A Greater Interest: Samair in Argos: Book 4

by Michael Kotcher

  “Yess, yess,” the pirate lord said impatiently. “What?”

  “Sorry, my Lord. But we did encounter a ship with those characteristics before. It’s a Republic design, sir. A Republic Adder-class destroyer.”

  He hissed. “Republic? Any other ships nearby?”

  “Other than our own, my Lord, no. No others are coming in with the destroyer.” The man frowned. “Curious.”

  “What?” Verrikoth demanded, his voice getting harsh. The man blanched.

  “They are broadcasting a beacon ID for something called First Principles, not the Republic, my Lord,” the man told him.

  “Yess…” he agreed. “That iz curiousss.” What did this mean? Did the Republic turn one of their ships over to the locals? One of their destroyers had managed to slip away after his victory in Byra-Kae several months ago. Perhaps they came here. With their battlecruiser, I suppose it is possible they managed to capture the Republic ship. Obviously they fixed it up. A formidable ship, but it is no match for my cruisers. Certainly no match for Nemesis. His antennae curled as he considered his options here. I would like to add a ship like that to my fleet. No, we will continue with the withdrawal. “Comms, signal all ships. We will continue with the withdrawal. Cargo ships will pull into close formation, warships will escort them out. Commander Sokann and his Z’gchisss Ssquadron will continue to keep their fighters away from us.”

  “Yes, my Lord,” the comms officer replied. “Sending now.”

  ~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~

  “No!” Typhon raged. “Order HT 626 and Byvennot to withdraw. Cover the cargo ships as best as possible,” he ordered. “But we will engage that Republic destroyer. I will not run away from a ship like that.” The Republic destroyer was an ugly ship; it was little more than a cylinder with square hammerhead ends. There was no way he would retreat with a ship like that still in theater, while it was still a threat. “Bring us around.”

  “Yes, General!”

  “Commander! Illuyanka is ignoring my Lord’s orders and is turning to engage the incoming warship.”

  Tyler cursed, but kept his voice low. It wasn’t his place to question the actions of Lord Verrikoth’s allies, but the fact that the general was showing such blatant disrespect was so frustrating. He longed to get him in range and turn Nemesis’s heavy weapons on the general’s light cruiser and bring him to heel like the dog he was. “Keep us on course,” he ordered instead, trying to smooth out the frown creasing his forehead.

  “Very good, Commander,” Verrikoth said. “If the General decides he wants to engage them, I will not stop him. We will depart this system.” He steepled his blunt, mauve colored fingers. “Continue on course.”

  “Captain, one of the light cruisers is changing course to intercept us,” the tactical officer called out.

  “What about the rest of the pirate fleet?” Kol asked, his eyes glued to his display.

  Wotan nodded. “They are continuing on a vector that will take them out system. Their fighters are providing cover.”

  “Where are our fighters?”

  “They are holding position half a light second from the gas giant, to our port side,” Wotan replied. “Less than five hundred thousand kilometers from us.”

  “Comms,” Kol ordered, not looking away from his display. “Get the leader of the squadron on the line. I hope that’s still Leader Korqath, if not, whoever is in charge.”

  “I’ve got Leader Korqath on the line for you, Captain.”

  “Captain Raydor,” the zheen’s voice sounded over the comms at his command chair. “It’s good to see you and your ship.”

  “I only wish we could have gotten here sooner,” Kol said with feeling. “But we’re here now. What is the status of our forces?”

  There was a buzz over the comms before Korqath answered. “Well, my fighter squadrons are in decent shape. I have thirty-two effectives, though we’ve expended nearly all of our missiles. All the corvettes but the Maitland are destroyed and she’d taken a few hits. I think the corvette is still fighting, but she won’t be much help.” A pause. “All of the defense turret platforms are either destroyed or disabled. And the newest disgrace was the destruction of the tank farm above the gas giant.”

  Kol sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose. “Damn it. That’s a lot we’ve lost.”

  “Yes, Captain it is,” the pilot agreed. “And we’ve got one of them cruisers coming back around. What do you want to do?”

