Liberating Neuros
Chapter 3
The fall of Neuros
Admiral Prince Edrich watched the small oval discs of his attack squadrons peel off with trepidation. He hated the idea of sending them to certain failure. He hated having to sacrifice the remains of his fleet like this, period. He and the greatest tacticians on the planet had tried to find an alternative for many moons, after it became evident that the Republic was making Neuros their goal. In the end there was no alternative to attempting to evacuate as many as possible from the planet and buy them time to escape, the Republic had been too powerful in attack.
His fleet had given good account of itself, but they had always been outnumbered, the enemy could afford to lose three or four times the number of the Imperial Navy.
As the last of the attack squadrons disappeared from view he turned to the ships Master, Captain Tyrone. He looked as old as he felt.
"Deploy Number 1 Destroyer Flotilla behind the gas giant Mathros, Number two behind Dinna. Reinforce them with six ships from Number 3. Tell them to remain hidden from sensors until I tell them to move," he commanded. "They should be within striking range by the time the attack squadrons begin to attack."
A small regret of memory flitted through his mind, the two giant gas planets kept almost perfect synchronisation with each other. As such they were ideally suited for training in the Naval University for practising the ‘Slingshot’ manoeuvres that had allowed Neuros to reach the outer planets. Not that such primitive methods of gaining speed were required now with Star Drives. But the University, in the way of old entrenched institutions, had persisted in teaching and practising its slingshots. Along with its older sister establishment, the Astronautical University it had established annual races from Neuros around the two planets. They had inevitably become hard fought and close races for the most daring students only. He remembered his first race, competing with the equally old and entrenched Astronautical University. Zaranray, flying for the Astonautica had plunged her shuttle into the upper layers of atmosphere above Dinna to gain an extra and vital two seconds of acceleration to beat him in reaching Mathros. But the extra speed afforded her had prevented her from repeating the exercise over Mathros and his more very slightly more subdued approach had in the end given him a fifteen second advantage at the end of the one hundred fifty million Kilon 30 hour race. He had never won a race against her since.
"Sir!" Tyrone
"The remains are to stand by and protect our flanks. Perhaps we can save a few lives."
"Sir?" Captain Tyrone questioned
Prince Edrich smiled weakly. "We aren't going to runaway," he assured the Captain. "I just want to save a few when it is finished."
"Orders for the Cruisers, Sir?"
"Take up standard battle formation, centred on the Algeria. Anti-Attack fire envelope to be set at 15000 Kilons. Outside that our fighters have them."
"Sir!"
Captain Tyrone turned away to arrange the dispersal of orders, leaving the Prince to gaze forlornly out the window again, as the fleet began the stately operation of taking up the battle formation that would permit it to present the most formidable defence.
The older cruisers, like the Nigera herself, were basically long tubes, though they did not have Nigeria's outrigger hangers. They would have to turn quarter on to the enemy to allow the use of their heavy batteries whilst still protecting the vulnerable Star Drive power units.
The newer ships were more like narrow pyramids laid on their sides. They would stand bow on to the enemy, the Star Drives that powered the ship, it's shields and weapons safely out of sight behind them.
To the right he saw the two destroyer flotillas speed away to take up their positions, masked behind two of the Neuros systems outer planets. He was almost jealous of them, their fate would depend upon the skills of their crews. Their fast and manoeuverable ships would be a difficult target for the enemies gunners and they would be active. Not simply waiting to be shot at.
Four hours later they had the report they were waiting for: The attack squadrons were making their run. It prompted Edrich into a new round of orders.
"Signal the destroyers to make their runs on flanking battleships. The fleet will advance to engage the enemy at long range. Concentrate fire on their foremost vessel."
"Aye, Sir!" the response was immediate.
"Algeria will be in range in four minutes. Cruisers will engage three minutes later."
"Shields, Sir?" Tyrone asked respectfully.
"Not yet. You know that!" Edrich snapped.
His voice softened at the evident hurt he had caused to his Captain. He had forgotten that Tyrone had only just been promoted to the captaincy direct from modern destroyers. Fighting in big ships, especially an old one like the Algeria, with their heavier and slower shields and physical armour was very different from the light destroyers. "At extreme range nobody is going to do a lot of damage to a heavy warship," he explained more gently. "Because we have to drop our shields before firing, shields will simply slow our gunnery."
As he spoke the lights dipped. Algeria's main fire batteries had commenced firing, between them sending over 12 Terra Watts of energy from her six forward batteries. It would take twenty seconds for the giant reactors to recharge the system for another salvo. Perhaps 30 for the plasma rounds to reach their targets.
