The drones vanished, faint flickers of gravimetric energies reaching her sensors as they made transit. The enemy gunboats stirred, rushing forward to the gravity point. Hameeda gritted her teeth as the countdown began, knowing that she might have helped and hindered the offensive at the same time. The enemy had no way to tell the drones had transited out of the system, instead of jumping into the system, but ... it might work out for them anyway. Admiral Teller would begin the first assault as soon as his staffers had downloaded the data from the drones and updated their targeting locks. And then ...
Unless he gets cold feet when he sees the sheer size of the defences, Hameeda thought. And it would be very hard to blame him.
She felt a little intimidated herself. This time, the defenders couldn’t be smashed from relative safety. She wondered, grimly, if some of the mines were actually Tokomak-designed assault pods. They could start firing back through the gravity point, once the assault confirmed to them that the human ships were in place. She made a mental note of it as the countdown ticked down to zero. It was an idea humanity might want to try if the Tokomak pushed them back out of the system. Who knew? It might give them an edge when the shit really hit the fan.
The gravity point exploded with energy as the first antimatter pods made transit, setting off a series of explosions that devastated the minefields. Hameeda wanted to whoop and cheer as chain reactions rushed through the mines, blowing hundreds of thousands into atoms before they could react. A second wave of antimatter pods warped into existence a moment later, setting off another series of explosions. She smiled, coldly, as one of the gunboats blasted an antimatter pod before its onboard systems could switch off the containment chambers. The resulting explosion vaporised the gunboat as well as its fellows.
But we announced our coming, she thought, as the first assault pods started to materialise on the gravity point. And they’re getting their defences online.
She watched as successive waves of enemy gunboats fell on the pods, trying to take them out before they confirmed their position, located their targets and opened fire. It was a good tactic, she had to admit as pods started to vanish. Admiral Teller would have no way to know how many pods had been destroyed, and how many enemy fortresses remained intact, before he started to send warships through the gravity point. The remaining pods opened fire, unleashing a wave of devastation that roared towards the nearest fortresses. The Tokomak returned fire, launching missiles towards the gravity point. Hameeda frowned, then cursed as she realised what they were doing. The antimatter-tipped missiles were blowing hell out of the human missiles, trying to reduce the damage they could do. They’d taken the antimatter minesweeping concept and improved upon it.
Bastards, she thought, coldly.
A second wave of assault pods materialised as the first set of missiles found their targets. Four fortresses were blown into rubble, two more heavily damaged ... Hameeda knew, all too well, that it wasn’t enough. The Tokomak knew they couldn’t let the humans get into the Twins, knew they couldn’t surrender the system without giving up hope of recovering chunks of their empire in the near future. She eyed their starships, holding position near the outer fortresses, considering her options. She did have a handful of hammers. She could make an impact, if she picked the right moment.
She held back as the battle raged on, as more and more assault pods flickered into existence and discharged their contents towards the enemy fortresses. A handful - no, nearly half of them - held back long enough for their automatic systems to update their targeting, although that exposed them to enemy gunboats. Hameeda wished she could slip them targeting data, even though she knew it would be useless. There was just too much electronic distortion around the gravity point. She couldn’t update them without risking detection. Instead, she could only watch as the gunboats blew hell out of the pods before they launched.
A small fleet of starships appeared on the gravity point. Hameeda stared, utterly shocked as a handful interpenetrated and vanished in eye-tearing balls of light. Madness! She couldn’t believe that Admiral Teller, of all people, had authorised suicide tactics. And yet ... she frowned as her sensors sought harder data, noting that the ships were all captured alien vessels pressed into service. The alien rebels? Or robot ships? Admiral Teller had been vague when he’d told her how he planned to conduct the offensive. Had he had something like it in mind all along?
The captured starships opened fire, unloading their missiles towards the distant fortresses even as they picked off gunboats with point defence. Hameeda felt reassured - slightly - as her analysis subroutines calculated that most, if not all, of the captured starships were relying on automatics. The fleet hadn’t had a proper AI with them, but it hardly mattered if the ships were considered expendable. They lumbered away from the gravity point, their point defence lashing out in all directions. And then they exploded as one. Hameeda jumped as alerts flashed up in her mind. There had been so much antimatter loaded into the ships that, for a few vital seconds, every sensor in the area was blinded.
She smiled as the next wave of assault pods appeared on the gravity point. They didn’t bother to retarget their weapons before opening fire, unleashing hell towards the remaining fortresses. Admiral Teller had planned the assault well, she conceded. The unmanned ships had to have launched drones the moment they arrived, updating the admiral on the success of his assault. She turned her attention to the distant fortresses as the enemy starships started to move, gliding towards the gravity point. They were going to regret that, she thought, as a stream of mid-sized human ships began to appear. Admiral Teller was cutting the time between transitions down to the minimum possible. It was quite possible that one ship would ram another, even if they didn’t interpenetrate. But the admiral clearly believed the reward was worth the risk.
