Crusade chapter 6 (standard:science fiction, 1878 words) [6/11] show all parts
Author: St George	Added: Mar 11 2003	Views/Reads: 2462/1889	Part vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
chapter 6

Click here to read the first 75 lines of the story

There was another shudder as the shield took more EP hits. “Helm, come
starboard 180 degrees, sierra weapons prepare to fire.” By turning 
around it would show the starboard side to the enemy with its undamaged 
shield array. Soon the stern of the ship was toward the battlefield, 
and as Crusader kept turning Carver ordered the aft (alpha) torpedo 
room to fire all tubes. The Anduril information concerning the relative 
skill of human and Megaeran pilots seemed to be accurate and for the 
moment at least the Kestrels were bested, allowing many torpedoes to 
slip through; meanwhile with the enemy fighters busy, the smaller group 
of Anduril birds could easily take out enemy torpedoes before they 
became a threat. The black Widows were returning to the ship, their 
torpedo racks empty. Suddenly Longbow's stern exploded in a ball of 
fire, there was no time for most to get to lifepods, the ship's entire 
stern was obliterated and only a few in the bow managed to escape. 

Crusaders starboard array continued to be pounded by EP bolts and every
30 seconds or so one of her own turrets would fire as slowly the two 
great battleships duelled, their respective fleets locked in battle 
with each other, until “TORPEDO TORPEDO TORPEDO! All hands brace for 
impact.” There was no time for avoidance, the two weapons had been 
fired from a bomber barely 500 metres away and only a scant few seconds 
passed between the epdar officer's warning and the impact. The 
explosions completely depleted the starboard array. With the port array 
damaged and starboard gone entirely the helmsman did the only thing he 
could, twisting the yoke violently he rolled the entire ship about its 
axis and presented the keel to the enemy, with its undamaged array. 
“Did I order that Mr Metcalfe?” shouted Carver. “No, Sir,” he 
responded. “Nice move Lieutenant,” replied Carver, thankful for 
Metcalfe's quick thinking. With the keel toward the enemy sierra 
turrets three and four and papa turrets three and four could now 
engage, which they did with enthusiasm. In the end though, the Megaeran 
battleship didn't fall to Crusader but to Iron Pirate which had 
courageously (or recklessly, it was later called both) moved in closer 
to her and released a full salvo of Harbingers, the first few of which 
depleted the already weakened shield. With the shield gone, 3 
Harbingers would have been enough to neutralize the vessel but the 12 
that hit the hull reduced the structure to fragments; cheers went up 
around the fleet and Crusader turned her fury on a corvette, one of 
only three remaining Megaeran warships, these were quickly destroyed 
and so ended the battle. 

Seven Megaeran warships would never see another day, though they had
taken three alliance vessels with them, but without the sterling effort 
put in by the fighters the toll would have been far more. The Anduril 
ship Dellara, whose crew had been rescued by several ships, SNS 
Longbow, which was destroyed when an EP bolt hit their reactor and 
caused them to lose the force field that contained their anti-matter 
and so detonating it, and Karlon an Anduril destroyer taken out by 
torpedo bombers, were the losses. Only a small number from Karlon made 
it to escape pods. The survivors of these ships were distributed among 
the ships that were heading for the border, there was not enough space 
on board Iron Pirate and so some of the Longbow crew had to be moved to 
a hastily refurbished cargo bay on one of the Anduril destroyers (the 
only space with a high enough ceiling!). Forrester was ecstatic, the 
battle had gone better than she had hoped and resistance had been less 
than she had anticipated. Of 335 birds 32 had been lost, 7 Anduril and 
25 human, 18 of which were Vampires, and from those fighters lost 19 
escape pods were recovered. In return, 36 Megaeran birds had been 
destroyed, the rest had retreated as one by one their fleet had bitten 
he dust. It was not unexpected that there would be more human loss than 
Anduril but it was still a good result. Forrester's had been one of the 
first fighters to return but there came through the door of an 
adjoining hangar a mass of people: technicians, armourers, pilots and 
gunners, all carrying two people shoulder high, they were the crew of 
Victor 66 (vampire fighter #66). There was shouting and whoops of joy, 
Victor 66 was the first human fighter to net a kill in combat; that 
cemented it, come what may Vampire squadron would live forever. 

As the remaining lesser vessels headed for home the three capital ships
began their hunt. All three had sustained shield damage but fortunately 
none had received any direct hits to the hull, so it was with all 
systems functioning that they set off. Intelligence said that the area 
they would pass through was busy with freight and military vessels and 
the plan was simple, if it moved, kill it. 

The hangar decks were a hive of activity, the technicians and engineers
were rushing to repair the damaged fighters and bombers (thanks to 
impressive Anduril escorts all the Black Widows had returned safe, 
though not necessarily sound), and armourers were replacing damaged 
blasters and spent missiles. They also replaced the two Harbingers 
carried by the torp bombers, these were a valuable commodity because 
unlike the Valkyrie and Starstreak missiles the Harbingers could not be 
manufactured on board. 

Crusader was designed to be as self sufficient as possible: she
collected hydrogen fuel for her ion drive and matter/anti-matter 
reactor with the Bussard ramscoop and carried enough antimatter for 300 
days in deep space. Section ten, at the extreme rear of the ship, 
housed the colossal ion drive and the hyperdrive actuator but the first 
15 decks were given over to the factories and machine shops. In the 
factories Alecto could, using conventional means and nano-technology, 
manufacture almost anything from a Valkyrie missile to a replacement 
hull panel; she could, given enough time, even build a complete Super 
Hurricane fighter. There were nine separate factories and all were kept 
humming over after the battle. The one crucial thing she could not 
produce however was anti-matter; to manufacture anti-matter in 
worthwhile quantities would have required a particle accelerator almost 
a quarter of the size of Crusader herself, and without this ability to 
produce anti-matter Alecto could not manufacture Harbingers or extend 
Crusader's fuel supply. 


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