Starship: First Steps to Empire by R J Murray

Author:R J Murray [Murray, R J]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2016-02-17T07:00:00+00:00

Chapter 4 Payback

The Astangii led the small fleet toward the rogue planet. Asgard and the Courageous flanked the ship as Deaths Head and the Star Gazer circled around the far side of the planet scanning the surface.

“We have three separate areas showing as a base. Two look dead and open to space. The third is at planetary position nine-seven zero by delta four. Courageous standing by.”

“Roger that. Warm up your nukes and everything else in case they still have weapons and ships. We will use pattern Omega Seven on first flyby.”

“Omega Seven, roger.” All ships responded.

“Take us in Mr. Reed, close as you can.”

“Yes Sir.”

The plan was to let the Asgard and Courageous to appear to be attacking the Astangii and let the bad guys come out and join the fun. If it worked, the rest should be easy. Kill or take over the enemy ships then take out the planetary base.

“Nothing yet. One million kilometers from planet.” Reed called out the distance every few minutes.

“Five hundred thousand from planet.”

“Two hundred thousand.”

“Launch! Two ships heading to intercept. On plot.” Chucked keyed in the coordinates and the two red dots showed up on the navigation hologram.

“All hands, stand by for Catroph attack.”

“Fifty thousand to first ship.” Chucked called out distances as they closed.

“Twenty thousand to first and twenty one to second.”

“All ships, begin Omega Seven now.”

The Astangii vanished as a micro jump took them a million kilometers away. They watched on the screen from Asgard as the two alien ships slowed and matched formation with the Asgard and Courageous for a few minutes. Suddenly both alien ships stopped accelerating and began drifting.

“Computer takeover complete. Alien ships helpless. Emitters launched and encircling ships. Emitters firing. Computer indicates crew taking counter measures against computer.” The Asgard reported “Permission to launch zeeks.”

“Do it.” Eric said.

Several flares appeared on the hulls of both ships and suddenly the two Catroph ships vented atmosphere from a dozen places. The misty cloud surrounded the ships giving them the appearance of small ice planets for a few minutes.

“Alright. Time for the planet. Courageous, confirm ships are dead before joining any action. Use whatever means necessary to insure your safety. We want ships, but not at too high a cost. All other ships begin delta five assault.” Eric relayed to the fleet.

Astangii jumped back in to ten thousand kilometers and began scanning the base. The other three ships closed in and did the same. It took a few seconds before the base began launching missiles.

“We have multiple launches, at least ten nukes. Firing counter measures. Goblins away.” Chuck said.

“Jump to second attack point.” Eric ordered.

The Astangii did a micro jump of only five thousand kilometers, so quick the human eye didn’t have a chance to register the FTL effects. The other ships did the same after firing goblins. From the new positions they all fired at least one small nuke at the base and half a dozen torpedoes at surface installations.

The goblins began tossing out the globes and maneuvering toward the base, accelerating as they went.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.