"In the last few weeks space around the binary star creatively known as Layover has gotten to be rather less safe than it had been before. Oh..to be sure, pirates love the place. It is a perfect location for refueling ramscoops, with 7 gas giants orbiting slowly around the primary, but they've never been this busy before. If reports are to be believed, seventeen unarmed merchant vessels have vanished without a trace, taking their escorts and cargos with them. Caution is advised when near this sector. This is Konnie Gnuhc, for CBA Galactic News, signing off."
The crew aboard the Chirr'T'Thar ship "Phoenix Fire" listens to the report and a set of low growls can be heard. They know what they lost to the first attack, and if these are pirates, they are extremely well armed.
'Longeyes', the sensors officer, growls in time with the rest of the bridge crew, then shakes his head, "Still nothing on long range. Rocks, rocks, and a few stray particles of gas."
The captain taptaptaps the claws of his forefoot on the deck plating, "They sit around with passive sensors, wait till we get too close, blind our sensors and disappear. Yet they killed two scout ships full of Chirr'T'Thar earlier."
Longeyes shrugs, "I still think they picked that fight for a specific reason."
The Captain hmmfs, "Well, hopefully all the refitting of weapons, shields and power on our ships will help us get ready for what they do next. And that pirate place. The council needs to clean that up, it's bad for trade."
Some of those rocks watch the ships as they search...passive sensors soaking up emissions, analyzing, planning.
Longeyes shrugs. "Guess we won't know. If the data from the first fight is right, we should outgun them though."
With a growl the captain checks through the data, "One fight. And from the sound of things, we did nothing to their largest ship. That's hardly something to be confident about."
Another voice pops up from the other side of the bridge...predictably from the gunnery station, "Those scouts were carrying pea-shooters compared to us!"
The captain sighs, then with a more firm voice orders, "We can not afford over confidence. Our enemy is still largely unknown. And if they get a good enough drop on us, all the firepower in the galaxy won't help."
'The range continues to fall...100k kilometers now...Let them come closer...let this be a true surprise.'
The captain turns to the sensor officer. "Longeyes. Any idea on better ways to pick up ships that only use passive sensors?"
Longeyes nods and turns back to his station, tapping claws to keys for yet another scan of the area. He focuses on a couple of large asteroids that are close enough to get decent readings on finally. "Not really. Without some sort of emissions, you've basically got a hunk of rock in space with an abnormally high metallic .. content.. ?"
The Captain's ears flick, "Stations everyone. Report Longeyes, what do you have?"
Longeyes leans over his console, eyeing the data, "Captain...With that in mind..." He taps some keys, displaying a schematic of the system on the main display, highlighting the scouting ships and their course. "There's something strange about 90,000 kilometers away."
The sensors officer taps another couple of keys, zooming in on a cluster of asteroids. "This is from sensor memory. I don't want to risk scanning them again so soon. If it is an enemy on passive, they'll know we know. These three rocks *taptaptap* are almost pure metal, based on the readings."
The male Chirr'T'Thar who sits at the command couch checks his own display and nods, "You think this could be our pirates? Or a diversion?"
The three rocks in question start to blink an ominous red on both displays.
The Captain roars, "Battle alert. Our hunks of rock have decided to power up."
Shields, sensors, and weapons flash to full power in an instant...followed moments later by huge drives, forcing the ponderous masses of metal from the thin asteroid cluster. Possibly the only thing saving the Chirr'T'Thar ships from immediate long-range bombardment is the scattered rocks in the way.
On board the Phoenix Fire, shields are put to full power and all weapons systems come online. The two other patrol ships flanking it spread out to try and surround their quarry as they all engage in evasive maneuvers.
Longeyes twists himself back around to his station, flat-lining his sensor nodes to keep them from being burned out by the expected blast of heavy ECM. Moments later, his efforts are shown to have been wise and he sets the computer to trying to find the frequency hole that the enemy ships scan through.
Five ships emerge from the asteroids, the two smallest of them having been hidden in the sensor shadow of the largest...a lumbering monstrosity over a quarter of a kilometer long.
The Captain growls, "Fire when you can get a clear target first. No idea if they are actually going to stay this time."
Longeyes doesn't bother to answer, he's too busy hacking an adaptive routine, trying to get his scanners online and unblinded, even for broken instants in time. "Got it! Fighter launch, 10..no..20! gunships inbound! Five antimatter warhead missiles on a homing trajectory!"
The captain growls, "Evade and target the antimatter missiles first! Side guns fire at the smaller fighters!"
