08-15-2016, 08:22 PM
The battle intensifie and gets up close and personal.
Two hours later Miss Francis announced that the Famous and the Licorice have launched their LRAMS, or long range missiles. Now the Corps had three very different groups heading towards their mass of ships. The eighty odd aerospace craft, which were headed towards the distant Dolcianis, the attack ships and frigates going to meet the leaders and now a huge swarm of over 100 missiles aimed at the center of the corp formations. The missiles will arrive first, followed almost immediately by the aerospace craft and then several hours later the ships will be in range with their guns. The missiles were traveling at almost 600MMH and had a range of 200MM. The AS craft were cruising at a cool 80MMH, even though the fighters and attack fighters could easily double that, but for now they were staying with the slower bombers.
Thirty minutes later the missiles screamed home into the dense formation of Theta Cruisers and Trigonometry and Hawking class destroyers. From our great distance we could not tell how many hits were scored, but the thermonuclear blooms were very visible, some appeared larger than others. As was predicted the AS craft struck next, again we were too far to see anything but several more blossoms of nuclear fire could be seen as the torpedoes exploded amongst the enemy ships.
“Ma’am comm. traffic states that the attack fighters took out four Thetas, and twice that in destroyers, they are returning to rearm. The bombers and fighters seem to be still heading for the battle-cruisers.” The commander of the aerospace split her force, sending the attack fighters to attack the lead formation, while the fighters and slower bombers continued on to the main body. Since neither, Thetas or either class of corp destroyer carried fighters, the attack met with little resistance. Corp ships had only the fraction of defensive weapons as ours, but every ship carried a huge wallop in direct fire guns.
“Hey Lover girl, just let you know your sweetheart made it through, her flight took out a Theta.”
“Ah thanks Miss Thompson,” I said greatly relieved that Barbara made it through that attack. The next thing of note was the returning attack fighters screamed by and landed to refuel and rearm for the next strike.
Only three hours had passed since the Famous jumped back alone. And for the loss of a corvette, a frigate and a damaged light cruiser, we have so far taken out at least four heavy cruisers, eight destroyers plus the eight well nine counting the fool who mis jumped, Newtons, so far no AS craft were lost but that’s because the fighters on the Dolcianies have not joined the fight.
Twelve minutes later the first of the attack fighters launched for the 2nd strike, a flight zoomed close enough that I could see that they were not carrying torpedoes, but were rigged up as fighters. About five minutes after that, we got word that the bombers and fighters engaged the Dolcianies. One of the massive blips that represented a battlecruiser blinked out on the screen.
“That is a kill!” shouted Miss Francis.
“Commo from the strike, reports one Dolci killed, the other damaged, but all of the bombers were lost or damaged, and most of the fighters suffered damage, seems like only 40 of the sixty are able to return. “Miss Thompson announced for our benefit “Enemy AS down to about 20%.”
Ms. Greer stated “Ok so we don’t need to worry about them, good, that still leaves one battle cruiser and close to 40 other ships to worry about.”
Again we proved mere spectators as the fight remained a long distance battle, the 2nd strike of attack fighters concentrated on the Thetas, accounting for two more, also this time it was clear that the missiles got a Theta and eight destroyers. This left the vanguard with only 7 Thetas, and about 20 destroyers. Now that the fighters were back, the third strike could use all of the attack fighters with missiles. Of course by now the twenty quadratics from the two Dolcianies were able to mix it up, so the AS craft took some more casualties. But then so did the Corps, including another Theta and two destroyers. By now though the pilots and crews were exhausted and returned to the Illy for some much needed down time. Their services would be needed again soon enough, but first Famous and friends needed to add their two cents.
The six remaining Thetas pulled back and joined up with the surviving Dolciani and fifteen of the destroyers. The remaining six destroyers made a suicide charge at the Famous. The big guns on the light cruiser and the destroyer blunted this attack so that the frigate could add its firepower. Four of the Corp destroyers were destroyed or left as lifeless hulks, in return the Butterfly was lost and the Licorice and Famous battered to ineffectiveness. Both ships broke off and headed to the far jump point. The two stubborn destroyers were harassing them until the Licorice’s torpedoes engaged them. Again something lacking by small Corp warships. She suffered more damage but accounted for both destroyers. Licorice could no longer jump, so both ships were told to retire to the Zambezi and await relief. Rooster was then detached to go look for help, since there was an ATG and BTG somewhere nearby.
Rather than breaking off contact, the Corp leader decided to end the fight, one Battlecruiser of unknown status, six heavy cruisers, and 15 destroyers were now going to press the fight against one carrier, a heavy escort cruiser, and two escort frigates. We had about 25 AS craft capable of strikes, another 40 AS craft for escorts and defense, plus both frigates had torpedo tubes in their bow. The heaviest guns we had were the twin turrets on the Illy. Facing us were the huge particle cannon on the Dolci, and the heavy particle cannon on the Thetas, and half of the destroyers, the other destroyers had small fusion guns and light particle cannon. There were those two Newtons still lurking about as well. We had to remain in the system until the crippled Licorice could dock with the Zambezi and use its jump drives to get out of system, or abandon the crew of the destroyer to the tender mercies of the Corps. Needless to say that would be the option of last resort.
