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Homeworld Return - blackjack
:: 05/05/01 ::
Chapter 8
The allied Kiith Naabal/Kiith Paktu fleet stood their guard at the edge of the system, waiting for the enemy to take the bait. Over a dozen Carriers and Avatar-class cruisers had been assembled, along with a complement of nearly thirty Destroyers and Missile Destroyers. Over one hundred frigates of various sizes and types, including the newly introduced Hiigaran Multi-Beam Frigate, flanked the super-capital ships, and strike craft patrolled the surrounding area. At the edge of the massive formation, a single Somtaaw Dervish stood guard, a part of the fleet in name only - an observer.
Fleet Admirals Faaren Naabal and Veluur Paktu watched on a single flatscreen monitor as a massive enemy fleet hyperspaced in nearest the second planet in-system - exactly as they were supposed to be. The telemetry from the distress beacon that the Hiigaran fleet had dispatched showed in the command cabin of the joint fleet's command Carrier, the Hiin-Pak, and both admirals watched like hawks as a pair of the mysterious Carrier-Cruisers, escorted by nearly a dozen destroyer-class ships and multiple frigates, slowly slid into existence. The Carrier-Cruisers immediately began dispatching their loads of combat fighters, but the small ships appeared to mill about in confusion while the larger vessels simply moved calmly into a large spherical formation, weapons bristling outward from the deadly, spiked globe.
Both knew that it was time to spring their trap. Immediately, they opened private channels to their respective fleet sub-commanders, patched themselves into separate fleet control and communication consoles, and then exchanged a single glance, the kind of look that is only given between seasoned veterans. Neither uttered a word to the other, but both knew that they were now functioning as one, regulating the individual halves of a single organism.
Fighters began docking runs as every capital ship in the fleet powered up their hyperspace generators and moved into broad combat formations. The fleet admirals onboard the Hiin-Pak's fingers danced across their screens, redirecting fighters to dock with different carriers, moving frigates about in formation, readying their forces. Their glance was gone now - neither one even gave any notice to the other's existence. Both spoke into their headsets with the commanders of Avatar Cruisers and Imperator Carriers, preparing for the greatest battle in their respective careers.
And then the hyperspace windows opened up. Not those of the joint-Kiith battlegroup, but a new set of hyperspace windows.
Enemy windows.
Both admirals immediately cancelled their orders and began assigning targets as Carrier-Cruisers, destroyers, and enemy frigates of all types - a fleet at least as large as the one insystem, if not larger - began emerging and firing. Green lances of energy, missiles, and even mines being deployed by large frigates poured into the hulls of the startled Hiigaran ships, ripping up armor plates and obliterating turret mounts. The amazingly powerful barrrage of return fire energy cannon rounds, sapphire ion streams, and missiles had no visible effect on the larger craft, but smaller frigates reeled from the powerful blasts. Ion beams carved burned swaths through armor plating on both sides, and plasma spheres slammed into the hulls of smaller fighters and corvettes who poured missiles and smaller ion beams into the hulls of Hiigaran carriers from short range.
A Hiigaran Interceptor ripped open one of the unknown fighters with its double energy cannons, but the pilot had no time even for a victory yell before he was caught in a wave of missiles from the maw of a large frigate. Another light craft, a Hammer-class Heavy Corvette, pounded a small frigate with its heavy turrets only to be sliced apart by an ion beam. Up ahead, another enemy frigate wheeled about and returned fire as a Kiith Naabal Destroyer cut into it with double ion beams, and suddenly detonated as a wave of plasma bombs, launched from a trio of Assault Frigates, slammed into its armored hull. A rousing cheer arose on the bridge of every Hiigaran capital ship and fighter at the detonation of superheated gas and charred metal, but it was cut short on the bridge of a Destroyer as the vessel was impaled by an emerald ion beam streaming from the turret port of a Carrier-Cruiser.
At the edge of the battle, the lone Dervish Somtaaw frigate slashed an enemy fighter in half with its beams and refocused its ion cannons on another small craft, this one firing ion beams from three ports on its compact hull to shred a small group of Hiigaran interceptors. Gradually, the MBF carved out a small sphere of space for itself, challenging any craft that entered the range of its beam cannons. The other kiithid's multi-beam frigates fared equally well against the enemy fighters, but were shredded in turn by the thicker, more powerful beam cannons of the massive Carrier-Cruisers and Destroyers.
A full five Avatar Cruisers pouring all of their combined firepower into the hull of a single Carrier-Cruiser were reduced to four by the deadly streams of the turreted pulse ion cannons, but finally were rewarded when the massive enemy began detonating from the inside out and exploded in a huge fireball of plasma, shredded metal, and stray radiation. Another cheer was raised, louder than the first one, filling the communication channels and swelling into a shared cry of victory from every crewman aboard every Hiigaran ship.
