The sun came up, slowly shining its way across the gathering fleet, slowly alighting each one of the ships. A truly magnificent and meaningful site for the start of a war.
The Ships themselves were already a bee hive of activity, preparing themselves for battle. Breaking out PPG rifles and checking charges, taking on supplies and ordinance, running scans over critical systems and shoring up armor, all the while fleet command gave them more and more to do.
They were there as the line in the sand, standing between Earth and the storm that was facing it once again.
Multiple times in human history had an enemy made it this far, right to the gates of humanity herself, her birth place and the cradle of all that she stood for. Multiple times humanity had faced annihilation at the hands of a foreign nemesis, and each time they had been stopped but at a tremendous cost in both lives and resources.
They had succeeded though, had held the line and let no race had really come within range to kill it. Other then the Draque incident they had not let anyone through, though they had been extremely lucky in the past.
And now they had to do it again, this time against the Centauri war machine.
Minbari, Centauri, Draque and members of their own species had fought in the space lanes around Earth, it remained one of the most contested planets in the Galaxy, having to hold off hordes of alien ships in order to continue to exist at all. Many died in the stars above Earth, maintaining the sacred honor that they shared them for others…so that they may live free. And live free they continued to do.
On the Gandalf the situation was much the same as it was in the rest of the fleet, they were bracing themselves for the onslaught, for the siege. And like the fleet at whole they had very few ability to prevent the storm for reaching, supplies were tight and they were getting the bottom of the barrel. But Stacia and the rest were doing their jobs, making the last moment repairs and making sure everything was in tip top shape.
Patterson and the command staff were going over battle strategies and making sure that everything was properly coordinated with all of the other systems.
Michael Keegan was in the briefing flight room, going over with an Earth Force Major on what they were likely to face, and their jobs in a certain set number of scenarios. He personally did not like it, taking orders from a panicked military brass like this, but at least he had over all command of his air wing.
The Marines were changing into their tactical gear, and strapping on their extra equipment, and grabbing PPGs and rifles off the racks with two extra caps for each.
CPO Anders was overseeing the storage and deployment of new Thunderbolts, Raptors, and even a few new Aurora's to fill out their air wing, as an orderly was seeing to the needs of the new group of pilots that were coming on board, some of them were Earth Air National Guard.
Other then that there was nothing to do but wait, and fortunately that was not for long either.
Scott Patterson was sitting in his command chair, blithely going over the tactical reports for the day again, and the deployment grids for their fighters and their nukes, everything was running almost up to factory new specs. Which was unsatisfactory because they would need to run way beyond factory specs if they had a hope in hell of surviving this, but it was the best they could do, he sighed deeply.
Then he turned and his head snapped up to the back of the bridge as a jump warning alarm went off in the back of the bridge. An orderly was there and she went over to check the instrumentation. "Flash warning detected, jump point disturbances detected around the moon, 100 +, Earth Force mid range warming alarms look like there are 244 ships on their way incoming."
"Verify that." Patterson barked turning around to face the front of the bridge.
"Yes sir. Two hundred and forty four plus support ships."
"What do you think, recon in force?" Norman asked coming over.
"Probably, they just want to see what we are made of." Patterson looked grim.
"Want to oblige them?" Norman said with a crooked grin.
"Colonel, be my guest." Patterson said with a vicious predatory grin. Then he slammed in his chair bringing it around again and started barking orders as it span "Action staions! Set condition one throughout the ship, set defense batteries on maximum dispersal, open up all offensive turrets, load rail guns and launch the fighters"
A warning klaxon blared throughout the ship, while a young officer repeated his orders into his com phone. "Action stations, actions stations, set condition one throughout the ship, pilots man your planes, I repeat, pilots man your planes."
Upon hearing that Keegan bursted into the still gathering flight deck as they were making final preparations, he looked around and then ran over to his fighter.
"Chief, how's it going?" He said greeting Anders.
"Good sir, the ships are ready for launch, all fueled up and maxed out on anti fighter ordinance."
"Good good, any problems?"
"None to report sir," Anders said dryly.
Keegan just smirked and then shot him off a salute as he closed his hatch with an electronic whir and then punched in all of his flight controls warming his fighter up to full.
