The Middle Road (Spineward Sectors: Middleton's Pride Book 7)

by Caleb Wachter

  It would be days before they could gain functional control of the vessels, which was clearly what Admiral Edelweiss’s people were counting on: they expected reinforcements before then, so they had decided to ‘temporarily’ surrender their ships as a way to slow Middleton and his people down.

  The reason Middleton had opted to slow his advance in order to secure those ships, when he had not done so for the half dozen derelict warships in orbit of the third planet, was simple: the Imperials could, given enough time, bring some of their ships back into the fight. In effect, he was wiping five Cruisers off the board at the cost of three hours on the engagement clock—a trade which was a clear winner from where he sat.

  “The last Imperial Cruiser’s crew has been transferred to the planet’s custody,” Hephaestion reported. “The Fleet can resume its advance, Captain.”

  “Let’s do it,” Middleton acknowledged, “message to the fleet: Group One will advance to engage the enemy; Group Two will remain at the hyper limit.”

  The Stalwart formation moved forward with every bit of the awe-inspiring majesty depicted in those cheap holo-vids Middleton had always hated. The coordination of the ships under the Stalwart Commander’s control was, if Middleton was being honest, superior to anything Middleton had seen outside of Imperial exercises.

  The ships tracked perfectly in their sub-groups, with each Battleship being apportioned its own representative slice of the battle group’s hulls, and after watching for a few minutes Middleton nodded in satisfaction, “Toto, maintain position at long range off Group One’s starboard flank. Match acceleration and course while observing combat stealth protocols.”

  “Combat stealth,” Toto acknowledged, and the Prejudice took up its position outside the formation.

  Minutes passed as Middleton watched the sensor feeds with hawkish intent, but the Imperial Admiral did not tip his hand. One by one, Middleton began to eliminate the options available to his counterpart as the Stalwart warships drew steadily nearer.

  Then, with a unity that put the Stalwarts’ to shame, the Imperial task force surged toward the system primary. The star was a red giant in the early stages of its transition from the main sequence, and as such it’s ever-broadening girth would provide significantly greater cover from incoming fire than a smaller, denser star.

  Middleton nodded approvingly at the Admiral’s chosen course—which was the same one he would have taken, “He may be a bigot, but he’s no dummy.”

  He punched in a few course corrections as the Imperial formation slowly made for the far side of the red giant, and once they disappeared behind the star he transmitted his new orders to the fleet.

  Two of the Battleships and their subgroups—Subgroup One, at the formation’s center and Subgroup Two to port—immediately diverted to the side of the star opposite where the Imperials had reached cover. The Subgroup Three, along with the Prejudice, continued to give direct chase while slowing significantly in order to allow Subgroups One and Two to achieve firing position first.

  If the Admiral was worth his lytes, he would hug his ships so close to the red giant’s corona that his shields would eventually—given hours of dealing with the unrelenting stellar output—give out and his crews would be burned to death within their hulls. Since those hulls were made of locsium, the ships would almost certainly survive the ordeal even though their human occupants would not.

  It was an interesting bit of subtext to the Admiral’s maneuver, and that subtext was not lost on Middleton: they would gladly give their lives to serve their mission, and they would do so while leaving their ships recoverable by their fellow Imperials.

  “Incoming feed from the third planet,” Hephaestion reported, “it’s on a p2p beam and it appears to be a readout of their in-system observation devices.”

  “Is it the raw feed?” Middleton asked, suspected he already knew the answer.

  “No sir,” Hephaestion said irritably, “it is a pre-packaged summary, but it does appear to show that the Imperial task force is holding position near the star’s corona.”

  “That’s more than we had a minute ago,” Middleton said, suppressing the urge to sigh. The raw sensor feeds would have been immeasurably more valuable, but he couldn’t blame the locals for not handing over the keys to their most secretive observation gear.

  In truth, he would probably have done the same.

  “Forward the data to the rest of Group One,” Middleton instructed as the Prejudice acquired line of sight on the Imperial formation. “Now let’s close this trap. Helm: hold fire unless they initiate. I want to cinch this noose as tight as we can make it.”

