“Landreich Wing Commander, this is Captain Tanaka of the Bonadventure. Can you respond?“
“Keep it short, Captain,” Tolwyn said, putting his stick hard over to circle back into the thick of the fighting.
“We’ve contacted your carrier. Your commander wants you to engage the Kilrathi here while he regroups the rest of your ships without interference.”
“Roger that,” Tolwyn said. He’d figured that would be Galbraith’s decision. It was the logical one to make…but it left the Liberators flapping in the breeze.
“Look, Navy, you know this battle is hopeless. You know that, don’t you?”
“Your point, Captain?” Tolwyn replied through clenched teeth, all too aware of the truth in the man’s statement, but unwilling to admit it.
“Bonadventure isn’t getting out of here no matter what happens,” Tanaka told him. “The engines were too badly damaged by your last attack. I can make minimum thrust, but there’s no way I’m outrunning those Cats.”
“You want an apology? I’m sorry we treated you the way we treat any pirate who shoots up one of our ships.”
“Damn it, I’m trying to offer you a way out of this mess!” the pirate captain flared. “Look, that scoutship’s in a bad way, and Zachary Banfeld is on board. If you’ll have a couple of your fighters tow him clear, and group the rest of your birds around my bow to give me some cover, I think Bonadventure can take this fight to the enemy. All the way in to the enemy.”
Tolwyn frowned. “You mean…”
“I mean right down their throats,”Tanaka said, almost snarling the words. “I’ll ram the closest Cat carrier if I can. They have almost no vector built up over there. They’ll be a sitting duck. And the rest of the Cats will have to assist…a carrier’s too valuable to throw away, even an escort job. In the confusion, your pilots can break off and get the hell out of here, back to your battle group. Just take Banfeld with you. The Guild needs him.“
“I don’t give a damn about what the Guild needs,” Tolwyn said. “But we have our own reasons for reeling him in. But I don’t think you should try this stunt, Captain. Didn’t you just say that a carrier’s too valuable for this?”
Tanaka’s face on the communications screen creased in a bitter smile. “As I said, we don’t get out of this one way or another. And I never really considered this bucket to be much of a carrier in the first place.”
“All right, Captain,” Tolwyn said reluctantly. “It’s your choice, I guess. I’ll organize my people.”
“Understood.” Tanaka paused. “May I ask you one favor? A personal matter?”
“Sir?”
“I have a wife and two children, on Landreich. Haven’t seen them in over a year…” Tanaka seemed to gather his resolve. “Would you see to it that they do not suffer for what I have done? No government confiscations, no dragging them through the courts? They knew very little about my involvement with the Guild, and persecuting them will gain the government nothing.”
Tolwyn swallowed. “I can’t promise anything, Captain. I’m not that important. But I’ll do everything I can.”
“Thank you. Tanaka clear.”
Kevin Tolwyn swallowed as he reached for the commlink controls to pass on the new orders to the Wing. Somehow he had never thought of a pirate as leaving a family to mourn him.
Combat Information Center, FRLS Independence
Deep Space, Vaku System
0818 hours (CST)
“I’m afraid the Admiral didn’t make it, Captain. Sick Bay reports he died at 0813 hours.”
Galbraith scowled. “Thank you, Commander. What’s the status on the rest of the battle group?”
“All ships have acknowledged orders and broken off their pursuit, sir,” Commander Roth responded. “Best estimate is ten minutes before the Themistocles is back in supporting range. She’s the furthest out.”
“And the Flight Wing?”
“Heavily engaged, sir. The pirate carrier reports they are working together on a maneuver to tie up the Cats now. It’s steering a course toward the Kilrathi task force, and is coming under increasingly heavy attack. Commander Tolwyn reports that he’s lost five Raptors, four Scimitars, and a pair of Hornets so far. Also two of the pirate Broadswords that sortied to support the Wing.”
“God…almost a third of the fighters we had out there.” Galbraith looked away. “Very well, Commander. Keep me apprised. I want to know when the battle group is fully reassembled. Navigator, lay in a course for the jump point to Landreich…but execute it only on my mark.”
“The jump point, Captain?” Roth asked with a raised eyebrow.
“You heard the order, Commander,” Galbraith said, more harshly than he had intended. Roth was like the voice of his conscience, and he couldn’t deal with having his decisions second-guessed right now. He was unsure enough without having to justify his decisions.
Galbraith sagged in his chair, the weight of responsibility all but overwhelming. He had thought to emerge from this day a war hero. Instead he would be remembered as the man who had sacrificed an entire flight wing to prevent the loss of his entire battle group…not exactly how he’d pictured the outcome of the day’s operations.
Raptor 500, VF-84 “Liberators”
Jump Point Six, Vaku System
0827 hours (CST)
“The bastards just keep on coming,” Tolwyn said. “You still with me, Venture?”
“Hanging in there, skipper,” his wingman replied. “But next time you throw a party, I’d just as soon you left me off the guest list, okay?”
“Next time, I’m leaving the Cats off the guest list,” Tolwyn replied, taking a shot at a Darket light fighter that swept past his bow.
They had battled their way through increasing resistance, the human fighters forming a protective screen out ahead of the battered pirate carrier as it shaped its course right into the heart of the Kilrathi task force. In a conventional fight the humans would never have been able to penetrate so close to the two Cat escort carriers, but the Kilrathi had been disorganized coming out of their jump so close to the Bonadventure, so they hadn’t been placed to block the approach with their cruisers or destroyers. These were closing in as fast as possible, but the Bonadventure was going to win the race by a slim margin…if the Kilrathi fighters could just be held at bay.
It was costing entirely too many of the Liberators to do that job, and Tolwyn could only pray that the sacrifice was worth it. At least the Cats had concentrated on the main threat as soon as they’d perceived it, leaving both the Landreich battle group and the crippled scoutship with its escort of three Hornets alone while the fight raged around the pirate carrier.
Earlier he’d scorned the pirate ship as a clumsy improvisation. Now Tolwyn could feel a grudging respect for the ship and crew. He’d never seen a Navy ship, ConFleet or Landreicher, bear up any better under fire than Bonadventure. Her captain would have done ConFleet proud, under different circumstances.
The carrier held on course, aimed straight for the Kilrathi escort carrier ahead.
“Skipper! Skipper! Heads up!” Venture’s voice was hoarse with adrenaline. “Four Dralthis closing fast…”
Tolwyn cursed his own inattention. He’d let himself become distracted, and the Cats had turned up the heat against the beleaguered Landreichers. He cut sharply to port just in time to avoid multiple hits from the incoming Kilrathi medium fighters, all of them swooping down on him with their energy weapons searing the midnight sky of space.