From: Mike Wikan <mww@n...>
Date: Wed, 23 Jul 1997 05:09:21 -0400
Subject: RE: Turned Tables...... (Fiction, long) Part 2!!
Outside in Space, the destroyer Ardent arrowed in on the Leviathan's port side. Following a twisting, evasive path, she pulled her bow in line with the Battlecruiser for a brief instant and shuddered as she let loose a flurry of short ranged hunter-class Armor Piercing Submunitions. The short range sprint missiles corkscrewed in to the Juggernaut's side even as a massive Pulse Laser turret swiveled ponderously around to target the Destroyer. The Black Prince fired even as the missiles fireballed into her portside armor. The impact from the missiles rolled the Black Prince 15 degrees off vertical aspect as the Heavy Beams lashed at point blank range into the Ardent. The Pulse Lasers were designed to defeat screens carried by ships far larger than a mere destroyer and as the beams lanced in to her lower engine assembly, they seared upward in a line induced by the Battlecruiser's unexpected roll. On board Northampton, Smythe watched in horror as Ardent was sliced in two by the beams, both halves of wreckage tumbling away on different vectors spewing atmosphere and hydrogen fuel. Even as Ardent died, Northampton reached optimum attack range. Designed to support the wall of battle, the Furious class Light Cruisers carried a very heavy armament with correspondingly light defenses. Studying the plot for a moment, Smythe raised a hand and dropped it with a short chopping motion "FIRE!!" the bow of Northampton lit up with several flares of bright red as the two Phased Plasma Cannon in the bow spat out their loads of hellish cargo. The two 5 meter spheroids of Superheated Plasma accelerated to.7 cee, crossed the distance between the two ships at impossible speed. One ball of energy grazed the ship just aft of her sensor array, buckling the hull across a 25 meter length as the heat energy distorted the plating.The other round struck the bow dead on in the spinal particle array. "DAMAGE REPORT!!" Kanov bellowed above the roar of ruptured pressure conduit on the bridge. He had been spared when spall from the missile attack had whipsawed a three foot section of molten bulkhead across the bridge- decapitating his exec and wrecking the tac pit. Back up sensors were on-line, but just barely. " Sir, the Spinal Array is GONE!! We have heavy casualties in all sections!! Needle one is Gone, but Turret Able is intact! Maneuver is on Manual only!" the harried ensign yelled from damage control. " Cut all power to engines!! Let us roll!!" Kanov yelled to the helm. Smiling grimly, he studied his display... On the bridge of Northampton, the bridge crew whooped in triumph as the enemy vessel tumbled slowly out of control. Red light burned fitfully on the hull as internal fires slowly depleted oxygen in different hull sections. "Come around for another pass. This time we'll finish her. No quarter." Smythe smiled in satisfaction. No more convoys for your teeth... "Range 30,000 Kays. 25,000 Kays. 20,000 Kays." The weapons officer read off her tac plot as the enemy cruiser closed for the kill. "Wait. Just another moment..." Kanov muttered to himself. " 5,000 Kays!!" The WO looked up from her display, pale. "ROLL SHIP!! EXECUTE FIRE LANCE!!" Kanov bellowed. Smythe started as the Battlecruiser momentary aligned itself in it's tumble with his vessel "FIRE AT WILL!! SHE"S NOT DEAD!!" He yelled frantically at his weapon officer. From a heavily armored bay under her bows, a Heavy Strike missile accelerated at point blank range directly into the bows of Northampton. Her Point defense lasers firing frantically, but inaccurately as she tried to evade. To no avail. The Missile detonated 25 meters from the bow of the light cruiser and the fireball literally ATE the first 40 meters of hull in a plasma fireball. The remaining ship detonated in a series of massive explosions as her Fusion torus failed and the magnetic bottle vented plasma into space. The debris, however was still travelling at substantial velocity directly at Black Prince. "COLLISION STATIONS!!!" Kanov yelled. Then the sky fell on him. Groggily opening his eyes, Kanov looked up at Ensign Miranda Owens, his acting Weapon Officer. He noticed the narrow confines of an escape pod behind her shoulder and grimaced. "Take it easy sir, you have a concussion and twenty three stitches in you forehead." she smiled gently at him. Lifting himself up to a sitting posture, he inquired (after the pod interior stopped orbiting his throbbing head) "What happened?" " Sir, the debris from the Rep Cruiser impacted us and ruptured our fuel tankage and life support section. We were forced to abandon ship." she said. "Damn, I though we had them beat." he muttered. "Survivors?" She indicated her display " I have seventeen pods checked in with sixty -two survivors." One hundred seventy six dead, he thought. My God...... " Well, signal all hands that we are triggering general distress beacons. Looks like we'll be sitting out the rest of the war. Tell them they have served well and it has been an honor." Kanov lowered himself back down to the floor. As sleep engulfed him again, he had one last thought of his Grandmother saying "Be careful Boris, if you play too often in other people's yards you will end up in trouble! Smiling gently as darkness washed over him he whispered "Right as always Natya....."