Sensors advise the enemy have started to fire upon the destroyers, Sir!" A yeoman reported deferentially.
Edrich nodded, "Advise ground control we have opened fire. It could be the only good news we can give them."
From the bridge of the battleship they could see the flashes of gunfire and explsions when they struck quite clearly, though who was winning was impossible to tell from this range. The only thing that was possible to say was that the small Neuros fleet was giving what it could, and at the moment the enemy was concentrating on their more dangerous foe. The destroyers with their racks of heavy photon torpedoes.
Either side of Algeria the heavy cruisers started firing, quickly followed by the lighter vessels as the range closed.
"Enemy attack craft are being engaged by fighters!" Captain Tyrone announced reading the warning from his command console. "Permission to deploy shields, Sir?"
Edrich nodded, "Bring ships about for full broadsides."
"Shields up. Release defence batteries," Tyrone intoned.
From their view port they saw the first wave of some thirty Kajak fighters stream through their thin defensive screen, then wheel to lock onto the Algeria's weakest point. Just as the Neuros attack craft had, they were aiming for the ships main power source, the Star Drives.
Around them the light gunnery attempted to put up a thick wall of fire, their red tracers adding to the bright yellow of the main batteries as Algeria laid her first broadside. The closest fighter was struck by a chance round from the main battery, there was no flash, it simply disintegrated and the charge sailed on. A second and third were struck by light fire and exploded incandescently, two more went in similar fashion. Further afield they saw several more fall and one of their own fighters, streaming smoke, colliding with an enemy.
Four more launched their torpedoes, two from each, it was immediately followed by Tyrone bellowing, "Hard to port, full power starboard, full reverse port, lift twenty!"
The orders were inspirational on a battleship; They belonged to quick reacting destroyers not million tonne battleships. But they had the desired effect three torpedoes detonated against the rear shields, a fourth penetrated the shields and struck the aft superstructure, the rest missed.
"Damage report!" Tyrone demanded.
"Fire in rear conn, damage control is responding. Lower aft shield is down, 14 minutes for recuperation," the response was immediate.
Edrich was impressed. The Promotions Board had declared that Tyrone was an innovative officer, not deterred by standard practices in combat. He had proved it in the sixty seconds that had transpired, at least six regulations had been broken, from breaking formation to running the engines unbalanced. But Algeria was still largely undamaged and still fighting, proved by another broadside flashing past the view port. He complimented accordingly, then added with a grin, "Now, can you keep it up for another two hours?"
Tyrone acknowledged the request with a weak grin of his own, "If you can keep them from getting too close, Sir! They fired from too far away."
"Cruisers 562 and 06 have been disabled!" a yeoman called, adverting them to the fact there was still a battle being fought. Not all captains were going to be as lucky as Tyrone.
"Second wave of attack craft coming through! Defence control advise 60 craft."
"Flight control advise 120 Kajak craft killed, 40 Disc fighters down." News of the battle was coming thick and fast.
"Kajak battleship has exploded!"
The announcement was met with jubilant cheers from younger bridge crew, but was met by blank stares from the senior officers.
"We haven't got anything that can do that!" Edrich exclaimed. "Contact the attack squadrons. Find out what happened!"
He turned to an ensign signaller. "What other good news is there?"
"The battleship exploding took two others, we think three more may have been badly damaged. The destroyers advise they have disabled four cruisers and three troop vessels, but they are down to five ships, Sir!"
"Broadcast the good news to all crews every twenty minutes," Edrich commanded. "They have to know we are hitting the Kajaks harder than they are hitting us!"
"Sir!" The ensign span away to carry out the Admirals orders.
"It is a simple deception, but nobody will notice at the moment," Edrich commented to Tyrone quietly.
Another signaller appeared and offered a message. Edrich took it and read it quickly. "Attack fighters are hitting command centres on Neuros. They haven't struck Central Command yet."
"We are hitting them hard, Sir!" Tyrone disputed.
"We are simply destroying more of them than they are of us," Edrich corrected him. "They can afford it!"
The brief lull in reports was broken.
"Admiral, Sir. The shadowing frigates advise that they can only detect three Disc fighters returning from their attack. They have lost track of the remaining destroyers as well."
"Gunnery advise enemy in range for secondary weapons, Sir!"
"Deploy," Tyrone commanded. "Prepare for close quarters combat. Prepare defence teams, they will board if they disable us."
