by Kal Spriggs
Lucius’s eyes went wide, “That’s it, your Highness! The Chxor aren’t here to smash us against the Balor, they’re here to retaliate against the attack at Melcer!”
“How does that change anything?” Kandergain frowned.
“It changes everything!” Lucius slammed his hand down on the table in excitement. Then he pulled up a map of the system, and the course of the Balor Fleet. “Right now, they’re approaching the gas giant. They’ll be in the shadow of that, probably as they launch their fighters and shake down into their final formations. Their psychic sensors or whatever won’t have range on us, and their longer range sensors will be blocked by the gas giant.”
“So they won’t be able to see us do what?”
Lucius stroked his chin in thought, “I’m not sure.”
Admiral Mund spoke, “Alright, what are the Chxor here for?”
“To engage and destroy a threat to the Chxor Empire.”
“So… we give them that threat?” the Emperor asked. “My ship’s can advance to meet them. That will give your forces time to deal with the Balor.” For a moment, he looked almost eager to throw his massively outnumbered force against the Chxor.
“No…” Lucius stared at the map, thinking. There had to be a way. “If we could get the Chxor turned, headed for us, we might get them to engage the Balor.” He checked the movement of the Chxor versus the position of his own fleet and the powered-down ships of Dreyfus’s command. “Now… if we bring our fleet’s drives up in... thirty-three minutes, the Chxor will see them, and alter course to engage. At the same time, the Balor will be behind the gas giant and they won’t be able to see my force. When the Balor come from behind the gas giant, the Chxor will see them, and move to engage the new threat.”
“Is that before or after they shoot their way through your fleet to get there?” Admiral Mund asked dryly.
Lucius turned to Kandergain, “The Balor can do intrasystem jumps because they’re psychics, right?”
She frowned, “Yes.”
“Can you plot me a near-real-time jump to take all our ships? It doesn’t have to be quick, we can afford a couple hours transit time, but I need that jump to happen in the next forty five minutes,” He licked his lips, “and it would be best if we jumped behind a planetary body.”
She frowned in thought, “I’ll need the ship’s nav computer. And, as soon as Admiral Dreyfus’s ships go active, I’ll need access to the Patriot’s nav computer.”
“Go.”
She was out of the room before he messaged the bridge, “Kandergain will need full access to the navigation computer.”
“Yes, sir, uh, how—” there was a shout.
“Lucius, this is Kandergain, I’m plugged in. Make sure Dreyfus is ready to give me access as soon as his ships go active.” The line went dead.
Lucius hurried up to the bridge. His navigation officer stood, looking somewhat dazed, “Uh, Baron, she—“ He shook his head, “She just threw me across the compartment.”
“She was in a hurry.” Lucius said.
***
The strike force and the rest of the fleet merged twenty five minutes later.
The Chxor, with their limited sensor range, couldn’t see them well enough to target. They would have to be blind as well as deaf not to see them coming.
The drives of the five Crusader-class ships threw off enough background radiation to give someone sunburn. The drive of the Patriot at full acceleration threw off a larger signature than all thirty of the Chxor dreadnoughts.
“Come on, you bastards,” Lucius muttered, starting at his screen.
“Surely they’re not that blind?” he heard someone say.
Lucius glanced at the timer displayed in the corner of his screen. They had just under twenty minutes to change the course of the Chxor, and then to jump. If they passed that window, then the Balor would see his entire force. Lucius didn’t know what their course of action would be then, but he doubted it would favor him.
“Chxor force is altering course, they’re swinging around, sir.” Reese said. “Looks like they’re going for a least-time closure rate.”
Lucius let out a sigh of relief, “Kandergain, we ready yet?”
“Did I mention I hate being pressured when I work?” She snapped. “I need thirty more minutes.”
“You’ve got…” Lucius checked the timer, “eighteen minutes and thirty seconds.”
“Sir, I can link the Fleet’s processing power if that—”
“Do it.” He and Kandergain spoke simultaneously.
That took five minutes.
“Transferring the calculations,” Kandergain said.