"Alright ladies and gentlemen, follow me out and then punch it, stand by for orders from fleet command." Keegan said into his intercom as he rocketed his ship into space and got in formation with the rest of his fighters.
His computer on his fighter interrupted his train of thought with a message: "Stand by for orders from group twelve command." He looked out of his cockpit and he could just barely notice the large scale efflux of the ion propulsion systems of the Centauri battlewagons so many thousands of kilometers away, it was an eerily beautiful sight.
Static and then a voice snapped his attention back to the inside of his bird. "Attention, group twelve fighters, this is Major Danielle Sergent, those big birds are spilling and raining fighters, a huge section of them are heading inbound to the Earth orbital platforms, that's you, protect them at all costs." The message terminated.
Keegan keyed his flight mike. "Alright, Charlie and Delta flights, remain behind, stick with the Gandalf no matter what, you are our back up. Alpha and Beta we will proceed to the designated habitats and provide top cover for them."
"Sir they did order all of us to go and orbit the platforms and provide cover." The Marine squadron commander advised.
"And that is what we are doing, but I would rather eat lead at an execution then leave the Gandalf naked, you have your orders, now move your butt."
"Yes sir." He could practically hear the humor resonating through the open frequency.
"Alright, Alpha and Beta, let us make tracks, we have a lot of space to cover before we are in position and those fighters are not going to wait for us to show up." He said jerking his throttle forward and sending her into a free fire burn.
"Sir," James Norman started stepping over to his commander and reading a report, "the Centauri are now mobilized and are coming in pretty cautiously in standard assault formation, about one third speed, they are sending in their fighters well in advance of their units, reports indicate that fighting has already began around the Lunar bases, group ten is there and is under heavy fire. Groups two and five are moving to reinforce but it does not look hopeful."
Patterson sighed again. "They are stringing our forces out all over the place, we are not going to be able to hold up when their main force gets here. But we do not have much of a choice." He then went over to helm. "Navigation, lay in a course for habitat five, and then proceed there at full burn, take us right above the habitat, but between it and the defense platform, I want our defenses to mesh with the habitats and then the Defense platform creating a three way triangle of death. That should work." He then returned to the chair as his orders were relayed.
The Gandalf glided into position slowly and precisely, as she turned to face the wave of ships, her defensive batteries coming to life ripping whole squadrons to shreds.
The lead elements of the Centauri invasion force ran into the wall of the first line of defense for Earth Force, Assault Vectors and Centurion Class Dreadnaughts opened up with everything they had, blanketing space with counter battery fire at point blank range and clearing space of the fire of the Centauri, the tightly packed mass of ships, as their main offensive weapons returned fire with perfect and deadly precision, wiping out many Centauri vessels in the process, as the fighters buzzed around each other trying to gain the upper hand.
The Gandalf added her own weight to the fire, firing her G.O.D. cannons at the precise instant that they crossed through the first lines of defense, hitting them hard along their neck, but not quite destroying them, causing explosive decompression along its outer hull, but they were still technically in the fight.
But two Lupos quickly dispatched that little problem taking care of them with bursts and blasts from their main guns, sweeping away the Mirado, they then had to turn their main guns on the fighter force that was pouring in through the open wounds, getting most of them before being annihilated themselves.
But for the moment the Earth Force Defenses were holding up really well, mainly their fighter forces.
"Sir, we seemed to have stopped their main advance for the moment, forty plus ships have been destroyed or disabled to only six or so of ours, reports are still coming in- AH!" A enlisted man reported before having to hide his face as a light above him exploded in a shower of sparks, causing the bridge to smoke slightly.
"Keep up fire, they are still coming, redouble our efforts and redirect fire to sector two." Patterson ordered to the gunners before having to hold onto a rail as another hit rocked the ship.
"Sir, more jump points opening in the void between the moon and Earth! Multiple ships exiting and entering the combat area."
"How many?" Patterson asked nervously.
"Over four hundred plus, including seven of those dreadnaughts."
"Great."
