Perhaps that’s a good thing, she thought, as the final seconds ticked away. The Empire’s monopoly on superdreadnaughts and superdreadnaught construction had kept it firmly in power; none of the first-rank worlds could stand up to even one of the sector fleets, as Gaul had proven. If the Shadow Fleet hadn’t come to the rescue, Gaul would have been scorched… and it knew it. If the first-rank worlds started building superdreadnaughts as well, the entire basis of the Empire’s power might disintegrate. It would certainly be harder for anyone to throw their weight around.
“Flickering,” the helmsman said. The display blanked once as the starship flickered through interstellar space. At such range, barely a light year from the system, it was bare seconds before they flickered back into normal space. Katy braced herself, but the shock still stung, the cumulative effects of two shocks in close succession tearing at her. She winced, hearing the sound of someone vomiting on the deck, and pulled herself back together as the display started to fill up with new icons. “We have arrived in the system.”
“I had noticed,” Katy said, concentrating on the display. They’d drilled the battle stations drills long enough for her to be confident that the fleet would come to battle stations without her having to do more than issue basic orders. The fleet’s fire control system, years ahead of anything Admiral Wilhelm should have had, linked the fleet into a single weapon, under her command. The fleet should have been able to match two of Admiral Wilhelm’s squadrons without breaking a sweat, although without knowing just how far the new weapons had spread, Katy wasn’t inclined to run such risks. “Tactical?”
“Seventeen enemy starships detected, including four battlecruisers,” the tactical officer reported, calmly. The display continued to update as more enemy starships brought their drives online, some trying to form into a combat formation while others, probably freighters, started to run towards the edge of the gravity shadow and escape. It looked, very much, as if they had been taken by surprise. She could only hope that her first impression was correct. “Two destroyers have just flickered out; vectors suggest that they are flying to Cottbus itself and Nova Berlin.”
Admiral Wilhelm’s headquarters and one of his industrial nodes, Katy thought, as the fleet shook itself down into attack formation. She watched as probes sped away from the ships, hunting for any turbulence that might mark the presence of cloaked starships, while studying the defences of the planet below. The display kept updating as the defences, older fortresses and automated platforms that would have been a threat before the rebellion, came online, linking into the unified command network and preparing for action.
“Locate the main supply base,” she ordered, already knowing where it had to be. The tactical officer illuminated a series of old asteroids, once used as a source of metal and resources for the planet below, hanging in high orbit. They could have been spun up to generate gravity and converted into habitats, but instead they had been left drifting in space, which suggested that they were being used as supply dumps. The presence of modern missile systems defending them only convinced her that she was right. “Align our vector on them and prepare to engage.”
“Aye, aye, Admiral,” the helmsman said. The starship shivered slightly as the drive fields finally started to propel it through space. Katy watched, grimly, as the enemy fleet started to form up in front of them, knowing that a lot of good men and women were about to die for their master. They couldn’t stop the superdreadnaughts from wrecking the entire system and they had to know it.
“Hail them,” she said, quietly. She took no pleasure in mass slaughter of helpless men and women, even if they were on the wrong side. “Inform them that we will accept their surrender under the terms and conditions of the Moscow Accords.”
The thought brought back memories of her own period as a prisoner of war. Admiral Wachter had treated her and the remainder of the POWs well, against orders from the Thousand Families. She hadn’t realised until after the Fall of Earth just what the Thousand Families had had in mind for her, but she’d been supremely grateful to Joshua for saving her people. They would have been given to the mind techs and, after having been made to betray the rebellion, would have been sold as pleasure slaves. She’d had nightmares for months afterwards.
“No response,” the communications officer said. There was a long pause. “I am unable to even locate any ship-to-ship communications traffic.”
“Lasers, then,” Katy said, grimly. It wasn’t uncommon for starships to rely solely on lasers to communicate, but in a war situation it was generally regarded as a sign of hostile intent. It had always baffled her that the Imperial Navy used such a system, when it was impossible to prove that starships were using lasers to communicate or were just being silent, but it was doctrine and therefore not to be questioned by mere mortals. Rewriting the Imperial Navy Regulations, massive volumes covering every problem the Imperial Navy had encountered or was likely to encounter, was going to take years. There were times when she thought that it would be easier to burn the volumes and start again. “Tactical, lock weapons on targets and prepare to open fire.”
The enemy ships didn’t wait. As soon as she slipped into firing range, they opened fire, belching out a pitiful salvo of barely two hundred missiles, locked on her ship. She tensed, wondering if they had located her flagship, before realising that it had to be coincidence. Their only hope was to inflict enough damage to put her off carrying out further raids. She watched as the red icons mounted, slipping into an attack profile that would give them their best chance at getting a handful of missiles through her defences, and winced. It wasn’t going to work.
“Fire,” she said, calmly.
The superdreadnaught shuddered as it belched out its first salvo. The firepower of the Jefferson alone outmatched the firepower of the entire enemy fleet… and it was combined with the firepower of eight other superdreadnaughts. She’d held the arsenal ships in reserve, expecting the enemy ships to target them first, but they’d chosen to focus on her superdreadnaughts. She wasn’t sure if she admired their decision or not, but it made her angry. It was throwing away good men and women for nothing.
Idiots, she thought, wondering if it showed how Admiral Wilhelm’s government really worked. If they were that scared to break contact and escape — and they’d had enough of an opportunity to escape when she’d first arrived — what would he do to them if they lost the battle? It wouldn’t matter to them personally — only a miracle would save them now — but how would Admiral Wilhelm treat surviving losers? Admiral Percival would have punished them for the cardinal sin of losing a battle, making his people reluctant to admit that they couldn’t win… or willing to rebel.
The first wave of enemy missiles lanced into the teeth of her point defence and started to expire. The massed point defence of every superdreadnaught, and her escorts, could be deployed to protect her ships, with nothing whatsoever having to be held back to protect the remaining ships, which weren’t under attack. She realised, as missile after missile flickered and vanished into a puff of ionised plasma and dust, that she’d overestimated their penetration aids. They were being wiped out and her ship wasn’t even going to take a hit. The enemy were firing again, and again, but they weren’t even combining their salvos… and she suspected that even if they had, they would have done no good. They simply didn’t have the firepower to punch through her defences.