ShipCore - Book 4: Chapter 173: Flames of War

USD: 12 days after awakening.

Location: 92 Pegasi, Nu Crateris Jump Point Emergence, A3123Y

The enemy fleet contracted as A31 surged forward, almost as if it could sense something was amiss. Amy’s eyes remained riveted on the tactical display, keenly observing the unfolding action. From what she knew, they should have had little if any data on Starlight Revolution’s units, and she hoped they would keep it that way.

The relatively short range and low speeds between the two fleets all but guaranteed a decisive encounter. Drone units and light elements on both sides fanned out to protect the flanks of their larger brethren.

No more missile salvos erupted from the Corpo fleet; however, as they drew closer, the Corpo battleship began to unleash its primary beam weapons. Coherent light slammed into A31’s new Double Layered D-field, illuminating the curved shield of matter sandwiched between two powerful magnetic fields.

More pinpoints of heat erupted as the other inner-system class vessels in the Corpo fleet poured on their own heavy laser weapons into the hard-to-miss battle station. The plasma sandwiched between the multilayered field rapidly increased in temperature until it was glowing with the white hot-fire of a star.

On the ship’s status screen ripples on the double D-field plasma layer were visible as impact points from the incoming lasers. The defense screen was reporting almost 230 heavy laser impact points across the spectrum as the Corpo fleet continue to pour on the attack. Almost half of that came from the massive energy arrays from the battleship, but the three inner system cruisers were lending considerable amounts of power on their own.

They dwarfed the outer system battlecruiser that had set back in the battleships shadow. All the outer system ships were still out of range, and Amy knew that none of them carried the high-powered heavy lasers that the capital ships could muster.

“Primary D-field holding at 45% saturation,” Abbey said calmly. Amy nodded and couldn’t help but notice that Abbey had grown much more professional in her starship command.

A faint shudder coursed through the station as power systems struggled to keep up with the tremendous energy expenditure required to maintain the station’s defenses.

“Primary batteries preparing for fire,” Abbey announced.

Amy watched the station’s power reserves dip as reactors strained to keep up with the sudden demand. The large laser arrays sprang to life, with energy capacitors surging to feed the weapon systems. Thick metallic heat sinks absorbed wasted energy, protecting sensitive components.

“Flashlight drones and flanking forces ready for volley fire as per operations plan,” Amy said quickly.

Abbey nodded. “Opening Fire.”

Nearly seven times as much heavy laser energy flashed back toward the Corpo fleet. Unlike the Corpos, they had spread their fire to focus on the more vulnerable outer-system warships. Heavy lances of death crashed into their relatively light D-fields, punching through them like they weren’t there. The thick beams carved gashes and wounds throughout the enemy fleet with wild abandon.

Dozens of cruisers and destroyers erupted into balls of plasma as they were skewered. Only the quick thinking of a few more experienced captains managed to prevent a complete disaster as they deployed chaff canisters. The refractive shards reflected most of the energy away, but Amy’s plan wasn’t over yet.

“Chaff detected, redirect fire to enemy battle cruiser,” Amy announced.

Abbey nodded, and suddenly the diffused weapon energy curved inward, converging on the battle cruiser that had led the Corpo retreat from Nu Crateris. The entire SR battlegroup redirected its fire with machine-like precision. The battle cruiser’s D-field lit up before dying in a sudden flare. Hundreds of gouges dug into its heavy hull plating while chaff canisters deployed only to have their contents vaporized.

With the battle cruiser’s control elements fizzling out and power lost, Abbey redirected their weapon fire toward the next targets: Corpo IS-type destroyers. Although smaller than the battle cruiser, their defense suites were high-performance and they carried their own heavy laser arrays making them a threat.

Amy stared at the tactical screen, her heart pounding. “PDC-L range, 23 seconds. Lightshows are ready.”

The enemy had already lost three-quarters of their outer-system ships. She swallowed hard, watching A31’s defense field drop to only thirty percent integrity as the enemy continued focusing all their fire on it.

“Power diversion to defense field. Cutting main battery fire and rerouting excess defense system heat to laser system heat sinks,” Abbey declared.

