Into the Breach (Empire Rising Book 15), page 20
“The Eaglaton ship is responding to our maneuver,” Lydia reported.
Jonathan nodded to her. He watched the Eaglaton light cruiser for several seconds, then began to give commands for Achilles to change course again. Honras was trying to bring his ship closer to Achilles. Over the next twenty minutes, a game of cat and mouse developed as Jonathan and Honras kept maneuvering their ships. All the while, more salvos of missiles were fired out into space from both ships.
“Our point defenses will be able to open fire in thirty seconds,” Schmidt reported.
“Keep us steady then, except for standard evasive maneuvers,” Jonathan ordered. Too many significant course changes at this stage would only throw off the tracking his gunners had on the incoming missiles. And now we see just how effective these long-range missiles are, he thought to himself. With luck, the Eaglatons had sacrificed the missiles’ payloads and ECM in order to get such a range on them.
Moments later, point defensive weapons began to be hurled from Achilles and the two PD drones at the Eaglaton missiles. Immediately, the Eaglaton missiles became fuzzy on the main holo plot as their ECM kicked in. Then, they began to carry out wild evasive maneuvers. Jonathan released a small sigh of relief when the missiles didn’t break apart to release additional warheads. At least they weren’t multistage missiles. For a second, his concern began to grow when none of his gunners scored any hits. Then, one missile was hit by a flak cannon round and ripped apart. A second quickly disappeared to a long-range AM missile. Two more detonated as they were hit by plasma bolts or laser beams.
We’re doing it, Jonathan thought. Then he froze. All at once, the missiles stopped their evasive maneuvers. Jonathan recognized what was happening instantly. Before he could open his mouth to shout a warning, the remaining eight missiles detonated. In a flash, their explosive power was turned into an energy beam. Moving at the speed of light, the eight beams flashed towards Achilles. At the same time, Jonathan saw his destroyer’s shields flare and felt at least two shockwaves pulsate up his command chair. Alarms from different consoles went off all around him. “Bomb-pumped lasers!” Jonathan managed to say, far too late, and with a sinking voice, his ship had just been hurt!
Chapter 16
Despite their small size compared to modern warships, Imperial warships of the First and Second Karacknid War eras had rather large crews. Much of the work we now automate was done manually. Sadly, it meant that even on small ships the loss of life suffered when ships took damage could be high.
-Excerpt from Empire Ascendant 3015 AD.
“I want damage assessments immediately,” Jonathan demanded as he pulled himself together. “What is the condition of our shield?”
“It’s lost nearly sixty percent of its strength,” Lydia reported moments later as the alarms began to be silenced.
Jonathan cursed. The gaseous shield was designed primarily to protect against Karacknid anti-matter warheads. Yet, they helped reduce the destructive force of most directed energy weapons. If sixty percent of the ionized atoms that made up the shield were gone, a lot of energy had been directed at Achilles. “Try and recharge it as much as possible,” he requested, then he turned to Cortez.
“We’ve taken two hits, Captain. It looks like they were grazer rather than laser beams. The shields have helped, but starboard missile tubes five and six are not reporting in. Port missile tube five is also not responding. One of the hits may have pierced right through the ship. We also took more of a glancing blow near our nose section. A number of sensor antennae and PD emplacements are unresponsive.”
“Get repair teams to those missile tubes at once,” Jonathan responded. “Navigation, roll the ship, present our port side for the next incoming salvo. And prepare extreme evasive maneuvers. We were almost sitting ducks!”
“Aye, Captain,” Cortez and then Scholes said one after the other.
Jonathan grimaced as he looked back to the holo plot and at the next salvo of Eaglaton missiles. They would be attacking Achilles far too soon. “What kind of warheads did those missiles have?”
“Thermonuclear,” Schmidt reported at once. “Each missile fired just one grazer beam. It took two seconds for them to reach us.”
