The battle cruisers were spread out in six tets, ready to pounce. The remaining three (those from the Interdiction Force) were back with Jhon in the reserve. It was a powerful force, at least to Jhon's eyes; but looking at the sixteen maulers they had so far identified he wondered if it would be enough. The plan they had agreed upon was to send the maulers straight in. They didn't have the speed for fancy maneuvering so they weren't even going to try. They just wanted to get close enough to the moon to be able to disrupt it. Meanwhile, the battle-cruisers' job was going to be trying to cut off any outlying vessels and either pull them out of the main battle or force them in closer to Vira. The super-dreadnaughts were following in behind the maulers, mostly to give them extra cover as they closed. Sixteen maulers, inferior fire control or not, could throw an awful lot of missiles, and keep throwing them longer than Jhon cared to think.
He took a look at another image, this one inset below the main one. His own force was there; two super-dreadnaughts and three battle-cruisers, all of them running in full stealth. However this time, all systems were hot, unlike back in Sol system. Currently, everything was looking fine. Victory's coolant levels were good and the whiskers from the other ships showed they were in the same condition. As he watched, a readout on the coolant display ticked over from 14:00 to 13:59. Almost fourteen hours of coolant left before they had to do something about the heat. Com whiskers from the other four ships were indicating they were in a similar condition.
A flash on the main image drew his attention back to it. Another mauler was highlighted, with the number seventeen beside it. The running total now showed seventeen maulers, twelve super-dreadnaughts and eleven battle-cruisers. Jhon smiled. Those were better odds than expected, though he would have traded the extra battle-cruisers for extra maulers in a heartbeat.
Commodore Makar's face came to life on Jhon's screen. "We're coming into range now; let's hope we can whittle them down a bit."
Jhon saw the battle-cruisers race ahead of the rest of the formation, peeling off towards a single mauler that was light-seconds closer than the rest of the Enemy force. A closer scan showed it looked different than imperial ships of the same class. Rather than a simple sphere, studded with weapons and sensors the Enemy design looked more like two of their slab-sided super-dreadnaughts fastened together in an X with an armored sphere at the center. It looked brutish and ugly; like the head of an ancient warrior's mace.
Then Har Ovrilan's battle-cruisers fired. Nearly six hundred missiles sleeted down towards a single target. Its own launchers flushed in response, but it put less than a hundred missiles into space. After seeing the effects of the Enemy salvos on Imperial Fury, Jhon wasn't expecting much from this wave. It did feel good to be taking the battle to the Enemy though, rather than letting them have the initiative. Meanwhile, Har Ovrilan's ships followed their own missiles in, accelerating down the throat of the oncoming mauler. Less than a minute later the reason became obvious, as their launchers recycled and threw another six-hundred odd missiles into space, straight down the track of the first wave.
It was firing again, too; slashing another ninety missiles back towards its tormentors. Even cycling launchers as fast as possible it just could not keep enough missiles in flight to match what was coming down on it. Then its hammerbeams opened up. Har Ovrilan had brought his battle-cruisers into range and this time the size of the weapons did matter. No battle-cruiser could carry a hammerbeam the size of a mauler's and the Imperium was out-gunned.
Every one of those hammerbeams targeted one battle-cruiser, Direcat, and Jhon watched in horror as they smashed through her outer skin as if it were nothing. Battle-cruisers kept cruiser level hull armor, and combined it with near super-dreadnaught level citadel armor; it gave them room for the drives that provided their speed, but not the toughness to stand up to a mauler. The first half-dozen hits stripped the majority of her armament, ripping the outer hull and exposing her citadel. Her shields might as well have been down for all the good they did against those hammerbeams, and Jhon wondered if she even had any.
Even with most of her weapons stripped, she still held her position in the formation, her remaining point-defense still cycling as missiles slashed towards her. Jhon saw three more hammerbeam strikes, full on the citadel, smashing and crumpling the ship like a tin can under a sledgehammer. Then she just blew up. One moment she was there, the next there was just a cloud of particles where ISS Direcat had been a moment before.
