Chapter 20: Chapter 19

Star People

Chapter 19

Resistance

Jan 3^rd, 13 AE…

It was the beginning of the New Year for the Star Alliance, which unfortunately began with a new conflict against a hostile enemy. No sooner had the year 13 AE rolled around, the Empire of Zedan announced itself and its intentions to the world of Istaria. It was simple. Accept their rule or perish.

Without warning, the Empire of Zedan began launching lightning fast raids on small island nations near the southwestern coast of the Merdov continent. They had also begun striking at distant Atlans outposts. Due to the quick and sudden nature of the attacks, very few had time to defend themselves and were overrun.

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The Empire of Zedan…

“So how goes the attacks?” The Grand Leader asked.

“It is going very well, my Liege.” His Prime Minister replied. “So far we are encountering little to no resistance. The natives have weapons with little firepower, especially in the western front.”

“And in the east?”

“We have so far run into small, outdated warships. They are no threat.”

“And when will the invasion of the continents begin?”

‘We will be starting with the larger continent to our west, since it has a lower technological level than to our east. We expect to conquer the entire landmass in less than a month.”

“And you expect this to be an easy campaign?”

“Indeed. It’s not like there is anyone on this planet with the power to stop us.”

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Jan 4^th, 13 AE…

The Conference Chamber of the Prime Directors…

“So they’re heading toward the Merdov continent, eh?” Nasaak commented.

“Probably the most logical choice since most of the nations on the continent has lesser technology, at least militarily.” Nerto remarked. “After all, the Empire of Sath was the strongest military force in Merdov, until we destroyed most of it.”

“Even if we hadn’t, those outdated human wave attacks and medieval weaponry wouldn’t have lasted very long against rapid-fire machine guns, artillery and explosives. Well, even though they’re not a military-first nation any more, the Sath and the other countries should be able to put up some decent resistance with all the enhancements we’ve given them.”

“Yes, I’m pretty certain the Zedans are going to be shocked when the ‘primitives’ begin to fight back.”

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Five miles east of the Merdov coast…

Captain Larno of the Sath Maritime Patrol, guided his Wyvern on their daily flight around the coastline. Unlike before, he didn’t guide his mount by use of reins. After the Sath’s defeat against the Star Alliance, the entire Wyvern Air Forces had undergone a complete revamp. Now all Wyverns were equipped with lightweight, composite armor made of Neo-Plastic, and some other polymers. The inside was lined with Kevlar. As a result, the wyvern could now withstand small-arms fire and even survive a few shots from fifty-caliber ammunition. The armor also contained guide wires which allowed the rider to direct his mount from a simple control mechanism mounted on a dashboard in the integrated saddle on the dorsal armor. The saddle even had a protective windscreen.

As for the riders themselves, they now had oxygen masks and specialized bodysuits that allowed them to operate at higher altitudes and colder temperatures. Furthermore, since swords, lances and bows were impractical, each rider carried a personal sidearm that resembled the famed Colt 45 Model 1911, and an M1 Garand Rifle in a saddle holster.

The major improvement of the Wyvern Knights was in firepower. In addition to the Wyvern’s ability to launch fireballs from its mouth, the dorsal armor had two small machineguns, fixed forward and a meter above the head of the Wyvern. There was enough ammunition for three or four short bursts and the guns would only fire when the Wyvern’s head wasn’t in the way. Underneath on the ventral armor were two pairs of unguided rockets. There was also an emergency rocket booster for one quick burst of speed. This was based on the old Rocket-Assist-Take Off or RATO system.

Many of the other nations thought the Sath to be crazy to not to switch to aircraft, but the Wyvern Knights had their pride and wanted to keep their traditions alive. And they believed that their Wyverns could still hold their own against more modern aircraft.

Today was going to be a test of that belief.

As Larno led his squadron across the skies, his wingman called him on the magic communicator.

“Captain! We have a visual on some unidentified objects coming over the horizon!”

Larno looked over to the side and spotted several black dots just coming into view and approaching them fast. He could hear the telltale sound of propeller engines and signaled to his squadron to scatter. Whoever they were, he didn’t see them as friendly.

His instincts proved to be correct as the seven Zedan fighter planes came in from above and started firing at them.