  “Understood,” Toto acknowledged.

  Two minutes later, Subgroup Three also acquired line of sight on the enemy and opened fire with their longest guns—but not before the Imperials had fired with theirs.

  A Stalwart Cruiser fell out of formation after sustaining coordinated fire from eight Destroyers’ twin turbo-lasers. The Cruiser regained its legs a few seconds later, but two other Cruisers had also suffered hull damage from the opening salvo.

  The Stalwart Battleship lashed out at an enemy Destroyer, and its four attached Cruisers added their weight to the volley which saw an Imperial Destroyer’s shields buckle briefly—but at such near proximity to the star, that brief opening was enough to cause a catastrophic cascade failure of the Destroyer’s star-facing shield generators. The Imperial warship tried to roll to present a fresh facing but, before it could do so, a lucky heavy laser strike from one of the Stalwart Destroyers carved through the Imperial’s engines.

  The Destroyer’s hull ruptured near the stern and its hulk proceeded to tumble—while still rolling due to the attempt to present a strong shield facing—gently toward the star as its power plant went offline.

  “One down,” Hephaestion reported as the Imperial Battleships and Cruisers came into view. And when they fired at the Stalwart-crewed ships, they proved the quality of Imperial technology with a volley of fire that was greater than anything Middleton had personally witness.

  Fifty turbo-lasers lanced into the Stalwart formation, with thirty six confirmed hits while sixty heavy lasers poured into the Stalwart formation and twenty five of those struck the mark. The Stalwart Battleship, Stalwart Vengeance, took nearly half of that total fire while the rest landed on two of Subgroup Three’s Cruisers. The Battleship stood tall while taking a dozen direct hits to her forward armor, and her commander rolled the Vengeance’s bow off-target to present a fresh broadside to the enemy. But the Stalwart Cruisers fared considerably worse.

  “Two Cruisers, the Endless Hatred and Skull Crusher, are falling out of formation with major systems failures,” Hephaestion reported as Middleton watched the feeds. “Multiple hull breaches and partial engine failures reported on both ships, including a coolant leak on the Crusher.”

  “Bring the Corvettes and Destroyers out from cover,” Middleton ordered, knowing that Subgroup Three’s heavy ships couldn’t withstand another concentrated volley of that magnitude. “And Toto: remind the Admiral there’s more out here to fear than just what he can see.”

  “With pleasure,” Toto snarled, “firing!”

  The Prejudice’s eight fire-linked turbo-lasers stabbed into the nearest Battleship, and all eight of the beams landed. It wasn’t enough to pierce the Admiral’s shields, but when the Stalwarts’ six Corvettes and four Destroyers attached to Subgroup Three appeared from behind the red giant’s corona they added their fire to the mix.

  An Imperial Destroyer fell out of formation after taking focused fire from six of the Stalwart ships. Much like the previous Destroyer, it experienced a shield grid collapse which preceded a catastrophic failure of the ship’s engines.

  “The enemy formation is pulling away from the star,” Hephaestion reported less than a minute before Subgroups One and Two could gain line of sight on the enemy. “They’re making a break for the hyper limit.”

  Middleton saw the Imperials’ course and narrowed his eyes. They could ha
ve run forty degrees away from the Void Hunter and SLL ships which stood ready to receive his fleeing ships, but instead Admiral Edelweiss had opted for a course just fifteen degrees from the other half of Middleton’s fleet.

  He scowled, “If I’m reading this right…he’s going to double back on us. As soon as you can, establish p2p with Subgroups One and Two,” he instructed Hephaestion, “and tell them to slow pursuit while widening their angle on the Imperials while they stay on course for the hyper limit. If the Admiral really wants to tangle with the whole fleet instead of just half of it, I’m not going to argue with him.”

  The Admiral was clever and, more than that, he was brave. Middleton had given him a single option for escape, which was the path to the hyper limit forty degrees off from the Void Hunters and SLL warships. But the Admiral hadn’t taken the bait. Instead he was teasing that he might do so, or that he might go straight at the weaker ships Middleton had posted at the hyper limit.