Besides Lady Baroness Shelly MacFaye wanted the other Dolciani, and in her shoes I would have done the same, take it out now or fight it later on possibly even worse terms. The distance between them and us meant we could get another two sorties in before their guns got in range. The fighters would have to keep the enemy quadratics away from the strike birds, which were carrying the maximum load of torpedoes. Priority would be on the Dolci, as she also carried a few missiles that might get lucky. We stayed on a broadside aspect, with Old Skull on the same plane as big Illy, and the two frigates slightly behind but above or below us. Because of their torpedoes the smaller frigates were actually more valuable than we were. Also with our massive shields and armor we could take far more punishment, even when compared with the Big Illy, so Old Skull was literally the wall that sheltered the rest of the ships. Again like the first part of the battle we mostly sat back waiting, I watched the fighters leave the Big Illy and head off towards the Corps, one of the Sheena Cats wagged her wings when she passed, so I waved from my perch on the VNB.
This wait was particularly hard, many of the gals reclined in their chairs to get a catnap, but we have been on station for several hours and the stress was taking its toll. Luckily we were not at Condition Zebra, which made things bearable.
“Ma’am strike report coming in, fighters blew through the quads, and pummeled the Dolici and two Thetas, one Theta is dropping out and listing, our casualties are four amazons and two Sheena-cats lost The Dolci is reducing speed…”
“That means that either the whole formation will slow down or they will soon have two distinct elements. Sensors what do you have?” Greer asked Francis.
“Ma’am I have two groups, first one is four Thetas and 10 destroyers, and the other is the Dolci and last Theta plus 5 destroyers.”
“Right so figure the Trigs are with the first group and Hawkings with the 2nd group.”
“Ma’am signal from flag, the whole group is heading towards the Zambezi, she is extending the distance between us.”
“Right Helm, prepare to adjust course as dictated by BDC. Sensors ETA on return of AS craft?”
“15 minutes Ma’am.”
“Very good, ok, what’s the status of those lurkers?”
“Still same bearing respective to us, they are keeping pace but not closing.”
“Hmm interesting, right keep watching them.”
The AS craft flew back to the carrier, and again one of the strike birds waggled its wings as it passed us by. Another 15 minutes later they flew back this way, and the same fighter (it had the same tail number) did its waggle and sped off towards the first group. Another eight minutes they flew back, all 23 Sheenas, the Amazons and newer Warriors still remained on station. Five Sheenas landed on the Old Skull, as we still had several torpedoes from the fighters that should have been present. This sped up the rearming to 10 minutes and off the fighters went again, to strike the first group. This time only 21 Sheenas, returned, and again 5 landed on our ship.
“Commo from strike, including the last strike, eight destroyers hit, at least three DIS, they are going after the 2nd group, and it is our job to handle the 1st group now.”
“Right, ok people wake up we have some work to do…”
NOW HEAR THIS, NOW HEAR THIS, SET SHIP TO CONDITION ZEBRA, REPEAT SET SHIP TO CONDITION ZEBRA
“…as I was saying this is it, show time.” Ms. Greer said buckling her restraint, we did the same.
So it looked like we had 4 Thetas and around 7 destroyers that would be in their weapons ranges in twenty minutes and our ranges in twenty-two.
“Ma’am Commo from Flag, Old Skull is to get 4MM ahead of the Illy we are attract fires she is going to try to maneuver to get her A turret in action.”
“Right ok Helm, be prepared to take over local control, Thetas have torpedoes, big mothers but they are still torps. Sensors get a bearing on the closest Theta; things are going to get rough.”
We closed with the Corp ships, and soon they began firing their main weapons, we were on a bow on aspect reducing our profile as much as possible. Of course this also reduced our firepower. The good news is the massive shields warded off the shots As we got closer we could see the status of the enemy, five destroyers were hanging back, and appeared to be damaged, along with one Theta, the other three Thetas formed one group while two destroyers, positively ID’d as Trigs formed another group.
BDC TO VNB BE PREPARED FOR TORPEDO COUNTER MEASURES, WE ARE GOING TO MOVE BETWEEN THE TWO DESTROYERS AND RAKE THEM WITH FULL BROADSIDES
“Ok, you heard her, Miss Parker get the maneuver overrides set up and plot several alternate courses to zigzag and disrupt torp locks.”
“Aye Ma’am, ok Ichrone you handle torp breaks, Collingwood, you get the zigzags, right Miss Francis what is our ETA?”
“We will be at the destroyers in eight minutes, present speed, no wait five minutes.”
As we were speaking the crew down in the BDC kicked the big ship to 35MMH, almost our maximum, this was putting moderate strain on the engines but if we were going to survive this and still be able to play with the other ships it had to be done quickly.
“Ma’am destroyers are lining up to fire main batteries…”
“Roger that Parker first course change now!” Ms. Greer commanded
“Down 80 degrees then right 30 and up 40, move!” I yelled out to my team.
The violent maneuver caused objects not strapped in to slide about, which included my cup of tea, which I caught and magna locked into place. However it worked as only one beam hit the ship and it was a glancing blow. The other three missed completely.
“Resume original heading.”
The BDC took over and we continued the death ride taking several more shots and evading most of them. None did any serious damage to the shields.
“Torp Launch, eight of the bastards!”