The other two Chirr'T'Thar ships, trying to form a triangle around the "pirates", end up taking similar measures.
The five had not been wasting their advantage in stealth, turning the tight formation away from the flag and bearing down on the leftmost of the ships attempting to surround. The smallest of the escorts fall back to provide cover to the rear, while the others move forward and continue to launch salvos of missiles at the targeted ship.
The first salvo of missiles is tenacious and fast, but had apparently burned out their engines just short of the targets...and ballistic missiles are easy targets for angry gunners.
The Phoenix Fire targets the incoming missiles, and launches a few of their own, along with a barrage of maser fire at the enemy missiles, and ships.
The enemy ECM field drops suddenly, providing an unobstructed view of the battle. The small escorts following open up on the incoming missiles with a web of plasma fire that seems to light up space like a miniature sun, striking each missile at least thr ee times simultaneously.
The other two Chirr'T'Thar ships open fire on the escorts, large maser and ion cannons pulsing towards their targets.
Ponderous cannon finish charging on the carrier, and the forward two destroyers widen their formation to a more offensive stance. Heavy plasma cannon and sub-luminal railguns reach out and pound the the leftmost ship, washing over shields with fierce abandon. The escort's shields soak up the maser fire, but not without effect. Several seconds of concentrated ion bursts, and the missile defense net is reduced to half-strength in a glittering explosion of light and sound.
The Phoenix Fire targets the ships attacking their companion, while the rightmost blasts, as best it can, fire at the undamaged escort ship. The Chirr'T'Thar ship under the heavy fire barely manages to get out of the line of fire, shields damaged, and port weapons fried.
More than eighty percent of the gunships have fallen to lighter cannon by this time, but some of the quick little ships actually make it to the Phoenix Fire, four over-gunned strike fighters with a life expectancy measured in minutes. And they open fire, each turning their single gun, an ion blaster heavy enough to be mounted on a frigate, on the engines of the flagship.
The Captain of the Phoenix Fire invents some new felitaur swear words as the main ship is battered, lights dimming as the shields are nearly overloaded. He himself fires off a few short range misses at the strike fighters as his own gunners target them with the smaller masers, the large ones still concentrated on the enemy ships blasting their companion.
The heavier forward escorts ignore the fire from the Phoenix, chasing down the damaged ship with a single-minded, predatory air. Leaking air is blood in the water, and these ships must be the sharks. The rate of fire redoubles, first 4, then 8, then 12 anti-matter missiles streaking for the damaged vessel, and this time, the missiles still have enough engine to go for the damaged port flank.
Somehow the light escort evades the worst of the retaliatory fire, taking only slight damage to the defensive weapons as it ducks and weaves in a completely random pattern behind the carrier.
The Phoenix Fire trains all it's main guns on the escorts going after their fellow ship, the third one laying down supportive fire. Another set of anti-matter missiles are launched at the carrier, though in much staggered patterns. Meanwhile, the wounded Chirr'T'Thar ship is weaving and dodging, it's propulsion systems still apparently intact, along with it's rear mounted maser cannons.
The personal attention of the captain and his defensive gunners is enough...almost...to stop the gunships before they can fire again. Two are destroyed outright, the third manages a shot before being vaporized..but the last brings question the sanity of these pilots. The last fired at the Phoenix Fire from point blank, and then rammed into the shields at a velocity of almost .1c.
The Phoenix Fire's shields withstand the point blank blast, amazingly. However, the impact from the last fighter is too much. The shields collapse, and the ship is tossed aside by the impact. A gaping hole where the right front weapons assembly used to be is venting liquid Helium, though apparently not atmosphere. Crew members struggle to get systems back online, as the ship offering covering fire for them now concentrates on anything in range.
A final burst of heavy missile and plasma fire streaks from the rightmost escort before its shields fail under the Phoenix's relentless pounding, and it spins out of formation, bleeding air and fire. The missiles homing on the carrier find that it is not without defenses of its own...plasma defenses reach out and touch the warheads, ending their flights prematurely. Again, and again, and again, this behemoth turns its heaviest guns on a ship that bleeds air and trails sparks from its damaged port weapons. Relentless.
Three more Chirr'T'Thar ships, alerted by the lack of regular check ins from the other scout group race at full speed towards the battle scene. One ship will arrive nearly a full two minutes ahead of the other two. The Phoenix Fire has regained navigation and propulsion, and is presently undergoing evasive maneuvers. The heavily damaged Chirr'T'Thar ship is still dodging and weaving and somehow clinging onto life, but is running out of openings. The still relatively undamaged support ship is continuing to fire on the attackers.
