Chapter 40

“We have activity within the dead area!” The Signal and Detection Officer warned the flag bridge on the Imperial ship Defender. “Thcherzon waves detected. Several large masses approaching the Helvak system ... Twelve spheres!”

“Damn, that’s just ruined my day,” Admiral Nimkel commented. “Are the Gershonians aware?”

“Yes, sir. They are manoeuvring to bring the Ducal and Royal fleets into the presumed drop spot,” a Comms Officer replied.

“Bring us in to the assigned position once they’ve decided on where they’ll stand,” Nimkel ordered his staff. “Status on the special weapons?”

“Engineers are confident they’ll get at least one shot off,” Captain Harst replied after a quick check of his status tablet.

“Tell them to make it count.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Fighters and bombers are to target the ancillary vessels; destroyers and corvettes to finish off any damaged units. “Battle plan will be Alpha. We will constantly manoeuvre against the spheres; we will not slug it out. We have twenty of the high intensity hyperbeam platforms; we and the Gershonians will try to manoeuvre a sphere within their range. A dreadnought alone is a minor irritation to these things, so plan your approaches carefully and pull back swiftly if necessary. Is this understood?”

“Yes, sir!” The reply came back swiftly and firmly.

“We can drop out into position now,” the Comms Officer informed him.

“Take us out of XD space,” Nimkel ordered.

“Positions allotted and dropping ... now!” Captain Harst announced.

“Six fleets, let’s hope it’s enough,” Nimkel commented out loud.

“It had better be, sir.”

“Yes, you have that right,” Nimkel chuckled morosely.

“Dispositions coming up in the tank, sir. Estimated sphere emergences are the red triangles,” the Tactical Officer announced.

“Fleet Admiral Ramantillavion is calling,” the Comms Officer advised.

“Put him on,” Nimkel ordered.

“Admiral Nimkel,” the Gershonian Admiral acknowledged as his head appeared in the tri-dee tank.

“Admiral Ramantillavion,” Nimkel responded politely. “Seems there are rather more of them than we had hoped for.”

“Indeed, let’s hope these special weapons of yours work as proposed.”

“I’m assured they will, though they are highly susceptible to counter fire.”

“We’ll do our best to distract them.”

“As will we. We’re going with plan Alpha.”

“Good, we hoped you would. We will be using our case Lightning plan which compliments your Alpha well.”

“Here’s to victory,” Nimkel replied.

“And being here to boast of it,” Ramantillavion responded before his image faded.

“Detecting multiple fleets at the designated target,” the senior Scanner informed High Admiral Hooreek.

“Bring us out early to deploy the symbiont fleets,” he ordered.

“Enemy fleet has emerged. They are deploying their ancillary craft,” a scanner operator announced.

“Launch fighters and bombers. Let’s see how they cope with those annoyances,” Nimkel ordered.

“And the deep space heavy fighters?” Captain Harst enquired.

“Keep them back for now to exploit any gap in the formations. They have the heavier weaponry to do some real damage but only if they can get through.”

“Fighter waves under way. Spheres have begun moving towards the combined fleets,” Tactical announced.

“Special weapons are to fire as soon as they have a sure target; independent command is given to them,” Nimkel ordered.

“Yes, sir,” Tactical replied.

“Fighters and bombers are engaging. Looks like they surprised the sphere forces; they don’t appear to have much in the way of close-in defence.”

“Small mercies, send in the destroyers and corvettes, except for covering forces. Try and make these ancillary forces a footnote in history.”

“Orders going out, sir. Spheres coming in to maximum range!”

“Start random manoeuvres, let’s not make it too easy, we’re relatively small, they’re too big to miss,” Nimkel ordered.

“Yes, sir!”

“Open fire!”

“Targeting nearest sphere. On target, minimal damage but caught them by surprise, I think, as we outrange them. Gershonians are taking some casualties as they don’t have our range,” Tactical announced.

“They were expecting them, hence keeping their lighter craft nearer to their capital ships,” Harst nodded.

“Yes, but I suspect the sphere closest to them is about to get a terrible shock.” Nimkel pointed out the two special weapons about to come into effective range.

“Here’s hoping.”

Supreme Admiral Plootro was an angry being. First, no one had warned him of the tiny craft that were effectively taking down his symbiont ships which were his Battlesphere Changing Desire‘s defence, nor was the Battlesphere itself having much effect on the enemy fleet so far, hitting him at far range and moving back away from him as they did so.