Another hit rocked through the fabric of the ship, causing the lights to flicker for a second with an electric whir. Patterson checked the display and saw that the lines were darn near saturated with enemy contacts pouring over it and into the perimeter. Defense satellites were getting ripped apart by full squadrons of fighters.
"Navigation, take us out of this position, I imagine group twelve command is about to reassign us anyways, we have lost the high ground, if we stay we are going to get ripped to tatters. We will do a better job in a better position, have all batteries cover our escape with defensive fire, all ahead flank." He ordered as yet another hit caught his ship amidships.
Michael Keegan spun his fighter around on its axis, along with two other Raptors as they went to go meet the approaching storm of enemy fighters that was about to ram into them at full throttle, he pivoted and threw his weapons on full burst, firing into the tightly packed mass gutting it in half.
"Sir our fusion batteries are starting to look a bit low."
"Roger that Alpha 5" He said to the pilot next to him, frustrated that he could not do more. But four hours was enough for them right now and they were running out of power. "Let us get back to one of these bases, they will have a higher turn around rate and I bet they are in a better position then the Gandalf is in this mess anyways…wherever she is."
"Yes sir."
The two pilots broke for mid orbit, going down the gravity well until they found a defense fighter depot that took them on.
"Sir, looks like the enemy is forming a flying wedge of ships, cruisers and Battlecruisers are flying heavy protection for those dreadnaughts, looks as though they are going to get to Earth no matter the cost. And it looks as though they are succeeding, they have penetrated our lines and are beginning to enter optimum firing range, the Texas and the Tillman are both tied up on the other side of the planet and are taking heavy fire, Earth Force has ordered them to come in on the assist." A coms officer said on the back of the bridge yelling over the sound of battle going on in the background.
"Very well," Patterson said frustrated, wanting to slam his hand into the holo graphic projector in the back of the bridge showing the advancing tide, and the disappearing blips representing ships of all sides.
"Sir, grid one eight," an officer said pointing at the screen "looks like a hole has been opened in their lines that we can exploit!"
Patterson highlighted the appropriate grid. "We have to get in there." He said snapping, pointing his figure where two dreadnaughts and their escorts were slowly plodding their way to their targets.
"The cross fire is going to be vicious." Norman said concerned.
"We are the only ship in range, we have to take this chance. Ensign set a course!" He barked at helm, he instantly complied.
The Gandalf lurched forward suddenly, belching long bursts of ionic flame from her main and defensive batteries, alighting space all around her in explosions, and intercepted bursts of energy.
Buy many got through, explosions and ripples of energy lit the Destroyer's hull, causing the men inside to be bounced around all over the place. Forcing them to hold on for dear life, systems went off line and men were rushed to the infirmary.
"This isn't working!" Norman said over the din.
"I agree Colonel" Patterson stated. "Helm, set a course away from the picket line, tactical, shut down all radiating systems and go to complete stealth mode. Lets hit them where it counts, getting within point blank range, and then hit them with everything we got. Helm, give us a countdown starting at ten thousand meters."
"Yes sir," was chorused back.
The Gandalf turned and then disappeared from the scopes of the Centauri, who immediately went full active with all of their scanners trying to reacquire lock on, which just let the ship know where they were so they could avoid most of it.
All the while the battle continued to rage around them. Hundreds of ships were still locked in mortal combat with one another, fighting and dying in order to gain some sense of superiority over the battlefield and the space around them. Slowly the Earth Alliance was being pushed back. Lupos were busy engaging enemy targets, a Warlock flipped up on its end over and exploded brilliantly. A few Nike's lost their engines and were torn up piece meal by their Centauri equivalents. Losing one ship in the process as well, the Earth Alliance was still holding at nearly a three to one clip though of losses, but it just wasn't enough. The survivors were being herded at Earth and shot down, dying, getting closer and closer to the inevitable end.
Fighters danced in and out of formation, being snuffed out like candles. And through it all, one lucky Destroyer glided to its fate.
"Sir we are now within ten thousand Meters." An officer near the helm said, trying not to cough around all the smoke that was in the air.
"Very well, stand by weapons and arm the G.O.D. cannons for close range, target the nearest two targets with full weapons. And start counting down."