Jonathan nodded. They had been caught off guard. His own bomb-pumped mark VIII missiles were programmed to detonate at a distance where their three lasers would cover the distance to their target almost instantaneously. Doing so dramatically increased their chances of scoring a direct hit. On the other hand, the Eaglatons had fired so early, they had been lucky to score two hits. But it was not luck, Jonathan was sure, they knew we wouldn’t expect it.
Before he could watch and see how his own missiles fared, Achilles had to defend herself from another attack. “Push our PD drones further out so they can engage the Eaglaton missiles sooner,” Jonathan ordered. It would reduce the effectiveness that came from overlapping Achilles’ and the drone’s fire, but forcing the Eaglaton missiles to begin their evasive maneuvers sooner would spread them out more and reduce how effectively they could combine their own fire. “Begin serious evasive maneuvers two seconds before the missiles detonated last time,” he added, in case the Eaglatons tried to detonate their missiles even sooner.
As the PD drones and then Achilles opened fire once again, Jonathan couldn’t help it as his body tensed up. Another grazer beam could rip into his ship at any moment. Losing three missile tubes was bad, but it could have been a lot worse. This time, five of the Eaglaton missiles were destroyed in quick succession. Then, Jonathan felt his restraints tighten as Scholes increased Achille’s evasive maneuvers. Though the accuracy of Achilles’ defensive fire was reduced by the maneuvers as well, two more missiles were taken out. The Eaglaton missiles then passed the point where the first salvo had detonated. They flew on for one more second with one more being destroyed. In a flash, the remaining four detonated and sent their beams lancing towards Achilles. The destroyer’s shields didn’t flare, nor did any vibrations run through the bridge.
“They missed!” Schmidt announced, sounding as relieved as Jonathan felt.
We have a chance! Jonathan thought as his hands tightened into fists. Honras had the advantage in missile numbers, especially now due to Achilles’ damage. But the Eaglatons had been lucky in the first salvo. If our missiles can get through, we might be able to survive long enough to hammer them to smithereens! “Get ready to fire again,” Jonathan instructed.
Less than twenty seconds later, Achilles fired another eight missiles towards the Eaglaton light cruiser. Then Jonathan’s first salvo disengaged their first stages and each missile released three smaller missiles. Four minutes later and all twenty-seven of them came into range of the Eaglaton’s point defenses. One by one, they began to be picked off. Jonathan moved closer to the edge of his seat. They weren’t being destroyed nearly quickly enough. Four were still left when they got so close to the light cruiser that the gravimetric plot couldn’t distinguish between them. Jonathan almost pumped a fist into the air, sure that even one direct hit would cripple the Eaglaton ship. Yet, when the four missiles disappeared, Honras’ ship continued on. Jonathan’s mouth fell open. He swung round to his officers. “How is that possible?” He demanded.
No one answered. Instead, they turned to one another and then looked down to their consoles. Ten seconds later, when electromagnetic energy from the Eaglaton ship reached them, Lydia looked up. “It was their ECM,” Lydia said as she pointed to a secondary display. Look at that spike in energy. Their ship’s ECM is even better than their missiles’.’
Though it wasn’t good news, Jonathan nodded. “Impressive, but it could be worse.” He had feared the Eaglatons had some new technology they wouldn’t even be able to figure out. His officers were intensely familiar with counteracting powerful ECM. “Analyze the readings and transmit updated targeting data to our next salvo. I want to do better next time.”
“At once, Captain,” Lydia responded.
“How are our missile magazines looking?” Jonathan asked Schmidt.
“That was our fifth salvo of mark VIIs,” Achilles’ tactical officer answered immediately. “We are about to switch to mark VIIIs. We have enough for twenty salvos of them, then we can switch back to VIIs if need be. We’ll have another ten salvos of them.”
“Let’s hope we don’t need them,” Jonathan half-whispered as he turned back to look at the Eaglaton warship on the holo display and he wondered how many missiles she carried. It seemed Honras’s light cruiser and Achilles were evenly matched. It was going to be a battle of attrition. “How long until port missile tube five is back operational?” Jonathan asked next.
