Crusade chapter 5 (standard:science fiction, 1831 words) [5/11] show all parts
Author: St George	Added: Mar 11 2003	Views/Reads: 2360/1768	Part vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
chapter 5

The space-dock was a huge structure; an artificial ring encircling a
planetary moon, it was home for the Anduril's largest fleet, and, with 
a pair of warships now to guard it the fleet could depart, they would 
split into several battle groups and attack many different points 
simultaneously. 

For nearly three weeks Crusader patrolled, occasionally receiving news
from the front but most of the time just waiting; morale on board was 
getting precarious, soldiers don't like being put on the sidelines 
whilst others go to battle, there was a rumour that Anduril command 
(High commanders of the alliance) distrusted humans and wanted to keep 
their involvement to a minimum. Until the Anduril fleet arrived home 
there was a fair degree of animosity toward the Andurils from some of 
the crew that Carver could do little to counteract. Then nine days 
later the fleet returned. Despite achieving almost complete surprise 
and destroying most of its designated targets the sortie had not gone 
well; they had suffered almost thirty percent casualties including the 
fleet leader, the battleship Grond, one of three sister ships. Grond 
had been rammed by a light cruiser and broken in two. The Andurils' 
other two battleships were assigned to other fleets and with the news 
of Grond's destruction word spread through Crusader - their time had 
come. Crusader joined the fleet, now led by the Kerray-win. Throughout 
the fleet spirits were high; battleships take time and an enormous 
amount of raw material to produce (had it not been for the scavenged 
Behemoth and asteroid material shipped from Mars, Crusader could not 
have been built). Before the battle of Bernard's star it was known that 
the Megaerans had five battleship type vessels; one was destroyed so 
they now had four, but the Megaerans knew that the Andurils had only 
three and now Grond was destroyed they thought their enemy had only 
two.  They didn't know about Crusader or the rest of the Stellar navy. 

The decision was made to exploit this gap in the enemy's intelligence as
soon as possible with an assault on a Megaeran staging area where one 
of the enemy's battleships was known to be, along with a small (type 
and number unknown) fleet. The enemy seemed to think the Andurils 
wouldn't dare attack here without a battleship and they were right ... 
but the Andurils did have one, Crusader. Because of the perceived 
safety the enemy's escort fleet was less than would otherwise have been 
employed. 

Sent to engage the enemy was only a small fleet: Crusader, Broadsword
and Kerray-win escorted by one Anduril corvette, one human corvette 
(SNS Shogun) three Anduril destroyers and two Longbow class human 
frigates (SNS Longbow and SNS Iron Pirate). If escorted by other ships 
the frigates were extremely powerful because they possessed a 
terrifying array of 16 forward facing torpedo tubes, one volley of 
Harbingers would cripple a medium cruiser and annihilate any lesser 
ship, the trade off being that the frigates were vulnerable if 
undefended. 

Both Anduril battleships were in other sectors and no doubt being
carefully tracked by the enemy, so it was hoped that the attack would 
take them by surprise. The fleet may have been small in number, but 
with a battleship and two cruisers backed up by 7 lesser ships it 
packed a punch. This fleet, codenamed Hunter Six, was tasked to destroy 
the Megaeran fleet, after which the lesser ships would head for home 
and Crusader, Kerray-win and Broadsword would then follow a wide 
parabolic course through Megaeran space back to the Anduril border 
destroying anything they saw along the way. This was what Crusader was 
created to do. She was a hunter at large, with carte blanch to destroy 
anything that got in her way; morale was good, everyone on board had 
joined up to fight and now they were going for the jugular, a 
battleship, a worthy, an equal even .... almost.. 

“Captain?” Alecto appeared beside him in his office. “Yes, Alecto?” “I
have discovered something interesting.” “Shoot.” “My name, you called 
me Alecto after the mythological furie, right?” “Yes, you needed a name 
and, since we couldn't predict what your personality would be before 
you went on-line I decided to opt for something fitting to the mind of 
a warship; I called you after Alecto, the unceasing in anger.” “Yes 
Captain, I am familiar with the myth, that is what I find interesting. 
I used to find it ironic that I was named for a creature of anger, and 
yet I felt no anger myself. Yet now, my mind has been occupied by the 
war. When we destroyed the Megaeran battleship I felt joy, yet when the 
Megaerans destroyed Grond I felt anger, despite the fact that they had 


Click here to read the rest of this story (95 more lines)