The Void War (Empire Rising Book 1) (19 page)

As things stood, she had lined up her ships to get close enough for one passing shot at the Chinese with their plasma cannons, maybe two. She could alter course again. However, now that both fleets were so close, they might detect her ships maneuvering thrusters, getting closer would also give the Chinese the chance to react and fire back with their own plasma cannons. Jensen wasn’t sure her fleet would survive such a volley.

Reviewing her options one more time she made up her mind and sat perfectly still, refraining from ordering anymore course corrections. Two volleys would have to do. It would leave Wolfe and
Broadsword
in a tight position but hopefully she could do enough damage to help them out.

Admiral Zheng was already composing his report for the Politburo. His fleet was about to put out the greatest missile salvo since the final battle of the New France Campaign. With almost two hundred missiles at his disposal he had aimed them all at the five cruisers approaching him, ignoring the smaller ships. With over thirty missiles targeted at each one he was sure none would escape damage, with luck they would even all be destroyed in the first salvo.

There was still an hour to wait but he had already ordered most of his light ships to form a protective screen ahead of his main fleet. The British had a slight range advantage and he wanted to make sure neither of his battleships took any damage. With only limited repair capabilities within the Void he didn’t want to have to send either of them home unnecessarily.

A sudden explosion drew his attention back to the main body of his ships. One of the frigates he had left guarding the rear of the fleet had disappeared off the tactical plot, indicating that she had stopped communicating with the flagship.

“Admiral,” his sensors officer called out in a panic. “I have multiple heat sources and drives coming on line, bearing zero seven seven point three. They are almost dead astern!”

Zheng had been replaying the visual feed from the frigates last known position. All he could see was an expanding ball of debris. With his sensor officer’s report he quickly put two and two together. That’s why the other ships didn’t run away, he thought, they are not alone.

Jensen smiled as the only frigate that could have warned the Chinese crumpled under her plasma cannons. This was the signal for the rest of the ships to drop out of stealth and open fire. As one, every ship fired and a hail of plasma arched out to strike the Chinese ships. She had ordered the first volley to target the smaller ships, as she wanted to whittle away their point defense.
Valkyrie
was the only exception. Her larger guns were aimed at the lone Chinese battlecruiser. She wasn’t sure
Valkyrie’s
guns could punch through the larger battleship’s armor at this range but she knew they would make quick work of the Chinese battlecruiser.

Mere seconds later the battlecruiser visibly shuddered on the visual display. Jensen saw at least one of the four heavy plasma bolts punch right out of the other side of the battlecruiser. She wasn’t going to last long. Simultaneously, a light cruiser, four destroyers and the remaining rear guard frigate exploded.

The rest of the Chinese ships continued on as if nothing had happened. Their crews too stunned to react. Thirty seconds later
Valkyrie
and the heavy cruiser
Achilles
fired their plasma cannons again; they were the only ones with large enough caliber guns to do any damage at the ever increasing range.

Each ship had targeted one of the battleships and explosions rippled across their armor. Neither dropped off the plot though and no secondary explosions were detected. Instead Jensen’s attention was drawn back to her ships, one of the Chinese heavy cruisers had managed to turn and return fire before the range became too great and the destroyer
Sandstorm
erupted into a ball of fire.

“Signal all ships.” Jensen shouted over the noise of the bridge, “Everyone is to go to rapid fire on their missiles now!”

The Chinese were clearly getting their act together, even as Jensen’s fleet fired their first salvo of fifty-five missiles the Chinese turned as one and returned fire with over one hundred and eighty. As Jensen’s missiles approached the enemy it looked like the first salvo would do significant damage. Yet suddenly the Chinese forward screening ships appeared, decelerating between their larger brethren to add their counter fire to the battle.

“Target their new screening elements in the next salvo,” Jensen snapped.

The Damang incident had taught the British a number of hard lessons. One had been that ships that specialized in point defense were much more effective at protecting other ships. Missiles that were accelerating straight for them were harder to intercept.

She watched as the Chinese began to engage her missiles. Silently she willed them through the point defense barrage and onto the two battleships. Every missile had been targeted at them in the hope that being caught with their screening units out of place would have allowed some to get through the battleship’s defenses.

The forward screening ships had reacted faster that Jensen had anticipated and their additional fire was reducing her missiles quickly. In the end only four missiles got through, three scored proximity hits on one of the battleships, stripping off some of its armor, external weapons and sensor nodes in thermonuclear blasts. Yet it continued on.

As the Chinese missiles approached the British ships Jensen ordered another salvo fired and then the British ships switched their focus to point defense. The flak cannons reached out and began to engage the incoming Chinese missiles. Jensen had one flak frigate and three flak corvettes with her, combined with
Valkyrie’s
two flak guns that gave her fleet seven. Each had been assigned a cone of space around her fleet and soon the incoming missiles had to go through a hail of fire, the likes of which had never been seen before in human interstellar war. One hundred and eighty were quickly reduced to one hundred, then sixty and then thirty nine. Next it was the turn of the point defense plasma cannons to open up, closely followed by the AM missiles. More slowly, they too began to whittle down the explosive force arrayed against Jensen’s fleet. As the last ten accelerated up to attack velocity, the British ships went into evasive maneuvers and launched decoy drones. All but two of the missiles missed their targets. Yet, as the fleet reformed its formation, a light cruiser and a flak corvette were missing.

