Newbie Galactic Combat II - Story Thread

[CaptRR]

Chapter 30

Linoris watched as the Last of his mines detonated itself against yet another invader, their seemed to be no end to them. Tactical had reported over 15 ships destroyed, but they kept coming.

The command deck of the Kornephoras had been busy to the point of panic the Last 2 minutes. No one had ever tried to invade the Kornephoras system. Even during the dark days when it looked like the Dravens and Weyrlings were going to go to war, no one had put much faith in an attack on the Draven home system, it was just too bold of a move, the system was too well dedended, yet here someone was sending what seemed like waves of ships against his mines.

His tactical officer looked at him, her look was one of death, �Sir,� she said, her voice, almost cracking, somehow she kept it under control. �We have identified the ships, they are Draven.�

�What?� Linoris started to breath hard, he had just destroyed 15 draven ships, what the hell was a Draven doing trying an unauthorized transit, what was going on.

�Communications get me in contact with whoever is in charge of that fleet, find out what the hell is��

�Commander, the commander of the fleet is signaling us.� She paused for a second listening to her ear piece. �We are being ordered to power down our weapons, and deactivate warp point defense systems, if we do not comply immediately we will be attacked.�

Linoris was speechless, what was a Draven ship doing threatening his stations. This was mad. �Tell the whoever is in command over their that we will not power down our weapon system�s until we know what is going on.�

The communications officer nodded, and began talking into softly. The computer automatically separated his voice from the background noise and sent the signal out. It only took a moment to get a response. �The fleets commander is requesting a visual.�

�Agreed.�

Waiting for a visual took a little longer, encryption keys had to be exachanged but overall Linoris�s communications officer was able to expidate the process rather quickly, in less than a minute the screen on his console blinks, and on it appeared the image of a familiar Draven. Linoris gasped in surprise.

The voice spoke with the same pride that had been seen on countless holovids. �Commander, I am Prince Dravel, if you do not comply with my orders I will be forced to open fire.�

Chapter 31

Dravel watched the holographic image of the commander. The man was young for his position, but that wasn�t so unusual these days. The recent war with the Terrens had propelled many through the ranks much faster than they otherwise would have. What did come as unusual was the fact that he hadn�t been fire upon yet. The three base station�s guarding the warp point were capable of tremendous fire, despite their age. Dravel was sure he could take out the stations before his fleet was destroyed, but he would take losses. Losses he couldn�t afford.

The surprise on the commander�s face made it evident that he hadn�t expected a Draven fleet. He probably didn�t even expect a real attack through the warp point, after all the Kornephoras warp point defense was suppose to be one of the most boring assignments, with several systems of friendly territory between it and the nearest neighbor it wasn�t expected that an attack would just come out of nowhere.

The Commander seemed to get control of himself. �I�m afraid I can�t do that sir, my orders are not to let anyone into the system without authorization, and it�s clear by your entry that you do not have permission to pass.�

�Commander,� Dravel said, his voice pleading, he didn�t want to fire on the station if he could help it but he was being left little choice, �We have 15 Landing City class dreadnaughts pointing shield skipping weapons at you, you won�t Last 10 minutes in a firefight. Commander, I�m pleading with you, don�t be a fool, we are here to free the Republic, Yalare is not worth dieing for.�

The commander sighed; Dravel wondered what thoughts were going through the young Draven�s mind. In the end Dravel got his answer, �Sir, I am ordering you to stand down your weapons, or I will be forced to defend this system.�

�I can�t do that commander.�

The expressions of Linoris�s face said it all, he was a man trapped by duty. Since his days in the academy he had it drilled into him that the defense of the Republic was paramount, now he was in a dilemma. The Republic was corrupt, he knew that, but it was still the rightful government, a government he had sworn to protect. �In that case sir, you leave me no choice.�

The image instantly disappeared. Draven could hardly restrain himself. �That stupid fool! He�s outnumbered, outgunned, why won�t he just give up.�

It was Sosha who answered, �He�s doing his duty Prince, at least what he feels his duty is.�

Dravel looked at her, she was right, but damn how he wished the young man would have just surrendered, instead of throwing his life away.

A voice boomed over the loudspeakers in the F-COM, it was the fleet Tactical officer, �Base stations have opened fire, all hands brace for inpact.�

Dravel looked at the plot the bright red lines arched themselves across the screen. A time to inpact notice shown over them, as well as weapon type, and hit percentage. Already the Third Generation Alliance Jammers were lowering that percentage down at a staggering rate. A few would hit, but the damage would be far less than Dravel had feared.

Dravel took a breath, he could feel the pit of his stomach fill with vile at his next word, Father forgive me, he said to himself. �All hand�s return fire.�

The Base stations had huge power draw from their fusion rectors could put out twice as much power as that of a ship. Add to that their massive size, and the fact that they didn�t need heavy propulsion systems, and you have a heavily armed beast. Each station mounted 7 Telekenetic Projectors, but they were of an old variety. From the moment that the base�s had fire, ECMS had lashed out at the Base�s guidance systems. As guidance was lost each of the Telekentic projections began to veer of course. 21 shots had been fired from the Base�s of those only 3 hit their targets, and those were easily shrugged off by the dreadnaughts shields.

Now Third Fleet brought its own fire to bear. The Landing City Class of dreadnaughts sported a new weapon. The Phased Polaron beam was a new alliance development. After realizing that soon all empires would have the ability to shield their ships, alliance HQ had began work on a way to bypass an enemies protective shield. After almost 3 years of work the Phase Polaron Beam was developed. The weapon used a small amount of antimatter, which is brought slightly out of phase with the resonance of the universe. The antimatter is for all intense and purposes invisible to any type of energy shielding. However once it is brought into contact with �real� matter, it is brought back into phase rather violently. The only flaw was that only a small mount could be brought out of phase at a time.

The alliance had figured that the trade off was worth being able to bypass shields, and ordred the weapon developed. Unfortunately it wasn�t ready in time for the end of the Terren War, but all new alliance ships were being built with this new weapon system. Now a wall of phased anti-matter was ejected at near light velocities towards the lumbering base ships. As designed the anti-matter passed through the base�s shield as though they weren�t their, and sliced deep into the hull of the massive fortresses.

Explosion after explosion ripped into the base�s without protective shielding only armor was left to absorb the energy being released, and that didn�t Last long. Layer after layer was ripped away, and giant sections buckled and fell away, but that wasn�t the end of it. After all the punishment the bases were still standing, weakened, yet still operational. Their shields gone, most of their weapon systems disable or destroyed, they attempted to fire on third fleet again. They never got the chance though, behind the wall of Phased anti-matter came an equally impressive wall of telekinetic projections from third fleets smaller vessels. The weakened bases were no match for this, and one of them disappeared in a ball of plasma, it multiple reactors going critical.

The remaining two took this as a sign, and immediately shut down their remaining weapons. By this point though they were basically floating scrap metal, already escape pods were flowing from their mangled hulls, a sure sign that it was over.

Dravel looked at the carnage he wrecked, he hadn�t lost any ships, but he had just sent several thousand Dravens to their grave. He tried to take a calming breath but it didn�t seem to help, �Pick up survivors, then head towards Kornephoras X, its time we end this. If anyone needs me I�ll be in my quarters.�

Without even waiting for an acknowledgement Draven turned and left the room, he felt sick and needed to be alone.

Sosha watched as her prince turned and left, if everyone hadn�t been too busy trying to search for survivors they would have noticed the thing line of a tear down the side of her face.