“Can you get the drive system back up?”
“Not now…wait, the field around us is weakening. Let me run some numbers.”
Lee looked down at his positional data screen and saw that the ship’s forward momentum was still quite considerable — and leading them straight for a line of Juirean battlecruisers. The contact signatures of the Juireans flared suddenly and Lee knew they’d just unleashed a barrage of energy bolts toward him and the front lines of his fleet.
“It was a damper field,” Tim called out to the room. “It’s a high-energy field that disrupts any deep-gravity wells that interacts with it. It looks like the Juireans placed a whole series of generators across the entrance to the Corridor as some sort of shield or barrier.”
Lee could now see the tracks of the energy bolts as they drew ever-closer. “Can you get us going again?”
“Just maneuvering wells, nothing deeper.”
“Then do it, damn it! We have incoming!”
Lee felt control return to his hands, and he pulled the ship over to the right in a tight barrel-roll, just as the first bolts struck his recharging diffusion shields. The maneuver worked, as the bolts struck obliquely, limiting their affect.
And yet on his screen, Lee saw that several of his lead ships were not so lucky. Eight of them disappeared from his screen as their transponders were destroyed, along with the actual ships themselves.
“Get word to the fleet. Use maneuvering wells only,” Lee shouted to Lt. Steven Sexton, his comm officer.
“Captain!” Tim Carlson yelled out, “we’re through the field and deep-wells are now available, yet ineffective at this range.”
“Understood.” Lee knew that deep-gravity wells were only used for extremely fast transits — like arriving at or leaving a battle scene in a hurry. Once in battle, however, shallow wells were used primarily, along with chemical drives for even more close-in dogfights.
“Sexton, relay to the fleet that they will be entering a damping field, but that the effects are only temporary. Have the forward units attempt to clear out the Juirean ships nearest the field. We need to give our ships time to recover after the emerging from the field.”
“Yes, sir!”
Lee pulled his ship to the left this time, leading a squad of five ships toward the Juirean lines. The enemy laid down another series of bolts, but Lee and the other ships were able to weave their way through the ballistic balls of energy without suffering any direct hits. He brought up the targeting laser onto the nearest enemy combatant. It was a huge Class-Five — five hundred meters long, with multiple deck levels which grew shorter the higher they reached toward the bridge. Lee fired, sending eight simultaneously-released bolts toward the massive ship.
His ship skirted the gravity field of the Class-Five even before the bolts arrived. He spun further to the left and pulled away from the Juirean. Just then, five of his eight bolts struck the screens of the Class-Five; the great ship glowed blue for several moments as the diffusion shields fought to absorb the energy. The shields held — but only momentarily. Secondary bolts from the other ships in the squadron impacted the already weakened screens around the Juirean, overloading the dampers and causing the shields to drop.
Lee flipped his ship over and lined back up on the battlecruiser. He released another set of bolts — just as six bolts of their own were sent directly into Lee’s path.
He had very little time to react, as the bolts had been fired to anticipate the movement of Lee’s ship rather than directly at him, like leading a receiver in football. The bolts were going to hit — he couldn’t avoid it.
The first two bolts hit the starboard side of the disk that made up Lee’s KFV. Even though it made no sense for a disk to have sides, the pilot dome at the center of the disk was oriented in a specific direction. This did allow for the designation of starboard and port, forward and aft and top and bottom of the disk. And now, the starboard edge of Lee’s ship had just been blown away.
Sealing foam trailed out of the gaping hole, trying its best to close the wound. It wasn’t working. Instead, internal hatchways were beginning to seal automatically, isolating the damage to specific areas. Lee’s heart sank as he knew that any of his crew who were in the damaged area had all died instantly, or were destined to once sealed off from the rest of the ship.
The only consolation he would receive was when the massive Juirean battleship exploded on his screen. It was a small, and infinitely inadequate, consolation.
Lee’s fleet swept through the damper field, now able to recover quickly and without consequence, as the Juirean forces near the entrance to the Corridor had either all been destroyed or retreated toward the rear. His uncle’s forces had now begun to press against the Juireans; Lee’s ships flowed down and around the cluster of Human ships that made up the center bulge of their forces and began to attack the Juireans at their flanks.
Some of the Juireans began to separate from their clusters and attempt to run the asteroid belts. Many disappeared off his screen, in brief flashes of energy. Still others tried to slip around the edges of Lee’s ships, heading for the top of the Corridor and the damping field. Some made it — about as far as the damper field. Once these ships passed through — and emerged on the other side as defenseless drifting shells of metal waiting for their power to be restored — Lee’s ships outside the field simply blew them all to vapor.
It seemed as though the Juirean’s own cleverness had come back to bite them in the ass.
Chapter 57
Kackil stood round-eyed watching the devastation on the screen before him. The Humans had quickly eliminated all of the Juirean blocking forces at the damper field and now hundreds of enemy ships were entering the Corridor unopposed. The central Human fleet had begun to press his forces further to the bottom of the Corridor, and already the Overlord could see his lines breaking apart in panic.
It was over.
Suddenly something snapped in Kackil’s head. He reached over and grabbed the back of Hoan’s cloak and threw the Fleet Commander into a nearby console. “It is lost!” the Overlord yelled at the stunned bridge crew. “You have all failed me!”
Hoan regained his balance and stood to face the deranged Overlord. “My Lord…calm yourself immediately!” Hoan yelled, while waving with his hand for others around him to come to his assistance. “You must provide the fleet with guidance now. You must not lose control of your mental faculties.”
“Guidance! You want guidance?” Kackil screamed even louder. Several Guards moved up behind the ranting Overlord. “I will give you guidance. The war is lost! Do you realize that, Hoan?”
“No my Lord — only the battle.”
“You stupid fool. This battle was the war!” Kackil rushed toward Hoan once again, but was grabbed from behind by the other Guards. He jerked his arms in a desperate attempt to escape, but the hold was too strong.
“Please escort the Overlord back to his quarters and stand guard upon him,” Hoan commanded. “The Overlord just needs time to rest before returning his manner.”
Yet as the Guards hustled the Overlord off the bridge, Hoan turned once more to the tac screen. His forces were now disappearing from the screen at an exponential rate, as the bright cluster of Human contacts now merged into a cloud of insurmountable size.
The Overlord may return to his quarters, but he will not have time to recover from his psychotic break, Hoan thought. At least not before Hoan’s own ship would disappear from existence.
Chapter 58
How could this be? Linuso thought. The new Human fleet is still in the Fringe. There is no possible way they could have closed the distance between the Fringe and Falor-Kapel in only an hour or two.