>> Chapter 12>>

Chapter Thirteen
HNS Liberator
Low Hiigara Orbit
17:05

Commodore Edson pounded the armrests of his command chair in rage. Then, he shook his head violently and sighed.

“Damn, the Flagship got away from us. Nice plan; send a few units with heavy firepower as a diversion. I’ve got to meet this new Emperor. Then kill him, of course,” muttered Commodore Edson.

“Sir, Revealer Leader reports that the Flagship detached their entire fleet to intercept us! The Flagship itself is moving towards the Mothership,” said a communications officer.

“Scum! Send out a recorded message saying that we need backup now-or never. Get our carriers behind us,” said Commodore Edson.

“Yes sir. Sending signal.”

“Sir, we’ve got hyperspace signatures right behind us!”

“Friend or foe?” asked Captain Saborn

“Looks like a few Dreadnoughts ma’am!”

“This is Captain Tiidjan of the Dreadnought Purifier. The commanding officer, Commodore Ward, is currently in sickbay. The other three dreads are Basilisk, Hydra, and Manticore. We were informed by Kuun-Lan that you needed some help, so we polished off a small group that was tailing us and headed over. Where do you require assistance, Lightning Fleet?”

“Commodore Edson of Lightning Fleet here. Well, you missed the beginning of the party, but right now it just got crashed. We’ve got an Imp battle group heading at us. Sending over sensor data now. We’ve taken some losses in the frigate category. Have any to spare?” asked Commodore Edson.

“No can do, Lightning Fleet. We’re a heavy task force, no ships other than the dreads you see.”

“Very well. We need some heavy firepower to - wait a second - I have an idea. From what we’re getting, the frigates are traveling in a broad formation to envelope us in a semicircle once they get here, so split your dreads into two groups on the flanks, and when the Imp frigates come repulse them into each other. Pump your generators up past the maximum safe level; we need a lot of power. Just don’t blow your ships up. We have enough survivors from our destroyed ships to crew some Cloak Generators, so we’ll build two and place them between your dreads so you’re cloaked. That should help even the odds a bit. When you’re done, move in and cut off their escape route while my main force comes in and cuts them to pieces.”

“Good idea, Lightning Fleet. Maneuvering into position now.”

The Dreadnoughts slowly moved into position fifteen kilometers ahead and six kilometers to the side of Lightning Fleet. A minute later, two cloak generators joined them, one to each formation. This happened just in time, as the Imperialist frigates were just arriving. The frigates had changed formation into a wall, but this only helped the Dreadnoughts. As the frigates reached the point between the cloaked Dreadnoughts, they de-cloaked and fired their repulse weapon. The shockwave slammed the frigates on the leading edges into the ones deeper in the formation, destroying several. The debris created from those ships damaged frigates in the entire formation. Soon, seven frigates out of a total of twenty-nine were destroyed, with four more frigates heavily damaged. The others escaped with only minor damage to their hulls.

The four Dreadnoughts moved in behind the formation of frigates, which dispatched eight lightly damaged Assault Frigates to engage them. The space between the Dreadnoughts and Assault Frigates lit up with fire as the Dreadnoughts launched a missile volley into two of the frigates. Twelve missiles hit each frigate, tearing gaping holes in both of them. The atmosphere vented explosively, tearing out even more of the frigate. The remaining seven began to fire on the Manticore. The Dreadnoughts responded with linked energy cannon and ion cannon fire into the frigates, targeting them one at a time.

The other fourteen frigates plowed head on into Lightning Fleet. A massive horde of strike craft pummeled the frigates with missiles, energy cannons, and plasma bombs. On their first pass, an Ion Cannon Frigate was destroyed. Return fire from the frigates mostly missed, but several fighters were hit and a Thunderbolt exploded in a brilliant ball of fire. The second pass saw the arrival of Lightning Fleet’s corvettes, which did even more damage to the frigate force. Then, unexpectedly, the strike craft began to retreat. The frigates followed, and ran right into a minefield that the Resolute corvettes had been creating. Dozens of mines detonated on the frigates’ hulls. Massive hull breaches were created, sucking the remains of crewmen out into space. Soon the minefield was expended, and only three frigates were destroyed.

