6:35 Bridge

The first volley of plasma lances and railgun slugs struck their targets at roughly the same time. The carrier had directed most of its EM shielding to face the Confederate capital ships. There were areas that had minimal or even no shielding of any kind. The plasma lances were able to overwhelm the emitter arrays where there was minimal coverage. Areas that weren’t protected were had deep gouges rent into her armor and some weapon systems were destroyed.

Commands to redirect the EM shielding were made from the bridge. Unfortunately for her, that was too late. The shielding array had been severely damaged or outright destroyed in most parts of the vessel. The missiles were unaffected by the EM shielding and slipped right through. The kinetic shielding system had largely been rendered impotent. Sixty-four missiles ravaged the top side of the carrier.

The primary bridge along with the primary flight controller centers was struck and destroyed. Those serious, that wasn’t the death knell for the vessel. She was still void-worthy despite the number of rooms exposed to the void and shambled mess her upper hull appeared to be in. A number of missiles entered the hangar were the dagger in the heart for her.

The crew had been rearming some bombers when they were first struck. In the confusion of the massive number of explosions and weapons striking the vessel the door to the missiles and bombs was left open. One lucky missile exploded too close to the magazine store. The missile triggered a cascade of explosions that rippled through magazine stores setting off all of those munitions.

“SHIP KILL. SHIP KILL,” Veronica screamed over the intercoms.

“BREAK FORMATION, FIRE AT WILL,” John yelled.

Each trio of corvettes broke formation. They ripped through the void toward friendly vessels. PDCs were unlocked and began firing at enemy fighters. The small, yet incredibly nimble and hellishly fast, vessels were no match for the amount of fire sent their way. Enemy fighters began disappearing from the tactical screen in droves.

Their railgun fire had rent a toll on the battlecruiser. Her kinetic shielding system was failing. The aft barriers were burned out and would take hours to bring back. Those facing the Confederate capital ships were flicking and losing their ability to deflect or stop projectiles.

The armor plates in the rear part of the vessel were heavily damaged. Several were fully compromised. If the corvettes could get around to that side of the ship again, they could cripple, or possibly even kill the ship outright. Another added benefit of their railgun volleys was significantly damaging her close combat weapon systems.

“Nathan, keep the ship rolling, we need as many PDCs firing as possible.”

“On it.”

John held the ship-wide communications button-down, “Status of the enemy fighters?”

“Twenty percent dead. Three of their four frigates are down. We’ve lost two more destroyers though.”

“ETA on reinforcements?”

Andern shook his head, “Hard to tell, best estimates are thirty-five minutes.”

“Long-range scan has friendlies thirty-one and thirty-six minutes away. A full attack wing from the first fleet appears to be the larger group.”

John looked at the tactical map at his terminal. He was trying to find the enemy’s heavy cruisers and remaining frigate. He could feel the PDCs continuously firing. The railgun vibrations weren’t as consistent, which was expected, but every chance they could they fired a slug at an enemy.

“Nathan, bring her to Two-Three-Four, down six degrees. We’re going to strafe that frigate. Any friendly packs near us?”

“Vance’s.”

“Have them follow us. Punch it.”

“Done and done.”

The Memphis led the charge. Five other corvettes adjusted their course and followed her. They spread themselves apart. Plasma lances and railguns were firing at their target. Not all shots were true, but the frigate side was heavily damaged. The armor panels covering the main engine cone were seriously damaged.

As they crossed the T the ships killed their main engines and used their thrusters to turn the vessel and keep it on target. The corvettes annihilated the aft portion of the frigate. One lucky round pierced the armor plate and destroyed the primary plasma conduit. The frigate’s engine core reacted poorly to that damage. Without a proper way to contain and direct the plasma it produced it went critical and exploded in a white-hot light, atomizing two-thirds of the vessel.

“Ship kill,” John said calmly despite creeping up to the edge of his seat, “Head back toward the Topeka, we need to clear up some more fighters.”

“On it captain,” Nathan said as he fired up the main engines and plotted in another course toward the Topeka.

Vance’s wolfpack peeled off and went to cover one of the cruisers that were being targeted by a large group of fighters. They weren’t able to entirely prevent the attack wave. But the friendly cruiser survived the attack and their wolfpack reaped through the fighter squadron and annihilated every last one.

