“Anything from the Sowir?” He asked. They had been sending a continuous laser communication to all Sowir ships for the past five hours.
“Nothing.” Paul said.
Adrian looked at his board, there was no change with the Sowir ships, not even when they saw Adrian’s ships. They still kept coming, no change in speed or course. Fleet thought that there was no way for these ships to have any information about Voyager. That incident happened eight light years from here. Unless they had FTL comms there was no way for them to know, but that was unlikely, the Consortium didn’t.
“Halt the communications.” Adrian said.
“You knew that it was very likely that they wouldn’t respond.” Iris said.
“Yes, but I don’t understand why? They must know that we aren’t from the Consortium. We told them so in the message. And they must see that we outnumber them now, why keep coming when the chance of defeat is much greater?” Adrian said, frustrated, he kept hoping that the Sowir would turn away. That is why he came to Nuva without trying to hide, he gave them time to detect and study his ships.
“Perhaps they don’t think so. Perhaps they believe that they will win.” Iris said.
Adrian shook his head. Olympus knew the capabilities of the Sowir, and he knew that his ships were more than a match.
“Get some rest Paul, tomorrow will be a long day.” Adrian said, tomorrow the battle for Nuva will start, until then there was nothing else he could do.
Chapter Twenty Seven
February 2170 – Battleship Valor
Isani sat on the bridge of his ship, after one more meeting Isani and Fleet Commander Farkas decide to intercept the Sowir fleet. Close enough so to be able to respond should any ship get past them, but far enough to spare the planet of any accidental damage. Looking at the far wall at the viewer, Isani watched as human ships accelerated and joined his own ships keeping up with them. If they kept this acceleration they would reach maximum effective missile range in an hour, at least for Nel ships. And then the battle would start in earnest. Isani had told Fleet Commander Farkas that their priority should be the three Sowir battleships, they posed the greatest danger to their ships. The two forces would operate independently, but try to cover one another. That meant that they will need to keep close enough to provide aid should it be required. The Sowir ships still kept the same course and speed, although they should see the light from human and Isani’s ships in a couple of minutes. Isani kept a corner of his eye on the viewer on his left that showed the Sowir fleet, waiting for them to make a move. And then five minutes later there was a change. Sowir ships started to slow down and change their formation. Isani felt excitement, as he always did when he knew a battle was imminent. He gave command of the ship to his third in command, and went to catch a few more minutes of sleep. There was still time yet before the two forces drew close enough for the battle to start in truth.
Traveler
Ship Master Kisaragi Hana watched her holo as her ship and the ten refugee ships passed the hyperspace barrier. The Traveler left Nuva when the First Fleet arrived in the system. Out of the refugee ships that were following the Traveler, one merchant ship was filed by representatives of Guxcacul that were on Nuva and few Mtural families that called Nuva home. Hana didn’t have the chance to meet them in person, there was little time. The other nine ships were filled with Nel, women and children. Nuva’s leaders held a lottery of sorts, to decide who got a place on one of the ships. In the end a lot more were left on the planet, waiting to see how the human and Nel ships would fare against the Sowir.
“We are ready to enter hyperspace Ship Master.” High Prime Rolland Ricks said.
“Comm the Nel ships, and start the countdown.” Ship Master Kisaragi said.
“Entering hyperspace in sixty seconds.” Ship Handler Jorge Nunez said.
As Hana watched the countdown she couldn’t help but be amazed by the Nel. They were following the Traveler not knowing where they were going, but that just went to show how desperate they were, they had no hope before the Traveler arrived. Their ships could travel through hyperspace faster than the Traveler, but would follow at Travelers speed. For the Traveler the trip would usually take 9 months, but they would take a detour to limit the chance of anyone finding Sanctuary, which meant instead of 9 it would take a bit more than 10 months.
“Thirty seconds.” Ship Handler said.
Hana wondered whether the First Fleet met the Sowir in the battle yet. A part of her wanted to stay, to help, but she knew that her ship wasn’t made for war.
“Ten seconds… 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Entering hyperspace.” Ship Handler said. A moment later, eleven ships disappeared in a flash.
Leviathan
Adrian took his seat in the Command Center, as soon as he sat down the command board came online, a holographic representation of his and Retsar Isani’s ships was shown in front of him. In a few minutes they would enter the maximum firing range of his fleet. Looking at the Sowir fleet, and seeing that they were still coming in the same formation they formed an hour ago. Going through the mental list of his opening moves, he took a deep breath, “Here we go.” Adrian said to Iris, and then he started manipulating the command board. He assigned orders, but didn’t execute them just yet, he opened a channel to Retsar Isani from the list on the left side of his command board. A window opened in front of him with Retsar Isani looking out of it.
“Fleet Commander, what can I do for you?”
“I wanted to tell you that my ships would be starting this engagement soon.” Adrian said.
He could see a flash of surprise on the Retsar Isani’s face, but it was quickly masked. “With this much distance there is little chance that any missile will pass through their defenses.”
“I know. I’m going to try something, if it fails, we give them knowledge of my ships maximum range and we lose some missiles, if we succeed, we might trim their numbers a bit or at least hurt them.” Adrian said.
Retsar Isani gestured with his hand, turning it in a circular motion. “As you wish Fleet Commander.”
Adrian nodded and closed the channel.
“Ready?” Adrian asked.
“Always Adrian.” Iris responded.
Reaching to his right Adrian executed the orders, the first in this battle. He knew they wouldn’t be the last.
The two forces grew closer at an astonishing speed, but still there was a lot more ground to cover. Until suddenly fire erupted from one side. Missile launches from the human First Fleet, by the time they stopped firing 3000 missiles were speeding towards the Sowir fleet. Before the light from those missile launches even reached the Sowir ships, Leviathan forward torpedo tubes opened, and six torpedoes got on their way. As they distanced themselves from the fleet Iris took direct control of them, and they started spreading out in a formation. A minute later she detonated all six torpedoes simultaneously, a blinding flash of nuclear fire expanded in front of the incoming human ships that lasted for 6 seconds. In that time the human First Fleet opened fire with all of their kinetic weapons, sending hundreds of metal slugs on an intercept course with the Sowir force. The light of their fire hidden by the blast of six torpedoes.