“Thanks for your help.”
“Any time.”
“Now I need to find a planet, and organize yet another exodus outside official notice.”
“Good luck with that.”
She saw me hesitate as she rose to leave, and sat again.
“Something else on your mind?”
“I was thinking about that comment yesterday about getting mages with the squadrons.”
“Suggestion?”
“I think I dreamed it.”
“You dream of space combat while asleep?”
“How could I not?”
“I wouldn’t know. What did you dream?”
“Were you going to make any of the two seater mark fives?”
“No, I decided not to. The simulator version will get pilots used to a co-pilot, and once they are, the head on the console should suffice in an actual fighter.”
“You might want to rethink that.”
“Why?”
“Because the rear seat could be where you put a mage. Issue squadron commanders with the two seat version, and a mage flies with them.”
“That’s a great idea, with only one flaw.”
“No mages?”
“Very few, and none good enough yet to shield like yours do. Syrinx is working on a group, but only young ones like yourself are willing to go into combat in something less than a battleship, and they need extensive training to be any use.”
“Which brings me to my other question.”
“Yes?”
“What’s happening with the other super-corvettes? Are they being upgraded into a Water class?”
“Probably. We are waiting to see how you do before deciding. Why?”
“Because that’s the other place to put a mage. If each squadron goes in with a Water class corvette, and a mage on its bridge, they can do what we did yesterday. At least for as long as the shield lasts, after which they jump out and do something more conventional.”
“That has been discussed as a possibility. But again, we’re waiting to see how you do, and also waiting for the mages capable of shielding a whole squadron to become available. In the meantime though, Space Commodore Lacey has some ideas, which doubtless you’ll be told about in due course.”
“I don’t doubt it.”
Sixteen
Lunch was in a smaller mess on a different deck.
Four of the tables were occupied by the four squadrons of Eagle Wing when we arrived, and three more squadrons joined us. I assumed the new ones had recently become combat ready from recruits which had integrated with their AIs, and mastered strafe and jumping.
Lacey waited until after we’d eaten before he addressed us. As Jane had said, he had a few ideas, and he outlined them for us. The war was starting to change again, with the Ralnor and Keerah reporting the Trixone using new tactics as we’d seen yesterday. But both were now doing better at halting the Trixone advances than they had been, now a lot of their fleets had reinforced key positions in known incursion corridors.
But the Trixone fighters were still something even superior capital ship numbers weren’t countering well enough. Which was why they were calling on our help. And of course, what we’d done yesterday, had merely made the Ralnor request our aid formally, and after the Keerah ambassador saw the public release version of our battle, so did they.
We of course were first back in space. A very short travel car ride, and a short walk through the rift, where we found Jane waiting for us on the bridge. Long had us backed away from the station well before the others made it to Redoubt, and launched the old fashioned way. But they jumped in behind us one squadron at a time, surprising us by being in our wall formation.
Without orders, we were all on the bridge. So seven walls formed up around a single corvette, which must have looked odd to anyone watching. We spent a half hour with them practicing squadron jumps around us, making different large formations with the smaller formations which might be called for by whatever we went in against.
Whatever Eagle was waiting for finally arrived, and he gave us a twenty minute warning for deployment, and the squadrons formed up into a single wall with enough room in the middle for my squadron to complete the center, and we started jumping.
Five minutes before the deadline for arrival, Serena, who was CAG for the day, ordered everyone into their ships. I settled myself in my chair, watching the navmap move across Ralnor space, and beyond our network again. Twenty minutes was a long way in terms of distance traveled, considering we were doing a jump every few seconds. The human spine was about two hundred systems long. We were going twice the number of systems, but only a fraction of the actual space in distance, given the much more close packed nature of the core. Systems were a lot closer together than out on the spur of their space, and the arm had only a fraction of the depth as well.
We emerged well above a system again, giving us the ability to see whatever battle was raging below without anyone knowing we were here.
An almost identical situation to yesterday was raging below us, but we seemed to be here a lot earlier this time. And the battle was not far in from a jump point.
“Call the ball, Spacemage,” ordered Eagle.
“Long, jump the Lightning out, and let’s see what’s on the other side of that jump point.”
“Confirmed.”
A few seconds later, the navmap lit up with what looked like another full Trixone fleet about a half hour out.
“Good call, Spacemage. Have your Lightning jump to the nearest comnavsat, and call in Admiral Bentley to join us. How do you want to handle this?”
“Do the fighters here, then jump across and get them to launch over there. If Admiral Bentley gets here in time, we can take that fleet without the Ralnor having to worry about them. Then help them mop up here.”
“Approved. Move that Lightning.”
“Long?”
“Confirmed.”
The navmap shrank back down to just below us.
“Call it, Spacemage.”
“Serena, get our fighters into space please.”
“Aye, sir.”
And suddenly they were there.