“Right, Evasion 1!” “Aye Ma’am evasion one.” Ichrone executed her first evasion plan which caused five of the torpedoes to break lock, the other three were engaged and destroyed by our defensive batteries. While all of this was going on our forward facing weapons began hammering the two destroyers, the purpose was to reduced their shields.
“Ma’am 1st ship is down 20%, 2nd is down 40%.”
“Right, ok keep it up. Blast shields closed!”
This command was given as soon as we were about to pass between the two destroyers. However before they closed I saw the forward weapons swing to the port and engage the port side ship. It looked like all the weapons were bearing on a very small part of the ship. We felt some minor bucks as the pathetic secondary mounts on the destroyers fired back. In a broadside with a Neptune at knife range there is usually only one outcome. We sped by the two ships strafing them with over 25 guns each. “Ma’am port bastard, shields have just flared, starboard is down to 10%”
ALL HANDS BRACE FOR FLIP the command from the BDC sent shock waves through the VNB crew.
“What?” Miss Francis exclaimed in surprise
“Oh yeah, you know we are flipping the old Skull, giving those pukes another dose.”
Sure enough the cruiser did a loop and flew between the two destroyers, which were trying to turn about. This time though it wasn’t the shields that were taking our weapons but the hull, and Corp ships have very fragile hulls, especially around engineering.
“Reactor Spike, brace for Impact!” The shock wave of the starboard ship (was originally the port one before the flip) blowing its reactors buffeted the Old Skull.
“Status on shields?” Greer asked the DC team leader
“Still 80%, we are returning to Illy.” Miss Thompson got the data from the BDC first and relayed it to the Executive.
“Ma’am 2nd trig is DIS, she is listing and falling out of the plane, her attitude controls must be shot to hell.”
“Right good work there Parker/”
“Oh Shit!” Tamera yelled
“What is it?” I asked her before anyone else could reply.
“The two Newtons have just decided to join the fun, they are closing on us fast!”
“Right open blast shields prepare for Torp evasion!”
“No Torps, those crazy so and so’s are going ram!”
“Crap, alert BDC and brace for impact!”
“All right one was taken out by our batteries shit lost the last one!”
The force of the small star vessel impacting the ship and shields was tremendous; The area of impact was near L battery on the ventral side. The damage knocked out the lower rear shield section, and seriously damaged the whole lower half of the starboard side. The worst damage though was the main power coupling from the BDC controls to engineering was severed.
BDC TO VNB, YOU HAVE THE CON WE ARE OUT OF COMMISION DOWN HERE WITH MANUEVERING
“Aye BDC how’s navigation and sensors?”
“We still got primaries on line, Damage Control reports commo between us and engineering is gone, Navigation sail is gone from S to U. Decks P, O, and N report serious damage on starboard side, L Battery is not responding, J Battery is down 20% and has casualties.” Miss Thompson relayed the diagnosis
“Right ok Parker you are flying the ship.”
“Aye Ma’am, course and heading?”
Take us back to the Illy…”
“Thetas firing Torps, at the Illy, forty long range torps, 10 are going to hit!” Tamera interrupted given the grave news.
“Not if we can do something about it, move this can Parker!”
I then ordered the ship to accelerate to 45MMH and we rocketed between the Illy and the interposing torpedoes.
“Ma’am reporting jump signature, no wait reporting several jump signatures, it’s the Dauntless!”
The news of the battle cruiser and her escorts’ arrival meant that the Corps were doomed, but first we had to deal with those torpedoes.
“Parker don’t you dare dodge those things, they can’t hit the carrier!”
“Aye Ma’am, Miss Francis, what are their bearings?”
“90 Degrees. Plus 30, 2nd group 95 Degrees minus 80.”
“Right Ichorne plot course 93 Degrees minus 30, Speed 35MMH.”
“Aye Ma’am!” This course put us on a bow on aspect to the first group and slight oblique to the 2nd group.
“Defensive weapons firing!”
We had to keep the blast visors up, but that meant that the glare from the explosions could dazzle even with the polarized view screen. The ship rocked with each nearby explosion.
“Shields down 40% at the bow.”
“Aspect change bottom group, they have broken lock from the carrier, heading towards us now.”
“Aye, Collingwood, roll 280 degrees to port. Ma’am signal BDC to evacuate port hanger area.”
“Right, you heard her do it, and open launch and recovery doors port tube.”
My plan, if you can call deliberately driving a ship into the path of several fusion tipped torpedoes a plan, was to put the empty and decompressed launch tube and hanger in the trajectory of the Torpedoes, this way the port batteries had a chance to engage, plus if any should hit a good deal of the explosion will be vented out to space. Like with the first group the guns got some, and the missiles and other point defenses got a few others, but one or two leaked through. The impact of the first torpedo rocked the ship, as the warhead detonated on contact. The second torpedo managed to slip through the opened recovery bay and detonated on the hanger bay wall. It was going at slight upward angle so it ripped apart much of J and I decks, which unfortunately for us included the BDC. Recovering quickly I noticed that several systems were off line but I still had maneuver control.
“Ma’am DC reports massive damage to J and I decks, including the BDC, casualties unknown but…”
“Right ok, we have all command functions. Advise battery mistresses that they are on local control.
“Ma’am DC reports fires spreading in J and I decks, recommends we vent.”
“Do it, get me a status on all batteries.”
“Ma’am two thetas heading this way.” Tamara said as the situation just turned even uglier
“Right Parker, take me through the leader!” Ms. Greer commanded.
