A swarm of Kilrathi fighters shot in, stitching his destroyer with everything they still had. Four of them elected to simply come straight in, one of them kamikaziing through the shield as it struggled to recover from the repeated hammer blows. The kamikaze hit just aft of the bridge, blowing into the center of the ship, knocking Mike to the deck. Decompression alarms sounded off, the damage control board sparkling with red lights.
'Torpedo room.'
'Twelve and counting, sir. What the hell happened back there?'
'Never mind, just get those birds launched.'
Another string of fighters swooped in, concentrating on the bow of the ship.
'We've lost lock, sir. Torpedo guidance control off line.'
'Damn it!'
To his right, Roger Young launched its torpedoes just before blowing. The spread of a dozen rounds leaped forward
'Helm, follow those torpedoes in,' Mike shouted, and then he reached over, punching the abandon ship alarm.
'This is the captain speaking. If you wanna see your families again, you've got thirty seconds to get to the escape pods and the hell off this ship!'
He looked over at his helm and fire control officers.
'I hate to ask this of you two.'
'It's all right, sir,' the helm officer said. 'This time the family wants to be on the winning side.'
Mike looked at the rest of his team.
'You heard me, get the hell off this ship.'
They hesitated.
'Damn it, you fools. You've got something to live for, now move it,' and he grabbed hold of his damage control officer and pushed her towards the door.
She looked at him, wide-eyed, torn.
'For God's sake, Elaine, you've got kids back home. Now move it!'
She struggled to hold back the tears and then, turning, ran down the corridor to the nearest escape pod, the rest following.
'Helm, follow those torpedoes in.'
Aye, sir.
Mike stood, watching the screen, ignoring the fighters that swarmed around his ship. A staccato series of hammer blows blew the main generator off line, dim emergency battle lamps coming back on. All but two of the torpedoes launched by Young were gone as well.
'Torpedo room, still with me?'
'Still here, sir. Figured we should hang around for the fun.
'Get ready for blind fire. Set fuses at point one seconds!'
'Point one seconds, sir?'
'Shut up and do it!'
'Point one seconds, sir, and we'll see you in hell.'
'Helm, do your job right. Bring us in on the landing bay an instant after Young's birds hit.'
The helm officer grinned as he delicately worked the controls, weaving the destroyer in, as it came up directly astern of the enemy carrier.
The carrier's point defenses tore into his ship and he felt her dying, letting go.
'Helm, full speed ahead now!'
He felt the final surge of his ship thundering under his feet.
'Torpedo room, ready, ready, fire!'
The one surviving torpedo from Roger Young hit the carrier's aft starboard launch bay and blew, distorting the phase shielding. An instant later a dozen more torpedoes fired at point blank range detonated.
The last thing Mike Polowski saw were his own torpedoes blowing less than fifty meters ahead of his own ship. He thought of the warm hills of his now dead world and smiled as the blast wave blew his ship apart. The forward momentum of what had been the aft end of his destroyer, however, continued on, even as it died, adding its thousand tons of mass into the detonating firestorm of the torpedoes impacting against the carrier's overloaded shields. Most of the mass was repelled away, but the aft end of the ship, engines still pulsing, even as the ship ahead of it vaporized, continued onward, driving through the shattered hull, pushing before it fragments of bulkheads, decking, and those few still on board. The engine mounts, made of solid durasteel, were all that was left a hundredth of a second later as they impacted through the landing bay's airlock. Several dozen tons of molten durasteel blew into the vast hangar bay, vaporizing flesh, cutting into fuel lines, igniting ammunition, and ripping open the hundred and three fighters being readied for launch.
The entire bay exploded in a white-hot fireball of destruction.
Prince Thrakhath staggered through the wreckage and onto Craxtha's main bridge. The room was choked with smoke, half the bridge crew dead or wounded, open fires still licking out of shattered equipment. The ship's commander was dead, slumped in his chair, the top of his head gone.
'Who's in command here?'
The crew looked at him, stunned.
'I think I am now, sir,' and Thrakhath saw the green tabs of damage control on the officer's collar.
'Can you save her?'
'We've lost two aft bays, my lord,' the officer reported. 'The explosion started in starboard aft bay, then leaped through an open access elevator to topside bay.'
'Why was it open?'
'The commander ordered it. They were out of torpedoes in the lower bay. We were shifting them down from above.'
Thrakhath looked back at the commander and silently cursed. If he were still alive, he would have him executed on the spot for such stupidity.
'Two of our main engines are gone as well, sir. We're lucky the main fuel cells didn't go up. I'm purging out the three cells closest to the fire right now. I've also ordered all armaments in the aft topside bay dumped overboard'
'Do that and we have to run with scoops full open!' Thrakhath roared. 'We'll lose whatever offensive capability we have left. With half our remaining armaments gone, we're finished!'
'Sire, if you don't like what I'm doing then execute me and do it yourself,' the officer snapped. 'We're lucky to be alive as is. If we don't purge those cells now they'll blow. It's an inferno back there.'
Thrakhath stood silently, looking over at the flickering display on the damage board and finally lowered his head.
'Tell me what we can still do.'
'We still have more than five hundred of our best fighters out there, my lord. They have no offensive strike capability left; they're mostly light fighters. I think it's time we landed them, my lord, to get our pilots back. We won't have enough room for them, so the craft will have to be dumped overboard as fast as we recover them.'
Thrakhath looked up at him, unable to speak.
'It's time to go home, my lord. We've done all we can do today. One more hit and we ll lose this ship as well. We've got to save our pilots now, my lord. There'll be over a thousand of them on board here. They'll still give us victory once we've repaired this ship, and the rest of the new carriers come on line.'
Thrakhath looked around the bridge. He knew the young officer was right. He had to save his pilots; he had lost too many already.
The only satisfaction left now was the fact that within a matter of minutes the cruiser squadron would close on Earth. At least with Earth destroyed, this would still be a victory.
'Launch fighters now!'
Jason Bondarevsky leaned forward in his chair, wishing now more than ever to be back in a fighter.
The first fighter, piloted by Doomsday, cleared the bay.
The blue-green home of his race filled the forward screen.
The run in from jump point 12Y, the line leading back towards the Landreich, had been with scoops fully
