into the Battleship Achilles, who the Liberty had just helped to save, turning its enormous rear engines into flaming ruins.
Two other torpedoes blasted apart a Mandela class light cruiser as well as an Alexander class medium cruiser both ships tore themselves to pieces as their reactor cores ruptured, sending debris careering in all directions. The final torpedo decimated a Jefferson class heavy destroyer, the ship listed lazily as fire swept through the vesel, before it too burst apart in a bright fireball.
The tightly packed mass of ships weaved to and fro trying to avoid the maelstrom of destroyed vessels and debris; several ships almost collided into one another in their rush to escape the onslaught. Only the skill of the pilots prevented an even bigger disaster.
When the chaos had finally subsided, Michael asked for a full status report.
“ We have some small electrical fires on deck four; deck six had taken some damage from th’ explosion cap’n, and a few minor scrapes, but all in all, we are not in bad shape all things considered; not in bad shape at all.” Kinraid replied, his thick Irish accent showing through.
“ Good, have repair crews tackle the fires, and begin repairs.”
“ Already done sir.”
It was to be expected, Michael thought, though if Eldathar hadn’t reacted with the speed that he did, we would have all been gonners for sure. When he saw the flaming wreckage of that Ghandhi class destroyer hurtling toward him, his life had flashed before his eyes.
The casualty rate had been higher than he had expected however, they had lost twelve ships in total, four of them were Solarian. Those delicate crescent shaped metallic craft now floated uncontrollably, their slender hulls fractured and broken. The Achilles had taken severe damage and was on fire on several decks, it could no longer take part in the larger battle at Gamma IV.
Instead it would have to limp toward Delta Foxtrot base, a small naval facility on the edge of the wolf 359 system. It was a heavy blow, the Danitza’s brought a lot of firepower to the table and losing one, meant losing all that weaponry.
The rest of the 6 ^th battlegroup formed up with this second fleet, and together the remaining 188 vessels all leapt into plasma drive, a huge burst of light erupted as they did so. The other damaged vessels would have to make what repairs they could along the way.
It was another three day journey to Gamma IV, and Michael knew that this little skirmish was but a small taste of what awaited them when they arrived. He felt decidedly uneasy about the prospect.
The Krenarans now knew that they were coming, word would have spread from those escaped ships, and there was no way E.D. F command could have prevented a build up of ships of this magnitude to go unseen anyway, the attack was but a small skirmish designed to thin out the numbers a little, before the main battle.
As they continued on their journey towards the planet, Michael spent much of his time going through the repair reports of the damage suffered at the hands of the Krenaran attack. The damage to deck six, was a little more serious than they had first thought. Debris from the destroyed Ghandhi class destroyer had, in places, caused minute fractures in the hull, as debris fragments collided against it; possibly weakening the Liberties stealth abilities. All Michael could do was wait and see, it could not be fixed in transit, that’s for sure.
4. A desperate defence
Colonel Nikolai Vargev was stood on a concrete platform at the top of the main command tower high above the surrounding buildings and workshops within Echo base. Silently looking out over the windswept plains of Gamma IV and stroking his dark moustache. It was a bleak, cold, often damp place. Raising his binoculars he could see the shadowy forms of the Valcasian mountains on the horizon, and the glinting steel structures of the far off colony buildings in between, the bright sunlight of the Gamma sun shining off them.
The shipyards and naval repair stations were all in orbit above the planet, while the vast tank factories, munitions factories and warehouses were on the surface itself.
Vargev squinted through his binoculars, gently panning them across the horizon, straining to catch any glimpse of the advancing Krenaran ground forces. He didn’t know how many there were, but he knew they were coming. He had sent two squads of his most expert trackers to ascertain the size of the enemy forces almost six hours earlier, he was confident they would return; as yet they hadn’t.
General John Steel; the British commander of the 3 ^rd armoured company, the ‘Hells angels,’ strode up and stood next to the big Russian.
“ Still wondering where the devil they are colonel?”
“ Something like that,” Vargev smiled as he continued to peer into the binoculars.
The platform they stood upon, was atop a twelve story high tower, the other floors all contained training rooms, workshops for aspiring E.D. F engineers, as well as offices for the hundreds of operations staff of the base itself.
To his north, lay the 40 feet high, reinforced concrete perimeter wall, and the guard towers which studded it in even intersections, directly ahead of them was the main gate, where the two largest guard towers loomed over a wide tarmac road, serving as the only entrance into the base. A giant barrier and security station barred access, which could only be opened by inputting a unique identification code issued to all staff working on the base.
To Vargev’s west, there stood the massive munitions factories, where tonnes of rail-cannon shells, and a host of other ammunition was made, and even further to the west, he could just make out the tops of the enormous tank factories, huge columns of steam rose from their stacks from the cooling processes used to make the armour.
Running through the middle of those tank factories was a narrow yet deep canal, which provided the vast quantities of water used; named the Aquarius canal by the workers after the astrological water carrier.
As Vargev turned his attentions eastward, he could see the vast shape of the spaceport, several hundred meters wide. It was designed to accommodate the bulk freighters who would transfer tanks, other armoured vehicles and supplies to larger freighters in orbit which would in-turn transport them to whichever E.O.C. A colony was in need of them.
Attached to the spaceport was the even bigger loading area, where vehicles would be arrayed for each particular pickup, then driven onto the freighters themselves.
Further east, Vargev cast his eye over the tall warehouse buildings, where tanks and equipment would be stored awaiting pickup. It was always busy around those buildings as military vehicles drove to and fro from the loading area.
As he returned his attention northwards once again, he could make out the snaking course of the river Tariseia, where the Aquarius canal got its water. It ran through Gamma colony, about a few kilometres further up the road. The colony itself was a small self contained city, built for the workers at echo base.
Vargev knew he should feel comfortable in the formidable protection that Echo base offered, but he didn’t. There would be an attack soon, he could feel it, but hadn’t a clue where the attack would come from, the tension was rising amongst the men, as it always did on the eve of battle.
As he looked over the base in front of him, he could just make out a lone soldier, playing on an old antique harmonica to others around him, the Russian smiled.
The E.D. F naval vessels that were posted to this area were pushed almost to breaking point trying to hold back the Krenaran attackers. However, sooner or later a Krenaran force will break through, capture the shipyard and then launch an all out attack upon the surface. Every instinct within him was telling him this, and he trusted those instincts, they had kept him alive.
Vargev had barely a hundred E.D. F commandoes under his command, the most highly trained and deadly troops in the E.D.F. Used in the fiercest of the fighting, each man was already a veteran of a dozen engagements during this war, every one a perfectly honed killing machine.
He had posted them to strategic locations where he knew the fighting would be thickest. The spaceport, and dug in within the colony itself. The spaceport would be a high priority for the Krenarans as they would no doubt use
