Chapter 18: Chapter Fifteen Battle of the Belt

 

The Battlemaster studied the strategic display. The human fighter craft had hit his battlegroups hard. Splitting up his forces had made them vulnerable to small ship attacks. This became especially pronounced due to fleet-wide supply shortages, and the fact that he was lacking in escorts. Most of the cruisers and destroyers outfitted for engaging small ships, had been destroyed in the Battle for Earth. It didn’t help that the Humans liked to hunt down escorts with prejudice.

The recent engagements merely highlighted the weaknesses his battered and beaten fleet had as a result of that battle. His battlegroups making their way out of the system had too many heavy warships and not enough screening vessels. That lack of screens had allowed a mere 24 of these earth fighters to sink over a hundred of his ships in a span of three days. Although thankfully it wasn’t entirely one-sided. At least six of those fighters had taken enough damage to be forced to turn back, and two more had taken moderate damage. None had yet been destroyed. It didn’t help that they were so damn agile. A marked improvement over the fighters they were used to engaging.

He had a few engineers and warriors work on putting together an analysis. Something to give him an edge. Even if it didn’t help now, if they came back it might be useful then. Although that analysis was rather sparse. They only had a rough idea of its size and armament. It was fairly large for a fighter more than twice the size of the ones he had at his disposal. Each fighter appeared to carry four rapid-fire short-range particle cannons that were devastatingly effective at shredding an unshielded hull. Armor did little to stop those charged particle pulses from ripping right through it. Supplementing that was an arsenal of shield penetrating photon torpedoes. It was an effective combination, and the fighter was frankly a beautiful war machine. In many respects, he wished he had a few of his own.

Unfortunately, much of the technology that went into that alien fighter was either baffling or impossible to replicate. The armor that Earth ships so commonly used was a bit of both, to be honest. They understood some of the concepts, but they could not replicate the materials. That wasn’t the only problem they had. Engineers had tried replicating the circuitry, but that proved too costly. How the hell, the Humans managed to produce the armor so easily was a question they had hoped a conquest of their homeworld would answer. Instead, that question was going to be left largely unanswered. There wasn’t much left here, and it was doubtful much of anything valuable was left. Few warriors would be happy sifting through all this booby-trapped debris anyway.

---

Countryman leaned over the strategic display. His fighter craft were returning. As a first strike they had been quite successful, sinking just over a hundred Cathamari cruisers, and a few destroyers. It was one of the most successful fighter attacks in recent memory. Normally it would require a much larger fighter fleet to score similar results. A very good display for the X-1204’s first sortie. It was already proving itself a worthy successor to the SF-1137 Nighthawk. They had recovered a few of those and had them in the launch bay. At the moment he was mainly holding the Nighthawks they had recovered in reserve. They might prove useful for now, but he planned to build more 1204s when the opportunity presented itself, and those Nighthawks represented materials that could be used to build a few. Hell since they were both developed by Star Tech Industries they shared some compatible components.

Countryman glanced at the junior engineer who was talking with the hangar. They were already doing damage assessment as the fighters were landing. “How are they looking so far?”

The engineer sighed, and he nervously turned towards Countryman. “A few of them took quite a pounding. Might be um a while before we can launch them again.”

Countryman chuckled, “Its fine. I was only counting on the one sortie, in the first place.”

His attention was already turning towards the remaining Cathamari battlegroups. Only one of them was in any position to be a threat. The other ships were going to make it out of the system no matter what he did. They were already close enough to the belt, that they would be able to clear it and go to warp before he could intercept. 

As for the last group, it was quite close to his intended destination. It had been hit by a squadron, but they had been forced to pull back when they ran out of torpedoes. Although not before sinking two cruisers, and an escort destroyer. He had actually expected that to happen before they had sunk so many ships, but over half the ships had apparently been without shields. Having lost their shield grids either during or some time after the battle at Earth.

He tapped on that last group looking at Greyman standing opposite him at the console. “This group will have to be dealt with before we reach our target destination.”

He nodded, “I agree sir. However I don’t see many options, we can wait for our fighters to be rearmed, refueled, and send out the remaining squadrons.”

Countryman nodded, “Risky. We can have that done inside an hour, but it will take about a day for them to intercept by then they will be practically inside the belt. It won’t be hard for them to defend long enough to make it through the belt into clear space where they can make the jump to warp speed. I’ve already done the calculations, I estimate if we launch a fighter attack we will inflict roughly thirty percent casualties before they escape.”

Greyman frowned, “I guess we will have to detach the Umikaze and the Coto then.”

Countryman gave him a look, “Actually I was thinking of using the Enterprise herself. Now that we have had time to get her systems optimized there is very little risk in the option. None of those ships are carrying weaponry able to breach our armor.” he paused and pulled up the scans the last fighter attack had brought back, “The only weapon of thiers I was worried about was their torpedoes. Thankfully our sensor scans indicate those ships have barely a dozen warheads each. That isn’t enough to deplete our AIF or breach our hull even if we go in with the Energy Web system off.”

Greyman gave him a look, “I get all that, but as it is we are providing most of the towing force for Star Tech One.”

“Yes, but that isn’t needed anymore. Certainly not this far out from a gravity well. Not unless we need to change course. The Umikaze and the Coto can do that if needed. They have enough engine power to redirect the station on their own if needed.”

Greyman sighed, “So you want to send the Enterprise. Can we get there in time? We aren’t as agile as a fighter. It will take us longer to intercept.”

