He added the coordinates to the landing path that Krieger had used to return Delagarza to Alwinter.
He ended the transmission and sent it to Outlander.
The transmitter remained in the park as Hirsen calmly strolled away from the flash mob that had formed in the streets. From what he could hear, Sentinel had arrived in force during his stint in Taiga Town. Sentinel’s admiral had demanded that Dione’s inhabitants surrender the rebel woman that passed herself for Isabella Reiner.
Sentinel could whine and threaten however much they wanted. Only one thing mattered, and it was this. Could they reach Dione in time?
Hirsen knew Isabella’s address. It was time they had a chat.
27
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
CLARKE
“No word from Hirsen,” Alicante told Clarke.
Ten hours until they reached Dione.
“I don’t like it,” said Pascari.
The tension was almost a tangible presence in the bridge. With the added bulk of the pressure suits, the crew looked like a group of seated statues packed for transport. Clarke couldn’t see anyone’s faces from his g-seat, but he could imagine their expressions, glued to their screens, just like he was.
“Neither do I,” said Clarke, “but we don’t have any other option.”
The arrival of Sentinel hadn’t changed a thing. He’d expected the fleet to arrive sooner or later. But it added a deadline that hung over Task Force Sierra, made it imperative they got Reiner and Hirsen on the first try and got the hell out of dodge.
There wouldn’t be any second chances.
“What about Vortex?” Pascari asked. “We’ll be in range of them soon.”
Alicante sent an updated holo through the shared line. “As we can see, the Vortex began accelerating away from the planet hours ago. We weren’t able to predict any course then, since it could be a bluff or a simple repositioning in orbit.”
The Virtual Chart Display showed Vortex and its escorts moving away from Dione. The three dimensional chart assigned certain coordinates to be up, down, left, and right. Any observer could change them at will, but the entire Task Force used the same designation so there wouldn’t be any confusion. The standard was that the star, Elus in this case, was down. Planet Dione was up. The Alcubierre point where Task Force Sierra had arrived in-system was back. The Alcubierre point at the exact opposite side of the system was front. Left and right were from Sierra’s perspective.
Vortex’s route would bring it down and to the right, away from Dione and Sierra, but it’d also bring him closer to the two destroyer patrols roaming the system.
Clarke hadn’t seen that tactic before. From an outsider’s point of view, Vortex was either surrendering or an idiot. It left Dione exposed.
Captain Yin had taught him that he should always assume that if the enemy’s actions made no sense, he had failed to spot an ambush.
What could Erickson gain by abandoning Dione? Clarke thought about the Tal-Kader captain’s winning condition. His mission objective. Clarity followed. Vortex wasn’t retreating.
“He’s abandoning the planet, the coward,” said Pascari. Then, he thought about it, and his tone became cheerful. “It means we won, right? We reach the planet, we win, that’s how it works.”
Clarke winced and chose his words carefully. “Not exactly. Vortex hasn’t lost and isn’t surrendering. Erickson’s objective isn’t to protect the planet, it’s to stop us from extracting Reiner.”
“Sorry, I don’t see it either,” said Captain Navathe. Out of respect for her, Clarke had added her to the command private line. “If they want to stop us, leaving the planet’s orbit isn’t the best way to do it.”
“You aren’t thinking like a Tal-Kader officer,” said Clarke. He meant it as a compliment. “Vortex knows we won’t destroy Dione, so it has no issues with us orbiting it. Erickson knows Vortex can’t hold Dione alone—we’re too many. So, he’s reuniting with those two destroyers to face us three against five. When he does it, we’ll have defenders’ disadvantage, not them.”
“Defenders’ disadvantage?” asked Pascari. “Isn’t that supposed to be the other way around? And anyway, we’re the ones attacking!”
Navathe got it before anyone else did. “Those monsters. They wouldn’t…”
Clarke traced a firing pattern from Vortex’s perspective and projected Sierra’s course to Dione. “When we reach extraction distance, we’ll be exactly between the planet and Vortex’s force line of fire. If their cannons miss us, they’ll destroy the planet. Our entire efforts will be devoted to deflecting their attacks. We won’t be able to retaliate. That’s defenders’ disadvantage.”
He muted Pascari until the man finished his string of curses. Losing his composure in the middle of a battle would get many innocents killed. Clarke forced himself to ignore the prospect. To think logically.
Am I capable of sacrificing an entire colony to defeat Tal-Kader?
The answer came without effort. No.
Even if it’s the only way?
That answer was harder. What would Yin have done? His teachers? At the first year in the Academy, the message was clear. Follow orders. Do your duty. Let the guilt fall where it belongs, with the politicians.
But in later years, close to graduation, the message changed. No one actually admitted to it, of course. Never put it on paper. But all his teachers—all the good ones, that is—made damn sure to make their students know that a soldier’s duty was to the people they fought for. If at any point they received an order against morality or humanity, it was their duty to ignore that order, consequences be damned.
One teacher had told them that the reason mankind was still around was that, a long time ago, a Russian soldier in a submarine had refused to press a red button when the radar announced an American nuclear strike. The radar turned out to be malfunctioning. But during those few minutes, the soldier couldn’t have known that.
“What can we do?” asked Navathe.
“Change route,” said Pascari, “intercept them before we’ve the planet in front of us, kill them all.”
“Sir, that would leave us vulnerable to Sentinel’s retaliation. They’re only two days behind,” said Alicante. “It may sound like much, but kinetic rounds are much easier to accelerate than ships, and they may get ideas from Vortex. They could fire against Dione before we extract and there’s no way we can deflect that amount of fire saturation.”
Clarke made his choice.
“We split the Task Force,” he said. “Two destroyers are enough to cripple Outlander’s defenses without its garrison. The rest go intercept Vortex.”
“Captain, sir, equal numbers mean we will walk into a bloodbath,” said Alicante. Ships were fragile things in an age when weapons heavily led in the weapon-armor race. Even with ships of the line. Going one on one would mean that the winner, whoever it was, would suffer heavy losses.
“I know,” said Clarke, “that’s why we’ll lead the interception ourselves and ask the other ships to volunteer.”
“Finally,” said Pascari. “What I wanted to hear.”
“I assure you, I’m not taking this lightly,” Clarke said. “If there is any other choice, I’m not seeing it. But I’m not sacrificing Dione. That, I won’t do.”
“Understood, sir,” said Alicante. “We have our orders. I’ll inform the crew and have Hawk ready for combat.”
He dropped out of the channel. Clarke decided he had misjudged the man. Alicante was reticent to enter combat, he may never have fought a battle in his life, but he wasn’t shying away from this one. The one that counted.