The Gnosian cruiser grew, and grew in Gardara's monitor. It was nearing firing distance, yet remained still. There was no eruption of lazar fire, no kinetic rounds, nothing. It was nothing more than a horrific monument. Twisted steel. jagged hull. An asymmetrical creature. Cold and stagnant.
Their ship was slower than usual. Limping, it attempted to circle the cruiser. The frigate was out of commission and drifted in the distance. The reading from the monitor showed it was behind them, but the icon was hollow, signifying its lack of power. It was out of the fight.
"Check targets, and prepare a barrage, I want all three turrets to fire on my command." M'Tyuse said. "Gardara, aim for the rear of the ship. Kearl, try and focus on the cannons."
The silence grew. They sat in a vaccum. Gardara focused on his breathing. The only way he could keep air in his lungs was by concentrating. He had his target. It was thin, but from this angle he could just about make out a slit of the engines to the rear. He would not be able to make a direct hit, but it would be close enough.
"Fire!" M'Tyuse commanded as he pulled the trigger, followed by Kearl, and finally Gardara shot too.
The burst of energy knocked him off target, and he had to correct his aim. Orbs of blue light left the turrets and headed right for the monstrosity, leaving behind a trail of dissipating light.
"Charging," Kearl said.
Gardara muttered the same, and then realigned his shot. "Targeting," he said louder.
"Firing." They both said simultaneously.
Another volley of shots tore through space. The gained speed, and all three impacted. Neither volleys seemed to make a dent in the Gnosian ship. Still. It did not fire. It just continued to close the distance between them.
Their ship was circling, but the Gnosian ship didn't leave it's trajectory. It remained on course to nothing.
Smaller icons appeared to leave the Gnosian ship, and the monitor lit up with their movement. More fighters. Within a few moments the space around the ship lit up with weapon fire. They fought against the oncoming swarm. Many ships were destroyed before even getting near them. The ones that did make it through returned fire.
Thuds. Booms. Violent shaking. Some explosive impacts left the lights flickering. Each one seemed to leave the ship rattling. One in particular knocked a panel from the ceiling. Cables were set free and left to dangle.
"Firing," Kearl said.
Gardara let loose a blast too. None of the shots seemed to phase the Gnosian ship. None of them were answer in kind. The fighters circled the ship like pests on a carcass. One moment they would appear on a monitor and then be gone. Another thud. Then another.
Gardara waited for the meters to settle back down as he lined up another shot. A flash of blinding light caught him unaware. Raising a hand instintively left his turret controls to move off target. He fired accidently, and the shot flew into the blackness of space. Stunned, and confused. He heard pained shouts from M'Tyuse and looked over at him. His eyes still adjusting to the flash of light that was now gone.
M'Tyuse rubbed his eyes. Huddled in his seat he took his hands away and then quickly covered himself. "I can't see!"
Gardara noticed that his monitors screen was blank. Kearl looked to help him, but turned back to his monitor to continue firing.
"What happened?" He asked over the chaos.
"I don't know," Gardara said as he stood up to help re-position the Trisken in his seat. "Sit up, and just keep your eyes covered, I'll call in for help." He picked up the comm-link and patched through to the med bay. "We need help, M'Tyuse N'ag can't see. There was some flash." In a panic he spoke, unsure of exactly what to say.
There was silence for a moment. "I'll send someone for him now,"
The fighters continued to swarm. Explosions could still be felt. Kearl maintained fire on the enemy ship. Gardara sat back in his chair, and realigned his turret.
I'm liking this tale ! It's good to see technology where the guns need time to cool down between shots; having limitations like that makes it feel more real, and creates all kinds of narrative opportunity. I reckon there's something definitely fishy about that Gnosian cruiser.....
Yeah, I think it adds a bit more tension during skirmishes too. In my mind smaller turrets would be able to fire a lot more because they wouldn't overheat as quick, but for large turrets that are releasing large amounts of energy essentially, it makes sense that they'd need a bit more time, and would also need to be carefully watched.
It opens up some interesting tactical possibilities. Sending in a whole bunch of small decoys and cheap missiles, forcing the enemy to overheat their guns taking them out or risk taking incremental damage from lots of small impacts, or using decoys to mask the real threat.
Perhaps the rate of cooling might depend on how close the fight was to the nearest star. You'd have squadrons manoeuvring for "the sunward gauge" in the same way that 18th century fleets tried to get the windward gauge. With the enemy forced to fight with their turrets facing the star, their guns would bleed heat more slowly. You might even get larger ships trying for battles in interstellar space while small ships would try to engage close to stars where the battle-wagons' fire power would be limited.
Sooo many ideas and possibilities ! 😁
The blinding feels like all those old tales they'd tell us about laser pointers: "Never point them at an airplane, you could blind the pilot!" which I suspect was hogwash but kept us from trying it. The Gnosian ship with a defense like that (assuming it was a purpose-built defense) seems a little susssss.
Haha, imagine messing around with one of them only to see and air-liner wobble and fall. Kind of like the Simpsons where Bart turns his gameboy on while in the plane haha
I really enjoy how this one is going so far, there are a few twists and turns along the way