The Rakerat was the premier fighter of the Zedan Air Force. It was armed with twin 7.7mm machineguns that were synchronized to fire through the propeller arc. It also had a pair of 20mm cannons mounted on its wings. Seeing that they were fighting Wyverns, the Zedan pilots had decided to save their cannons and use their machine guns only.

The wyvern squadron of twelve found themselves up against seven enemy fighter planes with the advantage in speed, altitude, range and overall performance. Three wyverns were immediately shot down as their inexperienced riders were riddled with bullets.

For Larno, he had learned from his time in the flight simulators loaned to the Sath by Free Land that he had to work his strengths over his opponent’s weaknesses. His wyvern was slower, but due to the faster speed of the Zedan plane, the enemy pilot couldn’t turn as tightly. So Larno needed to time this right. He made his mount go into a slow but extremely tight turn and signaled the beast to prime its fire breath. The enemy took the bait as one pilot dove at it to get on the tail of the wyvern.

However, as he tried to get a bead on the flying beast, his instruments showed that his engine was in danger of stalling as it couldn’t maintain the slower speed. He ended up turning too wide to compensate, which put his plane just on the edge of sight of the wyvern. At that moment, the beast opened its mouth and let off a fireball.

The Zedan pilot desperately tried to roll out of the way, but Larno had anticipated the maneuver and fired his machineguns. The bullets punched through the plane’s canopy and one round pierced the pilot’s skull. The entire cockpit was splattered in crimson as the Zedan fighter dropped off toward the ocean, trailing a small plume of oily smoke.

The other fighter pilots were shocked to see that one of their numbers had been shot down by the primitives. They were also seeing that their machineguns weren’t as effective as they thought against wyvern armor. They were damaging the armor, but the beasts were shrugging off their rounds. They switched over to cannon fire, downing two more. The odds were now six fighters against seven wyverns.

Larno signaled to his wingman to make a tight turn toward him as he saw a pair of Zedon fighters closing on his tail. As the wyvern turned, Larno led his target and fired again with his machineguns. He had aimed again for the canopy and was rewarded with the glass shattering and the pilot being turned into bloody Swiss cheese. The other Zedan pilot broke off the pursuit after seeing his comrade perish.

Two more wyverns fell from the sky after the Zedon cannons shredded through them. Seeing that they couldn’t compete in the higher altitudes, Larno signaled for the remaining riders to dive toward the coast. Another two wyverns and their riders were killed as the Zedan fighters chased after them.

Flying at less than four meters above treetop level, Larno and the remaining two riders swerved to avoid cannon fire. It looked as if they were desperately trying to get away from their pursuers, but this was actually a tactic that was just recently developed by the Wyvern Knights of Sath. They would only get one chance at this. As the Zedan fighters closed in for the kill, all three wyverns suddenly cut their speed and primed their fire breaths. For a brief moment, they stopped in midair and hovered for a few seconds.

One of the main weaknesses of a fixed-wing aircraft is that they do not have ‘brakes’ and can’t stop their forward momentum quickly. Nor could they hover like helicopters. As a result, the five Zedan fighters overshot their targets and passed by them. That was when the wyverns let loose with a trio of fireballs. The riders also launched all of their rockets at their enemies.

Two Zedan fighters exploded as the fireballs slammed into them. A third managed to avoid being vaporized but the left wing caught fire from flaming debris. The last two were caught in the volley of rockets and were sent crashing into the ground below. Seeing that it was now three against one, the surviving Zedan pilot wisely turned about and beat a hasty retreat, his left wing still trailing smoke.

Larno considered engaging his booster to go after the survivor, but decided that it was enough that enemy had been chased off. Out of the eleven men he had under his command, only two survived. On the other hand, the enemy had attacked with seven, lost six and one had retreated. Tactically it was a win as the Wyvern Knights had prevented the enemy from invading their territory. Even though it was most likely a scouting group, Larno could still see the victory, albeit a pyrrhic one at best.

He only wished that the cost wasn’t so high. He had lost nine good men.

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 Somewhere in the ocean between Zedan and Merdov…

“Admiral, we have sighted a small group of metal ships approaching us! It has been determined that they are not from Free Land! They must belong to that fleet that has been raiding our island colonies!”

