Ashes of Armageddon: Last World Volume 3 by Shane Gries

Author:Shane Gries [Gries, Shane]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Cannon Publishing
Published: 2024-04-02T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 12

Bott didn’t have to think about issuing instructions to her section before an auto-launch sequence cycled her Goshawk into the aft launch port and punched her into space. She’d already sortied when another anti-ship missile detonated amidships on Aquila. She only knew this from the chatter coming across the command net and it didn’t sound good.

She scrolled through reports that came in faster than she could possibly absorb. “Drool, are you and Stammer okay?” Bott checked her own internal section and saw Bogan and Cold Sore were free and clear, but couldn’t make out much else due to electromagnetic clutter.

“Yeah, I’m good but don’t know about anybody else, too much interference,” Drool said.

“Bott, it’s Stammer. I’m good, same here. Lots of noise blocking out my passive sensors. We are definitely in someone’s EW bubble.”

Bott couldn’t make heads or tails out of her tactical plot. Everything appeared convoluted and in disarray. She tried to get a basic idea of who had made it out of the launch tubes, their location, and what direction she was headed. Everything contradicted itself and nothing made any sense.

“Dutch, this is Bott. Several of us are clear of Aquila, but we’re experiencing massive electronic interference. We might as well be blind.”

“Roger that, Bott, same here… standby.”

“Break, break, break… this is Paddy. CAG raised me on the command net and said he’ll be beaming us updates directly from his Command and Control bird since all our passive sensors are jammed. Stand by.”

Kershaw couldn’t help herself, kept adjusting her inputs and running diagnostic updates though she knew there was no point. She’d have to wait until CAG on the C2 bird started pumping in real-time updates. How in the hell can we be so utterly blind? No EW interference is this effective. The farther you are from the emitters, the less effective the noise is. For something this good we’d have to be practically on top of…

Before she could finish the thought, her holographic plot flickered into focus. She could now see where she was in relation to everyone else in her attack squadron, along with the rest of the larger task force and space wing and it didn’t look good.

Her task force ships were scattered to hell and back. The centerpiece of Task Force Jabari was HMCS Aquila and the carrier was getting pummeled. There were cruisers, frigates, and destroyers stretched out over light-seconds, the overall formation broken up. They didn’t look like a coherent fighting force. Worse, the interceptor and strike fighter squadrons were cruising off into every direction.

When Aquila took its first hit, the automatic systems kicked on. Countermeasures deployed and any manned spacecraft got shot into vacuum to clear the flight decks as quickly as possible. From what she could tell, practically all of them had been flung free of the carrier before it took its second hit.

She scanned for bogeys, even while Paddy lit his “rally” beacon. She couldn’t find anything, but didn’t find that surprising. They were so close to the

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