Lucius’s screen flickered. He looked up, “What was that?”
“She’s sucking up all the processing power from our computers, sir.” Reese said. It took Lucius a moment to recognize the emotion of awe in Reece's voice. “Sir, I’ve never seen anything like this. If she put those computations in wrong, she could shut our computers down, crash every system in the fleet.” He looked over at Lucius, “We’d have to go over to manual controls for everything.” That would doom them.
“Can you pull the plug?”
“Don’t,” Kandergain snapped, “I’m nearly done. Five minutes.”
Lucius looked at his flickering screen and watched Chxor ships as they accelerated towards his fleet. He glanced again at the timer, as it ticked away the seconds. “We wait,” he said to Reese.
The Chxor force drew closer. In another ten minutes, they would be within missile range. “They’re hitting us with targeting sensors.” Reese said.
“Done!” Kandergain shouted. “Transmitting the jump calculations.”
He looked at the clock, two minutes remained. “Message to all ships, jump to Shadow.”
The transition hurt. Lucius felt his insides twist. He heard the ship groan. Then they entered shadow space and the gray nothingness surrounded them.
Reese spoke, his voice strained, “All ships reported jump successful, we’re on course.”
Lucius looked over at Kandergain, “Now where are we going?”
“I figured the gas giant Sanctuary would be far enough out the Balor wouldn’t be looking there.” She said. “I had to rush the calculations, that’s why the transition was so rough. We may be off by a few hundred thousand kilometers, but I don’t think we’ll hit the planet.”
Lucius hoped the last was a joke. “How long?”
“Fifty three minutes,” She said.
“Message from Admiral Dreyfus, Baron,” Reese said.
“Put him through.”
The old Admiral actually looked angry, “What the hell did that just buy us?”
“Excuse me?” Lucius asked.
“I couldn’t ask you why the hell we’re running before, but I am now!” Admiral Dreyfus snapped. “Why the hell did we just abandon almost twenty million people!”
“Admiral, first off, you ceded command to me. I expect you to trust my decisions. I didn’t want this job, but you damned well better believe that if I got it, I’d need your support.” Lucius glared the older man into silence. “Second, we’re not running. Kandergain did a system jump, that’s why we tied up our communications and computers for so long. Third, I hope we just turned our enemies against each other.”
Dreyfus frowned, “Explain.”
“When I was at the academy—”
“Before you were expelled?”
“Before I was expelled,” Lucius nodded and ignored the jibe, “I wrote a controversial paper on your battle against the Wrethe Incursion in what later became the Nova Roma system. In that battle, you took advantage of a military convoy that jumped in on the Wrethe’s flank, and used that force to turn their flank and break them.”
“Not that I don’t enjoy the embellishment, but most of that was accidental, you realize. I had no idea Commodore Jacent’s convoy would come in then.”
“I know, Admiral. My paper was controversial because I derided the common notion that your geni
us won that battle. As a matter of fact, in my paper, I noted you would have lost the battle if not for that accident, primarily to underestimating the effectiveness of their bombers and poor deployment of your forces.”
The Admiral winced, “Is that what I’ve come to? Being backstabbed by cadets?”
“Well, Admiral, they expelled me not long after. You’re something of a folk hero for Nova Roma, and after my other issues there, the paper certainly didn’t help me stay.”
The Admiral chuckled. “Okay, so you’re hoping, what, the Chxor cooperate?”
“More, I’m hoping the Balor think that Chxor force are our ships, either captured or allied.” Lucius said. “Think about it, they go behind that gas giant, seeing my strike force fleeing towards… something. They come out, and there’s a force of thirty dreadnoughts, no sign of my ships, and no sign of a battle.”
“It looks like you joined up with the larger force,” Admiral Dreyfus said. “Either that, or you jumped out. Either way, if the Chxor and the Balor aren’t working together, they’re still two armed forces, neither particularly happy to see the other.” The old Admiral nodded grudgingly, “I like it. I apologize.”