Admiral Hardo of the White Dragon Fleet nodded. After the war with Free Land, the remaining Sath Dragon Fleets had been upgraded. They had traded in their sail-powered, wooden vessels for steam-driven, metal ships. The rows of inaccurate, short-range, muzzle-loaded cannons were a thing of the past. Now each ship had fewer guns, but was faster-loading, long-ranged, and had its weapons housed in movable turrets. They didn’t have to aim by moving the entire ship any more.

With the new ships and weapons, the Dragon Fleet crews had to learn new tactics. In addition to learning how to use the new naval guns, the crews were also introduced to using radar and radio. For well over a year, the crews were trained diligently and eventually became proficient in manning and fighting on a modern warship of the mid 20^th century.

Now it was time for the White Dragon Fleet’s trial by fire.

“How many enemy vessels are we facing?” Hardo asked.

The radar operator nodded as he looked at his viewscreen. It took some getting used to interpreting blips on a radar screen rather than a magical viewer, but he couldn’t deny that the radar machine offered greater range and allowed him to judge the speed and distance of an object. It also allowed for a three hundred and sixty-degree field of detection that can be used for long periods of time.

“I’m counting total of 20 destroyer-types, 10 Light Cruiser-types, 10 Heavy Cruiser-types… and one small battleship.”

The admiral frowned when he heard that. If the enemy battleship was anything like Free Land’s Missouri, then the outlook wasn’t good. Hardo was currently commanding a task force of 5 Destroyer Escorts, 10 Light Cruisers, and 3 Heavy Cruisers. His flagship was the Heavy Cruiser Audacious.

“Have you detected any carriers or aircraft?”

“None sir.”

Thank the creator for that! Hardo thought. He had enough to worry about without enemy aircraft compounding the problem. He was still new to this type of naval warfare and the enemy had him both outnumbered and outgunned. The most logical choice was to retreat. However, his ships were tasked with protecting this vital route through the chain islands towards the southeast region of the Merdov continent. His force had no choice but to hold out against a superior number of enemy ships until reinforcements arrived.

“What’s the speed and distance of the enemy fleet?”

“They’re being tracked at 20 knots and they’re about 2,000 km away. They’ll be in sight in just under an hour.” The radar operator said.

“Then we’d best prepare. All hands to battle stations!”

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Conference Chamber of Prime Directors…

“The navel situation near the southeast coast of the Merdov continent doesn’t look too good.” Nasaak commented as he and the other Directors watched the tactical displays on the main holo-viewer. “The Sath commander won’t be able to do much against a tactically superior force. Maybe give them a good bloody nose, but that pocket battleship tips the odds in Zedan’s favor.”

“Should we send reinforcements to aid them?” Nerto asked.

“Officially, we have not yet been attacked by Zedan, nor have they declared war on us.” Benjamin pointed out.

“They did declare war on all nations on the planet. I would think that would include us.” Anida countered.

“Perhaps, but it’s also likely that they don’t even know that we exist. So far they’ve only dealt with small elements of the Merdov and Bisra continents. If I had to speculate, I’d say that this Grand Leader is either ignorant or arrogant enough to think that encountering a small sample of this planet’s population gives him the whole picture.”

“Still, we really can’t just sit by and let this all happen.” Viska said. “If they do manage to defeat the Sath and Atlans, then it’s very likely they will eventually point their guns at us. Shouldn’t we nip this situation in the bud before it becomes a bigger problem?”

“I like to do that, but again, we have no official justification to do so.”

“It looks like we’re about to get justification.” The Velor director said as he pointed to a blip on the tactical display. He enhanced the image to show a small vessel heading toward the battle zone. “That’s the long-range marine cargo vessel Oceanic. It looks like they’re too close to the area where the Hardon’s Task Force will engage with the Zedan group. The Oceanic is lightly-armed and doesn’t have enough power to get out of the area in time.”

“Why is it out there in the first place?” The Kyteeri Director inquired. “Have they not been warned?”

“During our fight against the Planet Ravager, we had set up a few more outposts near the Merdov continent, remember?” The Catian Director explained. “The Oceanic is assigned to one of those outposts in the chain islands near Merdov’s southeastern coast. They’ve been warned but they are reporting some engine issues and they are drifting toward the battle zone. I’d say we have the justification needed to send our forces to that area, if only to protect the Oceanic from being mistaken as a legitimate target and being fired upon.”

“So who should we send to protect the Oceanic?” The Terran Director asked.