“Ma’am?” I asked not quite understanding the command
“You heard me ram that son of a bitch.” She said with little emotion
“Right plot course 230 degrees, angle plus 800 then dive through once we reach 14MM, speed 35MMH.”
“Ma’am engineering reports they can do only 20MMH.”
“Right then, do it, it would help if we could strengthen forward shields.”
“Right, do it. Signal evacuation code all decks forward of frame 14, except for A turret, they are to keep firing.”
“Aye Ma’am, but you know we are at frame 12.”
“I know that, give the order if you please Miss Thompson.”
“Aye Ma’am!” BEEEP BEEP, EVACUATE FORWARD FRAME 14 ALL DECKS, SECURE FOR IMPACT
“Ma’am Theta is turning about but she will not get main batteries to bear.”
“Good, Miss Parker the ship is all yours, aim for that bulge just forward their engine nacelles.”
“Aye, adjust by 3 degrees, can we kick in more speed?”
“Aye Engineering can give us 43MMH but only for a few seconds.”
“Good on my mark…” “Sound Collision!”
At first it was hard to tell what happened, when the two shields collided we saw the weaker units on the Theta flare and then blink out, our shields were seriously depleted but still functional, then the armored bow of the Old Skull drove into the top starboard side of the Theta, my angle was slightly off, so rather than a clean perpendicular hit we hit at about 80 degrees. An intense screaming noise of wrenching metal was heard, our bow sliced through the side of the Theta, tearing up the internal bulkheads, A turret was wrenched completely off, and we saw it drift away still firing, until the capacitors were totally drained. Our forward momentum drove the bow through the other ship and it sliced the Theta in two, but we kept going. The entire rear half of the Theta was knocked away, spinning, so that one of the nacelles smacked into the forward superstructure causing some debris to fly up and hit the side of the VNB.
“Hull breach, we have a small leak, over there!”
“Seal suits! DC get to it, everyone else remain at your stations!”
I quickly unzipped my hood and fastened over my head, thus sealing me in the emergency vacuum suit. This is when I saw the cracks develop in the patch from the old torpedo damage.
“Ma’am we are losing that patch!”
“What, oh shit, everyone strap in.”
Soon enough the patch gave way and the entire compartment was exposed to vacuum, as the atmosphere vented out anything or anyone not strapped securely in place was sucked out, which included Miss Thompson as she was trying to stop the first leak. After the chaos of the venting atmosphere subsided I noticed that the navigator was not moving, and as her chair spun around, I saw that her suit was not fully sealed.
While all of this was going on the momentum of our ram pushed us into the port weapons pod, but no further we were stuck hard and fast with the forward half of the theta firmly lodged in place. The after portion, the engineering section soon lost its containment field and its reactors cooked off, with us only ½ a MM away, or 500 KM, way too close for comfort. The shock wave slammed into the ship driving us even further into that weapons pod, which contained the capacitors for the main gun and also racks of torpedoes, which then were cooked off. The explosion of the torpedo magazine destroyed what was left of the Theta, and also tore off our bow, forward of frame 8; secondary explosions gutted the forward compartments of decks E through J. Old Skull was now basically two self contained areas, the port side below deck J and the After section and superstructure above deck E. Everything else was no good.
“Ma’am, Engineering reports all reactors going critical, containment field failing, they are ejecting cores!”
The three huge fusion reactors had their cores ejected through the special hatches in the deck, as the containment fields collapsed the reactors detonated but outside the ship and several MM away. However with the loss of its reactors, Old Skull was now on life support, and internal batteries and capacitors had a very short duration when not recharged.
“Status on the Enemy?”
“Ma’am they are retreating, do we signal abandon ship?”
“Not yet, do launch the beacon though. I am transferring control to DC station 3, we will abandon this compartment.”
“Aye Ma’am ok let’s get out of here.”
Leaving the VNB through the airlock hatch was not easy, but it did help that all gravity controls were off, to help conserve life support. We cycled through five at a time, with Miss Francis leading, as she was injured and Ms. Greer taking the last group down. Since there was little need for maneuvering and sensors, I took charge of both sections and we began a systematic search for injured and trapped crew.
According to the Majourette heading DC 3, there were intense fires in the forward amidships and fire suppression systems were inoperative. Engineering minus reactors is relatively intact and same with the superstructure. The port side is also mostly intact but it was the opinion of just about all of the senior people, which I was one, Old Skull would never sail again. We made our sweep and found several minor or moderately injured personnel, the hatchway down from deck D to E was warped and extremely warm, and so we evacuated D deck and in fact set up a makeshift medical area in the wardroom, which was on C deck. Through DC 3, located on B deck, we had communications with port side lower decks, at DC 5, engineering at DC 4, but nothing from DC 6, 1, or 2. A couple of brave volunteers, suited up in hard vacuum suits to see if they could reach DC 2, which was on deck F at frame 38. DC 1 is in the crumpled zone, and should have been evacuated, and DC 6 is in the area where that Newton hit. While the one team went to establish contact with DC 2, Ms. Greer sent my little detail on another mission; we were to see if we could find an access way down to Engineering, and then see if it was possible to get into physical contact with Portside lower. This is where I became reacquainted with Troopie Ling and Rookie Gierson, so with Ichrone I had almost half of my old trainee command.
