New Valoria Geosynchronous Orbit over Golden Sands, 0330 hours
“Umikazi, reports heavy damage, main power failing,” reported a worried Misaki. While Countryman monitored the first shuttles coming up.
They weren’t in much better shape power-wise, they were basically on fumes now. “Order both ships to withdraw and cease-fire.”
“Aye sir.”
The ship shook as a torpedo slammed into the hull. “Hull plating failing!”
Countryman was aware, the AIF had taken a pounding and the field was starting to buckle. There wasn’t much power to spare, the only thing he could do was divert power from weapons to plating. Engine power was already at minimal levels, they barely had enough to maintain station keeping under the bombardment
So far they were still dealing with the one battlegroup, the battleship had withdrawn to a safe distance, while her crew conducted emergency repairs and took two of the cruisers with them. That left the other two cruisers, and the destroyers for him to deal with.
“The Coto’s been hit! Heavy damage to her port nacelle.”
He cursed, that was the third time the Valorians had targeted the module.
With all the heavy fire it didn’t seem like a good idea to open the hangers, but he didn’t have a choice. The shuttles were entering range now.
“Launch Alpha and Beta Squadron. Kaori I want you to provide covering fire, this is going to be rough.”
“Aye, sir!”
The ship shook, “Hull breach! Deck 14, emergency bulkheads holding.”
Internally he was praying that the ship would hold together. He’d helped design and build her and knew she could take a pounding, but she’d never quite been intended for a mission like this. Most of her systems required energy to function, without power the structural integrity fields and powered armor systems would all fail. Some part of him was hoping the erudite they’d added to their armor mix would keep the Enterprise together as her titanium construction wouldn’t help against plasma bolts without power.
The lights flickered, as the ships were launched. “AIF field has failed!”
The ship shook again, harder. “We’re being targeted! Heavy damage to dorsal plating, multiple hull breaches!
Countryman glanced at the capacitors, they were nearly dry, and reactor power was low. “Cease fire all batteries, divert all remaining power to the hull plating.”
“AIF field partially restored. Hull plating seems to be holding.”
He held back a comment about for now, he’d only bought them a couple minutes, but it also meant they couldn’t support anyone now. Countryman kept a close eye on the shuttles, who were being intercepted by Valorian fighters. Thankfully the two squadrons he’d reserved were doing their job, keeping the worst off of them.
A moment later, he saw the first reach the Coto and dock in her rear hanger, and then ten seconds later a shuttle reached the Umikaze.
The lights flickered again. “Power failure, fusion reactors two and four have failed.”
Countryman nodded, as he watched one of the remaining Valorian cruisers make a dive on the shuttles. Umikaze fired into her flank, drawing the cruiser’s attention. The ship came about, and fired torpedoes. Several slammed into the Umikaze ripping into her dorsal plating, with one sailing past the main hull to strike her starboard nacelle strut. The armor ruptured, but the strut remained intact. They were deceptively sturdy afterall.
Then a beam strike from the Umikaze penetrated the shields of the cruiser. Entire sections of plating melted under the concentrated fire, as the generators flickered, then her shields went down, as a fighter dived on her with a strafing run. Multiple sections were ruptured in short order before a final shot was fired into her engineering section. The entire cruiser was aflame with escape pods being launched as the hull started fracturing into segments and falling toward the planet.
Elsewhere, one of the remaining six shuttles took a hit. Her plating burned for a bit before the fire went out, and then finally the first of the shuttles landed in his hanger. Tensely he watched a destroyer moving in to fire on the open hanger, even as he shouted, “I want that fuel transferred to the main reactor ASAP!”
“Aye, sir!”
“Kaori, can you get me a shot from the beam array?”
“Not without compromising the AIF, it’s taking all remaining power to protect the ship.”
He cursed, but then the Coto opened fire, scoring several hits on the destroyer and forcing her to break off. Countryman felt a sigh of relief as the following shuttles started landing.
Then came the report he was looking for, “Richards reports main power restored, and is now restarting our secondary fusion reactors.”
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“Kaori, charge the beam arrays,” ordered Countryman as reactor power started to build back up.
It felt like an eternity when in fact it was only minutes before they had sufficient power to fire again.
Countryman quickly ordered heavy fire on the remaining destroyers which didn’t last long now that he had the power to afford full-power beam shots, not only that he could afford multiple simultaneous beam array discharges against every target in range.”
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0400 Golden Sands:
Kirk surveyed the road, taking note of the column moving on the town. Based on numbers it looked like two mechanized infantry divisions and a tank company were moving on the town. Something that wasn’t entirely unexpected, she would have been surprised if the Valorians had allowed their beachhead to remain unchallenged.
“It seems we have a few uninvited guests,” commented Kirk to the artillery commander next to her. “Please give them my regards, and send them on their way.”
The man smiled, before donning his helmet, “Yes sir!” Then he turned to the troops and started barking orders.
