Twenty-one
Battlestar Defiant
Etherian Solar System
4 September 2017
A pale green and yellow electrical cloud formed over a million kilometers outside the orbit of planet Etheria. Within seconds, the Defiant shot out of the hyperspace window and landed back in normal space. The main sublight drives blazed like miniature suns, slowly pushing the massive warship up to one quarter the speed of light. The ship didn't set a course toward the planet; instead, she turned on a heading for the outer system.
The crew was on standby alert while the sensors swept the solar system for a current picture of what they were flying into. Commander Mundu studied the developing map on the clear panel set into the aft bulkhead that divided the bridge from the briefing room. The star at the center of the system was centered on the rectangular panel. Red dots marked the current locations of the eight planets that made up the system, with red lines marking the orbital tracks.
A cone radiated out from Etheria, marking the lethal zone of the planetary cannon. The cone shifted in increments as real-time data from the cloaked scout ship in orbit fed to the battlestar's computers. Until that cannon was neutralized, Mundu could not take her starship anywhere near Etheria.
More data began filling in on the screen. Enemy warships began popping up out around the orbit of the sixth planet. Right where their intelligence suspected a hidden shipyard would be located. There was a wide gap in the orbits of planets five and six. Scientists theorized that there had been a planet in that open track, but no evidence of that ever materialized in the form of an asteroid belt from a failed planet formation or other unknown force.
IDs for the red dots materialized. The size and composition of the enemy fleet slowly took shape. Mundu wasn't surprised. It was the usual mix of screening vessels – frigates, destroyers and battlecruisers – for the big gun battleships and three spacecraft carriers.
Just like wet navies, space navies were ruled by the carriers. The Horde, and many other smaller navies, spent vast sums for protection of their carrier fleet. The Val-kyre became the exception to that rule when they combined the best attributes of the battleship, spacecraft carrier and battlecruiser and the Mark I battlestar first took to the stars. The ten primary cannons had not been added until almost fifty years ago, when the Horde made a leap in destructive power for their battleship guns. It would be another four decades before the vacuum energy system was finally perfected. That advance gave the Mark XX its fearsome reputation. Horde scientists had yet to discover that secret, but it was only a matter of time. The zero-point energy system did not make a battlestar invulnerable, but they did become damn hard to kill.
A real-time refresh swept across the panel. The results shook Mundu out of her reverie. The enemy had finally become aware of the battlestar and was maneuvering to intercept. More dots popped up, indicating the launch of bat mech fighter squadrons.
"Battle stations!" the commander barked. "All pilots to their fighters. Launch First Squad to Etheria before we cross out of the planet's orbit.
Alert klaxons went off all over the ship. Red lights flashed. Crewmembers dashed to their battle station. Pilots boarded the trams connecting the barracks module on ventral side and the flight pods. The tram ran in a segregated tunnel attached to the larger one, allowing spacecraft and supplies to the be transferred from the pods to the huge maintenance bay mounted along the ventral centerline.
All the Bladewings had been prepositioned, with the first wave ready to be pulled into the launch tubes and the second wave right behind to move into prelaunch position. Crew chiefs waited next to their assigned craft for the pilot to arrive. In a choreography born of many years of practice and actual combat experience, the pilots arrived at their assigned fighter, handed off their flight helmet to the crew chief and scrambled up the extended boarding ladder into the cockpit. The crew chief followed the pilot up, set the helmet on the glare shield over the flight instruments and assisted their charge in strapping into the seat. Once secure, the crew chief handed the helmet back, wished their charge 'good hunting' and dropped to the ground. The chief closed up the ladder while the pilot donned her helmet and closed the canopy.
Tow bars in the deck connected to the nose landing strut pulled the craft into the launch tube. Once inside, huge panels recessed in the deck were pushed up from the deck and slammed closed, sealing the fighter in the tube. The flick of a few switches brought the tiny fusion reactor online. Engines were fired up to minimal power, system checks completed quickly but thoroughly, then the wait for the order to launch.
Outside in the landing bay, the next wave of fighters was hooked up to deck tow bars and pulled into position. All fighters were powered up and ready for combat launch. A perfected orchestrated launch cycle was capable of putting three-hundred Bladewings in space in the span of twenty to thirty seconds. The record was fifteen seconds, but the speed at which the feat had been accomplished had been unnecessarily dangerous. So, the standard had been set at a maximum of thirty seconds when all craft were manned and ready to go.
