Star Crusades by Michael Thomas (best ereader for pc txt) 📕

ours. Those are not my kind ofodds. They’re smaller, but they pack the punch of acruiser.”

“Not just us anymore,” said Lieutenant Zimmer, “The rest of the fleet ismoving to intercept at speed…and Triumph has just been activated asflagship. She’s taking up the vanguard position and preparing tofire.”

“It may be too late for us,” saidCaptain Regina, “We have our orders.Begin evasive manoeuvres and return fire. Hitthem…Lieutenant!”

The main particle cannonsfired away, followed by a near constantcrackle of fire from the numerous 37mm particle blaster turretsfitted all over the ship. The long streaks and pulses of lightreached out to the enemy force, while return fire came back andstruck all around them. The smaller calibre turrets trackedincoming projectiles and used interceptor fire in an attempt tostop the worst of it, but not even the fast-tracking turrets couldstop everything. One of the nearest Confederate ships tooksignificant damage as it was hit by volley after volley, but itpowered through the cloud of debris and returned fire with itsforward guns.

“Incoming fire!”Lieutenant Zimmer said.

The XO pulled the intercom to herlips.

“Brace,brace, brace!”

It took less than twoseconds, and then the avalanche of firecrashed into the port flank of Nautilus with such power a largesection of armour plating tore away. At the same time,armour-piercing slugs fired from the approaching ships bit into thedamaged flank, causing further damage.

“That was a heavyhit!” said Chief Engineer Linus, “Breaches onthree decks, the polarisation shielding is incomplete. Those werenot standard rounds. That was like being fired at by a canisterround.”

He hesitated and thenbrought up data on a secondaryscreen.

“They match the specification forShard Cannons. Naval Intelligencespeculated on their use after examining wreckage over Mars.Short-range direct fire weapons that unleash a cloud of armourpenetrating slugs.”

He looked to the two seniorofficers.

“It’s almost impossible to evadebeing hit once they’re inrange.”

Captain Regina bit her lower lip infrustration.

“Bring us about. I want ourstrongest armour facing them. Tactical, hit them with all we’vegot! We’ve got ordnance onboard, let’suse it!”

“Aye,Captain.”

She then looked to theright towards two columns of capitalships. The Alliance dreadnoughts were in the lead, followed bytwo-dozen other ships, most of which were current generationcruisers, as well as two battle-hardened battlecruisers, each stillbearing the scars of the Biomech war with pride. Towards the rearof the formation were the light carriers, plus a smattering ofescorts clustered around the Rift Control station and severalsupport ships. The components for the station were already inposition and being moved together. It was one of the biggestassemblies of Alliance ships she’d ever seen, and now they wereheading into combat with the enemy.

“That’s more like it.” Captain Regina nodded to herself, “Much morelike it.”

“Captain…we’ve got fresh contacts emerging from one of the planet’smoons. It’s big…” said Lieutenant Zimmer, “I mean reallybig.”

“Show me.”

The imagery shuddered as thelong-range lenses adjusted to the distant shapes. There was a hazearound them, but the design was unmistakable. There were two of them, and they were truly gigantic. Theirscale might have been difficult to assess normally, but not whenthere were four much smaller Ski’lig attack ships escortingthem.

“Wow,” said First LieutenantMeredith, “That changesthings.”

“Agreed. And those are Ski’lig battleships. That is aproblem.”

She looked back to the others andcould see the questions forming in their eyes. The position of the fleet looked more precarious by theminute.

“Chief, how long until that Riftstation is operational?”

“It will behours. And that assumes nothing goeswrong. This is the first Rift control station erected in combatthat I’m aware of.”

“Not quite. There was one at the Battle of the Black Rift. A singleship created a Spacebridge that was highly unstable. There’s areason we’ve not tried to recreate the tech except in the direst ofemergencies.”

“Until now. This station is a little different. It is complete butneeds to be separated from the transport ships and then activated.It needs weeks of testing, but that will not happen. Then thepowerplant will be brought online once clear.”

“And then?”

“And then the system will undergo calibration for connection to the Riftstation at Epsilon Eridani. With a distance of more than tenlight-years, they have no way to communicate other than by sendingback a ship using its IS drive, and that would takeweeks.”

“Your point being?”

“If our coordinatesare off by a fraction of a metre, they will beunable to connect. The margin for error is simply vast at suchdistances. And it takes time to create a one-way Spacebridge. Itcan survive just seconds before collapse unless stabilised on theother side.”

The Captain gulped.

“Then let’s hope our scientistsand engineers are as good as they think they are, and we hope they are.”

All eyes movedback to the converging forces. Everysingle man and woman aboard Nautilus knew they were about to facetheir greatest ever threat, yet they remained calm and disciplined,just as they always had in times of great adversity.

“Captain…more ships are launching from the moon. I have multipleattack ships shadowing them.”

“Show me. And tell me how ships are still managing to evade oursensors?”

Lieutenant Zimmer shrugged.

“I have no idea, Sir. These shipsmay have been moored on the far side, maybe even on the actual planet. Until they left, the area was stonecold.”

Theimagery shuddered as the long-range lenses adjusted to the distantshapes. There was a haze around them, but the design wasunmistakable. They looked like deep-sea creatures, their hullsalmost entirely constructed in the rear of the craft, and longtendrils reaching out in front like spears. Massive translucentsails extended out from the hull and pulsed with barely containedpower.

“I’ve seen those designs before,”said Lieutenant Zimmer, “Those areSki’lig capital ships, designated battleships on our database.Scans confirm they’re almost a kilometre in length, and they’repreparing to fight.”

“The Lieutenant is correct,” saidthe Chief, “There are energy build-upsinside them. They’re going to fire.”

He licked his lips and then tagged thefirst.

“They might be big, butthey also back a hell of a punch. Lasttime we encountered them they unleashed fire greater than any shipin our arsenal. Those things are ship killers.”

“Uh, Captain!” said thecommunications officer, “The dreadnoughts are accelerating andfiring their forward batteries. They’re taking the fight tothem.”

Captain Regina looked to themassive Alliance ships on her right as they fired massive barragesoff into the distance and towards theemerging enemy battleships. They hadn’t even given them a warning,launching a pre-emptive barrage