  “What I want to do is trash that ship,” Kol told him. “And you’re going to help me.”

  “Happy to, Captain.” He actually sounded excited, even after the hours of combat he’d already been through. “Not sure how much help me and my zheen can really be though. And I’m not too keen on getting into knife-fighting range. Last time my squadron did that with a capital ship, we got chewed up.”

  “I’m not sure what we can do about it, Captain. I don’t want to lose your pilots, but I want to keep that cruiser away from the gas mine. I think they might do bad things if we let them get in too close.”

  “What’s your plan?”

  “You distract them, while Persistence of Vision moves in to cut her off. We’ll hammer them and keep moving as much as possible. My ship has greater speed and maneuverability than a cruiser, so we need to use that.”

  “I agree.” But then he spoke again. “But I don’t want the rest of the pirate flotilla to get any ideas. I need to hold the bulk of my squadrons back to prevent those ideas.”

  “All right,” Kol said, clenching his teeth. “How many can you spare?”

  “I can bring ten fighters to the attack. I have several with nearly a half load on their missile magazines. Might be able to give the cruiser a bloody nose.”

  “Then come at the cruiser from below and port. I’ll move in in front.”

  “Roger that, O Captain!” the zheen said with enthusiasm.

  “Some of the fighters are moving up to engage, General,” Bek reported. The wolf looked ready for another fight, this time against a more worthy opponent. A Republic destroyer was much more formidable opponent than the corvettes they’d been skirmishing with for the last few hours. Illuyanka had shot down two of them and had managed to avoid any serious damage. It had felt good, but there’d been no real challenge. Now…

  “I see them,” the general replied. “Ready point defense. Helm, prepare to roll ship if they start firing missiles. I don’t want to take a full salvo on one facing. Bek, lock main weapons on the destroyer.” He bared his teeth in anticipation. “We destroy that warship and then it’s on to the gas mine.”

  The cruiser accelerated, as did Persistence of Vision. The fighters moved up in an undisciplined swarm, holding back on their missiles, a few spraying laser bolts that came nowhere close to hitting the pirate vessel. The destroyer absorbed a punishing volley from Illuyanka, heavy on energy weapons, no missiles, twisting to try and mitigate the damage. The FP ship struck back, her own six heavy lasers lashing out. Four struck against Illuyanka’s forward screens. The destroyer’s lighter laser batteries opened up, peppering the shields an instant after her main guns, and a salvo of throat-ripper missiles followed a few seconds behind. The light cruiser took the energy weapon hits, but her counter battery fire easily swatted the missiles down. The pilot of the cruiser slewed the ship to starboard, to bring the portside broadside weapons to bear, to assist in point defense.

  Which opened the ship up from the salvo from the fighters. The ten Aplora pilots dumped their remaining missiles at the cruiser. Two of the fighters had been among the strike flight that had savaged the assault transport and thus still carried a large number of their weapons. The other eight still retained one or two missiles each. Twenty-two missiles raced out from the Vision fighters nearly unopposed. At the very last instant, the light cruiser managed to retarget its portside batteries, which frantically began spewing lasers and counter missiles.

  Six then eight, then nine missiles exploded against the ship’s shields before Illuyanka could shoot do
wn the rest. A ripple of explosions tore down the entire portside of the ship, collapsing the shields and ripping into the hull of the ship. Secondary explosions ignited from inside and the whole ship bucked.

  “Break off!” Typhon screamed over the wail of alarms. “Drop us down the z-axis and go to best acceleration! Bek, keep them off us!” He was viciously pounding the arm of his chair.

  “The fighters are giving chase, but we’re accelerating away,” the sensor operator called, rubbing the side of his head. He’d cut himself when the ship lurched after he’d smacked his head on the console. Blood was trickling through his fingers and it hurt, but he was doing his best to ignore the wound.

  “They’re breaking off!” the sensor operator cried. The bridge erupted in cheers, which Kol allowed for a full ten seconds before he silenced them.

  “I can’t believe that worked,” the captain muttered to himself. “I mean, I’m glad it did, but I thought the cruiser would take the incoming fire from us in order to protect its flanks against the fighters.”

