Battleship Trafalgar

Hemera

The Trafalgar jumped into orbit above the planet.

“Status report!” yelled Chase as alarm klaxons began flaring loudly throughout the bridge.

“We’ve got four hostile vessels incoming,” said Wokoma.

“Torpedoes,” said Chase as bright lights of explosives blasted past the main viewscreen.

“They’ve got a weapons lock,” replied Winter from the weapons station.

Chase looked at the readout screen on his chair’s armrest.

“Helm, evasive manoeuvres.”

The Trafalgar banked, and the sub-light engines kicked in, allowing the old workhorse to get some good manoeuvring in. The enemy vessels were far larger and and sensors indicated, much better armed. Compressed energy weapons flashed across the sky like the tracer fire of old. Dozens of shots were fired at them, and the Trafalgar rocked as they impacted.

“Hull is stable,” said Wokoma over the din of klaxons, “and our torpedoes are having an effect.”

Chase pulled up the closest ship on his screen.

“Target the first ship. Let’s try to take out their drive,” he said. The sub-light thrusters kicked in, and the Trafalgar closed on the first ship, coming around to get a clear shot at their drive plumes. The compressed energy weapons fired in bursts and took out the enemy’s starboard engine. But the next closest ship was closing fast.

“Torpedo lock,” warned Wokoma.

“Acquire a lock on the port engine, fire two torpedoes, and then take us to orbit,” said Chase, cold and calculating as he worked out his strategy. The bright red dots accelerated away from Trafalgar, closing in on the bright blue of the engine that was soon snuffed out. They headed away from the hostile vessels, their sublight engine out performing the manoeuvring thrusters. closing in on the planet and sitting in orbit.

Wokoma turned and looked at him. “Sir, hostiles are launching fighters.”

“Here we go,” said Chase. “Can we get an analysis of what they’re up to?” he asked her.

“It looks like they’re attempting planetfall,” said Wokoma. “It’s an old-fashioned land grab,”

Chase nodded. He looked at the screen as the first wave of a dozen or so fighters closed in on the Trafalgar. Defence turrets activated and took shots at the small incoming ships. Initially, they got a few lucky hits and took some fighters out.

“Bring us about,” said Chase.

“Those fighters are much more manoeuvrable than us,” said Wokoma.

“I don’t doubt it, but let’s not make it easy for them,” he replied. The bridge shuddered again as an attack run swooped over the top of the Trafalgar.

A fighter now appeared from above the front viewport, consumed by a fireball as the defence turrets spluttered into life, takng it out. The fireball cleared as the Trafalgar passed through it.

“Good work, everybody,” said Chase. “Now let’s not let them reform.” With one hostile ship dead in space. The other two were moving to close the gap.

“Target that ship,” said Chase and the Trafalgar came about and closed on the nearest of the large alien craft. Orange bursts poured forth from the Trafalgar’s turrets as it moved towards the hostile ship, subsequent torpedo strikes slamming into the hull. The ship attempted to cover itself, but Trafalgar pulled back.

“Its superstructure is losing stability,” replied Wokoma as it burst into flame, losing structural integrity.

“Brace!” yelled Chase. The hostile vessel exploded, sending out a rift of energy in every direction. Chase as he gripped the rest of his chair before the shockwave hit. The Trafalgar got caught from behind, the shockwave shoving it forward while taking out several of the smaller fighters.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

The Trafalgar continued to take a beating from the multiple fighter craft. Another squadron had now moved in and was raining down damage. The extra crew they’d taken on board remove pulled their weight, keeping Trafalgar’s turrets now manned fully. While many of the onboard systems were operated by computer on modern craft, the Trafalgar still had manual defence turrets. Though it wasn’t a particularly difficult task to swap out going forward, it wasn’t something they had yet been able to do in the limited time that they were docked.

Chase was once again rocked in his chair as another ship gave the Trafalgar a beating.

“Can we get close to the remaining hostile?” Chase asked.

Wokoma looked over her boards. “Unlikely at this time,” she replied.

“Dammit,” swore Chase. Another fighter exploded out of the forward view—that was something, at least.

“We’re taking pretty serious damage to the hull armour,” reported Wokoma.

“Put some distance between us and those fighters,” ordered Chase and felt the engines kick in harder. “Have we had any more contacts?” he asked Wokoma.

“Negative. Currently at twenty-four fighters and the two remaining hostiles.”

“Do we assume that this is their fighter capacity?” asked Chase.

“I wouldn’t assume that,” said Wokoma. “But they’ve been at it a while now, and they have yet to launch any more.” She shrugged her.

“Concentrate on taking the fighters out for the minute,” said Chase, and the Trafalgar swung around to take on the swarm. The fighters were designed to operate in mass and were not overly defended. If they could focus their fire, they were relatively easy to take out.

“Concentrate fire on the flight leaders,” said Chase, checking his readout on the armrest. Each wave had fighters flying the vanguard whilst several closed in behind and acted as wingmen. The Trafalgar swept towards the first, approaching fast, all turrets blazing. Fighters shattered against the power of the focused weaponry, splitting the fighters before mopping them up as they spun away.

“Now pull back slightly,” said Chase as the remaining fighters closed in on them. The ship shook violently.

The remaining fighters were swarmed around the battleship, matching its speed. The defence turrets choosing their targets, fired the compressed energy weapons in all directions, leaving a cloud of coloured fire surrounding the ship. Several fighters went up in flames, yet still more came.

Chase watched the holographic overview. The two remaining ships were now free to lock into a standard orbit. Suddenly, the fighter craft were holding position, unaware Trafalgar had relocated.

“Status?” asked Chase.

Wokoma checked all her boards before replying, “The ships are entering standard orbit, and the fighters remain deployed in case of a return.”

Chase nodded. “That’s what I would do in this situation as well. Okay,” he said. “We need to find a way to take them out, or at least do maximum damage first.” He added, “We could use the drive for at least one surprise attack. Unlike our initial entry, we now have their exact coordinates,” said Wokoma. “It would allow us to position ourselves for a direct strike.”

That was true, thought Chase, but it would leave them in a difficult position to withdraw. A light blinked up on the readouts.

“Sir, the hostiles are launching more vessels,” said Wokoma. Several new dots appeared on the primitive hologram, showing new ships launching from the larger crafts.