The main battle group in Lightning Fleet moved into position, and fired on the frigates at the head of the formation. The frigates received numerous hits. Four Firelances targeted one Kudaark, and the Kudaark had its entire front end melted off. The Liberator, Tempest, and Victory fired on an Advanced Sajuuk Cor, with devastating results. The frigate disintegrated under the firepower of the two cruisers and destroyer. The Dreadnoughts, each with minor damage but missing no weapons, appeared behind the frigates and fired upon them from behind. At this time, the strike craft were unleashed once again, buzzing throughout the battle, firing their weapons relentlessly. Soon, all of the Imperialist frigates were destroyed.

This was not without a price, however. Lightning Fleet had lost another two Firelances, which now stood at five. The Cloak Generators were retired, and the carriers started to build more Firelance frigates, using surviving crewmembers from destroyed ships. Providences moved out to collect the resources from the remains of the Imperialist ships. The burned remains of several Imperialist crewmen were simply harvested along with the rest of the debris. Three new Firelance frigates, one from each carrier, came out of the construction bays simultaneously. They were immediately thrown into the battle, as the twelve destroyers and three remaining cruisers in the Imperialist fleet arrived. Two Advanced Destroyers flanked each cruiser, while the six normal Destroyers were in a three by two wall, ranging out ahead of the cruisers.

The Thunderbolts one large formation, and targeted the leading Destroyer. Seventy-two plasma bombs from thirty-six bombers hit the drives of the first destroyer, completely destroying them. The ship darkened, its power generators destroyed, leaving the remaining half of the Destroyer without power. The Blades were in a separate formation, and launched forty-eight missiles at the second Destroyer’s drives, with even deadlier results. The drives exploded, destroying the entire ship. The Acolytes had linked into ACVs, and fired EMP blasts into a third destroyer’s drives, shutting them down.

The Destroyers’ return fire had minimal effect, only shooting down three Thunderbolts and two Blades. The Thunderbolts launched a volley at a forth Destroyer, while the Blades fried on the Destroyer with the disabled drives. Both exploded. The captain of fifth Destroyer decided upon a daring and deadly maneuver. He self-destructed his Destroyer as the Thunderbolt formation swarmed around the Destroyer. The explosion destroyed over three fourths of the formation, leaving the remaining seven Thunderbolts badly damaged. The surviving fighters retreated, leaving the remaining capital ships to Lightning Fleet’s capital ships.

The normal Destroyer slowed down and waited for the arrival of the main force. Lightning Fleet arrived before them, however, and pounded the Destroyer mercilessly. Repeated strikes by ion cannons burned deep holes into the Destroyer, while energy cannons, missiles, and plasma bombs blew gaps in the armor. Soon, the Destroyer was nothing but a burning ruin, with its remaining atmosphere feeding the fires that raged throughout the ship. In one final flare of light, the Destroyer exploded.

The main force of the Imperialist fleet arrived, guns blazing. They targeted the frigates in Lightning Fleet, destroying them with alacrity. Lightning Fleet’s return fire was no less deadly, with the combined guns in the fleet blasting away at the Advanced Destroyers, one at a time. Soon, only one Vengeance remained, and three Firelances had been lost as well. Two of the Imperialist destroyers had been destroyed, with a third badly damaged. The battle raged on, with ion beams slashing into ships as missiles and energy cannons blasted out chunks of armor plating. Another Firelance was destroyed, with only the bridge section remaining. Seconds later one of the Advanced Destroyers exploded, with nothing left except for debris. It became increasingly clear that the Hiigarans were winning the battle at a terrible price.

One of the Destroyers opened its throttle wide open, and accelerated towards the Tempest. The Tempest was busy targeting another Destroyer, and did not notice until too late. The Destroyer slammed into the midsection of the ship, and exploded. The explosion blasted the two ends of the Tempest apart, and only one escape pod shot off of the front before both sections disintegrated. The three cruisers and two remaining destroyers began to retreat, but the strike craft of Lighting Fleet were unleashed for a third time. Thirty-six Blades launched all of their missiles at once into one of the Cruisers, with seventy-two missiles exploding on the drives. The remaining twelve Blades, belonging to Wraith Squadron, joined up with the Acolytes and Crusaders and launched their missiles for a total of thirty-six missiles, as Crusaders only had one missile each. Both cruisers were disabled.

The remaining cruiser and Destroyer accelerated towards Lighting Fleet, but the cruiser was destroyed under a hail of fire from all of the strike craft and capital ships in Lightning Fleet, and the Destroyer soon followed. Lightning Fleet had lost a total six frigates, with two Vengeances, one Dervish, and three Firelances destroyed, along with the Tempest.

