Chapter 3: Chapter Two As the Battle Continues

While the Enterprise was rushing to aid the beleaguered EFS Baltimore, another ship, the EFS Yamato was making its final stand. The Yamato was the largest ship Earth ever built. It was named after a famous ship from the second world war, but its service record had proved to be far more impressive. The ship, having fought in several major battles in two wars. The Third Colonial war, and the Earth-Cathamari war. The ship was a massive 9700 meters long. She was outfitted with twelve meters of Overlord armor, the same as the Enterprise, although that counted for more due to her size. But also less due to her weaker powerplant. The ship was also heavily armed with over a hundred torpedo banks and numerous ship-to-ship particle cannons.

The Yamato shuddered under another torpedo barrage. Returning fire with one of her own. She had recently been resupplied with the photon torpedos to replace her armament of mark fives. Blue streaks of light rippled from the hull of the Yamato in rapid succession. Targeting three Cathamari cruisers and a battleship. The barrage struck all four ships. Their shields flared but failed to stop all of the torpedoes. A fair number interacted directly with their hulls, inflicting severe damage. Two of the cruisers were destroyed outright in an instant, while the third was crippled.

The battleship was only moderately damaged and returned fire. Angry red plasma streaks slammed into the hull of the Yamato one after another. Ripping chucks away with each impact. Her hull plating was barely functional at this point, and she was outnumbered. Her escorts had already gone down in the fight leaving her alone, and taking heavy damage.

She changed course and returned fire. A mixed barrage of heavy particle fire, and beam weapons focused on the battleship. While she targeted a second squadron of cruisers with her torpedoes. 

The battleship’s shields flared brightly, but held under the barrage. Not surprising, since the Cathamari battleships boasted powerful shields, and enough armor to keep them alive even after taking numerous torpedo hits. Although it was important to note that they carry more armor today than they did two years ago. A change the Cathamari made after encountering humanity’s shield penetrating torpedoes for the first time. A weapon that humans developed as a counter to Cathamari energy screens. 

The cruisers were not so lucky. Of the six in the squadron she fired on, only two survived, both crippled. Easily finished off by precision strikes from the beam array.

---

The Battlemaster growled, as his ship shook. Another cursed volley had penetrated the shields. He glared at the ship on his screen. It was massive, three times the size of his own, and a true menace. 

The massive alien dreadnought had already taken heavy damage, but it was still fighting back. Her numerous torpedo turrets allowed her to target multiple ships simultaneously with each volley, and she backed that up with a heavy battery of high yield particle weapons. Weapons that were still operating even as her hull fractured, and plasma fires erupted. Even from here, he could see she was venting burning plasma.

His tactical officer shouted, “Sir shields are at 23%”

He cursed. Those shields were the only thing keeping them alive.

The Battlemaster gave the order. “Helm, Withdraw!”

He didn’t like the order, nor did his crew. There was no helping it though. They could not afford to lose another battleship. They had lost too many this day already.

Aboard the Yamato, Captain Drakes watched the battleship break off with relief. There were still cruisers left, but the Yamato might just pull through this. Assuming engineering could get those plasma fires under control. Otherwise the ship might just burn down.

---

The Enterprise found the Baltimore on its last legs. The heavy cruiser had lost its main drives, and was adrift. Her hull plating was failing, and she was taking heavy damage. The mangled wrecks of several other cruisers were nearby. Reynolds did note that one other ship was in the area. The Yorktown, a Charleston class light cruiser. Ships of the class were lightly armed with only a few particle cannons, and light torpedo turrets. They made up for their light armament with their spacious hangers. That one cruiser could carry over a dozen squadrons into battle.

The Yorktown itself had already taken some damage. She had a few hull breaches, but appeared to be in better shape than the Baltimore. As the Yorktown was actively engaging in maneuvers. She also had a few active fighter squadrons in the area, but they were busy defending their own mother ship. As such, the Baltimore was on her own against a dozen battlecruisers.

Despite its heavily damaged state, the Baltimore was still fighting back, firing on her attackers using the last dregs of energy she could. The Yorktown might be alright for a few minutes, but the Baltimore wasn’t going to last much longer without help. He didn’t think the Yorktown would either, as it was also outnumbered and engaged with a half dozen battlecruisers itself. The Baltimore would need help more urgently in his opinion though.

Reynolds checked in with Countryman. “How is that armor coming along?”

“I have it up to 53% efficacy. I wouldn’t recommend getting hit, but that should protect us from their torpedoes as long as field strength stays above 85%” replied Countryman.

“I’ll keep that in mind.” Reynolds replied, before closing the internal channel. That was going to complicate things, but it was better than nothing. Now he just needed to draw their attention away from the Baltimore.

They were just now entering torpedo range. He gave the order. The hull glowed briefly as glowing blue streaks shot out in rapid succession. They crossed the distance in seconds, and struck the nearest cruiser. Most of the volley detonated on contact with the shields, but a few got through. They struck the hull on the forward dorsal. When the light cleared it revealed a ship adrift. Her shields were still up, but her forward triangular hull segment was gone. The ship was spinning, and venting atmosphere. 

The strike had the effect he wanted, the remaining eleven battlecruisers had broken off their attack on the ailing Baltimore. They were now on a direct course for the Enterprise. Operations then reported, “The Umikaze, and the Coto have signaled that they are breaking off to assist the Yorktown.”

