Chapter Two Twelve Battle of the Outpost (Patreon)

August 15th, 008 SDE; Near Cooperative facility; The Outpost:

“Are these reports accurate?”

“As near as we can, tell. Our scouts confirm a force of two hundred ships, including three Battleships, one of them is The Maiden.”

A sigh left the figure, “Then the Drifters were right, the Raiders mean war. Gather the fleet.”

“But sir! We don’t have enough ships, we can’t stop that many ships.”

“What about the researchers and their families at the outpost? We must buy them time.”

“Yes Commander, but what do you suggest we do? We don’t have any battleships, and we have fewer vessels.”

The man nodded, knowing what his trusted aide and advisor was referring to. He was in charge of the local patrol force, the entire fleet for the Outpost and nearby facilities amounted to little more than fifty ships. 57 vessels to be precise, his own flagship was one of the largest in this group, a converted carrier. The CAS Felkar had been a military vessel and it still bore the prefix for the Confederation it had once sailed under. The Felkar was four thousand meters long with two large flight bays that had once housed a massive fighter wing of nearly three thousand strike craft.

Much of that former stowage had been replaced with additional generators, capacitor banks and missile magazines. Some work had been done to accommodate drone fighters and he’d been equipped with a few prototypes but sadly they’d had a setback in development thanks to the Raiders hitting the outpost back in (January). It was only now that they were getting back on track, so he was the first ship in the fleet to actually receive any drones. They had about a thousand of those onboard and a new piloting center so that pilots could remotely fly the new craft.

The Felkar itself was quite well armed as well, she carried forty-eight heavy particle lance cannons, two hundred forty photon torpedo batteries, and almost three thousand dual light particle cannon turrets, along with plasma interceptor missile banks and more recently defensive laser cannon mounts.

As impressive as that was, her armor wasn’t as thick as that found on battleships. Her main belt was fifteen meters thick in some places, but most of the armor was thinner, around eight meters. Many battleships also reinforced internal bulkheads and secondary armor belts. He only had minimal internal reinforcement and aside from a little bit of extra protection around the bridge, the main engine room, and the main reactors; there wasn’t much internal reinforcement. The Felkar did have decent shielding, but the shields on Raider vessels were typically stronger.

He was quite well aware that the CAS Felkar just didn’t have the endurance for slugging matches. The four heavy cruisers in his escort were much better armored and with stronger hulls, making them better able to take a hit. They were also decently armed, so between those four ships and the Felkar was the bulk of his heavy gunnery.

The rest of his fleet of 57 ships was largely composed of destroyers and light cruisers. He had twenty eight destroyers, and eighteen light cruisers, the remaining six slots were filled by locally built frigates. The Destroyers typically had either photon torpedoes or plasma torpedoes, although there were a couple with more exotic warheads at their disposal. Those were going to be important since torpedoes had a longer range than standard weapons, he was going to need a good first strike to win this. Holding the line would be difficult, an evacuation might in fact be in order and he knew the main fleet would not be here for a few weeks, at the earliest. They were still in the midst of mobilizing.

The more he thought about it the more a delaying action seemed right. Down on the outpost was critical research, along with Cooperative scientists and their families. The Outpost couldn’t be easily held, not with the ships they had, worse, the defenses were still being rebuilt. “There is no winning this battle, but it's the small victories that matter. We can’t hold the outpost, but we can buy time for the families on the outpost to evacuate. Once the transports are in orbit, we will escort them out of the system.”

“Understood sir, I’ll order the evacuation.”

_______Half an hour later, the commander stood on his bridge, watching the tactical plot. Scout drones had been deployed and they’d picked up the raider fleet. He’d arrayed his fleet and so far the Raider’s don’t seem to have noticed the trap. “Destroyer Squadrons Brok and Is’ti load torpedoes and standby to fire.”

“Both squadron’s acknowledge!”

He didn’t reply, instead, he watched the board. He split his destroyers into four squadrons. The ones in Brok and Is’ti had the longer range photon torpedoes, so they were going to be the core of his alpha strike. The plasma warheads would hit harder though, so those were his finishers.

“All targets in range, sir.”

He waited, counting in his head, then he leaned forward, “Fire!”

Almost instantly dozens of blips appeared on the plot as the torpedoes sailed forward. For several seconds there wasn’t a reaction, then the Raider fleet began shifting formation, counter missiles firing. The battle had begun.

With bated breath he watched, as his torpedoes were either evaded or whittled down, but some of the blips found their marks. Explosions marked the screens, just as his destroyers fired their second volley.

“Destroyer Squadrons Opvix and Aylop are now in heavy plasma range.”

“They have permission to fire.”

Just then the Raiders fired torpedoes and deployed drones. He watched as thousands of them swarmed towards his position. “Deploy our drones, and I want both Light Cruiser squadrons on overwatch.”

On the plot distances ticked down, hits were registered on both sides. He watched his own Light Cruisers working overtime to cover his destroyers, but it wasn’t enough. Three went down in this exchange but they were inflicting damage in turn.

