290 Reconquest of the outer citadel 2 (1/2)
”Boy this drive sure is smooth, please extend my gratitude to your contacts over at Lazarus.”
Hardly needing to brace or even able to notice a difference or movement in the cup of coffee he was drinking, fleet admiral Simmons turned to Dax in amazement, even after experiencing such a smooth ride over 50 times already he still was amazed every single time.
”Will do Simmons.”
Exiting the jump inside hostile territory, the attitude in the bridge of the battleship Ingenuity was surprisingly relaxed, at least among the two commanding officers.
”Scan for immediate contacts and launch the barrage ships and fighters, I want a 30 light second secure area for the rest of the fleet.”
”Yes ma'am, the 2nd and 3rd fighter group are scrambling.”
”Report from gravseq, all ships have latched on to the beacon successfully, we'll be fully reinforced in 10 minutes.”
With two X.O's between them, Dax and Simmons hardly needed to do a thing outside of combat, this was the reason for their overall relaxed attitude.
”Immediate contact! Baring 081, range, 2109 light seconds! Second contact, bearing 333, range 3039 light seconds! both closing range rapidly!”
With the report of hostile contact, the bridge suddenly went into a controlled frenzy with orders and reports rapidly exchanged throughout the room, but still, Simmons and Dax remained quite lax.
”Here come the first ones, they are really eager to fight today huh?”
”That would be because this is the first time in a few hundred years we've been on the offence, the Emergence properly didn't expect us to fight back all of a sudden.”
After a tiny bit of more small talk, Dax's attitude changed together with fleet admiral Simmons' as the two men started to smile at each other.
”I'll leave this to you, Simmons. You have the conn.”
”Identify those contacts immediately and launch a preemptive strike with the railguns! Task IMI to look for incoming ordinance and issue a warning to deployed fighters, warn them of the contact and tell them to be wary of mines while completing their original task! Deploy the barrage ships in a fan formation, orders are to stand by for point defence!”
Transforming from a jolly old man into a highly decorated fleet admiral in the blink of an eye, Simmons started barking orders while power was diverted from none essentials into the capacitors of the ships brand new and singing 720 mill Lazarus anti ship class railguns eagerly absorbed the charge they were given, in a matter of seconds they were charged and opened fire, accelerating their serval ton heavy proximity fuse payloads to high fractions of the speed of light in a split second.
”First gun salvo is away! The two contacts are not manoeuvring, impact on targets in approximately 35 seconds!”
[IMI REPORTS: 45 INCOMING LARGE CLASS PROJECTILES, KILLING WITH HEL AND CWIS.]
Seeing how the hostiles made little attempt at fire back, Simmons identified their strategy as a suicide ramming. Working from that assumption he started countering their intentions.
”First salvo hit! Good effect on target, contact 1 slowing acceleration, contact 2 remains unchanged!”
”Give me a firing solution on those drives, load AP and engage as soon as ready! IMI task all available HEL's, blind their sensors!”
[ROGER, SATUATING TARGETS WITH HEL, IMI REPORTS: 34 INCOMING LARGE CLASS PROJECTILES, KILLING WITH CWIS.]
”Targets identified! Contact 1 is the battlecruiser Freedom while contact 2 is the fast attack cruiser Bravery!”
While the reality of the hostile ships being fallen allies was disturbing, admiral Simmons was not dissuaded from destroying them in the slightest, those aboard the Emergence ships were already dead, his current job was to ensure that his own crew survived.
”Navigation, issue ship wide collision alert! Prepare for rapid acceleration and evasion manoeuvres!”
”Second salvo is away! TTI contact 1, 20 seconds, TTI contact 2, 13 seconds!”
”Navigation accelerate astern, flank bell!”