:: 29/12/2000 ::
The previous day had been the longest of the campaign, but we managed to finish purging the gravitons from the fleet, and we fled into hyperspace. We exited one hundred kilometers from the weapon and its hell fleet, and the faster Fighters had been ordered to stay with the capital ships on the slow way ahead. Only two fleets were able to reach us in time, any other fleet would have gotten to our position deep in the frontier in six or eight hours. They were Carrier group Amalgam, and twin-carrier fleet Gemini. This brought up our ship count to twelve Ion Frigates, five Assault Frigates, two Destroyers, and one Missile destroyer. We also had six squadrons-seventy two-of strike Craft. Only the six Halo Squadron ships, miraculously remaining intact through everything, were our only multi-gun ships. And against three squadrons of Defenders, we would have to dodge wide sprays of ammunition. And, thanks to the defense fighters, we couldn't shoot back. I could only see the large super-weapon from this distance, but knowing of its escort made me queasy.
Rear Admiral Soban of the Lazarus went through the plan again. "Alright. The Lazarus, Amalgam, Gemini I, and Gemini II will be ten clicks away from the station. We will be ready for any ships that are in need of repairs, and try to distribute repairs as quick as possible. Likewise, our seven Repair Corvettes, three Support Frigates, and the Angel Base will be drifting across the battlefield to provide you with fast reparations, although that would be riskier for both them and you, the pilots.
"First, Ion Group Hellstrom will go in, and attack the Defense Frigates. Missile Destroyer Charon, escorted by destroyers Deimos and Wrath, will take out the Defense fighters. Once they are destroyed, the Fighters and corvettes will provide support for the Ion-equipped Capital-vessels from the strike craft assaults. The Charon, as well as our destroyers and Assault Frigates, will use their mass drivers and missiles to assault the Ion Accelerator, while Hellstrom Group and the 11th Bomber Squadron will attack the base's capital ship defense. Once the Fighters are gone, the Strike Craft are to concentrate fire on the weapon as well. Stay out of its firing window. Gentlemen, good luck."
We were going to need it.
I flipped on my private comm. channel. "Nolan, you okay?"
"Never been better. But why the hell did they have to put me in my Interceptor? Damn it, I could do more damage, and live longer, in the Black Runner than in this thing." I remembered that he hadn't been in his Interceptor in combat for a while. "Well, hopefully that will be the least of your problems."
"Amen."
A squadron of Defenders, escorted by a squadron of Defense pods, greeted our fleet at the edge of their territory. They opened fire with their gimballed-mounted guns, and on a reflex our fighters counterattacked. This was a poor attempt, however, as red lasers met with most of our bullets almost instantaneously, vaporising them.
I grunted. "Crap! Evasive maneuvers! We're faster than them, so use the speed!" I accelerated to full throttle and banked to starboard, hiding behind one of our Assault Frigates, but with only turrets and torpedoes as weaponry, it did nothing to protect me. I felt several jolts in the hull, but as Interceptors are over twice as fast as defenders, I was soon out of my assailant's range.
"Charon, this is Angel Nine. Take care of those Fighters!"
"Already in progress, Lieutenant."
As I turned my cockpit around, I noticed that it was, in fact, slaughtering the slow fighters. In a few minutes they were all gone.
They were, unfortunately, followed by eight more Defenders and eight Bombers. The Defense Frigate that accompanied them was lumbering behind them. Five of the Ion Frigates from Hellstrom Group broke off to attack it, while our fighters moved into combat position. This time, they stayed outside of the Missile Destroyer's range. I tailed one Bomber, and thanks to its total lack of maneuverability I vaporised it. I turned to fend off a Defender that dogged one of the Bombers from the 11th. My bullets sheared into one of the gun emplacements, and the mechanism short-circuited and electrocuted the pilot. Bad way to go, I noted.
I turned when I heard a distress call. Now there were four Ion frigates attacking the Defense Frigate, as one was burning severely from attacks. Six Bombers were lacing into the hull with their plasma weapons. I raced to help it, but a bomb blew a hole in the acceleration ladder of the Ion Cannon, destabilising the shielding. When the poor bastard of a tactical officer tried to fire the weapon, it melted the ship from inside.
Only then did two corvettes from Halo Squadron arrive and destroy them.
With the Defense Frigate destroyed, the capital ships moved to attack the enemy starships. When we were about fifteen clicks from them, the Taiidan cruisers turned to the ion Accelerator, and began to fire. As the Ion energies were being forced into the weapon, I said, "They're charging it!" When they stopped firing, I watched in horror as the huge ship pivoted to face one of the Carriers, the Gemini I.
The four, square kilometer solar arrays (the ship really looked like an Ion Array Frigate!) bent inwards, and blue energy crackled from the tips to the end of the craft, at the end of the cannon. As the murderous blue energy collected, I winced. Then, an Ion Frigate moved to shield the carrier from the blast, as it was released in one powerful pulse. The attack blew the frigate into a million pieces, with more force than I'd ever seen.