Two hours later Miss Francis announced that the Famous and the Licorice have launched their LRAMS, or long range missiles. Now the Corps had three very different groups heading towards their mass of ships. The eighty odd aerospace craft, which were headed towards the distant Dolcianis, the attack ships and frigates going to meet the leaders and now a huge swarm of over 100 missiles aimed at the center of the corp formations. The missiles will arrive first, followed almost immediately by the aerospace craft and then several hours later the ships will be in range with their guns. The missiles were traveling at almost 600MMH and had a range of 200MM. The AS craft were cruising at a cool 80MMH, even though the fighters and attack fighters could easily double that, but for now they were staying with the slower bombers.
Thirty minutes later the missiles screamed home into the dense formation of Theta Cruisers and Trigonometry and Hawking class destroyers. From our great distance we could not tell how many hits were scored, but the thermonuclear blooms were very visible, some appeared larger than others. As was predicted the AS craft struck next, again we were too far to see anything but several more blossoms of nuclear fire could be seen as the torpedoes exploded amongst the enemy ships.
“Ma’am comm. traffic states that the attack fighters took out four Thetas, and twice that in destroyers, they are returning to rearm. The bombers and fighters seem to be still heading for the battle-cruisers.” The commander of the aerospace split her force, sending the attack fighters to attack the lead formation, while the fighters and slower bombers continued on to the main body. Since neither, Thetas or either class of corp destroyer carried fighters, the attack met with little resistance. Corp ships had only the fraction of defensive weapons as ours, but every ship carried a huge wallop in direct fire guns.
“Hey Lover girl, just let you know your sweetheart made it through, her flight took out a Theta.”
“Ah thanks Miss Thompson,” I said greatly relieved that Barbara made it through that attack. The next thing of note was the returning attack fighters screamed by and landed to refuel and rearm for the next strike.
Only three hours had passed since the Famous jumped back alone. And for the loss of a corvette, a frigate and a damaged light cruiser, we have so far taken out at least four heavy cruisers, eight destroyers plus the eight well nine counting the fool who mis jumped, Newtons, so far no AS craft were lost but that’s because the fighters on the Dolcianies have not joined the fight.
Twelve minutes later the first of the attack fighters launched for the 2nd strike, a flight zoomed close enough that I could see that they were not carrying torpedoes, but were rigged up as fighters. About five minutes after that, we got word that the bombers and fighters engaged the Dolcianies. One of the massive blips that represented a battlecruiser blinked out on the screen.
“That is a kill!” shouted Miss Francis.
“Commo from the strike, reports one Dolci killed, the other damaged, but all of the bombers were lost or damaged, and most of the fighters suffered damage, seems like only 40 of the sixty are able to return. “Miss Thompson announced for our benefit “Enemy AS down to about 20%.”
Ms. Greer stated “Ok so we don’t need to worry about them, good, that still leaves one battle cruiser and close to 40 other ships to worry about.”
Again we proved mere spectators as the fight remained a long distance battle, the 2nd strike of attack fighters concentrated on the Thetas, accounting for two more, also this time it was clear that the missiles got a Theta and eight destroyers. This left the vanguard with only 7 Thetas, and about 20 destroyers. Now that the fighters were back, the third strike could use all of the attack fighters with missiles. Of course by now the twenty quadratics from the two Dolcianies were able to mix it up, so the AS craft took some more casualties. But then so did the Corps, including another Theta and two destroyers. By now though the pilots and crews were exhausted and returned to the Illy for some much needed down time. Their services would be needed again soon enough, but first Famous and friends needed to add their two cents.
The six remaining Thetas pulled back and joined up with the surviving Dolciani and fifteen of the destroyers. The remaining six destroyers made a suicide charge at the Famous. The big guns on the light cruiser and the destroyer blunted this attack so that the frigate could add its firepower. Four of the Corp destroyers were destroyed or left as lifeless hulks, in return the Butterfly was lost and the Licorice and Famous battered to ineffectiveness. Both ships broke off and headed to the far jump point. The two stubborn destroyers were harassing them until the Licorice’s torpedoes engaged them. Again something lacking by small Corp warships. She suffered more damage but accounted for both destroyers. Licorice could no longer jump, so both ships were told to retire to the Zambezi and await relief. Rooster was then detached to go look for help, since there was an ATG and BTG somewhere nearby.
Rather than breaking off contact, the Corp leader decided to end the fight, one Battlecruiser of unknown status, six heavy cruisers, and 15 destroyers were now going to press the fight against one carrier, a heavy escort cruiser, and two escort frigates. We had about 25 AS craft capable of strikes, another 40 AS craft for escorts and defense, plus both frigates had torpedo tubes in their bow. The heaviest guns we had were the twin turrets on the Illy. Facing us were the huge particle cannon on the Dolci, and the heavy particle cannon on the Thetas, and half of the destroyers, the other destroyers had small fusion guns and light particle cannon. There were those two Newtons still lurking about as well. We had to remain in the system until the crippled Licorice could dock with the Zambezi and use its jump drives to get out of system, or abandon the crew of the destroyer to the tender mercies of the Corps. Needless to say that would be the option of last resort.