“Chief O’Neill thinks he can have it operational again in twenty minutes, Captain,” Cortez replied.
“Tell him to work as fast as he can, getting that missile tube firing again may be what wins us this battle,” Jonathan ordered.
Just as he suspected, something close to a stalemate developed. As salvo after salvo crashed into their targets, both ships weathered most of what was thrown at them. Achilles’ point defenses and evasive maneuvers made it very difficult for the Eaglaton missiles to score hits, though twice over the next forty minutes, grazer beams slammed into Achilles’ shields. Thankfully, both only caused minor damage. Honras’ ship’s ECM continued to prove effective, despite Schmidt’s best attempts to give his missiles a better chance at scoring a hit.
More than one officer shouted in victory when an anti-matter warhead from the fourth salvo of mark VIIs got close enough to score a proximity hit. Though it was only a small amount, some of the anti-matter from the warhead’s detonation crashed into the light cruiser. Yet somehow, it appeared to brush off the damage. Visuals showed its hull was badly marked and a number of point defensive modes were gone. Yet, when the fifth salvo of mark VIIs came in, the cruiser didn’t appear to have any difficulty dealing with them.
“Now we will see,” Cortez said as the first mark VIIIs came near the Eaglaton ship. Jonathan hoped her confidence would prove true. He had his doubts, however. Sure enough, nearly thirty seconds before the bomb pumped laser warheads of the mark VIIIs got close enough to detonate, the ECM from the Eaglaton ship massively ramped up. “They know what our mark VIIIs can do!” Cortez said, more than a hint of disappointment in her voice.
“They have been preparing to fight us,” Jonathan reminded her. It made sense that the Eaglatons had researched Imperial weapons and tactics. As he watched, two more missiles were shot down by the Eaglaton defensive fire. Then the remaining four mark VIIIs detonated and sent twelve laser beams towards the Eaglaton light cruiser. To Jonathan’s surprise, an energy flare appeared on the Eaglaton ship’s hull.
“We got a hit!” Schmidt called out. “Looks like a glancing blow. But it was a hit!”
Jonathan shared his tactical officer’s smile. Even a glancing hit had to have caused some damage. “We can win this,” he said to his officers. “We just need to keep hitting them. Let’s get them with the next one.”
“With pleasure, Captain,” Schmidt replied.
Jonathan nodded to him, and then glanced at Cortez. The worry in her eyes told him she was thinking along the same lines he was. Their priority was to overtake or destroy the larger Eaglaton warship. Honras didn’t have to destroy Achilles to win. All he has to do is force us to shoot ourselves dry, Jonathan thought. Which means we have to destroy him first. And faster than we are at the moment.
Closing his eyes, Jonathan tried to reassess their situation and look at the battle from another angle. The problem was the Eaglatons’ ECM. If they could overcome it, Achilles had more than enough firepower to finish the battle in one or two salvos. An idea began to form in Jonathan’s mind. Maybe if we give up hitting the light cruiser directly... Suddenly, Jonathan was thrown about in his command chair. His eyes snapped open. Achilles had been hit again! Alarms were blaring all around the bridge once more.
“It wasn’t a glancing blow this time,” Cortez reported grimly. “I’ve got damage reports coming in from at least four decks.” She looked up from her command chair towards Jonathan. “Port tube five isn’t responding once again.”
Jonathan cursed. O’Neill had just got the tube fixed and they’d managed to fire one missile from it. “What about our reactors and engines? It feels like we have lost some acceleration.”
Cortez shook her head. “No word back yet, Captain. But the damaged decks are near our main power lines.”
“I have visuals of the hull,” Lydia said as the holo display changed.
Jonathan’s heart sank when he saw the image. Port tube five was gone, melted to slag. So too was a sizeable portion of Achilles’ armor around the tube. There was a gaping hole about ten meters wide. As the drone moved over the hole, Jonathan could see down at least three decks. Several fires were burning as some atmosphere was still escaping.
