Broken Stars (Universe on Fire Book 1), page 18
“Damage report,” Aiko asked immediately.
“Minor damage, Captain, we had a breach at deck six, the teams are already on their way.”
Aiko breathed a sigh of relief, and nodding to herself, she turned around to look at her weapons officer.
“How long until our lasers are in range?”
“Fifty seconds, Captain.”
Aiko checked her board and saw that the fighters would reach their engagement range just about then as well. “Good, you are to fire as soon as we are in range.”
“Aye, Captain.”
The next fifty seconds passed in silence, as everyone on the bridge watched and waited. As soon as they reached the firing range of her lasers the weapons officer spoke.
“Firing now.”
She could feel the laser power banks empty as two of the Prometheus’s turrets fired at the enemy ship.
“One shot missed, the second hit the target, Captain.”
“Any damage?”
“Minor hull damage, Captain. We are too far away for anything more at this point.”
Aiko nodded and kept her eyes on the screens as the Prometheus kept firing as soon as their weapons recharged. As they dropped to a closer distance, the enemy opened fire with their own lasers, as well as launched another one hundred missiles.
A few times the pirate laser fire hit the Prometheus but their laser was weaker than that on the Prometheus. At most what they managed was to scratch the surface of the hull.
Then the Beta squadron came close enough, and they disappeared from the sensors as they blinked forward. Aiko smiled on the inside, as she imagined what the pirates must be thinking then. They must’ve assumed that the fighters were missiles.
She leaned forward in her chair and watched as the fighters began their attack run. Small, fast missiles launched from the fighters as they attacked from both sides, their lasers and rail-guns firing at the same time. Beta squadron’s attack run was brief, they fired a single salvo at the enemy ship, four hundred missiles from extreme close range.
The pirate ship had no way of taking down all of them. The fighters blinked away before their missiles slammed into the pirate ship. Several explosions rocked the ship, a couple of which were in the area of the drives. The ship was still firing its laser turrets at the Prometheus, but it didn’t matter. Without being able to move the pirate ship was an easy target, and the Prometheus’s gunners had a clear shot. Two laser beams struck the damaged pirate ship’s hull melting through and out on the other side. Several more explosions rocked the ship and then it was silent, a rolling, dead and twisted piece of debris.
Cheers erupted around the bridge, and Aiko let them go on for a minute. She checked her board and saw that Kane’s squadron had just reached its engagement range and then blinked forward to execute their own attack run. But they were not out of trouble yet, the last one hundred missiles that the enemy had fired were still on their way. The Prometheus’s point defense opened fire and started taking down the missiles. And just as with the first salvo a few managed to get through.
Aiko winced as she felt her ship shudder under the explosions. “Damage report.”
Commander King was on her comms, listening to reports from various parts of the ship as well as reading her board. “We have another breach on decks seven and eleven, power lines on the deck eleven were disrupted causing a small overload. Our drives suffered minor damage, we won’t be able to get up to full burn, Chief Randor says that sixty percent of our max thrust is the most that we can get right now.”
“How long until he can repair the damage?” Aiko asked.
“He needs to reroute some power lines, at least an hour, Captain.”
Aiko nodded, acknowledging the information. On her board she saw that Alpha squadron had succeeded in their mission as well, destroying the pirate ship. Seeing that both her fighter squadrons were on the way back, she turned to the sensor officer.
“Status on hostile-1?” Aiko asked as the cheering settled down.
“Hostile-1 is just about to enter the planet’s higher orbit, Captain.”
“Let us recover our fighters, then set an intercept course for hostile-1,” Aiko ordered.
***
After they had recovered their fighters and begun the process of refueling and rearming them, the Prometheus set a course back toward the planet and the Hadsone.
Captain Anterix had most certainly witnessed the destruction of her compatriots, which made Aiko a bit wary since she had yet to send another message or even turn around to retreat. The Prometheus was damaged, so perhaps Captain Anterix thought that she had a chance, but Aiko couldn’t think that she would be willing to risk so much just for a chance to get the ship. Especially after seeing how the Prometheus had destroyed her companions.
The Hadsone was burning around the planet in its high orbit and still moving straight for the Prometheus. Aiko looked at her board, trying to come up with a plan.
“How long until the fighters are ready to go out again?” she asked.
“Ten minutes, Captain.”
Aiko grimaced—the Hadsone was going to enter the missile range of the Prometheus before then. She didn’t know what kind of missiles or laser turrets the pirate ship had, but she assumed the same kind as the other two ships. Meaning that the Prometheus would still have an advantage, the pirate ship’s laser range seemed to be slightly lower than that of the Prometheus.
“Missile launches from hostile-1!” the officer on the sensor station yelled out, and Aiko turned her head around immediately.
That shouldn’t have been possible, they were still outside even the Prometheus’s missile range.
“How many?” Aiko asked.
“We are detecting two hundred, no, three hundred missiles headed our way, Captain! And they are fast, faster than ours, Captain.”
Aiko narrowed her eyes at her screens. Now she knew why Captain Anterix thought she had an advantage.
