Butchery at Butera Pt2
It took 12 minutes for Captain Rubin's caution to be vindicated.
"Mulitple contacts bearing 146 by 37, cogitators are reading half a dozen Savage Class Gunships," shouted Ensign Keller. Racing from the nearest warp rift a swarm of Ork escort ships burned hard straight at the Furious. The 302nd tried to turn and engage, but they had moved out of position and the brutish ships weathered the damage. The void lit up as they unloaded on the Furious, its shields falling rapidly under the barrage.
As more Ork squadrons appeared on different vectors Captain Rubin felt a cold twist in his gut. "They aren't going for the Furious, they're going after the freighters! Order the Swords to break off and move to support them!" The Daring shuddered violently as bizarre a squadron of Ork scrapships armed with crude lance analogues scored hits on its shields. "Acquire torpedo locks on those scrapheaps, damn it we can't come about with them on our flank."
The voxnet soon filled with a litany of calamity. Forcing himself to listen Rubin watched as the first group of Ork attack ships fell upon the defenceless oar haulers, overcoming the lone sword frigate still guarding them.
"Guardian of Vrax is down, I repeat Guardian of Vrax is down..."
"This is the Misercord, our voids are failing we can't..."
"Misercord and Entrade are gone!"
"This is the Bassel, we're being boarded!"
The roars of Orks and the screams of the dying soon joined the panicked voices of those they were sworn to protect.
Like a terrified flock of avians spotting a feline the freighters broke formation and scattered. Together their meager weapons MIGHT have been able to hold the Orks at bay, but alone they were being picked off one by one.
"Sir we have firing solutions!"
"Take them down! And what is holding up the 302nd?" Shouted Rubin. The deck rocked as the Daring launched a full spread of torpedoes, taking out two of the energy weapon gunships.
"Sir the Quicksilver was hit by a swarm of assault boats, dear throne they've reached engineering!" Rubin looked up to see a miniature star form as the frigate's reactor went critical. "Where the hell is our fighter cover, where the hell is the Furious!"
"Captain Hoyt has recalled it sir, he's advancing the Furious to engage the next group of contacts." Someone shouted back. Another formation of attack ships had appeared in the path of the Furious letting loose with a massed torpedo volley, far stonger than ships of such a small size should be capable. While the cogitator couldn't classify them Rubin knew from experience how deadly Ravager attack ships were, and he grudgingly accepted Captain Hoyt's logic. The with its flights of interceptors the Furious the only ship in the convoy well equipped to take them down.
Rubin was shocked by the effectiveness of the Ork attack plan. The beasts had somehow had the wit to catch them off guard by using one of the most dangerous kinds of celestial anomaly known to man. At least the stupidity of such a trap was clear as he watched one of the Ravagers drift too close to the warp rift and be torn apart.
Nearly 10 minutes later the remaining Swords finally completed their turn and reengaged the Savages. Closing to point blank range to reduce collateral damage to the transports they traded fire with the ugly ork scrapships. The superior discipline of the Imperial Navy started to make the difference and the first wave of Ork ships was slowly taken apart ship by ship.
"Sir CC on the comm!" Called the signal officer as the last "Berserker" gunship was taken apart by the Daring's macrocannons.
"Daring this is the Furious, fine kills. We'll have the last of these dregs finished off shortly. You and the 302nd are to form up on the transports and begin recovery operations. Once the transports have been reorganized we will proceed to..." Captain Hoyt's voice was suddenly cut off with a screech of distortion, only to be replaced by an inhuman voice grunting and growling something pretending to be a language.
"New enemy contact, by the throne its huge!" Cried ensign Keller. "Sir Ork capital ship broadcasting as "Da'Freema" is on an intercept course with the Furious!" The new contact revealed itself, finally moving past the distorting effects of one of the rifts. It was an enormous amalgamation of scrap metal armor and weapons of every conceivable design. The thing easily had more tonnage than the Furious and the Daring combined.
"Someone cut that noise off," shouted Captain Rubin. "Broadcast wide spectrum, Furious this is the Daring, if you can hear us break off now and fall back, you can't take that thing on yourselves."
"Sir they don't seem to have received our transition," Lieutanant Mumsdean called out from the tacticarium, "the Furious is moving to engage Da'Freema."
"Contact the Swords and have them form up on us, helm plot a course to assist the Furious" At maximum magnification he could see the furious launch a full spread of torpedoes and ordnance, a fierce dogfight erupting in the space between it and Da'Freema.
"Sir Lieutenant Chastain reports that it will take his ships nearly 30 minutes to reach us through the debris field of the Misercord"
"Fine, they'll just have to catch up." He watched as the two flagships started to trade battery fire, their void shields rippling with the enough destrutive force to flatten a city. "Helm take us in."
It took almost 15 minutes for the Daring to close with the Furious. The Dictator was holding its own, the inferior weapons of the Kroozer unable to overcome its void shields at this range.
The vox distortion began to abate and Captain Hoyt's voice came back online. "Daring move to engage their starboard side, we'll take the port and force them to turn. We have the advantage at this range and our combined broadsides will cripple that heap. Their shields are already dropping."
"Acknowledged Furious, we'll be in position in," Captain Rubin consulted his Chrono and did a quick calcuation, "6 minutes. The ships continued to close, and sure enough the Ork Kroozer started a sluggish turn to engage both Imperial cruisers with its flank weapons batteries.
"We may have a problem sir," Ensign Keller called out from the sensorium.
"What sort of problem?" Rubin checked his feed and saw that the Kroozer was losing its power fields quickly, and its return fire at the Furious was so far proving ineffective.
"Sir, I don't believe their shields are going down," Ensign Keller called out. "I'm picking up massive radiation spikes and heat build up near what seems to be their power plant. Their shields are losing strength but there power output is growing, it makes no sense."
Suddenly it dawned on Captain Rubin why the Kroozer's weapons batteries were ineffective, there didn't seem to be the normal amount of them.
"Helm break off and take evasive action! ALL HANDS BRACE FOR IMPACT!!!" he shouted. "Signals get me on vox with the Furious now!"
Grabbing the transmitter as the channel went live he hoped to get a warning across in time. "Furious break off, their preparing to..." But it was too late.
With an eye searing release of light the Kroozer let loose with its primary weapons. Its flanks were studded with ranks of bizarre energy weapons, and their combined volley struck the Furious full on.
Its void shields simply collapsed under the onslaught. Explosions blossomed all up and down its port side and along its dorsal superstructure as the sustained barrage took its toll.
The Daring only narrowly missed the same fate, its last minute turn throwing off the Orkish gunners enough to evade the majority of the lance fire. Even so the ship rocked as their void shields collapsed, and damage reports started flooding in.
"Get me Furious Actual, we need to get behind that thing to take it down!" Captain Rubin ordered as he reviewed the damage. His ship had only suffered a glancing blow, and the damage was mostly superficial.
“We can’t sir, Furious Actual is… well its gone sir,” the signals officer answered.
“What? Observation I want the Furious on the main vidscreen now!” his crew rushed to comply, a tech adept readjusted and then ceremonially whacked the vidscreen and the deck went silent. For a few moments the entire bridge crew froze in horror as they saw the damage to the Furious. The Dictator was still intact and operational, but its bridge castle was simply gone. In its place was a perfectly circular hole nearly 70 meters in diameter, its edges glowing red as it vented atmosphere and crew into the frozen void.