Nerto looked upon the tactical display and gave his Terran counterpart a whimsical smile. “Apparently, it seems that we can send a battleship to deal with the Zedan battleship. The Missouri is relatively near that area.”

“Why is the Missouri there?”

“You do recall that we sent a diplomatic emissary to the territory of Veen? They wanted to see the Missouri, so we sent it over.”

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The bridge of the Missouri…

“Captain, we have just received new orders.” Lieutenant Visera announced.

“What are they, Lieutenant?” Delan asked as he took a sip of coffee.

“We are to proceed to the southeast coast of the Merdov continent as quickly as possible and protect the marine cargo vessel Oceanic. Apparently, its present course has put it dangerously close to the approaching Zedan battle group and the Seventh Task Force of the White Dragon Fleet.”

“All right then.” Delan finished off his coffee, and then activated the PA system on his command chair. “All hands to battle stations! I repeat, all hands to battle stations!”

Sirens began to go off as crews began rushing toward their appointed stations. All boarding ramps were retracted as the ship prepared to take off. Currently it was not in the water, but was hovering several dozens of meters above the ground near the capital of Veen. The elven population watched from numerous vantage points as the Mighty Mo started to rise up into the air.

“Ensign Gatsbu, set us on an intercept course for the Oceanic. Increase our speed to 200 knots once we’ve cleared the territory.” Reelan ordered.

“Aye, Commander!”

As the Missouri sped through the air, Mark consulted with his second and third-in-command officers.

“So what is your opinion on these new orders?”

“Well, on the surface it seems to be a simple rescue mission.” Lieutenant Commander Harken said.

“But we all know that you wouldn’t order the crew to battle stations if that was the case.” Commander Reelan pointed out. “You’re expecting trouble, aren’t you?”

“Indeed.” Mark admitted. “With the Zedan forces declaring war on the nearby nations, it’s only a matter of time before we come into conflict with them. I think the Council knows this.”

“So they’re using the Oceanic as an excuse to confront the Zedan?” Harken asked.

“Well, I don’t think they would intentionally risk the lives of the Oceanic’s crew, but it seems that the Council wants to use this situation as a valid reason to assist the Sath and the other nations.”

“So they’re counting on the warlike nature of the Zedan. They’re hoping that the Zedan ships will fire on us.” Mark’s wife remarked.

“I must say, I don’t like the idea that we’re going to be the bullseye.” The Catian third-in-command said.

“I don’t like it either, but we still have to rescue the Oceanic in any case.” The Missouri’s captain stated. “And it’s not like the Zedan forces have anything to pierce through our ship’s defense barrier anyway.” He let off another sigh before turning to the navigator. “Present course and speed, Ensign?”

 Gatsbu nodded as he replied. “We’ve just cleared the territory of Veen and are now accelerating to 200 knots. We should be arriving at our destination in under 45 minutes or so.”

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The White Dragon Fleet, Seventh Task Force…

“All of our ships are now in their positions and report that they are ready, Admiral.” The ensign reported.

“We’ll be using the new weapons for our initial attacks.” Hardo announced.

“That underwater missile called a torpedo?”

“We’ve tested and trained with those weapons for months. Even the largest of ships cannot ignore this weapon. Once we sight the enemy, I want the Destroyer Escorts to get in as close as they can and launch a full spread at the enemy cruisers.”

“Enemy has been sighted!” The lookout cried out.

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Some fifty miles away, the Zedan Pocket Battleship Radila…

On the bridge of the Zedan ship, Admiral Varhet looked upon the radar screen and frowned a bit. Apparently the primitives of this world knew more about modern naval warfare than was originally believed. He recognized the enemy formation as a standard defensive pattern.

However, he wasn’t overly concerned as his naval forces outnumbered the enemy. Furthermore, from what the preliminary scouting parties had told him, the Sath ships lacked the speed and firepower of his own. This would be a short battle.

As he gave the order for his ships to assume the standard attack formation, his radar operator spoke.

“Admiral! I am detecting five of those enemy Destroyer Escorts heading toward our position at full speed!”

Are those primitives insane?! What could they possibly hope to do by attacking with such a small force?

Varhet shook his head and gave out his commands. “As soon as those escorts are within 10 miles, send them all to the bottom.”

