“Lock on Pasha’ka on the ships seven to ten, target the ship’s one and two with Larsha’ka.” Vit’r’an ordered, “Fire when ready!” Before the human heavy ships turn, he would destroy the rest.
Chapter Twenty Eight
Ship Master Andros Venter commanded his ship, the Monarch had acquired light damage. The Fleet Commander’s gambit paid off, their attack had damaged the seemingly indestructible Ra’a’zani ship. Even though the Ra’a’zani realized the danger of the attack in time to evade most of the weapons fire, the attack has crippled their drives. Their ability to evade the next attack had been diminished. Andros saw Johanna give out orders to the four light cruisers and the two remaining heavy cruisers to surround the Ra’a’zani ship from the top and bottom. The light cruisers adjusted their course so that they come parallel with the Ra’a’zani, while the heavy cruisers will go for a single pass. The Monarch and the battleship Claymore were turning around get to the Ra’a’zani ship from behind. Andros received orders from Johanna for all ships to open fire with all weapons. Perhaps their attack disabled some of the Ra’a’zani defenses. Just as he was about to order his ship to target the enemy ship with missiles and lasers, his screen started getting updates, and Sensor Handler yelled out,
“The enemy ship is firing missiles, and their primary weapon!”
Andros was about to order his ship to evade when he realized that none of the Ra’a’zani fire was pointed at his ship.
“Damn! All power to the drives, get us on them! Target all remaining missiles and lock on with lasers. Fire lasers as they get in range!” Andros ordered. But he knew that no matter what he did, he couldn’t stop the attack now heading towards the cruisers.
The Ra’a’zani warship, Blood Claw, released hundreds of missiles – the Pasha’ka – at the human light cruisers. Their Larsha’ka targeted the two heavy cruisers. Firing three bolts at each. The light cruisers were in a spread out formation, able to use their point defense to cover each other. Soon the space between the Ra’a’zani ship and the human light cruisers was filled with shells. The human ships created a wall of fire between them. But the Ra’a’zani Pasha’ka were advanced, maneuverable, and fast. The human fire wall was taking down Pasha’ka rapidly but the light cruiser crews could see that they wouldn’t get them all. Seventeen missiles passed through to the light cruisers. Light cruiser Rogue got hit with four missiles, two struck the forward section of the ship, with the remaining two hitting the middle. The blasts of the Pasha’ka blew holes in the ship, and a moment later it exploded. The light cruiser Viper was hit by five missiles, its fate was the same. The light cruiser Independence was struck with seven missiles, the first two hit the ship in the middle, breaking it in half, the last five slammed into the two parts of the ships that were drifting apart from each other, obliterating them. The light cruiser Ajax was hit with only one missile, the resulting explosion blowing off almost half of the ships forward section. But the ship survived.
The heavy cruisers Sword and Tempest knew that they had no way of surviving the Ra’a’zani Larsha’ka. The heavy cruiser Sword was too damaged to try to evade or turn its bottom side to the incoming fire. The Larsha’ka hit the Sword in the back end of the ship, the second hitting the already damaged forward section. The Larsha’ka breached the Sword’s hull, the atmosphere started leaking out, and the energy discharged into the Sword’s already fluctuating power grid feedback to its reactors, the countermeasures failed just before the third Larsha’ka hit, but the ship was already doomed, it exploded in a flash of white fire.
The Tempest attempted to evade the Ra’a’zani fire, moving out of the way of the first bolt, but the second hit its hull, destroying their right side missile launch tubes, which exploded in a violent blast, then another bolt slammed into Tempest, finishing the wounded ship off.
Vit’r’an watched as his attack destroyed five out of the six ships the Blood Claw attacked. Again, some of the humans managed to survive. He was about to order another attack when an alert sounded. The two heavy human ships were firing their Pasha’ka and Tarsha’ka. The salvo of the Pasha’ka was less than what it was the last time when they managed to get four of them through, but Vit’r’an wasn’t taking any chances he ordered the Srasah’uk used as soon as a frequency was locked. The human Tarsha’ka on the other hand were becoming troublesome, with the Blood Claw’s hull integrity compromised they will start incurring damage. Vit’r’an ordered the ship in a roll to dissipate and spread out the heat, and then ordered his ships maneuvering into an evading pattern. Although he knew that with their lowered maneuverability they couldn’t escape the Tarsha’ka beams. And soon the two heavy ships would turn and reach him, their mass driver could very well destroy his ship. Vit’r’an almost snarled, he wasn’t going to let that happen.
“Target their heavy ships. Fire when ready!” Vit’r’an said, and watched as his Larsha’ka cannons turned, locked and fired. Then the hull plates on the Blood Claw moved again revealing the Pasha’ka launchers. Hundreds of Pasha’ka launched out of the Blood Claw.
“Dakar! We are getting a communication from Earth base thirteen!” An Ra’a’zani on the comms said. Vit’r’an looked at him, “I’m busy whatever they want, they can wait!”
“But Dakar, they report that they are under attack from the humans and that they can’t reach any other base on the planet. They say that all Ra’a’zani on the ground have gone silent!”
Vit’r’an looked at him in shock, he understood then. He should have realized it sooner, these ships were here to help liberate the system. They were in contact with the humans on Earth. Every base on the planet going silent at the same moment wasn’t coincidence. The humans had started an attack on all Ra’a’zani bases on the planet. Vit’r’an felt such rage, he looked at the human ships bearing down on his ship. He wanted to win, but knew that it was unlikely. His ship will not survive another attack from the human mass drivers. And as soon as they get in range they will fire. Vit’r’an would make them pay for it, yes, but he would die in the process. And even if he survived, somehow managed to destroy all of the human ships. The attacks on the planet had already happened. He would go back to the core in shame. The first Ra’a’zani Overlord to lose a world. He would never become Rakar. The humans had cost him too much.
No. Vit’r’an decided, he wouldn’t live past this. But before he died, he would make the humans pay a price unlike anything they could have imagined. “Arm the Destra’ka.” Vit’r’an said viciously. His crew turned to look at them, but his expression quickly spurred them into motion.
“Destra’ka is armed Dakar.” A Taskmaster said.
“Target the planet. Put it on a course around the human ships.” Vit’r’an said. The Taskmaster did as Vit’r’an asked.
“It’s done Dakar.” Taskmaster said.
“Fire.” Vit’r’an said. He watched on his terminal, as the Destra’ka left the cargo area of his ship. Its navigation system kicked in and it started on the curved course that will bring it to the human home world. Vit’r’an knew that the humans would remember this day for all time.
Johanna tried to keep the destruction of her ships from affecting her. But each death affected her greatly. She saw the Ra’a’zani ship fire their energy weapons at the Monarch and the battleship Claymore, and then their missiles. She didn’t need to issue any orders, the commanders of the two ships already gave the orders for evasive maneuvering and the point defense. Her ships lasers were having an effect, the Ra’a’zani were rolling and using evading maneuvering to escape her ships laser fire. Her missiles weren’t faring well, they were being detonated by whatever was the Ra’a’zani defensive system, but now they were being detonated at a much greater range, and not all at once. But one by one, her missiles disappeared.