John’s wolfpack barreled toward the Topeka. Their main engines cut off and thrusters caused the ship to go into a lazy role. This maximized the number of PDCs that could attack the fighters and in theory, made it more difficult to land attacks on them.

“We lost our aft thrusters, and our main drive cone was damaged. We are pulling back,” Sofia said over the coms.

Patrice shook his head, “We just took a rail round, it was a glancing blow, but our armor plates are compromised.”

“Richard, cover Patrice and Sofia and fall back to earth,” John ordered, “Wei, what is the status of the enemy fleet.”

“Fighters are down to twenty percent. Their heavy cruiser is seriously damaged. The remaining cruiser is covering it. The battlecruiser is slowly accelerating away from here.”

“What about our ships?”

“The frigates and destroyers are dead or disabled. Three cruisers remain though one is effectively out of the fight and the other two are heavily damaged. The Topeka’s main gun and shields are holding, but she’s been battered.”

“That battlecruiser needs to die, does she have any weak spots?” John asked.

“My operations indicate the same direction we came in is devoid of any weaponry or active defensive systems.”

“Everyone is to form up on me. We’re going to use the carrier’s wreckage to help get us into position. Then we’re going to focus all our fire on the battlecruiser. Lances on the engine cones,” John paused as he waited for the other ships to acknowledge his order, “Punch it.”

Patrice’s wolfpack had successfully withdrawn from the fight and was burning towards Earth. John hated to see the ships go, but they were damaged, and he didn’t want to lose any ships. But there were no guarantees that they could cripple or outright kill the battlecruiser.

“Wei, any and anyone else scanning the battlecruiser. Any weakened areas are where we need to get a target lock.”

“On it captain,” Wei said as she gripped her console and looked over the scan results.

The twelve corvettes were zipping through the carrier’s wreckage. While they were leaving their friendly capital ships to their own devices they were still holding on. Most of the enemy fighters had been killed, and they were prevented from rearming anymore.

Their friendly capital vessels should be able to weather whatever attacks are directed to them. The momentum of the battle had shifted, and hope was still alive for the Confederate forces. Both sides were treading on dangerous ground. One false step and the momentum in the fight could change. The cadets had to succeed here.

The corvettes screamed past the last piece of the carrier’s wreckage. They then shot perpendicular to the plane of battle. All three plasma lances, the two fore, and one aft were now able to target the battlecruiser. Dozens of lance shots were sent towards the battlecruiser every four seconds.

Most of the lance shots found their target. They rent small impact craters into everything that they touched. The battle cruiser's EM shielding was completely gone. Each individual shot did very little, but it was death by a thousand stings.

Forty seconds later as they reached the apex of their climb. Just as they did a large chunk of the main drive cone was blown off. The plasma exhaust wasn’t able to be contained and directed as efficiently anymore. The battlecruiser’s ability to accelerate and maintain speed was now crippled.

“Sharing target. All railguns fire at these coordinates,” Brian said over the tight beam coms.

“FIRE AT WILL,” John shouted.

The corvettes came about and began an attack run on the battlecruiser. Plasma lances, though one less per ship was being fired, sent off their blue-white attacks toward the designated target. The railguns spooled up and the welcome electrical discharge and thumping vibration rippled through their corvettes.

A massive explosion occurred on the port side of the battle cruiser. The Topeka’s plasma lances had overwhelmed the last EM shield emitters and burnt deep into the battlecruiser. A weapon cache had exploded, blowing up a sizable chunk of the ship. The Topeka’s deadly dual railgun fired a pair of slugs deep into her mortal enemy.

The corvettes fired one more volley of railgun fire. Then they broke off their attack. They were inside the explosion radius and didn’t have near enough shielding or armor to withstand a blast should she was to explode. Lance fire continued unabated and dug deep into the vessel. Just as the Memphis reached the safe range, she fired one more aft lance blast.

John watched the plasma blast. It was as if God’s hand reached down and guided the charged ball of superheated plasma into the room that they had just exposed. That room contained her railgun’s electrical control room. A massive explosion caused the spine of the enemy battlecruiser to explode.

Armor plates were blasted out from the inside of the vessel. Some of her structural ribs were completely severed from the spin. Lights flickered all over the vessel. Main power was also affected. Then the engines shut off entirely. She began a lazy roll and spin over her port side. The battle cruiser was dead.