Matters became far more intense as individual ships of the Neuros Fleet found they were being targetted by the Kajak warships. From his position on the Bridge Edrich, resigned himself to being nothing more than a concerned bystander. There was no fleet to control anymore. It was every captain for himself and do the best he could. He watched as three more of his cruisers sucumbed to the combined fire of four battleships. 'Over kill', he thought sourly, at a range of a few hundred miles two would have been more than sufficient.
"Star Drives one through four have been hit. All weapons running on internal reactors," Engineering reported.
That was going to slow everything down, especially main fire control.
"Crijans have boarded Section 2, 6 and 13. Repel boarders!"
"Terminate life support to residential decks. Seal joining doors," Tyrone demanded.
Terminating life support to the quarters would free power for weapons. Sealing the airtight doors would slow down the Crijan advance for a while. The Neuron handheld pulse weapons were superior in open areas, if only because Crijans did not use similar weapons. Instead they used numbers to overwhelm defensive positions. The Neuron army had never found a satisfactory way of overcoming the Crijan tactic of getting close in combat then using their limbs as swords to simply stab and slice their enemies, Edrich reflected sadly
"We need to get you off the ship, Sir!" Tyrone reported dutifully to the Admiral. "While you can still reach your barge!"
"Is there anywhere to go?" Prince Edrich replied sadly. "I will take your advice. In a minute or two. Give the signal. All ships with power to disengage."
"Admiral, Sir!" An over excited voice went up. "Crijans have overrun Central Command. The King is dead!" The voice choked. "He was executed! They.."
"Stop that crewman!" Tyrone thundered in alarm. "We do not need to know!"
"Disembowelled while alive. I already know," Edrich tried to soothe the captain. "Thank you, Captain. For trying to protect me."
Behind them the access hatch to the Bridge exploded, catching the two security guards and sending them spinning through the air. The Crijans had reached the Bridge.
Six short figures leapt through the doorway and lunged at the nearest crew. The air was filled with a new sound; the screams of pain as injured crewmen fell to the attack.
Finding he was cut off from his comrades a lieutenant charged at two Crijans, firing his pulse pistol wildly at them. One fell as the pistol discharge struck the Crijans unprotected eye. The second simply stood and impaled the lieutenant on an armoured prong.
The rest of the Crijan storm troops advanced on the remaining bridge crew. Several fell to the fire of the combined pulse pistols, but as each one fell another two appeared to take the place of the fallen. Marching over them to take position.
If the Crijans managed to seperate a Neuron from the crowd, he would immediately be set upon. The sight of abandoned butchery sickened the dwindling bridge crew.
As the Crijans reached forward to take the remaining six members of the bridge to signify their final victory, a high pitched voice screeched authoritively, drawing them back. "Stop!"
Almost respectfully the Crijans settled back onto their four legs, ready to pounce as soon as the command was given.
A new figure appeared, tall and sickly green of face, clad in thermally insulated suit. It was a Kajak Sentinal, the leading cast, the Crijan controller.
"Prince Edrich," the voice of the Sentinal still screeched. "I am Krollag. It is time to surrender. You have lost. Neuros has been taken and you are the last surviving member of the Royal Household."
Edrich found his voice. "Why? So that you can execute me?" He challenged.
"We are not going to execute you. You are much to valuable alive," the Kajakan assured him. "But if you do not surrender," he paused for effect. "I will order my warriors to ceremonially execute all your 2000 crew, one at a time, in front of you."
Despite himself, Edrich quavered. "You wouldn't dare!"
A single nod from Krolag was enough. The first of the officers on the Bridge was grabbed by two Crijans and dragged infront of Edrich, stretched between them. A third stepped up, baring a long curved claw, holding it over threateningly over the Lieutenants stomach.
The young Lieutenant looked at Edrich beseechingly, terrified out of her wits.
Edrich swallowed hard, trying to keep control. “If I surrender, you will allow the crew to live?” He demanded shakily.
Krolag seemed to consider the proposal. “You are not in a position to make demands, your Highness,” he pointed out.
“But you want me alive,” Edrich insisted.
The sight of Krolag smiling would have made strong men sick. His large mouth enlarged into a sickly grin, showing his black teeth and blood red mouth. “We will not kill them ritually, your Highness,” he offered.
Edrich had little choice. “I surrender myself and my ship,” he whispered.
“Take them to the prison ships!” Krolag demanded.
Issue: 1
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