Combat area
Tulania solar system
The Poseidon with help from a five ship formation of Space Hornets brought about the destruction of a Borgan battleship but not before it managed to launch eleven dropships.
“I have radar contact on a flight of dropships that just escaped from the target we just destroyed, should I engage them?” Ensign Segal asked.
“Concentrate on the next enemy ship, leave the small fry’s to our fighters,” Admiral Wallace ordered.
The Borgan dropships were trying to reach Tulania but it was a hopeless effort. They barely covered a mile when a group of Space Hornets and F-7s zeroed in and mauled their formation into oblivion with machine gun fire.
Commander Sheppard led his five ship flight towards another enemy battleship and prepared to engage.
“Lock onto the ships heavy weapons and blow’em to bits,” Sheppard said.
Upon target acqusition, the fighters launch four missiles each and broke away in two directions as their ERAAMs traveled many miles across space before getting through the vessels shields and hitting their marks.
“Our attacked worked perfectly sir, we destroyed the ships heavy plasma cannons along with some of its belly mounted firing ports,” Lieutenant Dirksen reported.
“Excellent. Thunderhawk 1 to Poseidon, we’ve softened up your next target by wiping out its heavy guns and some of its firing ports so you should have an easier time taking it out,” Commander Sheppard said.
“We can already see your handiwork Thunderhawk flight, good job,” Wallace replied as his ship approached the crippled target.
With six solar beam shots and three plasma warheads, the battleship became Poseidon’s 21st kill of the battle. Before its demise, the vessel manage to fire off some its own beam weapons at the Poseidon but its shields prevented them from doing any serious damage.
Eight seconds later, the Poseidon joined up with three Tulanian frigates and a destroyer that were firing on a Borgan cruiser that lost its navigation capabilities.
When Levithan Squadron conducted its bridge blasting strike. Ensign Segal fired two of the forward plasma beam cannons which brought down the cruisers shields and enabled the Tulanian ships to dispose of it with their energy weapons.
Half of the space fighters were helping their fellow battlecruisers and Tulanian ships pick off the remaining enemy targets as the others flew around ready to provide support if needed.
Eleven Space Hornets led by Commander Stafford raced towards a Borgan battleship as four ERAAMs soared from their launch rails. Suddendly, the fighters break off their approach as the missiles flew underneath the target and did their dirty work.
“We got her right in the firing ports,” Stafford said as he looked over his left shoulder at the explosions erupting on the targets belly then looked at one of his display screens and saw that the enemy ship was being ravaged inside out by secondary explosions.
“Thunderhawks 1 through 8 are diving in for a strike on the targets bow,” Lieutenant Caldwell reported while observing the fighters on his radar screen.
“Juggernaut leader to Thunderhawk 1, you’re approaching a ship that’s blowing like a volcano so make your attack run as brief as possible.”
“Roger that, we’re going weapons free now,” Sheppard replied then pressed the red button his joystick resulting in two ERAAM missiles parting from his plane as his wingmen also fired. “Pull up now,” Sheppard ordered.
The fighters pull out of their dive and the missiles scored direct hits on the bow just before the ship exploded.
“We got out of there in excellent time,” Thunderhawk 2 commented.
“Juggernaut 1, give me a SITREP,” Sheppard requested.
“That was the last enemy battleship with the exception of the cruisers and the bandits trying to break through the orbital defense line. space superiority is pretty much ours.”
“I just looked to my right and saw the Phoenix blow two cruisers to kingdom come off in the distance,” Thunderhawk 4 said.
The pilot was able to tell that it was their ship that did the deed because its name was shown on his visor that not only functioned as a off bore-sight targeting system, but as a helmet mounted display too.
Orbital defense line
Tulania Orbit
What started out as an endless wave of dropships, and bombers with fighter escorts in the early stages of the battle was now a dwindling one thanks to the barrage zone consisting of pulse fire from the orbiting Tulanian ships backed by the Nemesis and Aegis who helped make the barrage more formidable with their railguns and SM6 missiles.
With the few escort fighters that managed to accompany them this far long destroyed, the remaining dropships and bombers found themselves trying to run through a fierce gauntlet with no cover, not that cover was of any help under these conditions.
One Borgan bomber got its right wing clipped by a pulse round and started spinning towards a Tulanian frigate that trained one of its pulse cannons on it and disposed of it with a quick shot.
Five enemy dropships flew past nine exploding bombers that fell victim to SM6s and ended up in the midst of pulse laser and railgun fire. The small ships tried to speed their way through the barrage, but the lead dropship was lost to a railgun round.
“Incoming debris,” the pilot of the fourth dropship shouted as he jinked to dodge a thruster that once belonged to his flight lead.