Amy’s eyes flickered to the station’s schematic. Sure enough, the battlestation halted its weapons fire while redirecting all its efforts to maintain the massive plasma field in front of it.

“We aren’t deploying chaff?” Amy asked with concern. If they weren’t firing back with their own lasers, it would be entirely possible to launch chaff into their path and reduce the amount of energy impacting them.

Abbey’s eyes met hers, and she tilted her head. “If we put up chaff, they’ll re-target our fleet. We’re going to be the anvil.”

Amy nodded, trusting Abbey’s judgment as the station braced for impact. The incoming energy lightened slightly when the defense field of one of the IS-Destroyers flickered and died. Like a hot knife through butter, light slashed through the vessel’s armor plating, silencing it and sending emergency life pods scattering into space.

A chime sounded on the bridge, indicating they’d closed the distance further, down to PDC-L range. Light laser cannons erupted on both sides in a dizzying frenzy of smaller flashes. Their superior firepower forced the Corpo fleet to cease laser fire and deploy chaff in a concentrated wall.

“They’re blind. Going with OP plan two; all small elements deploying forward,” Amy ordered.

Abbey nodded in agreement as A31’s defense field began to stabilize and pressure on the station dropped off, allowing the heat dump system to restore equilibrium.

Amy watched nervously as their smaller fleet of drones and ships flashed forward ahead of them. The Flashlights remained near A31 because they were relatively fragile and already well within range of the enemy; however, the rest needed to close further.

“Their ECCM and ECM are effective,” Abbey mumbled unhappily. “We only achieved a slight level of superiority.”

“Do they have a NAI? If they have an IS fleet, they must have a Chi,” Amy said hesitantly.

Silence hung in the air, casting an eerie atmosphere over the CIC. Despite the titanic energies and chaos unfolding around them, not even a tremor reached their sanctuary. It was terrifying how isolated they were, like being in the eye of a hurricane.

Amy thought about the hundreds or thousands of people on the Corpo ships who had already perished as their lighter OS-type warships were ripped open by wrathful force.

As the distance between the fleets narrowed, both sides’ sensors scrambled to make sense of the thickening canister cloud of chaff and ECM devices, which reflected signals and caused as much confusion as possible. Laser weaponry on both sides remained silent while systems focused on cooling and restoring energy to spent capacitor arrays.

Suddenly, a repeating warning chime blared, and hundreds of red dots erupted from the chaff cloud surrounding the Corpo fleet.

“Defense units engaging missile volley,” Abbey intoned. Her smile disappeared as her eyes flickered between screens and her fingers flew across the keyboard.

The PDC net formed by drones and lighter warships erupted in a flurry of light laser flashes, followed by streams of metal from kinetic turrets. Space filled with hundreds of miniature stars around the fleet, the barrage had come from nearly point blank range and without time for the AMM and Sandcaster systems to deploy.

It was a gamble, one that the Corpos lost.

Despite having highly sophisticated ECCM and targeting suites on the missiles themselves, the loss of high-resolution data feeds from the fleet hindered their capability to find optimal targets. Missiles locked on to more distant prey when they would have had a higher probability of hitting something closer.

The entire battle space transformed into a chaotic dance as ships interwove in their formations, avoiding missiles hot on their tails. The frenzy ended as quickly as it had begun, with missiles and ships meeting their demise in the close-quarters melee.

Dozens of drones had perished, their relatively light D-fields flickering out even from near misses; hostile heat scouring their hulls and burning through their plating.

The SR destroyers and corvettes fared much better, their single-layer D-fields holding up firmly under the assault. However, some missiles managed to weave through the defenses and strike unsuspecting ships that had been preoccupied. The chaotic nature of the Corpo missile targeting meant that certain units received far more attention than others—a few unlucky ones found themselves swarmed by dozens or even hundreds of missiles due to higher signatures or clearer pictures captured by missile systems.

“67 units lost,” Abbey reported, the tactical screen noting the losses for Amy to read.