“Rush the fighters, get them out as soon as they are ready. I want them to help take down those missiles,” Aiko ordered and Commander King started relaying her orders to the SCC.
“How long until we can fire our missiles?” she asked the weapons officer.
“Two minutes, Captain.”
“Load two salvos, striker missiles for the first salvo, and ten shadow missiles for the second.” The shadow missiles were the newest and never-before-tested magitech missiles. Ones that were supposed to be almost completely undetectable. She didn’t understand the magitech that was used to create that effect, but she had been assured that it would work. Although they had slightly bigger yields than her regular missiles, they were slightly slower, and she had a very small number of them, only forty missiles total.
“Aye, Captain,” the officer at the weapons station answered.
There wasn’t anything else for Aiko to do but wait.
***
Kane’s Leviathan left the Prometheus resupplied and rearmed along with about a dozen fighters that had been ready as well. They immediately set a course toward the incoming missiles, using their blinks to close the distance faster. Kane had them come at the missiles slightly from the side, and as soon as they entered their laser range, the fighters opened fire.
As they did that, missiles launched from the Prometheus, two salvos of one hundred missiles each. The first salvo engaged its thrust and started burning toward the Hadsone, the second following close behind. A few moments after the second salvo of just ten missiles engaged its thrusters, it disappeared from his sensors. Kane knew that could only be the shadow magitech missiles.
Putting the Prometheus’s attack out of his mind, he focused back on the missiles still speeding toward their ship.
Targeting a fast moving missile with a fighter-mounted or, in Kane’s case, handheld laser was extremely difficult. As soon as they had opened fire the missiles started using their maneuvering capabilities to evade. And their ECM was good, better than what the human missiles had. They were getting them, but far slower than Kane would like. Then the missiles reached the range of the Prometheus’s point defense.
As the new laser fire joined theirs the missiles started to die quicker, but Kane could see that some would get through. The missiles evaded and burned, and then a few started reaching the ship’s hull. Several missiles slammed against the hull, leaving craters and opening the Prometheus to space.
For a moment Kane feared the worst, but then he saw that the Prometheus was still there. Their hull held under the assault. There were a few places where atmosphere was leaking, but although the hull was severely dented and twisted up in places, he could see no major impacts.
With the missiles taken care of he got new orders from the SCC to get in position around the Prometheus and act as an additional defense for the ship. That told him that things might be worse on the ship than they looked, Aiko wouldn’t have sacrificed her offense for defense for no reason.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Aiko coughed as smoke entered her lungs. One of the consoles had exploded as a powerline overloaded. The Hadsone’s missiles had done some damage, but they were still here, so she turned to her crew.
“Damage report,” she yelled out as the crew put out the fire and the med team carried an injured ensign out of the bridge.
“We have several sections open to space, none are a problem for now but could be if not taken care of right now. Half of our point defense turrets are offline as a result of cut powerlines, we are in the process of rerouting them but I have no ETA. Aside from that we are surprisingly fine, our hull deflected most of the explosive energy away from us,” Commander King reported.
“Order the rest of the fighters to take formation around the ship, I don’t like having to rely on only half of our point defense,” Aiko ordered. “What about our missiles?”
“They should reach the target’s point defense range just about now,” the officer on the weapons station reported.
Aiko took a look at her station and watched the feed from the sensors.
The first salvo of missiles encountered the Hadsone’s point defense and Aiko saw her missiles start to die. The pirate ship’s point defense wasn’t any better than that of the other two ships, but it seemed to be better organized, the Hadsone’s evading movements more in sync with their turrets.
It made her think that whatever computer system which operated those turrets was superior to the ones on the Prometheus. In truth, the Prometheus’s point defense turrets were better, they had better firing speed and power. But obviously their computer systems weren’t up to par. Her ship’s turrets were less efficient, several targeting the same missiles at the same time, wasting shots. The Hadsone’s point defense was more efficient.
And so only six missiles from the first salvo passed through to hit the Hadsone. They didn’t do much damage, but then the ten shadow missiles came in unnoticed and slammed against the hull.
“Report,” Aiko said.
“All ten shadow missiles reached their target, Captain. The Hadsone is leaking atmosphere from two points and we have blasted one of its laser turrets. But otherwise there is no significant damage. It is minor damage, Captain,” the officer at the sensors reported.
“How long to laser range?” Aiko asked.
“Three more minutes, Captain.”
Aiko looked at her screens and at the Hadsone as it burned toward the Prometheus. Captain Anterix still thought that she had a chance. And with the Prometheus’s point defense damaged, and its thrusters operating at almost half their power, she just might be right. But Aiko still had cards to play; the closer the Hadsone came to the Prometheus, the more powerful Aiko’s options were. The Hadsone was already in range of the Prometheus’s primary weapon, the ‘blink cannon’ as they had dubbed the magitech weapon. But she couldn’t use it yet. Hitting the Hadsone as it was moving would be nearly impossible, not to say anything about how much power the weapon required.
