|
The Voltana was part of the Ruhar 7th Fleet under Admiral Kune's command and tasked with supporting the Alien Legion above Stiglord (Squidworld). After the assault carriers Dal Turnaden and Tig Mecdunnue (Big Mac) were destroyed by maser cannon fire from the SD network surrounding Squidworld, Admiral Kune ordered The Voltana and the battlecruiser Del Tularus to proctect the Url Mecadonn (Old McDonald). The Voltana appeared out of a burst of gamma rays, less than eighty kilometers from the Old McDonald, as that ship slowly turned to throw off the aim of the enemy SD network. The crews of both ships knew the assault carrier’s maneuver had little chance of succeeding, the bulky ship was flying too low and slow to dodge a laser beam fired from only a few lightseconds away. If the enemy SD network followed the same strike pattern that had already claimed the Turnaden and the Big Mac, their sister ship would be hit again within seconds. The Voltana extended her shields to their maximum extent, covering a wider area of space but weakening the field strength. The crew of the Voltana prayed as they waited out the thirty-one seconds until their ship would no longer be between the assault carrier and the suspected location of the next enemy SD platform. The Voltana took a direct hit to its starboard side, an X-ray laser that partially burned through shields that were trying to cover too large an area. The beam struck the warship’s thick armor and made plates tear off, exposing the battleship’s unprotected hull. Secondary explosions rocked the Voltana, taking three maser cannons and a railgun offline. The battleship rolled so her starboard side was facing toward the planet, as more armor plates peeled away to bash themselves backward as the ship continued her flight. The battlecruiser Del Tularus jumped in to take up coverage. Another Strategic Defense satellite exploded, generating a pulse of X-rays that lanced out at lightspeed to strike the Voltana. She had begun the process of pulling shield coverage inward to increase the field strength, so the damage was less than it could have been, less than the blackened scar burned into the starboard side of the hull. The impact was still severe, with forty percent of the laser’s energy remaining coherent to strike the hull plating on the battleship’s belly, cutting a line across three major structural frames and through a missile battery. The missile propulsion systems exploded in all directions, with some of the kinetic force trapped inside the hull by the intact armor plating around the battery. Shrapnel tore through the unarmored interior of the warship, knocking out communications, rupturing power conduits and causing a crucial shield generator to reset. The Voltana veered off course, her crew working diligently to keep their ship in the fight. Instead of accelerating toward jump distance, the Voltana continued coasting upward, slowly rolling so its undamaged portside was exposed to the enemy above.[1] |
References[] |