Federation Reborn 1: Battle Lines (23 page)

he said, clenching his fists on the arm rests. “Order
Barnebe
and
Walker
to cover our retreat. And let them know if they don't, we'll cut them down,” he growled. “I will not tolerate cowards,” he snarled.

---<>---<>---

Amadeus shook himself. He hadn't expected the enemy to run. Oh, eventually yes, but …. He had expected his own ship to be targeted, but
Yris'ka'th
and her consorts had fought off the missiles valiantly. They'd fought in a tightly knit unit, one the enemy hadn't. Only two missiles had gotten through to score hits on her. Her engineering teams had already gotten her shield back up to 78 percent.

He'd miscalculated he thought. The enemy had immediately come about and withdrawn. He'd expected them to linger, to try to pick up survivors. He also hadn't expected the missile pods to be that effective. His hesitation had allowed them to get a head start. Now they were in a stern chase, but the enemy's damage was slowing them down.

“Sir, two of the corvettes have taken hits. One from a grazer, sir, another sucked up some stray ordinance from the fighter engagement. They are falling out of the chase,” CIC warned.

“Have one of the frigates near them assist,” he ordered. He noted the fighter engagement had ended with a complete route. The enemy fighters had been chased down and destroyed to a man. His forces had lost three fighters, with an additional two damaged. The damaged fighters were limping back to
Cutlass
. One fighter was circling the engagement zone. As he watched points were placed all over the CIC map; beacons marking the location of downed pilots.

“CIC keep that plot tight. Get …,” he frowned and then shook his head. “Captain, order a shuttle to act as SAR. Get it out now.”

“Aye, sir. We'll be down to one shuttle on board, sir,” the captain warned.

“One will have to do,” the admiral stated. He had planned to board the freighters, but that didn't look like it was going to happen. That Horathian
Arboth
was ruthlessly cutting them down. He had identified it as the enemy flagship.

“Sir, Viper is pulling ahead of us.”

“I think they are eager to get a line on the enemy, sir,” the TACO said in the bridge.

“This isn't a race,” the captain stated.

---<>---<>---

Over the course of a day, they kept to the stern chase. The remaining Horathian tin cans and one frigate covered the withdrawal of the three remaining freighters, the
Clydesdale
Moldy Crow
, and another medium class freighter. The other frigate had been cut down by
Viper
when she had wandered into her engagement window for too long to pick up a shuttle. She'd fallen back, and her flagship had ruthlessly torn her apart.

“We're finally gaining on them,” the captain stated. If the long hours in the chair had bothered him, he didn't seem to show it. The two destroyers had sent back missiles to keep things lively for the tactical department though. The missiles had been dumped overboard to engage instead of fired. It was the only way the three ships could do it. The frigate had shot herself dry in the first hour. The other two ships kept the missiles coming at twenty-minute intervals. But since the missiles were coming on from a cold start, they didn't have a short engagement window as they would have if they had been fired. And they weren't very accurate either.

That was the problem with a ship with most of her weapons facing forward, the admiral thought as he sipped at his coffee. An
Arboth
and an
Antelope
had all their missile tubes in the bow, none on the stern. The
Antelope
was designed as a raider; she had very little stern weapons at all. The
Arboth
had a grazer mount on her dorsal stern though it seemed that its firing accuracy was substandard. She had a point defense phaser on each flank too, but they were also substandard. He made a note to point that out in his final engagement report as he set the cup down. The caffeine was good for his tired body and nerves. Hopefully, it wouldn't screw his stomach up in the final moments he thought.

“Sir! CIC reports the flagship is slowing! Her drive is lighting up and not in a good way!”

“Her drive already had damage. Something finally broke,” the admiral murmured. Shuttles kicked out from her flanks to the remaining ships. Two went for the remaining destroyer but then changed course for the freighter
Moldy Crow
with the other shuttles.

“Sir, the remaining warships are picking up speed,” CIC warned.

“I was afraid of that.”

“They are leaving the freighters behind?” the captain asked.

“It looks that way.”

Lieutenant Meia's flight came out of stealth a few moments later and engaged the fleeing ships. Her squadron didn't have the weapons to wreck the fleeing starships, but they could target their point defense and drives. Amadeus watched as the fighters headed for the freighters.

“Enemy frigate and destroyer are moving in to engage the fighters, sir,” CIC reported. “Should we order the fighters to break off?”

“By the time they got the order, it would be too late,” the captain stated. The admiral grunted in agreement. He watched with the others as the fighters split up into pairs to weave around the three remaining warships. Two changed course to tangle with the frigate. They got some good hits in, dancing around her invisible return fire, but their luck didn't last long. One wandered too close into the
Antelope's
engagement range, and she was torn apart. The admiral winced.

“Sir, the fighters have changed course! They weren't going for the freighters after all!”

“What?” Amadeus demanded, watching as the fighters that he had thought had broken up all changed course in one perfectly synchronized maneuver to target the
Antelope's
stern. They fired into her stern and vulnerable drive thrusters.

The
Antelope
attempted to maneuver wildly but they had her. She had very little stern point defense too, and her shields were naturally weak in the stern so her exhaust could escape. The invisible energy beams pierced the shield and then peppered her stern.

“Her drive is failing!” the TACO said, exulted.