Lucius nodded, accepting the apology. “Sorry I didn’t keep you informed, Admiral, but time very nearly undid the entire plan.” He realized, like the bruised navigation officer, he’d bruised the Admiral's pride in his hasty actions. “We’ll emerge from Shadow in,” he checked the timer, “forty two minutes.”
“What’s the plan, then?”
Lucius grinned slightly, “Plan, what plan?” They both chuckled slightly, “Well, assuming a couple things go our way, we’ll see the Chxor try to implement our original plan, charging down the throat of the Balor.” Lucius shrugged, “After that we’ll see.”
Admiral Dreyfus nodded, “Understood. I do think, however, it is best for you to transfer your flag, now, Baron.”
“Excuse me?” Lucius blinked.
“The Peregrine is a fine ship, but it’s not as tough as the Patriot. You’re the commander of our forces, and the leader of a planet. How do you think things would go if a couple of Balor missiles get lucky hits on the Peregrine?”
Lucius looked away, “I think there’s plenty of capable people to step up.”
“I disagree. Leaving that consideration aside: my ship has better communications systems and computer systems. I understand your ships computer nearly crashed from the load. If you’d been aboard the Patriot, you would have been able to relay messages through the secondary computer system.”
Lucius stroked the arm rest of the chair. He realized suddenly, the reason he didn’t want to give up his position on the Peregrine. Doing so would be the abdication of his last ship command. On the Patriot, he’d be in the flag bridge. A ship only had one captain. Lucius spoke finally, his voice low, “I’ll transfer over once we exit shadow space.”
“Thank you, Baron.” The other man smiled slightly, “Every good officer has to give it up sometime. My shuttle will be on its way the instant we exit.”
***
The fleet dropped out of Shadow only a few thousand kilometers above the gas giant.
“Oh, good! We missed the planet,” Kandergain said cheerfully.
“Commander Leone, do you feel Ensign Ferranti is up to taking over your position?” Lucius asked. At the other man’s nod, Lucius turned to Daniel Beeson, “Well, Commander, looks like you’re moving up in the world.”
“Baron?” he asked
“You’ll assume command of the Peregrine. I’m transferring over to command the fleet from the Patriot.” Lucius felt his throat choke up with emotion. Departure from the War Shrike had been hard. To leave the bridge of his last ship command…
Lucius shook his head, then stood straight and saluted, “Commander Beeson, you have the conn.”
“Baron, I have the conn.” The young man returned the salute, looking stunned.
“Take good care of her.” Lucius turned away and moved towards the airlock.
He found Colonel Proscia awaiting him there. “The Admiral and I had a bet, as to whether I’d have to come up there and drag you down here.”
He heard Kandergain laugh behind him. “Ah.” Lucius said, stepping aboard the shuttle. “How much money you make?”
“Two Republic scrip,” Colonel Proscia said. “He gave me two to one odds.”
***
He stepped onto the flag bridge and felt out of place as Admiral Dreyfus waved him to his own chair. “I hear I owe Colonel Proscia two drachma?”
Lucius shrugged, “If I’d known you only sent one man, I might have tried to fight him off.” He felt a fluttery, uneasy feeling at the thought of commanding a battle from anywhere but the bridge of a warship. He nodded his head at Reese and Kandergain, “Do you have open spots at navigation and communications for those two?”
“I’m sure we can fit them in.”
Lucius sat, but he felt his unease increase. He glanced over the controls and brought up the sensor relay. “We have a relay yet from the Emperor’s ships?” His hands fumbled with the unfamiliar seat restraints.
“Yes, we got that up already. We’ll watch the battle in near real time.” Admiral Dreyfus said as he took another seat nearby.
Lucius stared at the screen and slowly, he smiled. The Chxor, at least, identified the Balor as a threat. They had altered course for a least-time intercept. The Balor had not altered their own course. The Balor would hit their maximum launch range soon.
“When’s the last time anyone has seen a battle on this scale?” Kandergain asked.
“This many capital ships all in one place?” Admiral Dreyfus asked. “Never.”
Lucius nodded, slowly, “There were a couple big battles at the fall of Amalgamated Worlds. When the Shadow Lords destroyed Earth’s defense fleet… that might be as big.”
