Chronicles of Sol: The Fall-Chapter 228 One Ninety Duel in the Storm

Range figures closed rapidly, as Countryman kept an eye on the Raider vessels. One battleship had been disabled, the other crippled but the rest of the fleet had taken only minor damage. They were still battle-ready, his two bomber squadrons were already pulling back to rearm which would take a few minutes.

Below he could hear the comm chatter as the fighters were landing in the port hanger, his target was off the Starboard bow, so that hanger was protected from enemy fire.

Kaori looked up from her tactical console, "Battleship Two is in range, sir!"

Countryman nodded and smiled, the angles were perfect. He'd be able to use most of his weapons, while the battleship had almost nothing facing his direction, thanks to Strike Two knocking out their dorsal weapons array. "Target their primary hull bearing struts, points gamma, delta, and beta, main cutting beams fire!"

The beam arrays lit up, the glowing points met at several locations before a focused blue energy beam rippled off the hull. Three beams tore into the alien battleship, her rugged hull seemed to resist for a moment, then the beam punched through, tearing through armored plating, bulkheads and other structural elements before tearing into the ship's skeleton. Several detonations occurred within the other ship, as she started to turn.

Just as his beams were cutting out after tearing almost all the way through the big ship, the other vessel opened fire. Bursts of golden energy raked across his hull with minimal impact. Then a bigger bolt hit, the ship rocked.

"Hull plating is holding!"

"Return fire, all main batteries, fire for effect!"

Numerous armored turrets popped up from their positions beneath the main belt, then fired. They spat dozens of high-energy particle bolts, the streaming blue bolts tearing into the armored hull. Each round would strike into the armor, then bloom when the spatial flux field around the compressed particle bolts collapsed. Plating ruptured, bulkheads buckled, decks blew out into the storm. Charred and ruined bodies and debris was blown out into the storm where the violent currents scattered it, while energy discharges broke it up.

Despite the hail of fire, the Battleship managed to fire more rounds. Each one rocked the Enterprise as they struck hard. Dozens of hit, but none penetrated the armor. Then Kaori opened up with another discharge from the main beam arrays, this time they carved through the weakened structure and the battleship started to break up, her guns sputtering as power lines failed.

Escape pods, and shuttles started to leave the ship en masse. Countryman ignored them and focused on the disabled vessel. "Target the other battleship, let's break her up as well."

Felki meanwhile was watching her own plots. Her gaze was on one of the Raider Light cruisers, it was uncomfortably close. In seconds if nothing changed, they'd be in weapons range.

The high energy bursts going on between the Enterprise and the one battleship suddenly came to a close. For a moment she worried but her officers reported the results. "Raider Battleship is breaking up, the storm seems to be ripping her apart."

"All four heavy cruisers have broken off their pursuit, they are now on an intercept course with the Enterprise."

"Noted, what about our cruiser friend?"

"Still making ready for battle."

"So they don't feel outmatched just yet," she commented before making ready for battle herself.

Seconds later, the Raider vessel began firing first. Energetic bolts of ionized plasma were spat out from several ports along her broadside.

Felki didn't even need the report to know those were torpedoes, "Launch counter missiles, bring us to a new heading of one zero six mark two eight, reduce thrust to three quarters impulse."

The ship shuddered as the missile silos fired a series of quick salvos, each one an energetic plasma projectile. Guided plasma missiles made excellent counter missiles, and as a bonus making new ones was not that difficult even in the field.

A moment later they were brought around onto the new heading, her own torpedoes tubes lining up with the enemy cruiser. "Load forward tubes, stand by to fire."

"Tubes loaded!"

"Fire!"

A strong whooping sound reverberated through the hull in repeated bursts as the tubes fired their loaded projectiles, each one being accelerated to impressive velocities in excess of lightspeed. A quirk of hyperspace, but thanks to that same quirk they were engaging at distances far in excess of normal. The projectiles still took several seconds to reach the enemy cruiser, which responded with its own counterfire. Rapid fire flak batteries instead of counter missiles, but it was still effective.

Several of her warheads were hit, and vaporized by high-density plasma flak. Yet enough got through, three struck the opposing light cruiser amidships, her shields flaring. Some of the energy got through and a section of plating disintegrated. "Direct hit, moderate damage to their hull. No significant damage to report, their shields are holding."

"Tube status?"

"Reloading is almost complete."

"Forward tubes are loaded!"

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"Fire!"

Again the ship vibrated under her as a repeated strong whooping sound filled her ears as another salvo was unleashed. At the same moment, the other cruiser fired another salvo of her own torpedoes. "Incoming torpedoes!"

"Fire counter missiles!"

The ship shuddered and thrummed as the counter-battery missiles were unleashed. Once again, dozens of them sought out each torpedo fired at her. Some found their targets but others sailed out past and soon retargeted the enemy cruiser, which was unleashing its full battery of plasma flak cannons.

Several missiles and six of her torpedoes struck this time. Two hits penetrated the shields and chunks of the ship disintegrated under the firepower.

"Moderate damage to their hull, we've knocked out four of their portside flak cannons and one of their main turrets."

