The Lost Fleet: Beyond the Frontier: Steadfast (31 page)

“We’d better hope we took it down,” Duellos said, his voice grim. “I’ve momentarily lost maneuvering control of
Inspire
and half of my own main propulsion.”

Geary could hear the different watch-standers reporting damage from hits. “Hell-lance batteries 1A and 3B are out of commission. Missile launchers are off-line. Hull has been holed in several areas aft of amidships. Aft shields have collapsed and are rebuilding using emergency power, now at ten percent. Personnel casualty numbers unknown.”

Damage reports were also showing up from
Implacable
and
Formidable
. Both had taken far less damage than
Inspire
, but neither was unscathed.

Debris from the weapons fired interfered with the evaluation of damage to the battleship, but Geary realized that the battleship’s maneuvering thrusters were still pushing it over at maximum. “What’s he doing?”

Duellos tore his attention away from his own ship’s damage for a moment. “He’s hurt.”

The battleship kept spinning bow over stern, coming around faster. “His maneuvering controls have jammed,” Geary said. “Wait. They’re pushing his stern partway toward us.”

The display updated triumphantly and Geary fell back into his seat with a gasp of elation. “Thank you, ancestors. We did get him.”

Inspire
’s weapons had inflicted awful damage on the momentarily unshielded main propulsion units of the battleship. The massive, heavily armed and heavily armored ship was helpless to change her vector, spinning end over end through space. The impact of the hits had shoved the battleship slightly off of its earlier path, so that it would now pass slightly above the refugee ships instead of passing right through the middle of their very loose formation.

Taking out the battleship using conventional weapons would still take a long time. But . . . “He can’t maneuver. Captain Duellos, do you have working planetary bombardment launchers?”

Normally, a ship could evade large projectiles thrown at it. The distances in space were too large, the ability to simply alter course very slightly to cause the projectile to pass harmlessly by too easy to employ. Even a miss by a single meter was all that was needed to avoid damage.

But the battleship couldn’t even do that. He was locked onto his current path until his crew managed to repair the damage to the maneuvering systems, and Geary knew that Syndic warships did not carry nearly the same damage-control capabilities as Alliance ships. To the Syndic CEOs, that wasn’t “cost-effective.”

The ones who paid the price for that policy weren’t the CEOs, naturally.

“I only have one that can bear on the battleship’s path,” Duellos said.

“Fire when you can,” Geary ordered. “
Formidable
,
Implacable
, engage the enemy battleship with bombardment projectiles. Use everything you’ve got. Take it out before they can manage any repairs.”

The battle cruisers began pumping out bombardment projectiles. The simple weapons, just solid metal shaped to pierce through atmosphere as they plunged toward targets on the surface of worlds, streamed toward the path of the battleship, forming an arc of deadly metal as they headed for the place it would be.

Despite the energy that would be unleashed when solid metal objects moving at thousands of kilometers per second slammed into an obstacle, the battleship could have shrugged off a few hits. If it could have jogged even slightly in its path, the battleship could have avoided the majority of the projectiles aimed at it.

The two heavy cruisers and two HuKs that had been following very close to the battleship suddenly broke away, either because they had been ordered to stop slaving their maneuvers to that of the battleship or because they had no wish to die helplessly and finally took matters into their own hands.

“
Implacable
and
Formidable
, get those heavy cruisers,” Geary ordered.

“Get our maneuvering back online
now
!” Duellos roared at his crew, frustrated at being out of the fight.

Escape pods began leaping off the battleship as its crew sought safety, first a few, then a rush as the thousands of crew members scrambled to survive.

The first bombardment projectile hit, then a second, sparking massive flares as the battleship’s shields parried the blows. Another hit, then two more, the last penetrating to slam into armor. A half dozen projectiles hit in a flurry, smashing through the armor, vaporizing sections of the hull, one bashing into the already useless main propulsion units as the battleship continued to twirl helplessly.

Three more hits, and in an instant the battleship vanished as its power core took too much damage and overloaded.

