Carinae Sector: 02 - Admiral's Fury - Part 2 - Hidden Menace by David Buck Read Free Book Online

succeeded in breaking away from the ambush, but her commanders were up to the task and concentrated firepower from the forward destroyers quickly overwhelmed both civilian ships. A small explosion from one transport was followed by a much larger one from the second transport. She evaluated that the second ship was carrying missiles that had cooked off when the enemy ship was destroyed.
    ‘Well that is several enemy missiles that we will no longer have to worry about. Order the Tokyo and the Buenos Aires to withdraw to our rear as they have weakened shields and are now also in the line of fire.’
    The two destroyers in question broke off their attacks and headed away from the cornered Jerecab ships at a tangent. A torrent of weapons fire from the remaining destroyers flooded over the freighters and several large explosions occurred over the space of several minutes. Mary could see that their spinal mount weapons were now taking a heavy toll on the lifters, despite the larger ships having heavier shields. The destroyer commanders coordinated their attacks so that three or four particle cannon blasts would arrive in short order to bludgeon down the enemy ship’s shields.
    Mary looked across at the now spilt views showing on the main view screen, as the final pair of lifters was destroyed. She gave another dry comment as she took in the carnage.
    ‘Well the Jerecab are starting to pay a price for their attempts to destroy us. Hopefully the Barus can attempt to make them see reason and return to their own systems. All ships are to form up and we will leave the combat zone to return to the Aquamarine system via an indirect route.’
    Mary looked through the fleet status reports quickly and with no real concerns, for the recent battle had been heavily one sided. She again wondered on how Joel and the other commanders were going with their own individual efforts against the Jerecab. Their plans now called for the deployment of several smaller bases for refuelling and tech labs and she knew this was a risky undertaking. The human destroyers formed up into their squadron sections as they moved at speed off to an outer hyper drive location.
    After they have entered hyper space and left the star system, a stealthy small scout ship uncloaked several million kilometres from the recent combat zone. The young male Cephrit pilot chirred nervously as he piloted his craft forward, for the savagery of the battle had left him very anxious about surviving his mission. He was very concerned that at no stage did the humans even look like giving quarter to the Jerecab, even if he knew that this was not to be expected with the demands of modern battle.
    The scout pilot prudently cloaked his ship again as he neared the wreckage, for he was afraid of a trap. He had the tactics of the humans recorded, and had made accurate assessments of the types of weapons deployed. For the sake of further accuracy he deployed a small probe to recover pieces of the hull from the Jerecab ships.
    ‘The fleet master would definitely need to see this combat footage…’ the pilot decided, as he kept his multiple eyes warily scanning his sensor consoles for threats.
     
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    The two Maveen probes came to a rest several kilometres from the Sspol cruiser and began a detailed conversation between themselves with their communications lasers. The Dradfer probe noted the concerns of the other probe, even as it considered how the Earth probe and sector delegate would be going with their plans elsewhere in the galaxy. Now convinced about their timing for the agreed course of action, the Dradfer probe crafted a careful message to the patiently waiting Sspol.
    ‘Envoy Drannep; we thank you for your patience. The plan is now set for action and a later response, but we cannot be seen to be active in this part of the galaxy. We suggest that