City of IF

[sparta12]

Virtual
Chapter 17: Serabus


The sixty-four year old navy Commander stood only an inch away from the screen on board the bridge of the Flagship Pride. He was giving out orders and observing the battle before him.
'I want two battleships, one corvette and four frigates to guard that wormhole. We did not fight these fuckers for thirty years just to let them escape now!' Commander Alterar gave the order to the sailor before turning around to stare at the advancing Boragnians. The commander looked over at the battle radar to find all kinds of coloured reticles on the screen and behind the staggered lines of red reticles was the Boragnian home planet which had been named: The Hordes Nest.
Alterar then noticed something disturbing in the distance that was heading for the Seventh FEN Fleet. It was a large red beam but it resembled the same kind of beam that he had witnessed many years ago... Where had he seen it?
Great Saint Peter... They have a Serabus!
Alterar ran over to the radio that was on the war table in the centre of the bridge and, picked up a radio from the pillar that reached down from the roof and stopped a few metres away from the map. He configured the settings for the transmission to go to all the ships in the entire navy but before he finished configured the beam from the Serabus ship engulfed a frigate, blew through a cruiser and finally into a battleship. All in the one shot. The frigate was no more than one or two floating pieces of debris, the cruiser had a burning red curve that ran down the entire ship on the bottom right and the Battleship had taken the least amount of damage.
The radio roared with frantic voices
'Oh my god! They just tore through the frigate Emblem!'
'This is the Cruiser Shadow we've lost almost all navigational control! All engines are down! We're fucked up real bad!'
'Oh my god... They just evaporated Emblem!'
'Oh my god!'
'What the hell did that!'
'It's...It's...It's just gone!'
'This is the Battleship Lightning. We- we got the wind knocked out of us! Rear right shields are completely down and we've cut off a few sectors on our ship but we're hanging in here!'
Alterar bit his lip before he pulled the radio to his mouth
'This is Commander Alterar! We have a Serabus ship in this sector I say again, we have a Serabus ship in this sector! I want the second royal fleet, the third fleet and the fifth to concentrate half their firepower on that ship!' he reported over the navy channel as he helped reorganise the sudden blow to their advance. He put the radio back and observed the battle monitor to find the Serabus had now been recognised on the large screen.
'What's the status of those ships going to the wormhole?' Alterar demanded
'They're getting into position at the wormhole sir!'


'Alpha wing fall back now, get your asses the hell back to the cruisers now!' Jack yelled as he did the best he could to avoid both enemy and friendly fire while he battled with the flightstick. He turned his head to the back of the cockpit to see a Boragnian heavy fighter trying to line him up in his gunsights but before Jack could pull one of his sly maneuvers it was shot down
'You owe me one!' he heard Manuels voice as he watched the friendly Phoenix-Class fighter fly past his right wing. As Jack piloted his fighter back to the human fleet he shot anything in front of him that belonged to the Boragnian forces and he was pretty much flying through debris. Lasers were flying all around him now, aliens were trying to shoot the marine pilot down but narrowly missing, flak cannons from enemy ships and Beam cannons from friendly ships were overwhelming the Captains fighter. he looked down at the counter next to the horizon indicator to check his ammo status:

1300 Rounds Remaining

It read. Though it shot he took the only digits he could read were the first two as the others would wizz by in a blur of green digits, he quickly turned his eyes to the cockpit view to find a Boragnian light attack fighter only a few metres away from his fighter to the right and a bit higher than he was. He pulled his fighter behind it but went a bit higher than the enemy pilot was and placed the nose of his fighter a few metres to the right of the Boragnian's rudder. He banked right, into the rudder, colliding with the fighter and ripped the rudder clean off the light attack fighter. The enemy fighter tried to bank left, away from Jack but instead it started rotating over and over but the what was genious about this was that fighter decreased speed. And collided head on into the enemy ships behind the squad of fighters.
'Oh crap! Guys! They got a lock on me!' Geoffrey said in disbelief
'Hang in there corporal!' Jack answered as he drove his aircraft infront of the advancing wave of Boragnian fighters, enemy ships and streams of lasers flying narrowly past him as he guided his fighter to Corporal Geoffrey's Phoenix fighter to find three Boragnians chasing him. Jack performed a barrell roll as he lined his fighter behind the first Boragnian fighter and lined the enemy fighter into the small cross in the crosshair reticle. He released a volley of white lights that slammed into the fighter and detonated a large rocket that hung from its right wing. The missile had been outside the shields' protective radius so the detonation caused the right wing of the enemy fighter to break off and send it into a sickening spiral before imploding. Jack sped up to the next fighter, being as fast as possible and shot the left engine on the alien fighter which was hooked upto the body of ship. The shields went down in a few shots, then the engine died and was letting out a thick trail of smoke which Jack followed until he heard a loud whump from inside his fighter. The smoke stopped leaking and Jack could see that he had inserted the nose of his fighter into the left engine of the other ship! He was now flying both fighters and as for the second engine on the Boragnian fighter. Well that gave Jack more speed. Jack sped up to the next Boragnian fighter which was just a small one engined fighter with four rockets attached. Jack looked at the cockpit of the Boragnian fighter that was now stuck to his own fighter, he could see the Boragnian inside bashing the cockpit glass as if he were pleading with him but Jack just grinned evily and flew to the left of the next Boragnian fighter
'Hurry up! I can't hold him!' Geoffrey panicked.
Jack banked right fast and his fighter stopped moving right when he heard a loud thud. He kept pushing and suddenly debris was flying past the right side of the Boragnian fighter attached to Jack's fighter but now the Boragnian fighter that he had rammed was now being torn apart and being crushed as he rammed both the alien crafts together. The fighter's broke apart and all that remained of the fighter Jack had rammed the nose of his fighter into was the round tube the engine was once inside
'You're all clear Geoff!'