"All fighters manned and ready," Colonel Shabala reported. She never liked the red lighting of the combat alert. It was supposed to be easier on the eyes, but research had found that blue light was actually better. The bridge lighting would be changed out the next time the Defiant put in to drydock for upgrades. "First Squad is away and on course for Etheria."
Commander Mundu returned to the command dais and sat down in her chair. She glanced at the status displays on the left and right control console stands. Ship status was all in the green. That would change once battle was joined. Fighters were ready to fly. The enemy fleet was still forming up while roaring in their direction.
The enemy formation was a typical, if unimaginative one. Carriers at the back with the battleships, battlecruisers in a line in front of them and the destroyers and frigates forming the front line. The Horde were forming up in a series of skirmish lines. The tactic normally worked when attacking less advanced cultures who could not match the raw tonnage in warships.
Against the Val-kyrie?
Suicidal.
Minutes dragged by as the picture continued to resolve. Bat mek fighter wings began to form on the flanks of the Horde battle formation. The size was about equal to the Val-kyrie wing. The Horde fielded about three hundred fighters, about a hundred of which were armed with capital ship torpedoes. The Val-kyrie fielded about fifty more fighters armed with torpedoes, but once those weapons were released, those Bladewings could then perform their primary function and engage the Bat mek fighters.
"Still no sign of the shipyards," Colonel Shabala commented. "Could they be right where we suspected?"
"Probably," Mundu said. "We'll worry about that after we take care of that fleet. I just hope the rumors are not true about what Hordak is building out there."
"Or if the rumor is true, that it hasn't been completed enough to cause us much trouble."
"Optimist," Mundu grumbled.
The Defiant finally closed to maximum range for her primary weapons. At Commander Mundu's order, the first wave of Bladewings configured for ship-to-ship combat roared out of the launch tubes. As they formed up by squadron off to port and starboard, the second wave equipped with the anti-ship torpedoes soared out of the tubes. The bulk of the fighters took the lead while others were assigned to protect the bomber wings.
The forward firing arc of the battlestar had been left clear so that Commander Mundu could order the opening salvo. As the warship crossed into maximum effective range, targets were assigned, weapons were primed.
"All weapons loaded and ready," Shabala reported. "First wave of targets locked."
"Set primary weapons for de-synchronous fire. Set flight pod weapons for antiproton discharge," Mundu ordered.
"Set," the colonel said an few moments later.
"Fire!"
Green globes burst forth from the flight pod guns. The targeting computers threaded the needle putting the bursts right on target. Green spheres zoomed past the advancing line of frigates, destroyers and cruisers, and zeroed in right on the intended target. The carriers. Antiproton energy splashed against powerful energy shields. They could not stand up to the assault for very long; within seconds, the shields flickered and died. The overload cascaded throughout the carrier's systems aided by a second volley of antiproton spheres.
The six cannons mounted on the sides and beneath the wedge-shaped bow unleashed a flurry of red spheres in a random spray cycle. This volley was targeted like the antiproton bursts; however, the intended targets were conveniently in the way. Horde frigates and destroyers had minimal shielding and relied more upon their armor for defense. The armor and energy shields might as well have been tissue paper when the plasma bursts slammed into them. The small warships were ripped apart in moments. Some were vaporized when their fusion reactors exploded. Debris scattered in all directions, impacting the shields and hulls of surrounding warships. Around a dozen Bat meks dies in the conflagration and flying shrapnel.
Defiant's second volley was targeted against the screen of cruisers and battlecruisers protecting the carriers. They died just as spectacularly as the screen of lighter warships. When it was all over, four carriers, six battlecruisers, seven cruisers and twelve frigates and destroyers were dead. The wing of six battleships began maneuvering in a vain effort to avoid the inevitable. Enemy fire began filling the void. Most of it was aimed at the battlestar, since it was the gravest threat.
Lieutenant Salma led her wing on an attack run against the enemy's right flank. She couldn't see the initial volley unleashed by the Defiant nor the results of the assault, but her scanner display did. The center section of the enemy lines evaporated leaving only a few medium warships and the battleships taking evasive actions.
