All That Glitters Ch. 56

Many of the Valour Class took hits from the Mk-48's of the enemy ships, to little or no effect against their Gara-Hinn shields. The Valours would take out the tubes, then the guns, and one of the two engines to effectively end the day for a Torge Class. They could do that from behind the enemy ships, thus reducing the incidents of torpedo/missile fire against their own ships. Occasionally, they would destroy a particular aggressive Torge. The Torge Class would fire multiple shots from their Mk-48 equivalent pulse cannon, sometimes causing problems for the Valours.

Those ships that were put out of action, withdrew to the other side of the planet to the Matrar Orbital Station where the non-combatant ships were amassing, some 38,000km away. The fleet around the Matrar now consisted of mostly supply ships from the Grazia fleet, a couple of escort ships, and many of the Asocan shuttles from the Matrar station who were attempting to stay out of the fight. Raymond noted this and designated that fleet as not to be attacked unless they were attacked first from that direction. He also noted that the civilian ships were trying to maintain some distance from the Mercenary fleet's supply ships and their escorts.

In the meantime, the two engaged fleets were firing on each other with plenty of missiles/torpedoes floating around the battle space.

"We have confirmed the engine frequencies of the Torge Class," the Science O on the Battle Bridge told Raymond.

"Send that out to all the ships, tell them to ignore those and let the Valours handle them. Identify the engine signatures of the Grazia vessels and lets start taking them out," Raymond ordered.

While the Torge Class were dangerous, they were much less so after having fired their torpedoes/missiles. Their Mk-48 equivalents would do little damage to the Asoc's ships. More and more of the Torges were being knocked out of action by the Valours as they concentrated first on taking out their tubes, then their guns.

But the Asoc's fleet was taking hits of their own.

"Incoming! Brace for impact!" Capt. Hellen Degault called out over The Wanderer's ship wide comms system when they could not stop an inbound torpedo. The ship suddenly rocked from the impact of a 280cm torpedo. "Damage control?"

"The shields held, ma'am," the Engineer Rep on the bridge told Degault. "We have reports of atmosphere escaping on decks ten and eleven, we are tending to that now."

"Roger that. Science, were did that torp originate from?" Degault demanded.

"Unknown, ma'am. I can't track it back with all the confusion of torps and missiles flying around," Science responded.

"I've got three heavy torps and two heavy missiles coming in from two different directs," the Tac O called out.

"I see them," the Pilot told the bridge. "Be ready for an emergency jump!"

"Tac O?" Degault queried.

"Right fifteen degrees and up twenty, NOW!" the Tac O shouted. The pilot responded immediately while the Tac O launched a series of countermeasures.

The string of countermeasures took out two of the torpedoes, while the guns took out a missile. That still meant one missile and one heavy torpedo bearing down on them.

The pilot primed the jump grid and waited till the last possible moment before pressing the activation button. The ship jumped 500km across the fleet, leaving the immediate threat behind. They reoriented on the tactical link from the Dewfall and kept up the attack.

Ships of the fleet were using their jump capability to jump to safety every few minutes.

"Targets of opportunity! Take out a torp or a missile with the fifties whenever you get the chance," Raymond ordered. "How are the Valours faring?"

"The independents have taken out another thirty-five of the Torge Class, sir, that's seventy-one total," the Battle Bridge's Tac O advised.

"Right, break them into two groups, first group to prosecute the Torges with emphasis on those that have not yet shot their tubes, the second to take out the torps and missiles flying around, especially the heavies," Raymond instructed.

"What is the situation in the enemy fleet?" Degault demanded from the bridge.

"We have knocked out four of the five Ballaron Class Frigates, severely damaged or destroyed five of their escort ships, and seventy-one of the Torge Class. We have hit an additional three of the Handren Class but they are still in action.

"That leaves one functioning Ballaron Class, eight Handren Class Frigates three with some damage, five Forma Class Frigates, two Ballang Class Escorts, and six Hadria Class Escorts not including the two with the Grazia Fleet's supply ships. However, the enemy fleet is pushing us away from AsocAR," Raymond said over the link, informing all of the action so far.

"The enemy fleet is shifting positions," someone called out over the link.

Raymond saw what they meant. The enemy was breaking down into three groups with the Torge Class coming together with the heavies to protect them.