The Borgan pilots were so fixated on trying to break through the barrage, they failed to notice four missiles from the Nemesis and Aegis hurtling towards them.
By the time their alarms sounded it was too late.
“All bandits attempting to break through our defensive line have been destroyed sir,” Lieutenant Moss reported.
“Stand down with the railguns and missiles focus our warhead fire back on the remaining enemy ships,” Admiral Eli ordered.
“Yes sir.”
Before he could select an enemy cruiser, a new contact appeared on his screen. “Sir, I’m detecting a hyperspace window opening over the moon.”
“Prepare to engage hostile reinforcements,” Eli said then contacted Aegis to inform them of the new development, but it turned out that they already knew.
Once the hyperspace window opened, ninety-two Borgan battleships dropped out and charged towards the ships in orbit with all weapons blazing. The Tulanian ships wasted no time returning fire as the Nemesis and Aegis launched salvos of anti-matter warheads.
The shields of the Tulanian and Borgan ships were holding up pretty well against one anothers weapons fire, but the Borgan shields were no match for the Earth ships warheads as they flew right through them and consumed the vessels in multiple sixty megaton explosions.
“All enemy battleships engaging us have been destroyed but I’m detecting another hyperspace window opening close to the planet,” Commander Allor said.
“How close?” Captain Carter asked.
“To the left of the Tulanian second fleet, they’re about to get flanked sir.”
At that moment, a hundred and two enemy battleships followed by twelve battlecarriers emerged from the hyperspace and began firing their heavy cannons and energy beams.
The Tulanian second fleet took the worst of the opening assault, nine destroyers and four frigates lost their shields and exploded.
As the Nemesis, Aegis, and the other Tulanian ships in orbit shifted positions to counter these new arrivals, the battlecarriers began raining down on the planet with squads of fighters, bombers and dropships as they fired on the defending ships with their heavy cannons.
“A lot of enemy craft are diving into the atmosphere,” Moss said as the Nemesis shook from the impact of Borgan plasma rounds against its shields.
“Hit as many as you can with the SM6s and the planetside bandits with ERAAMs from the weapon bays to help out the Tulanian surface defenses and fire on the enemy battleships with the beam weapons,” Eli instructed.
“Colonel Garrett, this is Commander Fey, a lot of bandits have just entered the atmosphere are on their way down. We’re gonna pick off as many as we can, but I think now would be a good time for you and Captain Atsuo to put those SAM those SAM batteries in the Tulanain capital to use.”
“Acknowledged. Our Tulanian friends here in the command center already got the bad guys on their screens and our SAMs will handle the enemy bombers and dropships so the Tulanian air defense units can focus more on the fighters.”
“Aegis to Nemesis, we’re going to target the Battlecarriers with a kinetic rod strike,” Carter said.
“So are we, let’s gut these things,” Eli replied.
Both ships extended one of their ten KRLs from their concealed positions and sent the large tungsten rods soaring towards their targets at a ballistic speed of Mach 26.
The battle carriers didn’t stand a chance, they each received two kinetic rods through their shields which then proceeded to go through them from stem to stern, causing massive amounts of damage. The strikes were so sudden and devastating, there was no time for secondary explosions and battlecarriers began to smolder and break into multiple pieces.
As Fey observed the demise of the battlecarriers, Moss picked up another contact on his screen as he was engaging targets with beam weapons and missiles.
“Another enemy ship is about to arrive, and it’s a big one sir.”
Eli began to have a sinking feeling about what was about to show up and two words quickly came to mind.
“Oh crap.”
Commander Cronoks mothership came out of hyperspace and unleashed a shower of weapons fire on all of the ships in orbit.
The shields of the Nemesis and Aegis were holding up well but even they were starting to take damage.
“We got a Borgan mothership bearing down on us,” Moss shouted.
“Doyle, evasive maneuvers. Moss, light that thing up with a plasma warhead barrage,” Eli ordered.
“Yes sir but we won’t be able to keep up the missile fire on the bandits on the surface. Tulanian surface forces are engaging them and appear to be holding their own so far.”
“I understand, hopefully they can continue to hold out.”
Nemesis and Aegis pound the mothership with plasma warheads from all 150 of their vertical launch cells and inflict a lot of damage, but the mothership kept firing away.
On the bridge of the Aegis, sparks rained down from the ceiling as Allor continued to engage the targets.
“Our beam weapons have nailed half of the enemy battleships and the mothership is suffering serious damage from our plasma warheads,” Allor reported.
“Prep a half dozen anti-matter warheads for the mothership and fire on my command,” Carter ordered.
The Aegis shook from another impact from the motherships weapons as Allor armed the warheads and acquired the target but more activity appeared on her screen.