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“No it won’t. We will have to burn hard, and use the warp engines. Consider it a partial test of the drives as we won’t be exceeding warp one. It won’t be needed, and I would rather not reveal that we have the ability to exceed lightspeed. Its crucial to my current plans that they don’t know.”

Greyman nodded. “I understand that. So how exactly does this use of the warp engines play into things?”

Countryman explained it briefly. The idea wasn’t to exceed light speed here, but rather mimic the acceleration curve of a more powerful engine than the Enterprise actually had. Using the warp engines would also reduce the strain on the dampers for the needed intercept profile.

---

The Battlemaster frowned when he noticed the Human battleship break off and vanish from his screens. That wasn’t good they were about to attack. He was certain of it. The battleship not being near the station opened it up for attack, but his ships were too scattered and out of position for that.

His tail lashed the deck. His mind found no actions that could stop that ship from making a final attack on his fleet. Only one battlegroup was in intercept range, the rest would make it safely out of the system with him. At least barring any more accidents, or engine failures.

---

The breakaway from the task force went as planned, and the Enterprise burned hard to reach the needed speed. Her warp engines were used to help speed the intercept. Within moments of breaking away they were moving at relativistic speeds. Allowing them to close more quickly than any fighter would have been able to intercept. They used the Pulse detonation drive to break and shed speed when they got close a couple of days later.

---

The Battlelord blinked, his tail lashing the deck plates. A few days had passed since the fighters had hit his group, and then suddenly pulled back. Likely they were out of torpedoes or something like that. Whatever the case, given his lack of supplies, and depleted weapon banks that was a blessing. His cannons were nearly dry, and they were almost out of torpedoes. As for missiles, he was completely out, a couple of his ships had a few, but his had none. No one had enough for a proper fight against either fighters or capital ships.

Now his sensors were reporting that the damn battleship that sent those fighters was now less than two hours out. It would be another six before they reached the belt. It seemed they were all going to die. He was going to make a fight of it first.

---

The Enterprise swept in on the battered battlegroup from above. The ships scattered turning in several pairs their weapons were already charged and ready to fire. They were clearly attempting to encircle the ships. Their petty maneuvering mattered not.

Countryman had already identified his first target, a large cruiser that appeared to be in charge of this group. With a single order from him, the ship surged forward almost seeming to teleport into weapons range of the ship. An array lit up a blue lightning-like bolt of energy surged across the void into the first cruiser.

It shields flared brightly like a small sun, and released a small shockwave as they failed. The crew was given very little time to react to their shields overloading before the Enterprise fired again. This time from her beam arrays. Two bright blue beams of energy swept across the hull of the cruiser. The hull buckled rapidly as the beam passed over it. Melting right through plating and hull, severing power conduits and rupturing compartments.

The other ships opened fire on the Enterprise as she came about still unleashing a steady stream of energy into the first ship. While a second ship was targeted, another lightning-like energy bolt leapt from her hull to strike another poor cruiser. Its shields flared brightly, but there was no shockwave this time. They held... barely. The follow up barrage from the Enterprise’s heavy particle cannons proved too much for the strained energy screen. The ship was reduced to a floating mangled wreck seconds later. Just as the Enterprise stopped firing into the first ship.

That first cruiser was still intact and in one piece but every compartment had been vented to space. Her crew either dead or dying. It was nothing more than a dead hulk now, floating salvage. Two ships were down now, fifteen more to go.

Of the remaining fifteen one of them was trying to make a break for it, accelerating towards the belt at full throttle.  The Enterprise fired a volley of torpedoes at it. The glowing blue bolts careened across space, and stuck the fleeing vessel astern. The impact penetrated the shields, and triggered a brilliant fireball. Leaving behind only mangled wreckage. Fourteen ships were left, and that quickly fell to twelve. 

As at the same moment, the Enterprise unleashed two lightning like blasts into the grids of nearby cruisers. One to her port, the other below her to starboard. Both were firing torpedoes when the blasts hit the shields. The overload proving enough to disrupt containment on the warheads. The result was too briliant flares lighting up space and knocking both ships about. Neither was destroyed, but the crews certainly felt the blow. It left them disoriented and unable to react as the Enterprise opened fire on them both with her particle cannons. Leaving them as nothing more than mangled wrecks.

That number fell by one more when one of the cruisers, changed course, and increased speed. It was not an attempt to run, it was a collision course. The Enterprise reacted by opening fire, A lightning like discharge struck the shields of the cruiser. They flared with the brightness of the sun for a brief instant before unleashing a small shockwave. Leaving the ship vulnerable to a barrage of particle fire shredding the hull. The mangled wreck of the cruiser than slammed into the Enterprise at speed. The effect? Nothing the wrecked debris of the cruiser simply bounced off the armor of the larger ship, the energy of the impact dispersed by the FTL rated shock gel, and absorbed to be shunted to armor integrity. The excess shunted to structural integrity, and the weapons. None of the energy was even felt by the crew of the Enterprise. It amounted to little more than an act of futility.

The remaining eleven ships went down one by one. None of them lasted more than a few seconds against the Enterprise. Not at close range where she could use her Electro Cannons. The weapon was able to rapidly strip them of their energy shields, often in a single hit. Although some cruisers were able to resist that first hit, well barely in the case of those ships. Within minutes most of the cruisers were little more than mangled wrecks, but two of them were much more intact. Their hulls were vented to space, but otherwise they were intact.

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