Chapter 1
The Segura Star System, 12 Light Years from Hiigara:
Twenty Hyperspace Windows opened in the Taiidan Imperialist owned system. For some unknown reason nothing came out. The windows were open for ten seconds and then closed. The Taiidan Sensor Manager was bewildered. His Proximity Sensors could find nothing. He began to think that this was some sort of trap...
The Bridge of the Assault Carrier Invincible:
"Commander, it appears that the Taiidan scum can't detect us. They are sending over a small scout wing that is all. The new cloaking system seems to have worked." The Invincible was the newest Hiigaran Democratic Empire carrier and it was crewed and defended by the best of the HDE Navy. The commander of the carrier, Th'lan Nabaal, was the best task force commander in the entire Navy.
"Good. Move the Battle Group into position. Be prepared to launch the Cloaked Fighters. We need to do this fast and furious."
"Aye, sir" was the Sensor Officers reply.
A young man, about 22, walked onto the bridge.
"Ah, good. Wing Commander Somtaaw, I was just about to call you down here. We need you to lead the strike wing on the Imperialist Defense Field Generator, here. You will need to use the new fighters on this one. They seem to have generated a field strong enough to stop an Ion Beam. We won't be able to hit them with that thing operational."
Wing Commander Artus Somtaaw was pleased. He was just about to suggest that very thing.
"I was thinking the same exact thing, Commander. Should I use my discretion on this one or do you have a plan on just how to pull it off?"
Commander Nabaal was pleased to see this kid's eagerness to go into battle.
"Use your discretion, I trust you that much at least. You are to launch in twenty minutes."
Artus then saluted and left. Twenty minutes later, the Sensor Manager reported that they had reached their destination. Th'lan headed over to the PA system and turned it on.
"All hands, battle stations! Launch Strike Wing Alpha! Let's do this!"
Wing Commander Artus Somtaaw's Cockpit
Artus Somtaaw was sitting in his cockpit, ready to take off in the new Specter MkVIII Cloaked Assault Fighter. It was the new special operations fighter and it was in every way as good as the new Blade MkXXI Heavy Fighter. It had the dual Ion Pulse Cannons, the dual Torpedo Launchers, the excellent maneuverability, the Ablative Armor, and the great speed. It also had one of the new advanced cloaking systems and so was horrendously expensive. His wing of 32 CAFs was being prepped for launch. He turned on the engines and started taxing to the launch bay, first in line, as always. Once he was in position, he turned on the cloak generator and waited for the rest of his squad to do the same. He saw them all disappearing and that reminded him to punch in today's sensor frequency code that allows him to see any HDE cloaked ship due to the way the cloak worked. Right at the twenty-minute mark he was given the signal to launch. He turned on the engine and gave it maximum thrust. He flew right out of the docking bay and headed straight for Military Parade formation.
When the entire wing was launched, he gave them their Formation Code, which kept the wing in formation even in high-g turns. With that, he headed for the center of the formation and locked himself in, right in the center of the Claw. Once the formation was set, he gave the order to head out. They moved off, straight for the Defense Field Frigate, torpedoes ready to fire. He pushed the comm. button.
"Strike Wing Alpha, you have weapons free, I repeat, weapons free. Break off and attack."
All of the fighters flew straight for the frigate and, once in range, fired off the Torpedoes. The field was useless against them. They headed straight for it and hit, repeatedly. After the Torpedoes were gone, they all started firing the Ion Pulse Cannons, hoping that some would penetrate the field. It seemed that this DFG was more heavily armored than the older models.
"Alpha 16-32. break off and reload. This doesn't seem to be working."
"Roger, Alpha Lead. Breaking off..."
The Taiidani forces seemed to be having a lucky day as they had already knocked out five fighters. They seemed to have faster turrets than ever before. The Fighters were not doing enough damage to the DFG with the IPCs. Hardly one in a thousand pulses would hit. However, luckily for the HDE forces, the newly rearmed fighters came back and fired the Torpedoes, which all hit and destroyed the Frigate, but not soon enough, as another six fighters were killed from the onslaught. There seemed to be a signal coming from the carrier.
"Alpha wing, break attack. An enemy Missile Destroyer is headed for you."
"You heard the man, break off attack. The new ones seem to be able to get a lock on us..."
"Roger, Alpha Lead, heading in for docking now." Artus headed in as well.
Bridge of the Assault Carrier Invincible:
"Commander, Alpha Wing has docked."
The Sensor Manager was always ready to state the obvious, especially when there was a large screen that said the same thing.
