All That Glitters - Ch 56
Battle.
The Asoc and Unaayel slug it out toe-to-toe.
© bigtddybr Mar. 2023. This story 'All That Glitters - Chapter Fifty-Six' or the series 'All That Glitters', cannot be transferred to any other site besides Literotica.com in whole or in part without the prior authorizations in writing from the author and bigtddybr must be credited for this work.
Due to the number of abbreviations, ship listings, and list of characters, in this story, I include a glossary that is now in a stand-alone chapter called
'All That Glitters: Notes v 12'
. Any and all information that you want or need to know about the series is included in Notes. It will be updated frequently simply by re-issuing the chapter to Literotica as a new version.
There is little attempt to explain the back story, so it is necessary to read previous chapters to fully understand where we are.
As before, I claim sole responsibility for the story line. This story is a fantasy, with no basis in reality. Any similarity that you may perceive to current events, people, or situations real or imaginary is completely unintended. Look no further than the story line for its intent and purpose.
A big shout out to my editors, who wish to remain anonymous, for all their help. I have recently lost Saddle Rider as an editor due to changes in her life. I wish her all the best and send my deepest appreciation for all that she has done for this series. If you find any errors still left in this chapter, they are mine, as I have ignored sage advise to make a silly point.
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'Nuff said...enjoy.
DA Ensch, Unnamed Star System, Twenty Light Years from AsocAR, the Asocan Realm
The DA Ensch came into the system slightly over 1,000km from the scene of combat. They immediately picked up multiple Tactical Displays from the Clemency Fleet as, with the NS Trim damaged, there was no one ship acting to coordinate the display. The Ensch took all of that, filtered it and sent it back out as a single Tactical Display of their own, synchronized to the blue force ships. It would make the Ensch a target as the flagship of the fleet but that couldn't be helped, the fleet needed one filtered Tactical Display and they now had that.
The capabilities of the fleet's ships came up on the tactical display as well as did confirmation of who was who in the enemy fleet where the ship name was known. It did not look good, the blue force fleet had taken multiple hits and had some serious damage, though none of the ships were currently out of action.
"All ships, this is the Ensch, Sostoc Murld Mutt Mattas commanding. We are coming in with reinforcements. If you have them, I need the electronic signatures of the enemy drives. We will set torpedoes to track those signatures. No torpedoes are to be fired without those settings on them, to you."
Signatures snapped onto the tactical display form the ships of the fleet. Confirmation on multiple targets was given and they had their signatures posted with the red designator. The fleet could now more effectively engage the enemy. As soon as they had that, the Ensch set their 150cm torpedoes and fired a full volley of eight to major effect. They immediately fired a second volley within fourteen seconds. The torpedoes ran fast, homing in on their respective targets who suddenly started releasing countermeasures. Some of the countermeasures worked, however, six of the enemy ships took at least one hit and causing serious damage to at least two.
More of the enemy ship's engine signatures were being confirmed and the Ensch fired another double volley of 150cm torpedoes, this time hitting four additional ships. The enemy now had ten ships with reduced capacity or severely damaged.
The blue force ships started firing its own seeking torpedoes at the enemy vessels. What had before been a hap-hazard attempt at targeting the enemy, now became an effective onslaught against them.
While this was ongoing, the Ensch opened its shuttle bay doors and released the two hunter/killer assault groups into the mix. They coordinated their efforts between the two groups, the fleet, and the Ensch. The battle had suddenly shifted in the fleet's favour, not that it was won yet. Multiple ship battles in space were battles of maneuver and often took hours to complete. It had now been less than twenty minutes since the Ensch had arrived in system, it would be several hours before this battle was finished.
"Comms, take a snapshot of the Tactical Display and send it to the remainder of our fleet where they have taken the surrendered ships. We need combat ships back here now," Murld ordered, getting a crips 'Aye Sostoc' in return.
"Heavy torpedoes aimed at us!" The Tac O called out. "At least five 280cm torpedoes coming at us."
Murld got the track of the torpedoes on one of his personal displays at the Captain's Chair. The speed of the oncoming torpedoes was too great to allow for the jump drive to spool up. They would have to use maneuver to end this threat.
Murld ordered the ship turned accordingly. "Weapons free, unmask the 50mm rail guns, release countermeasures in ten seconds," Murld ordered.