“AMWs are armed and locked but I’m detecting multiple objects detaching from the bottom of the mothership and several Tulanian vessels are moving to intercept,” Allor said.
“What are they and how many?” Carter asked.
Commander Allor did a quick scan and confirmed that they were Borgan cruisers, 400 of them and she was quick to relay the warning to the Nemesis.
The cruisers were quick to get from underneath the mother ship and proceeded to join the remaining battleships in taking on the ships in orbit at close range.
Some Tulanian ships found themselves completely surrounded and were trading fire on all cylinders.
The Nemesis and Aegis effortlessly dispatched the Borgan ships trying to surround them with their solar beams and plasma warheads as they continued to engage the mothership.
“Unbelievable, that thing brought additional ships with it,” Fey commented.
“Admiral Eli, our orbital defense line has completely fallen apart and we have a full blown orbital shootout on our hands,” Moss reported.
“Crap, and that mothership is still firing on all of us. Lieutenant Moss, raise all ten KRLs to firing position we need to get rid of this thing now.”
“Nemesis we have a problem, we were just about to launch an AMW strike on the mothership but several Tulanian ships managed to lay waste to their attackers and are moving to engage the mothership at close range,” Carter said over the radio.
Eli quickly contacted Fleetmaster Thelmont and told him to have the ships engaging the mothership at close range to pull back because he and Captain Carter were about to use their strongest weapons against it.
“I’m sorry Admiral Eli, but some of my ships have lost their communication capabilities and I’m unable to relay your warning to them.”
“Fleetmaster, this is Captain Carter. If your ships don’t break off their attack on the mothership, they will be caught in the explosions caused by our weapons when they hit it.”
Fleetmaster Thelmont looked down at the floor of his bridge and sighed knowing what he was about to do next then looked back at the speaker.
“Earth ships, do what you must to help defend our world. I know this may mean sacrificing some of my ships and crews but as the senior commander of the Tulanian fleet, I will take full responsibility for this.”
“Understood,” Eli replied then he and Carter gave the nod to their weapon officers.
Inwardly both commanders felt reluctance about this course of action but as men who were not only members of the U.S. military but as military men period, they knew full well that in some instances the defense of the many would sometimes call for the sacrifice of the few, in this case twelve brave but badly damaged ships for the defense of a civilization.
120 kinetic rods soared from the Nemesis and punched through the motherships shields simultaneously at Mach26, hitting critical systems as they traveled through the target which began to erupt in multiple explosions as it began to break apart.
Sensing that the target was doomed, ten of the Tulanian ships around the mothership turned sharply and sped away but the commanders of the other two ships were so fixated on engaging the enemy they continued to fire as the AMWs from the Aegis struck the crumbling mothership and exploded with a combined force of 640 megatons.
“Enemy mothership destroyed sir, but a Tulanian frigate and destroyer were caught in the blast,” Allor reported.
“No time to dwell on the losses we still have a lot of enemy cruisers to deal with,” Carter commented.
“Focusing beam weapons and plasma warheads on the enemy ships,” Allor said.
“This is Leviathan 1 to all allied ships in orbit, we see that you guys have a quite a mess on your hands and we’re rolling in hot with the Thunderhawks to assist with the Poseidion and Phoenix not far behind us.”
“What’s the status of your payloads?” Eli asked.
“We just rearmed on our ships a few minutes ago so we’re inbound with full payloads,” Xavier replied.
“Excellent because we’re picking up more Borgan ships on our long range sensors.”
“Roger Nemesis, we’re ready for them,” Sheppard said.
“Leviathan and Thunderhawk leaders, we’re going to fly ahead give our allies in orbit a hand.”
“Copy that Phoenix,” Xavier replied.
The Poseidon and Phoenix increase their speed and fly over the two squadrons but were high enough to avoid having any negative effects on the formations.
“Ensign Segal are we in weapons range yet?” Wallace asked.
“Yes sir I got a plasma warhead lock on seventeen enemy ships and so does the Phoenix.”
“Fire at will.”
Both ships fired off seventeen plasma warheads which joined the warheads from the Nemesis and Aegis in blasting the Borgan cruisers.
“Check it out guys, our ships are really dishing out the payback,” Leviathan 2 commented.
“The explosions are making the space above the planet look like a big fireworks display,” Captain Xavier added.
“I’m detecting multiple hyperspace windows opening eleven miles from the planet in grid 3,2,8,6,” Lieutenant Griffiths reported.
“Heads up everybody, enemy reinforcements about to drop out on the left side of the orbital battle,” Xavier warned.
“Let’s go give’em a warm welcome,” Sheppard said ominously.
Part 4 coming soon.