Hameeda smiled as the human ships seemed to multiply. The newcomers weren’t real, of course. No one would risk jumping cruisers through a gravity point in unison. They were drones, nothing more than sensor ghosts ... but, with the enemy sensor network having taken one hell of a beating, they’d have real trouble telling the real ships from the ghosts. And then another wave of ships arrived ... she frowned, unsure just what was happening. The ships looked real, but they couldn’t be real ...
She had to laugh as she realised what had happened. The cruisers had been linked together, their hulls practically touching, before one of them had jumped both ships through the gravity point. The cruisers were overdesigned, overpowered for their size ... she felt an insane urge to giggle as she realised the Tokomak would be totally surprised. They’d never think of hooking two ships together and sending them through the gravity point. A handful of massive bulk freighters appeared on the point, their hulls shattering seconds later to reveal a squadron of destroyers each. Admiral Teller really had pulled a fast one. The Tokomak had never thought of designing a starship capable of carrying other starships.
Not that they ever built anything smaller than a gunboat, she reminded herself, as the growing human fleet swept the space around the gravity point. They never needed to invent starfighter carriers for themselves.
She smiled as the steady stream of human ships built up into an overwhelming flood, flushing their external racks towards the remaining fortresses. The Tokomak seemed torn between rushing to their deaths and falling back, even though they knew that would mean surrendering much of the system. The battle was so intense it had probably set off alarms across the system. Anyone who was sitting on their hands, unwilling to revolt because they didn’t know who’d win, would probably be rethinking their stance. And the rebels had to be taking heart. They knew, now, that it was just a matter of time before the human fleet cleared the gravity points and pushed on ...
An alarm ran through her head. Oh no ...
***
Neola had thought, when her ships had first entered the Twins, that she’d won the race. It had been obvious, from reports funnelled up the chain, that the revolt had stalemated, that the rebels coul
dn’t secure the gravity point while the remaining Tokomak couldn’t retake the planetary rings. She’d told them to do nothing more than snipe at the enemy until her fleet arrived, then concentrated on getting her fleet to the Twins as quickly as possible. But it was becoming apparent that she hadn’t really won the race. There hadn’t been enough time to get her entire fleet through the gravity point before the humans began their arrival.
She paced her command deck in impatience as her fleet shook down, readying itself for the jump into FTL. If only she’d had more time! If only her fleet had drilled together, trained together ... right now, she would have settled for them reading and actually understanding the same tactical manuals. In hindsight, perhaps it had been a mistake to discourage their allies from actually studying war. It would have given them ideas, but ... it didn’t matter. Right now, every last Galactic was under threat. They had to fight together.
But I got there in time to win, she told herself. If I can take control of the gravity point ...
An aide cleared his throat. “Your Majesty, the fleet is ready to enter FTL.”
Neola resisted the urge to tear his head off. If the fleet had trained for longer, they could have jumped into FTL and dropped out right on top of the gravity point. She could have slammed a cork in the bottle, then wiped out whatever human ships had made it through before it was too late. But she didn’t dare try anything fancy, not with a fleet that would end up scattered, easy meat for its human enemies, if she took the risk. The gravity fluctuations near a gravity point were bad enough, but compensating for thousands of starships dropping out of FTL in the same general location would be considerably worse. Given time, she could have compensated for it. But she hadn’t had the time.
“Order the fleet to open fire as soon as they have targets,” she said. “And take us into FTL!”
She felt a quiver running through the starship as she dropped into FTL, racing across the system. The humans would see her coming, of course, but there wouldn’t be anything they could do about it. They wouldn’t even have time to turn and jump back through the gravity point. She’d hoped to sneak up on the gravity point, but the timing simply hadn’t worked out. She told herself, firmly, that it didn’t matter. The chance to isolate and destroy a number of human ships could not be wasted. And if she was lucky, she could seal off the system and recapture the planets at leisure.
And then teach the rebels the price of disobedience, she thought. There would be no mercy, not this time. She’d drop rocks until they surrendered and then ... she smiled coldly. The useful workers would be saved, but the remainder would be transported to a harsh world and told to develop it. If, of course, they wanted to live. Or perhaps she’d simply bombard the planetary surface to ash. It would be much easier to exploit if no one lived there. If they’re dead, they can’t rebel.
Her hearts clenched as the fleet dropped back into realspace, too far from the gravity point for her peace of mind. The massive defences she’d seen, the last time she’d passed through the gravity point, were completely wrecked. A handful of fortresses were still intact, but judging from their weak fire and weaker shields they’d been heavily damaged. The remainder were nothing more than debris, if that. The squadrons of starships that had once held position on the point were battered beyond easy repair, the minefields and gunboats were gone ... and hundreds of hostile icons surrounded the gravity point. Neola felt her hearts sink. She knew a sizable number of those ships had to be fake, but how many? Her display kept updating, suggesting the answer was very few. Sensor ghosts couldn’t fire missiles at enemy targets.