All at once, the Corpo fleet erupted from their chaff cloud, a wedge of IS-type ships leading the charge. Lances of light flashed between the two groups of warships in every direction. The battleship took the brunt of the damage; a volley of heavy lasers fired from distant Flashlight drones focused on its bow, creating an iridescent dome of fire as the ships plowed towards A31.

Amy watched as dozens of units dropped from the fleet screen during the fierce attack; however, it was not without cost for the Corpos. Their lighter elements died quickly, even while trying to hide behind sturdier vessels. As the hostile formation tore away at the space separating them from A31, their formation’s rear turned into a ragged mess of tattered and broken hulls.

Abbey frowned, her eyes narrowing in thought. “No NAI handshake request. I think their ship systems are simply at the same level of technology as ours.”

Amy realized that Abbey had been searching for a response from the enemy fleet since she had asked earlier. She was about to inquire how they could manage that without a NAI when the lights in the CIC flickered. The room’s lighting stabilized before it dimmed, casting everything in a deep red hue that painted objects with stark relief.

The station’s status screen indicated that their defense field had reached saturation in several areas, allowing beams to periodically punch through the weakened spots and into the station’s armored bow. Although the much smaller inner field depleted the heavy beams’ energy, fiery slashes still tore across armor plates, leaving painful gouges. Some PDC batteries erupted in flame while sensitive detection components melted away.

The enemy flagship faced a similar fate as the Flashlight drone array and their fleet’s heavy laser dug into its Double D-Layer field, not just on its bow. Space shimmered with heat around the vessel as damage accumulated, and lasers found weak points to burn through and penetrate the ship’s armor.

As ships entered railgun range and flashed past one another, SR units reversed course to burn hard and maintain distance. Deadly rods fired at point-blank range pierced both sides’ vessels. A single hit from heavier batteries could annihilate an SR corvette or destroyer – much the same for every Corpo ship except their IS-Cruisers and Battleship.

However, there were far more heavy railguns within the SR fleet due to its two hundred remaining Stabber class heavy railgun drones.

The light railguns caused far less damage, but were much more numerous. Both groups of ships reeled from the assault, but as the units diverged from the jousting pass, only the Corpo Battleship and Cruisers remained operational.

“388 units, lost.” Abbey said flatly. Amy could see the girl’s hands squeezing her console arm rests with tension.

Amy’s stomach sank at the loss, but as she examined the state of the remaining Corpo ships as they continued forward, she realized that they had won.

All four of the remaining Corpo warships were streaming atmosphere and had devastating wounds lining their kilometer long hulls. Charred and burnt wreckage filled space behind them as more metal sheered off or shook itself loose as secondary explosions rippled like a wave.

Still, the massive vessels didn’t die immediately. Return fire continued to stab out, laser mounts slagging themselves as heatsink connections failed, and power circuits released what stores of power they had left. The sputtering death throes of the fleet took the lives of more drone units, but the concentrated fire did not let up.

Life pods escaped from all four ships, and then one cruiser erupted in a titanic explosion that rippled down its spine and gutted it into a spinning hulk. The other two died much more quietly as power systems were disconnected by growing, gaping holes. Fusion reactors and anti-matter stores were ejected into space as a safety measure, rending their defensive and offensive systems inert.

The battleship’s double d-layer looked more like a burned rag, as plasma poured from it and fell behind the ship as the vessel’s four powerful linear drives continued to push it into a close embrace with A31.

Heavy railgun batteries lashed out, but the battleship’s weapon systems had lost their capability to track and divested their deadly payloads into space. A31 flashed by the ship, twisting to continue to face it head on. The battle station’s forty triple 400mm railgun batteries fired in a single salvo. Heavy rods dug massive gouges in the crippled battleship from bow to stern, making it resemble an abused piece of holey-cheese. The wreckage failed to detonate, but its drives died and the ship fell into an uncontrolled spin and yaw.

Amy held her breath as she expected the vessel to explode, but it did not. Instead, its weapon systems finally went silent and a frantic plea for surrender arrived.

Abbey looked at her and she gave a brief nod before pulling up her communication suite to accept.