“We must have lost at least ten percent of our port point defenses,” Jonathan estimated as he judged her far out the blast had caused damage. The glancing blows Achilles already suffered had taken out ten percent as well. His destroyer’s defenses were becoming seriously compromised.
“I’m getting reports from our engine technicians,” Cortex said. “Impulse engine two is down. Its power line has been cut. They’re working to get the auxiliary lines functioning, but some of them have taken damage as well. They can’t give me an estimate as to when they will have it working again.”
“And our reactors?” Jonathan asked through gritted teeth.
“They are all operating within normal parameters, Captain,” Cortez replied. “That’s something, I guess.”
“The Eaglaton cruiser is altering course!” Schmidt reported. “It’s turning to close with us.”
Jonathan cursed again. They were in trouble. With so many point defenses lost, the battle was no longer a stalemate. Honras had the advantage. They must have more powerful missiles with a shorter range, Jonathan guessed. They were moving in for the kill and he could no longer keep them at extreme range. I need to do something! “What about hangar bay one? What condition is it in?” Jonathan asked quickly as the idea he had just before being hit came back to him. He held his breath. The damaged power lines ran close to the hangar bay.
“We’ve lost power to it,” Cortez replied at once. “O’Neill has a repair team making their way to check on the crew there, but we have had no word from them yet.” Jonathan screwed up his face. “What is it?” Cortez asked.
“I had an idea,” Jonathan said as he shook his head. “We could have released several salvos worth of mark VIIs and let their engines propel them towards the Eaglaton ship. If they detonated together and created a wave of anti-matter, the Eaglaton ECM wouldn’t been able to protect them.” Jonathan cursed for a third time. He was out of options. They were going to lose. Desperately, his eyes turned to a secondary holo display showing the wider system Achilles was in.
After a few seconds, a nearby asteroid field caught his eye. Having studied the system carefully before the battle had begun, he was quite familiar with it. Yet, he hadn’t noticed how close Achilles had moved to it with all of her maneuvers. “Alter our heading,” Jonathan ordered at once. “Take us towards this asteroid field with the best acceleration we have,” he ordered.
“Altering course, Captain,” Scholes responded.
“What are you thinking?” Cortez asked.
Jonathan only half turned to Cortez; he was now watching the successive waves of Eaglaton missiles that were in space accelerating towards Achilles. “We can’t win this if we keep fighting as we have been. We are down missiles and point defenses. But maybe in the asteroid field we can take away some of their advantages. Even damaged, Achilles is very maneuverable. Let’s see if they can keep up with us in there.” Cortez nodded, though from the look on her face, Jonathan could tell what she was thinking. It was a long shot. He knew that, but they needed to try something. Especially if Honras had more powerful missiles he was soon to fire.
For a second, Jonathan considered surrendering. It was only a hunch, but he felt Honras would accept his surrender, and would probably treat Jonathan’s crew well. Yet surrendering would be giving up and failing to stop Gifosous’ ship from reaching the Gift and messing with the wormhole. Jonathan’s teeth clenched together again. He couldn’t let that happen. He had to risk Achilles and his crew. The stakes were too high to simply give up.
As Achilles turned and raced as fast as she could towards the asteroid field, Jonathan racked his brain as he tried to think of a way to win that battle. As he thought, Achilles fended off two more Eaglaton salvos. The second scored another glancing hit with one of its grazer beams.
“That is our shield completely gone,” Lydia reported. “We have no more reserve ionized particles.” She didn’t have to add what the depletion of Achilles’ shield meant. Even a glancing blow would now cause serious damage.
Jonathan struck his command chair with a clenched fist several times as he dismissed tactic after tactic. Drawing Honras’ ship into the asteroid field was a good idea. But once there, he needed to find a way to outsmart or outmaneuver the Eaglaton light cruiser. His fist stopped mid-swing when a memory came to him. It was a story his father had told him from one of his battles with Tanaka-lan. He easily remembered the respect that had filled his father’s voice at what Tanaka-lan had done, and then the humor when his father had described using the same tactic later in the Karacknid War.