The remainder of Lightning Fleet headed off towards the Imperialist Flagship. It was approaching the Kushan Mothership at a slow fifty-six meters per second. But it already had enough of a lead that it would have destroyed the Mothership before Lightning Fleet could catch up, so Commodore Edson came up with a desperate plan.

“Ok, we’re going to hyperspace right in front of the Flagship, since we can’t catch up to it before it reaches the Mothership and blows it out of the sky,” said Commodore Edson.

“But this means that we’ll be in the firing arc of most of their weapons,” said Captain Tiidjan.

“You have a better idea?”

“Not really. Ok, so we hyper in and hold it off for as long as possible, right?”

“You got it. Since we’re going to be engaging it, there’s no way for us to Siege Cannon it. So we’ll have to come up with another way to destroy it.”

“We’ll need to see the thing before we know its weak point.”

“Yeah. Lets go.”

Blue windows into hyperspace appeared before all of the ships, and they entered, disappearing. Seconds later, Lightning Fleet emerged from hyperspace ten kilometers away from the Imperialist Flagship. As Lighting Fleet completed the reversion to real space, both sides opened fire.

Lightning Fleet immediately maneuvered to get out from in front of the Imperialist Flagship, and the Liberator headed underneath. Fire from Lighting Fleet did almost no visible damage, resulting in only blackened armor plating. Return fire from the Imperialist Flagship sliced into several frigates, which were badly damaged. A second salvo destroyed two frigates. The Liberator fired into the construction bay of the Imperialist Flagship, causing significant damage to the frigate construction area. Then, a grand epiphany hit Commodore Edson.

“All ships, get underneath the Flagship and destroy as many weapons turrets in one minute as possible. We’re going to fly into its construction bay and blast it from the inside,” said Commodore Edson.

“Have you gone nuts? Flying into an enemy construction bay is the craziest thing you could do, short of blowing yourself up. You’re more likely to crash into it than manage to get in,” replied Captain Tiidjan.

“Hey, the Imps have been ramming us a lot, haven’t they? And that’s a direct order.”

Replies came in throughout the comm. channel. The remaining vessels of Lightning Fleet maneuvered down underneath the Imperialist Flagship, and began to fire at weapons turrets. Turrets were slagged when hit with ion beams, and exploded when hit by missiles or energy cannons. Soon, the bottom of the Imperialist Flagship was littered with debris from its former weapons turrets. Then, Commodore Edson gave the order to head into the construction bay.

“Alright, smooth and steady does it. Just ignore everything else. Almost there,” said Commodore Edson.

“Sir, with all due respect, could you shut up? I’m trying to drive,” said the helmsman.

“Oops, sorry,” replied Commodore Edson with a sheepish grin. The other members of the bridge crew attempted to restrain from laughing.

Weapons fire from an energy cannon turret on the Imperialist Flagship’s underside impacted the Liberator, jarring the ship. Return fire from the weapons on the Liberator destroyed the offensive turret. Then, the Liberator was inside of the construction bay.

“All gunners, fire at will!” yelled Commodore Edson. The Liberator’s gunners blazed away at the insides of the Imperialist Flagship.

“Head towards the rear of this thing, we need to shoot our way to the reactor core and blow it up.”

“Sir, the insides of this thing are not made up of armor grade material. We can just smash right through,” said Captain Saborn.

“Turning into an Imperialist, are we?” asked Commodore Edson.

“Hey, learning from an enemy, even if it’s a stupid tactic, never hurts.”

“True, true. Helm, you heard her, just run us right through to the reactor. Weapons, fire the ion cannons through anything that looks too tough for us”

“Um, yes sir. We’ll take some superficial damage, though. And remember, sir, we’re at the front of the vessel,” said the helmsman.

“That’s what the blast shields are for, sonny.”

The Liberator turned slightly, and accelerated forward. The ion cannons fired into the rear wall of the construction bay, burning through them. The Liberator plowed through the weakened wall with ease, though the ship did jolt. Then, the internal bulkheads were breached one by one, with the ion cannons firing occasionally to weaken the next few sections. Finally, the Liberator reached the reactor core of the Imperialist Flagship.

“Weapons, do not fire at the core itself. That’s suicide, as you know. Shoot out the coolant tanks. We should have enough time to get out of here.”