  But Middleton suspected Edelweiss would do neither—instead, he was convinced the Imperial Admiral was going to come about and drive straight at Subgroup Three, which was already heavily damaged.

  “Helm, take us in,” Middleton ordered, “full speed: the Chief rigged up eight more of those grav-mines and I want to put them where they can do the most good.”

  “They will see us,” Toto said as he unleashed another volley of the Prejudice’s turbo-lasers at the same Battleship he had previous struck.

  “They will,” Middleton allowed, “and, if we’re lucky, they’ll redirect their fire toward us.”

  Even the normally unflappable Hephaestion gave Middleton a wary look after hearing that, but the young Tracto-an was intelligent enough to track with Middleton’s thoughts.

  The only way they could trap the Admiral and his ships in this system was if Subgroup Three could hold them long enough for Subgroups One and Two to come around and fire up the Imperials’ skirts.

  And that meant the Prejudice was going to have to draw a significant amount of fire.

  The only ‘good news’ regarding this plan was that, at least in the battle with Paganini, the Prejudice’s stealth systems had made it incredibly difficult to hit. Also, Middleton’s ship would not be as limited in maneuvering as other ships due to its rotating shield generators.

  It was far from ideal, but it was the hand Middleton had dealt himself.

  “They are coming about!” Hephaestion reported in a rising voice.

  As one, the Imperial warships came hard about and max-burned their engines at the precise moment which allowed them to stay out of Subgroups One and Two’s firing arc for an additional six minutes—unless the Stalwart Commander heeded the local sensor feeds Middleton had forwarded to him, in which case they would gain firing arc in two minutes.

  “Full power to the engines,” Middleton winced, watching the stealth grid’s various indicators dip dangerously into the red-line. “Let’s see that fancy flying, Toto.”

  Then the Imperials opened fire, and for a moment Middleton was convinced his ship had been knocked completely out of the fight and that they’d shortly be abandoning ship.

  “Mult—” Hephaestion began to report after the initial impact, only to be interrupted when the Prejudice lurched again under another sustained volley of fire. “Multiple hits to the hull! Forward shield generator is down!”

  “Rotating shields,” Middleton said after he had rotating the port generator to cover the bow.

  “Seventeen direct hits from mixed heavy lasers and turbo-lasers, Captain,” Hephaestion reported.

  Middleton reviewed the strike report and saw that, of the roughly one hundred shots sent their way, they had only received seventeen hits—by any objective measure that was a win for Subgroup Three.

  Subgroup Three returned fire, focusing their efforts on the same Battleship Toto had targeted. Impressively, the Stalwart gunners managed to bring that Battleship’s forward and port shields completely down, forcing it to roll to present its starboard facing. The lighter fire of Subgroup Three’s Corvettes and Destroyers added to the mix, but scored only a handful of hull strikes before the enemy’s fresh shield facing was presented.

  “Firing!” Toto growled, and the Prejudice again went eight-for-eight against the lone damaged Imperial Battleship. A pair of those strikes managed to strike the hull due to the Prejudice’s slightly advantageous position compared to Subgroup Three, and much to Middleton’s savage delight he saw the enemy Battleship’s acceleration falter.

  “Damage to enemy Battleship’s number two engine,” Hephaestion reported.

  The Imperial Destroyers waited until they had re-acquired firing solutions on the damaged Cruisers, and then stabbed out with their combined might. Dozens of new rents appeared in those Cruisers’ hulls, and one of them ejected one of its fusion cores.

  Middleton’s Tactical plotter flashed near the rear of the Imperial formation, and he breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that the Stalwart Commander had indeed heeded the sensor feeds’ updates and accelerated his burn around the red giant.

  The Stalwart Duty and Glorious Burden, the Battleships around which Subgroups One and Two were organized, opened fire on the Imperial Cruisers which covered the rear of the Admiral’s formation. A few seconds later, their eight combined Cruisers added their weight of fire to the rear of the enemy formation.

  A pair of the Imperial Cruisers’ engines stuttered, causing them to fall out of position in the formation while the Battleships pressed on as best they were able.

  All told, the flanking Subgroups One and Two took three Cruisers down in the opening salvo, primarily due to every hull strike landing on or near the Imperials’ engines.

