They weren’t going to make it, not all of them. Time slowed down for Adrian as he considered all the possibilities. He went through hundreds in a span of second, until he finally found one that could work. He opened a channel to the commanders of the two battleships.
Their holograms appeared in front of him.
“We are not going to make it, not all of us, and not while we are running away and can’t fire all of our weapons,” Adrian said matter-of-factly.
The two Ship Masters had grim looks, but Adrian saw understanding in their eyes. They were ship commanders for a reason, and they too knew that Adrian’s options were limited.
“What do you want us to do?” the Ship Master of the Fortunate asked, her eyes resolute.
“I need both of you to put all of your non-essential personnel on skim-capable shuttles and skim them away from battle to these coordinates,” Adrian said. It wouldn’t be enough people. He knew only a couple hundred people combined from both ships could fit, even if they were crammed in the shuttles. The battleships had crews of one thousand two hundred each.
“I understand,” the Fortunate’s Ship Master said.
“Veritas will drop back and cover the shuttles’ escape. After that, your two ships will turn around and hold the Erasi long enough for Veritas’s skim drives to recharge, and we will pick up the shuttles afterwards. If you have a chance to use your drives as well, you will follow. If not…” Adrian let his words trail off. He could see that both understood. Protecting Veritas wasn’t only about keeping Adrian and the Shara Daim courier alive. Veritas had the most room and could accommodate people from the other two ships, while it also had a crew of three thousand.
“It has been an honor, Lord Sentinel,” the Ship Master of the Inglorious said, and closed the connection. The Ship Master from the Fortunate followed right behind.
Adrian kept his cold face on. It wasn’t the first time he had sent people to their deaths. He knew that it was necessary, the only way to save as many as possible. He didn’t feel guilt over it; the people on those ships had known what they were signing up for. What he felt was sadness that they would die before their times, and anger at the Erasi for making him give those orders.
“Pull Veritas back and cover the shuttles’ escape.”
Sentinel ship Veritas slowed down just enough for his two escorts to move in front of it, and almost immediately it became the target of the Erasi ships. Veritas returned fire with its proton beams and missiles. Their missiles supply had already dropped below half of what they carried.
Adrian watched as another of the enemy’s destroyers exploded as his ships’ proton beams got through the shields and hulls. But all his ships were limited in how many weapons they could actually bring to bear; they were firing behind them, and only a third of Veritas’s and the battleships weapons could be fired on the enemy. And the distance was an issue as well; they couldn’t use their kinetic weapons or their plasma guns. They had ion torpedoes, but without a distraction—and when there wasn’t an overwhelmingly large number of missiles in space—they would stick out, and probably be picked off much sooner. Their ships’ ion turrets were mid-range, but even if they weren’t, none of the ships could fire those behind them.
Adrian started to see the benefits of the Erasi ships’ design; the saucer shape gave them the ability to fire in almost every direction. However, the Empire’s ships couldn’t yet build such powerful gravity drives as to justify getting rid of their conventional drives.
On the holo, Adrian saw the twelve large shuttles exit the two battleships and almost instantly skim away. The battleships immediately started pulling back, following the plan.
“Put more power in the drives, get us ahead,” Adrian said as he glanced at the timer. There were twenty-two minutes left until their skim drives were back online.
Erasi battleship Highborn
Hanaru felt the air leave his lungs as he watched the Empire’s small shuttles escape. He hadn’t considered that their smaller craft had the ability, and them escaping spelled the failure of his plan. He couldn’t catch those ships; they would contact the Empire and the Shara Daim and let them know what had happened. He knew that he should retreat, but he couldn’t. His mind supplied small hopes that he could still salvage the situation. He doubted that their shuttles were equipped for long-term travel; they probably didn’t have trans capabilities, perhaps not even hyperspace. Their FTL tech had to occupy significant space, and they weren’t that much larger than Erasi shuttles. Perhaps they had only put the new drives in to allow them greater mobility within a system?
If he destroyed the enemy ships, he had a hope of catching them, perhaps even intact, and getting their technology. Hanaru grabbed on to that hope, just as he saw the two Empire battleships turn around and stop, waiting for his taskforce.
As they had turned, their rate of fire also increased as more of their weapons got into range. Energy beams bombarded his ships, killing another two destroyers and one cruiser.
The battleships Inglorious and Fortunate rained fire on the incoming Erasi ships, destroying another destroyer and a cruiser, while they left the two battleships virtually untouched, focusing on destroying the advantage in numbers that the Erasi had.
The Erasi were adjusting their formation, so that they would surround the two battleships from both sides, but it was too late; they had closed the distance enough that the Empire’s ships could use their other weapons.
Suddenly the space between the two fleets was filled with bright yellow plasma balls as the two battleships fired at the remaining Erasi destroyers. The three destroyers that had already suffered damage suddenly had dozens of plasma balls from each ship striking their shields, punching through and then burning through their hull. Within moments of the attack, one of the destroyers blew up.
The Erasi focused their fire on the Fortunate, whose shields were close to failing, pouring all of their missiles, energy beams, and their own versions of the plasma weapons into the assault. The ships’ shields failed and the enemy started scorching the Fortunate’s hull. But the Empire’s ships were made out of heavy ri-steel alloys; they were much denser than the Erasi materials and could take more punishment. Therefore, even though the Fortunate was being hammered, it still kept pouring fire into the six cruisers, while the Inglorious shifted its fire to the two untouched Erasi battleships. Six kinetic ri-steel slabs of metal exploded out of the Fortunate’s turrets, smashing through two of the cruisers’ shields and punching right through the hull with such force that they snapped one ship into pieces. And then the barely alive Fortunate joined the Inglorious in firing on the two Erasi battleships, leaving the last few cruisers and destroyers alone.
Hanaru watched another each of his cruisers and destroyers explode. He couldn’t believe it; the Empire’s ships had proven far more formidable than what the Erasi had thought possible. He was left with five destroyers and four cruisers; he had lost almost half of his force against a force much smaller than his. His battleships were being hit with powerful energy, plasma, and even primitive kinetic weapons that were far more powerful than anything he had ever seen. The enemy no longer had missiles, but it didn’t seem to matter. Hanaru ordered his ships to focus fire on the Empire battleship that had lost its shields, while keeping their distance enough that they could evade the enemy’s kinetic weapons.
He knew that he had failed. Even if he got past these two battleships, the other ship was too far away now for him to catch.