Besides Lady Baroness Shelly MacFaye wanted the other Dolciani, and in her shoes I would have done the same, take it out now or fight it later on possibly even worse terms. The distance between them and us meant we could get another two sorties in before their guns got in range. The fighters would have to keep the enemy quadratics away from the strike birds, which were carrying the maximum load of torpedoes. Priority would be on the Dolci, as she also carried a few missiles that might get lucky. We stayed on a broadside aspect, with Old Skull on the same plane as big Illy, and the two frigates slightly behind but above or below us. Because of their torpedoes the smaller frigates were actually more valuable than we were. Also with our massive shields and armor we could take far more punishment, even when compared with the Big Illy, so Old Skull was literally the wall that sheltered the rest of the ships. Again like the first part of the battle we mostly sat back waiting, I watched the fighters leave the Big Illy and head off towards the Corps, one of the Sheena Cats wagged her wings when she passed, so I waved from my perch on the VNB.
This wait was particularly hard, many of the gals reclined in their chairs to get a catnap, but we have been on station for several hours and the stress was taking its toll. Luckily we were not at Condition Zebra, which made things bearable.
“Ma’am strike report coming in, fighters blew through the quads, and pummeled the Dolici and two Thetas, one Theta is dropping out and listing, our casualties are four amazons and two Sheena-cats lost The Dolci is reducing speed…”
“That means that either the whole formation will slow down or they will soon have two distinct elements. Sensors what do you have?” Greer asked Francis.
“Ma’am I have two groups, first one is four Thetas and 10 destroyers, and the other is the Dolci and last Theta plus 5 destroyers.”
“Right so figure the Trigs are with the first group and Hawkings with the 2nd group.”
“Ma’am signal from flag, the whole group is heading towards the Zambezi, she is extending the distance between us.”
“Right Helm, prepare to adjust course as dictated by BDC. Sensors ETA on return of AS craft?”
“15 minutes Ma’am.”
“Very good, ok, what’s the status of those lurkers?”
“Still same bearing respective to us, they are keeping pace but not closing.”
“Hmm interesting, right keep watching them.”
The AS craft flew back to the carrier, and again one of the strike birds waggled its wings as it passed us by. Another 15 minutes later they flew back this way, and the same fighter (it had the same tail number) did its waggle and sped off towards the first group. Another eight minutes they flew back, all 23 Sheenas, the Amazons and newer Warriors still remained on station. Five Sheenas landed on the Old Skull, as we still had several torpedoes from the fighters that should have been present. This sped up the rearming to 10 minutes and off the fighters went again, to strike the first group. This time only 21 Sheenas, returned, and again 5 landed on our ship.
“Commo from strike, including the last strike, eight destroyers hit, at least three DIS, they are going after the 2nd group, and it is our job to handle the 1st group now.”
“Right, ok people wake up we have some work to do…”
NOW HEAR THIS, NOW HEAR THIS, SET SHIP TO CONDITION ZEBRA, REPEAT SET SHIP TO CONDITION ZEBRA
“…as I was saying this is it, show time.” Ms. Greer said buckling her restraint, we did the same.
So it looked like we had 4 Thetas and around 7 destroyers that would be in their weapons ranges in twenty minutes and our ranges in twenty-two.
“Ma’am Commo from Flag, Old Skull is to get 4MM ahead of the Illy we are attract fires she is going to try to maneuver to get her A turret in action.”
“Right ok Helm, be prepared to take over local control, Thetas have torpedoes, big mothers but they are still torps. Sensors get a bearing on the closest Theta; things are going to get rough.”
We closed with the Corp ships, and soon they began firing their main weapons, we were on a bow on aspect reducing our profile as much as possible. Of course this also reduced our firepower. The good news is the massive shields warded off the shots As we got closer we could see the status of the enemy, five destroyers were hanging back, and appeared to be damaged, along with one Theta, the other three Thetas formed one group while two destroyers, positively ID’d as Trigs formed another group.
BDC TO VNB BE PREPARED FOR TORPEDO COUNTER MEASURES, WE ARE GOING TO MOVE BETWEEN THE TWO DESTROYERS AND RAKE THEM WITH FULL BROADSIDES
“Ok, you heard her, Miss Parker get the maneuver overrides set up and plot several alternate courses to zigzag and disrupt torp locks.”
“Aye Ma’am, ok Ichrone you handle torp breaks, Collingwood, you get the zigzags, right Miss Francis what is our ETA?”
“We will be at the destroyers in eight minutes, present speed, no wait five minutes.”
As we were speaking the crew down in the BDC kicked the big ship to 35MMH, almost our maximum, this was putting moderate strain on the engines but if we were going to survive this and still be able to play with the other ships it had to be done quickly.
“Ma’am destroyers are lining up to fire main batteries…”
“Roger that Parker first course change now!” Ms. Greer commanded
“Down 80 degrees then right 30 and up 40, move!” I yelled out to my team.
The violent maneuver caused objects not strapped in to slide about, which included my cup of tea, which I caught and magna locked into place. However it worked as only one beam hit the ship and it was a glancing blow. The other three missed completely.
“Resume original heading.”
The BDC took over and we continued the death ride taking several more shots and evading most of them. None did any serious damage to the shields.
“Torp Launch, eight of the bastards!”
“Right, Evasion 1!” “Aye Ma’am evasion one.” Ichrone executed her first evasion plan which caused five of the torpedoes to break lock, the other three were engaged and destroyed by our defensive batteries. While all of this was going on our forward facing weapons began hammering the two destroyers, the purpose was to reduced their shields.