"Aye aye sir," the officer repeated before going on with his duties. "Eight thousand meters….seven thousand meters….six thousand meters…five thousand meters….four thousand….three thousand…two thousand…one thousand…."
"Sir they are locking us up." An officer said.
"Well it had to be broken sometime" James said reluctantly.
"Five hundred meters."
"Hit them with everything we got, all batteries!" Patterson yelled out.
The Gandalf opened up, practically point blank range with all of her guns, most of them firing white lines of ions at the enemy dreadnaught almost right in front of her nose, and then more white blasts of energy hit the other one, rippling all along their hull and opening it to space, hitting weapons emplacements and tearing them off in fireballs. Then the Gandalf opened up with her main guns, gutting one ship in two straight blasts, then doing that to the other one as well, finally destroying both.
Michael Keegan was out over the station, firing everything that he had, shooting down many of the fighters that were coming for him. The station suddenly behind him exploded grandly, in one giant fireball, ripping into a Lupo and damaging it.
He looked at his display screen, and it was an utter mess, filled with so many ships of both sides that he could not make heads or tails. Obviously his starship controller was destroyed in battle and he needed analyses, he looked around in the cockpit, explosions and fireballs and lines of energy reflecting off of his glass plate.
He glanced at his screen again, and started to search for the Gandalf. Perhaps she was in the need for some radical assistance?
He finally found her floating out in the middle of nowhere, slowly bearing forth under heavy fire against one of the Dreadnaughts. Michael grinned at the pure audacity of such a move.
He rolled his fighter over, hit the retros, and accelerated ahead no matter the cost.
Two fighters picked up on his trail and made to pursue him, revving up their engines and sticking to his back like crazy glue.
Keegan performed a series of complex maneuvers, trying to shake them, but they doggedly stayed back there, almost super human like. He hit his engine to full again and launched himself into a radical right hand turn, just missing a bolt by mere centimeters.
But they continued to stay back there.
He grinned again enjoying the feel of the chase; he cut his power slightly and rolled right into the heart of the battle. Where the Gandalf was in the middle of engaging a Centari cruiser, bolts were flying back and forth like fireflies.
Most of them were getting through the weakened defenses of the Vorchan, parts of the enemy ship looked like it had been gutted by a few large pincers. He directed his fighter towards it and dove hard.
Just then an ion bolt from one of the main batteries of the Earth Alliance Destroyer hit the Vorchan amidships, punching through what armor their was and causing the hull breach to expand causing a secondary explosion that expanded out into the cold of space.
Instead of flinching away from it, he dove through, just covering his eyes. But as they cleared he moved rapidly, cutting power to his engines drifting for only a few more kilometers, then he activated his thrusters stopping him in mid space, before he repowered his engines and moved the other way, arching over the other side of the cruiser.
He swung around fast and hard, the two fighters stopping to scan for their lost target, he pounced on them in revenge, hitting both of them with pairs of full anti ship Ion bolts, ripping them to composite atoms.
He then hit his thrusters again, and lit the cruiser up with his targeting rays, he fired all the missiles that he had on board, they tore into the cruiser, doing what damage it could. A Nike finished them off clearing the Gandalf's path.
Keegan then turned into a large group of fighters that were speeding for the damaged Destroyer that he called home.
The air tasted like smoke and burnt circuit, the eyes stung, consoles were darkened. And still they came.
Explosions continued to rattle the ship, jarring the teeth of everyone on it, the med bays were loaded to the max, hull breaches were venting atmo to space, men and women were living and dying.
Patterson was busy calling out combat orders, Norman was losing himself in trying to keep track of all the damage that was happening to the ship. Power was failing, one of the fusion chambers ruptured. And yet they still had a mission to complete.
"How far?" Patterson barked out.
"Nor far, just under nine thousand kilometers, there is a lot of junk in between them and us though. They are settling into orbit." An officer responded, analyzing the data that was transforming his console almost second by second.
"How do we get there?"
"I do not know sir."
"Maybe we should withdraw? We are not going to help anything here." Norman suggested grimly.
Patterson shook his head sadly and wearily. "The fleet is in disarray, either confused or engaged with the enemy. Helm bring us in there, thread the needle." He said determined.
