CROSSFIRE - Atlantis DSV - New Cape Quest

“Five seconds to impact!”
...The Alliance attack was heavy and sustained. In the last few seconds it took the
enemy missiles to reach his carrier, Banick thought back to the battered form of the
Reverence herself and quietly cursed his position. One by one, his intercepts struck down
the alliance torpedoes – but there simply hadn‟t been enough time. The first round slammed
in to Reverence‟s keel hard, ripping apart the bioskin and buckling support frames. The
second exploded forward of the ship‟s missile hatches, opening the port side corridors on Bdeck
to the sea. The section was lost instantly as pressure doors came down, but not before
a third and fourth torpedo blew apart the adjacent bulkhead – taking with it the port side
quarter torpedo battery.
The bridge rocked violently as alarms blared in every quarter. The deck continued to
rumble under Banick‟s feet as the ship started to list, and he pointed an accusing finger at
the engineering master status consoles. “Seal off those sections! Equalize ballast tanks
starboard!”
“Already done, sir,” the engineer confirmed, shaking his head as the battlecruiser
rippled off another salvo of torpedoes in reply. “We can‟t do this for long, Admiral. They‟re
targeting main and secondary systems. We just lost fire control for batteries one through four
along with main ballast control on tanks five and six port side. We need to pull back.”
“Agreed,” Ainsley conceded calmly. “All engines back one third, but keep our bows
on them. Rotate all batteries to intercept rounds and lay down a suppression barrage.”
Banick walked to Ainsley‟s station next to the main plot and leaned over to whisper,
although it came out as a growl. “Admiral, respectfully, we are outgunned and well inside a
preferred firing posture. That carrier can hold us off without any help from those cruisers. We
should pull back in full and regroup with the Monarch.”
To both Ainsley and Banick‟s surprise, it was Richards that interjected, shaking his
head from flight operations. “Captain, the Admiral is correct. I‟m betting Captain Ford nearly
did the exact same thing. But their cruisers haven‟t moved.”
“Mister Richards, I assume you have a point.”
The Wing Commander did not disappoint. “Those Octavians haven‟t moved, sir. If we
give them a blind quarter by withdrawing, they‟ll move forward and overwhelm us. We can
take a few torpedoes, but we won‟t survive a sustained assault from thirty-two heavy
subduction rifles at close range. The only reason they haven‟t done so already is that they
know if they try to get any closer, we‟ll bury them in ordnance before they can even get
intercept locks. They lose every advantage by closing now, and if they split up we‟ll pick
them off.”
Ainsley smiled inwardly, nodding all the while. “Your wing commander is entirely
correct, Captain. We‟ll hold until Carpenter can form on our line.” Ainsley looked over his
shoulder at Richards once again “How far away are the Enterprise bombers?” he called.
“Five minutes, Admiral. They‟re coming in hard – I‟ve got the Dark Angels covering
their ingress.”
Lurking not far from Commonwealth, a two-ship formation silently slipped between
the Alliance fleet pickets by way of an Island strait, all but unseen by watchful eyes of the
Macronesian task force that was now so focused on the Commonwealth and her fighters.
Moving as if they were giant steel blades through the deep, the battlecruisers NSC Repulse
and UEO Monarch – another sister of the Commonwealth and Reverence - were truly
regents of war.
Admiral Sir James Carpenter had watched the entire painful exchange between the
Commonwealth and the two Saracens intently, and knew things would not end well for the
UEO flagship unless they arrived soon. His own command, a Renown class battlecruiser,
was perhaps more fitting of the title when compared to its UEO cousins, having completely
eschewed a flight deck in favour of what was the heaviest payload of torpedo armaments for
any ship in her weight class.
Carpenter hadn‟t hesitated when he deferred to the authority of Mark Ainsley. Indeed,
many other officers in the NSC fleet would have baulked at the decision given the UEO
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