Empires gambit, p.48
Empire's Gambit, page 48
Missiles appeared here and there around Drake’s position as Karacknid scouts opened fire on Scott’s ships. Return fire appeared seconds later. Despite the missile duels erupting all around him, James’ gaze moved further and further away from Drake as the holo display updated. He was interested in a far bigger quarry. What he saw didn’t disappoint him. Drake was now just one system away from the Karacknid homeworld. The shift passage that would take him to the Karacknid Imperator was visible on the holo display. A small piece of text beside it told James it would take just ten hours to reach it if Drake set off there at her maximum acceleration. There was one catch. The system was littered with Karacknid warships. Pretty much every planetary body in the system had sensor contacts all around them. The orbitals were covered in Karacknid stations and warships. On a secondary display, James saw that twelve thousand warships had already been identified and catalogued. This is it, James thought to himself as he stared at all the Karacknid warships strategically placed throughout the system. This was the final hurdle. If he could defeat the enemy fleet in front of him, the Karacknid homeworld and their Imperator would be within his grasp.
For more than an hour, James sat silently in his command chair staring at the Karacknid positions while Scott drove all the Karacknid scouts in the vicinity away. One thing was readily apparent to his experienced eye. Whoever was commanding the Karacknid forces was no fool. Almost all of their fleets looked like they were positioned to defend key planets and industrial nodes. Yet they were all within supporting distance of one another. More than that, they were also placed to make it look like the way was possibly open towards the Karacknid homeworld. Almost, if James wanted to, he could rush his fleet straight towards the shift passage. Yet he judged that at least six thousand Karacknid warships would be able to break from their positions and get ahead of him. That would be enough to slow him down. Then the other six thousand could move in from behind and surround him. No, it’s not going to be that easy, James thought. If we are to get past this force, we’re going to have to do it the hard way.
When four ships of a class James hadn’t seen for more than a year were identified deep within the largest Karacknid fleet, he frowned. Without having to ask, Anderson zoomed in the holo image to confirm. They were the Karacknid’s largest carrier design. A technical specification on them began to scroll beside the carriers. Not that James needed it. Each would carry eighty fighters. Three hundred and twenty was a small force, but it would be more than enough to disrupt any fighter attack he might launch. And if they have one, they could have many more. The discovery made James look at several of the smaller Karacknid fleets with fresh eyes. Most of the twelve thousand Karacknid warships were split into fleets of fifteen hundred or two thousand. They were defending key colonies and gas or orbital mining operations. The rest of the Karacknid forces, about three thousand ships, were spread out more thinly, defending less important targets. They are tempting us to send forces to engage them, James suspected. Taking out three thousand of the Karacknid warships certainly was tempting. If he split his fleet and dispatched powerful squadrons to engage and overwhelm the smaller Karacknid forces, he could gain the overall numerical advantage. But most of the small Karacknid squadrons were defending areas where it would be very easy to hide additional fighters. Large freight orbital stations could easily be emptied and filled with fighters. So too could asteroids that had been largely hollowed out.
Once James was finally satisfied that he had a full grasp of the disposition of the Karacknid forces, at least what the enemy commander was allowing him to see, he began to mentally play out how he saw events unfolding. In his mind, he moved fleets and fought battles as he tried to outmaneuver the Karacknid forces and drive a path for his fleet to reach the shift passage to the Karacknid homeworld. It was not going to be easy. There were also several potential surprises he needed to investigate as quickly as possible. Yet as he stared at the largest Karacknid fleet defending one of the two Karacknid colonies in the system, he was confident. I will match my commanders against yours any day, James thought towards whoever his opponent was. You may have outsmarted us once, but it will not happen a second time. Whoever was leading the Karacknid fleet, James was certain it was the same mind that had planned the destruction of Jourm’s fleet. One thing was for sure, he was not going to underestimate the Karacknids a second time.
“Rear Admiral Scott has completed her task,” Ivanov reported, breaking into James’ planning.
Turning away from the holo display, James gave his Chief of Staff a nod. A moment later, a single frigate jumped back into shift space. Within seconds, hundreds and then thousands more ships jumped out of shift space. Including a number of ships James had done his best to keep hidden from the Karacknids ever since they had entered Karacknid space. With the Karacknid scouts all driven far away, he hoped he’d be able to keep them a secret for a few more hours at least. When all of his fleet was in position, James selected two Karacknid fleets from his command chair. “Signal Admirals Shraw and Jil’lal. Inform them they may proceed to engage these two targets. Assign two additional carriers to each of their commands and warn them to be prepared for enemy fighters. They are to investigate the area thoroughly before committing themselves.” As his orders were dispatched, James entered a heading in for the rest of his fleet. “We will move to this point and hold position.” The destination he selected moved his fleet slightly closer to his goal. Until the two fleets he was dispatching Shraw and Jil’lal to deal with were destroyed or forced to retreat, he wasn’t prepared to step any further into the trap the Karacknid commander had expertly set.