“Ma’am 1st ship is down 20%, 2nd is down 40%.”
“Right, ok keep it up. Blast shields closed!”
This command was given as soon as we were about to pass between the two destroyers. However before they closed I saw the forward weapons swing to the port and engage the port side ship. It looked like all the weapons were bearing on a very small part of the ship. We felt some minor bucks as the pathetic secondary mounts on the destroyers fired back. In a broadside with a Neptune at knife range there is usually only one outcome. We sped by the two ships strafing them with over 25 guns each. “Ma’am port bastard, shields have just flared, starboard is down to 10%”
ALL HANDS BRACE FOR FLIP the command from the BDC sent shock waves through the VNB crew.
“What?” Miss Francis exclaimed in surprise
“Oh yeah, you know we are flipping the old Skull, giving those pukes another dose.”
Sure enough the cruiser did a loop and flew between the two destroyers, which were trying to turn about. This time though it wasn’t the shields that were taking our weapons but the hull, and Corp ships have very fragile hulls, especially around engineering.
“Reactor Spike, brace for Impact!” The shock wave of the starboard ship (was originally the port one before the flip) blowing its reactors buffeted the Old Skull.
“Status on shields?” Greer asked the DC team leader
“Still 80%, we are returning to Illy.” Miss Thompson got the data from the BDC first and relayed it to the Executive.
“Ma’am 2nd trig is DIS, she is listing and falling out of the plane, her attitude controls must be shot to hell.”
“Right good work there Parker/”
“Oh Shit!” Tamera yelled
“What is it?” I asked her before anyone else could reply.
“The two Newtons have just decided to join the fun, they are closing on us fast!”
“Right open blast shields prepare for Torp evasion!”
“No Torps, those crazy so and so’s are going ram!”
“Crap, alert BDC and brace for impact!”
“All right one was taken out by our batteries shit lost the last one!”
The force of the small star vessel impacting the ship and shields was tremendous; The area of impact was near L battery on the ventral side. The damage knocked out the lower rear shield section, and seriously damaged the whole lower half of the starboard side. The worst damage though was the main power coupling from the BDC controls to engineering was severed.
BDC TO VNB, YOU HAVE THE CON WE ARE OUT OF COMMISION DOWN HERE WITH MANUEVERING
“Aye BDC how’s navigation and sensors?”
“We still got primaries on line, Damage Control reports commo between us and engineering is gone, Navigation sail is gone from S to U. Decks P, O, and N report serious damage on starboard side, L Battery is not responding, J Battery is down 20% and has casualties.” Miss Thompson relayed the diagnosis
“Right ok Parker you are flying the ship.”
“Aye Ma’am, course and heading?”
Take us back to the Illy…”
“Thetas firing Torps, at the Illy, forty long range torps, 10 are going to hit!” Tamera interrupted given the grave news.
“Not if we can do something about it, move this can Parker!”
I then ordered the ship to accelerate to 45MMH and we rocketed between the Illy and the interposing torpedoes.
“Ma’am reporting jump signature, no wait reporting several jump signatures, it’s the Dauntless!”
The news of the battle cruiser and her escorts’ arrival meant that the Corps were doomed, but first we had to deal with those torpedoes.
“Parker don’t you dare dodge those things, they can’t hit the carrier!”
“Aye Ma’am, Miss Francis, what are their bearings?”
“90 Degrees. Plus 30, 2nd group 95 Degrees minus 80.”
“Right Ichorne plot course 93 Degrees minus 30, Speed 35MMH.”
“Aye Ma’am!” This course put us on a bow on aspect to the first group and slight oblique to the 2nd group.
“Defensive weapons firing!”
We had to keep the blast visors up, but that meant that the glare from the explosions could dazzle even with the polarized view screen. The ship rocked with each nearby explosion.
“Shields down 40% at the bow.”
“Aspect change bottom group, they have broken lock from the carrier, heading towards us now.”
“Aye, Collingwood, roll 280 degrees to port. Ma’am signal BDC to evacuate port hanger area.”
“Right, you heard her do it, and open launch and recovery doors port tube.”
My plan, if you can call deliberately driving a ship into the path of several fusion tipped torpedoes a plan, was to put the empty and decompressed launch tube and hanger in the trajectory of the Torpedoes, this way the port batteries had a chance to engage, plus if any should hit a good deal of the explosion will be vented out to space. Like with the first group the guns got some, and the missiles and other point defenses got a few others, but one or two leaked through. The impact of the first torpedo rocked the ship, as the warhead detonated on contact. The second torpedo managed to slip through the opened recovery bay and detonated on the hanger bay wall. It was going at slight upward angle so it ripped apart much of J and I decks, which unfortunately for us included the BDC. Recovering quickly I noticed that several systems were off line but I still had maneuver control.
“Ma’am DC reports massive damage to J and I decks, including the BDC, casualties unknown but…”
“Right ok, we have all command functions. Advise battery mistresses that they are on local control.
“Ma’am DC reports fires spreading in J and I decks, recommends we vent.”
“Do it, get me a status on all batteries.”
“Ma’am two thetas heading this way.” Tamara said as the situation just turned even uglier
“Right Parker, take me through the leader!” Ms. Greer commanded.
