“Understood, Admiral, we will put on a good show. We won’t leave the area until they think they are winning.”
“God speed, Captain,” said the Admiral replacing the intercom. General Rivers turned to her.
“If they are ready when we jump in we’ll face their full numbers before we can bring our guns to bear. We need to be patient, every minute we can add to their return trip will give us just that bit of extra time to deal with Victorious.”
“I understand, General, and I am aware of the difficulty your troops are facing on the stations. We will move in as soon as I am confident we have a chance of breaking through.”
The massive battlecruiser rumbled and a series of vibrations rattled through the warship. General Rivers turned to Lieutenant Nilsson who was evidently concerned.
“It’s the forward gun batteries, they are charging up their capacitors prior to battle. We can’t charge up all the batteries at once, not even on this ship,” he said with a stern grin.
The Admiral moved past the General, facing the communications officer.
“Lieutenant Nilsson, can you put me on the battlegroup’s intercom, it is speech time,” she said with as much humour as she could muster in such a serious situation.
“This is Admiral Jarvis. Approximately one hour ago elements of our task force began the first stages in the operation to retake the transit stations orbiting Proxima Prime. Our battlegroup, spearheaded by Crusader, will start our attack in less than ninety minutes. All medical teams are to report to their sections, marines will prepare to repel boarders and all gunners please check and recheck your weapons. This will be the first capital ship engagement since the Great War and if it is anything like historic encounters, we can expect heavy damage and casualties on both sides. Admiral Jarvis, out.”
She replaced the intercom and turned back to the tactical map. The display showed two-dozen vessels in position near the outer ring of stations around the planet. Several faster colours indicated the gunboats from the carrier Wasp. It was their job to provide cover from any potential attacks by smaller vessels. She turned back to the General.
“If for any reason we are unable to regain control of the Station I have been given full authorisation to neutralise Titan Naval Station and every soul on it. Her face showed that this wasn’t an option she really wanted to consider.
“Destroy the Station, do we even have the firepower to do that?”
“I have asked our engineers to run simulations and all they can tell me is that if we can mass all of our firepower on the Station we can render it useless after about sixty minutes of continuous bombardment. We can’t do anything more than make it unsuitable for life, General.”
“Perhaps if I could get commandos onto the Station they could place a number of thermite plasma charges at key locations and do the same job. It won’t be pretty, Admiral, but if the Crusader is busy we might not have the luxury of turning all the guns on the Station. What about the hostages?”
“We are to rescue them of course, unless this puts the Fleet in a position whereby we cannot end this revolt. Either way the capture of Titan Naval Station will be resolved, one way or the other,” she said as she turned back to the displays.
Spartan and Teresa were both laid out and relaxed. Spartan held a bottle of water in one hand as Teresa sat looking out of the projection window at the Fleet. With their gun ports open the ships looked much rougher than normal, it was a sight she had not seen before. Between the capital ships the gunboats and shuttles moved back and forth, ferrying people and weapons prior to the battle. The Crusader was a sight to behold and she couldn’t imagine any vessel being able to stand up to her bulk. She was mesmerised by the rotating bands that ran the length of the ship, each one bristling with open ports and slowing the ship to fire in any direction from above or below or front port or stern. The weakest section in terms of firepower was the bow and stern where the warship was fitted with just a single weapon battery, much like a bow chaser on an old-fashioned tall ship.
“How can any ship stop the Crusader? Just look at her, Spartan,” she said as she stared at the majestic shape of the battlecruiser.
Spartan rolled over, looking out at the massive warship.
“She is impressive but from what I’ve been reading so is the Victorious. That old warship was actually involved in the Great War. She is responsible for the crippling of two other battleships and even survived a ramming by a cruiser. All of the advantages of the Crusader are going to be wasted in this battle. She has lighter armour, the same weapons and the only real improvement is the better engines. On paper I’d give the edge to Victorious,” he said with a hint of regret.
“You’re assuming that they even know how to operate the ship or have enough crew to man her.”
“True, but you’re also assuming that none of the crew had a hand in the takeover to start with. If that’s so then we could be about to attack an experienced and prepared battleship,” he said as he sat up and rubbed his eyes. “I just hope the Intel guys have done their homework,” he sighed.
The two pulled on their fatigues in silence as they considered the current operation and the part they had yet to play. Their clothes were scattered around the berth and it took them a few minutes to get ready. Teresa moved closely to Spartan, looking carefully at his face.
“Don’t do anything stupid now, I would like to see you come back,” she said with a smile.
“No problem, I have absolutely no intention of letting some religious crazy get in my way, you just watch yourself. We have unfinished business!” he said as he swung himself out of the room and into the corridor.
It didn’t take long and they were soon moving down the main corridor where scores of other marines were collecting their gear and boarding their craft. Marcus and Jesus along with another eight marines were waiting in a group at the far right, separate to the rest of them. Spartan and Teresa moved over. Most of them were wearing their full PDS gear and the rest were in the process of fitting on their armour and checking their weapons for the hundredth time.
“We’re supposed to wait here for Colonel West. He’s leading the commando operation. You ever met the guy?” asked Marcus.
“Nope, never heard of him,” answered Teresa.
“You have now,” said a short, scrawny looking man who appeared behind Spartan.
The man stood with a group of a dozen similar looking men and one woman. Though they wore normal Personal Defence Suits, they had a slightly different camouflage pattern to the rest of the marines and their equipment was certainly older and well used. The officer stepped forward and shook each of their hands.
“This is my team, I take it you’ve gone over the mission briefing. Normally we wouldn’t take newbies on a first mission but our numbers are small and we need every man we can get. We will go in first, you’ll provide backup and a tactical reserve. This doesn’t mean you’ll be sitting back in the shuttles, you are just as important as the rest of the unit. Stay together and keep an eye on the guy next to you.” He looked around the group of fresh marines.
The tannoy system blared loudly across the ship.
“All units to your posts, we are loading the shuttles. I repeat, all to their station, it is not a drill!” came the order and it was repeated over and over.
“Let’s go!” The Colonel shouted as his team moved down the shaft and towards the waiting shuttles.
As they moved off Spartan lifted his hand and smacked his hand onto Teresa’s outstretched palm.
“Good luck!” she said.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Though not the most famous, the CCS Invincible was a ship with a history that was unique to any other vessel in the Fleet. During the Great War she was the last battleship to engage another battleship in open battle. Most engagements were fought by carriers and cruisers, but by a chance encounter she had run into the rebel warship, the Redoubtable. This battle between two equals has been studied for generations, as to the power and the futility of putting two such behemoths against each other. After more than twenty hours of continuous battle and over twelve thousand casualties there was still no victor. Both vessels were quickly disabled and unable to leave the area and neither captain would surrender his vessel. It wasn’t until the arrival of the fourteen ships of the Kerberos Squadron that the battle could be decided. Five of those ships were also lost until the Redoubtable was finally destroyed.