"I will try sir." The man there said grimly.
"Get it done!"
"Yes sir."
Another hit rocked the ship nearly causing Patterson to trip and fall, but Norman was there to catch him.
"This is not working." Patterson said sounding lost and ghost like, coolant exploded from the back of the ship highlighting the point.
"We need a new strategy." Norman said sounding determined. Forgiving himself for his weakness, they were dead anyways, might as well take as many with them as they could.
"I know." Patterson said, and then he ran over to tactical, leaping over the railing, showing surprising agility. "Tactical, give me a target lock on them, with the G.O.D. cannons, we need to hit them from here."
"Sir their defenses are weak on this side, I think I can do it, if we hit the coolant area we have a chance."
"Do it." He then raised his voice. "Helm, standby on emergency escape order one, break for the planet, when we destroy them they are gonna be blinded."
"Aye sir."
The Gandalf fired its tightly focused particle beams at the enemy, red flames of war arched out yet again. They caught the enemy battle wagon along its aft section, ripping into its coolant lines that fed the main weapon, super heated plasma engaged and then exploded, ripping a hole out of the weapon, before causing it to explode and take the ship with it.
One of the escorts was taken out in the fire ball, taking the rest of their sensors off line, the Gandalf blasted off flanking them, quickly approaching the rest of the formation that was still gradually approaching their home.
"James how bad is it?" He said getting up and walking over to his first officer.
"Bad, I do not know how much more of this we can take."
"We will make it, we have no other choice."
"I know but I doubt we will survive the attempt, we have multiple breaches and are spewing atmo from all the damaged sections."
"Sirs, we are approaching the next dreadnaught, the line of picket ships has moved out farther and are moving to cover them." One of the sensor operators that were still standing said.
He patted his first officer on the shoulder, looking into his eyes. "We'll make it." James nodded.
He then barked his own orders. "Set all weapons for maximum dispersal; let us hit them with everything we got this time."
The officers nodded, entering the commands into the system that they could.
Patterson started to tug at his chin, first wisps of doubt were entering his mind as he considered what he was going to do with the combat situation at hand. That he had a job to finish, but he could not have done so with any kind of ability. He needed to win, to save his planet, but he was not sure about how he was going to go about completing his mission at this point in time.
His weapons and armor were beginning to fail, power relays were out all over the ship, and the fusion reactors were running hot, it was just a near impossible task, especially with so many escorts in the way.
His one moment of doubt was closing in on him, threatening to overwhelm him, he would fail, seven billion people would die, including them.
He fell back into his chair, ignoring the stabbing that was happening as he was going down into his own thoughts. But then the thought occurred to him, his head snapped up in realization.
"How many missile tubes do we have left?" He asked his tactical officer.
"Eight are online, three of them are off line, and one has been ruptured into outer space. Pressure seems to be down on them, we have barely enough power to power the launching mechanism."
"Good, load all the remaining ones with triple decoys, all the decoys that we have left, set them for high radiation and stand by to fire. Norman where are those escorts!"
His first officer nodded to him. "About eight hundred kilometers around the next dreadnaught, they are boxing them in."
Patterson nodded decisively, "Good, target the decoys on them."
"Trying to make them scatter?"
"Yeah that is the plan. Risky though, we are about to take heavy damage."
"Roger that." His first officer winced lacking all of his usual bravado.
"Comunications get on the horn to the Fury squadrons, once we drive them off we are going to have to keep them as preoccupied as possible in order to survive to get on, remember right now we are the only ship in the fold." Patterson went back to work manning a slightly burnt out station.
"Sir we are entering their outer weapons range!" One of the members of the crew said, just then hits tore through the fabric of the ship again, causing what sounded like pieces of floatsam to detach throughout the ship. Patterson had to grip the railing as the floor reeled underneath him, doing almost impossible things. He knew that they could not take this for long, and that their defenses must have been in shambles.
Ionic bolts slammed into the hull, catching most of the bow on fire. Fire suppression systems automatically went to work and cut out most of the burns, but it was too much.
