Relentless (12 page)

Desjani didn’t seem shaken by the losses of
Intrepid
and
Courageous
, but then Geary knew that she’d seen far worse. “Let’s avenge her.” He tried to relax, watching the tracks and projected paths through space, attempting to factor in the seconds of time delay in the images he was seeing. “Formation Indigo One, come right two five degrees, down one six zero degrees at time five three.” The Alliance battle cruisers came up and over, swinging down and to the side for another pass at the Syndics.

The Syndic commander was trying to concentrate what was left of his flotilla, bringing the ships together until the group of enemy warships once again almost resembled a square box, though a much smaller one than the Syndics had started with. At the same time, he tried a tight maneuver, rolling the entire formation up and around to the left to face the Alliance battle-cruiser formation.

“Bad move.” Desjani bared her teeth. “We look like an easier target, but we’re faster than he is. That’s not a very experienced commander.”

“Neither are some of his captains, apparently,” Geary replied, watching the Syndic warships scramble to get into position and carry out the major changes of their vectors. One of the Syndic battleships blundered into a Syndic heavy cruiser, causing most of the heavy cruiser to disappear in a flash of light while the battleship reeled away with major damage. “One more down.”

The intended compact Syndic square spread and warped out of shape as the Syndic flotilla failed to make the turn.

“Formation Indigo One, come right two zero degrees, up one five degrees at time zero six.” The Alliance battle cruisers raised their bows slightly as they turned, sliding around to aim for an intercept of one side of the flailing Syndic flotilla. “Formation Indigo Two, come left two eight five degrees, up two one zero degrees at time zero eight.” The battleships, now well below the Syndics, began turning upward as the Alliance battle cruisers closed on the enemy again.

This time, with the enemy caught in temporary disarray, the Alliance battle-cruiser formation roared past one corner of the Syndic flotilla at almost perfect range, lashing out at the exposed Syndic warships with a large local superiority in firepower.

Dauntless
shuddered heavily in the wake of the firing pass. “One Syndic missile got through, Captain. Damage aft. Hell-lance battery six bravo out of commission. Reduced capability from main propulsion unit alpha.”

“Can we keep up with the formation as it maneuvers?” Desjani demanded.

“Engineering is boosting output from the remaining main propulsion units, Captain. Damage control teams are reinforcing damaged hull sections. Damage control central requests we avoid major maneuvers for the next ten minutes.”

“Tell them to make it five!”

“Yes, Captain. Five minutes.”

Illustrious
, still carrying plenty of damage from the fight at Cavalos, took more hits, along with
Valiant
and
Daring
. But the outnumbered Syndics in that part of the flotilla had lost three more battle cruisers.

“What the hell are they doing?” Geary burst out with as the Syndics continued to swing up and around in a corkscrew movement.

“Beats the hell out me,” Desjani confessed.

“They’re just continuing the same—We got the CEO. They’re following their last orders because no one else has established themselves in command yet.”

“Nice,” Desjani almost purred, watching the Alliance battleship formation rip through the diminished Syndic flotilla. Only ten Syndic battleships and battle cruisers remained operational after that, though the Alliance formation shed
Gallant
as it bent back for another firing run.

“Propulsion damage on
Gallant
, but she can still defend herself. They’re concentrating their fire,” Desjani noted with grudging approval. “Throwing everything they can at the battleships that have already taken the most damage. Look at how badly
Redoubtable
got hit, too.”

“At least she can still keep up with the formation.”

Desjani spun to face her engineering watch-stander. “Five minutes are up. Can I maneuver?”

“One more minute, Captain,” the engineer pleaded.

“I don’t have one minute!”

“Ready for maneuvers,” the relieved watch-stander gasped as he received the report.

“Good,” Geary approved. “Let’s go.” On the heels of his words, the Syndic flotilla altered course radically, bearing back around and down. “Where . . . ?”

