Starship Engineer

Chapter 149 New Ally?

We had a lot of untested weapons on board. We did not know what we would find when we reached the Delani system. I sat in the briefing room as we prepared. Our largest assets were the nine Slipstream fighters, the one hundred missiles for delivering a single black widow bot, and our thirty Armageddon missiles.

The Armageddon missiles were subspace hoppers that kept their kinetic energy after leaving subspace. The Squirrel had used it to fight the Brotherhood and save the Void Phoneix from being captured. Only this time, we would not need to sacrifice pilots to use them. They were a secret weapon for us, and I did not want to use them. We found their use in the Bradbury system had left large chunks of high-velocity objects flying around the system.

We had tasked SAR crews with eliminating the debris, but even after fourteen years, they were still tracking dangerous debris throughout the system. Even at the lowest band of subspace, these missiles delivered 5,000 kilotons of energy on impact. We had one dead system where we tested the devices. One eager Squirrel scientist fired one into the sun and caused a 200,000-kilometer flare to erupt from the sun, not including the radiation it emitted from the eruption. The damage was even more extensive than that, and the scientists were still studying the effects. We could essentially wipe out an entire star system by causing a big enough solar flare.

These thirty devices also had self-destruct devices on them so we could jettison them and explode them if the ship was going to be captured.

The eventual plan was to come out in the system and launch all the fighters and assault shuttles. The assault shuttles would deliver the Marines to problem areas on one of the two inhabited planets in the system. The Slipstream fighters would engage the smaller capital ships, and the Fateweaver would focus on cruisers and battleships. It seemed simple in discussion, but a lot of things could go wrong.

We emerged on the edge of the system, and our plot quickly populated. Going into battle without the snarky Elvis felt odd to me. Three battleships and one repair platform were the largest items on the plot. Followed by eight cruisers and sixty-three smaller craft. The alien quadrupeds were focusing their efforts on the largest moon of a gas giant. It was one of the inhabited planets in the system.

It looked like the second planet from the sun, the other inhabited planet, still had some defensive spacecraft around it. The assault shuttles launched from the bay and went into stealth mode, each carrying nine Marines. We would clear the space other than the inhabited moon, and then the Marines would land to help the fighting on the ground.

The Slipstream fighters would clear the airspace over the planet but were delaying launch until we got closer. One of the battleships was docked with the repair platforms. I made my decision to use an Armageddon missile on that battleship.

Alina Weaver, the weapons officer, and Elias worked together to put the firing solution together. The target was stationary, so it should be an easy strike. They still had not caught our profile on radar, and the subspace blip was probably masked by all the ships coming and going in the system.

We moved into a position and launched our complement of fighters toward the moon. The missile was fired, and the Fateweaver swung toward the second battleship. The missile was aimed to hit the battleship with the massive repair platform behind it. I watched the holotank feed and was shocked by the effect. The battleship burst like a bubble, and the repair platform drifted apart in a dozen pieces. They had no shields up and were completely unprepared for the attack.

The fighters began their attack run on fifteen frigates acting in support of the fleet landing soldiers on the moon. The assault shuttles had reached the moon but remained patient, waiting for the ships to retreat. I felt like a complete spectator to this point. We were still twenty-five minutes from the other battleship that was flanked by two cruisers.

I was notified the shields were coming online for the battleship and cruisers as their sensors finally picked up the destruction nearby. We timed our pass on the battleship with the fighter sweep. They launched missile after missile at our approach; fifty-eight were on target toward us. I ordered the Fateweaver to phase to shadow subspace, and all the missiles passed by. I ordered us back to real space clear of the missiles, and we opened up with our weapons, doing a heavy strafing run against the battleship. We took aft fire after we passed, but watching the shield charge, we lost less than 14% of shields from hits by the energy weapons from the battleship and two cruisers.

