Chapter 43

Navarch Tissimla studied the dispositions of the Ghangan fleet manoeuvring ahead of the combined Autarchy and Imperial fleets and frowned.

“They are making no attempts to advance or move into attack formations?” she finally asked Ploiarch Juva.

“No, Navarch. Imperial Admiral Clessik believes it to be a trap to draw us in, though his scouts have not detected any cloaked vessels, nor are our outer monitoring vessels detecting any approaching fleets,” Juva replied.

“I agree it’s likely a trap, but we cannot leave one of their fleets simply hanging here on the edge of our declared neutral zone.”

“We can’t afford massive casualties either, even if the Ghangan are currently licking their wounds,” Juva grimaced.

“No, we most certainly cannot,” Tissimla agreed. “Comms, get me Admiral Clessik, please.”

Seconds later the Imperial Admiral’s likeness appeared in the tri-dee tank.

“Can we afford to spring it?” Tissimla asked after the polite greetings, a far cry from the early days and her antagonism towards males. The Admiral now simply being a fighting companion.

“Yes, but we need to ensure an avenue of escape is always open to us, preferably more than one,” Clessik replied after a few seconds thought.

“They give all the appearances of waiting to ambush us for trying, a very uncharacteristic response of the Ghangan,” Juva added.

“We have detected no approaching fleets; however one of my Commodores mentioned that a Battlesphere, as used in the Gershon encounters, would not be detected until it was actually jumping in. Whilst I believe we can take on one, if there are more it is likely we’d take casualties, perhaps catastrophic ones,” Clessik replied with a nod.

“A Battlesphere?” Tissimla frowned.

“Possibly more than one. Unfortunately we do not have the special weapons here to do any major damage to a sphere. I have sent a data package on the best tactics to use when engaging one to your combat tactical group. I suggest we use our fighters, bombers and heavy fighters to attack the Ghangan and keep our distance and be prepared to withdraw should they produce a surprise.”

“Agreed. I will have our heavy fighter squadrons summoned and order an attack. We’ll also commit our destroyers to give close support,” Tissimla nodded.

Supreme Admiral Neevoo cursed as the enemy appeared reluctant to take the bait dangled in front of them. Most of his invective was aimed at his Ghangan ‘allies’ whose idea of setting an ambush was to manoeuvre in one place in the hope that the enemy would come to them, rather than taking Neevoo’s advice and committing to an attack to pin the enemy fleets in place. Neevoo was also disgusted to find out that the Ghangan had virtually spent all their fleets in mindless attacks and this was the only full fleet they had left and if it was defeated they’d be open to counterattacks from the mostly intact Melanoqui and Imperial fleets.

“Take us in,” he ordered his sub-Admirals. “Let us see how they cope against five Battlespheres.”

“Detecting Thcherzon waves!” a Detection officer called out.

“Damn, I hate being right about this one,” Clessik sighed. “Inform the Melanoqui.”

“Done. They have acknowledged and are pulling back to position gamma,” the Comms officer reported to the command group.

“Pull back to Beta. Move disposition of forces to give us room to manoeuvre!” Clessik ordered.

“Battlespheres are now in system,” the Detection officer informed.

“Begin manoeuvring, open fire when they come into range then fall back in front of them.”

“Admiral Clessik and the Imperial fleets will be taking on the Battlespheres, our job is to destroy their auxiliary vessels and the Ghangan fleet,” Tissimla announced to her bridge officers. “You know what we have to do. May the great goddess bless us!”

The three Melanoqui fleets made a swift retreat to what the Imperial fleet called position gamma and then began to move rapidly to a position where they threatened both the Battlesphere flanks but also the Ghangan fleet.

“Three squadrons of heavy fighters have just entered the system,” Juva announced. “I’ve ordered them to get in amongst the Ghangan stragglers when we move to engage.”

“Good. Relaunch fighters and bombers. They are to strike the Battlesphere auxiliary craft as soon as they launch.”

“Launch symbiont fleets,” Neevoo ordered. “Their job is to shield us from the longer range weapons of the Imperial fleets.”

“And the Ghangan?” Sub-Admiral Harratta asked.

“They are to attack the Melanoqui. They should find them far easier without Imperial support.”

“Orders sent. Symbionts launching.”