Patterson gave the order and the decoys flew at an impressive rate, drawing closer and closer, the Centauri reacted shocked and went emergency evasive, firing at everything that they could get their weapons to lock onto, taking all of them out. But that was not enough, several squadrons of Starfuries came up on them and let go with everything they had, harassing the enemy as the Gandalf made to destroy the main target, facing little resistance now.
One Sqaudron of fighters came up on the target in front of them, softening them up perceptibly, the enemy vessel shunted its powers to its defenses from its weapon, as they were powering up. But it was too late, the Furies scored some impressive hits, opening and ripping them to outerspace.
"Alright, looks like the fighters did the job for us it seems. Doing heavy damage, lets finish them off light then, conserve power to our battle damage." Patterson said, feeling like they had caught their first real break in a long time.
In compliance with the orders the main weapons were shut down and turned over to the back ups, the lighter ion cannons swiveled around and turned towards the planet killer. Fourteen of the repeating turrets lit up, and two of the bigger ion cannons, pointing at the Dreadnaught. They all opened fire at once.
They tore through the weakened armor systems, dozens of pulses a second, tearing through and into the hull, exploding within the very bowels of the ship itself. Leaving it a lifeless, floating hunk of speeding metal, on a collision course with the upper atmosphere.
"Excellent, now get us out of here!" Patterson said, urging his ship on, but another hit took his feet out from under him and he collapsed on his chair, the bridge was surrounded by and explosion as one of the rear maps and the glass of the briefing room exploded outward.
"Main power overload, our systems are failing." A man said from his seat at the only remaining damage control console on the bridge.
"Very well." Patterson said wiping the grit off of his hair, and looking out.
"Sir, the Texas and one of her sisters is hailing us, they are in a position to take out the next Dreadnaught in the line, but they are taking heavy damage."
"Stand by to clear space around them, all Ion Repeater turrets set around them, let us add our fire to theirs." Patterson ordered decisively.
The Gandalf fired again, shooting out into space at maximum dispersal, ripping the fighters apart that were harassing the EA Battleships.
One of the Centauri fighters broke off, and launched four attack torpedoes at the EA Destroyer.
"Sir we have incoming torpedoes, enemy fighters, on the nose." An officer reported to his Captain.
"Brace yourself." Patterson said grabbing onto the railing.
Alpha-6 hit two of the warheads as they flew past, but the others he could not get as they struck his mother ship towards the stern. They tore giant gashes in the ship.
Patterson and the crew had to grab a hold of the stations to prevent themselves from falling over, the floor shook as if it was in an earthquake, and Patterson's teeth felt like they were about to break.
The fighter was destroyed in instant retaliation.
Then the powerful Earth Alliance Battleships opened up on the formation of Centauri vessels with all the particle and beam weapons in their arsenal. In nearly a full minute six Centauri Vessels including the Dreadnaught was turned into gutted or twisted wrecks of ionized plasma, floating over Earth, dead.
Only one ship survived and it was quickly dispatched by the Gandalf's G.O.D. cannons.
The Texas and her sister ship had to beat a hasty retreat as nearly thirty Centauri warships of every shape and size jumped the two vessels and their escorts as they drove them away from the remaining Dreadnaughts. A tremendous firestorm erupted between the two opposing forces, destroying many Centauri vessels in the process.
The Centauri diverted all of their forces at the sudden appearance of the enemy behind their own lines, hitting the only remaining threat with everything they had. While keeping any other significant EA units pinned down as well, not that there were that many left.
"Looks like we caught a break." Norman said from the bridge grinning like a small child, the weariness wearing down his normal defenses.
"Well it seems like Earth has made its own luck again, but we still have to deal with the Dreadnaughts and a small group of escorts, hopefully that will not take all that much. But our defenses our down." Patterson said looking at the tac displays with lidded eyes, exhaustion and weariness was driving him almost half mad.
War in the modern era was not supposed to be like this, he was supposed to be dead long before they got to that point.
But they were here and their species survival was on the line. He shook his head to clear it as they came up on the next ship.
"How are you holding up?" Norman asked.
Patterson looked at him glaringly, "We do not have the time for this, and we need to get this job done in the earliest possible convenience, let us move it."
Keegan was flying point for his mothership, just off to one side, observing the gashes along the hull, and the deep pits and scorch marks that indicated extreme damage done to the hull.
