On the viewer, Krenaran stealth ships could be seen rapidly darting into and out of the battlegroup performing attack runs, like hungry barracudas picking off stragglers. Their sleek, angular wedge shaped hulls almost identical to the Liberties own, minus the plethora of upgraded systems, with their dark matt-black colouring interspersed with silvery metallic panels. Towards the rear of the tightly packed mass of vessels, the flaming broken hull of an Alexander class medium cruiser listed. Explosions continued to rip through the shattered vessels hull.
Jesus, Michael thought, they are like a pack of fucking wolves. “Order battlestations, bring reactive hull armour online and boost power to the fusion cannon, and torpedo launchers.”
Virtually as he was saying it, the command centre became a hive of activity as the veteran crew of the Liberty carried out his orders with speed and precision, lights dimmed, giving the room a menacing air, an alarm gently rang out, indicating the ship was at maximum readiness. The reactive hull armour crackled as a faint blue shimmer ran through the dark outer hull of the ship. The awesomely powerful Solarian fusion cannon powered up, with its customary low pitched ‘thoom’ noise. The Liberty was now ready for battle.
The viewscreen shimmered into existence once again, “6 ^th battlegroup, break and attack.”
The Liberty and the accompanying Solarian elements of the fleet, shot forward, easily outpacing the rest of the E.D. F battlegroup, thanks to their far more powerful thruster systems.
The massive Hermes hung back, co-ordinating the rest of the fleet, and made ready to disgorge its waves of fighters and bombers it had placed on hot standby, when the time was right.
The huge, hulking Danitza’s, ponderously manoeuvred their great size to bring their awesome weapon systems to bear. While the smaller, more agile Ghandhi class destroyers and Mandela class light cruisers sped forward into the assault.
Some of the Alexander class medium cruisers hung back to form up as escorts, helping protect the larger ships from attack themselves. The accompanying Jefferson class heavy destroyers although barely a third of the size of a Danitza added their considerable firepower to the fray, their specially designed rotary rail-cannons although much smaller than the battleships allow them to get in close and literally pound the enemy to pieces, some of them had gone through the upgrade process, changing their rail-cannons for the Solarian based high power lasers, as rail-cannon shells proved so ineffective against Krenaran shipping during the onset of the war.
3. Prelude to Armageddon
The Liberty surged forward as Eldathar rapidly banked the ship to avoid the incoming particle cannon fire from several enemy Krenaran ships directly ahead of them.
Liberty, and the other Solarian battlecruisers traded fire with their own fusion cannons. Multiple incandescent blue energy beams shot forth from the Solarian reinforcements, their raw power instantly decimating three of the Krenaran vessels in bright balls of flame.
Behind them, the Danitza class battleships Defiant and Vengeance; recently upgraded with the new long range laser turrets opened fire, deep blue energy beams from their massive primary dorsal turrets lanced out across space and smashed into two more of the Krenaran ships. One was hit amidships; a ragged flaming hole marked the impact site on the vessel. The other was hit directly in its rear engines, which detonated violently, blasting apart half the ship, the fiery debris strewn wreckage spun out of control.
Four more Krenaran ships rapidly swooped in to perform an attack run on another Danitza, its accompanying escorts firing volley after volley, trying to shoot down the attackers. However they were proving to be elusive targets.
The Liberty changed course to intercept, “target the closest ship, fire torpedoes when ready,” Michael said.
Two high energy torpedoes sped towards one of the Krenaran ships, they were elusive but not enough to outwit the advanced guidance systems of the Liberties torpedoes. They detonated upon impact and tore apart the Krenaran ship in a devastating fireball.
Long range laser fire from the Hermes’ own comparatively limited batteries had managed to annihilate two more of the stealth ships, while the last remaining Krenaran vessel abandoned its attack run.
On the viewer, through the fiery debris of destroyed Krenaran stealth ships and the explosions of battle, Michael could just about make out the shape of a far larger Krenaran ship beginning to form, the massive flat topped vessel had a huge command structure located towards the rear of the gigantic ship. Michael’s heart sank as the sight filled him with dread, he had seen these ships before in news reports, but never actually encountered one. They were the Krenaran command carriers, the largest and most deadly ships in the Krenaran fleet, and he was all too aware of the firepower one of these ships possessed.
Solarian intelligence briefings had told the E.D. F that the small rectangular pods which slowly rose close to the fore of the flat main hull contained rapid firing H.O. T rockets, which worked on Heat Ordnance Tracking. The E.D. F navy had a database of all enemy ships encountered thus far in its history, and each was listed according to the threat it represented, this was known as its threat level.
Michael remembered that this ship was listed as an alpha level threat, the highest threat level that can be given to a ship.
The H.O. T rocket, was a type of torpedo that homed in on any given heat signature on any ship that didn’t display a correct Krenaran I.F. F signature.
Michael remembered that it was these ships that were responsible for the decimation of unarmed refugee transports around the Aurelias colony nearly eight months ago, ending almost ten thousand lives in barely five minutes.
Now the huge Krenaran command carrier advanced, slowly, menacingly toward the fleet as those deadly rectangular pods began to rise once again.
The remaining stealth ships all retreated towards it consolidating their position; some were caught and decimated by Solarian fusion cannons and E.D. F lasers.
However, the Krenaran carrier had not yet launched its waves of attack craft, interesting, Michael thought.
Instead those rectangular pods gradually rose to their full height, and with a dull metallic ‘clunk’ locked into place.
He knew that even the Liberty with all its speed and agility would never make it to that carrier before it launched its deadly payload. They would have to brace themselves for the inevitable onslaught that the enemy ship would unleash upon them before trying for a counter attack.
There was a deathly silence, as the crew of the Liberty looked on through the shimmering viewscreen with fear in their eyes, as if they were staring death in the face, for none of them knew when the command carrier would launch its deadly payload, or even if they would be hit or not. If they were, the Liberty would most likely not withstand it.
Six intensely bright flashes lit up the forward hull of the enemy carrier in quick succession as it unleashed the missiles. The multiple warheads sped towards them with incredible speed.
As the warheads hurtled towards them, the remainder of the Krenaran fleet leapt into plasma drive, and were gone. The multiple H.O. T rockets continued to speed towards the E.D. F fleet, ships opened fire attempting to shoot down the onrushing torpedoes to no avail, they were just too fast to get a lock on. Michael could just make out the blazing white flare of the enemy missiles engine.
Before they could hardly blink, a Ghandhi class destroyer burst apart in flames as one of the torpedoes smashed into it dead centre with horrific force. The destroyer was stationed right next to the Liberty, and the tiny ship shuddered violently from the force of the explosion. People were thrown to the floor, consoles across the ship shattered, sending sparks showering. Smoke filled the command centre as delicate electronics ruptured and sizzled, and it was all Michael could do just to hang onto his seat.
Eldathar had managed to hang on and flung the ship into a steep dive as the mid section of the devastated destroyer hurtled towards them wreathed in flame. It shot past missing slamming into the Liberties rear engines by a matter of only a few feet.
There was carnage in the rest of the fleet where the torpedoes struck home. Two of the missiles slammed
