The Osiris had jumped into Omicron Gamma and was operating cloaked, positioning itself near the Omicron Zeta jump hole. Every space-worthy fighter the Order could find, scrounge, build, steal and purchase was now in space awaiting the final signal to begin the operation. Orillion had even managed to send word to President Jacobi, who had secretly dispatched two heavy cruisers and several fighter wings to assist in the battle. "It's always nice to have friends in high places," Orillion had said.
Trent had taken up position at the front of his wing. Von Claussen had insisted he act as Trent's wingman, and accompanied him to the front.
"All ships, report in."
The wing began to report in.
"Alpha Three, standing by."
"Alpha Seven, ready to go."
"Alpha Nine, ready."
"All ships show ready," Von Claussen said to Trent.
"King, how's your wing?"
"We're ready to go."
"All right. Beta Leader to Osiris, Beta wing reports ready."
"Alpha Leader to Osiris, Alpha wing standing by."
"All wings, this is the Osiris," Orillion said. "Operation Sirius Hammer is a go. All wings, proceed through the jump hole."
The fighter wings turned and headed for the jump hole. In minutes the fighters and heavy cruisers had gone through and were beginning to assemble on the other side of the jump hole.
"Beta Leader, this is Alpha Leader. All my ships have reached the rally point and show ready."
"Copy, Alpha Leader. Beta wing shows ready."
"This is Liberty Wing Gamma, we're at the rally point. Standing by."
"All right, gentlemen, this is it," King said. "I've uploaded the jump gate into your neural nets. Stand by to engage cruise engines on my mark. Three...two...one...charge!" King and hundreds of ships kicked in their cruise engines and headed for their appointment with destiny...or doom.
The Order attack fleet flew through a heavy dust cloud.
"I'm not showing any hostiles yet," noted King, "but this dust could be interfering with scans. Stay frosty, people."
The dust cloud began to thin out, and the ships emerged from the cloud into open space.
"Good God, there it is! Alpha Wing, prepare to engage! Trent, I'm dispatching the Liberty fighters and cruisers to provide you cover for your run to the jump hole. Looks like it's not too far from the gate. Good luck, and you owe me a drink if we survive this."
"Good luck to you, King. Beta wing, prepare to break on my mark...now!"
Trent and his fighter wing broke formation and headed for the jump hole.
"Heads up people!" King said. "Nomad fighters coming in!"
Trent looked up to see several waves of Nomad fighters coming toward them.
"Beta Leader, we'll handle them," the commander of the Liberty fighters said. "Liberty Wing, break and engage!" The Liberty fighters broke and began to attack. The cruisers provided cover fire.
A group of Nomad fighters broke off and began to engage Beta Wing as they made their run for the jump hole. As they approached weapons range, Trent noticed that the Nomad ships seemed to lose control for a moment, then they broke off and flew away, taking their shots from extreme range.
"The cardamine seems to be holding them off!" Trent said.
"Don't count your chickens yet, Trent. They're eating us up from long range. Good luck, buddy."
"Stand by, here's the jump hole. All fighters follow me!" Trent flew into the jump hole and the rest of the fighters followed suit. Even after seeing the images of what awaited them, Trent was in shock at what he saw.
The Nomad shipyard stretched for what looked like eternity. A large structure, the other end of the Nomad jump gate, stood nearby.
"Sweet mother of God," Trent breathed.
"I don't think even she can help us now," Von Claussen said. "There's too many of them."
"Beta Wing, lock and load!" Trent armed his first torpedo and flew to the closest battleship as a wave of Nomad fighters engaged them. Trent targeted the battleship and launched the torpedo, pulling away to avoid enemy fire.
The warhead closed the gap in a few seconds, striking the battleship amidships. The warhead exploded, and the effect was unlike anything the pilots had ever seen. The battleship wobbled and seemed to melt into nothingness before their eyes, leaving nothing but a few scattered fragments.
"My God, the warheads work!" Von Claussen yelled. "All fighters engage the battleships! Take them down!" The Order fighters complied, launching their torpedoes. Several of the warheads were destroyed on approach, but many found their targets. In a matter of minutes, twenty-two Nomad battleships had been eliminated. Losses for the Order were also heavy. Even with the cardamine on board to repel the Nomads, fifteen fighters had been destroyed.
"Beta Wing, this is Beta Leader. Give me a weapons check," Trent called.
The news was not good. Each of the fighters had been armed with two cardamine warheads. There were now a total of twelve torpedoes left, and at least fifty Nomad battleships were still operational.