"Good. Get everybody ready to decloak. Have the Ion Cannon Frigates take out the Missile Destroyer. Tell the Assault Frigates to take out that wall of frigates over there. Have the Destroyers and our friend Blockade the Heavy Cruiser attack that HVC of theirs. We need this to go as fast as possible. When the Missile Destroyer is down launch all strike craft and have them take out the other strike craft. You got that?"
He always needed to make sure the Communications Officer understood as she was prone to listening to what everyone else was saying.
"Yes, sir. Sending orders now."
Good. Now it's time to watch the fun.
"Helm, take us in towards that Carrier. We should be able to it and it's strike craft out easily."
"Aye, sir. Moving."
With these orders taken care of the Commander headed for his chair. He sat down and watched the lightshow.
Bridge of a Bentusi Warship, Two Light Years from Segura:
"Commander, our Taiidan allies are hailing us. They are requesting help. It seems that a Hiigaran Carrier Battle Group has attacked them. Their estimates say that they will lose this battle within the next ten minutes if they don't get help."
The Bentusi Commander, Kallha'Chusa, was displeased.
"Tell them that we are on our way. Helm, set a course for their position."
"Yes sir."
Bridge of the Assault Carrier Invincible:
The battle continued. The Taiidan fleet was badly damaged and down to only three Assault Frigates, the Carrier, and some fighters. The rest of the ships were destroyed, including the Heavy Cruiser. As the last of the Assault Frigates exploded a large hyperspace window opened with a familiar, but unwelcome, signature. It was that of the Bentusi. Since the Bound Bentusi took over they have become increasingly aggressive and so they allied with the Imperialist Taiidans and the Turanic Raiders. With their superior technology, they built warships of all types. This one happened to be one of their Destroyer class ships. It had four continuous fire Ion Beam cannons, multiple IPCs, and a few missile launchers. As it was exiting Hyperspace, the different weapons began to fire on the Hiigaran fleet. Th'lan was not pleased.
"This isn't good people. Get our Destroyers and Heavy Cruisers targeting that thing NOW! Have the Ion Beam Frigates flank it. Keep the Invincible and her strike craft attacking the carrier. We can't let this one get away."
The communications officer was frantic.
"Yes, sir!"
Th'lan sat up and began to take interest in this current turn of events.
On the tactical screen, which showed what was happening from a gods-eye perspective, there were many little red blips being chased by lots of little green blips. There was a large 3D representation of the Carrier and the Destroyer, both shaded red, and the Hiigaran capital ships, shaded green. The red carrier was starting to tilt on the display. After a few seconds, it disappeared and many small red blips flew out from it and then disappeared as well. The Bentusi Destroyer was taking a toll on the frigates but the Destroyers and the Heavy Cruiser Blockade were taking the hits. After a while, the Destroyer's representation started turning as well and then it started emitting red blips.
"Commander, it appears that the Destroyer is trying to evacuate. There are escape pods flying around everywhere!"
The Sensor Manager was shocked. He had never heard of the Bentusi ever abandoning a ship.
"This is most odd. Send out a salvage crew to pick one of them up. Perhaps we could get some information out of them."
Th'lan was not to pleased that they gave up that easily. He sighed and sat down.
Salvage Corvette Lockhart:
"Coming along the side of the craft now. Boarding team, be ready to get out and grab any Bentusi onboard."
The pilot of the corvette was his usual "I can boss you around because I'm the pilot" self again. There was a chorus of "Yup"s from the marine compartment. They were all ready to head in and grab whatever Bentusi was around. As the corvette docked, the laser drill began making a hole in the larger craft. It was about as large as a heavy corvette, almost one and a half Salvage Corvettes.
"All right, the door is open. Move out!"
About twenty seconds later the marines got back.
"There was only one on it. He says that he was the communications officer. His name is Kah'La. He also says that this corvette is going to be entering Hyperspace any minute. Let's go!"
"All right, grunty. Closing boarding hatch. It is closed, disengaging. We are free, heading back to the carrier."
The corvette got back and docked.
Bridge of the Assault Carrier Invincible:
"Commander, it appears that we have a live one. They are bringing it to the Interrogation room now."
The communication officer was always giving useful hints.
"Good. Send Artus Somtaaw over there now. We need to interrogate this prisoner."
"Aye, sir."
Just then, the Sensors Manager spoke up.
"SIR! The Destroyer, it's moving towards us on an intercept course! We don't have the time to move out of its way!"