Geary brought the battle-cruiser formation toward the Syndics in as tight a swing as he could, trying to guess on which vector they’d steady out. The answer became clear after several minutes. “They’re going after
Resolution
and
Incredible
.”

“We’ll get at least one more pass at them before then,” Desjani pointed out, “and so will the battleships.”

“Any updates from
Gallant
?” Geary asked. He could scroll through the display looking for that information himself, but he needed to spend that time and concentration on the big picture.

“
Gallant
reports about half of her combat systems remain active,” the operations watch reported. “Shields weak but regenerating, several major breaches in hull armor being sealed. Estimated time to regain some maneuvering control is twenty minutes.”

Deciding that
Gallant
could look out for herself for the time being, Geary lined up the battle cruisers on another intercept with the Syndic flotilla and adjusted the track of the battleships so they’d hit the Syndics again.

The wait to contact was agonizing this time.
Resolution
and
Incredible
drifted helpless, both ships too badly damaged to have any hope of surviving another Syndic attack and neither having enough working weapons to have much chance of inflicting any damage on the enemy. The Syndic box, even smaller now, was curving in from above and the left. Farther to the left and slightly higher, the Alliance battle cruisers were swooping down on the Syndics. Off to the right and roughly even with the Syndics, the Alliance battleships were boring in steadily.

It must have become apparent to the Syndics that they didn’t have a hope of rendering death blows to
Resolution
and
Incredible
before being savaged by the rest of the Alliance fleet. As the two Alliance formations drew close, the Syndic flotilla abruptly dove, greatly increasing its down angle and steadying out toward where the smaller Syndic formation was holding off from the battle.

Geary rapped quick commands to the battle cruisers and the battleships, correcting for the Syndic moves.

As the Alliance ships steadied onto their new vectors, collision-warning alarms blared. Geary barely had time to jerk his gaze to the alerts before the Alliance battle cruisers raced through the Syndic flotilla from one side and above almost at the exact same instant as the Alliance battleship formation tore through from the other side and slightly above.

For that heart-stopping instant, a lot of warships going on widely different vectors at very high speed threaded past each other, automated maneuvering systems screaming alarms in protest as they tried to avoid collisions in the maelstrom of warships. Meanwhile, the automated combat systems on every combatant saw a suddenly target-rich environment and gleefully hurled out shots in all directions.

Then the three formations were diverging again. Geary inhaled heavily as he realized he’d forgotten to breathe for a moment.

Even Desjani looked pale. “Sir, have you considered the possibility that there could be such a thing as being too good at compensating for the movements of the enemy?”

“Not until just now.” He took another breath and checked his display, then checked it again. “We lost some more destroyers, but that was probably to enemy fire. No collisions?”

“All the same, let’s not do that again, sir.”

“Okay.” The Syndic flotilla’s box, subjected to so much firepower at once from different angles, had disintegrated. Two battleships were still slogging along their track, but both had sustained significant damage. No Syndic battle cruisers remained, and the escorts had been slaughtered. Conversely, with so many targets at once, the Syndics hadn’t been able to concentrate their fire. Aside from some unfortunate cruisers and destroyers, the Alliance fleet had avoided more serious damage.

Geary breathed a sigh of relief. “Formation Indigo Two,” he ordered the battleships, “break formation and get those two remaining Syndic battleships. Formation Indigo One, general pursuit. Avoid the two surviving Syndic battleships until they’ve been reduced by our battleships.” The last thing he wanted was another loss like
Opportune
.

To his surprise, Desjani didn’t instantly whip
Dauntless
around to go after a target. She saw his reaction and shrugged. “The only thing left worth killing is those battleships. Besides”—she pointed to her ship’s status display—“we’re down to thirty-five percent fuel-cell reserves.”

“Thirty-five percent?” In peacetime he would have been court-martialed for letting fuel-cell reserves get that low on ships under his command.

“Good thing we saved
Titan
,
Witch
, and
Jinn
,” Desjani observed. “We’re going to need every fuel cell they can squeeze out between here and Varandal.”

