Chroniech! (22 page)

"Yes sir." The helmsman busied herself at the computer console for thirty seconds and a graph appeared on the screen. If the Komodo Dragon started decelerating too late, they would intercept the General Patton sooner but would fly past the enemy ships so fast they would not have much time to engage them. If they began deceleration too soon, they would be within weapons range of the enemy ships for a longer period of time but they would also arrive later — possibly too late.

Stricklen consulted the graph, analyzed the tactical situation, combined the knowledge of what he currently knew of the capabilities of all the ships involved and came to a decision. "Begin 120% over-thrust deceleration at intercept minus five minutes. Give the crew a two minute warning and then a fifteen second countdown. While we are within range you are to maintain an optimum weapons orientation no matter how much return fire we take."

The helm acknowledged the captain's orders and Stricklen stepped over to his weapon's officer. "Mr. Gavin, coordinate with the GP and set up an optimal attack sequence. Let's see if we can at least knock out the lead ship. Once its been put out of commission, you're free to engage any target you choose."

Stricklen returned to his command chair and said, "Dragon, over-thrust is authorized. Authorization code omega-nine-seven-three-sigma-four-seven."

"Over-thrust authorization code accepted," the ship's computer replied.

For the next few minutes the bridge was quiet except for the gentle tapping from the weapons officer's keyboard as he worked with his counterpart on the General Patton to create the most effective attack sequence. The helm made some final adjustments on her console causing a countdown timer to appear on one of her displays.

Satisfied, she sat back and watched the numbers roll down toward zero. At the two minute mark, she pressed a key causing an attention tone to sound. "Attention! One hundred twenty percent over-thrust in two minutes. All hands make final preparations. A fifteen second countdown will be given prior to engaging."

Throughout the entire ship, last minute checks were made to ensure everything was prepared for high acceleration. The weapons officer made some final adjustments to his program then set his console to activate the entire sequence at the push of a single button. When the time came, the helm calmly gave the crew a fifteen second countdown and then pressed a button on her console.

For a brief moment, nothing could be felt but within seconds the crew started to feel their weight increasing as more and more thrust was applied. The ship started to creak and groan and a small vibration could be felt. Within fifteen seconds the ship was at 120% of its maximum compensatable thrust and each crew member felt as if they weighed nearly four times their normal weight.

Just over four minutes crept by, then the weapons officer announced through clenched teeth, "Weapons range! Commencing attack on the lead ship." He depressed the execute button and the tactical computer took control of the weapons.

Four beams from the midship-mounted tunable lasers reached out and not so gently touched the shield of the ship nearest the General Patton. As they raced closer, the energy impacting the enemy shield ramped up. As soon as the Dragon was within range, the computer fired off two volleys of sledgehammers spaced one second apart. The timing was perfect. The first pair slammed into the now heavily loaded shield briefly taking it to near overload. When the second volley arrived both penetrated the shield and impacted directly on the armor plating of the destroyer.

All warships are armored to provide some protection in battle against weapons fire if the ship's defense shield becomes so heavily loaded that it begins allowing some of the weapon's energy to leak through. The armor, however, was never meant to withstand a direct assault especially from a weapon like the sledgehammer. Although less powerful than the Tholtaran version, the Dragon's sledgehammers still packed a huge amount of power into each bolt.

The armor plating glowed briefly then melted and literally exploded under the sledgehammer's initial impact. That impact triggered the collapse of the soliton's complex electromagnetic fields allowing the weapon's load of protons and anti-protons to come into contact with one another. Matter was instantly converted into pure energy. The force of the blast was focused by the still collapsing fields toward the breach in the ship's armor.

The intolerable blast of energy tore through four bulkheads and all the intervening equipment. The pulse bathed a third of the ship in intense gamma radiation immediately sickening several crew members and giving many more a lethal dose. The superheated atmosphere overpressurized several compartments causing transverse bulkheads to rupture or deform. The savage electromagnetic pulse scrambled half the ship's sensitive electronics despite being radiation hardened. The Dragon's weapons officer manually directed a single nuclear-tipped missile toward the doomed ship as the tactical computer turned its attention toward the next target.

