FT Fiction Part Two of two (Long)

 PART TWO 

  "Engagement in five, four, three, two, one, firing now!" 

/Moltke's/ six heavy particle beams stabbed out into the vast emptiness
at a target no human eye could see. The other ships in the staffel
responded. There was no return fire. 

  "Results?" 

  "Unable to determine. Estimate two hits on Delta 02, but we can't
assess damage. 

  "Weapons recharged." 

  "Independent firing all batteries. Concentrate on Delta 02 again." 

  "Jawohl Herr Hauptman, firing." Markmann could sense the slight
vibration in the deck as his batteries opened fire again. 

  "Another hit on Delta 02!" The weapons officer was grinning. 

  "Damage?" 

  "Unable to assess." 

  "Looks like the enemy is opening fire!" The defensive system officer
controlled the point and area defense batteries aboard the ship. However
he knew the projectiles hurled by the alien rail guns would be coming in
too fast for him to do anything about. In the holotank and blue dot
winked out to gray. 

  "The /Mölders/ is hit! The Von Zeiten is hit! Looks like they
concentrated all their fire on her." 

  "What? At this range? Damage report." The Kra'Vak had opened fire at
thirty thousand kilometers. The database estimated their railgun max
effective range at 20,000. 

  "Commence spoofing." 

  "Evasive pattern Y initiated." 

  "That will degrade firing solution Herr Hauptman," pointed out the
weapons officer. 

  "Deal with it." 

  "No comms with /Mölders/. All systems off the air. She's tumbling
out of control and streaming atmosphere. Looks like she's dead." 

  /Damn/. Markmann leaned forward against his shock frame. The
Kra'Vak's railgun systems made him sit up and take notice. 

  "/Mölders/ hit by another salve, she's broken in two." 

  "Firing….another hit against Delta 02." 

  "Concentrate against Delta 01." 

  "Enemy firing." This time the Kra'Vak battle line opened up with all
ships, dispersing their fire amongst the two cruisers, ignoring the
lighter destroyers. Markmann felt his ship shudder and he heard a loud
bang. 

  "Bridge this is damage control.  We took a number of hits on our
starboard side; decks two and three breached near bulkheads five and
eleven respectively. We're getting teams there now." 

  "Systems?" 

  "Nominal." 

  "Firing Hauptman. Target is delta 01." 

  The two groups of ships raced towards each other at a combined speed
of 130,000 KPH. As they drew closer the Kra'vak railguns became deadlier
as the penetrator shells found their mark with greater accuracy and
velocity. The Humans continued to return fire but were unable to
ascertain the extent of damage they were inflicting. 

  "Three minutes until zero barrrier, Hauptman." In the holotanks
another blue dot went to gray. That was the/ von Zeiten/ on the
formations right flank.  The /Moltke/ shuddered again from the impact
of more penetrators. 

  "Hauptman, FTL drive off line! There was an edge of panic in the
young engineer's voice. No faster than light drive meant no escape. 

  "Delta 01 is streaming atmosphere." 

  "Bridge, this is damage control. I've got two parties working on the
FTL drive." 

  "Get it done," replied the XO. "Without it we're stuck. " 

  "Alien ships decelerating and turning." 

  Markman realized that the Kra'Vak were attempting to decelerate and
change heading so they would be pointing into his ships blind rear
aspect as they sped by. 

  "Helm maximum deceleration come about to bearing 090!" He knew that
the /Moltke's/ slower speed could be an advantage here as she screeched
to a sliding turn in an attempt to avoid exposing her flank to the
Kra'Vak. If he played things right, he'd be up their asses. 

  "Jawohl, Herr Hauptman." 

  "Tactical, I want the /Balck/ to decelerate but pass on the opposite
side of delta 04. We'll sandwich her." 

  "Jawohl, Herr Hauptman, transmitting." 

  "Distress signal from the Altenstadt, engine room destroyed, have her
batteries down and crew killed. They're...another hit against them!" The
/Altenstadt/ exploded in an expanding ball of gas. Markman felt a pang
of sadness in his heart as he thought of all the sorrow that would fall
upon the families back at their home port, on Nue Salzburg, once the
news of this engagement reached home. It was clear now that escape was
their only option. The next few minutes would determine whether they
lived or died. 

