Re: The Walkers, updated 9-28-03
Thanks FryeR K...here's a bit more...
Terran Confederation 17th place
Phong Confederation 16th place
Rebel Alliance 15th place
Abbidon Enclave 7th place
Vandron Empire 6th place
Klingon Empire 3rd place
Aquilaeian Empire 2nd place
Star Empire of Romii 1st place
2407.9 – 2408.7 ~ The Next Engagement
“Redemption Seven has been hit, ma’am,” said Lieutenant Kalgon to Admiral Nefta.
“How badly?” asked the Admiral.
“They are effectively out of the fight ma’am,” replied Kalgon.
“So we are down to twelve ships from our original twenty,” said Nefta to herself. “Do we have any boarding craft left?” she asked Kalgon
“No ma’am,” came the quick reply. “Two were shot down while they attempted to board a battle cruiser while the third’s boarding crew was unable to disarm the self destruct device aboard another battle cruiser and was lost in the subsequent explosion.”
“Very well,” Nefta replied, and without another thought for those lost ships went on, “Captain Orton, move your task force in to flank the second battle cruiser.”
“Yes ma’am,” came the swift reply.
Meanwhile Nefta led her task force on a head-on approach to the lead battle cruiser. PPBs lanced out from their ships and melted the organic armor covering the vessels; not one of their shots missed. Nefta’s ship took some heavy return fire from the lead battle cruiser that sent emergency claxons blaring.
“Ma’am,” screamed Lieutenant through the clamor of the claxons, “we’ve lost two of our forward PPBs and our port engine. Our shields have also been depleted.”
“Lieutenant, take us out to maximum firing range,” she commanded with ice in her voice. “The rest of the ships in task force one are to press the attack.”
Her Flood MK 1 class cruiser fell back from the front of their line, but remained within firing range. It continued to pour down PPB fire from its three remaining guns all of which squarely hit their target. Meanwhile the rest of task force one moved in around the lead battle cruiser. PPBs cut deep gashes into the ship blowing out the engines, bridge, and five of the seven gun emplacements. Captain Orton’s task force two was having similar success with their target. His five ships had all but destroyed the vessel as small explosions rippled through the second battle cruiser.
“Target neutralized,” reported Orton to Nefta. “I await your command on the next target.”
“Move in to take out that final cruiser,” came the order.
“At once Ma’am,” replied Orton.
He immediately moved his five vessels into position to attack the final ship. This cruiser had been pestering his group as they took out the second battle cruiser. It had been staying on the periphery of their formation taking pot shots as it flew by, but its fire was inconsistent and all of the damage it had dealt had been absorbed by their ship’s shielding. As soon as Orton’s task force came into range their PPBs began blazing. In the first volley, the organic armor was blown away and unable to regenerate itself. The commander of the target ship must have realized that he was the new target, as the vessel turned and vectored away from them as quickly as possible. Only the two Wrath Class light cruisers could keep up with the ship and poured fire into its aft taking out four of the main engines. This allowed the rest of the task force to catch up and loose fire of their own into the unprotected ship. At the same time, Admiral Nefta’s task force had disabled the final battle cruiser.
“All ships report targets have been neutralized,” reported Lieutenant Kalgon.
“Excellent Lieutenant,” came the steely reply, “all ships finish off the vessels; turn them into floating piles of debris.”
With that all of the ships opened fire one Last time. There was a blinding flash as all three of the final enemy ships were vaporized by the PPB fire. Then unexpectedly battle claxons began blaring again as another Aquilaeian battle group appeared through the wormhole right in the middle of their formations.
“Take evasive action,” screamed Nefta with a hint of shock and surprise evident in her voice. “Concentrate fire on the lead battle cruiser.”
Again, PPBs rained out from the vessels and the combined firepower of all twelve ships was enough to overwhelm the lead ship’s organic armor and reduce it to smoldering wreckage. However, the other four Aquilaeian vessels were also battle cruisers and they opened fire immediately after they realized what they had flown into. They caught an old Angel class escort in their initial fire and blew it to pieces as well as taking a Redemption Class destroyer effectively out of the fight. The ships also loosed a horde of organic seeker parasites. Fortunately, two of the remaining ten active ships were Shield Class defense light cruisers and they shot down all but one of the seekers which exploded harmlessly against Captain Orton’s Wrath light cruiser. The Vandron vessels continued to fight back the Aquilaeian vessels concentrating their fire on one ship at a time, never missing a shot. The second battle cruiser’s armor melted away and its innards were ripped apart by PPB fire from Admiral Nefta’s crippled ship. It hung motionless in space before it lit the view screens with a tremendous explosion, the force of which shook Nefta’s ship.
“Captain Orton,” commanded Nefta, “move your remaining four ships around the underbelly of that lead battle cruiser.”
“Yes ma’am,” came the reply, and the four ships instantly began the maneuver.
“Nefta,” screamed Orton, “the second battle cruiser has dropped to our starboard side, give us some cov…” but his voice was cut out as the battle cruiser opened fire and melted the entire forward of his ship before he could finish his plea for help.
“Damn those birds,” shouted Nefta, “All ships fire at will destroy them all,” she seethed, the hate dripping from her voice.
PPB fire and was everywhere slamming into the battle cruisers from all angles, any hint of a coordinated attack gone. A second Redemption class destroyer was downed as well as another Angel. A second later the lead battle cruiser went up in an inferno of molten steel and lifeless organic flesh. One battle cruiser remained to Nefta’s seven remaining vessels. Nefta’s ships poured PPB fire into the battle cruiser taking out the engines and almost all of its weapons. Just then one of the Shield class defense light cruisers went up in flames and disappeared in an expanding ball of gas and fire as two more Aquilaeian battle cruisers came through the wormhole and sunk their seeking parasites into the ship’s hull.