*
Enforcer
“I want recon drones pushed through that asteroid field,” Jil’lal requested. “And launch half a squadron of fighters. I want them to do a sweep as well. If there are any Karacknid fighters hiding in there, we need to flush them out.” Currently, her four hundred warships were cruising towards a large Karacknid mineral mining facility. It was built onto the side of a massive asteroid that sat on the edge of a large asteroid field. Two hundred and forty-six Karacknid warships were protecting it. So far, they hadn’t tried to pull back. If they wanted to fight, that was fine with her. And if they have hidden fighters, we’ll soon know about it. One plasma missile from the fighters she had just dispatched would blow apart a partially mined asteroid. Any fighters hiding inside wouldn’t last long. “Slow our approach by ten percent.”
Patiently, Jil’lal waited as her drones and then fighters carried out a wide sweep around the Karacknid mining station. She knew Admiral Somerville’s entire operation was on a tight schedule, yet she also knew he didn’t want her risking her ships. A secondary holo display keeping a running count of Karacknid warships was constantly ticking up as additional ships entered the system. One group was arriving almost every ten minutes. Almost, it made Jil’lal think the Karacknid commander was doing it intentionally to try and force the Allied Fleet into doing something rash.
“Neither our drones nor fighters have picked anything up,” one of Jil’lal’s sensor officers reported. “Wait,” the officer said hastily. “We’re just getting something from a drone. It was one of the final ones we launched.” She looked up from her console to the main holo display. The image changed to show a visual of three large asteroids. Each one had a handful of small warships attached to its surface.
Mentally, Jil’lal added thirty-two to the total count of Karacknid ships in the system. “No fighters, but that is just as sneaky. How many other large asteroids are there out there near the facility that could be hiding more ships?” Another thought occurred to her. “And signal our half fighter squadron, tell them to extend their sweep, but don’t get too close to those asteroids.”
“There are six more that might have ships attached to them,” an officer reported. “Each of the six haven’t completed a full rotation since we entered the system. The rest have, so we know there are no ships attached to them.”
“Thank you,” Jil’lal said as she tapped a finger on her command chair. If each of the six had ten or fifteen frigates and destroyers attached to them, she would lose a lot of her numerical advantage. Yet they are only light ships. “Let’s see if we can cause a little mayhem,” she said. “Order our fighters to fire a plasma missile at each of the nearest asteroids. Then they are to get out of there.”
Moments later, the six fighters lined up their noses towards one of the asteroids and fired their missiles. Unlike attacking an enemy warship, the asteroid could not dodge, nor did it have any point defenses. The response was immediate. From each of the six asteroids, energy spikes were suddenly detected. Enforcer’s sensors estimated they were coming from reactors being cold started. “Increase our acceleration rate. Bring us up to battle velocity. Let’s let them know we are here for a fight,” she ordered.
On the main holo display, there were now eighty-six new contacts trying to accelerate away from the asteroids they had been attached to. Most got away easily. Yet the ships that had been hiding on the two asteroids closest to where the fighters had fired from had a rather more difficult time. One missile struck the asteroid before any ships had fully detached. A nuclear missile would have caused more damage, yet as it was, the plasma burnt through a large section of the asteroid and caused it to split in half. As the two parts moved away from each other and smashed into other asteroids, several explosions were picked up by Enforcer’s sensors. At least three ships had been taken out. The ships on the second asteroid fared worse. Most of them had separated from the asteroid and were starting to pull away. Yet as the plasma missile hit the asteroid, it fractured into hundreds of bits. They pummeled the fleeing ships destroying five out of seven of them.
The rest of the hidden Karacknid ships did manage to escape, yet they did so without any cohesion. Rather than all moving towards the Karacknid mining station and the fleet there, they had been forced to flee in whatever direction they could to avoid the exploding asteroids. Jil’lal smiled. Less than half of them would be able to get into range to support the mining station fleet by the time she engaged it. Movement from deeper within the system caused her to switch her attention from her current target momentarily. What she saw was daunting, though not surprising. The next nearest Karacknid fleet consisted of eight hundred warships. It was orbiting one of the system’s two gas giants, apparently protecting the gas mining facilities in orbit. Now it had abandoned that pretense; instead, all eight hundred of its ships were breaking orbit and coming onto a heading to intercept her ships. Jil’lal watched them for a few moments and then glanced at Admiral Somerville’s fleet. As she expected, a fleet of ships was already moving to intercept the larger Karacknid fleet. She easily identified Vice Admiral Becket’s flagship Viper leading them. Trusting her friend to handle the Karacknids before they could get to her, Jil’lal turned back to her target. The enemy commander now had a decision to make. It was obvious his reinforcements wouldn’t arrive in time to aid him. Now we get to see just what the enemy commander is planning, Jil’lal thought. If the Karacknid in overall command of the battle wanted to delay Somerville as much as possible, he would let Jil’lal’s battle with his squadron play out. If on the other hand he really wanted to try and force a major fleet action, he’d pull his ships back and conserve them for the main battle when it came.
“They are not falling back,” Jil’lal said to herself as much as to her command staff two minutes later. The Karacknid fleet had moved away from the orbital station, but only to get enough room to maneuver against her ships. Around her, she sensed her officers’ anticipation grow. Four hundred Allied ships against three hundred Karacknid weren’t the best odds, not if they wanted to win a decisive victory. But Jil’lal did have four Kalassai city ships with her. “We will go with attack plan alpha,” she informed her officers. “Let us see how well this tactic works in practice.”