Salma was always amazed at the amount of firepower a battlestar could unleash upon an enemy fleet. The secondary defenses were a nightmare for Horde bat meks, and a beautiful sight to see. The first time Salma witnessed a battlestar firing its primary weapons she was so stunned by the sight that she almost had a head-on collision with an enemy craft. Salma had matured since that day. Now, she concentrated on the mission with only a spare glance at the status of the enemy fleet. Her concern was the remaining flank units dead ahead. About eighteen light units remained in fighting condition along with another dozen medium units – cruisers and several battlecruisers.
Enemy flak began exploding along their flight path. Horde gunners were attempting to knock out Bladewings with proximity bursts. A few ships had been rattled by shrapnel. Others had been jarred by glancing blows. Salma's group of wings had been more fortunate than the wings driving in on the Horde's left flank. Several Bladewings had suffered significant damage requiring them to break off their attack runs and return to the Defiant. Others in the bombing wings were forced to dump their torpedoes and detonate them at a safe distance before returning to base. At last count, about fourteen ships had been destroyed by direct hits from flak, a few missiles, and long-range energy weapons.
The range dwindled to the release point. Enemy fire intensified as the bombers locked on to their assigned targets. Targeting computers uploaded data to the weapons as the range and angles changed. In one massive coordinated wave, torpedoes released from their mother craft, lit off their drives, and blasted off into the darkness. The glow from nearly fifty engines was quickly lost in the emptiness.
Lieutenant Salma ordered evasive action the moment the torpedoes were free and clear. Her sensor display showed the bright sphere of premature detonations when enemy fire found their targets. However, many more weapons made it through to slam into the targeted warship. Explosions blossomed in the distance, tiny because of the range. More explosions followed from secondary detonations.
Salma didn't have time for even a brief moment of satisfaction. Horde gunners were getting the range despite the evasive maneuvers the Bladewing pilots were flinging their machines through. Something - a plasma bolt, maybe – grazed her fighter's shields, instantly overloading the system. Another bolt smashed into the starboard weapon/engine pod, blowing it completely off. Salma struggled to bring the dying ship under control, but it continued to tumble as more systems died. She quickly shut down everything she could to get ahead of the cascade failure. In the end, she only had the emergency beacon, minimal life support and an intermittent short-range sensor.
Although she wouldn't find out until much later, Salma's wingman fared far worse. Her Bladewing had taken a direct hit to the cockpit, killing her instantly and turning her fighter into a brief fireball.
The flanking maneuver had been completed. The majority of the torpedoes had struck their targets to devastating effect. A single weapon had the power to blow apart a Horde Frigate. Two weapons could vaporize a destroyer. In the span of just a few minutes after the Defiant's opening volley, three quarters of the Horde fleet had been decimated. However, it had come at a cost. One third of the Bladewing squadrons had been damaged, with a quarter of those destroyed. Whether or not the pilots had been able to eject before their fighters were destroyed would not be known until the battle was over and the recovery operation could begin.
The remaining fighters engaged the screen of Bat meks protecting the torpedo planes. Defensive fire from the battlestar opened up with everything it had. Flak rounds exploded, railguns speared the night with lines of tracers. Laser batteries filled the void close in to catch anything the other layers of the defensive fire missed.
Torpedo bombers exploded in spectacular displays of the power the Horde weapons contained, Secondary explosions marked the fiery deaths of Bat meks caught in the detonations. In a few short minutes, only a handful of the bombers were left, within range for a reliable weapon release. The bomber died seconds before the battlestar's targeting computers zeroed in on the torpedoes and blew them out of the stars, as well. True to the warship's formidable reputation, none of the Horde craft got anywhere close.
Whomever was in command of the Horde fleet, he was trying to get whatever was left into some form of fighting force. Bat meks turned and withdrew in an effort to return and brace for the next round. Bladewings pursued and destroyed as many as they could before being recalled home to fly combat patrol around their mothership.
Commander Mundu did not intend to give the Horde commander time to regroup. She ordered her surviving fighter wings to regroup at a designated rally point ten kilometers off the battlestar's port side. Satisfied that her pilots were not taking upon themselves to violate orders and seek personal glory, Mundu turned her attention the collection of battleships struggling to turn to their starboard sides and unleash a devastating broadside.
From the moment she had ordered the first volley, Mundu had the battlestar's pilots accelerate to flank speed straight at the third battleship in the line. She was about to order a maneuver only the bravest, or craziest, crew would attempt.