She smiled, that was going to help them when they got closer, she felt fortunate that she'd been faced with a weaker opponent. The opposing light cruiser might have been in the same weight class, but it was clear their torpedoes were less advanced and they didn't have the best point defenses. Sadly that was the last volley before they closed to duel range, she'd prefer to maintain distance, but she didn't have that luxury. The other ship was faster and actively trying to close. "Stand by all cannons."

"Cannons ready!"

She counted, watching the plot closely then finally they were in range. "Fire!"

The cannons hummed as they unleashed pulse after pulse of white-blue energy. Each shot slammed into the other cruiser's shields just as she started firing with her own cannons. The duel was on!

Her own shield flared just before several hits struck her hull. The ship shuddered under the barrage. While she gave new orders, the ship came about to give her a good broadside. "Load heavy anti-ship missiles."

"Aye sir, switching to anti-ship missiles."

After a couple of seconds, she was informed they had anti-ship missiles instead of counter missiles ready to fire. It would leave her vulnerable, but she didn't think the other cruiser was going to fire. Torpedo launchers took a lot of power and they were using most of it on other systems.

"Launch missiles!"

Just as she gave the order, she watched glowing blue projectiles suddenly appear and slam into the cruiser at close range. Reminding her that two squadrons of allied fighters had been in the area. Each round penetrated the shields before exploding, sections of plating ruptured and delicate instruments were shredded. One round penetrated the hull just meters from one of the torpedo launchers, and it must have been loaded. The other cruiser rocked as a huge chunk of her hull disintegrated.

Then her own missiles rippled off, the energetic plasma closed fast before slamming into the weakened raider shields. The shields flared then buckled, and her own blue-white energy rounds ripped into the hull. Plating melted and broke apart under the high energy weapons fire. Several rounds tore deep into the superstructure, and the fighters strafed the hull, tearing into anything they could hit, some of their own rounds tearing just as deep.

Her own ship shuddered as the last few rounds from the other cruiser hit her. A few penetrated the armor, but nothing serious was reported.

The weapons officer looked up from her console, "Target destroyed captain."

She looked at it, the ship was still there but she could see the explosion tearing through the core of the other ship even after her own officers had stopped firing. It seemed their opponent was truly finished. "What about the other light cruiser?"

"On the run, it looks like the Enterprise took out both battleships, disabled a heavy cruiser and sank one more. The other ships are all retreating."

She relaxed, "Excellent, and the disabled cruiser?"

The sensor officer put it on screen. Felki blinked, why was the Enterprise firing on it? Several focused energy beams could be seen and for a moment she wasn't sure why until a section came free. Several shuttles then moved into position, firing cables to secure the target. "Um, are they doing what I think they are?"

"They've um, liberated the deuterium tanks. I'm reading about a hundred other shuttles that have launched and are conducting salvage operations."

"Anyone still alive on that cruiser?"

"Not in the rear compartments, but we are picking up life signs in the shielded forward section. They should be fine for a while, at least until auxiliary power fails."

For a moment she felt sorry about them, but then again they were going to... Her mind trailed off the subject not wanting to think about it. She figured they deserved a fate like that, and besides, there was a good chance their buddies will come back for them later. "We should deploy some salvage teams ourselves, get what fuel and useful materials we can find from that cruiser we just sank."

"Aye, sir."

May 21st, 007 SDE:

The hum of the engines started to calm as the ship slowed, despite the hour the alpha shift was still on duty. Countryman shifted a bit in his chair as he observed the Drifter facility; the Lodge.

He'd heard about the place but he realized Felki hadn't told him much, where Anchorage was built into a large metallic asteroid, The Lodge was built into a planetary fragment. It had likely once been a rogue roughly two-thirds the size of Earth, possibly even had an atmosphere. That was no longer the case, the surface was scorched and covered with craters. Most striking was the missing chunk of the once spherical planet, accounting for more than a third of the original mass of the planetoid. Something had cracked this planet, when this happened was impossible to tell.

The Lodge itself was a massive structure nestled into one of the largest craters, layers of steel, polycarbonate alloys, duranium and other alloys built out a series of residential and industrial structures. A series of defense platforms hung in the storm around the planet, and he could see several batteries on the surface as well.

"How many ships are here?"

"Almost a hundred, most of them frigates along with a few corvettes, but they do have a handful of cruisers. Captain Felki wasn't lying about the cruisers in dry dock either. Both of them are heavy cruisers, quite a bit of damage to both, doesn't look like combat though."

"The storm?"

"I think they had a run-in with an eddy yes."

"Wonderful," commented Countryman. "How about our friends?"

"Mostly maintaining patrols, but they have diverted two frigates and a light cruiser to join us," said Misaki as she studied the readings, "Hmm the Frigates have oversized engines, limited armaments and quite the tractor beam array. They look more like tugs than combat vessels."

Countryman noted that down in his mind as he prepared for the coming diplomatic meeting. They'd worked out some early agreements already, but this would be the real challenge. After that, he figured they'd return to Anchorage for repairs.