Great Losses, Great Sacrifice chapter 6 : FIRE

[steveo1259]

Chapter 6 : FIRE!

The excelsior pounded across the sector with the Xenon ship in hot pursuit. Nobody knew how this would turn out and with the universe only just recovering from the last war it was in no position to wage another one, even with the excelsior’s advanced systems and weapons. The ship quickly closed the distance to the makeshift gate.

“Sir, weapons range attained”
“Fire at will”

Orange beams shot across space towards one of the black ships, the beams seemed to have a greater affect than the plasma pouring from the hundreds of xenon ships around the gate, tearing holes through the skin of the black ships. Launching five hornets right down the black ships throat, the excelsior stormed past the dying ship firing a prolonged beam across the side of the target.
It was only then that the helmsman found out about the rear weapons on the black ship. It fired as soon as the excelsior was in range, hitting the underside of the massive ship, taking the shields down to 73%. The excelsior came round for the killing blow only to be caught in another blast from one of the black ships. Its shields now at 56% the excelsior launched 5 more missiles to finish off the black ship.

When the explosion cleared there was only a torn, jagged liquid oozing carcass left. Another black ship died as the Xenon ships launched missiles at it, then the last two black ships started lining up on the xenon mother-ship and fired. The xenon ship survived with barely a sliver of a shield strength left.
“Report” shouted the Captain
“Shields at 60%, down to 95 missiles and weapons at 98%, the xenon have taken over 20 capital ships loses and hundreds of fighters have gone.”
“Bring us round, line us up onto the third black ship and fire all weapons.”

The excelsior came round onto its new heading; accelerating to full speed the ship fired three beams at once, all at the same point. The missile launchers launched 3 more missiles as soon as the beams stopped, opening a massive hole in the side of the black ship. As the excelsior flew over the black ship, the xenon let rip with every bullet of plasma they had.
The black ship started spiraling downwards. Dead. The fourth was dead before the excelsior could switch target.

“Bring us onto a heading with the gate. Fire at will!”

Even as he spoke two hundred firestorms from the Xenon where heading towards the gate, but they didn’t get there. The gate launched its defense. A massive sphere of blue light which grew at an alarming rate swallowed the missiles rendering them instantly dead. Deactivated.

“Sir, our weapons are having no affect against the gate and the xenon’s are faring little better. Recomm… sixteen ships entered sector, there black ships. About as big as the old titan.”

“What are the Xenon doing?”

“There firing weapons, captain.”

“Destroy eight enemy ships and bring us about, full speed to west gate.”

“Aye, captain”

Two ships where down before the excelsior was close enough to get a lock, the third died quickly and the fourth fired at the excelsior before they could take it down. Sparks flew over the bridge as everyone flew over the floor. The captain made it back to his seat, as he looked at the view screen he screamed. They where going to ram the fifth black ship.

“FULL REVERSE!” Screamed the captain.

They didn’t stop, the ship ploughed through the smaller ship killing it instantly.

“shields critical” the computer intoned in what the captain thought was a less than urgent tone.

“Hull breaches on decks 9,10 and 11, sections 4 through 10”

“Get us out of here!” said the captain, ever conscious of the fact the flagship of the argon fleet had almost been destroyed.

They managed to get 10KM out from the main battle when a blast caught the excelsior, its shields taken down to only 10%. It launched 3 groups of 5 missiles and the fire abruptly stopped. They got to only 20KM out from the gate when the scanners where overloaded with white noise, the ship shook violently. As the scanners cleared the situation had just got so much worse. Over a thousand more little black ships, all around the excelsior. The bridge shook as they opened fire, it didn’t seriously harm the excelsior but if the bombardment continued it would.

“REPORT!” screamed the exhausted captain.
“over a thousand ships in the area, weapons standing ready to open fire at any target of opportunity” the bridge was shaking so much, the captain could have sworn it had detached itself, “ fire at your command, SIR”
“FIRE!”

Five beams shot out, almost simultaneously from different parts of the ship, five small explosions appeared as soon as the beams shot. With the excelsior firing light missiles as well the enemies were soon dispersed enough to let the massive ship past. It reached the gate without any more problems and did an immediate jump to the Argons home Sector, Argon Prime.

thanks for reading, any comments always welcome
i also included pics of the flagship i made in my spare time

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course the enterprise e name can be changed to excelsior later, when i learn how to do it