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Captain Kerlon of the Sath Destroyer Escort Impudence, ordered all of his ships to go at top speed as they charged the enemy. The maximum range of their torpedoes was 6 miles and they had to get in close so that they could get better probabilities of hits. As they came within ten miles, the lookout shouted that the enemy cruisers and destroyers had opened fire.

Kerlon winced as he heard the telltale whistling noises of incoming shells. Huge columns of water erupted all around them as near-misses almost swamped their vessel. He gave out the order to ‘chase splashes’ as he hoped that action would throw off the aim of the enemy gunners. One of the escorts, the Indignation, took a direct hit near the center and almost broke in half. It slowed to a crawl and began listing to the side. Sath sailors started jumping over the side.

The Sath Captain urged the remaining escorts to press on. When the navigator announced that they were within range to use their torpedoes, Kerlon gave the order to launch them.

Just behind the conning tower of each escort, there was a deck launcher that housed three torpedoes. It swiveled on a pivot and pointed the canisters at the enemy forces. Within each tube, an explosive charge propelled each torpedo into the water at tremendous speed. Their electric motors activated as they began swimming toward their targets.

The torpedoes were based on the Mark 15 unguided torpedo of World War 2 but they had almost twice the range. Each packed an 800-pound warhead of high-explosives. The four remaining escorts launched a total of 12 torpedoes into the water as they turned away.

“Take that, you bastards!” Kerlon shouted.

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Varhet wasn’t surprised to see the Sath Destroyer Escorts turn away. They were probably frightened after seeing one of their ships getting hit. However, his smug expression disappeared when his hydrophone operator shouted out.

“Admiral! I am reading several underwater contacts! The enemy has fired torpedoes!”

“Torpedoes?! The reconnaissance teams didn’t mention that the enemy was advanced enough to have those kinds of weapons!”

“They’re heading right toward several of our cruisers!”

“Tell them to take evasive action!”

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The commanders of the Zedan cruisers immediately ordered evasive maneuvers when they detected the approach of the torpedoes. Like the admiral, they were surprised to learn that the enemy had the means to sink or disable large capital ships. The lead cruisers increased their speed. Most of them managed to evade the barrage.

However, two of the Light Cruisers and one Heavy Cruiser weren’t as fortunate. The Light Cruisers Irada and Vortega took direct hits near their centers while the Heavy Cruiser Vargon took a hit at its front. Both Light Cruisers ended up with gaping holes in their sides and began sinking. The Heavy Cruiser had its bow blown completely off. As a result, two other Heavy Cruisers had to move off to assist the Vargon and rescue the crews of the two sinking ships.

With that one single attack, and the loss of one Destroyer Escort, the Sath had managed to take two Light Cruisers and three Heavy Cruisers out of the fight.

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On the Impudence, Captain Kerlon nodded. Despite the success of the torpedo attack, he knew that it was far from over. He didn’t have any more torpedoes and his ship only had its five-inch guns left. And worst of all, he and the other Destroyer Escorts were within the range of the enemy guns.

Almost immediately after the torpedo attack, the Zedan ships began to open fire on the Sath Destroyer Escorts. Since they were at close range, the Zedan cruisers couldn’t depress their main guns low enough so they had to use their secondary guns.

Kerlon winced as spouts of water appeared all around his ship. He ordered his gunner crews to return fire while his helmsman took evasive action. The five-inch guns fired at the upper decks and superstructures of the cruisers where the armor was thinner. Kerlon had to admit that the turret guns were far more effective than the previous rows of short-ranged, smoothbore cannons. Furthermore, they were actually getting hits with fewer shots.

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Captain Torgan of the Zedan Heavy Cruiser Vikkon took a hit on top of its conning tower, damaging the radar and radio systems.

“Damn it! I’ll make you pay for that!”

He ordered his gunner crews to focus on the lead enemy Destroyer Escort. After getting the range, the cruiser’s guns opened up.

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Kerlon knew that this was the end as he heard the shots coming toward his vessel. At least he managed to bloody the enemy a bit and show that the Sath was not to be taken lightly.

“All hands, abandon…!”

KA-BOOM!

The bridge of the Impudence took a direct hit and was blown apart. Another shell punched through and broke the ship into two pieces. Unfortunately, no one survived as the flaming wreck of the Impudence slowly disappeared beneath the waves.