"How many of those Torge ships still have armed tubes?" Noor demanded over the link.

"Unknown, ma'am," Science answered. "We have at least 100 of the Torges left, at least half still have their tubes available."

"Shit, that's not good. We need to make a dent in that number and that's going to be difficult now that they have formed dense groups. Tac O, Weapons, suggestions?" Noor challenged.

"If we send in 150s followed immediately by heavies, we might get the smaller ships to go after the 150s, ma'am," the Tac O suggested.

"We'd have to send in too many 150s and that would deplete our reserves," the Default responded. "Raymond, we have the engine signatures of the Torge Class, any reason we can't send 150s after them?" Noor inquired via the Tac Link.

"Wouldn't hurt. Being used in a defensive group as they are, the Torge Class are now limited in their maneuver options. It's worth a try," Raymond returned.

"Sir, weapons, we would have to move some 150s from the magazines if we start doing that as we are getting low on those in the forward ready racks," the Weapons O informed Raymond.

"Query the ships and find out their status on their shots," Raymond ordered. The results were not good. They had been fighting for over two hours now and the number of shots fired from both sides was huge.

"I don't like the idea of transferring torps and missiles during combat but we need to refill the ready racks. Hellen, get the crews together and have them move from the forward hold first. We need to be ready to act," Raymond told Capt. Degault.

"On it," she came back immediately.

Unnamed Star System

The Ensch was being targeted by heavy torpedoes and missiles yet again. The Tac O counted five heavy missiles and eight heavy torps with another ten 150cm torps behind those. From the way they were moving, Murld was sure that they were homing on their engine signatures.

"Pilot, be ready to jump on your own initiative. Tac O, you will need to feed the Weapons O with the location of the most dangerous of those torps/missiles. Weapons, don't wait for instructions from me, engage as you see fit unless I counterman your orders," Murld barked, getting a round of 'Aye Sirs' back immediately.

The ship began to maneuver radically as the attack came closer. The Tactical display was getting confusing for Murld to follow but the Weapons O, the Tac O, and the Science O, were feeding each other information to keep each other aware of the immediate threats, while Murld looked out from the ship to be aware of the immediate tactical and strategic problems of the battle.

Without warning, the ship jumped behind the enemy fleet. The targeting matrix locked on to two ships with distinctive engine signatures.

"We have two confirmed heavies in front of us, sir!" the Tac O called out.

"Fire four heavies at each, then launch a spread of the 150s to follow our heavies," Murld ordered. He felt the ship respond to his orders as the 280s and the 150s were launched.

"The enemy fleet is re-orienting on us, we are too close for comfort, sir!" the Science O called out.

Murld saw that she was correct. They needed to move.

"Pilot, jump us out to a safe point!" Murld ordered, but it was too late as new heavies were being launched at them from the enemy ships.

The Pilot began to charge the jump grid but it would take a minute to do this.

"Hit! One of our 280's has hit the port side vessel," the Tac O interjected.

The Pilot was ready to jump, however, the enemy heavy torpedoes had arrived. The Ensch launched countermeasures and fired her 50mm, but two of the heavies got through and impacted one after another midships. The Ensch lurched from the impact.

Murld knew immediately that the ship had taken serious damage.

"Pilot, jump us now!!" Murld bellowed.

"Unable to sir. The jump grid has lost cohesion from the last impact!" the Pilot screamed as he tried to maneuver the ship away from more incoming torpedoes/missiles.

"Sir, Engineering. We have a 50m hole port side amidships from that last two blasts. The shields have failed on that side. We are trying to patch that failure but the ChEng believes that shield generators there have been destroyed. If we take another hit on that side from anything, we will be in trouble," the Engineer's Mate told Murld from his station.

"Roger that, Pilot, try to protect our port side. Tac O, I need some suggestions, NOW!" Murld called out.

"Sir, one of the ships we engaged has been damaged. We can fire a spread of 150s against her. The other has been forced to maneuver to escape our last spread. We can launch more 150s against that ship as well," the Tac O suggested.

"Do it!" Murld ordered.

"Sir, Science, I have engine signatures on three more heavies. We have now positively identified the heavies and the Torges," Science called out.