Geary sighed, feeling sudden weariness filling him as the cloud of gas and small debris that had once been a Syndic-built battleship began spreading out to join with the wreckage of countless other warships destroyed at Batara in the last century.

“Captain, we have partial maneuvering control back.”

Duellos made a fist and rapped the arm of his command seat in barely repressed anger. “Those heavy cruisers and HuKs are going to get away,” he said to Geary.

Sizing up the frantic flight of the escorts and the wide turns through space as
Implacable
and
Formidable
swung back in pursuit, Geary nodded. “You’re right. Unless they turn to fight, we won’t be able to get them. Cheer up, Roberto.
Inspire
got in the death blow on that battleship.”

“True.” Duellos looked down, breathing hard as if he had just run a race. “But we got hit hard. Casualty reports are still trickling in, but I lost people. That’s really why I’m unhappy.”

“I’m sorry.”

“I know that. You’re not one of those bastards who just shrug and say price of victory or something.” Duellos looked at his display. “Now what?”

Geary looked as well. “If we try chasing those escorts, we could still be chasing them a week from now and be no closer to catching them.”

“The HuKs will run out of fuel cells, eventually, as will the heavy cruisers, but so will we. I’ll go ahead and recommend what I think you are already leaning toward. As pleasant as it would be to finish off the rest of these scum to avenge
Fleche
, chasing them is likely to be an exercise in frustration and may be exactly what they want. I believe we should return to the vicinity of the refugee ships to repair damage, protect the convoy, and keep an eye out for other surprises.”

Geary checked the damage to
Inspire
again and resisted the urge to shake his head. Some of the repair work would be beyond anything that the crew could do.
Inspire
wouldn’t be back in full fighting trim again until an auxiliary or a dock was able to work on her.

The refugee ships and Alliance escorts in Formation Echo had proceeded onward while the battle cruisers had dived off to the side and slightly down to intercept the oncoming battleship. Geary ordered the battle cruisers to head back, the commanders of
Formidable
and
Implacable
not hiding their disappointment at being told to break off the chase. But they did as ordered, something the example of
Fleche
had forcefully reminded him could not be taken for granted even now.

Inspire
could still only limp along as the other two battle cruisers joined her, angling across the star system back toward the rest of the Alliance ships. A bit over a light-hour distant, the light cruisers and HuKs that made up Flotilla One were still heading toward the refugee ships, unaware that the battleship they were counting on was no more.

But Geary paid more attention for now to the heavy cruisers and HuKs that had been escorting that doomed battleship. Once it had become apparent that the Alliance battle cruisers were no longer in pursuit, the enemy ships had slowed and turned, holding their positions. “They’re disciplined,” he commented to Duellos.

“Who? That lot?” Duellos frowned at his display. “Well disciplined. What are we going to do about them? Even after destroying that battleship, what’s left to Tiyannak is enough to control this star system once we leave here, and probably at least a few other star systems.”

“Let’s see how well disciplined they are and what else we can find out about them.” Geary called Commander Pajari, still about fourteen light-minutes away. “I’m bringing
Inspire
back to you. I want you to detach the destroyers from the Ninth Squadron with orders to intercept some of the escape pods from the enemy battleship. I want to sweep up as many prisoners as possible. I will detach
Formidable
and
Implacable
to screen their operations and take aboard prisoners picked up by the destroyers. Geary, out.”

Duellos looked even grumpier, but he nodded in understanding. “
Inspire
would just slow them down, the Ninth is the smallest destroyer squadron, and Pajari no longer has to worry about this flotilla threatening the convoy. You want to see if those heavy cruisers will race to the rescue of their friends when we start scooping up escape pods, right?”

“And, if they do,” Geary said, “it will give our battle cruisers a chance to nail them. I know Captain Savik on
Formidable
is good, but I haven’t had much chance to see how capable Captain Ekrhi on
Implacable
is.”

“I think she’s good, as good as Savik. Either one is capable of commanding the screening force. But James Savik is senior in date of rank.”

