Kelly replied, “Aye aye, Captain,” then turned the ship to punch out of the planet’s face. If the enemy wasn’t fully up to their game, he was about to ruin their day.
The Vigilant came out into open space at speed. The six fighter were 1000 km directly below them. They had evidently stopped just short of the planet, uncertain about following the Vigilant into an area where their sensors would be blind. It was only the Vigilant’s highly sensitive sensors that gave them the ability to wander through gas clouds with relative ease.
Kelly turned the Vigilant to come down on the top of the K’Rang fighters. He lined up the cross hairs on the center fighter and passed the three around it to the turret gunners. He goosed the throttle to close the distance quicker. His first shots caught the fighters completely unaware. He took out one fighter, then a second. The turret gunners took out two. He passed behind the two remaining fighters and turned back into the planet’s atmosphere.
The two remaining fighters reacted quickly and followed the Vigilant into the gas giant. They were trying to stay in close behind where they could visually acquire the Vigilant. Kelly turned on the rear sensor view and caught one of the fighters in the nose with a burst from the rear guns. The blast threw the other fighter into a spin and away from the Vigilant's track. Kelly took advantage of this to loop the Vigilant to come up behind the fighter as he regained control. A quick burst of the forward plasma guns and number six dissolved into a cloud of fragments.
Kelly turned to the captain and asked, “Sir, do you still want to head over to the nebula?”
“You know, Exec, one more fighter kill and you’ll be an ace?”
“You forget, sir, I was an ace with the second fighter.”
“Oh, yeah, I forgot. You came to us as almost an ace. Nevertheless, I’m impressed. Yes, let’s head to the nebula. Keep the sensors busy. We still have eight missiles left. I’m thinking that we should place ourselves where we can catch any stragglers coming back from the K’Rang fleet.”
The captain ordered the crew off battle stations. Kelly turned helm control back over to the helmsman and walked back with the captain to the galley for some coffee. Chief Watson had the conn. Kelly got a cup of coffee and a sandwich from Cookie, then went into the sensor section to confer with Chief B.
“Chief, we need you and your folks to keep a sharp eye out. Could you tell if the K’Rang command ship got out a distress call or not?”
“We’ll keep both a sharp eye and ear out. As far as the command ship, it didn’t have time for a distress call. If one went out, we didn’t have any indication of it.”
“Chief, we may see ships coming from any direction. Keep a watch on where the K’Rang invasion fleet is, on the two K’Rang worlds, and from further into K’Rang space. The captain thinks we may be able to pick off any stragglers that retreat across the frontier away from the 1st Combined Fleet. The 1st Fleet won’t pursue across the frontier, but since we are already here, there’s no harm in taking them out. Try and find good targets for our remaining missiles.”
Chief B responded, “Will do, sir.”
The K’Rang Fleet commander was ecstatic. Fighting his way through the frontier defenses, minefields and outer defenses had cost him more than anticipated, but at last he had a relatively clear path before him into the 6664 system and the human planet, New Alexandria. His claws involuntarily extended and retracted as he could see an easy victory before him. He ordered his fighters to sweep the path into the system. The remaining defensive satellites along his path would be easy targets for his fighters.
He signaled his battlecruisers and bombardment cruisers to prepare for the destruction of the planet's surface defenses. Their targeting sensors and firing computers listed and prioritized the defensive installations for total devastation. The lighter carriers followed behind the battlecruisers, ready to land ground forces for the easy elimination of any remaining resistance. The landing support carriers moved their attack fighters to launch positions. His missile cruisers deployed outward to seal the 6664 system from outside reinforcement.
The commander’s reverie was interrupted by the harsh klaxon sound of multiple alarms going off. He shouted to his battle captain, “What is happening?”
The battle captain sat speechless, staring at his indicator screen. The commander walked over to see what his battle captain was seeing. He rudely slapped the battle captain out of the way and couldn’t believe his eyes. The screen was covered with hundreds of hostile ship symbols at maximum sensor range coming in at high speed from every direction. There were so many the symbols overlapped. Thousands of inbound missiles were shown vectoring in on his fleet.
“Battle Captain! Recycle your system!” he shouted. “It is obviously malfunctioning.”
The battle captain turned to face his admiral, his eyes huge. “I already have, Admiral, it’s not a malfunction.”
The admiral stared for just a heartbeat more before recovering his senses. “This is Admiral K’Tang to all ships. I order the fleet to form for defense. Escorts form a bubble. Main combatants to withdraw immediately across the frontier at flank speed. Battlecruisers and missile cruisers prepare to fire your long-range missiles against the incoming ships once they come into range. Execute!”
The K’Rang moved into their defensive battle formation in an orderly and expeditious manner. There appeared to be no panic. All ships assumed their formation positions as they had practiced it scores of times. It did them no good.
The first inbound salvoes of Fleet missiles expended the K’Rang ships’ magazines of defensive missiles. Their defensive missiles took out hundreds of incoming missiles, but the remainder flew on. The escorts’ guns were unable to save them either. There were simply too many missiles coming in too fast for the defensive guns to track and destroy. The defensive bubble of escorts dissolved in brilliant flashes of matter/antimatter explosions. One second the escort ships were there. The next they were expanding clouds of flame and debris.
The major combatants fared only slightly better. They never had time to fire their own long-range missiles. Incoming missiles passing through the debris of the escorts flew inexorably into the massed formation of capital and support ships. The missiles chewed away at the fleet. The support ships were easily destroyed by one missile each, but the larger ships took two or more before they were totally destroyed. In minutes, the K’Rang Fleet was no longer a cohesive threat.
Several ships carried on singly, bravely, attempting to take out any Human ships in range. The carriers launched most of their fighters and attack ships. One lone, damaged missile frigate made a dash for the frontier, but it was quickly dispatched by the Rutherford’s squadron of planetary corvettes. The squadron and other escort ships moved to the frontier to provide early warning of any K’Rang reinforcements. Fleet and New Amsterdam fighters made short work of the K’Rang fighters and attack ships still remaining. No K’Rang forces made it to the planet’s surface. In less than a day, the 6664 system would be clear of any K’Rang forces.
Kelly moved through the galley, picked up another sandwich, refreshed his coffee, and resumed his position on the bridge. The captain was in his cabin. Chief Watson still had the conn.
LCDR Timmons stuck his head out of his cabin and said, “Exec, get some rest. We could be out here on patrol for weeks. Chief, get everybody back on normal watch schedule.”
Kelly closed down his station and retired to his quarters. The war would wait for him to get some rest.
He awoke in three hours, cleaned up and took his position on the bridge. The crew settled back into normal watch schedule.