"Make sure our torps and missiles have all those signatures," Murld answered. "Pilot, 500km up on the X axis, lets see if we can find some suitable targets. Tac O, take the input from Science and paint those ships on the Tactical Display."

Things happened quickly as they were now able to identify all the enemy heavies. Murld was not surprised to see only five of those.

"Sir, Science. We have four Handren Class Frigates and one Ballaron Class. The remainder are all showing the engine signatures of the Torges."

"Roger that, Piscium, do you see that on the Tac Link?" Murld asked.

"Aye, we do. We are directing our Assault Teams now. No ship is to fire a missile or torpedo unless they have those signatures in their memory," Sostoc Halta ordered of the fleet, getting swift acknowledgement back from all.

"Hit!!" Science called out. "The damaged ship has been hit again. She is no longer maneuvering and half her bow is gone. She can likely still fire from Starboard side of her bow and from the stern tubes. The other vessel has escaped our last spread of 150s."

The fleet was starting to pare down the enemy vessels, but the battle was far from over and many of the clemency ships had already taken hits before the Ensch and the Piscium had even arrived in system.

There were still a lot of torpedoes and missiles floating around, many of them without engine signatures in their memories making them a threat to all.

As the Ensch came up over the battle, Murld had Weapons launch a full spread of 150s from the six rear tubes aimed at the enemy heavy ships and followed that immediately with another spread of six with the Torge Class engine signatures in their memories. Things were about to get exciting.

"Sir, Science, more of the clemency fleet are taking hits from 150s launched by those damn Torges. They have already been damaged and most have no shield capability left!"

"Roger that. Piscium, see if you can split the more damaged ships out of the battle and put them in a safe spot for now. We need to allocate our more capable ships for the fight for now. We will get to the damaged ships as soon as we can. Best to get them out of the way," Murld suggested.

"I concur," came the voice that Murld recognized as Captain Chen's. He was pleased to see he got that one right...

"Sir, Tac O, we have more missiles aimed at us!"

Murld looked at his monitor and noted a group of five missiles headed their way. They were listed as 150s. "Pilot, maneuver us and see if they follow," Murld ordered.

The Pilot jinked the ship but the missiles were not following. "Right, they obviously don't have our engine signature and were not close enough to lock onto us before we moved. We lucked out on those five.

"Deploy some countermeasures silently and have them go active 100km on the other side of their trajectory from us," Murld ordered.

"I have two more enemy heavy ships in our view, sir," the Science O called out.

"We only have twenty heavy torps and thirty-one heavy missiles left. We still have at least double that of each in 150s, sir," the Weapons O noted.

"Right, fire two volleys' of two heavy torps at both those heavy ships and follow them up with six 150s each. Make sure we have the enemy engine signatures on all of them," Murld commanded.

Moments later, he felt the ship respond as his 280s were launched followed immediately by the 150s.

"Twenty seconds on target one, thirty-five on target two," the Tac O called out.

Murld was watching the Tactical display which was very confusing. He was hoping the enemies displays were equally confused. That might let their torps get close before they realize they were there.

"Target One has just realized she has incoming," Science called out. "She is firing countermeasures but I think it is too late. Hit!! One of our heavies hit her in the ass. Her sub-lights engines are out of action! The other heavy torp has been confused by the countermeasures but it has not detonated."

As Murld watched the display, he saw the 150s run in on the target. Four of them impacted the ships and she began to break up.

"That's a kill!" the Science O called out, to cheers from around the bridge. "The second ship is trying to escape our 280s but they are closing in on her. I don't think she has any countermeasures left."

That thought was confirmed moments later as both 280s struck the back end of the target followed immediately after by the 150s. the ship didn't break up but she was severely damaged and unable to maneuver.

"She is still dangerous," Murld called out. "Make sure to paint her as such on the Tac Link." That was directed to the Blue Force ships listening in on the Tac Link. Murld got back a number of acknowledgements. In just over thirty minutes since their ship's last jump, the Ensch had damaged two of the enemy heavy ships and destroyed another. There were only two undamaged enemy heavies left, though one of those was the more capable Ballaron Class Frigate.

The Assault Groups were making headway against all the Torg Class, but the heavies kept launching more of them.

"Just how many of those Torges are on those damn ships," Murld asked aloud.

