Hold the Star: Samair in Argos: Book 2 (60 page)

              “Very good work, tactical,” Harth congratulated them.  “Target the destroyer.”

              Skygexx was still reeling in shock.  The Republic ships had torn through
Wrath
as though it was made of tissue paper and glue.  The corvette’s electronic warfare suite had been next to useless against their missiles and their shields hadn’t stood up worth a damn.  In two salvos, well technically one, a corvette carrying eighty people, eighty good officers and crew of one of Verrikoth’s marauders had been simply wiped out. 

              And it would be another twenty seconds before
Ironhide
would even be in range to do anything about this.  He’d known that Republic tech was better than anything that could be found out here in the Argos Cluster, but he hadn’t thought that his own gear was
that
bad.  He shook his head slowly in disbelief.

              “All right.  Supercharge our forward shields,” he ordered.  Clearly what they had wouldn’t be enough and now both of those ships would be focusing all that fury down on
Ironhide.
  His destroyer was a lot tougher and bigger than
Wrath
, but the destroyer was little more than half the size of the heavy cruiser and nowhere near as well armed.  He had to hold things together long enough for Commander Sokann to get his fighters in range.

              The tactical officer nodded, working his console.  Skygexx saw the shield icon on his display glow a neon green and he nodded in satisfaction.  A few seconds later, he saw that the Republic ships had fired again, this time energy weapons only.  The ship shuddered under the pounding.

              “Shields are holding, but we’re losing strength,” the tac officer reported.  “Down to eighty percent… seventy-two percent… sixty-four.”

              “Roll the ship,” the captain ordered.  “Helm, put an s-curve into your approach, I want to try and spread out their fire among multiple shield vectors.”

              “Aye, sir,” the zheen at the helm replied, his voice sounding almost sullen.  But he did his job with smooth efficiency, his hands manipulating the controls.

              “In range, Captain!” the tac officer almost shouted. 

              “Let them have it for the first salvo, tactical,” Skygexx ordered.  “Then for the second, shift fire and throw everything at the heavy cruiser.  I don’t want them to think we don’t love them.”

              Chuckles erupted from the various officers on the bridge.

              “Incoming fire,” Kamerov said, sitting at tactical.  “Shields are holding at ninety percent.”

              “Hold missiles,” Harth ordered.  He checked his ammunition readouts.  Magazines were at sixty percent, which still was a fair amount, but there was no telling how many more ships were out here in the Cluster that
Legacy
was going to have to deal with.  If his suspicions were correct, then the pirates were sending ships to Byra-Kae and they’d have their hands full. 
Legacy
would need every edge to deal with that many cruisers.  “Energy weapons only.”

              “Aye, sir,” Kamerov replied, nodding in understanding.  He depressed the firing key and the
Legacy’s
heavy lasers and turbolasers opened up.  “They’re rolling.  I can’t get a clear shot on any one shield vector.”

              “That’s all right,” Duncan said.  “We’re going to be passing them in a few moments anyway and we’ll have to come back around.  When we pass them, Exec, hit them with a full broadside.”

              “Aye, sir.”  Kamerov had a smile on his face.  He’d scored several hits on the destroyer already, but they were managing to keep his fire from concentrating anywhere.  But his firing solutions were firming up the closer the ships got. 

              “Order
Ravage
to swing wider,” Duncan ordered.  “I want them to put pressure on the destroyer from another attack vector, give them more things to think about.”

              “Aye, sir,” Petty Officer Khovik said from the comms station, sending the message.

              “Captain, fighter squadrons are firing missiles,” Drommen reported suddenly.  “One missile each, all of them are targeted on us.  Flight time, fifteen seconds.  Destroyer is altering vector, she’s moving to open up the range between us.”

              “Very well,” Duncan said.  It wasn’t the smartest of moves, but it would give
Ironhide
a moment of breathing space, while the heavy cruiser dealt with the swarm of stinging wasps that were coming at it.  “Keep an eye on them.  Tactical, activate our electronic warfare suite, I don’t want to get hammered by all those missiles.”

              “Aye, sir,” Kamerov replied, his hands flying over his console.  “Ready for counter fire.”

              “Engage the missiles,” Duncan ordered. 

              The missiles had been fired simultaneously, but the fighters were approaching in a staggered formation.  This meant that the missiles were coming in in a ragged approach, not in a single salvo.  This made them a bit easier for Lieutenant Kamerov’s weapons to target them and shoot them down.  A blistering storm of lasers cut loose from
Legacy’s
broadside, accompanied by a lesser one from
Ravage
.

              “We got most of them, Captain,” Drommen said.  “Four still inbound.  Five seconds to impact.”

              The point defense laser clusters went into a last-ditch panic fire, spewing coherent light at the incoming weapons, savaging one of the Sierra missiles.  The other three crashed into the heavy cruiser’s shields, which glowed opaque as they sucked up the damage.

              “Shields down to sixty-eight percent,” Drommen called, his voice getting slightly anxious.

              “Target the fighters,” Duncan ordered.  “Firing plan Sextus.”

              “Firing plan Sextus,” Kamerov repeated. 

              “Helm, attack pattern Beta.”

              The heavy cruiser twisted in space, moving in a corkscrew maneuver with surprisingly agility.  It was a bit like a shark rapidly changing direction in the water to attack a school of piranhas.  The ship’s weapons were fully under computerized fire control, as what looked like a sheer spray of energy weapons blazed out, firing on the local starfighters that were attempting attack maneuvers of their own.  They’d broken formation and were peppering the warship with their energy weapons, swinging wide and pulling in close to the ship.  The heavy beams of the
Legacy
’s turbolasers swatted them out of space, as it took the pain from their weapons.

