Star Crusades Michael Thomas (speld decodable readers .TXT) 📖

“That bitch!” Captain Reginasnapped, “There’s something else going onout here, and this time it’s not the Ski’ligs screwing us over.She’s left us out to dry.”

She looked to her officers and gave thenod.

“Take us out ofhere, and fast.”

The ship shuddered as her enginescontinued to increase in output, and soonthey were moving away from the planet. Other ships were doing thesame, though most were still closer to the transporters. Fighterswere able to accelerate much more quickly, and two cruisers usedtheir IS drives to jump away from the planet. The carefullypositioned fleet broke apart as it became every man for himself.Ships moved away in all directions.

“Are we too late?”

Her XO shook her head.

“No…maybe.”

“Our IS drive.”

“Too late,” said Chief EngineerLinus, “It will be here before the drivecapacitors are charged. All I can do is dump everything, includinglife support to the main drive.”

Captain Regina felt sick as she gavethe nod.

“Do it.”

She reached for the intercom.

“This is the Captain. Artificialgravity will be disabled for a shortwhile. Brace yourselves, this is going to get rough.”

She then reached for the grab handles positioned liberally through thebridge. The others did the same as the lights dimmed, and severalof the panels shut down on the bridge. Then the artificial gravitysystem shut, leaving them with the undampened feeling ofacceleration from the conventional drive.

“This is not pleasant,”said Captain Regina as her hands startedto shake.

A panel split away from the walland flew back, hitting the rear of the bridge and then partiallysplit apart. One of the officers cried out, and Captain Regina spotted several containers striking anensign who was out in the open. Blood ran from a cut to her face,yet still she held on.

“Help her.”

Another shape whooshed past asa pair of Bullnose gunships passed withthe burners on full. It was a full-scale panic, with any sense oforder now utterly lost.

“We’re going to make it,”said First LieutenantMeredith.

Captain Regina looked tothe view ahead and the very distant lineof capital ships. The dreadnought and many of the other newcruisers were there, waiting in a stationary line.

“Yes, but not everybody. Show me therear view.”

The projection shifted and then showedthe broken fleet, with the transports still in the middle.

“This is Admiral Ani Hurik. Ourcommunications have been jammed. All ships withdraw to the outer marker immediately. I am launchinga fighter screen to cover the evacuation. I repeat, all shipswithdraw from the planet immediately!”

That was the exact moment shespotted a blurred shape to the right. The ship’s trackingsystem combined data with five otherships.

“Here it comes.”

The great coloured mass grew fromthe size of a football to a craft as big as a battleship, and stillit grew in size. It was nothing more than a blur in space, but itcompletely obliterated anything behindit, masking off stars, planets, and even the strange swirlingcolours of this star system.

“Everything youhave…get us away from here!” CaptainRegina demanded.

She kept her eye on theapproaching shape. It was massive, and then as quickly as it hadarrived the thing coalesced into form. Itmaterialised in the middle of two of the Alliance troop transports,causing both to split apart instantly. All three vessels wereengulfed in fire and destruction, but as the wreckage cleared, thealien ship appeared unscathed and dwarfed the crippled Alliancevessels. What remained of them drifted back towards the planet,while scores of lifeboats and pods burst away from them.

“Gods…” said LieutenantZimmer, “It’s more then twenty kilometresin length. That thing is like a space station.”

Before the alien ship could turn toengage the scattered Alliance ships it was fired upon. One afteranother the Alliance ships turned their fire on its thick hide.

“It checks out. It’s the sameship that engaged ANS Izumo and thevanguard over Epsilon Eridani,” said Lieutenant Zimmer, “The shipwe ran into that was ripping up our fleet.”

Captain Regina nodded,pulling on her harness that held hersecurely in her Captain’s chair.

“Revert power tocombat levels. I want our hull polarisedand weapons brought online. Coordinate with the frigate squadrons.Let’s introduce ourselves to our new guests.”

The interior lighting increasedin brightness, and the ship turned around, lining up on the flank of the ship.

“Captain,” said thecommunications officer, “Contact fromAdmiral Hurik. She is sending tactical disposition and threatmarkers for the fleet.”

“Very good.” She looked at thenew data, “We’re to screen the heaviesfrom any Ski’lig attack ships.”

Theship changed course and moved into position alongside three otheridentical frigates. They moved quickly, and as they lined up in aloose crescent, a squadron of fighters settled in aroundthem.

“This is more like it. Tactical, we have work to do. Coordinate withour squadron. You may fire at will.”

They swept intowards the front flank of the ship anddropped downwards at the last minute to head underneath. The mainguns fired again and again, but there was no cheering as thegunfire raked the alien ship. No sooner had they fired, the alienvessel responded. It began with a few streaks of gunfire, and thenit lit up like a massive Christmas tree. Streams of projectilesreached out, hitting more than a dozen different ships.

“We’rein for the fight of our lives,” said the XO nervously, “That shipis a monster. A titan of the seas.”

They were now directlyunderneath, and massed fire ripped down to hit the Alliance ships. One Morato took two volleys that wouldhave crippled a lesser ship and kept on going. The fighters had atougher time, and two exploded as they were caught in thecrossfire.

“Close-ranged weapons. Use everything we have. Rake that bastard!”Captain Regina ordered.

They turned around to headtowards the line of cruisers now pounding the massive ship’s flank.Light flashed continuously as particleweapons tore away armour and plating with ease, yet the ship’smassive size rendered the damage little more thansuperficial.

“Where is theAdmiral?” Captain Regina asked as theyrolled continually to avoid presenting one part of the ship to theenemy.

“Sir. The heavies aremassing ahead of the alien ship, bothdreadnoughts, the battlecruiser, and eight cruisers. They’vedesignated a bombardment corridor. I think they’reabout…”

He stopped as all twelve shipsfired together. The particle beam weaponstruck first, and then came the broadsides from the half akilometre long dreadnoughts. Their massive 450mm mass driverbombardment cannons unleashed shells of the size rarely seenbefore. Each was roughly as big as a Human, though bulkier andtapered to