In the confusion that had followed the appearance of the Cats, the battered pirate carrier had altered course. Strangely, though, it was not running away, not from the Landreich fighters, nor yet from the Cats. It had veered so that its course took it across the line of advance of the oncoming Kilrathi. In the circumstances it was an insane move…
Unless they had a reason.
Tolwyn remembered the surge of energy in the jump point that had preceded the appearance of the Cat ships. Something had come through ahead of them, unseen. A cloaked ship?
Maybe…and if it was a cloaked pirate, it may have contacted the carrier on a channel the Landreichers couldn’t monitor, a tight-beam laser, for instance.
Which meant there was more going on out here than met the eye…maybe a lot more. The Cats had appeared right behind the cloaked whatever-it-was. As if they were chasing it…
As if to confirm his line of thought, the first wave of Cat fighters peeled off toward the pirate carrier, opening fire from long range. A sustained bombardment washed over the carriers forward shields and across her bow in a seemingly random firing pattern. But one of those bolts hit something.
The scout craft shimmered as it materialized, its stealth generators failing. A flurry of fire erupted from the Kilrathi fighters, Vaktoth heavy attack craft fitted with a wide array of powerful beam weapons. The damaged scout ship couldn’t stand up long under such an assault, and even the carrier wasn’t likely to be much protection under the circumstances.
The pirates had been the enemy just minutes ago, but anyone the Kilrathi wanted to get this badly was someone Kevin Tolwyn wanted to protect-at least until he could find out why.
“All Liberators, all Liberators, this is Lancelot One,” he said over the all-squadron tactical channel. At close range the jamming might distort it, but the message would get through. “New orders. Concentrate on the lead Cat squadron. Give them everything you’ve got…and protect the two pirate ships out there. Repeat, the pirates are no longer considered target. Protect them from the Cats. Let’s go!”
He advanced his throttle and felt the internal gravity variance pushing him back into his seat as the Raptor accelerated. If the Cats were chasing that pirate scoutship, then the Landreicher intervention in their little fight was a sure way of getting their attention, just what Galbraith wanted.
Of course, the odds were that very few of the outnumbered Liberators would get out of the battle alive.
Bridge, Guild Scoutship Highwayman
Near Jump Point Six, Hellhole System
0808 hours (CST)
Smoke filled the bridge from half a dozen small electrical fires. The automatic firefighting system hadn’t cut in, so the bridge crew was battling the blaze with fire extinguishers. Banfeld sat motionless in the command chair. Everything had gone wrong, and on the screen in front of him was the proof.
After dodging everything the Cats could throw at them for two days, Highwayman had reached Hellhole, but damaged and with two Kilrathi carriers close on her tail. And the first sight to greet them on arrival was Bonadventure, under attack by Landreicher fighters and obviously suffering severe damage to her engineering section. There was no sign of Guild activity near Hellhole itself, but the long-range sensors had picked up scattered ships, Guildsmen and Free Republic Navy, in running fights far removed from planetary orbit. So Delgado’s betrayal had led to a government attack…and Banfeld s beleaguered scout had jumped out of Kilrathi space right into the middle of this new trouble.
And the old trouble had followed him here. It was disaster, pure and simple.
“Cloak is down, sir,” Jonas Hart reported. “No way to get it back on-line. Port and ventral thrusters offline. Shields are coming back up, but they can’t take sustained hits. We’ve lost most of the ventral armor, and there are at least three compartments open to space. Casualties…five killed, including the Chief Engineer and his mate.” Hart paused, his head cocked to one side as he listened to another set of reports coming in. “The captain of the Bonadventure is on the laser tight-beam. He wants further instructions. He says the Landreich fighters are vectoring in on our position, but they are no longer firing at the carrier and seem to be intending to engage the Cats. He wants to know if he should open fire on them as they close.”
“Good God, no, man!” Banfeld said. “If they want to fight the Cats, for God’s sake let them! Tell him to get whatever fighters he has left out there to help the Landreichers, and to let them know we’ll cooperate!”
“Aye aye, sir,” Hart said, sounding dubious.
“And tell him to extend his shields to give us some cover before-”
Another burst of Kilrathi fire slammed through the shields and into Highwayman. From the sound of it, the fire must be coming in against the dorsal armor. That was fortunate. The scout couldn’t take any more damage to her underside. But it wouldn’t be long before they were out of armor plating everywhere.
Banfeld gripped his chair and tried to think. There wasn’t much left that he could do. It was up to the Landreichers now….
CHAPTER 16
“Victory must inevitably go to the Warrior whose desire for conquest is greater than his fear of death.”
Raptor 500, VF-84 “Liberators”
Near Jump Point Six, Vaku System
0810 Hours (CST)
“Repeating, I am under orders to cooperate with you against the Cats, and am launching fighters now. They are not hostile to Landreich forces, but will protect themselves if fired upon…”
“Understood, Bonadventure,” Kevin Tolwyn replied. “I agree…we’ll save our own differences for later.” He paused. “Request that you attempt to get a tight-beam link open to the Independence and bring them up to speed.”
“We’ll give it a try,” the carrier’s captain answered. “But I don’t know how long we can maintain it.”
Tolwyn switched off and concentrated on the pair of Vaktoths that were maneuvering to try and get off shots at the crippled scoutship. A Raptor was a poor match against one of the newer, more powerful Kilrathi heavies, but Tolwyn went in with all guns blazing and was lucky enough to find the lead Cat pilot distracted by his attack run. His neutron guns pulsed again and again, until they had completely drained his reserve power, but on the last shot the first Vaktoth came apart in whirling debris.
The second Vaktoth did a sharp left roll and came up on Tolwyn’s rear, the warning tone in his ear alerting him that the Cat had locked his weapons. Tolwyn reversed thrusters at full military power, a maneuver forbidden by just about every safety regulation in the ConFleet manual and probably most of the Landreich’s as well. He could feel the strain on his fighter as it made the drastic vector change, slowing radically with regard to the pursuing Vaktoth. The heavy fighter surged past him, and Tolwyn parted with one of his precious missiles-he only had one more, a Spiculum Image-Recognition missile-while he waited for the energy weapons to recharge.
A moment later his wingman, Ventura, dropped in alongside him with mass drivers and ion guns blazing. In combination with Tolwyn’s missiles the sudden attack overwhelmed the Cat’s screens, and the second Vaktoth was gone.
At the same moment, though, two Raptor pilots were calling for help, and one of them was cut off abruptly as the second wave of Kilrathi fighters, Dralthi Four medium attack fighters from the closest Kilrathi carrier, arrived on the scene and added their firepower to the battle. It was rapidly degenerating into a free-for-all, where Kilrathi numbers were sure to tell over human discipline and tactical doctrine.