Seconds later the missiles hit the mauler's outer point-defense zone and counter-missiles, lasers and hammerbeams started stabbing out towards them. Jhon's screen dimmed and fuzzed for a moment as the computers fought the jamming to provide an accurate image, then stabilized and he saw the first few missiles strike home. He had been expecting something similar to the attack on Imperial Fury, where fourteen hundred missiles had barely touched her combat power. This was different, the hit counter was past a hundred already, and the second and third waves were still coming in.
He zoomed the image in and caught a glimpse of devastation before another missile strike obscured the image. Hammerbeam mounts were twisted wreckage. It fired again, this time catching the battle-cruiser Brightstar. The battle-cruiser's hull split under the attack, spilling air and weapons, but it kept formation and kept coming. Before the mauler could fire again another salvo struck home. This time there were more hits, but the jamming was far less effective and the computers were able to keep a clear image for Jhon.
His systems had generated enough data to put out a combat effectiveness profile, and Jhon could watch the numbers fall as the missiles detonated. After the third salvo, he could see the effectiveness hovering at about ten percent, and then the ship simply disappeared. "One down," he muttered. It was more than he had hoped the battle-cruisers would be able to do; but even so they had been very lucky. The mauler had come forwards, with no support from any other ships and Har Ovrilan's ships had been able to overwhelm its defenses. That wasn't something that could be counted on happening again, and if those ships came into hammerbeam range of the Enemy maulers they would not survive long enough to launch even a second salvo.
While the battle-cruisers had been demolishing the one mauler, the rest of the force had been closing in on Vira. This was not going to be a fast-paced battle of maneuver, not with maulers on both sides. Admiral Torrens maulers were driving straight towards the moon while the Enemy moved to block. Both sides were showing all the finesse of a sledge-hammer and Jhon was glad that he was not in the middle of it.
*
Vatriz Torrens kept her eye on the screen as her implant fed her a steady stream of reports. Most officers preferred to rely on the screens for everything, but Vatriz used her implant as well. It was the one thing she could be sure she would hear.
"Damage control reports Brightstar is combat-ineffective and withdrawing at flank speed." The synthesized voice reported while she reviewed Har Ovrilan's forces. "Remaining units report full combat effectiveness."
A quick pulse from her implant opened a com channel to Commodore Har Ovrilan. "Good job with that mauler, Deryn, but we can't afford those kinds of losses. You have to keep out of the mauler's hammerbeam range. I want long range missile strikes on their SDs. Try to push them back against the moon. Torrens out."
She ignored the acknowledgement that came over her implant. Deryn Har Ovrilan had worked for her for years; she knew she could trust him to follow her orders. The real question marks were His Royal Highness, and Admiral Simes. The prince should be fine; at least as long as he stayed back where he belonged and didn't break stealth. Simes units were staying where she wanted, good. He had been top dog in this system too long, and the look in his eyes when he had been told he was subordinate to her had not been a pleasant one.
That reminded her that they were getting closer to the Enemy. "Battle line, report."
"Battle line is ready, Admiral Torrens." There wasn't a noticeable delay on Simes' voice so he couldn't be letting his emotions color his a
ctions too much. The displays in front of her showed all of his super-dreadnaughts were already tied into the squadron defensive net.
Without thinking she reached up to brush the sweat away from her forehead. What's the point of putting us in a cold room to stay alert when the uniforms will keep us warm. When she put her hand back down she could see from the way the fine hairs on the back of her hand stood up that the uniform wasn't keeping her that warm. Vatriz shivered, then returned her attention to the screen. They were getting close, and now the Enemy was pulling its maulers in close, building a wall between her and Vira.
Her implant pulsed, opening her command frequency. "All ships, pull in tight. I want a quadruple tet and I want it now-Dauntless will take point with me." She focused her attention on the main screen, watching as her people carried out her orders. Her sixteen heavies, the eight maulers and eight super-dreadnaughts, wove themselves into a single formation. Each group of two maulers and two super-dreadnaughts formed one point of a tetrahedron, with the ships forming their own tight tetrahedron at each vertex. Vatriz was shaping hers like a spearhead, aimed straight at Vira. Her own ship, along with Admiral Simes,' was going in first.
