Warpath (Rise of the Empire Book 4) (22 page)

***

Three hundred of the Empire’s battleships came to a stop and launched their missiles, in a span of five minutes each task force fired 7500 missiles. 15000 missiles sped towards the Sowir. The last time that Sowir ships encountered the Empire’s missiles didn’t go well for them. But this time they were ready. Upon detecting the Empire’s ships the Sowir assumed a formation specifically designed to fight this kind of threat. Each ship’s on-board point defense computer linked with each of the other ships, creating a net, their point defense lasers now working in perfect harmony. As soon as the Empire’s missiles entered the range of their defenses they opened fire.

Six hundred ships were positioned to take the Empire’s fire, each of those ships equipped with dozens of point defense lasers. Lasers reached out to strike at the missiles with pinpoint precision, every laser fired at the same time at the missiles that were approximately the same distance from them. The tactic was devised to take down as many of the enemy missiles as possible before their computers realized that they were under fire and executed their evasion protocols. But the Empire’s missiles were not the same as they were thirty years ago. For every 500 missiles, one was actually equipped with FTL sensors and connected with the others. The 30 sensor missiles detected the danger the moment the Sowir ships fired, but still the near instant response wasn’t fast enough.

About half of the point defense lasers missed their target, destroying only 6000 missiles in a span of seconds. The Sowir defense net now changed protocols to match the Empire’s now evading missiles. The Sowir had studied the records of their battles with the Empire’s ships, their new defensive system designed specifically to battle them. The Empire’s missiles were more advanced, faster and more maneuverable than before, but the Sowir defenses were more advanced as well, and the number of their ships coupled with their positioning meant that Sowir had an upper hand. Over the next minute their defenses destroyed all of the Empire’s missiles.

***

Harbinger

Adrian watched as his fleets missiles were destroyed by the Sowir.

“They’ve upgraded their defenses.”
Iris commented.

“Yes, we knew that it was likely they would do so. We haven’t observed their ships in battle since our last encounter.”
Adrian said. But he was impressed, his ships were capable of firing much larger load, and his battleships had fired only about 10% of their supplies, and only their standard missiles – the Striker MK 7 missiles. His ships were equipped with other types of missiles, but this first attack was a test in a way, he wanted to see how effective the Sowir defenses are. He was sure that his fleet could fire enough missiles to overwhelm the defenses, but then he would be dangerously low when the main Sowir force returns. The battleships ammo supply was just too small for this kind of engagements.

His fleet now stood at a relative stop, across from the Sowir ships. Battles in space could take many different shapes depending on circumstances. Now the Sowir force was blocked between Nelus and his forces, if they tried to move and escape they would only make things worse by turning their backs to his and Nelus ships. They were forced to stay put and wait for their main force. So the three forces would stand at a distance and fire at each other.

Adrian noticed that four hundred Nelus ships had moved out of the protective area of their stations and engaged the two hundred Sowir ships positioned at the back of their formation. Nelus ships were technically on the same technological level as Sowir, or they were thirty years ago at least. But half of the Nelus ships were converted merchant ships, another hundred were their new cruiser class and the last hundred their old heavy cruisers. The Sowir force consisted out of two hundred battleships, three hundred heavy, and hundred light cruisers, presumably all upgraded with all kinds of technologies they got in the last thirty years as proven by their much better defenses. Thirty years ago the human ships managed to defeat Sowir mainly thanks to their kinetic weapons against which Sowir had no defenses. Now Adrian couldn’t use those weapons against the force in front of him, any miss could find its way to the Nelus force behind the Sowir, and in the worst case he could accidentally hit the planet or the installations in orbit.

He was forced to use laser and particle weapons. The clock to his right showed another eleven minutes until the main force reached firing range. He started manipulating the command board and issued orders to his ships.

Chapter Twenty

December; Year 31 – Nelus

Three hundred and fifty ships of the Warpath Fleet opened fire with their laser and particle weapons, just a moment before the Sowir fired with their own weapons. The Sowir fire included their own missiles, and every second hundreds of missiles launched and sped towards the Empire’s ships, only to be destroyed by their defensive fire.

Powerful lasers struck at the Sowir ships scorching their hulls, forcing the Sowir ships to move or roll their ships in order to dissipate the heat. Each of the Empire’s lasers held their fire for five seconds before stopping to cool down, the Sowir lasers doing the same. In the opening minute of fire the six hundred Sowir ships managed to inflict light damage to fifty of the Empire’s battleships with their particle and laser weapons, while the Empire’s battleships destroyed twenty of their heavy cruisers, fifteen light cruisers and eight battleships. But soon enough the fire from the Sowir ships changed focus as they started targeting less ships, but brining to bear more fire on them.

The Empire started losing ships.

***

Harbinger

Adrian watched his holo as reports started coming in from his battleships, they were taking more and more fire, forcing him to move the damaged ships back. The Sowir ships were not as technologically advanced as his battleships, but their weapons were obviously more powerful than 30 years ago. And they were fighting smart, firing with as many of their ships as they were able on a single one of his.

But even with their numerical advantage the exchange favored his fleet. For every one of his ships lost the Sowir lost five. Adrian knew that he could have destroyed more of their ships if he had ordered his Vanguard ships to fire with their full capabilities, but he didn’t want to tip his hand and show what those ships can do before the Sowir main force arrives.

He glanced at his holo to see how Nelus side of the battle was going. The exchange there was more even, Sowir lost thirty eight ships and Nelus thirty two. Even though Nelus had numerical advantage.

Adrian turned and checked on the Sowir main force that was now moving at full speed towards his ships, the clock read another six minutes until they get in range. Adrian adjusted his orders.

