Countryman studied the scans just sent to his console. Time itself seemed to move slowly, but in reality, it was just his mind racing at incredible speeds. The scans were high-intensity images of the ship they were currently engaged with. It was really something special, the first Valorian ship that he would actually consider to be a warship.
It was heavily shielded with powerful primary and secondary shield grids. The hull was further protected by actual armor plating and the ship bristled with powerful weaponry. Valorian Heavy pulse cannons, batteries of heavy plasma mortars, plasma torpedoes and antimatter torpedoes, alongside heavy disrupter banks.
Overall this other ship outgunned the Enterprise nearly three to one. With firepower on par with an actual battleship in the mass weight of the Enterprise, but he had already found that the Enterprise had comparable defenses and was faster. He could easily outmaneuver them, allowing him to keep in close where they could not effectively use their antimatter warhead launchers. As his gunners could detect the launch and fire on the launchers as they were firing. They had already destroyed twelve launchers this way, which was a small dent in their firepower and did cause some decent collateral damage. Most of the damage they did was from those hits, so far anyway. It didn’t help that every time he knocked out the main shields they would reset before he could penetrate the secondary shields. A consequence of their strength, as they could absorb several electro-cannon hits before overloading.
He was still learning their shield grid, then he saw something and smiled. That last hit had caused a small fluctuation in their primary starboard shield grid. A gap, he could exploit. He plugged himself in, it was too small for his gunners and would close far too quickly. Activating the beam array, he precisely adjusted the cutting beam to carve through their secondary shields. A trick that was only possible at this range.
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The din of battle filled the CIC as she took a moment to check the overall state of the battle. Her first officer could keep the enemy occupied for a bit. The battle had not been going well prior to her arrival. They had already lost one of the converted Fleet Carriers and about half their capital ships overall. Apparently, the aliens had managed to slip inside the perimeter undetected. Not even their recent sensor modulations were useful, they had to recalibrate to properly detect the ships again.
That meant something to her. The timing of this was also rather suspect. Most of the other checkpoints were already set up and at full strength. Yet they struck here where command thought them least likely to be. At a post that wasn’t fully fortified. Her command ship hadn’t even been present yet. Idly she suspected they were somehow spying on their fleet movements. An attack like this would require a fair bit of intel. Even if their sensors were superior and they noticed a previous checkpoint, unless they were a good deal faster than thought there was no way they would have noticed this. Either they had another unknown ship in the area or there was a traitor in her ranks.
Not that she had time to really work that out. Given that she was stuck at close range with the Alien battleship. It was obvious that she outgunned them, but that armor of theirs was something else. Not even disrupters could penetrate it. She figured its apparent immunity to disrupter hits was due to the presence of Erudite in its composition. Reidia had noted how little they were doing, she was pretty sure the key was her supply of antimatter torpedoes. If she could score a few decisive hits she might be able to penetrate that armor of theirs. On the flipside this slugging match was certainly doing a number on her energy reserves and if the scientists were right that lightning weapon of theirs used a lot of power too. Although it was certainly draining her own reserves. Keeping the shields up was eating into her fuel reserves faster than she liked, but something told her they needed to be up.
As if to confirm that thought someone shouted, “Hull breach! Deck 59, sections 23 gamma through 97 alpha.”
That caught her attention and she glanced at the display. Both shield grids were still up, primaries at sixty percent stability and the secondary at full strength. “What happened?”
Her science officer replied, “No idea, they somehow fired that blast through our shields like they weren’t there.”
She didn’t know which was worse, the fact the Menace could do that or that they didn’t know how. Sitting here wasn’t going to solve that, so instead she returned her focus to the ongoing exchange. The only thing new was that she had to keep in mind that they could somehow fire through her shields. Although thankfully they had yet to repeat the feat. It did however tell her that if the shields went down her hull plating wasn’t going to be worth much. Even it did seem to help against any torpedoes that got past her defenses.
She quickly shouted a few orders, just moments before a fighter-bomber wing flew into the field of fire. Skilled pilots weaving in and out of the fire as they moved for an attack run. Alien turrets popped out of the armored hull and spat bolts of blue light. They were launching missiles!
Turning to tactical she shouted, “Target those launchers!”
The alien menace had been doing the same thing to her, so it was time for a bit of their own medicine.
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Kaori looked up from her console, “Sir? Was that you?”
Countryman chuckled, “I saw an opening in their shields and took advantage of it. Our bombardment seems to be having an effect on the stability of their shield grid. I’m sending the relevant data to your console.”
She nodded and took a look, giving a few new orders to the tactical officers under her command before commenting, “Interesting, I think we can take advantage of it.”
That was why he sent the data to her. This was a clear weakness in their multilayered shields and if they could reliably exploit it they could bring down the whole grid. Once down it was just a big target. Well one that could shoot back and was actually protected by armor, not that it mattered. Cutting beams were specifically designed to carve through the heavy armor employed on ships of human design. An erudite-enhanced plate while sturdy was only going to slow the beam down. “Agreed, charge the cannons for another volley, but don’t knock out the main shields this time.”
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“Aye sir!”
Suddenly Misaki reported, “Sir! Hostile fighters on attack vector.”
“Lock missiles! Fire!”