With the zero-point energy generator perfected, battlestars had an unlimited supply of energy. This allowed the Val-kyre to employ a maneuver normally only used when the ship was lost with no hope of recovery. The ramming attack. The triple defense levels had a time limit under standard systems. But the ZPM powered the second layer of the defensive screen like never before. With a ZPM, the pinpoint barrier could be used in ramming attacks, without worrying about the system failing before or during impact.
"Helm, roll port ninety degrees," Mundu ordered. She consulted the sensor display on the left-hand panel. She chose the third battleship on the right of the line and fed the coordinates to the helmsman.
The defense batteries continued to fill local space with blistering weapons fire against the surviving Horde warships the fighters had not been able to finish off. The range to target rapidly dwindled. Horde captains wondered what the Val-kyrie was doing. They mistakenly thought the Defiant would roll again and pass beneath the line of battleships. They couldn't have been more wrong.
At Colonel Shabala's order, the pinpoint barrier was engaged to cover all forward surfaces. She keyed the ship's intercom and sounded the attention alarm. "All hands brace for ramming attack!"
Green energy formed hardened shields over the required surfaces, capable of repelling all known weapons for a brief time. Realizing that the oncoming battlestar had no intension of avoiding the collision, the Horde captain issued orders for evasive maneuvers, but it was too late.
Armored hull reinforced with barrier energy slammed into the side of the battleship, driven by powerful sublight engines. The kinetic energy built up by the distance crossed meant the barreling battlestar knifed through the target vessel with little resistance. The impact did slow the warship down slightly, but the end result was still spectacular. Explosions rippled outward from the point of impact. Armor plates buckled. Atmosphere escaped, blowing debris, robot troopers and the few organic crewmembers manning the engineering section out into space. The broken halves spun around slamming into the dorsal and ventral surfaces of the battlestar. The defense computers anticipated the movements of the broken ship halves and shifted barrier energies along the dorsal and ventral sides to protect the hull from damage.
The aft section of the devastated battleship spun away from the Defiant, and straight into the bow of the battleship that had been last in line. The remnant plowed into the battleship's bow, crumpled, wreckage penetrating the fusion reactor and setting off a devastating explosion that vaporized both ships. The bow section tumbled off down and away from the field of battle. A chain reaction of internal explosions reduced it to unrecognizable junk.
Defiant soared past the expanding clouds of wreckage. At fifty thousand kilometers from the debris clouds, the battlestar flipped around, rolled back to a horizontal plain relative to the battlefield, and fired off her main engines at full power to slow down. At the same time the helmsman was executing the flip and roll maneuver, Colonel Shabala ordered the weapons officer to target and destroy the remaining cruisers and destroyers.
In the span of about twenty minutes, the battle was over. The first battle went to the Val-kyrie. Now they had to move on to the more difficult phase.
Shabala listened to a report from the warrior monitoring the comm channels assigned to the fighter wing deployed to Etheria and the Earth expedition. "Commander, Captain Sithas reports the frigates in orbit are destroyed along with a pair of destroyers that had moved in for support." Mundu nodded as Shabala took in the next report. "Ladyhawke has begun her attack run. It's not looking good. Hordak's air defense is a lot more intense than we expected."
"Cobretti and the Sorceress will accomplish the mission," Mundu replied, unconcerned. She looked her first officer in the eye, adding, "They're Guardians. It's what they do."
"Commander!" the sensor tech called out. "High energy reaction coming from the fourth planet."
Shabala checked the repeater display at the ops station to the left of the command dais. "Confirmed. Looks like Hordak fired off his toy." She frowned. Our scout ship and the Bladewing squadron have lost contact with the Ladyhawke. There's no sign of her."
Mundu thought about the significance of that for a few moments before saying, "Understood." The attack run against the planetary cannon was out of her hands. Defiant couldn't get back to Etheria in under an hour even at flank speed. Besides, they had a secondary mission to complete. "Fighter status?"
"One third damaged or destroyed. Twenty-seven pilots being recovered. Six killed," Shabala reported. "Many of the torpedo bombers had internal ordinance and punched off the external mount. Many of those who didn't eject the torp mount have been damaged from close laser blasts."
