Unity

Chapter 12

Most of the shots fired from the main group didn't hit anything. The real destruction came from behind. Mitch and Tina were coming in fast from their hiding spot, followed by six enemy fighters.

"Andrew, would you be so kind as to relieve the enemy of their fighters?" I requested.

"With pleasure," he responded. He took ten fighters and shot towards the incoming ships. By this time, the enemy had regrouped and was starting to organize their offense. Our surprise attack took out their battleships and half of their cruisers. If all went well, they would be without fighter support soon as well.

"Enemy ships destroyed," Andrew reported.

"Awesome. Take cover on the opposite side of the moon. They are down to five cruisers, but that is more than enough firepower to kill us all several times over. Be ready to take some of them out." I replied.

The missiles soon came streaking in. The cruisers seemed to be emptying their arsenal as fast as possible. I grinned as I realized that with the loss of their battleships, they had no railguns. Missiles could be intercepted, but it was hard to intercept a solid mass traveling near light speeds. "Get ready to return fire," I commanded. "Thad set a few missiles to detonate a safe distance away. Let's see if we can buy ourselves a few moments to catch our breathe. All ships, fire long range weapons after our missiles detonate."

Our missiles detonated, creating a chain reaction among the incoming missiles. It destroyed twelve incoming missiles and bought us several seconds. As the missiles detonated, I saw dozens of flashes along the hulls of our ships, heading towards the enemy cruisers. The familiar thump was felt through the floor as my assigned battleship added it's might to the others. There were some missiles among the salvo that was launched, but most of it was depleted uranium shells launched from the massive rail guns.

We scored hits on two of the cruisers, destroying one and disabling the other. The cruisers repositioned themselves and started firing again. This time they randomly changed directions, making it impossible to hit them with unguided munitions.

"You're up Andrew," I called out. "There are three enemy ships left. See what damage you can do." At the same time, I had the cruiser fire off a several missiles to keep the focus on us. Andrew's battleship, supported by Mitch's cruiser and fifteen fighters including Tina, shot towards the enemy ships at breakneck speeds. By the time the enemy cruisers repositioned to engage the unexpected threat, it was too late to use their more destructive munitions.

Andrew and the fighters made quick work of the enemy cruisers using close range weapons. That last encounter was costly though, as Andrew's battleship was heavily damaged and four of Tina's fighters were destroyed. I felt confident that we would win now, not a single shot had hit the space station. All we had to do was cause some damage to it, and I was sure we would win.

There was a ten-minute break after the first half of the mission. Everybody took the opportunity to relieve themselves and grab a protein bar and a bottle of water. We gathered outside of the simulators waiting to re-enter. "Remember the plan," I told everyone as we waited. "They have the home field advantage now. Watch for traps, and scatter ASAP."

The doors to the simulators then opened and everybody took their places. During our planning, we had decided to stick with the same fleet configuration as it had worked well for us in the past. The rail guns could do just as much damage as missiles to a space station and were harder to track. The battleships also had better defenses than the cruisers.

As soon as the mission started, I poured over the incoming information. Before I had a chance to really absorb the information, alarms were blaring.

"Incoming ordinance!" somebody yelled over the comms. I felt the ship shudder as a round glanced off the armor.

"Everyone scatter," I commanded. Several ships were reporting damage as we maneuvered to avoid further incoming rounds. It gave me a chance to look at the enemy fleet, and I instantly realized something was wrong. It took me a minute to realize what it was, they had way too many ships. I counted ten battleships and sixteen fighters. Based on the last round, we figured they had lost eight people in the semi-final round. I didn't have long to think about it, as we were evading more incoming fire.

Our fleet split into three groups and took off as fast as they could. One group was headed up and left, one up and right, and my group was going straight down. The further we separated; the fewer shots were fired at us. As we got into position, they had stopped firing all together. After several seconds, the battleships started to reorganize based on our positions, it was then that it hit me.

"The battleships aren't fully manned." I said aloud.

"That makes sense," said Jen. "I did some quick math. There are only two people aboard each battleship."

"So, they can't fire and fly at the same time. It takes two to do either task" said Thad.

"New plan," I called out to the rest of the fleet. "The enemy's battleships are undermanned. This means they can shoot or fly, but not both. Each group is going to have to act independently and find your own holes. Let's exploit this weakness as much as possible."

"Drew," I said. "Find the nearest blind spot for those battleships. Jen, start moving once you have the coordinates. Keep the speed at a steady pace." I opened a channel to my two cruisers. "Commence firing at the station. Use one second delays between volleys to conserve ammo. When I give the signal, unload all tubes."

The enemy fleet was a disorganized mess. It looked like they tried to keep one gunner and have the pilot fly blind. There were several near misses between ships, and I smiled as I saw several shots pierce the space station. No critical damage had been done yet, but it was only a matter of time.

As the seconds ticked on, our distance to the station decreased, giving the opposing team less time to adjust and stop incoming fire. I gave the order, and we unloaded as many missiles and depleted uranium rounds as we could. The familiar vibrating of the deck plates made me grin as I imagined the effect it had on the opposition. After three seconds of non-stop firing, I gave the signal to resume one second delays. I watched with anticipation as the enemy tried to cope with the incoming salvo. They tried to divert ships from other areas, but that just created holes elsewhere, which my team took advantage of. We had one missile and two rail gun rounds make it to the space station. The missile was a small one, but the damage it caused was catastrophic. A larger missile came from the other side and finished off the station.

We rushed out of our simulators and started cheering, I couldn't believe we had won. Just then Admiral Jones walked around the corner. We all jumped to attention, but not even the sight of the Admiral could wipe the smiles off our faces. He watched us for a minute then said, "Not bad. Enjoy your break. You're dismissed."

We waited for him to turn the corner before taking off to our barracks to pack for our much-needed vacation.