The enemy launched a continuous stream of fighters to intercept the Fateweaver. We started an arcing turn for another pass on the battleship. My communications station said the aliens were hailing us. I smirked as I told her to send a vid of the Squirrel Marines charging forward. As we turned, I looked at the damage the Slipstream fighters had done to the rest of the fleet. Seven support ships were destroyed, and eight were damaged. The enemy was pulling off the planet and starting a retreat. I gave the order for the fighters to target those ships. It would hasten the retreat and get the Marines to the surface quicker.

We started receiving receiving requests for help from the surface of the moon. I let my communications office and Luna handle the deployment to the surface. We started to take focus fire from the fleet. Another cruiser and four destroyers were moving to defend the battleship that was in rough shape. Scans revealed over half the decks had vented to space. Julian found only one-quarter of the crew survived. I ordered to target the battleship bridge on this pass and divide fire to one of the cruisers.

When we were closer this time, they tried to launch their missiles, and we still phased out. I quickly called out that whatever cruiser they targeted just focused on the engines and FTL. The quadrupeds obviously had massive shipyards somewhere. I wanted to know where. We needed one other cruiser’s bridge intact.

When we phased in the energy weapons fire was heavy, and shields dropped steadily. Secondary shields activated, and I was alerted that our capacitors were draining fast. The low thuds started to get louder, but I waited. I had been in enough sims to know the abuse the ship could handle.

Alina, said from the weapons station that the battleship bridge was destroyed and switching are weapons to the nearest cruiser. I switched to a live feed and watched as the aft of the cruiser quickly buckled under the fire, shields, then chunks of debris. We passed through their formation and still had 54% of our shields.

All ships were fleeing to subspace escape range. I checked the Slipstream fighters and ordered them back to the Fateweaver. Two had moderate damage, and all were low on fuel. They had wrecked the smaller ships in the fleet. I ordered the undamaged fighters to refuel and start another sortie. The more damage we could do, the better.

Marine assault shuttles had just broken the atmosphere and were locked into coordinates. I broke off to support them. We turned our powerful scanners on the planet to locate the quadrupeds that had landed and were committing genocide against the human population.

Julian put up a map and populated it with red dots as he identified targets. We relayed the information to our Marine HUDs. One assault shuttle came under heavy fire and had a hard landing—some injuries, but nothing serious. An hour later, we were in orbit over the inhabited moon doing detailed scans to find the enemy for our Marines.

According to records, the planet’s defense force had been decimated, and Julina estimated that only forty thousand humans were still alive, about ten percent of the population of the moon remained. The larger planet in the system had over three million inhabitants. It appeared mostly untouched as the aliens were still whittling down the defense fleet after eleven days. They probably assumed they had more time before help arrived in the system.

It took an entire day for the Marines to root out the quadrupeds on the moon. During that time, the planet’s assistance relieved my men and allowed them to return to the Fateweaver. The quadrupeds had bunched near the edge of the system, trying to repair ships to enter subspace. The slipstream fighters made sortie after sortie until they finally fled.

Our damage was one assault shuttle was damaged beyond repair. We destroyed it rather than let the technology be studied. One of the heavy slipstream fighters was damaged beyond repair, but we salvaged what parts we could off of it. Even though the quadrupeds were not a strong enemy, what they lacked in power, they made up for in numbers. I considered it a very successful test of the ship’s combat capabilities.

We spent the next eight days helping the remaining local government clean the system. One of the Marine shuttles docked with the disabled enemy cruiser and pulled the navigation computer from the ship. It did not take long for Julian to decode the matrix and translate. The quadrupeds were smart…well, somewhat smart.

The information was incomplete. It only had a section of the space they controlled, but it was obvious by the density map for their ship deployment where the entire region of space they controlled was located. We guessed where they might have had one shipyard based on the intensity of military vessels on the star system. The Squirrel on board the Fateweaver enjoyed their vengeance but were thirsty for more.

Samantha transitioned into the system with her fleet, five battlecruisers, and fifteen cruisers, and an assortment of support craft. She commed my bridge, and I let her know she was a little late to the engagement. Admiral LaRoche was on her bridge, and he wanted to talk.

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