unable to ram the larger ship, as it moved away, albeit getting closer. The Warshpite instead collided with a that was escorting, and the subsequent net explosion destroyed anothe as well, along with causing damage to the Dreadnaught.
Johnson ordered the fighters currently in the air to provide cover for the escape pods and shuttles of the ships. At least the vast majority of the ship's crew had escaped. A well trained crew was at this point more valuable than a new ship, as ships could be produced at a much higher range than a well trained and combat experienced crew. This philosophy was reflected in Earth's ship designs, with a focus on compartmentalization and redundant escape systems allowing for rapid evacuation and some parts of the ship being able to disconnect with one another in an emergency. While a growing number of ships were being lost, many had large numbers of surviving crews due to these redundancies.
Johnson hesitated for a moment at the loss of his superior officer and friend, but snapped out of it quickly. He had a fleet to command.
The Bellator was now focusing it's fire on his flagship, the Revenge, as well as the golan and carden defense platforms. Johnson had ordered the shields raised to their maximum level in order to survive the onslaught. Looking at how his forces were going to be mauled and eventually defeated, Johnson felt it was time to begin retreating. He was about to issue the command when a large number of contacts edited hyperspace. There looked to be maybe 30 ships, one of which was the same size as the Bellator Dreadnaught they were currently facing. Further sensor scans indicated these were Imperial ships.
"Sir, there is an incoming comm burst from the lead ship directed at us." The comms officer said. "Shall I play it?"
"Go ahead." Johnson said.
"This is Karla Illustrois formerly of the Imperial Tibbanaa Sector and now of the independent Tibannas sector. The Empire has betrayed me and my sector and made an attempt on my life. I now intend to fight against them, and will help you to the best of my abilities. I have under my control the Bellator Class Star Dreadnought Decisiveness, Si and I I 's, four lancer class frigates, half a dozen Vindicator Heavy Cruisers, and a dozen ariens lybjg cruisers." The message read.
"Open a channel to her flagship." Johnson said, all pretense of retreat gone from his mind. With that force he could win this battle.
"Moff Illustrious this is Admiral William Johnson, it's good to have your assistance. I intend to disable, board, and capture several of those Star Destroyers and that dreadnaught." He said. "If you could please only use ion weapons on those ships that would be useful."
"Admiral Johnson, do you know how many Imperial Navy, Army, and members of the Stormtrooper corps are aboard that ship?"
"Yes, I know it would have about 90 thousand personnel. However, as this planet was going to be evacuated, I have several tens of thousands of marines that have been loaded into their transports and assault ships, which will disembark on that ship once it has been disabled. We only need to rks e a few key points and then threaten to vent the entire ship's atmosphere." Johnson said.
"It seems you have thought this out." Illustrious said . "I'll assist you in capturing and boarding that ship to the best of my ability.
"That would be excellent." Johnson said. With a renewed confidence for n their abilities, the Earth and free confederacy fleet surged forward, unloading a mass of turbolasers, ion cannons, and ordnance on the Imperial fleet. Some ships still were destroyed, but in less than a half hour the guns of the Imperial fleet had gone silent. Soon boarding parties began to prepare their landings on the various ships in the Imperial fleet. The surviving Imperial fleet assets was of course the Bellator, fou and I I's as well as a dozen smaller escort ships. All had been disabled by the mass of ion cannon fire that had come from both Earth's fleet and Illustrious.
Several of the ships, including two of th 's and 2 / 3 rds of the escorts surrendered before needing to be boarded. However, the dreadnaught as well as the two othe 's and four of the escorts refused to surrender. Now the boarding operations would commence.
Major Victoria Petrova checked her gear and made a last minute attempt to see if everything was working. The entirety of the surviving members of her elite platoon along with several reinforcements were now loaded into several assault shuttles that were now making their way to the disabled Bellator.
She was sitting next to Hans, who was clandestinely holding her hand. It had been an interesting few months of their relationship. They had started out fairly timid, but had become more intimate as time went on. They had both found a connection in each other that they had not found in anyone else. But they were still serving together, and that demanded a strict level of professionalism when in public, skemt nnf that they reluctantly participated in.
It was still an open secret that they a thing, especially in their squad. Hiding the fact that they they had been dating for three straight no units was practically impossible. In the long term however it wouldn't really matter. One tradition that has come out of the fleet's original secerecy was the laxs rules on personal relationships and fraternization. The men and women who had originally been part of the fleet would likely never see civilian life again or be able to have any significant interactions with people who did not know about Earth's secret fleet. And forcing everyone to live a life without the possibility of romantic relations would have led to a mutiny.