Thirty-seven people dead, I thought. Then, as I was dodging pieces of flaming debris from the explosion, ten Defenders and thirty Defense Fighters came up to overwhelm us. Two Destroyers also moved into position to hold off the Charon from helping us.
I kicked in the afterburners, with 1R-F flanking me, into the swarm. "Say, Seven," I asked the robot. "Check your data files. Can you find any defect in the Defense Fighter laser array?" A high, whirring sound came back, and it finally responded, "This may be trivial, but there is a blind spot on the fighters. Their sphere of control does not extend over their engines, on the aft side. We might be able to attack them safely from behind, but since there will be so many of them in our combat window, chances are we won't be able to pull off such a maneuver, especially with the enemy Defenders."
"Oh, I had no intention of us firing the shots. Here's what we do…" I explained the plan, and he deemed it, "risky, but logical," which I took as a good thing. We were in the middle of the insane swarm when we started firing like mad. About six of the ten groups, consisting of a Defender with three Defense Fighters guarding it in a triangular formation, came chasing us. We stayed fast enough so the Defenders couldn't gain on us, but slow enough that they weren't about to turn back. Even though we were out of range, they fired anyway, all the bullets flew past us harmlessly. When they were unaware, eight small ships flew behinds them and released blue pulses of energy.
Before they knew what was going on, a third of the Defenders were gone, as well as five Defense Fighters. Even as they were turning around, bombs flew forth and detonated the spherical Defense ships. When they were facing the Bombers, the android and I made U-turns and raced towards them; now we were in firing position. We nuked the Defenders first, and when the frantic little Defense ships, not knowing whom to face, began flailing in every direction, it wasn't very long until they were all destroyed.
I targeted one of the Bombers that we had worked with. "So, Eleven Eleven, finding it more difficult to fight in that rickety box of yours?" She replied with more scorn than necessary. "If I had to decide between armor and weapons or speed, it would be an easy choice."
I smirked. "Good luck."
"You too."
I made a mental count. I had so far killed four Defenders, a bomber, and nine defense fighters. Not bad, unless you considered that there were about a hundred more.
Tilting my ship to the side, I could see the Charon. Our Destroyers had managed to save it, but it was burning badly, and three Repair Corvettes were swooping along its length dowsing them with green beams. Hellstrom group was now in a heated battle against the enemy Ion Frigates. I counted seven of ours and…nine of theirs. Unfortunately, two powerful pulses of light subtracted our number with ease. Our assault frigates had to join the battle just to even things out. It was bad.
My control panel lit up in bright red colors. A huge crater formed in my chest, and I looked out into space. A silhouette of a ship, a barely perceptible shadow, suddenly coalesced into clear view. A Missile Destroyer. So the Imperialists took us seriously.
Five of our Bombers were in the vicinity at the time, and they were quickly shredded before anyone knew what the situation was. Two of Halo Squadron's Corvettes flew past, and a quartet of missiles each snapped their slender forms in two.
If we wanted to win, we had to do it now. Otherwise our fighters would all be destroyed. "This is Angel Nine to the Apocalypse Treason. Let's take a run at that bitch of a super weapon."
"This is Sergeant Gaalsien. Lieutenant, are you sure?"
"You've got missiles. They can't shield against them. We better use them."
"I hope you know what you're doing."
"Me too," I muttered.
Our two craft raced along the hull of the Turanic monstrosity. It was a full two kilometers across, and when we reached the command pod at the end, the Sergeant let fly six streaking projectiles at the main window. Six explosions cleared away for me to see the extent of the damage: it had blown off a full three-quarters of the transparisteel shield. As it was about to let another volley off, a pair off Defenders intercepted it. The starboard part lit up in flames, and I cried out, "Get out of there, sir! You won't make it!"
"Sorry!" he replied as he limped to the nearest Repair Corvette.
I looked at the ship. It had been wounded, but not enough for bullets to matter, I turned away, and I saw an interceptor, one of ours, move too close to the enemy Missile ship, and it was hit by a missile in the engine.
"Ahh!"
I recognised the voice immediately. Captain Naabal was going down! But he didn't explode, rather he straightened his ship out and switched on his afterburners. He was racing very fast towards the Ion Accelerator, and I knew what he was going to do.
"Sir, no!"
But it was already too late. Before he impacted, he could just say, "Take care of the Ang…"
Then, static.
His craft smashed at an insane speed into the ship's damaged view port, and shattered the hardened glass composite. Something like a power surge occurred in the ship, and a huge white flash emitted from the hull.
Then it just lay dead. I knew what happened. The Ion shield was offline.
I had no time to mourn for our leader, much less tell anyone about it. I don't know who gave the final order, but every Ion frigate and Destroyer complied. "FIRE!" Angry red beams slashed through the once terrifying, now subdued star craft.
Thirty minutes later, we were in hyperspace, finally victorious.