The two battleships, corvette and the four frigates were now waiting for the Boragnian transport to wander into their trap. The clouds in the nebula made it impossible to see any ships after a certain distance but the battle radars and screens would pick them up the instant their signals came out of their hyperdrive warps. The ships had set up in one extended line. The Corvette was in the middle of the line, the two battleships were on its sides and the four frigates were lined up on the side of one of the two battleships. After ten minutes of waiting the retreating convoy appeared on their screens and the information was relayed to the small ambush force. The Battleships were up front with the frigates closely behind them and behind that protective wall were the transport ships. As soon as the outlines of the enemy ships were in range the corvette and the two battleships each fired two nuclear ICBMs simultaneously at their targets. The corvette fired two at one battleship and the other two fired their nuclear missiles at the a different target as well. They had been caught off guard. It would take ten seconds to get their weapons ready to fire at the sudden wave of missiles and then they would have to target them but by that time the nuclear missiles would be halfway to their targets. The battleships didn't stand a chance. The target the two battleships had ganged up on was obliterated in seconds. Their shields weren't even up. The detonation of the nuclear warheads rocked and badly damaged another Boragnian battleship.
The target the corvette had fired upon didn't see it coming either and the Battleship had been rendered disabled by the damage and the captain of the Boragnian battleship had detonated the self-destruct mechanism seeing that it stood no chance of survival. The nuclear detonation also damaged a nearby battleship but it had suffered more damage when its friendly blew itself up!
The frigates fired one nuclear ICBM from its launch bays at the other battleships before engaging the three frigates that had come to guard the transports which were still making their desperate attempt at making it through the wormhole. All seven ships were now using every turret on their ship, the frigates were combatting the three enemy frigates which were just getting their weapons online, the battleships were destroying the three remaining Boragnian battleships with the assistance of the corvette. The three remaining Boragnian battleships tried to create a distraction long enough for the transports to get through but they were eliminated within minutes. The battle of the frigates was intense but all four of the human ships made it through even if they were slightly damaged. As for the transports. The Boragnians piloted them towards the wormholes and only one of fifteen transport ships managed to make it through the first wave of the blockades fire. The boarding ships managed to reach gap in between each ship but the Battery fire coming out from the sides ripped them to shreds. Only one boarding ship managed to make it a kilometre away from entering the wormhole. The two battleships and the corvette managed to survive the ambush with only a few scratches.






'All Fleets! On my command each Flagship is to fire Six Nuclear ICBMs at an enemy Flagship! All corvettes are to fire Four Nuclear ICBMs at an enemy Corvette! All Battleships are to fire Three ICBMs at an enemy Battleship, all cruisers are to fire Two Nuclear ICBMs at an enemy cruiser and all Frigates are to fire One Nuclear ICBM at an enemy Cruiser! Take Aim.' There was a long and anxious pause over the radio. Thirty seconds had passed but it had felt like it had taken a century for the order to finally come.
'FIRE!' Alterar yelled over the radio and each ship in all of the Navy fired a nuclear missile in perfect unison. The Flagships, Battleships, Corvettes, Cruisers and Frigates all fired the specific amount of nuclear weapons at the same time and they all roared through the enemy and friendly fire. So many ships in the Boragnian fleets had to change targets that the humans took the advantage to gang up on the targets and they were destroyed by extreme volley that came from the ships.
Battery fire, flak fire and laser fire was all that could be seen as the alien ships tried to fend off the missiles but they only shot down four and as for the enemy fighters. They were too busy with taking down the human pilots and trying to evade them that hthe Boragnians were practically helpless. The extended line of nuclear warheads approached and the Boragnians accepted their fate. The ICBMs detonated and the long wall of 3 Boragnian fleets suddenly changed into a long line of Nuclear Explosions. Blinding white light was all that could be seen for miles, not even The Hordes Nest could be seen, all the spots of light that helped illuminated a ship were replaced by the large spheres of light from the Nuclear Explosion. As the minutes past all that could be heard over the ships radios were national anthems of their countries. The Australian, Canadian and British Anthem could be heard over the Royal Fleet channels. The American anthem was sung over most fleet channels but many other anthems were sung such as the Russian, German and French anthem. It was a moment of unity for the entire navy. It was something for the ages.