Imperial Protector shuddered as she went to full drive into the heart of the Enemy formation. Torrens ignored it, just as she ignored most of the combat reports from her flagship. It was Captain Tellis' job to fight the ship, hers to manage the battle.
Vatriz took another look at the Enemy's wall. It was the only name she could think of for the formation that faced her. Sixteen maulers and twelve super-dreadnaughts hung in space between her and her target. The maulers were in a four by four square formation, with three super-dreadnaughts along each side. A glance at the scale showed that the entire formation was barely a thousand kilometers in diameter. A second look showed the Enemy's battle-cruisers were hiding back behind the main line.
Why keep the battle-cruisers so far back. All that does is free up ours. She took another look at the moon in behind the Enemy force, then pulsed a command. "I want a comparison between that moon's surface now, and before they came. ASAP." She glared at the screen. "Deryn, whatever you do do not go in after the surface. There may be a trap. Keep at extreme range and continue the missile duel."
At that moment, the Enemy formation vanished behind a curtain of fire as they pumped twenty-three hundred missiles into her formation, followed by the same number again from Vira's surface.
"Keep them steady," she muttered over the comlink. "We just need to get closer."
Her own units were returning fire. Har Ovrilan's missiles were screaming downrange and her own missile ships were adding their share to the attack. It was no match for the missiles coming down on her, but Admiral Vatriz Torrens had been expecting that. Imperial Protector and her sisters were designed to survive that kind of attack. They were lightly armed for maulers, with none of the missiles that gave them their long range punch. She had also given up some of her hammerbeams too; not all of them like the missiles, but some. What she had gained was point defense. No ship in the known galaxy had half as good an anti-missile defense. This was the battle they were made for.
"Thirty seconds to hammerbeam range." The report pulled her attention back out from her ship to the fleet. All her ships were closing in, going for as tight a formation as she could manage. There was no finesse, no subtlety, just raw crashing power, brute strength against brute strength.
Sirens wailed as Imperial Protector took its first hammerbeam hit. "Damn it," she muttered. The Enemy had mounted hammerbeams on the surface and they had more range than any mobile unit. "Don't worry about the surface mounts yet. Just blast me a hole through those maulers. The busters will take out the surface mounts."
For the moment the Enemy was spreading their fire, all her ships were reporting hammerbeam strikes, but so far shields seemed to be holding. "Ten seconds to hammerbeam range, all targets selected. Firing."
Vatriz smiled as the damage reports came in. Every ship in her formation had fired at a single Enemy mauler. Once again the Enemy's poorer coordination was apparent. All sixteen of her ships had fired almost simultaneously, staggering their fire just enough to ensure they hit as a single massive salvo. No shields could handle that much energy and the Enemy mauler crumpled under the fire, the twin hulls bending over the inner sphere before the whole thing vanished in a ball of flame.
The entire force shifted targeting, following the priorities she had set. One mauler down, now on to the next, breaking down enough of the wall to get her planet-busters through. Vatriz grinned; she had trained her entire life for this. Yes, people were dying, but more would die if they did not do this. More importantly, this was vindication.
She remembered nights as a young lieutenant having arguments with officers from a nearby Sector Guard base. They had sworn there was no such thing as the Enemy, told her she was wasting her life preparing for a battle that would never come. She could still remember the look on one young man's face as he looked straight at her and said: The Imperial Guard is nothing more than a drain on the Imperium. All it does is perpetuate a system that should have died centuries ago. That was when she had walked out, because otherwise she would have hit him.
Even as she remembered the incident, the majority of her attention was focused on the battle in front of her. Dauntless was taking a pounding; half her status indicators were in the red. "Bring Imperial Shield forwards, we need to take some of the pressure off of Dauntless."