“Activate the gravity well projectors,” she ordered. It was unfortunate the humans could probably keep her from interfering with the gravity point itself, something she would have been reluctant to do in any case, but it didn’t matter. All that mattered was that she pinned the human ships in realspace, allowing her to smother them with missiles and batter them to death. “And open fire.”
She allowed herself a tight smile. She hadn’t quite won the race, but the humans hadn’t won it either. And she had most of her fleet with her, while the humans had only a small percentage of their fleet with them. She could afford to take heavy losses, if it meant shutting the gravity point. And then ...
A low shudder ran through the giant ship. Neola watched the remainder of the fleet open fire, each battleship hurling hundreds of missiles towards their human enemies. The sheer weight of firepower was terrifying, even to her. The humans might have better technology - and that was galling beyond words - but ... so what? Let them swat ninety percent of her missiles, if they could. She’d still deal them a heavy blow.
And then we’ll crush their homeworld, she promised herself. And then, we will make sure this never happens again.
***
“Admiral,” Commander Jalil said. “The enemy ships have opened fire.”
“I can see that,” Colin said. “Retarget the point defence.”
He kept his voice even, somehow. The wave of missiles roaring towards his ships was really a wall, the icons blurring together into an immense and utterly implacable force threatening to obliterate his entire fleet. It was a tidal wave of destruction, one he couldn’t avoid. The timing sucked, worse than he’d thought. He would almost have preferred to discover that the enemy fleet had reached the Twins first and taken up position on the gravity point. Then, at least, he would have had the option of declining battle.
“We’ll go with Theta-Three,” he said, as the vectors updated. The enemy fleet was pushing towards the gravity point, heedless of the risks. They’d either crush his ships or drive them away from the point, winning either way. “Launch the first drone, then get us underway.”
“Aye, Admiral.”
Colin nodded to himself. He’d done everything he could - everything his tactical officers could think to try - to get ships through the gravity point as quickly as possible. And it had worked, giving him a force multiplier the Tokomak hadn’t seen coming. But it had also made it impossible for him to retreat back through the gravity point if things went spectacularly wrong. He couldn’t even drop into FTL. The Tokomak had arranged things to trap his fleet and pound them into dust ...
Clever, he thought. The Tokomak weren’t stupid. It was a lesson some of his tactical officers would need to remember, if they survived the next few minutes. And, if our plans aren’t as good as we think, it may be enough to stop us.
His ship picked up speed as she moved away from the gravity point. The aliens lumbered towards them, keeping their vectors fixed on the gravity point itself. Colin nodded in understanding. Their target wasn’t the fleet, but the point. They wanted - they needed - to split the human fleet. They’d make it impossible for him to rearm his ships before he ran out of time.
“Launch the second drone,” he ordered, as enemy missiles started to enter his point defence envelope. “And pray that God remembers who’s in the right.”
Chapter Thirty-Three
Hameeda wasn’t sure what to do.
Admiral Teller’s ships were moving away from the gravity point, but even they couldn’t outrun missiles without dropping into FTL ... and the Tokomak had made sure they’d trapped the human ships in real space. She ran through hundreds of possible scenarios in a handful of seconds, trying to think of something - anything - she could do, but the most optimistic of them ended with the entire fleet being wiped out slightly less quickly than the less optimistic scenarios. It looked as if she’d be bearing witness to the first true Tokomak victory of the war, to the destruction of an entire human fleet in full view of the entire system ...
Her heart twisted as enemy missiles roared towards their targets. Admiral Teller’s point defence was working overtime, binding the ships into a single entity as they swatted missile after missile, but they just weren’t stopping enough. The fleet seemed to double, then triple, as highly-classified ECM systems came online, projecting a handful of sensor ghosts for each and every real ship in the fleet, yet ... the Tokomak al
ready had enough data to sort the fakes from the real ships. And the ghosts would start to vanish as the ships projecting them died.
And then everything changed. Again.
***
Neola noted, absently, that the human point defence was better than predicted. They’d clearly improved their ECM since she’d last tangled with a human fleet, to the point she knew more of her missiles would have been fooled if she hadn’t taken the time to gather such precise targeting data. The fake ships looked realer than their real counterparts. She snorted, knowing it didn’t matter. If half the missiles went astray, the remainder would still find targets and hammer them into dust.
She turned her attention to the gravity point as the fleet converged on its target. The stream of human warships had abated, leaving her in sole possession of the gravity point. She would block it completely, then hunt down and destroy the remaining human ships. And then ... she started as new icons appeared in front of her, thousands of tiny objects transiting the gravity point. They were moving towards her ... she cursed in horror as she realised her mistake. She’d occupied the gravity point and the humans had replied by launching hundreds of assault pods at her!
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