“Ma’am?” I asked not quite understanding the command
“You heard me ram that son of a bitch.” She said with little emotion
“Right plot course 230 degrees, angle plus 800 then dive through once we reach 14MM, speed 35MMH.”
“Ma’am engineering reports they can do only 20MMH.”
“Right then, do it, it would help if we could strengthen forward shields.”
“Right, do it. Signal evacuation code all decks forward of frame 14, except for A turret, they are to keep firing.”
“Aye Ma’am, but you know we are at frame 12.”
“I know that, give the order if you please Miss Thompson.”
“Aye Ma’am!” BEEEP BEEP, EVACUATE FORWARD FRAME 14 ALL DECKS, SECURE FOR IMPACT
“Ma’am Theta is turning about but she will not get main batteries to bear.”
“Good, Miss Parker the ship is all yours, aim for that bulge just forward their engine nacelles.”
“Aye, adjust by 3 degrees, can we kick in more speed?”
“Aye Engineering can give us 43MMH but only for a few seconds.”
“Good on my mark…” “Sound Collision!”
At first it was hard to tell what happened, when the two shields collided we saw the weaker units on the Theta flare and then blink out, our shields were seriously depleted but still functional, then the armored bow of the Old Skull drove into the top starboard side of the Theta, my angle was slightly off, so rather than a clean perpendicular hit we hit at about 80 degrees. An intense screaming noise of wrenching metal was heard, our bow sliced through the side of the Theta, tearing up the internal bulkheads, A turret was wrenched completely off, and we saw it drift away still firing, until the capacitors were totally drained. Our forward momentum drove the bow through the other ship and it sliced the Theta in two, but we kept going. The entire rear half of the Theta was knocked away, spinning, so that one of the nacelles smacked into the forward superstructure causing some debris to fly up and hit the side of the VNB.
“Hull breach, we have a small leak, over there!”
“Seal suits! DC get to it, everyone else remain at your stations!”
I quickly unzipped my hood and fastened over my head, thus sealing me in the emergency vacuum suit. This is when I saw the cracks develop in the patch from the old torpedo damage.
“Ma’am we are losing that patch!”
“What, oh shit, everyone strap in.”
Soon enough the patch gave way and the entire compartment was exposed to vacuum, as the atmosphere vented out anything or anyone not strapped securely in place was sucked out, which included Miss Thompson as she was trying to stop the first leak. After the chaos of the venting atmosphere subsided I noticed that the navigator was not moving, and as her chair spun around, I saw that her suit was not fully sealed.
While all of this was going on the momentum of our ram pushed us into the port weapons pod, but no further we were stuck hard and fast with the forward half of the theta firmly lodged in place. The after portion, the engineering section soon lost its containment field and its reactors cooked off, with us only ½ a MM away, or 500 KM, way too close for comfort. The shock wave slammed into the ship driving us even further into that weapons pod, which contained the capacitors for the main gun and also racks of torpedoes, which then were cooked off. The explosion of the torpedo magazine destroyed what was left of the Theta, and also tore off our bow, forward of frame 8; secondary explosions gutted the forward compartments of decks E through J. Old Skull was now basically two self contained areas, the port side below deck J and the After section and superstructure above deck E. Everything else was no good.
“Ma’am, Engineering reports all reactors going critical, containment field failing, they are ejecting cores!”
The three huge fusion reactors had their cores ejected through the special hatches in the deck, as the containment fields collapsed the reactors detonated but outside the ship and several MM away. However with the loss of its reactors, Old Skull was now on life support, and internal batteries and capacitors had a very short duration when not recharged.
“Status on the Enemy?”
“Ma’am they are retreating, do we signal abandon ship?”
“Not yet, do launch the beacon though. I am transferring control to DC station 3, we will abandon this compartment.”
“Aye Ma’am ok let’s get out of here.”
Leaving the VNB through the airlock hatch was not easy, but it did help that all gravity controls were off, to help conserve life support. We cycled through five at a time, with Miss Francis leading, as she was injured and Ms. Greer taking the last group down. Since there was little need for maneuvering and sensors, I took charge of both sections and we began a systematic search for injured and trapped crew.
According to the Majourette heading DC 3, there were intense fires in the forward amidships and fire suppression systems were inoperative. Engineering minus reactors is relatively intact and same with the superstructure. The port side is also mostly intact but it was the opinion of just about all of the senior people, which I was one, Old Skull would never sail again. We made our sweep and found several minor or moderately injured personnel, the hatchway down from deck D to E was warped and extremely warm, and so we evacuated D deck and in fact set up a makeshift medical area in the wardroom, which was on C deck. Through DC 3, located on B deck, we had communications with port side lower decks, at DC 5, engineering at DC 4, but nothing from DC 6, 1, or 2. A couple of brave volunteers, suited up in hard vacuum suits to see if they could reach DC 2, which was on deck F at frame 38. DC 1 is in the crumpled zone, and should have been evacuated, and DC 6 is in the area where that Newton hit. While the one team went to establish contact with DC 2, Ms. Greer sent my little detail on another mission; we were to see if we could find an access way down to Engineering, and then see if it was possible to get into physical contact with Portside lower. This is where I became reacquainted with Troopie Ling and Rookie Gierson, so with Ichrone I had almost half of my old trainee command.