Second Face of Evil
by AJ Marks
Part 5
The alien ship slowly approached the asteroid belt with hundreds of eyes upon it. Everyone waited for the massive ship the size of a small planet to reach the point everyone waited for. Inside it housed everything the aliens needed for planetary stripping and conquering. Its limited scanning ability would not detect the ships in the asteroid belt.
David watched on board the Pacifica as the signal grew stronger with each passing second. Looking down at eth screen his laptop was showing the progress on trying to communicate with the alien computers. He silently urged the computer on to make the connection.
“Yes,” he said quietly as the connection was made. He quickly commanded the computer to send the virus to the mother ship.
They knew from past experience that there would be a slight delay from the transmission of the virus to when it became effective. The time would be used to get into position as David informed the bridge of the success.
No one knew if the virus would be effective this time as well, only hope nothing changed in twenty years. All that time they had studied how the virus filtered down to the other ships and a counter appeared in his computer screen.
He leaned back knowing that when the counter reached zero the attack would begin. He could do little except monitor the computers looking for weaknesses along with the others in the room.
They all waited to hear if the virus was effective or if the second one would have to be sent. Once the battle began other viruses would be sent out hoping to confuse the enemy, including the Jolly Rodgers virus he sent the first time which disrupted the alien’s screens.
*****
Admiral John White looked down at the screens watching the seconds tick by waiting for the virus to be effective. The moment David confirmed the virus was uploaded the timer was activated on all ships. This way they hoped not to waste any ammo on shots to the shields.
“Inform all ships, break and attack,” John said to the crew. Fighters launched from the ship as the warships became to emerge from the asteroid belt. This was the moment they were trained for.
“All fighters launched, still no response from the target,” he heard the reply come in. “Wait, we’re getting movement from the surface, a spike in communications traffic on board, probably launching fighters.”
“Target any openings and fire the nukes,” John said. He hoped to avoid any armor and destroy the ship from the inside. Such a shot would be lucky but he would not plan on such a hit.
“Nukes away,” the fire control officer replied.
“Bring all shields to full power,” John said, hoping the shield would provide them with some protection against the EMP of the nukes or they would be sitting ducks.
He looked at het scanners which indicated hundreds of enemy fighters, if not thousands, swarmed out of the enemy ship. It was the one things which concerned John, being so outnumbered in fighters. The one thing they hoped was the failure of the enemy ships to give them an advantage.
The first nuke struck an alien fighter and exploded. There was a bright flash of light as the nuke struck and John hoped two things. One that the enemy ship took some damage and the second that it destroy hundreds of enemy fighters. This was the first move of the battle which could go either way.
*****
“Commander,” Omega said, walking up to where Tigh stood. “We’ve picked up massive EMP waves.”
“Nuclear weapons?” Tigh asked, wanting to make sure.
“It looks that way,” Omega stated.
“Situation of the battle?” Tigh asked, making his way over to the scanners to see for himself.
“A lot of fighters in the area, makes it difficult to get an accurate picture of what’s going on,” Omega replied back to him.
Tigh looked down at the screen watching the mass of fighters which he had not seen since before the destruction of the Colonies. After a few seconds he realized what the Earthers were doing.
“I see, the nukes eliminate the fighters where the hangars are. An interesting tactic, and one that could give them an advantage by either destroying a lot of fighters or damaging the hangar,” Tigh said. The tactic was used by both the Cylons and Colonials in their battles though it was difficult to achieve.
Even as he watched several large disc-shaped craft broke away from the main ship.
“Looks like this got more interesting,” Tigh said watching the battle before coming up with an idea. “Get me Commander Apollo.”
*****
“Admiral, the scanner operator said from his position on the bridge gaining John’s attention.
He looked over switching his attention from the fire control to see what was going on. He expected what he saw but did not like it one bit. One advantage was they knew how to destroy those ships. He looked down to see how the battle was going. The fleet had taken some losses but the enemy had taken more.
“Tell squadrons three, twenty-one and sixteen to attack the saucer ships, remind them to keep some ammo in reserve to attack their main weapons,” John ordered. The main weapons was something they had not been able to replicate due to the massive damage they took.
The Earth ships began to close the distance with weapons firing from all directions as fighters from both sides engaged each other. John knew if the sight was not so deadly the battle might almost appear beautiful. Each bright flash indicated someone who lost their life.
He stumbled slightly as the Pacifica was struck. He looked over at damage control to see what the damage was. He felt relieved learning the shields were holding and they suffered minor damage. The shields of the enemy were down and as long as they had shields the advantage was theirs. If the aliens managed to overcome the virus it would tip the balance back to them.
One of the larger saucer ships made its way towards the Pacifica firing its weapons. The Pacifica responded in kind with return fire. The difference between the two ships now was the shields which protected the Pacifica from major damage while the alien ship suffered damage.
A green bolt of energy, or plasma, struck the Pacifica’s shields causing a small ripple in the shield but it held. All along the forward end of the Pacifica the shield rippled under the weight of the alien fire. The Pacifica replied with its own orange laser fire which impacted on the unshielded armor of the alien ship.