Bolts of light nearly blinded him as they slammed into the sides of the hull, he had to cover his hands with his eyes in order to prevent from being blinded. When he looked an fireball was heading out to space, flotsam had been ejected from the ship, and the hull was still in the process of twisting, moving inward at the power of the first impact and then moving out ways because of explosive decompression. Bolts of energy shot back and forth between the two ships at almost an impossible rate, more of them striking the Gandalf as explosion after explosion raced across her still armored hull.
Keegan went off to join in the defense of the ship, making a mad dash at the enemy.
Stacia Clarke was marching down one of the corridors of the ship, rushing in a dignified pace in order to reach where she was trying to conduct emergency repairs.
Suddenly the corridor heaved and spun around her, debris and a gust of power knocked her down to the floor panels hard, bruising her head badly and nearly causing her to loose all of her senses.
She regained them, and tried to get up prone; she looked over and saw her fallen comrade.
"Collins!" She screamed. He did not answer; she checked his pulse and saw that he was deader then a doornail.
She then heard a hissing sound and looked over as she saw…space…a slight sliver of it, and all the air was rushing out the hole. She panicked, not having the tools to repair, and knowing what that would do to them.
She crawled over to the edge of the wall, to see that it was a collapsed emergency bulkhead, she started to bang on it, screaming and wailing, extolling the heavens that anyone could hear her.
But with each bang her efforts were growing less powerful, and more desperate as she thrashed, finally collapsing at the foot of it, hoping, wistfully, that Michael would save her, come down in his Fury and rescue her. But no such luck, at least her last thoughts would be happy ones.
But she fell back, into the portal, the air was swirling around her, and a tall figure tripped over her, she looked up at him blearily and could just make out the form of Jose, the ships Marine Captain, gazing down at her, he holstered his PPG and dragged her to safety, slamming the bulkhead behind them.
Stacia then started to hack and gasp for breath. "Thank you." She managed to get out.
Patterson was gazing at the screen, rolling with the punches as the ship was taking extreme damage. Hit after hit after hit pulsated through the fabric, feeling as if a jackhammer of the gods was being thumped against the hull, causing them to all feel as though their bones were breaking.
Patterson watched in desperation as yellow and white bolts swept pass the screen to hit on the ship, the sound in the background sounding as though it was detaching large sections of the hull and external arrays.
Their defenses were full of holes that small personnel freighters could get through.
They had only one option, it made Patterson's blood turn cold, he slammed his hand down on the table. But yet they had no other choice.
"Weapons, transfer all fire control to interception, hit them with everything we got, but our primary concern is going to be to keep the Gandalf safe. Arm tactical nukes, with whatever tube we have left. Helm, give me emergency flank speed on the last two engines we have, and adjust our course."
James went over to him and spoke into his ear. "Sir, we will never make this and you know it, the missiles will be intercepted long before they can hit the target."
Patterson turned and gave his friend an ice cold stare. "Then we are going to have to make sure that they can't."
The course he set in, took them right into the enemy ship.
Patterson watched the ship turn slowly into the fire, he could see the forward bow point toward the bright spot that was the enemy vessel. Streams of ions flew between the ships, most of them impacting in the middle of space. But several got through, causing the floor beneath him to vibrate extremely viciously.
Time seemed to slow around him as sparks started to leak across the bridge, and he could see and feel pieces of his ship being torn off, leaking debris into outerspace, trailing the ship like a wake of death.
The Gandalf crawled forward, limping into the fire. As she got closer and closer the Centauri only intensified their firepower as they got into the zone more and more, pounding away on the almost crippled ship, causing the breaches and the hull to catch on fire, damaging it severely.
The back of the bridge caught on fire, and exploded, the ceiling collapsed and steel beams and debris fell over the bridge, partially blocking off the exit. A fire broke off lighting the bridge in flickering flame.
"Sir we have to go!" Norman said, blood leaking down on his head…but not his own.
Patterson shook his head. "Not yet."
"We are well within range Captain, we cannot afford to do this anymore, we need to go. We are entering range." An officer said, manning one of the last stations.