"Recover them as soon as possible. Those with working torp mounts are to be rearmed with capital ship torpedoes. All others are to be outfitted for fighter suppression," Mundu ordered. The commander turned to the officer monitoring the sensor equipment. "Have you been able to locate Hordak's shipyard, yet?"
Looking up from the console, the tech reported, "I believe so, commander." She rose from her station, walking to the back of the bridge and activating the plot table. Commander Mundu and Colonel Shabala joined her. "We've been scanning this area beyond the sixth planet where intelligence suspected the yards to be located."
Shabala frowned at the image. "I don't see anything but open space."
"Actually, there is a hole in space. Odd as that sounds," the lieutenant replied. She touched a control on her end of the table and slowly expanded a sector one degree at a time. As the location was enlarged, the commander and colonel began to understand the lieutenant's comment. "It's an engineering feat, actually. There is little to no heat radiation from the structure. Under normal operations they would routinely vent excess heat into space, but we're not seeing that at the moment."
"Probably shut down operations once they received word of our arrival," Shabala speculated.
The final image was disturbing. The only reason one could see that there was in fact an object out beyond the sixth planet was by the number of stars blocked out by it. It really was a hole in space.
The commander whistled appreciatively. "Any signs of activity?"
The lieutenant shook her head. "None. They may not be aware of us."
"Don't bet on it. The entire solar system should be aware of what just took place by now," Shabala said. "Why can't we see this thing?"
"It appears to be painted with a coating that absorbs light and sensor beams. We haven't been able to get even a general idea of dimensions on the thing, but it appears to be huge."
"How huge?" Mundu pressed.
The lieutenant hesitated for a moment. "This is all just guesswork, of course." The commander gestured for her to continue. "We suspect that the structure could comfortably hold six battlestars." That got a surprised gasp from the commander and colonel.
"That would almost confirm the rumors intelligence has been picking up for the past several years," Shabala said.
Mundu nodded. "We need those fighters rearmed before we make a run on that structure." She turned to the comm officer. "Any news from Etheria?"
"Nothing yet commander. The cannon is still operational. Still no sign of the Ladyhawke."
Mundu nodded. "Understood. Keep monitoring." To the sensor tech, she said, "Continue to monitor that section of space. Notify me the moment something changes."
"At once, commander," the lieutenant replied and returned to her station.
"All fighters are back aboard. Turnaround time looks to be more than an hour. Minimum," Shabala reported after seeing the preliminary report from the flight pod deck chiefs.
Mundu stared at the vertical panel in the back wall displaying the map of the Etherian solar system. After several minutes of considering options versus the time needed to quickly turn around the remaining serviceable fighters for the next battle, she nodded. Making her decision, Mundu returned to the command chair and gave instructions to the helmsman.
The course she chose took the Defiant on a circular course further into the outer reaches of the system. At a specific point, the battlestar would loop back to approach the mystery structure from the side. Knowing that Horde commanders tended to think and act two dimensional in space battles, Mundu ordered the helm to take an upward angle. The battlestar would end up approaching from the ecliptic. In short, they would descend on the structure form above even though there was no 'up' or 'down' in space.
Time passed with agonizing slowness and the crew of the Defiant went about their work. All the commander could do was wait and watch as the tactical situation slowly unfolded. There was still no reaction from the target area as the battlestar reach the apogee of the arc and began to turn back toward the objective.
Twenty minutes out from the target, sensors finally picked up activity at the structure. Bat meks were picked up patrolling the area. A small force of battlecruisers and destroyers emerged from the structure now confirmed as a shipyard. A massive shipyard.
As Mundu and Shabala watched the sensor display on the main holographic display hovering in the air above the ops pit forward of the command dais, a new warship poked its nose through the exit. Slowly, ponderously, the hull slid out of the safety of the enclosed dock. Sensors had a hard time identifying the warship, but the commander and colonel had seen enough of it to know what they were looking at.
Val-kyrie intelligence had picked up rumors several years ago about a new class of warship under development. It was classified as a super battleship. As more details had been uncovered, military intelligence reclassified it as a dreadnought. One was reportedly under construction at the main shipyard in the Argolus star system. The other was rumored to be secretly under construction in Hordak's hidden shipyard.
Now, they had confirmation.
Mundu glanced at her first officer as the reality of the discovery set in. "Now the fun begins," she said with a slight smile.
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