While the sledgehammers were recharging, the Komodo Dragon concentrated all available beam weapons and a few missiles at the next destroyer. Unlike the first target, this one's shields had not been under constant assault from the General Patton. Also, unlike the ship that was now an expanding cloud of lightly glowing gas, this one, along with two others, decided to fight back. Because of the attack vector which the helm had chosen, few of the enemy ships were able to get a clean shot at the Dragon.

Several powerful beam weapons impacted the Dragon's defense shield and were harmlessly reflected back into space. This defense, however, did not come without a price. The shield's defensive capabilities were weakened with each drain placed on it. Eventually, the shield would begin to lose its reflective ability and start to leak. Once this happened, the ship's only defense was its armor. If the shield leaked too much energy, the armor would be overwhelmed and damage would be sustained.

The helm had been carefully watching her board and announced, "We will be out of weapon's range in two minutes."

Stricklen checked his master board and noted the shield was beginning to show signs of weakening with several spots on the Dragon's hull indicating a rising temperature. If the Army of Humanity didn't have anything left to throw at them they would come out of this with barely a scratch.

The entire battle had lasted for just over three minutes so far. The weapons officer quickly checked the status of the sledgehammers, made some mental calculations then quickly programmed a series of instructions into his console.

Abruptly, one of the Dragon's beam weapons ceased fire. Stricklen made note of this but did nothing — he had the utmost trust in the capabilities of his weapons officer. By shutting down one of the weapons, the excess power could be redirected toward charging the sledgehammers.

For slightly more than a minute the warships battled each other with beam weapons alone. Either the destroyers did not have any missiles left, or they were saving them for later. The weapons officer closely watched his panel, his eyes quickly darting from screen to screen. Suddenly, he reached out and depressed a button on his console activating the firing sequence which he had previously set up. A series of closely spaced missiles left their launch tubes, directed at specific points on the enemy ship's shield.

Three seconds later an alert popped up on the threat assessment screen. "Inbound missiles!" the weapons officer announced. "I count at least fifty. They're all unpowered and shielded. CIWS is engaging but some are bound to get through."

At this range, all missiles used conventional drives. Faster than light missiles took too long to form a stable drive matrix and could easily be destroyed. The missiles the Dragon had detected were of a vastly different type. They had no propulsion system, actively hid themselves through advanced electronic countermeasures, and were equipped with a short-lived defense shield. They were launched electromagnetically and were exceptionally hard to detect. The Dragon's sensors had failed to pick them up until the missile's shields had powered up.

"Helm: Cut acceleration and… "

"Captain!" Gavin interrupted. "Hold for just a moment please!"

"Belay that last order helm."

Although most of the Dragon's missiles were intercepted and destroyed many made it to the target. As the first missile exploded all four sledgehammers fired. The crackling balls of concentrated energy passed several other missiles and struck the weakened enemy shield. For a moment, the shield resisted this titanic onslaught but it was severely weakened.

Another missile then struck and detonated with the power of fusing atoms. A second and third missile found no resistance as the destroyer's shield was now completely overwhelmed. They impacted on bare armor and the resulting nuclear explosion completely annihilated the ship.

As soon as the sledgehammers had fired, the weapons officer yelled, "Evade!"

The captain seconded this request, making it an order and the helm cut the acceleration to zero and applied all possible thrust to changing the ship's orientation and direction. The internal gravity field fluctuated wildly as these maneuvers were performed and the captain felt his equilibrium being challenged. Several indicators glared red on Stricklen's master board indicating they had sustained some damage due to these extreme maneuvers. A moment later the missiles which had made it past the Dragon's defenses struck.