“We must pull back,” pleaded Lieutenant Kalgon. “We can not fight these ships.”
“Silence,” screamed Nefta, her emotion flowing from her like a gushing waterfall, “we will never retreat.” She turned to the com officer and ordered all ships to continue firing on the crippled battle cruiser.
The crippled ship began to break apart just as Nefta’s own Flood class cruiser was hit again with enemy fire. Explosions rocked the bridge and Nefta was thrown to the ground.
“Damage report,” gulped Nefta as smoke filled the CO2 filled air around her. There was no response. “Lieutenant Kalgon, what is the damage?” she asked again, and again there was no response. Then she saw Kalgon’s body lying motionless on the ground and she knew why she wasn’t being answered. She ran to the nav officer’s console and made the necessary adjustments to ram the lead battle cruiser with what was left of her ship. The remaining vessels in her battle group continued to exchange fire with the battle cruisers melting away the armor of one and destroying half of its engines and weapons. It was toward this ship that Nefta steered her smoldering Flood cruiser. All around her there were short circuiting and malfunctioning systems. Outside her, two more ships, one Redemption and one Shield, went up in explosions as the second battle cruiser loosed another round of seekers which could not all be shot down. Nefta’s cruiser swung around and accelerated to meet the bow of the crippled enemy vessel. The Aquilaeian ship realized what was happening and began to fire frantically at the oncoming ship. But it was to no avail; an angry screech shot through Nefta’s ship as its compartments were impacted and compressed under the pressure of the collision. A second later a searing ball of fire swept through the vessel, starting a chain reaction that engulfed both the Flood cruiser and the Aquilaeian battle cruiser.
Nefta slowly awoke on a table with glaring lights and a contingent of concerned onlookers surrounding her.
“What happened?” she asked.
“You blacked out in your sim pod,” came the reply from Vice Lord Junon. “When your ship rammed the vessel, instead of waking up from the simulation as you were supposed to, you somehow stayed attached momentarily and it caused you to black out for nearly ten minutes.”
She thought about this for a second and then asked, “Were we victorious over the final battle cruiser?” asked Nefta.
“Yes,” answered Vice Lord Defcon. “The final Redemption was able to destroy the Last battle cruiser after it too was rammed by the crew of the remaining Wrath light cruiser.”
“So we won,” she said more to herself then anyone else.
“Yes you did, and against a larger foe,” replied Defcon. “You performed brilliantly up until the end at least.”
“What do you mean by that?” asked Nefta.
“Well you see,” put in Lord Chagnon, “we wanted to see how far you would go…if you would fight to the end or pull your ships back once the battle turned against you. You had already won against the odds Nefta, yet you continued to press the attack even after two more small battle Groups appeared through the wormhole. Do you feel that was wise?”
“Without a doubt,” came her icy reply.
“But you died,” pointed out Chagnon.
“And I won,” she replied
“I thought you’d say as much,” said Chagnon. “Do you not think that it would have been wiser to fall back and save the five ships that were limping away from the fight? There was a well defended space yard but a sector away from your position. You could have docked there and repaired your battered battle group.”
“I would have lost the advantage of surprise my Lord,” she replied. “When the enemy ships appeared through the wormhole they were initially blind to our presence. That is why we were able to destroy some of them so quickly.”
“I understand that Nefta, but you are not completely answering my question. Perhaps I should phrase it differently; was it wise to sacrifice the simulated lives of your remaining battle group when you could easily have regrouped and lost none in a later battle?”
“From that perspective, it was not a wise decision. But,” she quickly followed, “it was tactically wise to press our advantage. I had no way of knowing that those enemy battle Groups would come through the wormhole.”
“Point taken,” said Chagnon, “but you must not forget the fact that a war can not be one in a single engagement.”
“I understand,” said Nefta, the steeliness returning to her voice.
“Still,” finished Chagnon,” your tactics were brilliant and your sacrifice admirable. I would not want to be an enemy commander facing your battle group.”
“Thank you my lord,” replied Nefta and then went on after a pause, “what was the accuracy of our gunners.”
To this question Junon again spoke up, “the accuracy was ninety-nine point nine percent on all shots fired. The single errant shot came when a PPB hit a seeker instead of a ship.”
“So this meditative technique really works then,” she said reflectively.
“Yes indeed it does,” said Junon. “After nearly a year of research I believe we have finally developed the means to have nearly one-hundred percent accuracy in engagements. How else do you think you were able to win?” finished Junon, only half jokingly.
“I still won,” she shot back, not joking at all.
“Nevertheless,” interrupted Chagnon, “this new capability will make our fleet much more formidable. However, it will take much time to outfit our ships with the provisions necessary to contain our gunners in meditation chambers while in battle.”
“At least now is as good a time as any to retrofit our fleet,” volunteered Vice Lord Exnon, “especially while we are producing as many colony ships as we are.”
“We can discuss this later,” put in Chagnon, “now I believe it wise that we allow Admiral Nefta and her crews to rest a while before they begin their next engagement.” He turned to Nefta, “and Admiral, see if you can try to go about your future engagements looking at the situation from all angles. And please, try not to give us any more scares,” he finished with a smile.
“I will try my best,” she said, and then after a short pause finished, “though I can make no guarantees.”
[ September 19, 2003, 03:55: Message edited by: chewy027 ]
|
Hybrid Mode