"Sir, Engineering. The hole in the hull has been closed but we cannot fix the shield generators from inside. We will have to wait until we can put people out on the hull," the Engineering Rep informed Murld from her post on the bridge.

"Roger that, what about robots?" Murld demanded.

"Not while we are in combat, sir," the Engineer Rep replied.

"Pilot, be aware of anything coming at us. We don't want to take a hit on the Port amidships," Murld advised.

The battle was beginning to shift in their favour now, with more of the Torge Class being taken out. A quick look at the status of the enemy fleet indicated that seventy-five of the Torges had been launched by the bigger enemy ships and more than two-thirds of those were now out of action while the enemy still had two fully functioning heavy ships.

As they watched, two 150cm missiles hit the Ballaron amidships on the starboard side.

"Not much damage done on that hit sir, however, her starboard vane is out. She cannot jump," Science told them.

"Launch a couple of our 280s at her," Murld ordered.

Before they could do that, the Ballaron lurched from additional impacts on her starboard side. As the bridge crew watched, she began to break up.

"That's a kill, Sir!" Science informed the bridge unnecessarily.

"That should only leave one of the Handren Class still out there," Murld mused.

"Sir, Science, the Torges are flashing S-S-S. They are surrendering!"

Murld called out to his Ex O in the Battle Bridge. "Lettam, take control of those Torges and place them in a location away from the battle. Have them facing away from us when they get there." His Ex O acknowledged and started to call out in Asocan to the Torges. Murld listened with half an ear as he watched the remainder of the battle. There were still a few Torges that had not surrendered and one Handren Class that was still firing on the blue force ships.

"Multiple FTL events behind us!!" Science called out.

The Comms O sent out the IFF (Identify Friend or Foe) signal and got back positives on the new ships. "They are ours; they are the ships that had gone to the holding zone of the surrendered enemy ships! The rest of the Clemency Fleet has returned!"

As Murld watched, the new ships showed their identities on the Tac Link and started moving in on the lone Handren Class ship and the dozen Torges that had not surrendered. Within twenty minutes, all those ships had been destroyed.

"Pilot, bring us to our other damaged ships, lets see who needs help. Engineering, as soon as we stop forward momentum, get those shield generators replaced and fix the Jump-grid," Murld ordered.

"Piscium, you can control the capture of the damaged enemy vessels. We are out of things until we effect repairs. We will pick up our Assault Groups and then prepare to help out the Asoc's fleet at AsocAR," Murld sent.

"We will join you; we will also pick up our Assault Groups and jump with you to AsocAR when you are ready, along with those ships in our fleet that can still jump," Halta Mutt Kern replied.

Plans were made, but it would take time to implement them...

The Wanderer, In Orbit of AsocAR

The battle over AsocAR was not going in favour of the Asoc's forces, even though they had Raymond as their strategist.

"We are definitely outgunned here," Raymond told them over the Tac Link. "We are taking care of the Torge Class ships but we need to start taking down the ships of the Grazia Fleet."

The battle had now raged on for more than four hours and while the Asoc's forces had whittled down the numbers of the Torge Class ships, they had only moderate success against the ships of the Grazia Fleet, who had expertly used the Torge Class to run interference against the weapons of the Asoc's fleet and to add firepower to the mix. The Grazia fleet was pushing the Asoc's fleet further out into space away from the planet, something that the Asoc did not want nor need.

The Assault Groups had not fared well against the more experienced ships of the Grazia Mercenary Fleet, who had paired up early to lesson the impact of the Blue Force vessels.

"We need more ships on our side," Noor muttered over the Tac Link.

"If we can keep them from taking us out for a little longer, we may get them," Raymond said, noting the time since they had arrived in system. "The ships from the Clemency Fleet should get here soon."

"From the numbers here, I suspect that there are only five or seven heavies in the Red Force Team at the surrender point." Noor stated. "But they will be able to carry up to fifteen Torge Class per Handren and maybe eighteen for Ballaron Class. They will be outnumbered and outgunned initially but that fleet should be able to take them down with fewer large ships in the enemy fleet."

"We are coming up on five hours since we started this attack, while we have not suffered any casualties, we have taken damage. We will have to make a decision soon to keep up the attack or to break it off for another time," Raymond said.