“They have slowed,” his Senior Scanner informed him.

“Prepare to bring our full firepower upon their capital ships.”

“By your command!” a bridge officer barked back.

“Now we have them,” Plootro almost gloated before the entire Battlesphere rang with a massive internal explosion.

“Direct hit on what appears to be part of their power systems!” The senior Captain of the Royal Dreadnought Vengeance almost shouted to the bridge crew.

“Good, take us in. Let’s let them know they cannot take us so easily as they did the last time,” Admiral Ramantillavion ordered.

The Royal Fleet turned from their complex weaving and dodging and accelerated under their grav drives towards the now stricken sphere using their lighter vessels to brush aside the currently confused ancillary craft that were undecided on their tactics. Hyperbeams lanced out from the Dreadnoughts deep into the core of the sphere causing secondary explosions and shutting down even more of the defensive and offensive weapons. Not that the Royal fleet was coming through unscathed, but casualties were more of the damaged shipboard systems than actual destruction of the ships themselves.

“Second sphere is now headed for us,” the Tactical officer informed the senior Captain and the Admiral.

“Pull us back. Let’s see if we can do this again as I don’t think they know what we hit them with,” Ramantillavion ordered.

“Yes, sir!”

“Other spheres are suffering damage from the special weapons,” a Comms Officer informed them.

“Let’s make the most of it. I rather doubt they’ll be this carefree again if we meet,” Ramantillavion replied. “Continue on this course; make it look like we’re running to bring it past the weapon.”

“Yes, sir!”

Supreme Admiral Hooreek was spooked. What should have been a foreordained victory was becoming a nightmare as the enemy appeared to have a weapon capable of damaging a Battlesphere. His calm was not helped by the fact that his ancillary vessels were stretched in defending themselves against the tiny attacking ships that were difficult to target yet packed a hefty punch when they got close enough to strike, allowing the larger vessels to approach and administer a coup de grâce in a lot of cases. Yet he dared not retreat, not without finding out how they were damaging the Battlespheres, his head would be on the block if he did that.

“Report on Changing Desire?” he barked out an order.

“Catastrophic damage to the primary power plant, multiple secondary power systems down as well. It’s dead in space, though the enemy withdrew in front of the Vision of Unity when it advanced,” a Comm Officer reported.

“Pull them back! The fools might be heading into the same trap!” Hooreek almost screeched.

“Too late!” a senior Tactician commented in despair as the screen showed a massive surge of energy in a beam four times the diameter of a standard hyperbeam and almost fifteen times the power, coupled with a longer extant time, slashed into the Vision of Unity.

The Battlesphere seemed to almost stagger in space before flying apart in a series of internal explosions as the Admiral and his crew looked on in horror.

“Enemy have ceased their feigned retreat and are advancing!” the senior Tactician announced.

“Where did that weapon come from?” Hooreek asked.

“We have its position located; the Dawn of Reprisal symbiont is heading there with its defence core tenders.”

“What of the approaching enemy fleet?”

“They are not in a position to interdict them ... we believe,” the Tactician replied, qualifying his statement slightly as this enemy had proven themselves remarkably able to work outside any accepted doctrines and norms.

“Another beam! The View of Paradise Lost is severely damaged!” another Tactician announced.

“Prepare to withdraw, except for the Dawn of Reprisal group. They are to find out what did this before withdrawing themselves. We must have this information even if it costs them every Raffagee life in the taking of it!” Hooreek ordered firmly, knowing his career was over, but also knowing the Board of Elders needed this information.

“Enemy are withdrawing. Seems they did not like our surprises,” Admiral Harst’s senior analyst spoke up.

“Let them. Prepare Ground Force for boarding actions,” Harst ordered.

“Enemy flotilla is continuing to advance on the Beam Carrier Platform Revenge,” a sensor operator reported.

“Order it scuttled.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Revenge acknowledges. Abandoning ship with scuttle charges set for total platform demolition.”

“Admiral Ramantillavion on channel seventeen, sir,” a Comms Officer reported.

“Put him on,” Harst replied.

“On ... now, sir.”

“A great victory,” Ramantillavion congratulated Harst.

“That it was. Casualties were light as they did not expect our surprise ... this time,” Harst nodded.

“True enough, though it will improve Fleet morale.”

“That it will. We’re preparing to board the spheres, this is where we expect heavy casualties.”

“Yes, the same here with our Royal Marines.”