“No,” Kandergain said, “I was at that one. There were only a dozen dreadnoughts on either side.” Lucius raised an eyebrow, but she didn’t elaborate beyond, “I was there for an assassination.”
“Whose?” Lucius asked
She shrugged, “Mine.”
“How’d that go?” Admiral Dreyfus asked.
“It was complicated.”
“So I’d guess,” Lucius said wryly.
“Don’t we have a battle to focus on?” Kandergain asked.
“Chxor are entering maximum missile range for the Balor’s heavy ship killers.” Reese said. “No fire yet.”
They waited. A minute passed. The two fleets arced closer, “They might hold their fire to launch their heavies and lights at the same time,” Lucius said.
“They’re rate of closure is fast enough they might want to—” Admiral Dreyfus broke off as new icons blossomed.
“Multiple missile launches. It’s—“ Reese looked up, “Our sensor drones can’t track all the launches. It’s upwards of ten thousand.”
“They launched their heavy and lighter missiles, everything, one launch.” Lucius shook his head. He saw, now, that attempting to run that gauntlet would have smashed even the largest ships of his formation. He wondered if the Chxor would fare any better.
“I’m seeing counter-missile fire. Only a hundred.” The Chxor ships didn’t mount external racks, they had to use their main tubes.
“One minute to impact.” Reese said, “The Balor just reversed course, they’re maintaining the range.”
The Balor weren’t going to let the Chxor close nor to even fire a shot. Lucius shook his head. That was what his force faced, Lucius knew. He shook his head. How could they fight an enemy they couldn’t catch, couldn’t get range on?
The wave of missiles broke on the Chxor.
The sensors couldn’t track the multitude of missiles. They couldn’t differentiate the explosions of individual warheads in the hash of radiation as over ten thousand hundred-megaton and seven thousand five-hundred-megaton warheads detonated. For a few seconds, a new star blazed in the Faraday system. When that glare finally faded, a dozen wre
cked warships emerged, leaking atmosphere and debris.
“I’m seeing only seven dreadnoughts and five cruisers left.” Reese said.
“Those poor bastards,” Lucius said. He almost felt guilty. The sensor data made the slaughter seem bloodless, but Lucius knew that aboard those ships, pain and blood existed in plenty. Bleeding and burned crew would be scattered amongst the dead. On ships like that, the injured would outnumber the hale.
“The Balor reversed course again.”
Lucius watched as the armada turned and closed with the damaged ships. The Chxor either realized they had no escape or lacked any chain of command. They continued to close.
The Balor force closed and their heavy guns fired from twenty four thousand kilometers out. The two forces swept closer, but by the time the Chxor had range, three more of their dreadnoughts and all the remaining screening cruisers died.
The four remaining dreadnoughts fired. They targeted the larger Balor ships and Lucius saw two, possibly more hits. The shields of the larger ships absorbed the fire.
The two fleets interpenetrated. The fire continued from point blank. A Balor destroyer died. One of the Chxor dreadnoughts exploded. Shields around one of the battlecruisers flared and failed. A cruiser exploded.
Then the remaining Chxor dreadnought lost power. The Balor continued to fire. The hulk absorbed a dozen more hits before it came apart in a cloud of debris.
Lucius looked away, he’d just seen his own future. He caught Admiral Dreyfus’s eyes and saw the other man knew it too. Any course they made would force them to run that same gauntlet of fire. That same destructive wrath would focus on his ships and the Balor would dance away until they decided to close and finish their game.
“The Balor have altered course, again.” Reese said, his voice hollow. “They’re making a least time intercept for Faraday. Looks like three hours till they reach maximum missile range.”
“Their capital ships take, what, a half hour or so to reload their racks?” Lucius asked.
Admiral Dreyfus nodded. “They’ll have their fighters reloaded in about the same.”
At least when their turn came to run that gauntlet, they’d run into a smaller wave of fire. The destroyers didn't carry reloads for their external racks. Perhaps more of them would live to close with the enemy.