Jonathan nodded to her. He watched the Eaglaton light cruiser for several seconds, then began to give commands for Achilles to change course again. Honras was trying to bring his ship closer to Achilles. Over the next twenty minutes, a game of cat and mouse developed as Jonathan and Honras kept maneuvering their ships. All the while, more salvos of missiles were fired out into space from both ships.
“Our point defenses will be able to open fire in thirty seconds,” Schmidt reported.
“Keep us steady then, except for standard evasive maneuvers,” Jonathan ordered. Too many significant course changes at this stage would only throw off the tracking his gunners had on the incoming missiles. And now we see just how effective these long-range missiles are, he thought to himself. With luck, the Eaglatons had sacrificed the missiles’ payloads and ECM in order to get such a range on them.
Moments later, point defensive weapons began to be hurled from Achilles and the two PD drones at the Eaglaton missiles. Immediately, the Eaglaton missiles became fuzzy on the main holo plot as their ECM kicked in. Then, they began to carry out wild evasive maneuvers. Jonathan released a small sigh of relief when the missiles didn’t break apart to release additional warheads. At least they weren’t multistage missiles. For a second, his concern began to grow when none of his gunners scored any hits. Then, one missile was hit by a flak cannon round and ripped apart. A second quickly disappeared to a long-range AM missile. Two more detonated as they were hit by plasma bolts or laser beams.
We’re doing it, Jonathan thought. Then he froze. All at once, the missiles stopped their evasive maneuvers. Jonathan recognized what was happening instantly. Before he could open his mouth to shout a warning, the remaining eight missiles detonated. In a flash, their explosive power was turned into an energy beam. Moving at the speed of light, the eight beams flashed towards Achilles. At the same time, Jonathan saw his destroyer’s shields flare and felt at least two shockwaves pulsate up his command chair. Alarms from different consoles went off all around him. “Bomb-pumped lasers!” Jonathan managed to say, far too late, and with a sinking voice, his ship had just been hurt!
Chapter 16
Despite their small size compared to modern warships, Imperial warships of the First and Second Karacknid War eras had rather large crews. Much of the work we now automate was done manually. Sadly, it meant that even on small ships the loss of life suffered when ships took damage could be high.
-Excerpt from Empire Ascendant 3015 AD.
“I want damage assessments immediately,” Jonathan demanded as he pulled himself together. “What is the condition of our shield?”
“It’s lost nearly sixty percent of its strength,” Lydia reported moments later as the alarms began to be silenced.
Jonathan cursed. The gaseous shield was designed primarily to protect against Karacknid anti-matter warheads. Yet, they helped reduce the destructive force of most directed energy weapons. If sixty percent of the ionized atoms that made up the shield were gone, a lot of energy had been directed at Achilles. “Try and recharge it as much as possible,” he requested, then he turned to Cortez.
“We’ve taken two hits, Captain. It looks like they were grazer rather than laser beams. The shields have helped, but starboard missile tubes five and six are not reporting in. Port missile tube five is also not responding. One of the hits may have pierced right through the ship. We also took more of a glancing blow near our nose section. A number of sensor antennae and PD emplacements are unresponsive.”
“Get repair teams to those missile tubes at once,” Jonathan responded. “Navigation, roll the ship, present our port side for the next incoming salvo. And prepare extreme evasive maneuvers. We were almost sitting ducks!”
“Aye, Captain,” Cortez and then Scholes said one after the other.
Jonathan grimaced as he looked back to the holo plot and at the next salvo of Eaglaton missiles. They would be attacking Achilles far too soon. “What kind of warheads did those missiles have?”
“Thermonuclear,” Schmidt reported at once. “Each missile fired just one grazer beam. It took two seconds for them to reach us.”