Jensen grimaced at the losses. Yet their initial ambush meant they were still giving better than they got. She checked the range. Her ships would only have time for one more missile salvo. As she was watching the Chinese ships they eventually managed to fire off their second salvo. It was actually larger than the first as their screening ships were able to add their firepower. In response the British fired their third salvo and then prepared themselves for the coming onslaught.

Silence descended on the flag bridge as the superior numbers of the enemy quickly reduced the British second salvo. In the end the missiles only managed to get hits on two frigates and a light cruiser. Both frigates exploded but the light cruiser continued, albeit falling behind her consorts.

As the second and last Chinese missile salvo rained in on her ships Jensen had to grit her teeth to remain still. Their first salvo had almost overwhelmed her defenses and now she was down two flak guns.

One hundred and ninety missiles became sixty from flak cannon fire. Then the plasma guns and AM missiles began to knock them off in fives and tens. Yet it wasn’t enough. Fifteen reached attack range and went to their maximum acceleration. The heavy cruiser
Achilles
and the flak frigate
Bat
both exploded from direct hits.
Valkyrie
rocked as two missiles scored proximity hits.

“Damage report?” Jensen called out.

“This is the Fourth Lieutenant here at damage control, the Second Lieutenant has been killed. Reports are still coming in but it looks like we have lost the number two flak gun along with three of our starboard missile tubes.”

Jensen felt a cold drop of sweat run down her back, they had stared death in the face and survived. Most of her fleet had not. She was down to
Valkyrie
, the light cruiser
Justice
and her two remaining flak corvettes. If the Chinese Admiral wanted too, he could decelerate and finish them off, Jensen only hoped they had caused enough damage to make him think twice. With Wolfe and the rest of her task force still out there the Chinese might not want to run the risk of being engaged on two fronts. It was a long shot though.

Aboard
Drake,
James watched as Admiral Jensen’s third missile salvo closed with the Chinese. As soon as she had opened fire with her plasma cannons she had went to full military power after the Chinese fleet. However, the velocity the Chinese had been carrying into the system meant that both fleets had already fallen out of range of each other. Only the British rapid firing ability and range advantage had allowed her to get off one more salvo than the Chinese ships. 

Of that third salvo only two missiles managed to get through the Chinese defenses but both scored a direct hit on one of the heavy cruisers. Seconds later, as its reactors overloaded, it detonated in a colossal fireball

As James continued to watch, both fleets reformed the ships they had left into the best protective formations they could. Then space seemed to go quiet once more. The Chinese still had their two battleships, eight cruisers and six screening ships left. James couldn’t tell if the battleships had taken any serious damage.  Even though a number of missiles had scored proximity hits to add to the plasma bolts from Jensen’s second volley they were still heading into the system, towards the second British fleet. Admiral Jensen had managed to punch well above her weight.  Yet Wolfe and the rest of the fleet were still outnumbered almost two to one.

Then the Chinese fleet moved most of their screening ships forward again. They were preparing to engage the second British fleet. Wolfe and
Broadsword
were now angling away; they had completed their mission of luring the Chinese into the system. Yet their opponents were altering course to try and close the range.  By James’ estimate, Wolfe was going to take a hammering before she could escape.

“Gupta, alter course.” James requested. “Get us in front of the Chinese fleet’s new angle of attack if you can. We need to try and pull some of their screening units away from
Broadsword
.

“Tactical, once we have our new position locked in I want you to start calculating missile timings and trajectories. We’re going to flush as many missiles out of our single tube as possible and leave them on a ballistic trajectory. Once the Chinese fleet passes us we’ll signal them to go active. Hopefully the different angles of attack will confuse the Chinese and let us get away. More importantly though, it might make them paranoid, they won’t know who else is out here. We have to give Captain Wolfe a chance. 

Ten minutes later everything was ready. The Chinese fleet was twenty-five minutes away from engaging
Broadsword
and her colleagues. As the Chinese passed in front of
Drake
she began to flush missiles. Without having to feed them targeting data she was able to get off three in quick succession. James waited another minute and then gave the order.

“Send the signal, tell the missiles to go active.”

There was only a few milliseconds’ delay between the signal reaching each missile and their response. Almost at once, all three went active and began to accelerate along the ballistic course they were already traveling.  At the same time their active radar seekers came online and began to look for a target. All three locked onto the solitary frigate that was at the rear of the Chinese formation and began to turn towards it.

High Admiral Zheng was fighting to keep control of his anger. Somehow the British had known he was coming. They had laid an ambush for him. Both his precious battleships were damaged. Not badly enough that they were out of the fight but enough that he knew he was going to be called before the Politburo. And those blasted flak guns. They had allowed the first British fleet to survive his two salvos. Well, he wasn’t going to let the second fleet get away so lucky. Once he had smashed them and their bases on the planet he would turn around and get his revenge.