              The ovoid shaped fighters flew in ones and twos, ignoring their discipline, mobbing the heavy cruiser like remoras trying to take down that angry shark.  Their laser cannons were pitifully ineffective against the cruiser’s shields; it seemed as though the missile salvo they’d sent
Legacy
’s way was really their only strong punch and the Republic ship had weathered it without too much trouble.  Their lasers now were little more than stings, which were slowly draining power from the cruiser’s shields, but it was taking all their fire to really make any appreciable difference.

              One of the ship’s heavy lasers blasted apart another of the Muon-class strike fighters and Skygexx cursed. 
This is insane.  It isn’t supposed to be like this!
  He pounded the arm of his chair in frustration until there was an audible crack as he fractured the carapace on the outer edge of his hand.

              “Zg’chiss Leader to
Ironhide
,” Sokann’s absolutely livid voice crackled over the bridge’s speakers.  “I don’t know what the hell you think you’re doing out there, but my pilots are getting chewed up.  Get back here and help us
kill
this thing!”  Eight of the Muon fighters had already been destroyed and as Skygexx checked his display, he saw another vanish as it flew through the coherent energy of one of the cruiser’s turbolasers.

              “What’s the status of our shields?” he demanded, double checking on his own display.

              “They’re firming up at seventy percent, Captain,” the elderly male zheen at the tactical station replied.  He was a wily old beast, long past his prime, but he knew his job and he could fight the ship. 

              “Captain, the Republic cruiser’s shields are weakening, but there’s no spotting or holes yet.  The fighters are attempting to attack only on one shield vector, but they’re having trouble concentrating their fire.”  Kufazik sounded as though he was announcing sports scores for the Tyseus springball open, not in the middle of a battle where people were dying.  “They are, however, managing to keep the Republic corvette on the far side of the cruiser, and effectively out of their fight.  Every time the corvette attempts to maneuver to attack them, they swarm to the other side of the cruiser.  However, that is further hampering their efforts as every time they do that they are moving to a new, less damaged shield vector.”

              “Helm, bring us about,” Skygexx ordered.  “Take us in there, and as soon as we’re in range, target all weapons on the cruiser.  Flush our missile tubes, fire all energy weapons.”

              “Understood, Captain,” the old one replied, his hands moving swiftly over the controls, setting up the firing solutions.

              “Destroyer is coming back around, Captain,” the domak reported.

              “Bring us around to intercept,” Duncan ordered, leaning forward in his command seat slightly.  “Have
Ravage
follow us.  We’re going to attack the ship together.  We’ll drive the destroyer between us and pound him from both sides.”

              The ship hummed as the engines kicked in and the inertial compensator tried to keep up with the sudden change in vector and velocity.  Cutting forward acceleration, the helmsman rotated the ship around to the appropriate vector and then engaged the drives again.  The bridge crew were pressed back against their seats as the heavy cruiser fought against inertia to get onto the assigned attack vector, but a ship that large didn’t exactly turn on a dime.  It took a few moments to get the big girl turned around and moving, time that the destroyer was using to close to weapons range.

              Then the destroyer threw everything it had at
Legacy
, and both Republic ships gave back as good as they got.  Their own salvos savaged the destroyer, knocking the ship’s forward shields down and tearing into the hull.  Crewmen frantically sealed off compromised sections, slamming bulkheads shut to contain atmosphere.  The hull looked as though the
Ironhide
had flown face first through an asteroid field with no shields, and had been hit a dozen times by very angry rocks.  But she was living up to her name.  While the ships of the Argos Cluster couldn’t match Republic weapons or sensor technology,
Ironhide
had been built to a different standard.  She wasn’t intended to go toe to toe with a heavy cruiser, but she was designed to take a lot of punishment.  She was designed for raiding: race in, fire off a salvo or two and then race away, which meant most of her armor was focused in her forward quarter.  Which is probably what saved her from the Republic onslaught.  Yes, she was torn and bleeding, yes, she was hurt, but she could still fly and she could till fight. 

              She raced past the two ships and kept right on going, not off course, but running.  These were pirates, not a regular Navy force.  Apparently, their captain had decided that he was not going to die trying to take on a superior Republic force.  Whoever was left of the starfighter contingent apparently had come to the same conclusion, as all the fighters had broken off their attack and were accelerating back toward the fueling station. 

              Duncan looked over to his officers.  “Damage report?”

              “We took some hits, Captain,” Drommen replied.  “Our forward shield took a pounding from their incoming fire, it’s down to twenty-four percent with some serious spotting.  We’ve taken some hull damage as well.  One of the turbolasers in Battery Two and another two in Battery Three are offline.  Sensors on the bow took a few hits too.  Engineering is working on it.”

              “What’s the status of those ships?”

              Drommen took a moment to reply.  “They’re all moving to the fueling station,” he reported.  “They’re taking up a defensive formation less than a light second away.  The destroyer is moving in to support them there as well.”

              Duncan nodded.  “Very well.”  He straightened in his command seat.  “Stand down from general quarters.  Take us in closer to the shipyard, I want a good look at what they’re building there.  Make sure to steer clear from the fueling station; we didn’t come here to fight them, despite what just happened.  We came here to find that damned freighter.”

              “Break off!” Skygexx shouted as the bridge rocked.  One of the auxiliary navigation consoles exploded and the zheen there shrieked in agony as hot metal, ceramics and plastics blasted all over him. 
Verrikoth isn’t paying us enough to die for him.  Not with no chance of success
.  He saw the helmsman executing his order and
Ironhide
shot past the Republic ships, running for all she was worth.  “Contact Commander Sokann!  Tell him to break off his attack and regroup back at the fueling station.”