'Alpha squadron this is Alpha Leader Jack Art, report in!' Jack requested as he attempted to restart the engine for his fighter once more. All the fighters and enemy bombers that had been flying when the nuclear missiles went off were now drifting, communications had been temporarily knocked out for a minute or two and there were only a few things the pilots could do while drifting there. They could shoot the enemy targets that were in their crosshairs, attempt to make radio contact and attempt to get their fighters back on.
'This is the Seal reporting in!' Seal's voice crackled over the radio
'This is Alans reporting in... That was fuckin' amazing!' Alans fell in with an excited voice. The squadron got their engines back on and regrouped only to find that Geoffrey had not come to link up with them but hadn't reported in. There was only one thing they could think of
'Damn it... Geoffrey is KIA. He must have been too close to the blast,' Jack reported as they started cleaning up the enemy fighters that were still driting in the space around him
'We don't know that,' Alans protested
'Alans... Do you see him anywhere around here? He isn't appearing on our radars -regardless that they are fucked up now-, he hasn't reported in and he's not appearing on screen. Geoffrey is dead.' Seal pointed out to the Flight Sergeant just before the enemy fighters started to re-enter the fight. The squadron started to get a bit nervous as the enemy fighters started coming back to life but it was destroying one enemy bomber that Jack remembered the Serabus ship and as he flew past the debris he saw the colossus of a ship heading in his direction. The two pilots left in his squadron saw it too and the group slowly turned around to restart their fall back order. Jack stared at the Serabus ship that was now past the thick clouds of smoke from the nuclear blast. It looked as though it had only been scratched by the large detonation and, as Jack kept his eyes on it he noticed that the defiant ship had gathered the morale of the remaining Boragnians and was now charging the fleet.



'I want a status on the enemy ships! Now!' Commander Alterar yelled out as he jump started the battle again by relaying orders and the entire crew on the bridge got back to work. Clicking of keyboards being punched by fingers filled the room, beeping sounds from the computers could be heard and chatter circled the room within seconds of the commander speaking. After a mere few seconds the commander got the information given to him
'We've managed to wipe out two entire fleets sir! But the reading on the Serabus ship says that it has only lost ten percent on its shield!' the crew member reported. Confused by the information that had appeared on his screen but the navy commander wasn't confused one bit by this information and he hadn't even blinked. His next move in this final game of chess was to get all the ships under his command to bring out their Zeta Rail Cannons and fire them at the advancing Serabus cruiser before it could do what it did to the Frigate Emblem with its weaponry.
'Tell all ships to bring out the Zeta Rail Cannons and to target the Serabus ship with only that weapon,' Alterar answered as he pulled out a case from his pocket, flipped it open and looked at the two cigars left inside. He then closed it
'But sir using only the Zeta Rail Cannons on that ship. Wouldn't that just take it down by a small percentage?'
'Son the last Serabus ship we encountered was during the defence for Earth. We used up half of our nuclear warheads we had in supply just to take it down and after that the atmosphere along with the O-Zone layer got torn to shit. Why do you think we've only just installed these cannons onto our ship!' the commander snapped back at the Warrant Officer who then relayed the information to his comrades.
The order was given out and 90% of the Federated Earth Navy brought out the Zeta Rail Cannons which had been cleverly disguised on each type of ship. For the flagship, the front of the spacecraft would open up and a large barrel would poke out. The underbelly of the Battleships would suddenly shift around and a large barrel would appear while on the Corvettes a large turret with a barrel that almost reached past the bridge would form. The right side of the cruisers would open up and the ship would turn to face the enemy horizontally to fire. This would all happen during a short transformation process. Unfortunately the Zeta Rail Cannon was so powerful and so large that it could not fit onto Frigates or Warships. Now it was time to finish the Serabus before the colossus would finish the attack.


To Be Continued...

[sparta12]

3 Chapters To Go until the end of Virtual!

So what did you all think of the latest chapter?

[ethereal_fauna]

Quote: Jack looked at the cockpit of the Boragnian fighter that was now stuck to his own fighter, he could see the Boragnian inside bashing the cockpit glass as if he were pleading with him but Jack just grinned evily and flew to the left of the next Boragnian fighter

:biggrin: I particularly enjoyed that scene.

The ending is shaping up nicely...loads of action in the past few chapters.

[sparta12]

I thought you would fauna. ;)

[sparta12]

Where are our readers and voters!?!

[Smee]

Good chapter Sparta - sorry I missed it for the last few days.

Fauna's right - building up to a good conclusion and there was certainly plenty of action.

So close now - can't wait for the ending.

Happy Writing :D

[sparta12]

Thanks for your comment Smee.
You are good at handing out generous compliments. I'll say that.

[sparta12]

Where the hell is everyone!!!