"Not yet! We have to see this through. Stand by." Patterson said, moving over to the front of the bridge and leaning over the railing.
Patterson grimaced, squinting at the screen closely as the two ships continued to get closer, the other was turning into a defined shape.
"Alright do it now!" Patterson barked out.
The missile exploded from the silo, flying rapidly at the enemy vessel, covering the distance almost instantaneously with the two vessels being in almost direct close range with one another.
The warhead separated and slammed into the Centauri war wagon, detonating as it penetrated the armor, detonating within the armor, and causing the ship to be torn apart from the inside out, tearing up systems, and causing explosions to all secondary systems which consumed the ship in the end, blowing it apart. A shockwave spread away from the ship.
The shockwave collided with the bow of the Earth Alliance Destroyer, stopping it dead in its tracks, and then lifting it up bow on so its bow started to point more and more up.
The bridge sparked and tremored again, blue light flashed on the bridge as the shockwave collided with it, causing the bridge to light up severely, nearly blinding the bridge crew.
They were all slammed back, and then momentum was restored front wise, the ship jolted forward again, moving rapidly forward in comparison for the dead stand still.
The shockwave tore whatever other weapons off the hull that were still fastened to their pylons.
The crew then slammed forward, being knocked into their stations, causing Patterson to be slammed to the decking, he tried to roll with the shock, but ended up landing on his shoulder hard, breaking it. He picked himself up and looked around the bridge, trying to determine the status of his ship. He saw the two crewmen slumped over in the remaining navigational and helm consoles.
"Status!" He said, his head felt like it split and he had to grab it in pain. He removed his hand to reveal blood, he must have cut himself.
Norman went over to the last station showing the status of the ship and bought it up on the screen. "Weapons are all down, we have massive damage to the ship, and the structure, twenty percent of the ship. We are losing power badly, and engines are down to about thirty percent."
"Damn" Patterson said feeling slightly woozy. "What about the other ship?"
"The only sensors we have online is energy scanners, and its signature is about one hundred kilometers away. Looks like they came up to support the other dreadnaught, but they must think we have been destroyed; they are building power to their guns. Five minutes till firing."
"Thank you." Patterson's shoulders slumped.
He sighed; there really was one thing for it, which he had to do. But it was so hard for him to even contemplate this, the hardest order for a commanding officer to ever have to give. This order was contrary to all of his military training and precepts….but it could save millions.
It was such a pretty ship too.
He limped over to the console, pushing the body out of it with great difficulty; he sat down, with a sigh and a groan. Feeling like he was fading fast. He laid in the course, pressing buttons on the console from distant memory, as the indicators on the screens before him indicated that the ships course was training, pointing at the enemy ship before him. He dialed it in, and let the computer take care of the rest.
Norman knew what they were doing, he came on over, and put an arm on his commanders shoulder. Patterson jolted, he was almost in a stupor, and he turned to see his friend.
"Well this is it I guess." Norman said quietly.
"Yes it is. It has been an honor to serve with you."
"I know" Norman smiled crookedly, facing death with a vengeance.
The vessel was filling the window now, getting closer and closer, they could just make out the main weapon glowing hot, getting ready to fire, charging up.
But then, it exploded, the full side of the ship suddenly ruptured in a fireball, leaking into space, spreading out toward them, shocking them, while they just barely noticed a red line of firepower just disappearing as they gazed at it.
"What the?" Patterson said mouth agape.
Norman ran over to the scanner. Then he sighed. "It's the fleet, the ISA and the rest of the Earth Alliance." Norman nearly whooped. Then he cleared his mind again, "they are moving to secure the rest of space, and wipe out the rest of the Centari fleet…the enemy is being surrounded and destroyed."
"Very well." Patterson said, he tried to get up, and then managed it; he limped over to the center, trying to take his place on the center of the bridge, right on his chair.
He stumbled half way to it, and then was flung down face down on the mat, could not catch himself. He rolled over and stared skyward, to see James Norman come up above him, trying to run a quick self check on himself.
His first officer was concerned for him, he ran off out of his Captain's vision, likely heading for a com relay panel. Patterson never heard it though; he lost consciousness, everything fading to black.