“Missiles online, targets locked, firing” came the response from the tactical stations. Just before streaks of blue light erupted from the hull. They sailed across the void, fighters broke to avoid them, but the projectiles changed course to compensate. Seemingly defying physics to catch up and strike the alien fighters with deadly effect.
Most survived the first volley, but the second one was already on the way. New streaks began to fire out just as the capital ship they were dueling opened fire at the launchers.
“Multiple direct impacts, minor damage to dorsal launchers.”
“Stand down dorsal launchers. Reset secondary particle cannons for fighter defense.”
“Aye, sir!”
Countryman watched the smaller dual-purpose particle cannons retarget. Switching modes to fire more rapid lower impact energy bolts as they proceeded to engage the incoming fighter targets. As they fighters swept into range. Ventral mounted launchers continued to fire on them, as the cannons tore into them with impunity.
Regardless, a number of them began launching missiles. The energy web came online automatically to intercept. In the same moment the order was given and several electro cannon blasts fired into the shields of the Valorian Dreadnought.
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Rose felt the ship shudder. Several kids screamed out in fright, at the rocking. Elsewhere they could hear the hum of weapons fire and the occasional rumble of an explosion. At the moment she was in an armored internal bunker with the kids. This room was better protected than many other locations, it was both a living quarter and a shelter. Which is why they were here. It was a lot safer than many other areas on the ship, in the event of a hull breach.
She was feeling a little worried about this herself and something told her she felt a little fear too. That was notable, a machine with feelings? Rose figured she would talk to Mother about that, or perhaps Father. Her mind raced to consider why and she could only think of one reason. How she was programmed. Her Father gifted her a piece of his mind after all. Perhaps that had given her emotion.
Putting that from her mind, she reached for the youngest kids in the room. Pulling them into an embrace, she followed her programming, “It’s okay, Everything will be alright.”
In her arms she felt them relax a bit. The others drew closer to her. She glanced at the other adult in the room, trying to keep the young ones calm as well. Not that they could do anything better with the kids. They didn’t have a starbase or planet to keep them on, so here they were, stuck on what was for better or worse a warship. Well it was starting to become more than that, a home, a city. Feeling them against her, she thought of something shared.
Her father already had plans in mind for a refit. One to make the Enterprise a true cityship. Nothing concrete, as he didn’t plan to use them just yet. It was merely something he had considered. However, if the journey they were on lasted longer than he expected, he would. She also knew that if they found a homeworld he would do it anyway, but for a different reason. Only after he felt the new homeworld was secure. Countryman had some unfinished business in the Sol System. Nothing they could do anything about, not with the resources they have now. Hell they couldn’t even sit in one place long enough to build a ship. They had managed to build a small spy frigate and that hadn’t been cheap on them either.
Well there was no helping that, and the children needed her. With that in mind, she focused on keeping them calm. The captain was going to keep the ship safe, she knew it.
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Reidia watched the battle from her screens. The alien particle weapons had shifted to start firing on the fighters, some of them anyway. The heavier guns were still aimed at her ship, but the result was still good in her book as it lowered the strain on her shields. It wasn’t so good for the fighters, but they were agile enough to avoid the worst of the fire. Even if they had increased their volume of fire. That was notable, but not surprising. Not with an energy weapon like a particle bolt and predictably it came at a cost of power per bolt. Not that they would need the extra power against fighters, so it was honestly a logical adjustment. In fact it was one she expected them to be able to make given they had supercharger technology. If someone could supercharge their guns, they could do the opposite.
Despite her orders however the aliens continued to fire missiles from the launchers her guns couldn’t hit. While the damage to the ones she did hit seemed rather minimal. What was up with their armor? It was an Erudite-Enhanced Titanium-based hull plating, not Neutronium and yet it certainly felt like they were trying to penetrate a hull made of the legendary metal.
A second later, while she was considering course vectors to better support the fighter attack, the alien lightning guns lit up. Lightning bursts slammed into her shields which flared with each strike. Someone shouted, “Shield stability at 2 percent!”
That was better than she had expected, one more hit and the shields would have collapsed again. She barely had time to think about that before the entire ship rocked and then it rocked again. As people started shouting and chaos erupted.
She shouted over the din, “Reset the shields!!!”
People scrambled to comply as she shouted her next set of orders. In the distance she noticed her allied fighter craft launching their payload of antimatter torpedoes and bombs. They sailed into the alien defense field. Brilliant flashes of light signaled each detonation as they slammed into the red light in rapid succession, but then several struck against the hull of the alien battleship.
When the light cleared the ship looked shockingly unharmed. Although she had seen something during the attack, but she wasn’t sure what it meant. Now wasn’t the time to figure it out, not just yet. “Signal the retreat! Get us out of here, vector two one seven mark three nine. Maximum warp!”
Someone informed her, “Shields are back, but we took a lot of damage to the grid. Shield strength is down by nearly half.”
Just before the alien capital ship fired a volley of torpedoes at them, they intercepted a few, before her ship was struck. The bridge rocked hard, as someone shouted a damage report. It was bad, with multiple heavy hits to their aft sections. Entire compartments were destroyed, most of it was thankfully confined to the outer hull. Nothing they could not fix, but it would take some time. Then her world distorted a bit as the ship made the jump to warp.