In response, the fifty Kalassai warships in her fleet opened fire with their energy absorbing weapons. Then Jil’lal’s ships fired one salvo of mark VI missiles. Behind them, the one hundred and sixty fighters from her two carriers and three bulk carriers moved in. The attacks were timed so that the Karacknids first had to carry out evasive maneuvers and focus their point defensive fire on the Kalassai ordinance. Unsurprisingly, fired at such a range, the ballistic projectiles were all safely avoided. Yet as the missiles came racing in, the Karacknids formation was disrupted, impacting the effectiveness of their defensive fire. Fifty missiles were missed. Each one sent laser beams piercing into the Karacknid fleet. Right behind them, the fighters and bombers launched their plasma missiles striking more targets. Within seconds of the fighters pulling up and out of the Karacknids defensive fire, more waves of Kalassai ordinance came flying in. This time, the Karacknid fleet was far less coordinated and a number of ships suffered serious damage. With almost every wave of fire that came in, relentlessly every ten seconds, Karacknid ships were struck and suffered power failures.
The result was predictable. The Karacknid commander had no choice. Every one of his ships that could increased their acceleration rates as they rushed to close to missile range. With her fleet already travelling at its highest acceleration rate, Jil’lal was okay with that. As soon as both fleets came into missile range of one another, they opened fire. Despite her fleet’s numerical advantage, the Karacknids actually fired more missiles than Jil’lal’s ships. Of course, that was offset by the Kalassai’s constant rate of fire. And the closer the Kalassai got, the more dangerous their ballistic projectiles were.
Jil’lal coordinated her fleet as they fought off three Karacknid salvos in quick succession. A handful of missiles did get through her point defensive gunners’ best efforts each time. Every missile that struck a ship crippled or destroyed it. Yet her ships were giving better than they received. Then, just thirty seconds after the third salvo was dealt with, the Kalassai city ships came into range with their heavy phaser beams. The first sign the Karacknids got that they were in trouble was when a massive energy build up could be detected from the city ships. Jil’lal now knew it was them charging their equivalent of capacitors. Then six beams reached out from each ship. They crossed the distance to the Karacknids in just a handful of seconds. Eighteen beams scored hits. Six ships were destroyed outright. At first, the Karacknids didn’t react. Then they began to carry out even more wild evasive maneuvers. The city ships fired again just sixty seconds after their first shots. More beams missed, yet still more Karacknid ships were blown apart. For three minutes, they continued their fire destroying enemy vessels with each volley.
When the Karacknid fleet was finally ready to fire another of its own missile salvos, it had lost forty-two ships. As a result, its missile numbers were markedly decreased. In contrast, Jil’lal’s ships matched the previous salvo they had released. Even worse for the Karacknids, the city ships just kept firing. The relentless bombardment prevented the Karacknids from falling into a tight defensive formation. Instead of receiving Jil’lal’s next missile salvo with overlapping fields of defensive fire, the Karacknid ships had to fight together in small groups of four or five. Several of the groups were overwhelmed and struck by multiple missiles. We have broken them, Jil’lal thought as she tightened her four hands into fists. The Karacknid fleet had been reduced to less than one hundred and fifty ships. She still had three hundred and fifty-six battle worthy.
Within the space of fifteen more minutes, the Kalassai city ships and constant rate of fire from the Kalassai warships and two more missile salvos reduced the Karacknid fleet to debris. Jil’lal had only lost six more ships in the engagement. As soon as the fighting was over, Jil’lal checked the total count of Karacknid warships in the system. Despite her victory, she grimaced. It had taken her two hours to close with the Karacknid fleet and destroy it. In that time, one hundred and seventy new Karacknid ships had entered the system.
Chapter 37
What has become known as the Battle of the Slingshot was the largest fleet engagement in the War of Doom. Even so, it is the events that followed after the battle that are what is remembered from those days. However, a keen student will not miss the lessons to be learnt from the engagement.
-Excerpt from Empire Rising 3002 AD.
IS Viper
“They are turning!” One of Becket’s sensor officers shouted. “They’re coming end over end.”
Becket couldn’t help but feel disappointed. Instead of moving to engage her, the Karacknid squadron was now maneuvering against her. It told her they didn’t want a straight up fight. Given how Jil’lal had just smashed her targets, it was understandable. There was nothing left for the Karacknid squadron she was facing off against to come to the aid of. “If they want to dance, then let’s dance with them,” Becket said as the holo display updated to show the Karacknid fleet’s new heading. It looked like they were trying to come just close enough to her ships where they could fire a missile salvo and pull back. If they managed to do so with a higher momentum than Becket’s ships had, they might be able to attack without Becket being able to return fire. At least, she’d have to fire one of her final few salvos of mark VI missiles James had given her permission to use. Also, on the holo display was a blue ring that marked the point where Somerville didn’t want her ships heading any further into the system. If they did, she would end up moving closer to several other Karacknid squadrons that could attack before Somerville could bail her out.