The mauler lumbered into position, its hammerbeams pounding, shoving forwards to make itself more of a threat than the belabored Dauntless. Vatriz watched the ship move, like a piece on a gigantic gameboard. Everything depended on getting a big enough hole to put those planet-busters through. That was all they needed. To hold a hole open long enough to send the busters on their deadly way.
She took a deep breath of the chill air and took another look around the flag bridge. Everyone was bent over their consoles, and she could hear their voices make an undertone to the bridge. They got the raw detail that made up the overview that she could see. Her vision was only as good as their analysis made it, and she thanked the First Ones that her team had had the time to come together.
The flash of another Enemy mauler detonating caught her attention. That was two down, and her forces were already moving in closer. Imperial Shield had moved in and was taking fire away from Dauntless. Vatriz' screen showed a close-up of hammerbeams recoiling as they pounded away at the Enemy. Another segment showed her entire force in the form of icons, the gap was almost large enough.
She leaned forwards, gripping her armrests hard enough that her fingers turned white. A red circle had appeared on the screen, there was enough space for the busters to get through. "All ships, we have a firing path. Imperial Guard maulers fire as you bear." Even as she finished speaking her hand mashed down on the big red button that released her own planet-busters, and a savage grin spread over her face. "Take that."
The ship shuddered and everyone aboard felt it. Deep in Imperial Protector's core a two hundred meter sphere had just been chambered in the largest weapon ever put on a mobile platform. The physicists had never been able to decide whether to call the warhead dark anti-matter or anti-dark matter, but Vatriz had never cared about that. What mattered to her was that it was her weapon. She was a knight in armor; the planet-buster was her lance. Her power usage screen showed accelerator coils charging as Imperial Protector turned just enough to draw a straight line down to Vira's surface, right through the gap her ships had made.
Lights went off and sirens wailed as computers took over, and grabbed the planet-buster in immaterial hands. Vatriz' jaw dropped and she carefully forced her face back into its normal expression. It wouldn't do to let them know I've never done this either. Who am I kidding, no one alive has ever done this. Ten seconds later she felt the ship rock as the planet buster leapt from the tube, accelerated to almost ten percent of light speed before leaving the ship.
Imperial Protector had not been t
he first ship to bear, and she could see the planet-busters streaking towards the moon. Each was wrapped in its own drive field and flaring shield as it drove for the surface at the highest acceleration it could manage. The Enemy was already re-orienting to face this new threat, and now she could see why they had the battle-cruisers held back, as the ships moved towards the planet-busters, trying to intercept them. "They're trying to trade ships for missiles." The words came out almost too quiet even for her ears. The battle-cruisers were fast for capital ships, and the planet-busters were slow for missiles.
She caught her breath as one vanished in a silent detonation, caught like a dory that had been hit with a sixteen-inch shell. Blinking, she almost missed the first impact on the surface of Vira. The ground vanished in an eye-searing glare that the computers barely compensated, replaced by a glowing sphere ten kilometers across with cracks radiating out across the surface. A second one hit, adding to the glow, and she could see the cracks increasing and accelerating as they spread through the moon.
A light flashed read on her screen as Imperial Shield vanished. One moment the ship was there, the next it was gone. Vatriz cursed, but there was nothing she could do. Escape would have been impossible even if the crew had tried. Growling deep in her throat she turned back to the job at hand.
The bombardment was having an effect. Sensors were reporting the Enemy had lost most of their coordination as their main base came under attack. Six planet-busters had already hit, and the moon was beginning to split under the attack. Even as she wondered how much longer it could survive, she saw the answer to her un-asked question. Another planet-buster hit, the seventh, and the moon exploded.
Collision alarms sounded, and Vatriz leaned back in her command chair, ready to ride out the explosion. It hit the Enemy first, ships reeling from the loss of communication were suddenly hit by multi-gigaton fragments of moon driven by enough force to disrupt a body over a thousand kilometers across. It was time to hunt, and she sent the command that released her forces to attack anything that moved.
Price of Imperium Page 20