“Exactly as we expected,” Clessik stated quietly.

“Yes, sir,” Commodore Nivishk agreed.

“Stick to the plan; do not let them close. Destroyers and Corvettes are to engage their auxiliary vessels, launch fighters and bombers to hit the known vulnerable targets on the Battlespheres.”

“Yes, sir!”

The flagship began to thrum as it rotated on its axis whilst falling away from the closest Battlesphere with the shipboard AI locking the individual hyperbeam cannons onto a single spot on the Battlesphere, one that was known to have several power generators close to the surface. Other capital ships in the fleet also began the rolling manoeuvre which allowed each individual cannon time to recharge to full capacity before firing.

“Battlespheres are fully engaged, they appear to be using their auxiliary craft as shields,” Juva announced.

“Take us in to the Ghangan, their manoeuvres have left them vulnerable to a swift strike,” Tissimla ordered. “Fighters and bombers to lead the way.”

“By your command!”

“Their status?” Neevoo demanded as the Battlesphere Return of the Righteous started drifting out of alignment with the other Battlespheres.

“The Imperial fleet have damaged their core reactor grid, they need to withdraw to make repairs,” his Executive Officer Troveel informed him.

“Impossible,” Neevoo almost spluttered.

“The Imperial beam weapons are more effective than ours and they are all targeting a single point whilst their symbiont vessels engage ours, creating gaps in the screening force,” Troveel replied.

“Imperial losses?”

“Mostly their symbionts, but still at a rate of one to our three.”

“And we cannot close with their capital ships?”

“No, they are standing off at their maximum range which is further than our effective range and each ship is targeting the same point on...” Troveel broke off as the Return of the Righteous suddenly vanished in a massive explosion, some of which took out its escort screen.

“Get us closer, find a way, even if you have to get out and push!” Neevoo screamed in both horror and anger.

“We cannot Supreme Admiral. A Battlesphere was designed to take punishment whilst our symbionts held an enemy in place. This enemy has ships that are more powerful and faster than our own. We should withdraw as they are now concentrating their firepower on the Dreams of Raffagee!”

“I gave you an order!”

“One that I respectfully cannot carry out. If we could close, we would swat them down. However they are faster and have longer ranged weapons! They. Will. Not. Permit. Us. To. Close! Sir.”

“Find a way!”

“Going better than I hoped,” Clessik commented to the bridge.

“Yes, sir,” Nivishk agreed. “They’d have done better to come in with just two Battlespheres and then dropped the other three in behind us once they’d ascertained our course and heading.”

“How are the Melanoqui doing?”

“Fully engaged with the Ghangan. They have the upper hand, but have taken losses.”

“Got anything we can spare to support them?”

“The light carriers and their escorts, they aren’t doing that much good here as they don’t have the firepower to add much to our beams.”

“Send them, the fighters will be much more effective against the Ghangan frigates.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Clessik is sending his light carriers around to assist us,” Juva informed Tissimla as the flagship rocked with another close miss.

“How many?”

“Nine, fifty four fighters, twenty seven bombers.”

“Hmmm. Request a strike on the frigate screen surrounding their flagship, then direct the seventh squadron of heavy fighters in through the gap they hopefully will create to take out the flagship.”

“By your command!”

“Casualty count?”

“Still in our favour. The experience we gained by fighting alongside the Empire is showing. We’ve lost twenty ships to their thirty-one, but they’ve lost seventeen capital ships to our one which puts it a bit better into perspective.”

“The Empire?”

“Heavy losses in destroyers and corvettes, but no capital ship losses and they’re proving to be a deadly foe to the Battlespheres as they can stay out of their range, plus, know where the weak points in their armour are.”

“Draw up a plan to make a fast sweep past the rearmost Battlesphere if the Ghangan resistance collapses with the destruction of their flagship, as I hope.”

“By your command!”

“We are starting to gain on the Empire ships, but our throughspace drives are running at critical and may well fail us or one of the other Battlespheres,” Troveel reported.

“How long before we are in effective range?” Neevoo demanded.

“Thirty seven centicycles.” (Slightly less than an hour)

“We will not fail, we will teach these scum that the Raffagee are not to be trifled with!”

“They continue to gain slowly on us, sir,” Nivishk reported.