"Torpedo tubes one and two, fire at random!" Skyblade radioed from the bridge of the Triton Corsair. In a few short seconds, a burst of torpedoes raced away from the firing ports of the Rebel Destroyer, heading directly toward the front-line Confederation warships, composed of forty cruisers. Unlike the Battle of Turin, the Confederation was sending in their cruisers first, in hope of punching a few holes through the Rebel line of defense. Soon, all sixty-five Destroyers of the 213th Navial Division followed the Triton Corsair's example, firing torpedoes as fast as the launchers would allow.
Commander Skyblade eyed his torpedoes, and watched them score a direct hit on the C.N.S. Carenton. Though the Rebel Destroyers on the front line were delievering astonishing amounts of torpedoes at the cruisers, the Confederation was doing the same. As the Triton Corsair fired yet another burst of torpedoes, the C.N.S. Carenton returned fire. Four torpedoes appeared on the Triton Corsair's alert sensors, and sped towards the mid-section of the hull. Seconds later, a violent explosian shook the ship, knocking the crew of their feet.
As Commander Skyblade crawled back into his seat, he asked Lieutenant Dobson for a shield report.
"Senors indicate that the Triton Corsair's shields are at 68%. Though our shields were able to deflect most of the damage, turret number four is damaged, with auto-tracking computer out of action. It will have to operate manually."
"Very well," Skyblade said, as he watched the C.N.S. Carenton fire off another burst of four torpedoes.
"Captain Carlos, give me full speed, right full. We'll try to dodge this next wave if we can help it."
The Triton Corsair neared the Carenton, with proton turrets blazing. The incoming torpedoes fired from the Confederation cruiser nearly hit the engines of Skyblade's ship, but missed by a few meters. The four torpedoes began to wrap around from behind.
"Carlos, sharp left turn, maximum battle speed," Skyblade ordered, as panic threatened his voice.
As the Triton Corsair turned behind the C.N.S. Carenton, the torpedoes did just what Skyblade wanted. Due to the menuvers of the Corsair, the torpedoes slammed into the side of the Carenton, which had drifted into the torpedos' path.
"Way to go, Carlos! Now let's get the Carenton from behind."
The Rebel Destroyer, now in rather good shape from shield regeneration, crept up behind the sluggish Confederation cruiser. Seconds later, two heavy rockets raced toward the engines of the Carenton, fatally crippling the ship. As the four proton turrets continued to fire at the cruiser, Triton Corsair began to receive more damage from the enemy's own turrets. By the time Skyblade's destroyer had again moved out of turret range, the Carenton was about finished.
Lieutenant Dobson spoke. "Sir, the Carenton's shields are now at 12%."
"Excellent," Skyblade responded.
As Commander Skyblade was about to give the order to finish off the Carenton with torpedoes, a squadron of thirty mantas, spear-headed by two star cobras, raced ahead of the Triton Corsair. In a short matter of time, the fighters had decimated the cruiser with missiles and javelin rockets.
As the C.N.S. Carenton's hull collapsed and exploded, Skyblade glanced at the other Confederation cruisers. Many remained, but nothing was too hard for a fleet of Rebel Destroyers.
The Confederation cruiser now nearest the Triton Corsair, the C.N.S. Enterprise, was being swarmed by three Rebel Destroyers. Though the cruiser was blazing away with proton turrets, the ship was confused with which destroyers to fire upon, and the mistake quickly cost the ship its commission; and life. As Skyblade let out a brief cheer of joy at scratching another Confederation cruiser, he suddenly froze as he saw the weapon that few survived to tell about.
"Commander Skyblade to fleet! Beware, visual contact has confirmed that a few of these cruisers are armed with partical beams. All destroyers, avoid close-range combat with the cruisers armed with these weapons, and leave the job up to the fighters."
After Skyblade had finished his sentence and closed off comm channel three, he saw two of his destroyers explode instantly from heavy damage delievered by partical beams. The two destroyers didn't have time to pull away from the partical-armed cruisers before being decimated.
Seconds later, Skyblade saw Vollorium lead his squadron of thirty mantas toward one of the cruisers that had just destroyed a Rebel destroyer with a partical beam. The squadron fired continual bursts of long-range turbolasers and javelins, checking off yet another cruiser. Using these swarms of fighters, the capital ships couldn't react fast enough to defeat the attacks.
"Vollorium to Skyblade, Confederation losses have climbed to thirteen cruisers and seventy-three patrol ships. Our own losses measure fifteen destroyers. My squadron is prepa-"
"Vollorium, I'm not reading you. Please repeat," Skyblade shouted, holding his breath.
He then noticed Volloriam's manta spinning away from a direct hit from by neutron blasters. His fighters spun away in flames for a few seconds before exploding.