“Did anyone take any damage?”

“My pack is falling back,” Lee said, “We’ve suffered too much damage to continue.”

“John, our armor is thrashed,” Andern said.

“All corvettes fall…”

The surviving two enemy cruisers then exploded in a bright white ball of plasma. They had scuttled their vessels to ensure they wouldn’t be captured alive. No enemies were alive. And communications were no longer being scrambled.

“Yellow alert. All corvettes do full system scans and engineering checks. Fall back to a safe range.”

John took a deep breath and leaned back in his chair. His muscles hurt, he was physically and mentally spent. He smirked at that last bit; all he did was sit in his chair. But his abs were killing him.

“Bring back the atmosphere,” John said.

“Belay that, need to finish our structural scan,” Kevin said, “Give me ten minutes.”

Andern turned around in his seat and said, “Can you hurry, I need to piss. Badly.”

07:35 Engineering

John was stretching himself while Kevin was reviewing some things. Andern was sitting at the dining area and gorging himself on two of his premium meals. The rest of the crew was kind of just waiting oddly around.

“Ok. The drones have finished patching up the last armor plate. I recommend a gingerly pace back to Earth.”

John looked at Kevin, “Define gingerly?”

“I’d be happy with half speed. We can go more but…” Kevin let that hang.

“Who’s at the con?” John asked.

“Andern should be,” Nathan answered.

“He’s feeding his fat face,” John said shaking his head and pointing at Andern.

“I’m hungry,” Andern sassed John back.

“Get to the con now,” John said with a disconcertedly quiet forcefulness.

Andern picked his tray up and grumbled some things as he walked to the bridge. John leaned down to look at the floor. He desperately wanted to eat and then sleep for about two weeks.

Lieutenant Nicks walked over and joined the conversation, “The academy is recalling all cadets. Your deployment is ending early. For naturally obvious and apparent reasons.”

Nathan laughed, “Great timing, not like we didn’t just exceed and blow past anyone’s craziest idea of what could happen. Ma’am.”

“Andern, check with Patrice’s squadron and the others. I want to know what damage was done to us. I also want to know if anyone got injured.”

Andern said with a full mouth of food, “On it.”

“He is literally the worst officer in our class,” Kevin said shaking his head.

“Worst behaved, yes. He’s not the worst officer, not by a long shot,” John said with a smirk, “Ok, as it's 07:40ish, the second shift is to go on duty. Third shift, get rested. If you need a sleeping aid, take it. Amazing job everyone. We did not go quietly into that night.”

Kevin walked over to John and slapped his shoulder, “Thanks for keeping us all alive. I didn’t think we’d be that successful.”

“Get some rest bud. Thanks for keeping things cool, calm, and collected back here.”

“You know it,” Kevin waved back at John as he walked to his room.

08:45 Board Room

John was reading through all the damage the cadets had identified. Every ship took damage. Some are more severe than others. Though none were crippled or worse, lost. There weren’t any serious injuries either. Just a couple of contusions.

The damage sustained was rather frightening though. The Sao Paola, Patrice’s vessel, took a rail round that skimmed the surface of four armor plates near their railgun. That was just under half the length of the vessel. The Madrid, Alex’s ship took a cruiser rail round that pierced through the central area of the ship.

God must have been watching out for that crew. It truly was a miracle that no one was struck by superheated shrapnel. The craziest thing was they didn’t even know they were struck until after the battle was over. They came to a complete halt to repair the pair of holes that were made.

John tossed the data slate on the table and sighed. He smiled that they were able to turn the tide. But they were a hair’s width away from losing multiple ships. Lady luck was clearly on their side this time, he didn’t want to rely on that but for today he was going to enjoy her company.

John looked up at the communication screen, “Saving the best for last. Thank you. Without your connections that would’ve been all for naught.”

Patrice looked uncomfortable, “Your welcome. I still don’t like you, but you are right about one thing. We do work well together.”

“That we do. I owe you one. My report will be very clear that without your connections and pull our little ragtag operation wouldn’t have been successful.”

“That’s appreciated. On that note though, are you sure we’re not going to be disciplined?”