Several drones got through the defense and made an attack run on one of his light cruisers. Torpedo blips slammed into the ship. Someone reported the ship hit, but she kept fighting. Firing several missiles back at the drones.

“Now entering main gun range.”

He turned to the helm, “Set a new course, one three seven mark two eight. Increase speed flank. Tactical load all torpedo batteries, stand by to fire.” Then he turned to Ops, “Brok is too close, order them to fall back to point Beta.”

A chorus followed, as his crew carried the orders out. One thing the commander was happy about was that his crew was still quite professional, even if the crews of other ships might not be so professional.

“Sir, positive ID on The Maiden, bearing two one six, mark three, distance seven hundred and fifty thousand kilometers.”

“Tactical! Lock all Photon batteries on The Maiden, and fire! Maximum yield, full spread, standby to hit them with particle lances.”

He focused on the blip, watching The Maiden fire on one of his light cruisers. The poor ship had been hit and had fallen out of formation. Several hits registered, her tac data showed she was losing power and was venting atmosphere. Her shields were still active though, if barely. The ship wasn’t going to last very long.

Idly he glanced at the numbers, one hundred fifty raider vessels remained active and thousands of drones. His own drones were outnumbered and it showed. Worse, twenty of his ships had either sunk or been forced to withdraw. The battle was still very much in Raider favor, the torpedo strike had been in his favor but things were quickly turning.

His own torpedoes sailed out, The Maiden deployed countermeasures, but it wasn’t enough. Her shields flared brightly with multiple impacts, and then his photon turrets fired again, just as he was informed, “Entering Lance range, permission to fire?”

“Granted! Fire at will,” he turned to ops, “Make sure the heavy cruisers cover us, we won’t last long against The Maiden without them.”

“Orders relayed!”

The four blips belonging to his heavy cruisers changed courses slightly as they opened up on The Maiden. Hits registered, then his ship rocked.

“Minor damage to deck fifteen, no penetration.”

“The Maiden?”

“Her shields are holding, but she is taking a pounding, I’m reading minor fluctuations in her port shield grid.”

“Focus all fire on her port shields!” he glanced at the plot, “Dammit! Opvix needs to pull back; they are getting chewed up at range!”

Even as he commented, the lead ship in that formation exploded, after taking several hits at close range.

“Opvix is withdrawing now sir!”

The ship rocked again, they were taking more fire now.

“Word from the Outpost! The last transport is away.”

“Excellent, back us off,” he glanced at the plot, “Order Opvix and Brok to withdraw to the transports.”

Suddenly the maiden opened up with a heavy barrage on one of his covering cruisers, heavy energy fire tore into her shields and hull. Just moments before a swarm of drones hit her with their torpedoes. The hull ruptured, and fires broke out.

“Order the Drayl to...” he trailed off, as a second ship fired her main guns on the stricken Drayl, six heavy plasma rounds penetrated her ruptured dorsal plating and exploded. A secondary detonation followed. The Drayl had been lost with all hands.

“Target that ship! All batteries!”

Tactical complied, and numerous warheads and particle shots slammed into the ship that sank the Drayl, her shields flared then buckled. One beam tore through the plating and shot right out the other side. Her power grid flickered then died, just before a series of torpedoes slammed into the hull. The shattered hull broke apart under the guns of the larger Felkar. He grinned having avenged his friend and his crew, but it came at a price. The Maiden opened fire on his ship.

The Felkar rocked, “Hull breach! Deck twenty three, twenty nine, and thirty-two!”

He quickly ordered a new heading, “Return fire! All batteries.”

The Maiden rocked under his guns, one of his other cruisers, shifting to cover his flank from further fire, as they conducted an ordered withdrawal. A wing of the Raiders broke off to assault the Outpost.

He ignored that, merely welcoming the fact that fewer ships were now engaging his beleaguered force. Not that it meant much, another rocking motion beneath his feet told him they had taken another hit. Several shouts about damage control rang around the bridge, he ignored them. Instead, he focused on the withdrawal, his force seemed to be falling behind the most, the remaining destroyers had caught up with the transports and were being covered by the light cruisers that hadn’t sunk.

“Increase power to main drives, activate long-range cruise engines.” he ordered while turning to tactical, “Aft torpedoes, fire!”

Another barrage let out, slamming into nearby ships but focused on The Maiden, one hit finally got through the damn battleship’s shields. Light flared obscuring the hit for a few seconds, before revealing a breach on her port quarter.”

“Focus fire on that damage!”

All four ships in the group focused on the wound, and The Maiden pulled back to recharge her shields. He gave an order to give the remaining ships in weapons range hell.

Several more fell back, before breaking entirely after three cruisers broke up under his guns. Yet he didn’t relax as he slipped into formation with the fleeing transports. This wasn’t a victory, and he had wounds to lick. Meanwhile, they’d lost the Outpost to the Raider force. The other two local facilities would soon fall as well, he just hoped they responded to his warning soon enough.

“Fleet formation now at cruising speed sir.”

“Maintain combat alert, we aren’t out of danger just yet.”