As the ship turned to starboard and rolled away from the torpedoes. The Tac O fired four counter measures on her own initiative into the space they had just left as she counted out the ten seconds until she could fired the required set of twelve.
One of the five torpedoes was fooled by the first set of countermeasures and detonated there, the remainder followed the Ensch. Tactical released the set of twelve countermeasures just as the rail guns let lose on the targets. Three of the remaining torpedoes exploded either from contact with the countermeasures or because of the 50mm rounds. One came on and hit the Ensch as the pilot rolled the ship to take the hit mid-ship where the Gara-Hinn shield was strongest. The Ensch rocked from the explosion. Some of the systems momentarily lost cohesion from the blast effect but came back relatively quickly.
Murld noted damage reports coming up on his other monitor indicating that systems were still functional, though some showed yellow instead of green on the boards. A mur later damage assessments started coming in.
"Sir, Engineering, the hull plates in the area of the explosion are still sound. No indication of escaping gases. Our systems have taken a little shock effect but are still functioning most within the green," the Engineer's mate sitting at the Engineering Board called out.
Murld acknowledged the report. That was good fortune considering that they had been hit by a heavy torpedo. Even with the Gara-Hinn shield, heavies tended to do damage.
"Sir, Tac O, more heavies targeting us!" the Tac O reported.
Their tracks came up on Murld's monitor. He split the main monitor and put the tracks on the big screen. They were coming at the ship from three directions. There was little the ship could do in terms of maneuvering, so they went in straight, opening the rail guns up at max range to the targets. The Ensch was being targeted by fifteen heavies, all running in on the ship in a way that meant the countermeasures would not be effective. Murld cursed as the heavies homed in on his ship.
The pilot took the initiative to float the ship up and over the oncoming torpedoes, helping the Tac O who let lose some countermeasures and allowing Weapons to lock on and destroy some of the targets. The countermeasures spoofed three of the torpedoes. The rail guns took out another five but that left seven missiles.
On his own initiative, just prior to impact, the human pilot jumped the ship to 100km on the other side of the combat, leaving the heavies behind on the far side of the combat from them.
"Quick thinking, Pilot," Murld said. The pilot was one of the more experienced human crew and he had just shown the bridge crew what it would take to be a pilot on a war ship. His Asocan counterpart, was sitting beside him at another pilot station. One or the other station could be engaged but not both together, though the Asocan's station was slaved to that of the human pilot so that she could see what that pilot was doing. The two pilots bumped fists and grinned at each other at the captain's praise.
The ship took a moment to reorient itself and take back the Tactical Display. They rolled over and sped towards the combat, releasing their own heavies in two quick volleys. Twelve of their 280s ran in on four of the larger enemy vessels who no longer had enough countermeasures to deal with them. Two of the enemy ships died. The bridge crew let out a cheer as they saw the markers go dark on the two ships and hit indicators on others.
"Sir, Weapons O, these ships are going down too easily. There were no indications that they had been hit previously. They should have fared much better."
"Science, take a closer look at our adversary. What do you see?" Murld demanded...
SSP Piscium, Unnamed Star System
SSP Piscium came into the system thirty-five minutes behind the Ensch, opened her shuttle bays and released four hunter/killer assault groups. She then backed off to 5,000km as she did not have the weapons to go against war ships. At this distance, she could run from any torpedo or missile fired at her but was still within the 'local' comms space, meaning there was no time lag on comms.
Because of who she worked with, the Piscium had some extra capabilities that would not be found on other civilian supply ships. One of those was the Command Suite built into the ship. She had a Battle Bridge.
The Piscium took up the Tactical Display and broadcast it from her own location. The Ensch subsequently became just another war ship. She could now fight without having to worry about the bigger battle and without being targeted as the flagship, the Piscium having taken that role from her.
Halta Mutt Kern was in the Piscium's Battle Bridge, which was almost a good as the one on the Ensch. She was impressed. As soon as the Piscium took on the Tactical Display, Halta began to work the battle, Capt. Cynthia Chen sitting over her shoulder giving her hints as required. Between the two of them, the battle began to change, swiftly moving in the blue fleet's favour.
"Halta, this is Murld. There may be a problem. There are not enough heavy ships here. We see smaller ships with transponder rigs that make them look like heavies," Murld sent over the Tactical Link.
"Damn," Capt. Chen called out. "That means the Asoc's fleet is heading into a trap.