Seconds later, she heard the thrum of cannons firing, each shot rang out with a distinct hum followed by a loud crack as electromagnetic launchers accelerated 90-kilogram shells to velocities in excess of the speed of sound. Dozens of shells rained down upon the approaching Valorian forces with explosive results.
Kirk watched as the shells tore into the road, the earth and any vehicle unlucky enough to be in the area. Leaving behind a sea of craters, and burning wreckage.
Shields started flaring, as the column energized the defensive screens their vehicles were equipped with but it was by far too little. The barrage continued as vehicles swerved to avoid being pounded into dust.
A couple minutes later the last crack echoed as the order to cease fire was given, the entire sector had been bombed into oblivion, leaving scattered wreckage, as surviving troops took cover behind smoldering tanks or in craters.
“I’d say that was an effective demonstration of our capabilities. General, what do you think?”
“Most effective, reload the cannons and give the men my compliments.”
“Should we?”
“Leave them, our orders are to hold the perimeter, not hunt down broken units.”
“Aye sir.”
Kirk didn’t doubt there would be another attack, and she didn’t want to be caught out of position hunting when it came. She had to keep in mind the larger picture and follow the orders Forrest had given her. Besides he was counting on her to buy him the time he needed to extract the materials they were after. Most notably the fuel. Of course his personal task also gave him time to keep the larger operation in mind.
She turned away from the view and walked over to the radio. The comm officer looked up, “A channel to Forrest ma’am?”
“Yes, please. He asked to be informed when the Valorians attacked.”
The officer nodded and opened a channel for her. As soon as she had Forrest, she informed him that she’d encountered and dealt with an enemy attack.”
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0410 Misty Springs, 31 kilometers north of Golden Sands.
The tank column rumbled as it drew upon the settlement. Evanov looked over the orbital footage of the site, as he planned his move. Misty Springs was a modest town, primarily industrial—home to several factories that produced high-tech components for the Valorian shipyard in orbit. Sadly Valorian technology wasn’t exactly compatible with Refuge systems or they’d be able to steal the spare parts they need from them, but some of the raw materials were the same. He figured he’d take anything that looked valuable and do some damage. More importantly, this would likely keep the enemy off balance.
“Hmm, not that well defended. I do see a military base on the east side of the town, looks like a few tanks and a couple of watchtowers around the perimeter of the base. I also see a few patrols.”
“It doesn’t look like we are expected sir,” commented his lieutenant.
Evanov tapped on the map, “Let’s come in from the east, if they are going to be napping, we might as well make them pay for it.”
“Understood sir. I’ll tell the men.”
Evanov nodded, and a few moments later they’d changed course. He took another look at the map, noting enemy troop movements. He marked down several formations as they were moving, targets to hit later. Then he noted a report on the system, Kirk had repelled a hostile column attempting to retake Golden Sands.
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EFS Enterprise 0430:
Countryman set the report down. They were currently tracking two battlegroups that were set to arrive soon, while another shipment was arriving from the surface. That battleship was also still in the system, her crew conducting what repairs they could. This had given him a moment’s respite to get a better idea of the status of the fleet, and time for some repairs himself.
The Coto had taken a real beating, the damage to her port nacelle was significant. Both of her port warp engines were inoperable. Notably, the starboard pair remained intact, and while it would be possible to transfer one of the starboard engines to the port nacelle housing, that was a procedure that would require time they simply didn’t have. A fact Reynolds agreed with him on, as such they were still refueling the ship, but personnel were being evacuated to the Enterprise. The ship was effectively lost already, but the Coto could still prove useful in covering the retreat of the Enterprise.
The Umikaze on the other hand was still warp-capable, if barely, but she’d taken a real pounding as well. Her saucer even had a hit that had punched clean through the superstructure and out the other side and there was damage to her primary spaceframe. One of those hits had blown up her starboard torpedo bay, if she’d been carrying any torpedoes the Umikaze would have sunk. Drakes had raised serious concerns about the ship surviving another round with the enemy and non-essential personnel had already been evacuated to the Enterprise. Countryman had to agree, as the ship’s hull plating was virtually useless now, and half her weapons array was gone. One of her primary sublight engines was also gone, limiting her speed, as that engine had been knocked out by the same hit that had punched through the saucer.
As for the Enterprise? They were in the best shape overall, but they had taken a pounding as well. They now had one hundred seventy-two hull breaches in the dorsal plating, fourteen photon missile turrets had been destroyed. Of their 1800 medium particle turrets, some 450 of them had been rendered inoperable or destroyed. All of them on the dorsal side of the hull, and a similar story showed with the heavy particle cannon turrets, of the 200 dorsal mounts one hundred forty-five had been disabled or destroyed. The ventral side of the hull however was virtually untouched. Regardless, that was a significant loss of firepower especially when you factored in that they were out of torpedoes.
That was something Countryman was going to have to take into account. On the positive side, refueling was going really well. He expected they’d be pulling out on schedule, but it was still going to be close.