  Markmann studied the holotank carefully as he watched approaching
fleets meld together and skid to stops and turns like some horrible auto
accident on the autobahn. His heart was in his throat as he watched the
range LEDs spin down until he realized that they were going to make it.
The Alien commander had turned his entire fleet. All except one which
had turned in the opposite direction as a precaution and was going to
end up facing directly towards the /Moltke/! The enemy commander found
three of his four ships with their asses exposed towards his ship. It
was too good an opportunity to pass up. 

  "Weapons, I want half the batteries concentrating on delta 04, right
up the ass. The other half on Delta 03. I want /Balck/ concentrating on
03. Helm bring us to max acceleration." 

  "Bridge this is engineering, we've gotten the FTL drive back online."
There was a chorus of excited shouts at the good news. 

  "Firing now." Three of /Moltke's/ heavy particle accelerator
batteries stabbed out at the near point blank range of 700 kilometers
and hit the one Kra'Vak ship which was a threat to them, Delta 03. 
Markman watched in satisfaction as the beams all hit squarely and one of
the rail booms, which formed one arm of the U, broke off from the alien
ship. A second hit from the /Balck/ finished her off and she erupted in
flames as exploding gasses vented from the stricken vessel. The bridge
crew was too intent on their jobs to cheer. /Moltke's/ second salvo
stabbed out into the rear drive field of Delta 04, scoring at least one
solid hit. 

  All eyes were on /Balck/ as she maneuvered past delta four raking the
Kra'Vak's ship unprotected flank with beam fire. Suddenly the damaged
alien belched a cloud of projectiles, (or so it appeared), and the
/Balck's/ unarmored hull was riddled with penetrators, tearing through
systems, bulkheads and flesh at close range. The ships fusion core was
penetrated and for a split second the rear end of the destroyer shot
beams of energy out of the riddled hull until the weakened rear
structure gave away and the entire ship was consumed in an expanding
fusion explosion. All hands were lost. 

  "What kind of weapon was that?" Asked the XO. 

  "Unknown, Sir. It's not in our database. They definitely fired it out
of their flank and it wasn't a railgun. It was almost like a huge
shotgun. 

  "God." 

  "We're still dumping back to the colony?" 

  "Yes Sir." 

  "Helm roll us 180 degrees. Let's keep our undamaged side towards
them." 

  Now it fell to a desperate race between the Moltke's straining
engines and the turning ability of the Kra'Vak ships. /Moltke's/ engines
shuddered as they attempted to accelerate the battle cruiser out of
harms way. Hits punched into the battlecruiser's armored flank. Her
batteries stabbing out at the unprotected rear and flanks of her
adversaries. Perhaps they would escape. However the Kra'Vak frantically
spun their ships around, much faster than Markman had suspected they
could. Another series of hits shook his ship. Markmann was shaken
violently yet held in place by his shockframe. He reached up and closed
his visor. 

  "Main batteries two and four our down. Port PDAF and ADAF batteries
destroyed.  We've lost one damage control party." 

  "Keep firing!" Markman watched in horror as the aliens spun and
brought their guns to bear. At this close range they couldn't miss. He
watched as they belched another cloud of deadly short-ranged projectiles
towards his ship.  There was a series of explosion that wracked the
bridge as the penetrators tore through and Markman stared in horror at
his helmsman as he realized the boy was now missing his head. The arms
twitched grotesquely as if the body was still trying to work the
controls and get the ship out of harms way. Markmann felt a sickening
lurch as the gravity damper fluctuated off line for a split second and
violent acceleration from the dying Moltke attempted to crush him in his
seat. Then the dampers kicked in again. 

  "Oh my god! Herr Hauptmann!" Markmann stared at the communications
chief who was looking at him and pointing in anguish. Markmann looked
down a saw his boot hanging by a few tattered threads of flesh. That
meant his Vacc suit's integrity was broken, which explained his groggy
feeling…/my foot…my foot …my ship!/ Markmann leaned his head back, as
another salvo raked his ship and the bridge exploded into a bright
glare.