Jonathan nodded. They had been caught off guard. His own bomb-pumped mark VIII missiles were programmed to detonate at a distance where their three lasers would cover the distance to their target almost instantaneously. Doing so dramatically increased their chances of scoring a direct hit. On the other hand, the Eaglatons had fired so early, they had been lucky to score two hits. But it was not luck, Jonathan was sure, they knew we wouldn’t expect it.
Before he could watch and see how his own missiles fared, Achilles had to defend herself from another attack. “Push our PD drones further out so they can engage the Eaglaton missiles sooner,” Jonathan ordered. It would reduce the effectiveness that came from overlapping Achilles’ and the drone’s fire, but forcing the Eaglaton missiles to begin their evasive maneuvers sooner would spread them out more and reduce how effectively they could combine their own fire. “Begin serious evasive maneuvers two seconds before the missiles detonated last time,” he added, in case the Eaglatons tried to detonate their missiles even sooner.
As the PD drones and then Achilles opened fire once again, Jonathan couldn’t help it as his body tensed up. Another grazer beam could rip into his ship at any moment. Losing three missile tubes was bad, but it could have been a lot worse. This time, five of the Eaglaton missiles were destroyed in quick succession. Then, Jonathan felt his restraints tighten as Scholes increased Achille’s evasive maneuvers. Though the accuracy of Achilles’ defensive fire was reduced by the maneuvers as well, two more missiles were taken out. The Eaglaton missiles then passed the point where the first salvo had detonated. They flew on for one more second with one more being destroyed. In a flash, the remaining four detonated and sent their beams lancing towards Achilles. The destroyer’s shields didn’t flare, nor did any vibrations run through the bridge.
“They missed!” Schmidt announced, sounding as relieved as Jonathan felt.
We have a chance! Jonathan thought as his hands tightened into fists. Honras had the advantage in missile numbers, especially now due to Achilles’ damage. But the Eaglatons had been lucky in the first salvo. If our missiles can get through, we might be able to survive long enough to hammer them to smithereens! “Get ready to fire again,” Jonathan instructed.
Less than twenty seconds later, Achilles fired another eight missiles towards the Eaglaton light cruiser. Then Jonathan’s first salvo disengaged their first stages and each missile released three smaller missiles. Four minutes later and all twenty-seven of them came into range of the Eaglaton’s point defenses. One by one, they began to be picked off. Jonathan moved closer to the edge of his seat. They weren’t being destroyed nearly quickly enough. Four were still left when they got so close to the light cruiser that the gravimetric plot couldn’t distinguish between them. Jonathan almost pumped a fist into the air, sure that even one direct hit would cripple the Eaglaton ship. Yet, when the four missiles disappeared, Honras’ ship continued on. Jonathan’s mouth fell open. He swung round to his officers. “How is that possible?” He demanded.
No one answered. Instead, they turned to one another and then looked down to their consoles. Ten seconds later, when electromagnetic energy from the Eaglaton ship reached them, Lydia looked up. “It was their ECM,” Lydia said as she pointed to a secondary display. Look at that spike in energy. Their ship’s ECM is even better than their missiles’.’
Though it wasn’t good news, Jonathan nodded. “Impressive, but it could be worse.” He had feared the Eaglatons had some new technology they wouldn’t even be able to figure out. His officers were intensely familiar with counteracting powerful ECM. “Analyze the readings and transmit updated targeting data to our next salvo. I want to do better next time.”
“At once, Captain,” Lydia responded.
“How are our missile magazines looking?” Jonathan asked Schmidt.
“That was our fifth salvo of mark VIIs,” Achilles’ tactical officer answered immediately. “We are about to switch to mark VIIIs. We have enough for twenty salvos of them, then we can switch back to VIIs if need be. We’ll have another ten salvos of them.”
“Let’s hope we don’t need them,” Jonathan half-whispered as he turned back to look at the Eaglaton warship on the holo display and he wondered how many missiles she carried. It seemed Honras’s light cruiser and Achilles were evenly matched. It was going to be a battle of attrition. “How long until port missile tube five is back operational?” Jonathan asked next.
“Chief O’Neill thinks he can have it operational again in twenty minutes, Captain,” Cortez replied.
