Chapter 23

MARK

Only minutes remained until they returned to normal space. He would be sitting in his fighter waiting for the light to turn green were it not for his current predicament. The wound still hurt, but he knew better to try and sneak onto his fighter. He would just have to sit this one out from Strike Command. He was making his way there now, already up near the bridge section.

The Mothership crew, having two thirds its original compliment with the loss of the Khar-Selim and Scaffold woke up fifteen thousand active or former military servicemen over the last couple days from cryosleep. Still no fighter pilots, but enough to crew the Mothership and her escorts.

He felt the ship drop from hyperspace. “Pre-jump coordinates are aligned. We are on target,” Fleet Command said.

The doors to Strike Command opened, and he saluted Leonard Naabal. “Red Leader on deck,” he said.

“Welcome aboard, how are you feeling?”

“Anxious. I should be out there,” he said looking at the sensor data table. Mothership was in the centre and he could see fighters launching one at a time followed by an ion cannon frigate. He saw the collectors guarded by a couple light corvettes making their way to a resource vein.

“We detect large resource pockets but no vessels. It could be possible that the Taiidan are using these pockets to hide.” Intel said.

The fleet was settling into the battle strategy made by Karan herself and whatever military strategists they could find onboard. Our fighters would go in and take out as many of theirs as they could with the assault frigates, while our ion frigates would follow closely behind guarded by the heavy corvettes. Probes were launched to give us a better view of the enemy.

“Profiles and markings of the ships match those found at Kharak. There is no doubt this is the fleet that destroyed our planet. Destroy them.” This was the queue for all fighters to move into position. He saw red and blue squads moving into position near one of the resource collectors. As their sensors view moved in on the resource vein, The astroids became more frequent and larger.

“I’ve got eyes up here on everything,” he said to Leonard. They both stood near the sensors table to get a better view of the battlefield. Leonard handed him a headset. “Red leader tuning in from Command. Don’t die out there,” he said.

“Not a chance,” Isabella replied.

The attack force of the Taiidan was visibly frightening from his vantage. In total there were fifty fighters and about two dozen frigates. Some of the fighters drew away from the enemy assault frigates.

“Fall back, draw out their fighters.” Blue leader said. It was a sound strategy. The enemy fighters seeing their opportunity gave chase. Once out of frigate firing range, they turned to return fire. A support frigate was standing by near the strike groups for quick docking.

He clicked on one of the enemy interceptors on the battlefield bringing the formation into focus. They were unique. Swift and deadly. They had already lost two fighters on their second pass. The enemy would turn three-sixty and fire backwards at them, which was something their ships simply could not do as effectively. If chasing one, they’d better kill it quick.

The assault frigates joined in on the fight, and cleared out a handful of interceptors before the enemy assault frigates arrived to return fire on theirs. They mostly ignored the fighter craft to his surprise.

“We’re taking a hit out here,” he heard over the chatter. He zoomed the table out to show the battlefield and sure enough a group of enemy fighters was harassing their collectors. One light corvette was lost. “I need a squad to back up our resourcing operation,” the remaining pilot said.

“Roger that,” Isabella said. “We’re just finishing up here anyway. We’ll leave it to the frigates and heavies.”

“Watch yourselves Blue Squad, enemy corvettes incoming.” Leonard said. They only had to hold the Taiidan off for a minute before ion frigates arrived to clean up. Once they did, Blue Squad was ordered to dock with the Matriarch.

They were being pursued on their docking approach. The support frigate’s chin gun could not handle the number of fighters swarming it now.

“Requesting aid here,” he heard Johan say. Leonard gave the order to the heavy corvettes not faring too well against the assault frigates. Three enemy ion frigates broke off from the main group and opened fire with their blue beams. A group of porters was inbound to capture them with some repair corvettes guarding.

The battle ended, but another was beginning. He saw over the sensors another group of enemy frigates moving in on their second resourcing operation guarded by a new kind of fighter that appeared to be a mobile gun platform. They guarded in sphere formation and didn’t move like standard fighter craft.

“Looks like we’ve got some new units,” Leonard said. “I will contact Fleet Intelligence with this new information. Can you helm the bridge?”

Mark replied: “Can I ever. You have quite the view up here, I must say.”

“Just keep them off our collectors while I make a call,” he said.

“Aye, sir.” The battle would be over before it began. A group of salvagers followed closely behind Red and Green Squads. The frigates were on the other side of the map from them and they wouldn’t reach in time.

“Capture tactics guys, and be sure to pick up one of those new craft, I’m sure our research division would appreciate it.”

“We’ll see what we can do.”

These new vessels were well equipped with their three guns to tackle our fighter craft. He ordered them to press on. Once the salvage corvettes arrived, the enemy fighters took aim at it instead. The repair corvettes could restore any damage dealt, but just to be cautious, he assigned a support frigate to move toward the destination. The fighters would pick off the enemy in short order. The stationary movements of their targets provided easy pickings.

“Enemy fleet seems to be moving,” he heard someone repeat over the comms. He zoomed out on the map viewer and noticed the large carrier changing position, guarded by two ships larger than a frigate. And they were on the move, towards the Mothership. They were guarded by a handful of frigates and a swarm of fighter craft.

“All interceptor squadrons make your attack runs on the enemy fighters. Launch bombers, we have inbound.”

Fleet Command ordered ion frigates to intercept the group of capital ships before they reached the colony vessel. As it turned out, the armour was weaker on the top and bottom sections of the craft, and so they were given orders to hit from above and below.

The frigates took enemy fire. Two ion cannon beams each firing on a separate frigate with fighter craft swarming about. In came the bombers in a delta formation, and they made their first pass on the nearest destroyer-class vessel, one of two guarding the carrier. Every shot would count, but the defenders, as Fleet Intelligence has designated them, were taking aim at their attack bombers.

“Evasive tactics, and come in for repairs once you’ve gone past half hull integrity.” Better to be safe considering it was their first outing.

Leonard returned after a short call to the main bridge. “How goes the fight?” He asked.

“In our favour,” Mark replied. “Our salvagers are bringing the second wave of enemy frigates home as we speak, but our probes are detecting movement from the enemy carrier.”

“Movement, you say?

“They’re headed straight for us. Two destroyers guard the ship. Awaiting new orders, sir.”

“Is that all that’s left, three ships?”

“Aye, three ships.”

“I’ll get Fleet Command to order our frigates to move in. Intelligence also believes it wise to capture their carrier. We could gain valuable data from its computers on the scope of the enemy we face. Tactical briefings, outpost locations, you name it.”

“Maybe then we’ll be able to face our accusers.”