  With no choice but to alter his course, Admiral Edelweiss apparently recognized that he was trapped but he was clearly unwilling to go down without a fight. His remaining two Cruisers came about and unleashed their own fire on the approaching Stalwart Subgroups, clearly hoping to deter the Destroyers and Corvettes from pursuing the fleeing Imperial Battleships. A half dozen Imperial Destroyers also lent their firepower to this effort, leaving four Battleships and ten Destroyers attempting to run the blockade presented by Middleton and Subgroup Three, which consisted of the Prejudice, one Battleship, four Cruisers in various condition, three Destroyers and six Corvettes.

  It was going to be a close-run thing.

  Somewhat surprisingly, Hephaestion reported in a confused voice, “I am detecting multiple signals approaching from the second and third planet, Captain.”

  “They couldn’t have gotten those ships back online yet,” Middleton said as a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach accompanied a terrible thought—thankfully, that thought was dismissed by Hephaestion’s next report.

  “No sir. They appear to be missiles…hundreds of them,” he said in astonishment.

  Middleton scanned the incoming sensor feeds and confirmed that Hephaestion was correct.

  “I am receiving a broadcast message from Chancellor Foles,” Hephaestion reported.

  The dark-skinned woman’s hardened visage filled the screen as she declared, “Imperial aggressors, this is Chancellor Nikita Foles of Mercy’s End. We have launched Independence-class missiles and they will intercept you in thirty minutes if you continue on your present course. We advise you to accept the same offer you so generously extended to us upon your arrival in our sovereign system,” she said with icy precision as she leaned toward the pickup, “surrender your arms, unconditionally and without delay, or we will destroy you root, stem, branch, leaf and seed. I am hereby transferring the missiles’ override codes to Supreme Commander Middleton, who we trust will carry out our will in this matter. Chancellor Foles, out.”

  After her image disappeared, Middleton muttered, “My kind of woman.”

  Then the Prejudice violently rocked beneath his feet.

  “Rotating shields,” Middleton reported as he switched the starboard shields to cover the bow, which left the Prejudice’s flanks exposed but her bow and stern cov
ered.

  “The Imperials are adjusting course,” Hephaestion reported, “they are making a tight turn around the star.”

  “They’ll minimize up-the-kilt shots that way,” Middleton growled, “and probably manage to finish us off in the process.” Then he noticed that Subgroups One and Two had not yet featured any fire from their Destroyers and Corvettes, and he couldn’t help but snort in a mixture of derision and approval, “Clever, Commander…clever.”

  The signatures for those Destroyers and Corvettes were plainly visible on the Tactical plotter, but the fact that they had not yet opened fire told Middleton that the Stalwart Commander had built sensor decoys and, in all probability, he had attached them to the gunships assigned to his Battleships.

  Which meant the dozen Corvettes and half dozen Destroyers assigned to Subgroups One and Two were about to reinforce Middleton’s position—which was exactly what the situation required.

  “I owe you one,” he grudgingly said as his suspicions were confirmed and the lighter warships appeared behind the battered Subgroup Three and began to open fire on the Imperials.

  Their weight of fire was enough to turn the tide of battle firmly in Middleton’s favor. The Imperial Admiral couldn’t abandon his ships in escape pods at such proximity to the red giant, and he couldn’t escape without being, at the very least, whittled down to a handful of ships—ships which, if the Chancellor had been truthful about the deployment of nearly four hundred Independence-class missiles, would be destroyed long before they reached the hyper limit.

  The only sensible thing left was to surrender, but Middleton expected the Admiral to push this fight to the very last possible moment.

  True to Middleton’s expectations, Admiral Edelweiss’s ships refocused their efforts on gaining distance from the star’s corona rather than dishing out maximum punishment to Middleton’s people.

  Five minutes of continued volleys followed, with the Imperials losing another three Destroyers and two Cruisers to the Stalwart Commander’s flanking attack. The Stalwart lost six Corvettes in the ensuing firefight as Subgroups One and Two cut off escape vectors which would have permitted Admiral Edelweiss to avoid the incoming storm of interplanetary missiles.