“There's something strange going on here sir. There are several ships floating on the surface of the planet. They look like harvesters,” one of the tactical crew said, bringing her findings up on one of the two dimentional wall displays.
“Look into it more once we have the Silkstream. That has to be secondary.”
“Yes sir.”
“We have to stay focused or we'll get killed out here,” Captain Valance reinforced. There were fighter squadrons, destroyers, even a couple long range carriers in the area. Most of them were out of immediate firing range, and the closest vessels were beneath the Triton's class, but they were still dangerous in such numbers.
“I have them sir! They just came in on the other side of the system!” called out one tactical officer excitedly as he forwarded his find to the main tactical display. It was on the other side of the planet, over a million kilometres away.
“Get us there Ashley, bring us up to seventy percent thrust,” Captain Valance ordered.
“Aye sir,” she replied with a smile, powering up the five main engines.
“Try to get a read on what's going on closer to the planet, I want to know if anything is getting to that ship faster than us.”
They started closing in on a wide orbit around the planet, weaving invisibly between vessels both small and large. Ashley was forced to come within less than a kilometre of one of the larger ships more than once, she listened to instructions from both her navigators, who only focused on the most important information on the obstacles that weren't immediately in front of her or interfering with her direct trajectory. She was one with the controls, and as they reached the closest point of the planet's atmosphere without disrupting their cloaking fields, she guided the ship at great speed, rounding the blue globe while dodging between small substations, satellites and transports.
They came around and tactical was able to glean more information about ships that may be interfering with the Silkstream IV. “Captain, there's a destroyer closing on our objective at a range of thirty kilometres,” announced Price.
“Full burn at your discretion Ash! Get us between the destroyer and the Silkstream. ”
“They're launching small ships sir. They intend to tow her I think,” a tactical officer informed.
“Gunnery deck, your target is my target. Open fire,” Captain Valance ordered as he marked the four shuttles just leaving the destroyer. “Once you're done with that, put some holes in that destroyer. Let's scare them off.”
“Aye! I have your target,” Frost acknowledged.
“Divert power from cloaking systems to enhance shields,” Alice ordered as Jake directed Frost's gunnery team.
“Torpedo and missile bays, target that destroyer and fire two volleys from all banks,” Captain Valance ordered.
“Pitching negative twelve degrees to improve our gunnery profile,” Larry, the primary navigator announced for Ashley. Three of the Triton's main engines rotated so they were still accelerating to close the distance while the ship's nose tilted down. The gunnery deck, laid on a convex curve along the dorsal, or top side of the ship, would be able to target the destroyer and everything in front of them with all her dorsal rail cannons.
The thick hatches hiding the eighty eight rail gun turrets on the dorsal side of the ship moved upwards and to the side so the deadly cannons could raise up. Each gunner took aim and opened fire. The entire topside of the ship lit up with the white light of hundreds of rail cannons firing at the four fifteen meter long boarding craft. They only fired for two seconds, then stopped and aimed at the three hundred forty meter long destroyer.
The deadly projectiles tore through the shuttles, and by the time they were shredded into scrap and slag the rail gunners were firing at the red and blue coloured destroyer. Thirty six torpedo bays and fourteen rapid fire missile posts at the front and side of the Triton let loose their deadly projectiles, each one homing in on the outmatched vessel thousands of kilometres away.
The targets' anti-ship batteries and flak cover destroyed a few of the torpedoes and quickly accelerating missiles but they could do nothing for the hundreds of thousands of rounds that struck their armoured hull at over two thousand kilometres per second. The outer armour of the ship flew to pieces, revealing the inner hull as it burst outward, expelling the air and other pressurized contents within.
“We have destroyers and one heavy carrier trying to close to within range with us Captain,” Price reported. His tactical department was forwarding all their advisories to him, it was up to him to make informed decisions and bring up issues in order of priority. “The nearest is less than a minute away,” He started marking potential targets.
“Frost, switch to flak and high explosive loads. Divide your fire between the nearest ships at your discretion,” Captain Valance ordered. He knew Frost would handle the specifics, but he'd still keep his eye on the situation to make sure there wasn't a dangerous target not getting enough attention.
The surface of the Triton came to life once more as the turrets chose targets in all directions and flung explosives wrapped in steel and shreds of metal at all comers. Their former target, the destroyer, was listing to one side, adrift.
“The colony ship has disappeared sir, along with any magnetic fields and ships within three hundred metres,” Price announced. “On playback there's a large power surge in the moments before.”
“Thank you, we'll look at it later.”
“Seventeen seconds before we're in tractor range of the Silkstream. ” Announced the helm.
“Are your people ready?” Captain Valance asked.
“Of course we are. Just waiting on you,” Paula answered.
Two of the destroyers veered away as soon as they started taking hits, trying to accelerate around the planet to use it as cover. It was a poor tactic, getting around the gradual curvature of the atmosphere would take precious minutes. The others were coming straight on as fast as they could and were suffering the consequences.
The Triton started taking hits as well, rail cannon fire half the calibre that it used and pulse weapon fire. A few beam weapons tried to tax the shielding, but at a glance Captain Valance and his First Officer could both see that they would make it to the Silkstream, their shields hadn't taken over twenty percent damage yet and Chief Grady had increased the recharge rate, so they were gaining strength.
“Tractor system engaged,” Paula announced, watching the technicians several steps down and in front of her.
“We have them, bringing them in,” one of them announced.
Captain Valance brought up the view from the inside of hangar one on a bridge wall. He could see the needle shaped ship being pulled in sideways, there was more than enough clearance for it to make it into the hangar.
“Start getting us out of here,” Captain Valance ordered tensely.
He glanced at the tactical display. A total of five destroyers were firing on them along with one carrier launching eighteen fighters at a time. “Running out of time here,” he brought up the fighter's profile. They were all bombers, some were armed with nuclear warheads and heavy shielding. The Triton's port shields were depleting fast and there were at least two dozen large projectiles incoming, they had to be torpedo or larger class.
“Frost, intensify flak fire. We have nukes coming in.”
“Aye. Sharpen up and shred those radiological points! I didn't come all this way to get a sunburn! Loaders switch to flak! Two magazines!” Captain Valance and Alice could hear Frost shout through the shared comm channel before he muted that channel.
“The Silkstream is aboard and secure,” Announced Assistant Deck Chief Paula.
“Thank you,” Captain Valance said with a cordial smile and nod.
“Checking it out sir, taking a medical team with us,” Stephanie announced.
“Cloaking systems up!” First Officer Valent commanded.
“Let's get out of here!” Captain Valance ordered with urgency.
“Three nukes in staggered formation got through the bulk of our flak field!” Price announced.
Captain Valance didn't have time to put the order through, he just brought up the screen to increase power to inertial dampening systems and did so while reducing the tolerances. He hoped they'd be strong enough for the crew to survive the shock wave of a nuclear blast.
“More power to shields!” Alice ordered.
The first of the nuclear missiles was destroyed by flak fire, the second got through seconds later and