***

The fire between the Empire and Sowir intensified as nine ships from the Empire’s side increased their rate of fire. Suddenly the Valhalla opened up with its particle beams and they started hitting the Sowir ships with deadly precision, destroying ships in a single shot. Laser fire several times more powerful than that of the Empire’s battleships reached out and burned the Sowir ships without stopping for the cooling periods, melting through the Sowir ships cutting them in half.

Invictus and Ras’tar launched missiles, two hundred each. The most advanced missile that the Empire ever produced sped towards the Sowir at amazing speeds, closing the distance in a short time. The Sowir defensive net attempted to take them down, but the missiles evading protocols were far more advanced and the missiles were equipped with the field defense technology. They couldn’t keep the field up for long, only a couple of seconds. But that was enough to get them through the defending laser fire.

Four hundred Enforcer MK 1 missiles smashed into eighty Sowir ships, five missiles per ship. The eighty Sowir ships disappeared in a flash of fire, their debris flying out in every direction, hitting and damaging nearby ships.

***

In fifteen minutes Sowir had lost one hundred and forty four ships while he lost nineteen of his battleships. On the Nelus side the Sowir had lost another sixty three ships while Nelus fleet losses raised up to eighty nine, their ships just couldn’t stand up to their enemy’s. With only four more minutes until the Sowir main force arrives, Adrian pushed one of his formations in front to screen the other as he positioned it to wait for the main force. He raised the formation his ship was in above the two others, allowing it to fire at both Sowir forces while the wall formations in front still provided defensive and covering fire.

Adrian was tempted to fire more of the Vanguard fleet’s missiles, but he knew that he would need them when the main force arrives. He checked to see the main force’s progress and saw that they had entered the range of his battleships. He sent out orders, keeping in mind the timing, he needed to get this just right.

***

Out in the darkness of space a shape moved quickly out of the path of the incoming Sowir force. The Vanguard ship Specter sped towards the point above the Sowir fleet. Specter was the fastest ship in the Vanguard fleet, and by default the fastest ship in the Empire. In record time it arrived its vantage point and then settled in to observe its work.

Behind it the Specter had left a gift for the Sowir fleet. And the Sowir fleet was heading right in the middle of it.

***

The Sowir main force of one thousand and two hundred warships followed by two hundred support ships advanced on the Empire’s force, unsuspecting of the danger on their path. The greatest mistake that the Sowir made was to take a direct path to the Empire’s ships.

The Empire’s task force two had adjusted its position to meet the oncoming Sowir force, and as soon as they entered their missile range they fired. One hundred and fifty battleships fired all of their remaining missiles, with the three Vanguard ships in their task force adding fifty of their more advanced missiles each. Twenty two thousand six hundred and fifty missiles rushed at the Sowir main force in two waves of eleven thousand. The Sowir ships immediately linked their point defense computers, their net started taking down the missiles at an alarming rate. But then their force’s movement brought them close enough to the area that the Specter had left just a few minutes before.

In seven positions around the Sowir fleet’s direct course Specter had laid mines. Although they weren’t really mines, more like missiles that floated around in space until the small guiding drone detected enemy ships nearby. The missiles weren’t in the Sowir fleet’s direct path, but just off it, close enough to be effective, but out of the way of their visual sensors which were probably focused on the Empire’s fleet and now on the missiles speeding towards them. The seven drones sent out signals to their respective groups of missiles and their targeting computers turned on, found a target, and fired their drives.

The missiles were close enough that Sowir ships had no hope of reacting in time, especially when their net was preoccupied with the missiles coming from the Empire’s ships. Each of the seven groups had 200 missiles, 1400 missiles total. The missiles came at the Sowir force from seven different directions from almost point blank range, targeting closest ships.

But even with the element of surprise and their superior speed, the missiles encountered defensive fire. The Sowir new defense system proved much more formidable, the defensive fire took down half of the missiles. But the other 700 found their marks destroying ninety four Sowir ships and crippling thirteen. The first wave of the missiles from the task force two was almost destroyed, but the trap sprung by Specter allowed some to make it through destroying another seventeen ships.

Immediately after the first wave passed the Sowir tightened their formation, filling in the holes made by the destroyed ships. And their defensive fire focused on the second wave. Again the missiles started disappearing quickly, but the second wave had 150 of missiles from Vanguard ships. While Sowir net was taking down the regular missiles those 150 reached the inner envelope of the Sowir defenses and with their field defenses they passed through, destroying another seventy three Sowir ships.

***

Adrian watched as the Sowir ships took down most of the missiles speeding towards them, but even with their new defense system they couldn’t take them all down. Although if there wasn’t for Specter’s mines they might have been able to so. Their advantage in numbers was negating Adrian’s missiles. If their numbers were equal he could have taken at least half of them with the same amount of missiles.

He checked the holo, the Sowir main force had lost one hundred and eighty four ships, but all of them were light and heavy cruisers. Their battleships was in the second line, and behind them followed one hundred and ten much bigger ships, the Sowir new class that was inspired by the Empire’s dreadnoughts. He didn’t know their capabilities, although scans indicated that their weapons had about 20% more power. He glanced back to the force between his and Nelus ships. Task force zero and one were still pounding the Sowir ships while the Nelus ships did the same from the other side. The force of eight hundred ships was now reduced to five hundred and eighty three ships. Nelus ships had lost more ships than the Sowir force they had engaged and now they had about two hundred and eighty ships left.

With the arrival of the main force, Adrian needed to reposition his fleet. He instructed task force two to be rear guard as his ships slowly moved around the smaller Sowir force to join the Nelus ships. That would allow the two Sowir forces to meet up as well, but there was nothing he could do about that. If his ships remained where they were he would get squashed between two forces larger than his own. His ships were faster than the Sowir so it would be easy for him to change positions if the Nelus ships screened their movement. He was just about to send a message to the defenders when he was interrupted.