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The remaining three Destroyer Escorts were being pummeled as they limped back toward the Seventh Task Force. Just as they made it out of range of the enemy guns, the ten Light Cruisers and three Heavy Cruisers began making their torpedo runs.

At the same time, a small cargo craft with a disabled engine started to drift toward the conflict. Aboard it was its five-man crew. The commander, Abdul Kessain, shook his head as he watched on the monitor, his ship’s position in relation to the battle that was occurring. He turned back towards his ship’s engineer.

“Ensign, have you been able to get the electron-motivator going yet?”

The ship’s engineer, Ensign Hans Kriegler shook his head. “No good sir! The whole system is shot! Who would have thought we’d encounter a leftover Mechanoid?!”

The Oceanic had been on its usual supply run to one of Free Land’s outposts, but had encountered a Marine Mechanoid that been hiding near the one of the islands. It had been missed after the defeat of the Planet Ravager and had been quietly attacking small vessels. The Oceanic’s crew had managed to destroy it, but not before it damaged the ship’s engine. Since then, they had been drifting and waiting for rescue.

“We were sent a message that the Missouri would come to pick us up. What’s its ETA?” Abdul asked.

“About ten minutes! We may not last that long!”

The other crew members shouted as they spotted several objects shooting through the water in their direction. Their hearts stopped as the Sath torpedoes barely missed them.

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On the Audacious, the Admiral breathed a sigh of relief while looking through his binoculars. When he saw the small cargo craft wander into the battle zone, flying Free Land’s flag, his blood ran cold as he realized that it had drifted close to the path of torpedoes. Luckily, it had not been hit. The last thing he wanted was for the Sath to face the wrath of Free Land again, for sinking one of their cargo vessels.

 This time, the Light and Heavy Cruisers fired five torpedoes each, for a total of 65. This forced the Zedan ships to take evasive action again.  This gave the Sath forces the opportunity to get within range with their guns and started firing. They took care not to fire in the cargo ship’s direction.

One Zedan Light Cruiser was sunk by two torpedoes hitting its stern. Two Zedan Heavy Cruisers suffered enough damage from both torpedoes and naval guns to be put out of action. However, the remaining enemy ships successfully evaded the torpedoes and returned fire. And since they had more experience with naval guns, they scored more hits than the Sath did.

And things got worse when the Pocket Battleship Radila got involved with its 11-inch guns. The two, triple-mount turrets swiveled about and let loose with a thunderous volley. Four of the shells fell dangerously close to the Audacious, while two scored glancing blows on the front main turret. The armor was barely enough to withstand the hits.

“Return fire!” Hardo cried out.

The front and rear main turrets of his cruiser pivoted towards the Radila as the gun crews loaded the shells into the breach. The triple-mount, 8-inch guns let loose with a volley. All shots missed the Pocket Battleship and splashed around it. The Radila responded with another volley of 11-inch shells, three of which struck the Audacious. The rear turret took two hits, causing it to jam. The third hit happened just behind the conning tower, damaging the fire-control system. Hardo gritted his teeth as he knew that his forces weren’t going to win this battle. However, he was going to make certain to take as many of those Zedan bastards to Hell along with him!

All over the battle zone, Sath ships took a beating but still fought on. The Zedan vessels were also taking damage, but were still scoring more hits than their opponent. It would only be a matter of time before the Seventh Task Force would be wiped out.

 The cargo ship Oceanic was in the thick of this naval duel and had been lucky so far. Its luck seemed to run out as the helmsman detected a Zedan torpedo heading toward them. It looked liked this was the end.

At that moment, a large shadow was seen on the ocean’s surface as both sides suddenly ceased firing. Almost instantly, the torpedo that was heading toward the Oceanic detonated prematurely 100 meters before it could reach the ship. Seamen from both sides started shouting and pointing towards the huge newcomer that appeared in the skies above the battle zone.

The star battleship Missouri had arrived.

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On the bridge of the Missouri…

“We have successfully detonated the enemy torpedo.” Ensign Gatsbu announced.

“I think we’ve got everyone’s attention.” Commander Reelan stated.

“I think so too, Commander.” Mark agreed as he turned to the helmsman. “Set us down into the water, Ensign. Make sure we don’t swamp the Oceanic and extend the defensive barrier to protect it from all incoming enemy fire.”

“Aye, sir!”