“Squadrons in line abreast on Long Water, please. We’re going to jump in so the curve of their fighter wall is straight in front of us. No strafing on the first pass. We bulldoze our way in. I’ll hold a shield across all of us as long as I can. When they scatter, Admiral Jane will feed jump-to locations to each squadron leader, and we all start jumping after clusters, and jumping on before they can get a bead on us. You won’t be mage shielded then, although we can and will try to help anyone in trouble. Once we break, strafe by squadrons according to need. When the clusters are gone, everyone hunts however each squadron prefers.”
By the time I’d finished, they’d completed their jumps, and Long nodded to indicate she had the jump location for us from Jane. Jane looked over her shoulder, and nodded to me as well.
“Jump in five,” I said, getting myself ready.
We appeared in fighter torpedo range, and ninety seven ships started spitting them, missiles, and then gun pulses, at a thousand. My squadron was the only one of mark fives, and we tore the center of the Trixone formation apart, while the rest merely created a mess. Nothing survived though, and the squadrons on each end of our wall line weren’t getting much to fire at.
Which was when I realized I hadn’t put up the shield I’d promised. All our shields were taking hits from debris and the odd pulse now, and going down rapidly. I drew on the local sun, and put a vaporize shield across all of us. Debris started to vanish before it could hit ship shields, and our weapons were free to hit fighters now trying to get out of our way.
“Jane, when they break, send the outside squadrons to the other end and have them start back.”
“I was going to.”
They broke almost immediately, but only between us and the middle. The next quarter length were turning to face us. I braced for the impact as a clear area of space opened up
between us and them, and several hundred cruiser guns fired. At the last second I changed the shield to a mirror, and pulses and debris bounced back at them. I changed the shield back again immediately, because of the amount of debris still in front of us.
The outside squadrons vanished, appearing in the middle of the other end of the Trixone formation, and I felt Fina and Gitte put a shield in front of them.
“Jumping,” said Jane, and we jumped behind a group of about fifty, and shredded them, Serena having called out strafe orders to get them all.
The entire battle disintegrated into squadron forays, and the Trixone lost all sort of cohesion as we pounded them. I dropped my shield when it was no longer of any use, and just used Long Water as a fighter, going along with Serena’s orders.
When squadrons broke apart and started hunting in flights, I asked Jane to monitor all of our shields, in case I needed to move anyone. Almost immediately five flashed red, and I moved them one by one back where we’d started from.
“Serena, I’m jumping out to do mage stuff.”
“Noted.”
Long was looking at me, and as I nodded back and we jumped, another three fighters flashed red. I started concentrating on moving them, but as soon as they were clear, more needed my attention, and one of them was missing a wing before I was able to get it clear.
“Jane, put an icon for each ship up on the HUD, and show the percentage. Red is less than ten percent. Orange less than twenty. Yellow less than thirty. Dull them if out of the fight zone.”
“Confirmed.”
The icons appeared, and I moved another ten showing red, and started moving the oranges as they turned from yellow. Trixone blinked out, I lost one of ours who collided with both a plant fighter and a chunk of debris at the same time, and plucked the pilot out of the debris and deposited her on the deck in front of me.
“Serena, home jump, now.”
She didn’t respond, but the eight of them still fighting jumped into their hangar bays immediately, along with the other four I’d already moved away.
“How many left?” I asked Jane.
“A hundred and seven, including some pretty beat up, but if we leave them there long enough, they’ll all kill themselves trying to get out of the debris field.”
“Let’s not wait. Long, give me rotating torpedo launchers, four at a time. Then jump me right behind each fighter aligned with the launchers firing next, and as soon as the torps are away, jump again and cycle.”
“Confirmed.”
I put a shield around just Long Water this time, and lightly placed a finger on the torpedo button.
We jumped, I fired, held my finger on the button, and we kept jumping until all the remaining plant fighters were destroyed. Our final jump put us back with the other squadrons, which had formed back up into their walls.
“Holy shit!” said someone.
“Exactamundo,” said Eagle.
Jill had to tell me what that meant.
Seventeen
The pilot I’d saved was out cold.
Her belt had shifted back to a flight suit, but I obviously needed practice moving people. A butler came in and waved something under her nose, and she sat up abruptly. I expected Jane to help her up, but she was sitting there staring off into space. The pilot sat up first, then used a chair to pull herself up and into it. She looked at me.
“Thanks. I think. What happened?”
“Your Excalibur was destroyed. I pulled you out of the debris as fast as I could. Sorry about the jolt hitting the deck.”
“What jolt? I think I fainted when the ship was hit. And I feel shaky, but otherwise fine.”
“Good. You can sit the rest of this fight out.”
“Is there somewhere I can lie down?”
“Can you walk?”
“Not far, but I’ll get to a bed.”
“Go down to the living room on the deck below. You’ll see an outline of a door on the wall. Step through and you’ll find yourself on Haven station. You can get to your quarters from there.”
“At this distance?”
“It works. And you can at least crash in your own bed.”
“Thanks again.”
She rose, still looking shaky, and left. Long popped up a screen showing her progress. She hesitated at the rift, but stepped through and vanished. Jane looked around just then.