The carrier takes a strike on its shields, heavy energy fortifications that look solid enough to walk on. Then another. And several more. A final flight of missiles streaks out toward the damaged ship, a veritable wall of anti-matter, plasma and ECM reaches out to touch it. Then the carrier turns off at right angles, gathering its damaged and bleeding brood close under its protective disk.
Longeyes wipes a trail of blood out of his eyes, barely noticing the strip of fur that got torn loose from the suicide charge. "Captain, there's a massive energy surge in that big ship..."
The Captain growls, "I want full forward engines now. We've got enough energy to power up the rail gun for one shot. Damn, it looks like the Claw's Edge is going to bite it though."
Longeyes turns around, staggers, then looks at the Captain, "IF that thing is powering to self destruct, we'll be caught in the blast wave. At this range, we will not survive it.
The poor little ship mushrooms up in a fireworks like display as the carrier's attack hits it, but not before it fires off every last energy weapon and missile at the carrier. The Captain of the Phoenix nods, "Remember what this thing fires. A small shielded neutronium slug. The kickback will knock us backward. Fire the instant the rail gun is powered."
On the carrier, the power levels continue to rise as it builds velocity. Sensors reach out and analyze the remaining ships. Another wave of missiles launches an instant before the final strike from the once-crippled vessel impacts. The carrier lurches, trailing a bit of debris, and then simply vanishes, leaving a twisted energy field in its place...one that quickly fades out of existence.
The captain of the Phoenix Fire growls, "Kitty Litter! Power down the rail gun and move hard to port NOW!" As the crew reacts, the ship veers hard at a right angle to it's previous course. This tumbles many of the crew inside, the inertial dampers having been powered down to bare minimum levels.
The Phoenix is well inside the missile's range. The wave of warheads veers to follow, bearing down on the ship.
The Phoenix's rear energy weapons fire on automatic. The suicide run of the attack ship was towards the front. This gives those crew members unprepared a chance to regain their feet and man the rest of the weapons as the Phoenix continues to charge away.
The first wave of missiles explodes just outside of effective range, buffeting the Phoenix's shields with hard radiation and concussive force. The second wave of missiles explodes, apparently on its own, some distance behind and below the first wave...but these are different missiles. Capital ship missiles...designed to attack live targets, not crippled kittens mewling for help as they crawl away. The power of the warhead pumps several heavy, one-shot lasers, sending the deadly rays of coherent light out in a cone toward the Phoenix.
The Phoenix Fire's automated defenses were unable to prevent one missile from impacting the rear shields, and knocking the ship off it's escape vector. This is all that keeps the ship intact as the nuclear powered laser beam misses the ship by a whisker, but the near miss still tears off two of the auxiliary helium tanks, and bumps the ship further off it's trajectory.
The relatively undamaged ship angles in and starts firing at the remaining missiles still pursuing the Phoenix. Their sensors chime as the support ships are now close enough to drop into normal space. Too late to really help.
Several minutes after the departure, space lights up momentarily as the field holding a bit of antimatter at bay fails, allowing it to contact the debris left behind. That explosion is followed moments later by a second, much larger, from the damaged and crippled escort ship self-destructing.
Longeyes blinks at the screen for a few seconds, again wiping blood out of his eyes, "Not very neighborly, are they?"
The captain, foreleggs wrapped around his command console, spits blood from where he bit his own tongue, "Skip the commentary. Relay all battle information to the trio of our ships that just warped in, make sure to tell them to look for any remaining traps laid by those litter droppings. And then, when they're sure it's clear, THEN search for survivors of the Claw's Edge. I'm certain the captain was smart enough to know when to unload excess crew when he was that badly damaged. Longeyes, are we going to need a tow?"
Longeyes turns to his console and starts checking over damage, his voice droning out battle damage reports and projected times of repair, busy, once again, with the mundanity of life.
While two thirds of the crew from the Claw's edge did make it safely off the ship, a handful of those were killed or wounded by the last plasma burst from the enemy carrier. But over half the crew is recovered alive. One thing clear from this battle, they are fighting an enemy that doesn't care about throwing lives away. That spurs the drive to build up the Chirr'T'Thar fleet even faster, and whatever bravado was left on the bigger ships fades immediately.
Elsewhere, ships of the Fleet repair, regroup, and rearm. The loss of two minor ships is inconsequential. The Fleet can absorb these losses easily. And the advance base is nearly complete..then the battle can begin in earnest.