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He acknowledged that, and noting that torpedoes had reloaded, gave the order. A second volley fired to strike the closest battlecruiser. He didn’t like the odds, but he felt his destroyer escort had made the right call. They did need to split their forces if they were to save both remaining ships in this area.

The battlecruiser he targeted attempted immediate evasive action. Careening up and away from the volley. The blue streaks of his photons turned to intercept. They were guided warheads, and well within effective range, it was a pointless maneuver. The torpedoes quickly cut up, and struck the ship ventrally amidships. There was a massive flash of light, and the ship was sent spinning right into the wrecked remains of an Earth cruiser’s primary hull. Her shields flickering.

He was promptly informed, “Direct hit confirmed. Reading heavy damage to her primary shield grids, and propulsion matrix. She is venting atmosphere.”

Reynolds smiled, he was sure that had shook up the scaly bastards. After what they had done to the colonies, they deserved it, and a hell of a lot more. In any case, that cruiser would be out of the fight for a while. He still had ten other cruisers to worry about, and they were now in range to return fire.

The whole squadron opened up with a full volley of torpedoes. Numerous red bolts of plasma energy separated from the cruisers on a course right for the Enterprise. He ordered immediate evasive action.

The ship turned hard to port. The crew didn’t really feel it though, thanks to the inertial dampers, a device designed to protect the crew from the effects of high g maneuvers. They were invaluable gizmos that had been incorporated on ships for decades. Just as useful as the grav plating that kept his feet anchored to the floor. 

The Catharmari torpedoes, being plasma based, lacked the tracking his own photons had. Over half of them missed the ship sailing wide of the hull, and into space. Dissipating harmlessly when the containment failed. A few tracked the ship, and hit the Energy Web. The defensive system destabilizing the containment, and releasing the plasma prematurely. The ship shook under the shockwaves. Shockwaves he barely felt.

He noticed the ones that actually struck the hull far more. The ship shuddered slightly with each hit. Thankfully none of the hits breached the hull, but the effects were felt. As each drained a chunk of the AIF. It would regenerate given time, or more power. He was going to keep an eye on it, because if they took too many hits too quickly the hull would start taking damage. Countryman had already warned him that the armor wasn’t fully effective yet. It didn’t help that the ship had been launched ahead of schedule. If it hadn’t, the system would have been ready when they launched. That premature launch did play into why he ended up in command of the ship though.

Reynolds gave the order to return fire. The arrays lit up and a hail of particle bolts, beam strikes, and photons rippled from the hull of the Enterprise. All heading for the lead ships in the formation. Already those same targeted ships were unleashing a second volley of torpedoes. The fight was on.

---

Countryman tapped away at the console inputting new parameters. As he loaded a new set of figures into the computer. It was slow going but they were making fair progress on optimizing the armor. Out there he knew the battle was raging. Reynolds seemed to have it handled though. He was a good man, and seemed to have a good sense of what was needed.

Suddenly the ship shook. He noted several more sections of the hull light red, as the engineering display warned him of new hull breaches. They must have been hit again. He cursed, he had told Reynolds they couldn’t afford to take too many hits. Every breach compromised the armor and reduced its overall integrity. Too many hits and his work would be useless.

In the background, he heard Greyman grumbling about something. Likely to do with the engines, as Richards had him monitoring the main drives. As for Richards, she was still helping with the armor. She had a good head on her shoulders and seemed to grasp the complicated math behind the armor better than he did. Regardless she could not match his speed with the equations. Although he did have the advantage of having a computer in his head. Sure, the computer was old, but it was more than adequate for helping speed the process.

Richards glanced away from her console. Shouting at someone to dispatch damage control teams to deck nine. Countryman smiled to himself. She was also good at keeping track of the damage as it came in, and dispatching people where they were needed. He was glad to have her. She was a good engineer. Although that wasn’t the only reason he was glad to have her here. Afterall for many years the young engineer was someone he had been looking out for. Not that she knew it. The last time he had seen her she had been a small child. She likely doesn’t remember him. Perhaps he should talk to her about that?

Not now of course. It wasn’t the time. Finishing yet another set of calculations and implementing them in the ship’s computers. Just before the ship shook yet again. With yet more red spots showing up on the hull. He blinked when he noticed one red mark on deck one, near the bridge.

Worriedly he brought up the computer’s report on that hit. Emergency bulkheads were in place. The computer reported partial decompression, and more importantly life sign readings. That meant people were still there. He sighed with relief.

Turning over his shoulder he shouted, “Greyman try and contact the bridge.”

 Nearby he heard Richards ordering damage control and medical personnel to the bridge.

---

Meanwhile aboard the Yamato, Captain Drakes was giving the one order no captain wanted to give. They had fought off the attackers, but the plasma fires were out of control. Emergency bulkheads had been dropped to keep the fires from spreading to the magazines, but that was a stopgap. Plasma fires burned very hot, and would eventually burn through. His ship was burning down around him.

It was a shame, the Yamato was a good ship. At least he would be able to content himself with saving his crew. They had some time before the fires reached something volatile. With a heavy heart, he left his command chair. Following his officers off the bridge. He had an evacuation to supervise. On the way out, he sent out one last communique to the fleet. A call for assistance in evacuating the Yamato.