“She’s fine. The Lightning is back in the hangar, and Admiral Bentley should be here soon. Let’s get moving as soon as everyone’s shields are back up.”
“I second that,” said Eagle. “Except I’m sending home those Excaliburs with hull damage.”
“Are they still able to jump?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“Okay then. I’d like to wait until my fighters are rearmed as well. Won’t be long after shields are up.”
“Fine. The rest of us are fine in that regard, but only because we fire them off slower. In the meantime, we’ll jump into the next system above the jump point, and see where the other fleet is.”
“Let’s do that now,” suggested Jane. “Sending jump-to locations.”
There was no delay, as the AIs jumped us all at the same time without any further warning. Ninety one of us appeared for part two, while the rest continued back to Haven. Long popped up another tactical screen. The Trixone fleet had slowed down to rearrange their formation for going through the jump point, but the lead elements were within a few minutes of going through.
Six large shapes appeared above us.
“I have take-out for Spacemage,” said a voice I remembered as Admiral Bentley, before her face popped up on my console next to Eagles. “Where do you want it?”
“Ten big targets below us,” said Eagle. “We blow those, and the Ralnor should be able to handle the rest.”
“What rest is that? I’m not aiming to leave anything here but debris.”
“They haven’t launched fighters yet,” I said. “Surely they know what’s happening on the other side of the jump point?”
“Does it matter?” asked Bentley. “We take out the battleships in the first ten seconds, and they don’t launch anything.”
I had a mental image of the other shoe dropping.
“I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” said Serena.
“Just a feeling, and not a seer image?” I asked her hollo.
“Only a feeling. Sorry. I can’t do better than that.”
“Who has command now?” I found myself asking, knowing full well Bentley had the rank.
“Who was in command here before?” asked Bentley.
“Spacemage,” said Eagle.
“Call it then, Spacemage.”
“My Seer is telling us to be cautious, so I think we go with that. In fact, my gut is telling me they’re waiting for us. So the dreadnaughts go in against the battleships, but at random vectors to them, and no more than three seconds total time against each. We can always do multiple runs if need be. Long Water will start on the cruisers, and the rest of my squadron will do destroyers.”
“What about the rest of us?” asked Eagle.
“You wait for the fighters. As soon as they launch, you jump just far enough for them to detect you, and try and draw them away. Missile spam them until we weed them out a bit. Only engage in combat when they don’t cluster fire, as you won’t have mage shielding until one of us is free.”
“Sounds like a plan,” said Bentley. “Anyone not ready?”
There was silence for a few seconds.
“Sending suggested jump-in locations,” said Jane. “None of them are the first rank to go through as I’m pretty sure they expect us to hit them first. If need be, let’s let them through, and hit them on the other side later.”
Even through the hollos, I could see the eyes of both Bentley and Eagle looking at me.
“Jump in five,” I said, and put my hands in the right places again.
Long had added the dreadnaughts to the HUD display for me, so I could see their shield strengths as well
. I reached out for this system’s sun, and added its energy to the other one I was still holding on to. The shield around Long Water strengthened.
It was just as well I did that.
Long Water jumped, and I found myself looking at the rear side of a cruiser. I gave it the full torpedo and gun broadside, and waited for the next jump. Instead, the ship took a massive hit, which almost wiped my mage shields away, and then we were a long way away after an obviously random jump.
“What the fuck happened?” said Woof, before I could figure it out.
The dreadnaughts were all below thirty percent. Long Water was fine, but I felt like I’d been gut punched. My Excaliburs were all…
Serena was gone.
For a moment I panicked, my breathing quickened as my chest tightened, and then I got a grip on myself, and cast my magic sight around the Trixone fleet looking for her.
And found her, floating in space, just as several pulses hit her, and then a piece of debris.
Her suit shredded.
Eighteen
I yanked.
Serena appeared on the deck at my feet. She was out cold, wearing only a short top and briefs, and had obvious wounds on her side, and the beginnings of frost damage elsewhere. Jane jumped up immediately, picked her up as gently as she could, and ran her off the bridge.
For a moment, my heart stopped. And then a cold fury took over me. My mind became crystal clear and very sharp. A glance told me the rest of my squadron were fine, but apart from Fina, Gitte, and Haynes, had almost no shielding. Those three had full shields.
“Serena is hurt,” I heard myself say in a voice which wasn’t mine. “Jane’s taken her to a care unit. Anyone else needing medical treatment?”
There was a chorus of nos.
“Right. Plan B.”
“What’s plan B,” asked Eagle.
“Before we do plan B,” interjected Bentley, “what the hell happened?”
“They had all their fighters on their destroyers,” said Eagle. “Aimed at likely emergence points for attacking the battleships and cruisers. And as far as I could tell, they had every battleship targeting one of their others, so it only took them a second to shift aim to where you emerged.”
Lieutenant Spacemage (Imperium Spacemage Book 3) Page 8