Geary called Savik on
Formidable
. “I’ll be detaching you and
Implacable
as Formation Beta. You’ll be in command of the formation. Your job is to stay close enough to the destroyers to screen them against those two heavy cruisers and the HuKs if they try to stop us from taking survivors of the battleship prisoner. If you can lure in those heavy cruisers, so much the better, but I don’t want to lose any destroyers, so don’t get too far from them.”

Savik nodded, grinning. “Understood, Admiral. How many prisoners do we want? A lot of escape pods got off that battleship before it blew.”

“I want the prisoner-taking to last long enough for the heavy cruisers to see and long enough for them to react if they’re going to. Use your best judgment. Don’t keep it going past the numbers of prisoners you can easily carry.”

“Yes, sir. What are we going to do with them? I mean, are they Syndics?”

“Technically? I don’t think so. Interrogate them to find out what they can tell us about the situation here and at Tiyannak, and how many total warships Tiyannak has.” Geary pointed toward the star. “When we get there, I’ll drop them off on the primary world along with the refugees. I don’t expect Batara to be thrilled about that, but I don’t want to catch hell from fleet staff and the government for bringing home more prisoners of war for them to feed, confine, and otherwise worry about.”

After detaching the two battle cruisers, Geary pondered his display a moment longer. It was probably a good time, having badly blunted the planned ambush of his forces, to finally give a call to whoever was running Batara. “I need a broadcast message aimed at the primary inhabited world.”

The comms watch made a few taps on her display. “You’re ready, Admiral.”

“Thank you.” He paused to think, then touched the control. “To the current rulers of Batara, this is Admiral Geary of the Alliance fleet. My ships have been attacked without warning by hostile warships operating freely in your star system. I require an immediate message from you, establishing your status as an independent star system or one subject to an external government and explaining the status of all non-Alliance warships in this star system. I will take any necessary actions to defend the ships under my control and under the protection of the Alliance. We are escorting back to your primary inhabited world refugee ships full of people from this star system. They will be landed on that planet, as will a regiment of Alliance ground forces to ensure nothing disrupts the return of your people to your world. Any attempts to interfere with our operation will be met with the full force at my disposal. Any attacks on Alliance military personnel or civilians under the protection of the Alliance will be met with the full force at my disposal. I await your reply and your explanations. To the honor of our ancestors, Geary, out.”

“Tanya would approve,” Duellos commented.

“Tanya would already be urging me to bombard the hell out of this star system as well as Tiyannak.”

“And she would be complaining mightily about that thing crowded into my shuttle dock. Speak of the devil, here is Lieutenant Night.”

“Night Witch,” Lieutenant Popova corrected, but her smile was serious. “Admiral, I came to the bridge because there aren’t any automated internal links to give you the status of my warbird. It didn’t take any damage. Is there anything I can do?”

Duellos, who had been looking ill-tempered again as he went over the damage to his ship, gave Popova a wry smile in response to the sincere offer. “Not unless you want to take the FAC out and take
Inspire
in tow.”

“You’re already moving pretty fast, sir. My warbird could match you, but she’d burn her fuel out in no time, and then you’d be towing me.”

“Save it for when we get to that planet,” Geary told the aerospace officer. “Our shuttles and the ground forces are probably going to need all of the deterrence your warbirds can provide, and maybe the fire support as well.”

“Admiral, the heavy cruisers have come about and are accelerating parallel to our course,” the operations watch reported.

Geary checked his display. “They’re not paralleling us. They’re headed for the battleship’s escape pods.”

“Not if
Formidable
and
Implacable
can help it,” Duellos said. The two battle cruisers were accelerating and adjusting their own courses to meet the heavy cruisers near the cloud of escape pods.

But the enemy ships veered off again when they saw the Alliance warships approaching. Geary hesitated, one hand poised over his comm controls, waiting to see what Captain Savik would do. But his fears proved unfounded as Savik brought the battle cruisers around to hang in orbit a good light-minute short of the escape pods. The heavy cruisers checked their own velocity, matching orbits, so that Alliance battle cruisers, escape pods, and enemy heavy cruisers all hung in space unmoving relative to each other, the escape pods occupying a perilous no-man’s-land between the two groups of warships.