Commander Skyblade sat stunned for a few seconds breathing heavilly, deeply saddened at the death of his older brother. After whispering a brief prayer for the person who had tought him the skills of a captain, he continued the battle.
"Major Ronsard, you take over for Vollorium. Take your squadron and attack the C.N.S. Overlord from behind. It has been confirmed that this particular cruiser is carrying a partical beam."
"Roger sir, fighters engaging target. Stand by for battle report," Ronsard replied.
During that moment, another Rebel Destroyer was hit by a bright blue partical beam, disabling it instantly. The 213th Division couldn't afford these losses for long.
"Commander Skyblade to fleet. We must destroy as many of these cruisers as possible before the frigates join the battle. Every kill counts!"
Skyblade took the Triton Corsair in for a dull against four patrol ships. The small Confederation crafts were swarming a Rebel Destroyer in a even assault.
"Proton turrets, target the patrol craft attacking the R.S.S. Pacific," Captain Carlos ordered from the bridge of the Triton Corsair.
Blue bolts raced toward the fighters, tearing them to pieces. Though a few of the stray shots hit the Pacific, no major damage was inflicted. Moments later, all four patrol ships were no more.
"That's four less Confeds to worry about. Thanks Corsair," the captain of the R.S.S. Pacific radioed.
Although the Confederation had now lost twenty-eight cruisers, the Rebel destroyer fleet losses had climbed to thirty-two: Half the original size.
"Sir," Lieutenant Dobson said with a trace of fear in his voice, "We cannot take these losses."
"You're right, Dobson," Skyblade replied. "Commander to fleet. All destroyers pull back behind our cruisers. We need the backup, and we won't survive without it."
Throughout the line of battle, Rebel Destroyers made 180 degree turns, racing away at full speed while proton turrets continued to tear away at the Confederation hulls.
As the Triton Corsair headed toward the line of twenty cruisers, torpedoes began to fire away from the them. Before all the destroyers had flown behind the cruisers, hundreds of torpedoes were in flight, smashing at the fronts of the oncoming Confederation cruisers.
"Commander Skyblade to fleet. Fighter squadrons one through three, continue to take on the cruisers. Squadrons four through seven, engage enermy fighters."
At that moment, the torpedoes began to hit their marks. The already-damaged lead cruisers, the C.N.S. Glorious and Illustrious, were destroyed before they could engage the Rebel cruisers with turret fire. By the time the cruisers of both sides had clashed, seven more Confederation cruisers were space junk.
"Fighter Squardrons," Skyblade radioed, "we can take the battle from here. All squadrons engage enemy fighters."
Confederation patrol ships were becoming a rare site, as the fast and agile mantas destroyed them with ease. Meanwhile, The Rebel cruisers and destroyers were finishing off the enemy cruisers.
"The eleven remaining enemy cruisers are heavilly damaged," Lieutenant Dobson said, "and three of them are heading away from the battle."
"Excellent! Continue assault. We need to git rid of as many of them as we can."
As the sluggish Confederation cruisers began to disappear one by one, the Rebellion had yet to lose a single cruiser. Though the enemy had inflicted severe losses on the destroyer fleet, they hadn't stood a chance against the Rebel line of cruisers.
"Major Ronsard to Corsair. The last two cruisers have reached Stardock Alpha, and are out of visual contact. They won't be seen in this battle again."
Commander Skyblade was amazed that the Confederation line of cruisers had been defeated. He then found out that thirty of the enemy cruisers that had been destroyed were by the manta squadrons.
"Fleet, this is Skyblade. I just read the battle reports, and it seems as though the manta fighter squadrons performed the best against the enemy ships. Order your fighters back to hangers for weapon-refitting, and this time we'll order nearly all mantas to engage the frigates once they arrive. The Destroyers will remain behind the battle for awhile for repairs, and give the cruisers a chance to destroy some capital vessels. It will only be a matter of minutes before the frigates get here. There will be over one-hundred of them, but if our fighters did this well against cruisers, we can surely show a bunch of frigates the true definition of strategy."
Moments later, an incredible line of frigates appeared on visual sensors. They're number seemed unbeatable, but the Confederation had made another costly mistake: Sending in capital ships without fighter support.
"Manta squadrons, get out there and get rid of as many frigates as possible before they reach our cruisers. Use the same tactics you used against the enemy cruisers, but beware. These vessels are armed with heavy rockets, and will cause heavy losses if you attack the ships from the front. Now move!"
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~Captain Skyblade
President of the Corsair Development Team
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Last time I remembered, the argosy couldn't even carry three turrets as I said in the story, and even upgraded with plenty of armor, no argosy would last long against a destroyer. Atleast the escape pods got away...