A Titan's Vengeance (The Great War Book 2) by Ralph Kern

Author:Ralph Kern [Kern, Ralph]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: military science fiction, hard science fiction, Science Fiction, second world war, bismarck, adventure
Publisher: Ralph Kern
Published: 2020-04-05T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 22

Admiral Sarven

Tantalus System – HAS Behemoth

Sarven stared blankly at his ready room’s console screen, frustrated at his lack of ability to articulate what had just happened in the Hellas System. His war diary barely contained anything beyond ensuring the positioning updates had been automatically uploaded. But, unlike Lasik’s log, this document was also there to record his opinions, as well as raw facts. A journal, of a kind, which his peers and future generations could use to guide their thinking. He didn’t like to think of himself as an arrogant man, no matter what people whispered when they thought he wasn’t listening. But still, it was strange, and humbling, to think that future generations of young officers in training could be reviewing this, striving to divine some meaning from it. Father Terra, they’d probably be writing essays on it. Like he’d had to at the War College when he’d reviewed the diaries of the magnificent Imperium commanders of the First Great War.

He gave a sigh of frustration and leaned back in his chair. To think, the events of these days would be thought of like those of the Battle of Orchan.

His orders hadn’t even considered the possibility of such an overwhelming victory. Cronus had gone down like a boxer with a glass jaw. Replays had shown the heavy pulse round slamming into her mid-point and burrowing deep. The only conclusion was it had hit the fusion core forming the heart of the ship. That was most certainly what it looked like. The containment field had struggled for long seconds to retrain the titanic energies within, then finally gave in. A geyser of plasma had erupted, flaring from her flank.

And then she’d died.

A single escape pod, transponder bleeping, had contained the only survivors. He didn’t know how many had been huddled inside. But even a glimpse said it was unlikely to be more than a handful, and a small one at that.

Then they’d turned their attention on the Vengeance-class battleship. The same replays had finally given her a name. Achilles. One of the few new ships in the Kingdom’s aging fleet.

Should he have continued the attack on Achilles? Maybe. She had been hurt. Badly. But a battleship’s thick-armored hide would have been much tougher to crack than the sleek and ultimately vulnerable battlecruiser. They were designed to take blows. Although, he had been a little surprised at how quickly her cannons had silenced. Another freak shot? Maybe. The seasoned spacer in him suggested something else. The Vengeance-classes were new. Undoubtedly untested in the kind of battle they’d just faced. As was Behemoth. But there was a difference. He felt a smile touch his lips. Galton production quality control was second to none. When she left the Thule Shipyards, she was expected to be in peak condition. The Kingdom took a different view, trading production speed for quality and hoping they could work out the kinks later.

He gave a mental shrug. Each had their advantages, he supposed. It meant the Kingdom had many more hulls.

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