Veluur Paktu grinned broadly and joined in the yell of primal energy, raising his fists to the air. They had destroyed one of the enemy's Carrier-Cruisers!
Yet short-lived was his excitement, as another one of the massive craft locked onto the Hiin-Pak and began pouring all of the combined force of its dozen ion beams into the hull of the Paktu/Nabaal command carrier. The massive vessel shook wildly, and both Admirals were nearly thrown to the floor from the inertial jerk from the impact of the deadly pulse beams. A group of capital ships began firing wildly at the massive vessel ripping apart the command ship, but the Carrier-Cruiser remained undaunted and speared the rear of the Hiin-Pak with all of its cannons. The aft of the Carrier ignited in a huge roiling ball of plasma, and the massive Hiigaran ship was ripped apart in a matter of seconds, both Admirals along with it.
The vengeful Carrier-Cruiser was torn apart by the combat group, but there was no cheer of victory this time. Both of the fleet's commanding Admirals were dead, and with no higher authority to direct them the movement of the various combat craft became rough and uncoordinated. Slowly, the enemy craft whittled down the opposition, destroying two for every ship that they lost.
Hjihad Somtaaw, on the bridge of the Somtaaw Dervish MBF, looked out over the destruction of the Hiigaran fleet with a feeling of complete and total devastation. He watched as the beams from his own craft cut apart a marauding enemy fighter, then turned and issued his orders to the frigate's navigation officer.
"Get us out of here," he commanded, staying calm. "Set a course for Hiigara and activate immediately."
"Yes sir."
He turned back toward the screen and sat heavily in his command couch, trying to combat the tears that crept at the corners of his eyes. Staring out into the depths, he felt a deep, profound sense of doom as he watched the enemies tear apart his race's fleet ship by ship. Then the hyperdrive activated and the screen shut down to prevent him from being blinded. The stars gone, he turned his thoughts inward, toward the gloom that awaited his soul.
The greatest force that the Hiigaran people had been able to muster had not held the enemy. And now there was only his fleet and the small battlegroups of a few other kiithid to stand in the way.
For the enemy was indeed making their way towards Hiigara. And without holding them… Hjihad did not even want to imagine the consequences.
* * *
Jakare Ga'alet watched the deadly enemy frigate hyperspace away with a fierce glare the she imagined the captain could see even over the blazing light of hyperspace and over the vast distance between them. She knew, of course, that it wasn't so.. but it was somewhat satisfactory to imagine. The ship had downed half her squad - only she and her wing had been good enough to know to stay out of the reach of such a craft.
She swung her fighter about, heading away from the core of the engagement where the capital ships were brawling, and focused for a minute on the intercepted communications chatter of the enemy fleet. The group was in disarray, unable to coordinate correctly without their commanding officers, and the various combat divisions had broken up even further with the selective termination of their individual fleet leaders.
She also realized for the first time that not all of her enemies were called Som'taa. Instead, they appeared to be several groups, calling themselves Kiith'paktu and Kiith'naball. Families, she wondered, ones like a larger version of hers? The Ga prefix was used for a varied group of families, all bred with slight variations of the same Ga'alet genes that she carried. Could the Kiith'paktu and Kiith'naball be the same thing? She pondered this, and then decided that it was the only solution. What else could they be? Then again, she thought, this was a different species than hers. Maybe they had a different family structure than her race.
She set aside these thoughts for later - right now, she had a job to do. She opened up a communications channel to the Behemoth and spoke quickly, letting the throat-patch microphone pick up the sounds of her request. "Sickle A-3-08 requesting orders and targeting data."
The flight controller answered with an order to her entire squadron. "A-3 squadron, he have tagged an enemy destroyer-class vessel currently engaged with one of our Missile Frigates. Provide support. Transmitting target data now."
She peered carefully at the specifications and wireframe image of the enemy craft as they popped up on her HUD helmet display. It was not an ugly design, she determined, but simply a rather utilitarian, functional vessel, although it carried ridiculously few weapons for a Destroyer. It only mounted two ion beams - in fixed mounts at that - and a pair of turreted plasma cannons. The Missile Frigate it was fighting could almost certainly have finished the ship off itself, but it would have taken time with the Frigate's relatively low weapon inventory as well.
She pivoted her fighter towards the ship and glorified in the tattered remains of the enemy fleet. With this group gone, there was almost nothing standing between them and the great world of the Som'taa.
Nothing between them and salvation.
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