John chuckled, “We were duty-bound to render assistance. Whether we were commissioned officers or not. I would be shocked if they tried to do anything other than using us as recruitment material. See kids, even you can be heroes.”

Patrice laughed, “What about the Alliance?”

“You noticed the ships they had, right? They were forty- to fifty-year-old designs.”

“Disavowed then?”

“Ten minutes ago, the Alliance officially commented on it,” John smirked and shook his head, “It’s complete bullshit, but the paraphrased version was the individuals were disgruntled current and former military members that stolen ships that were due to be scrapped.”

“What a load of horseshit. Don’t tell me our politicians bought that shit?”

“They haven’t. The border is closed, all diplomats save the ones on Earth are in the process of being expelled. Food exports, which they need for some dumbass reason, are completed halted. Three freighters were recalled. Naturally, the Mercantilist Union just stepped forward and offered them sufficient food stocks.”

“At what, five times our price?”

“Nah, seven times.”

Patrice laughed, “Well I am famished. Stay safe out there.”

“You too.”

“Captain, the Topeka is contacting us,” Nathan said from the bridge.

“Patch her in here, thanks,” John said as he waited for the image to appear, “Commander Wolff, how are you?”

“Thank you for coming in. We weren’t expecting any help. I daresay those Alliance bastards weren’t either.”

John stayed quiet and watched the screen. The bridge of the Topeka was a mess. None of the crew looked uninjured either.

“I’m not someone that enjoys telling someone ‘I told you so,’” John said flashing air quotes to the commander, “But I have to in this case. You were given intel that you disregarded out of hand. You didn’t investigate anything, and you clearly weren’t aware of the lost ship that led to this mess.”

“Look, I don’t need to…”

“Be lectured by a cadet? No, you shouldn’t be. Had you followed through on my intel you would have asked for reinforcements. But here we are. Your escorts are destroyed. One of our cruisers is crippled, and the other two are badly dinged up. And I’m not even talking about the loss of life, which is high.”

“There was no way to know that your intel would have led to this. We can’t base our decisions on gut feelings or hunches.”

John nodded, “I agree, but that doesn’t mean you couldn’t research these things. I have my sources, so I’ve been told you did nothing with the information I passed over. That’s a failure of leadership on your part. This is on you and only you. Safe travels.”

John ended the call. He was disgusted with the commander’s actions. The attack wasn’t the commander’s fault, but his wing being both unprepared and being woefully under-gunned was entirely on his shoulders.

“I am hungry,” John said to himself as he stood up.

11:15 Captain’s Room

John had been in the rec room trying to unwind, but all he wound up doing was staring at the ceiling. He wanted to be more active and do stuff with his crew and friends, but he was wiped out from the day's events. After the door closed behind him, John walked over and sat down at her desk.

He logged into it and contacted the Las Palmas. John pressed a button and with an external camera, he could actually see her flying in formation with the Memphis and Winnipeg. The wait was mercifully quick for Alice to pick.

“Oh my god, John. I’m kind of at a loss,” Alice said looking a bit shellshocked.

“Learned something though, definitely don’t want to be assigned to one of these ships out of the academy. Hell no,” John exhaled, “How’s the crew holding up?”

“I’ve talked to a few that are processing things. We all were pretty close to dying.”

John shrugged, “Some more than others. Our three I wouldn’t say were that close.”

Alice cocked her head, “Did one of our ships really get shot clean through?”

“And somehow the shrapnel was so contained that it didn’t hit anyone else. No power lines, cables, nothing was broken except for the hole the slug made.”

“Do you know what the plan for us is now?”

“Yeah. We’re heading back to the academy to finish our semester. Finals will probably be in two or three weeks, which gives us an extra three weeks off this summer. Though I expect a full inquest to be done which may suck up some time.”

“I’ll talk to my folks and get some flights booked when we know some more firm dates.”

“Cool, can’t say that I’m looking forward to the swamp-ass, but it’ll be nice to see your family again.”

Alice rolled her eyes, “It’s really not that bad honey. I love you.”

“Love you too. See ya soon,” John said waving into the camera.

John stood up and took his shirt off. He tossed it on the ground and crawled into bed. Moments after his head found the pillow, he was sound asleep. There was a smile on John’s sleeping face. They and the other cadets did not go quietly into that night. They had turned the tide this day.