Fall of the Terran Empire - Traci Ganner series book 1

FTE - Ch 14

Admiral Pearson sat on his flag bridge and steadied his stomach for the queasy feeling he always got when coming out of hyperspace. It was more imagined than felt, as if his body was in two places and then merged back into one. As the data plots began to stabilize and render the system data once more, he confirmed what his intelligence officer had provided; a complete map of every starship in the Antares system--accurate in every detail. No fleet commander could fail to act on this priceless data, the knowledge of exactly where his opponents were, their strength, dispositions, and timing, while they knew nothing of his. In fact, they were still coming to a state of advanced readiness when his fleet arrived--a fact he intended to exploit with a vengeance.

This time, he was prepared when the fast response carriers began to disgorge their fighters. He targeted over one hundred and seventy missiles on the five carriers tasked with guarding this approach. Only two were able to bring defensive weapons to bear, but it didn’t matter. Many of the fighters tried to target his missile strike, which left them vulnerable to direct fire from his fast battle cruisers. He followed up his attack on the carriers with heavy beam cannons, and in less than forty seconds, his fleet was the only one left. The remaining fighters had nowhere to rearm; his escorts fanned out, leaving the small fighters no easy openings. Although they tried to break through, every beam weapon in his armada targeted and erased them all.

He had also picked up a number of reinforcements on the way in, bringing his order of battle up to nine dreadnoughts, thirteen battle cruisers, six battleships, and nineteen heavy and light cruisers. In addition, he had brought up six of the Armadillo class minelayers and four fleet tugs.

His fleet began moving at maximum speed for the spatial rift. There were no ships coming through it at the moment, but that was his primary objective. As he neared the rift, other elements of the enemy defense force began to leave their defensive posture and race to meet him. It must have been obvious to them what his objective was, and they knew the importance of preventing him from controlling the rift.

But he arrived first and deployed his fleet. Protecting the minelayers, his escorts spread out and prepared for incoming fighters, but there were none. Their intelligence proved correct again. All of the carriers must have been sent forward with the assault fleets. He was now in the rear areas of the invasion, where it was vulnerable.

Twelve battle cruisers raced forward to meet him, and he began to give way. As the battle cruisers moved into missile range, they launched their seekers and followed closely behind them to follow with beam cannons. But when the leading battle cruiser found the first mine, half the forward section of the ship blew off, spiraling into space. Its fellows did no better, as they also found mines that they did not expect. Six of the twelve BCs were destroyed before the others peeled away. Pearson’s thirteen battle cruisers leapt into action and hunted the fleeing ships down before they could retreat further into the system. In a matter of moments, the rift was secure.

He detached two task forces, TF-21 and TF-23, to secure the system at its hyperspace junction points. He knew what forces would be waiting there too, and adjusted his fleet elements to ensure his enemies’ total destruction. They were just now coming to full readiness, but not before they found themselves overwhelmed by superior forces that knew exactly where they were.

After gaining control of the system, Scott Pearson set to work laying a pattern of mines crisscrossing the spatial rift on this side. The mines included triggers for capital ships and fighters; he was taking no chances. Only Terran ships, with their Identification, Friend or Foe signals, would be able to pass unharmed. He only had explosive mines, anti-matter and matter containers separated by a thin magnetic screen, that he could deploy immediately. He was still scraping together stores of the more advanced beam weapon and missile platform mines from sector command. He was also issuing orders for sector shipyards to immediately begin transferring mines forward to his position. It was his intention to secure this star system from any attack before taking the offensive.