But they had paid a price, Amadeus noted, watching as the Horathians hit back. Two of the small craft took hits—one a glancing blow on her shields but the other proved fatal. The remaining fighters broke off and went back into stealth.

“Entering engagement range of the
Arboth
!”

“Then fire,” the captain said, settling himself. His tail flicked as the two ships fired head on.

Weapons fired back and forth between the ships. His closely knit defenses, defense drones, and fully operational systems however were more than a match for the
Arboth
. The weapons fire from
Viper
,
Cutlass
,
Hecate
, and her sister frigate only made the destroyer's destruction quicker.

“The
Antelope
is trying to ram!” the CIC rating yelped.

“Helm! Maneuver out of her basket. All weapons fire as you bear!” the captain ordered.

The JTO had other ideas however. He cut the defense drone in to ram the
Antelope
head on. The explosion of the drone on the ship's shields momentarily blinded her and allowed
Yris'ka'th
to escape harm. As the ships split up around the kamikaze ship, they ripped into her flanks tearing gaping holes into her. After a moment her reactors, fuel, and ordinance went off behind them in an eye-tearing explosion.

“One to go,” Amadeus murmured. “Tell the frigates to run her down and tear her apart if she won't surrender.”

Aye, sir,” Jojo replied. She sat back, seemingly exhausted. “All over but the paperwork,” she murmured.

“Almost. Order
Cutlass
to slow and recover our remaining fighters and SAR craft,” Amadeus ordered as the two frigates sprang forward, faster than before. The slower destroyers had been holding them back. They were no longer restrained however; the two pit bulls tore into the
Manta
, hammering her shields down. The
Manta
made the mistake of dividing her fire between the two ships.

“Aye aye, sir.”

Within minutes the
Manta
took enough hits to buck. Her shields failed and weapons fire began to bite into her hull. She finally wised up and targeted
Hecate
alone, but it was too late.

“Sir! The freighters are spooling up their hyperdrives!” CIC reported.

“What now?”

“Apparently so,” Amadeus said, accusing eyes locked on their icons. In a minute it would be too dangerous to get in close to force the ships to shut down. He glanced at his status board.

“Order the frigates to make one firing pass from long range and then stand clear,” he ordered.

---<>---<>---

Despite the frigate's best efforts, the freighters escaped into hyper at the outer edge of the jump point to B-95a3. The Cygnus class freighter had been damaged in her haste to jump as well as apparent fighter and frigate weapons fire damage to engines sublight engines. CIC reported she had been leaking significant amounts of fuel and atmo when she had jumped.

Admiral White was annoyed that they had gotten away. It was inevitable though; he just wished they had gotten a clean sweep. The longer the enemy didn't know that the Federation had taken the star system the longer they would have to prepare and the more likely they would be able to pick off small groups coming through the jump chain for parts unknown. Now that was all up in the air.

He ran the playback and had CIC do an assessment on the escaped ships while tactical stood down for a much needed break. It was obvious from just a visual inspection that the
Cygnus
had been a bit banged up.

Running the damage past her specs was a simple affair. Marshall and the CIC rating put it up on his display as an overlay. Based on their assessment, he judged she wouldn't survive to get to Dead Drop—not leaking fuel like that he judged with a trace of satisfaction.

The other ship though, the
Clydesdale,
he shook his head. He had no idea what her fuel state was. He frowned thoughtfully, ignoring the cheering going on in the bridge while his thoughts toyed with the future.

If they pulled the fuel, remaining atmo, and crew off the wounded ship, would they make it? What were the assets in Dead Drop? What about if they headed to Nuevo Madrid instead? Was there a pirate fleet presence there? Or even just a damned courier boat? Damn it, he thought, sighing in frustration. He closed his eyes and rubbed his brow. Again, a lack of intel he swore, shaking his head in exasperation.

There had been no way to prevent their escape with the assets he'd been given. He made certain to point that out in his report; he knew it was a bit of ass covering but did it anyway as a reflex action. He also dispatched the frigates to remain on the jump point as pickets while he turned his attention to the post battle chores and the waiting supine planet.

Chapter 12

General Busche got the report that the naval force had been driven off and snarled as she handed the tablet back to the private. “It figures. The navy drops the ball, and we're left picking up the pieces.”

“Ma'am? General, what do we do?”

“We fight of course,” she said eying the man. He was good; otherwise, she would have gotten rid of him long ago. But they had never experienced such a situation. They were used to being the victors she thought, accustomed to it, as they should be.

She, however, had made contingency plans the moment Gumel had reported the enemy's arrival. She was glad now she had had the foresight not to trust the pompous idiot. Of course he couldn't hold! “Order to all commands. We're going to be fighting a guerilla war, one on two fronts, against the native population and the enemy above. Get everyone into hardened shelters, in the mines or caves. Get our hardware and people dispersed; I don't want any nice fat targets for them to rock bomb into oblivion. Set up the decoys like I ordered. Get that sorted out now.”

The private nodded, jotting out the orders quickly.

“Order every major prisoner to be executed now. Clean out the work camps and cleaning camps now and then blow them to hell.” The guards wouldn't be much against a determined enemy, but at least they were something. The native quislings she didn't trust at all. She was tempted to execute them just in case they turned their coats again but put the decision off. “Get any captured hardware we've got underground. Anything we can't hide and use later, we either take apart or reduce it to ash so they can't use it against us.”