The Pinket’s captain was screaming over the comm. for assistance. Marcus could see the Pinket’s shield was failing, and as good as her helmsman was, no one could dodge the near constant streams of fire that the alien destroyers continued to spit towards her.
The other defense platforms around Cerebus VI who were in a position to fire on the approaching alien destroyers joined the fight. Volley after volley of missiles went hurling through the void towards the alien destroyers. They weren’t able to save the Pinket. Whether they felt threatened by the inbound mass of missiles from the defense platforms around the planet, or they had just grown tired of the game they had been playing with her, two of the alien destroyers increased their speed. They overtook the Pinket, flanking her. Energy blasts speared both of her sides, burning away what remained of her shields and slicing through her armor. The Pinket died in a flash of white light so bright that Mikal had to look away from Defense Platform Alpha’s main screen.
“Frag it to Hades,” Commander Threshal yelled.
Marcus felt her pain. All those men and woman aboard the Hagel and the Pinket had died for nothing. Neither ship had been able to fire so much as a single shot at the alien destroyers. Marcus did find some solace though as the volleys of missiles from the platforms reached the alien vessels. The destroyers didn’t appear to have any ECMs. If so, they surely would have used them. Close-in defensive guns opened up on the missiles, thinning out their numbers, but it wasn’t enough to stop them all.
The lead alien destroyer was completely overwhelmed. It exploded as missile after missile rammed into it. The second of the alien destroyers broke hard to port, veering upwards, in an effort to avoid the bulk of the missiles closing on it. Solar Federation missiles weren’t simply mindless ballistics, though. They changed course as well, plowing into the alien destroyer’s weaker, underside armor. It reeled sideways, leaking atmosphere in the wake of the missile’s attack. It was impossible to tell if the destroyer was truly dead in space or merely stunned into a momentary drift as its crew fought to return it to action. The third destroyer, already damaged, died as violently as the first had.
Mikal let out of whoop of triumph as the alien ships died. Marcus might have joined him except that he had been watching actions of the large alien vessel he could only think of as a super dreadnought, as it laid waste to the shipyards scattered about the Cerebus system. Commander Threshal had been right in stating that the Endeavor’s fighters wouldn’t be enough. The Endeavor’s fighters had done their best, many pilots even making the ultimate sacrifice by ramming their own ship into an alien missile after they expended their onboard munitions. Even so, the Endeavor lost her shields to the vast amount of missiles that still struck her. The alien super dreadnought wasted no time in finishing her. A beam of energy, as wide as the Hagel had been, lashed out from it and cut the shipyard in half along its length like a scalpel. The Endeavor broke apart, crumbling to bits of charred metal, as small explosions began to erupt all throughout her remains. With her died all the ships under construction in her extended work branches. The alien super dreadnought didn’t stop with the Endeavor. She had been only the beginning. It systematically targeted the other shipyards as well, one after another, until they were all nothing more than charred and drifting debris.
As the last shipyard perished, the fleet of alien destroyers who had been holding back around the edges of the jump point all sprang forward together. Their engines blazed hot as they raced towards Cerebus VI.
Marcus knew Orbital Defense Platform Alpha and all the others like her would be dead in moments even as Commander Threshal started barking orders.
“Target them all!” she roared. “Fire at will! Fire at will!”