THE butcher’s bill after a battle was always the worst part. Geary read through the names.
Courageous
,
Intrepid
,
Exemplar
,
Goblin
, heavy cruisers
Tortoise
,
Breech
,
Kurtani
,
Tarian
, and
Nodowa
. Light cruisers
Kissaki
,
Crest
,
Trunnion
,
Inquarto
, and
Septime
. Destroyers
Barb
,
Yatagan
,
Lunge
,
Arabas
,
Kururi
,
Shail
,
Chamber
,
Bayonet
, and
Tomahawk
.

At that they were very lucky. If they’d had to flee the star system with the Syndics in pursuit, easily three times that many cruisers and destroyers would have been lost, plus more battle cruisers and battleships. As it was, the Alliance fleet had time to make repairs and get the ships moving again.

Resolution
, though shot to hell, would be able to keep up with the fleet, but he didn’t yet know if he’d be able to save
Incredible
.
Gallant
had enough maneuvering control back to fight once more, though many of her weapons remained out of action.

They’d have to linger here a little while, whether they liked it or not, to get the propulsion on damaged ships repaired, along with other critical systems, to collect escape pods from Alliance ships abandoned during the battle, and to distribute the all-too-few fuel cells manufactured on the auxiliaries since the fleet left Dilawa.

Desjani was grumbling. He followed her gaze to the smaller Syndic flotilla, which had torn off toward the jump point for Padronis after the destruction of the large flotilla. Now the cruisers and HuKs of that flotilla were fanning out, some continuing on toward the jump point and others heading for the jump points for Kalixa and Dilawa. “We’ll never get them now,” Desjani complained. “I was hoping they’d make a stand at the jump point for Padronis so we could trash them.”

“Odds are they’ve laid their mines and are now rushing off to report what happened here,” Geary commented.

“They abandoned their comrades! They didn’t even try to hit us while we were fighting the main Syndic flotilla!”

So that was what was really bothering her. To Desjani those Syndics had let down their comrades, and even if they hadn’t been Syndic scum, they deserved to pay for that. “Tanya, I’d bet you that small flotilla had orders to stand off from the engagement so it could form a last-ditch defense if we ran for the Padronis jump point.”

“That’s no excuse.”

“At least they’re not darting in trying to snap up any of our damaged ships.”

Before Desjani could reply, an image popped up before Geary, showing Captain Cresida grinning. “I thought you’d like to know, sir, that we’ve recovered the escape pods from
Courageous
, including the one carrying a slightly banged-up but still-operational Captain Roberto Duellos.”

Geary smiled back so broadly his cheeks hurt, then looked over to Desjani. “Duellos is safe on
Furious
.”

“I told you he was difficult to kill,” Desjani replied serenely, then she smiled, too.

“Here he is, Captain Geary,” Cresida announced.

Her image was replaced by that of Duellos, his uniform torn and scorched in a few places. “Captain Duellos reporting for duty, sir.”

“I . . .” His words stopped coming, and Geary just looked at Duellos for a moment. “Damn, I’m glad you’re okay. I’m very sorry about
Courageous
. And
Intrepid
.”

“Thank you on all counts.” Duellos looked down for a moment. “It’s hard to lose a ship, but then, you know that as well as I do.”

“Yeah. It hurts like hell. Get yourself checked out and get some rest.”

“I need to look after my crew, sir.” Duellos gestured vaguely to one side. “Make sure they’re being taken care of. The crew from
Courageous
and those off
Intrepid
on the ships that picked them up.”

Geary started to say that Cresida could be trusted to do that, then stopped himself. He remembered his own sense of helplessness after his cruiser
Merlon
had been destroyed, the wish that he could do something, especially for the crew that were forever beyond his aid. Of course Duellos wanted to see to that himself. It would give him something to do besides dwell on the loss of
Courageous
and those crew members who hadn’t made it off the ship. “Certainly, Captain Duellos. Let me know if you or your crews need anything.”