“Tell him to work as fast as he can, getting that missile tube firing again may be what wins us this battle,” Jonathan ordered.
Just as he suspected, something close to a stalemate developed. As salvo after salvo crashed into their targets, both ships weathered most of what was thrown at them. Achilles’ point defenses and evasive maneuvers made it very difficult for the Eaglaton missiles to score hits, though twice over the next forty minutes, grazer beams slammed into Achilles’ shields. Thankfully, both only caused minor damage. Honras’ ship’s ECM continued to prove effective, despite Schmidt’s best attempts to give his missiles a better chance at scoring a hit.
More than one officer shouted in victory when an anti-matter warhead from the fourth salvo of mark VIIs got close enough to score a proximity hit. Though it was only a small amount, some of the anti-matter from the warhead’s detonation crashed into the light cruiser. Yet somehow, it appeared to brush off the damage. Visuals showed its hull was badly marked and a number of point defensive modes were gone. Yet, when the fifth salvo of mark VIIs came in, the cruiser didn’t appear to have any difficulty dealing with them.
“Now we will see,” Cortez said as the first mark VIIIs came near the Eaglaton ship. Jonathan hoped her confidence would prove true. He had his doubts, however. Sure enough, nearly thirty seconds before the bomb pumped laser warheads of the mark VIIIs got close enough to detonate, the ECM from the Eaglaton ship massively ramped up. “They know what our mark VIIIs can do!” Cortez said, more than a hint of disappointment in her voice.
“They have been preparing to fight us,” Jonathan reminded her. It made sense that the Eaglatons had researched Imperial weapons and tactics. As he watched, two more missiles were shot down by the Eaglaton defensive fire. Then the remaining four mark VIIIs detonated and sent twelve laser beams towards the Eaglaton light cruiser. To Jonathan’s surprise, an energy flare appeared on the Eaglaton ship’s hull.
“We got a hit!” Schmidt called out. “Looks like a glancing blow. But it was a hit!”
Jonathan shared his tactical officer’s smile. Even a glancing hit had to have caused some damage. “We can win this,” he said to his officers. “We just need to keep hitting them. Let’s get them with the next one.”
“With pleasure, Captain,” Schmidt replied.
Jonathan nodded to him, and then glanced at Cortez. The worry in her eyes told him she was thinking along the same lines he was. Their priority was to overtake or destroy the larger Eaglaton warship. Honras didn’t have to destroy Achilles to win. All he has to do is force us to shoot ourselves dry, Jonathan thought. Which means we have to destroy him first. And faster than we are at the moment.
Closing his eyes, Jonathan tried to reassess their situation and look at the battle from another angle. The problem was the Eaglatons’ ECM. If they could overcome it, Achilles had more than enough firepower to finish the battle in one or two salvos. An idea began to form in Jonathan’s mind. Maybe if we give up hitting the light cruiser directly... Suddenly, Jonathan was thrown about in his command chair. His eyes snapped open. Achilles had been hit again! Alarms were blaring all around the bridge once more.
“It wasn’t a glancing blow this time,” Cortez reported grimly. “I’ve got damage reports coming in from at least four decks.” She looked up from her command chair towards Jonathan. “Port tube five isn’t responding once again.”
Jonathan cursed. O’Neill had just got the tube fixed and they’d managed to fire one missile from it. “What about our reactors and engines? It feels like we have lost some acceleration.”
Cortez shook her head. “No word back yet, Captain. But the damaged decks are near our main power lines.”
“I have visuals of the hull,” Lydia said as the holo display changed.
Jonathan’s heart sank when he saw the image. Port tube five was gone, melted to slag. So too was a sizeable portion of Achilles’ armor around the tube. There was a gaping hole about ten meters wide. As the drone moved over the hole, Jonathan could see down at least three decks. Several fires were burning as some atmosphere was still escaping.