  “I think your ruse succeeded, Captain,” Wotan said quietly. “Having Leader Korqath save his missiles and even fire off a few lasers, they thought the fighters would have to close to point-blank range.”

  “Even still, they managed to shoot down more than half of the volley.” Kol actually sounded impressed. “I think we might want to have a look at that technology if we can.” Then he frowned. “But I’m not going to risk this ship or the fighters on trying to bring down that ship. Comms! Send a message to Leader Korqath. Tell him to follow, but back off. Let them go.”

  “After all that, sir?” the XO demanded, pointing to the outside. “After all they’ve destroyed and all they’ve stolen, you’re going to just let them go?”

  “We hurt them, XO,” Kol replied, his voice strained. “But even wounded, that light cruiser still outguns us. And I can’t afford to leave the gas mine undefended should the other light cruiser or the heavy cruiser decide to turn around and come after the gas mine. Helm, bring us about.”

  The pilot nodded. “Aye, sir.”

  Kol Raydor checked his sensor display again, which showed the light cruiser streaming air and racing away from the battle area, still on a relatively straight vector away. The rest of the pirate fleet was moving at a more sluggish pace, but the freighters were in formation in the center, with the warships and fighters arrayed around and to the rear of the freighter formation to protect it.

  “Comms, send a message to the mine. Tell them all the pirate forces are heading outbound.”

  “Ms. Samair, we’re getting a transmission from the Persistence of Vision,” Tiyaana Moreetz said over the comms. She sounded excited.

  “They made it!” Tamara gushed. “That is good news right there.” Though what a single destroyer could do against three cruisers, she wasn’t quite sure.

  “Captain Raydor says that all pirate forces are outbound, heading away from any possible targets of opportunity.” There was a pause while Tamara held her breath. “Ma’am, I think it might be over.”

  Tamara let out an explosive breath and sagged against a nearby hover pallet. “Call Leader Korqath. Have half his squadron come in for refueling and rearming. Of the ones out there, half the Aploras and half the Twin Novas, I don’t want squabbling over which fighter group gets to stay out. The other half that remains is to maintain defensive posture as best as possible.”

  “Yes, ma’am. I’m calling him now.”

  “Give it another hour,” Tamara replied. “Then get the shuttles and tugs out. We’ve got escape pods to pick up, and I want to get started on dealing with all the scrap out there.”

  “That’s rather callous, ma’am.”

  She sighed. “Tiyaana, all of that debris is going to be a serious hazard to navigation soon.”

  “I know ma’am,” she said. “But the fact that you’re barely waiting an hour before starting the salvage operation… I’m sorry, ma’am. It’s not my place.”

  “I don’t want to be the ogre that has to give the order,” Tamara admitted. “But the sooner the teams get the jump on it, the more they can get before it spreads out too much.”

  “I understand, ma’am.”

  Tamara put her hands on her knees and leaned forward, breathing deeply. This had been a long few hours, but with some luck, just maybe, it was over.

  “Tamara!” a voice boomed over her implant comms, causing her to jump.

  “Corajen, softly, please,” she said, putting her hands to her temples.

  “Is it true?” the lupusan demanded. “Are the pirates really leaving?”

  Tamara nodded, though the security chief couldn’t see. “Yes, Chief, they are.”

  “Damn it!” she raged.

  “What?”

  Corajen sounded indignant. “We didn’t get a chance to fight! There were boarding shuttles and pirates and I didn’t get a chance to kill any!”

  Tamara couldn’t help but laugh.

  Chapter 6

  "Sso I ssee you have returned to the fleet, General," Verrikoth chittered. He was seated in his small ready room off of the bridge, thankfully sparing the furious lupusan the humiliation of saying these things in front of his crew. It seemed that Typhon had no intention of embarrassing himself in front of his own crew, either, for the zheen could see the distinct background of the general's stateroom. The lights were dimmer and appeared to be flickering slightly due to damage. “I would have thought that ssuch an experienced fleet officer would never have fallen for ssuch a ssimple ruze.”