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All those present watched in awe as the Mighty Mo gently and smoothly descended into the water without causing any sudden waves to be emitted. A transparent and nearly invisible barrier shimmered around the ship. After the Missouri had set itself into the water, Mark had the communications officer transmit on all frequencies.

“This is Captain Mark Delan of the star battleship Missouri of Free Land! I hereby order all ships in the area to ceasefire and return to your point of origin! We are here on a rescue mission and will not tolerate any interference! I repeat, we will not tolerate any interference! Return to your ports of origin immediately or face the consequences!”

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After hearing that single demand, Admiral Varhet shook himself out of his shock of seeing a flying battleship and became perturbed. Who was this interloper to interfere with Zedan affairs?! Certainly the Missouri was far larger than the Radila, but the Zedan outnumbered the lone battleship. They had almost defeated the Sath Seventh Fleet and now they were being told to go home? Ridiculous!

“All ships! Open fire on the battleship! Send it to the bottom!”

In seconds, the remaining Zedan cruisers, destroyers and its flagship turned their guns toward the Missouri. At a range of over 5 miles, they let loose with everything they had. Shells and torpedoes were launched at the Free Land ship, intent on reducing her to wreckage.

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“Incoming fire approaching, sir!” Ensign Taichen announced. “They’re all on target.”

“Hold our position, helmsman.” Mark ordered. “It’s our mission to defend the Oceanic.”

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Varhet smiled as the shells and torpedoes streaked toward the enemy battleship. He thought Mark to be a fool by not taking evasive actions. However, his smug expression was again wiped from his face when the projectiles hit some kind of transparent barrier of light and exploded harmlessly against it. Even the torpedoes were ineffective.

“What the Hell?!”

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“Status report.” Captain Delan asked.

“Ninety-eight percent direct hits, Sir! Barrier is holding steady.” Ensign Gatsbu replied. “No reports of damage or loss of life on either the Missouri or the Oceanic.”

“Well, they have officially fired upon us.” Reelan stated.

“Indeed. Load all secondary guns with kinetic shells and prepare to fire on the enemy cruisers and destroyers.”

“We’re not using the pulsar guns?” The Catian third-in-command asked.

“Just like the Green Dragon Fleet, that would be overkill. Open fire.”

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The smaller turrets on the Missouri swiveled about and let loose with their payloads. Unlike the Sath and Zedan, the fire-control system of the star battleship was far more accurate. In less than five seconds, nine of the Zedan Heavy Cruisers were hit and set ablaze. A few seconds more and several destroyers were immediately sunk.

The Zedan forces fired back, but again their attempts to damage or destroy the star battleship was stymied by its defensive barrier.

The secondary guns of the Missouri continued to ravage the Zedan fleet with ease. What was almost certain victory over the Sath, was now became a one-sided slaughter of the enemy.

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On board the damaged Audacious, Admiral Hardo and his bridge crew could only watch in shock and amazement as the Missouri tore apart the Zedan forces.

“Admiral? Should we not help the Free Land ship?” The captain asked.

“Let me ask you this, Captain. Do you think the Free Land ship needs any help?”

The officer could only respond with silence as he and the rest of the Sath crews continued to watch the star battleship and its destructive power.

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Admiral Varhet couldn’t believe that his ships were being systematically destroyed with no effort whatsoever. The huge battleship’s accuracy was unbelievable. Its weapons were practically unstoppable. And that strange energy barrier prevented any Zedan firepower from damaging the massive ship.

There was simply nothing that his fleet could do against this behemoth. And in less time that it took to tell, nearly all of the destroyers and cruisers had been sunk or disabled. The only ship that was combat-capable was the Radila. And the admiral had no confidence that he could take on the Missouri.

“Withdraw!”

The Zedan battleship and two badly-damaged heavy cruisers retreated from the battle zone.

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On the bridge of the Missouri…

“It looks like the enemy fleet is retreating, Captain. Shall we pursue?” The Velor helmsman asked.

Mark shook his head. “No, let them go. We do need to send word to their government that we’re involved. So the commander of that fleet will be our messenger.”

“So we’re officially involved in this… New World War?” Reelan asked.

“Indeed. And right now, it’s time for us to start taking our first POWs.” Reelan’s husband said as he gestured to the numerous life boats and Zedan sailors in the water.

To be continued…

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