The computer brains aboard the enemy missiles detected the change in the target's approach vector and recomputed when to explode. Although they did not directly impact the Dragon's shield, they detonated quite close. The Dragon, however, was extraordinarily lucky. With the destruction of another enemy ship, the beams from that ship had ceased and the drain on the shield had dropped.

Thirty-two 1-megaton nuclear missiles detonating within thirty kilometers of the ship, however, were too much for the shield and it failed. The distance from the explosions saved them as well as their high speed which quickly carried them away from the center of the blast. The damage control board lit up as the ship shook from the impact of the expanding shock wave. Stricklen's master board showed they had taken considerable damage but they had survived and still had propulsion.

As the Komodo Dragon passed out of weapons range, it left two destroyed ships in its wake. "Helm, plot us a course back to Shaular. Make sure we stay clear of any unfriendlies. Doug, take a census of the damage and report back to me in five minutes. Lieutenant Gavin, hell of a job with the weapons! Good work!"

A few minutes later, Scarboro presented his findings. "Most of the damage was restricted to the starboard side of the ship. We have three hull breaches, all aft of frame 220 located here, here and here," he said pointing with the end of a pen at the flexible schematic of the ship he had lain out on top of a console.

"Two dead and eight injured. Damage has been restricted to non-critical exterior compartments such as berthing and perishable storage. Missile tube six is out of commission and laser turret two is pretty much a total loss. Sledgehammer three's confinement generator was knocked out of alignment - possibly some structural damage there as well. All other weapon systems are unaffected. The high acceleration evasive maneuver caused a water transfer pump at frame thirty deck four to break loose and damaged several other minor internal systems."

"Not bad Doug," Stricklen remarked. Turning to his weapons officer he said, "Mr. Gavin, tell me about those missiles that hit us. How did they manage to get so many off at once?"

"I believe the Army of Humanity has modified their old destroyers pretty heavily. They appear to have installed a large number of magnetically launched missile tubes giving them the capability of simultaneously firing off a volley of fifty missiles. Each missile is not only shielded but they appear to have been partially cloaked. The shields did not activate until they were quite close which is why we did not pick them up sooner. Their major weakness is that their lack of any propulsion system. Had they been powered, we would not be sitting here."

"An interesting weapon system. We should pass this on to the Alliance to see if it can't be enhanced," Doug remarked.

The Komodo Dragon, using significantly lower thrust, slowly made a long U-turn back towards the Hess homeworld. While they worked on getting back to the planet, the General Patton continued on its previous course. Eventually, the GP, along with the pursuing AOH destroyers, passed the line the Hess had drawn in space.

"Some sort of weapons fire from the planet!" the tactical officer announced from CIC.

"Can we get a visual?" Stricklen asked.

"Yes sir, coming up on the main screen."

A second later, a highly magnified view of the destroyers appeared on the main screen. Ken and Doug, who had rejoined his captain on the bridge, saw several pencil-thin beams of green light striking the shields of the attacking destroyers. This amazed the two seasoned officers since such beams of energy should not have been visible in the vacuum of space.

At first, the beams had no effect and simply bounced off the reflective defense screens. As they watched, the beams seemed to shift and run through the entire spectrum of colors within a matter of seconds, finally settling on a sort of dull blue-gray. The beams then thickened and pulsed. The result was dramatic.

The destroyers suddenly began moving in wildly insane directions. After a couple of seconds of dashing about, the ship's engines shutdown and they began drifting in space.

The Dragon picked up an all-channel wide-band broadcast: "This is the Hess to the remaining destroyers which have attacked the Alliance dreadnought General Patton. Your ship's control and navigation systems have been rendered temporarily inoperative. A repulsor beam will shortly push you away from this planet. When your systems return to normal, you will leave this star system never to return. If you attempt to return, your ships will be destroyed. This is the only warning you will receive."

True to their word, repulsor beams reached out and touched the destroyers. Within minutes they were hurtling away from the planet. One of the destroyers fired off a volley of missiles. Quick as lightning, a bright white energy beam lashed out and vaporized all thirty-seven missiles in the blink of an eye.