“We must have lost at least ten percent of our port point defenses,” Jonathan estimated as he judged her far out the blast had caused damage. The glancing blows Achilles already suffered had taken out ten percent as well. His destroyer’s defenses were becoming seriously compromised.
“I’m getting reports from our engine technicians,” Cortex said. “Impulse engine two is down. Its power line has been cut. They’re working to get the auxiliary lines functioning, but some of them have taken damage as well. They can’t give me an estimate as to when they will have it working again.”
“And our reactors?” Jonathan asked through gritted teeth.
“They are all operating within normal parameters, Captain,” Cortez replied. “That’s something, I guess.”
“The Eaglaton cruiser is altering course!” Schmidt reported. “It’s turning to close with us.”
Jonathan cursed again. They were in trouble. With so many point defenses lost, the battle was no longer a stalemate. Honras had the advantage. They must have more powerful missiles with a shorter range, Jonathan guessed. They were moving in for the kill and he could no longer keep them at extreme range. I need to do something! “What about hangar bay one? What condition is it in?” Jonathan asked quickly as the idea he had just before being hit came back to him. He held his breath. The damaged power lines ran close to the hangar bay.
“We’ve lost power to it,” Cortez replied at once. “O’Neill has a repair team making their way to check on the crew there, but we have had no word from them yet.” Jonathan screwed up his face. “What is it?” Cortez asked.
“I had an idea,” Jonathan said as he shook his head. “We could have released several salvos worth of mark VIIs and let their engines propel them towards the Eaglaton ship. If they detonated together and created a wave of anti-matter, the Eaglaton ECM wouldn’t been able to protect them.” Jonathan cursed for a third time. He was out of options. They were going to lose. Desperately, his eyes turned to a secondary holo display showing the wider system Achilles was in.
After a few seconds, a nearby asteroid field caught his eye. Having studied the system carefully before the battle had begun, he was quite familiar with it. Yet, he hadn’t noticed how close Achilles had moved to it with all of her maneuvers. “Alter our heading,” Jonathan ordered at once. “Take us towards this asteroid field with the best acceleration we have,” he ordered.
“Altering course, Captain,” Scholes responded.
“What are you thinking?” Cortez asked.
Jonathan only half turned to Cortez; he was now watching the successive waves of Eaglaton missiles that were in space accelerating towards Achilles. “We can’t win this if we keep fighting as we have been. We are down missiles and point defenses. But maybe in the asteroid field we can take away some of their advantages. Even damaged, Achilles is very maneuverable. Let’s see if they can keep up with us in there.” Cortez nodded, though from the look on her face, Jonathan could tell what she was thinking. It was a long shot. He knew that, but they needed to try something. Especially if Honras had more powerful missiles he was soon to fire.
For a second, Jonathan considered surrendering. It was only a hunch, but he felt Honras would accept his surrender, and would probably treat Jonathan’s crew well. Yet surrendering would be giving up and failing to stop Gifosous’ ship from reaching the Gift and messing with the wormhole. Jonathan’s teeth clenched together again. He couldn’t let that happen. He had to risk Achilles and his crew. The stakes were too high to simply give up.
As Achilles turned and raced as fast as she could towards the asteroid field, Jonathan racked his brain as he tried to think of a way to win that battle. As he thought, Achilles fended off two more Eaglaton salvos. The second scored another glancing hit with one of its grazer beams.
“That is our shield completely gone,” Lydia reported. “We have no more reserve ionized particles.” She didn’t have to add what the depletion of Achilles’ shield meant. Even a glancing blow would now cause serious damage.
Jonathan struck his command chair with a clenched fist several times as he dismissed tactic after tactic. Drawing Honras’ ship into the asteroid field was a good idea. But once there, he needed to find a way to outsmart or outmaneuver the Eaglaton light cruiser. His fist stopped mid-swing when a memory came to him. It was a story his father had told him from one of his battles with Tanaka-lan. He easily remembered the respect that had filled his father’s voice at what Tanaka-lan had done, and then the humor when his father had described using the same tactic later in the Karacknid War.