John hoped they managed to survive the battle.
*****
The Earth forces were taking losses as well in the battle. Dylan flew made another tight turn feeling the G’s on his body as he completed the turn. Even in space such tight turns created G forces. He used the same processes air force pilots used.
He blinked as his wingman’s fighter suddenly exploded from several alien fighters which appeared. His eyes narrowed as he turned his fighter to line up the first alien fighter and fired.
“This is for Yvonne,” Dylan said as orange bolts flew from his fighter. The alien ship exploded. They were very venerable without their shields.
He turned and took out a few more and quickly did a mental count of the fighters left in his squadron. They were down to about half so far. A bump on his fighter indicated his shields had been hit. Quickly turning he checked on the condition of the shields glad to see it still holding.
He pressed the trigger again watching another alien fighter explode. He thought with as many enemy fighters they had destroyed they might be making a dent in their number, yet there seemed to be thousands of fighters in space. He looked around for his next target when the call came over the intercom. Risking a glance he looked over he noticed one of the large saucer ships preparing to fire its main weapon.
“Anyone not engaged take out target gamma, its preparing to fire its primary weapon,” Dylan said over the intercom. He was too far away to make a difference, but someone else might be closer.
*****
John watched the scanners which indicated one of the saucer ships rotated a bit to line up with one of his ships. He heard the call over the intercom that it was about to fire its primary weapon. He hoped a fighter could intercept and destroy the ship. The Pacifica was not in a position to attack the alien ship and he had a more pressing concern with another saucer ship.
John watched the scanners which indicated a surge in power and he finally identified the ship which was targeted, a destroyer. If nothing was done the destroyer would probably be destroyed even with the shields.
Even as he watched a new surge as the energy appeared to be disrupted. He saw a chain reaction within the alien ship as it backfired. If he had been able to watch it he would have seen jets of flame shoot out from the saucer ship into space. Seconds later it was a black hulk floating in space, dead.
John relaxed slightly knowing one saucer was out of action but there were still several more to go. He knew with that action the aliens would probably think twice before firing the primary weapon again. Personally he hoped few more alien ships would try it for an easy take out.
The Pacifica rocked slightly from a hit as he changed his focus on the saucer ship approaching his ship. The shields held as the Pacfica returned fire.
“Admiral, we’re taking losses to our fighters, squadron leaders are not sure how much longer they will be able to support the fleet and attack the saucer ships,” John was told.
He did not like that thought. If they lost the fighter screen everything might be over. He did not want to call in the Atlantica and her fleet unless he had to. It meant he would have no backup and they used all of their resources for one mothership. He racked his brains to try and come up with another idea.
*****
“Commander, we’ve reached our position,” Apollo heard his second in command say.
“Sound red alert,” Apollo said waiting only a micron until the bridge was bathed in a red light along with the familiar klaxons as the crew readied themselves for combat. Apollo look back at his bridge crew. “What’s the situation?”
“Both sides are taking a beating sir,” the reply came back. “Scanners indicate roughly fifteen large saucer shaped sections which came from the mother ship. Of those two appear to have been disabled. The large mothership has taken light damage and both sides have taken heavy fighter losses, but the Earth forces are outnumber about ten to one.”
“Earth losses?” Apollo asked hoping for better news.
“Their shields are allowing them to take a lot of damage and they are giving better than they are taking. It appears at least a few ships are heavily damaged, most still have their shields holding.
Apollo looked over the scanners for several microns formulating a plan in his mind. With a decision made he turned to address the crew with his plan.
*****
“Admiral, Captain Johnson of the Parizis is requesting permission to back off and repair some damage,” one of the officers reported to John.
He looked down at the scanners for where the Parixis was and realized it would leave a small hole in the trap and toyed with the idea of bringing up another destroyer to make up for the loss. At the moment he was not sure it would work.
“Tell the captain he had permission,” John finally said. It was better to have the ship you could repair than build a new ship.
Now he thought about calling for reinforcements. He tried hard not to use them and use up any advantage he might have left. One wrong move and the battle could turn against him quickly.
He looked over at the active fighter board and winced at how many they had lost. They had lost over half the fighters already. If this attrition continued they would not survive the battle. He agonized over the decision. Any losses among the reinforcement meant less ships they would use against the second mothership.
He still had to destroy the mothership as a message to the other one they had that power.
The Pacifica rocked with a massive hit causing him to fall to the floor. Picking himself up he heard the frantic voices as people rushed to work.
“Damage to decks seven and eight, forward shield integrity down by seventy percent,” he heard someone say.
“Increase power to the forward shields, take it from the thrusters if you have to,” John heard the captain say as they all knew they needed those shields to survive.
“Admiral, incoming ship,” the scanner operator said.
John felt a bit puzzled by that. He had not ordered any new ships into the area, and Admiral Teminis would not have sent any without informing him. He now had to wonder what ship it was.
“We have an ID, it’s the Colonial battlestar Pegasus.”
End part 5