  Typhon growled, and Verrikoth couldn’t help hissing more with laughter. He knew on a deeper level that it wasn’t smart; that he would only enrage the lupusan further. But he just couldn’t help himself. And with the wolf’s ship damaged, there was very little threat.

  “Strong words, bug,” Typhon told him. The words stung worse because they were true. He’d gotten overconfident and they hammered him.

  “I sspeak az a victor, General,” he said simply. “Yess, the defenderz sstill have forcez, but I did not come here to wipe out the ssysstem. I have losst too many sshipss already, but the workerz and the goodz we’ve taken will allow uss to build more.”

  “Too many of my wolves died today.” But he sounded less angry than before.

  “You expected a good many of them to die taking the gass mine,” the pirate lord said, waving a hand dismissively.

  “I will not let this stand, Lord Verrikoth,” the wolf vowed. “They murdered my wolves aboard the transport ship.”

  Verrikoth leaned forward in his command seat toward the vid pickup. “I will not explain thiss to you again, General. I did not come to thiss ssysstem to lay wasste to it. And I will not tolerate you doing sso either.”

  “Why do you care about this damned star system?” Typhon demanded. “It isn’t part of your little empire.”

  Verrikoth was already in control of twelve systems, so calling his empire little was actually rather insulting. But he chose not to address it. “You’re right, this ssysstem iz not part of my ssphere of influence, desspite how close it iz. But it iz far more productive than I had imagined. And I will expect to come back here and ssometime ssoon, General. And I do not want a bombed-out ruin. I want that productive ssysstem we just came from.”

  Typhon didn’t respond. He just cut the connection.

  “Commander Tyler,” he said, turning to his flag captain.

  “My Lord?” the commander replied, looking over from where he was standing looking over the shoulder of the damage control officer.

  “What iz the sstatuss of the repairz?” It wasn’t the question he really wanted to ask.

  “Two of the plasma conduits are repaired, my Lord,” Tyler answered. “The hull breaches have been sealed.”

  “Excellent, Commander,” the pirate lord said in praise. “Will the sship be able to make the jump to hypersspace?”

  Tyler nodded. “Yes, my Lord, without difficulty. Though our maximum hyperspeed will be reduced until we can do a f
ull teardown and repair. Not that it will matter, since the transports couldn’t hope to keep up with Nemesis at full speed anyway.”

  The zheen nodded in approval. “Excellent. Keep a close watch on the General’z sship. Report to me the insstant it changez coursse.”

  “Of course, my Lord.” The commander snapped his fingers at the zheen at sensors, who nodded.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~

  General Typhon continued his fuming session in his stateroom for several minutes after ending the call with Verrikoth. It had been a very long time since Typhon had been forced to take orders from anyone. Even during the war, he’d managed to get himself in a position where he could work out the tactical situation for his own troops and had done so on numerous occasions, pulling victory from the belly of defeat more than once by defying orders. Finally, the war ended and he decided that he just couldn’t take the snide looks, the condescending messages from politicians, the derogatory and annoying comments from civilians. All of the messages amounted to the same thing: You and your wolves did cracking good work for us during the war, but now the war’s over and we have better things to worry about than a bunch of over aggressive, frightful… dogs! We thank you for your… contributions… during the war, but there’s nothing more pathetic than yesterday’s heroes. “Again, thank you,” he’d been told one by one politician bold (or stupid) enough to actually confront Typhon directly, “but now that the war is over, might it be better that you and your dogs go find some hole and crawl in and leave civilization to the civilized folk?”

  Typhon remembered that bald, condescending idiot with perfect clarity. He remembered the feeling of not-inconsiderable rage and having to stuff down that rage to avoid killing the prick. He doubted that there would have been any serious fallout if he had, but the man had been connected within the ruling collective. Typhon had proven himself an able commander and fighter during the war, so most likely his punishment would have been to resign his commission and quietly retire. That pompous little shit’s life was not worth losing everything he’d worked so hard to achieve; everything he’d shed and spent so much blood to achieve, no matter how satisfying it would be to rip the man open and feed him his own entrails.