However with the fleet now public knowledge and a large number of traditional military personnel from both the navies and air forces of the world joining and bringing their traditions and rules with them, both were worried that while a relationship was not allowed to affect their careers (in most cases) that it would. However both of them privately thought it was an overreaction. They were serving under Admiral Johnson, who was notorious for overlooking such relationships when it came to career advancement. (This only made sense with him being in one.)
Additionally, Petrova could not really advance further in her career without getting into a staff position, something that she currently didn't want. To be fair, Hans had made the jump from non commissioned officer to a commissioned one, which was a major step in his career. But he didn't currently have much ambition to go further, at least for the time being.
Petrova's thoughts went back to the mission at hand. She would be leading a small team to take the ship's bridge, which was one of the places the ship's atmosphere could be vented. They would also intend to hold the place until the ship was fully secure. It was going to be a difficult task, but they would be docking with the nearest airlock to the bridge, and would have total surprise as the ship's sensors were knocked out.
The shuttle was soon docked with the dreadnought, and Petrova led her men and women in. Immediately as they opened the door they were forced to find cover back in the assault shuttle as a squad of troopers began firing at them. They had set up an E web heavy repeating blaster that was raining down a constant stream of suppressing fire. Looking at Hans, Petrova knew what she needed to do. Chucking a flashband grenade into the Imperial's line of sight, she ordered her troops to surge forward and kill them while they were dazed. The fire stopped and the dozen Earth soldiers returned fire, with accurate bursts of automatic blaster fire killing all of the Imperials. The last thing any of them would have seen would have been a blinding white light before they got a blaster bolt to the head.
Petrova and her platoon who rapidly disembarked the shuttles rushed down the hall. It would not be far before they reached the bridge, and I'd they reached it quickly they would be able to surprise the command staff. On their way their the platoon ran into formations of Storntroopers several times, but they were quickly defeated as they appeared to be running to secure some sort of objective and did not look ready for a fight. The other Imperial Navy and army members were worse, nor looking ready for a fight at all and with some not even carrying blasters.
Soon they reached the bridge, which had been closed shut and locked down to prevent them from getting into it. The door was soon hacked by private s and soon they had the ability to open it.
Tossing a flash bang into the room, Petrova and the rest of the platoon lay down suppressing fire while using more targeted bursts to eliminate groups of stormtroopers that were defending the bridge. Before the bridge staff could fully recover, they were able to force their way into it. There was a brief hail of blaster fire from the Imperials, but most were shot dead. However, Petrova did intend to take at least some prisoners. The Fleet's Admiral, the ship's captain, it's executive officer, and several other senior members of the command staff were checked for weapons and disarmed, and then cuffed. She put her blaster rifle on the head of the captured Admiral, and uttered the following words. "You will tell your ship to surrender to us."
"My crew will never surrender to terrorists." He snarled in response.
Taking her rifle by the foldable stock, she smashed the barrel into his face. "You don't have the ability to resist. You and your crew will be treated fairly as prisoners if you comply, but we are prepared to vent the atmosphere of this ship if they do not comply. Think about what's in the best interests of your crew." She growled.
"Fine." He spat. "I will tell them to stand down if you give me access to the entire ship's comm network."
He soon told the entire ship to stand down, and a good number of the ship's crew and officers followed his command. After giving the message, he and the other high value prisoners were escorted back to the airlock they had come in through and put on the transport, along with several of Petrova's elite soldiers to guard them as they were going to their destination.
The elite major then decided to inform Admiral Johnson personally, and dialed him over the comm. He quickly picked up.
"Admiral, I have secured the bridge and taken several high profile prisoners. These include the Fleet's Admiral, the dreadnaught's captain, it's executive officer, and half a dozen other senior members of the command staff. I got the Admiral to tell the Imperials on the ship to stand down, but we are not sure how successful that order was. The prisoners are being loaded onto one of the assault shuttles we used to get here, but I am not sure where to send them." She said.
"Send them to the revenge." Johnson replied. "And good work Major, you have made are job of capturing this ship a lot easier. I will be sending more reinforcements to help you, as you have secured an effective bridgehead here."
"Thank you Admiral." Petrova said as she ended the comm message. Now it was time to work on gaining more ground in this part of the ship. Already rooms nearby the bridge were being cleared, and a growing number of prisoners were being moved to the airlock. Even if the majority of the ship's crew decided to surrender, it would still take days if not weeks to pacify all Imperial resistance on the ship. That was if they did not just decide to vent much of the ship's atmosphere, which would only be possible if they were able to find an area for the prisoners that would not be vented. She wondered what would come of the ship going forwards, as it would likely be refitted to Earth's standards. Quite frankly, however, she was more concerned with securing the ship and getting her men and women home safely.