It couldn’t be fired by drawing the power directly from the power core, doing that might just pull too much power from the core and overload the powerlines. Instead there were specialized capacitors designed and dedicated just to powering the weapon, which needed to be charged before use.
“Charge the blink cannon.” Aiko ordered. She knew that hitting a moving ship with that weapon was unlikely, but she still wanted the option. “And ready the rail-guns,” she added. The rail-guns were a close range weapon, but it looked like the Hadsone would give Aiko the chance to use them.
“We are in laser range, Captain.”
“Evasive maneuvers, and open fire,” Aiko ordered.
The two laser turrets that the Prometheus could bring to bear opened fire, both hitting their target, but only moments after that the Hadsone returned fire with its own lasers. The pirates’ first and second shots missed the Prometheus, the third and fourth didn’t.
“We lost one of our laser turrets, Captain.”
“Load another salvo of striker missiles,” Aiko ordered.
“Captain!” an Ensign yelled out. “The Hadsone is changing course, moving away from the planet.”
Aiko looked at the screens in confusion.
“What is their new course?” Aiko asked, trying to decide if the pirate Captain had had enough and was retreating.
“New contact, Captain! Rising from the planet’s atmosphere!”
Aiko heard the report and felt a chill run through her body. Then as she watched the screens she saw a new object appear on her boards.
“The new contact is on a course toward the Hadsone. I’m detecting a power surge—they’ve opened fire!”
Aiko only watched as the new contact opened fire. And a moment later a stunned silence settled on the bridge. In an instant the Hadsone had disappeared from their sensors. There was only one explanation: the new ship was Val’ayash.
“What was that?” Aiko asked.
“I… a beam of some kind, Captain. It pierced the Hadsone right through. It was blown apart with a single shot,” the sensor officer answered.
“At what range did they fire?”
“The Hadsone was around a hundred thousand kilometers away from the planet, Captain.”
Aiko knew immediately that if they didn’t change course they would be in that range soon.
“Reverse course, get us as far away as you can from them,” Aiko ordered hastily.
“Captain! I’m detecting another power surge from the new ship!”
Aiko didn’t have the time to give out orders before the Val’ayash opened fire. A beam of purple light smashed through the Prometheus’s aft section, and her ship shuddered.
“Damage report now,” Aiko yelled out.
“We lost the drives, Captain,” Commander King reported.
“Captain, that beam was less powerful than the one they fired at the Hadsone.”
For a moment Aiko thought that perhaps they couldn’t fire with the same intensity at a greater range, or perhaps their weapon took time to charge. Her mind tried to find any advantage, but she knew that there was a far more likely explanation. They hadn’t wanted to destroy them.
Aiko opened her comm and called Chief Randor.
“Captain?”
“What is the situation?”
“We lost most of our connections to the power core, the drives are down.”
“Can you fix it?”
“Yes, Captain, but it will take time. Hours, maybe a full day. We are not going anywhere anytime soon.”
Aiko felt a sense of dread come over her. Kane had told her that the Val’ayash were interested in the human magitech. She couldn’t let that happen. She tried to think of a way to get away, but she couldn’t see any way. For a moment she even thought about self-destructing the ship, but then she got an idea. It was a long shot but she thought that it could work. If what they thought about Val’ayash goals was correct.
She turned to her second in command. “Jasmin, can we blow our hull from the inside, somewhere where it won’t compromise the rest of the ship?”
“What?”
“Can we do it?”
“Yes I can have a team place a charge somewhere, but Captain—”
“Set it up, after they detonate the charge I want us to shut down most of our systems, weapons and everything else not essential except the blink cannon. Hopefully they won’t be able to figure out what it is.”
Jasmin suddenly got a look of understanding, and she nodded. “Right away, Captain.”
Aiko turned to her comms and opened a channel to Kane’s mech-frame.
“Kane, I need you to take the fighters and move away from the Prometheus, make it appear as if you are running away.”
“Captain… Aiko, they will take the ship.”
“I have an idea, but I need it to look like the Prometheus is out of action and like you are running away.”
Kane didn’t answer for a long moment, but then his voice came through the comm. “When do you want us to go?”
“We are about to breach the hull, once you see that start burning away from us. Hopefully they will think that we had some problems because of their attack and that we lost power.”
“The blink cannon?” Kane asked.
“Yes, if you see an opportunity, turn around and get back as fast as possible,” Aiko said.
“Aye aye, Captain,” Kane said calmly, but she could hear so much more in the tone of his voice.
“We’ll get through this,” Aiko said and closed the comm.
***
A small explosion rocked the Prometheus, and Aiko watched as the screens around her showed her ship lose power in several systems. They had done so on purpose, but hopefully the Val’ayash would not know that. Their ship was already on a course right for the Prometheus.
A few minutes after the Prometheus’s apparent power failure the fighters moved from the ship and accelerated away. Aiko only hoped that the Val’ayash would think that they were abandoning the ship.
She opened the channel to the blink cannon’s firing station. “Are you ready?”