"Damn! We're going to have to try our conventional weapons. We've got to take out as many as we can."
"My God in heaven," Von Claussen whispered. "We are too late."
Trent turned and felt an icy ball materialize in his stomach. The Nomad jump gate leading to Omicron Zeta suddenly flashed to life, and the remaining Nomad battleships powered up and began to move to the now-active gate. Trent cursed and flew toward the closest battleship, firing every weapon he had at his disposal.
It was not enough. The remaining cardamine torpedoes had been fired, taking down nine more battleships. The rest of the battleships began to move through the gate into the Sirius Sector.
NOMAD JUMP GATE, OMICRON ZETA SYSTEMKing watched with horror as one battleship after another came through the jump gate. They seemed to ignore the human ships completely as they entered formation nearby. The human ships, meanwhile, had their hands full dealing with the numerous Nomad fighters that seemed to keep coming out of nowhere.
Now what? King thought to himself.
At that moment, Trent, Von Claussen and what remained of Beta Wing emerged through the jump hole near the Nomad jump gate.
"Trent! What happened? What's your status?" King said.
"All of our torpedoes are gone. We have a few missiles left, but I doubt they'd even dent the Nomad fleet. How about you?"
"The damn Nomads had the gate heavily shielded. There was no way we could penetrate it before it went active. We've got to get out of here and regroup on the Osiris."
"We're not going to get another shot at this, King. You said yourself that this was Armageddon."
"So what do we do now?"
"I sure as hell am not going down quietly. Anyone who wants to join me feel free." With that, Trent turned his Anubis toward the nearest battleship and fired his guns.
King smiled to himself. "You know, that's a piss poor way of getting out of buying me a drink. Tally-ho!" King punched his thrusters and joined the fray.
Fortunately for the Order ships, the remaining cardamine missiles did have an effect on the Nomad battleships. While they did not destroy them completely, six of the massive ships were disabled.
"Damn," said Trent, "we just don't have the firepower. We need a miracle."
"Somebody call for a miracle?" said a familiar voice.
"Juni? What the hell?"
Several spacecraft emerged from the nearby dust cloud. Trent watched in awe as ships from Bretonia, Kusari and even Rheinland flew in formation, heading toward the battle.
"Did you really think I would let them ground me?" Juni asked.
Another familiar voice came over the comm system. "All Blood Dragon fighters, this is Lord Hakkera. Target the battleships. These are your primary targets."
"Bretoina Wing, this is Colonel Tobias. Break formation and provide cover to the Dragons."
"Tobias?"
"Hello, laddy. Quite an occupation you have here."
The Blood Dragon fighters flew in and launched their salvo of torpedoes. Several more Nomad battleships were destroyed. The Bretonian and Rheinland ships engaged the Nomad fighters, keeping them away from the Blood Dragons.
"It's a good thing not all the Blood Dragons are Nomads," Trent said.
"Lord Hakkera gathered the remaining ones to assist us," replied Juni. "Just in time, too, from the looks of things. Watch your six!" Juni launched a missile that hit a Nomad fighter dead-on and destroyed it.
At that moment the Nomad jump gate went active again. More battleships began to come through.
"Oh my God..." breathed Juni. "What now?"
From out of the dust cloud a large transport appeared and flew toward the gathering Nomad battleships.
"Everyone clear away from the battleships!" said a voice.
"Chavez? is that you? What the hell are you doing?"
"Shut up and do as I say! I've got a hold full of cardamine and you don't want to be caught in this blast!"
"What is that crazy bastard trying to do?" yelled King.
"I am atoning for all that I have done in the past. Now get out of here! Now!"
"Chavez, wait!"
"MOVE IT!"
The ships began to move away as the transport rocketed at maximum velocity toward the battleship formation.
"Vaya con Dios, my friends..." were the last words from Chavez as the transport's engines detonated in the center of the Nomad formation, turning the ship into a giant cardamine bomb. The shock wave from the explosion slammed into the Nomad battleships. The Order pilots watched in awe as battleship after battleship disintegrated from the force of the blast and the effects of the vaporized cardamine.
"That son of a gun did it!" King yelled. "Take out the gate before any more come through!"
The ships focused all of their fire on the Nomad gate. Within moments the gate went up in flames, taking two more Nomad battleships with it that were trying to come through.
"Mission accomplished," said King. "Let's go home."
To be continued…..
Sorry for not uploading for so long but I had some veeeery annoying writers block.
This story is not finished though, I'l write an epilogue after this. By the time, R&R!