The Liberator’s guns fired at the armored tanks that fed coolant into the reactor. While the tanks were amply shielded against small, handheld explosives, they were not designed to take starship weaponry. The Liberator’s weapons easily destroyed the tanks, and coolant vented. The room began to fill with gas that dissipated the Liberator’s ion cannons, but the energy cannons and missiles destroyed the rest of the tanks. Soon, the area was blaring with klaxon alarms that could be heard through the hull of the Liberator. The bodies of engineers that had been tending to the large core littered the ground, killed by the poisonous coolant.

“Alright, we’ve got less than five minutes to get out of here before this thing blows. Helm, reverse course, get us out of here as fast as you can,” said Commodore Edson.

“Yes sir.”

“Comm, tell our ships to get clear now.”

“Sending message.”

The Liberator backed away from the reactor area, and arrived back at the construction bay with time to spare. But the construction bay was now sealed off with heavy blast doors.

“Weapons, blow that door out as fast as you can,” said Commodore Edson.

Energy cannon fire blew out small holes in the door, and missiles created larger ones, but it was obvious that the door would not be destroyed in time.

“Get our people out of the ventral missile battery. Helm, drive us straight through that door.”

“Sir? Did I hear you right?”

“You heard me right. We can either take some damage to the bottom of the ship or all die when the core blows.

The Liberator lurched once again as the engines drove the Liberator downwards. The last man had barely gotten out when the missile battery, the lowest point on the Liberator, smashed straight into the door. The missile battery was crushed, and several missiles detonated inside. The door was badly damaged, and the mass of the Liberator smashed it open. The Liberator dropped out of the construction bay, and accelerated to full speed away from the Imperialist Flagship.

LS Flagship Revenge
Low Hiigaran Orbit
17:12 New Daiamid AHL 06.17.21

“My lord, the core is going to explode in less than thirty seconds! You must get to an escape pod!” exclaimed a bridge officer.

“No. I am defeated. I shall not leave, for the defeated must die. Run if you want to. I do not care. I am no longer your Emperor,” said Riesstiu V.

“My lord, you-“

“Shut up and get out if you don’t want to die.”

Before the officer could respond, the reactor core exploded. The crew attempted to scream, but were cut off before their vocal cords could make a sound.

HNS Liberator
Low Hiigara Orbit
17:12 New Daiamid AHL 06.17.21

The space behind the Liberator lit up. The Liberator was still thrusting away at full throttle. The fireball from the Imperialist Flagship stopped just short of the Liberator, but debris from the explosion impacted the Liberator’s hull, causing minor damage.

The crew was silent for a moment, and then erupted with clapping and cheers. Crewmembers embraced one another. Captain Saborn threw her arms around Commodore Edson. Several bottles of wine were brought up to the bridge from the galley. A bottle was given to Commodore Edson, who immediately popped it open and sprayed the wine at everybody in his immediate vicinity, making sure to drench Captain Saborn.

Captain Saborn whipped a sleeve over her eyes. “Sir, that maneuver back there was the damned craziest thing anybody’s ever done in a long time. Oh, oops, um, sorry sir,” said Captain Saborn

“Don’t worry, I feel the same way that you do,” replied Commodore Edson.

“Um, sir, we’re getting a signal from the New Daiamid. They’ve been monitoring the situation up here for a while,” said the communications officer.

“Oh no, shit. Um, place the call up on the main screen.”

“Commodore Edson, you’ve-what the hell is going on in your bridge? Ah, forget that. You and your crew have done better than we could ever have hoped for. Just keep on celebrating, because the remaining Imperialists have either retreated or surrendered with the loss of their Emperor,” said High Marshal Joseph Mawly.

“Um, thank you sir. As you can see in the background, we’re already celebrating. Hope you don’t mind, sir,” replied Commodore Edson.

“Don’t worry about it Edson. Just have your entire crew in the New Daiamid building by nineteen hundred. We have news channels demanding interviews with you. Be prepared. On a more serious note, how badly damaged is the Liberator?”

“Not bad, considering that we rammed through several dozen bulkheads, got shot by concentrated ion and energy cannon fire, and crashed through a blast door made to stop heavy plasma warheads. Did you enjoy the fireworks show we put on, sir?”

High Marshal Mawly laughed, “Yes Edson, we did. Mawly out.” With that, his image winked out of existence.

>> Chapter 14>>