"Since we all know that one Defiant is worth at least ten of any other class, that lowers the odds considerably." After these words, she was able to sip her cvcesse' for a significant interval.
When the cheering and whistling at last subsided, Collingswood proceeded to describe Anak's two major fleet components; both had sortied in the first metacycles of the Night watch. "Anak means business," she warned, "make no mistake about that. His primary cluster combines an Advance Attack Group under Rear Admiral Dargal Zark with a Main Group that he personally commands. The Advance Group alone is huge: forty destroyers, seventeen light cruisers, and eight battlecruisers. Add to that the Main Group, and you're looking at a real threat: twenty-nine destroyers, ten light cruisers, and twenty-seven battleships-including the three big ones they just launched: Rengas, Parnas, and Nazir. For those of you who haven't yet noticed," she warned, "we've got a serious fight on our hands...." The mighty armada was scheduled to arrive in no more than seven days' time.
Anak's second attack component was Vice Admiral Liat-Modal's transport fleet-the Surface Occupation Group-that had spent the last twenty-eight days at a staging base on maneuvers. Although these vessels also sortied from their staging area in the early metacycles of the Night watch, they were not expected at Haelic until at least a day following Anak's initial attacks. "These transports," Collingswood continued, "are escorted by about fifty Gorn-Hoff and Castoldi destroyers, ten light Gantheisser cruisers, four ancient 200/300-class heavy cruisers, the five small battlecruisers of Anak's Third Scouting Group, and their Fourth Battle Squadron-nine old battleships in the Lempat and Parang classes.
Not exactly the stiffest competition, but the transports are well protected nonetheless-and the way Nergol Triannic sees things, Liat-Modal won't need much protection by the time his ships come into play."
Facing this, Admiral Penda had organized his Atalantan defense force into three defensive squadrons. The first, Task Group 16 (TG 16)-under overall command of His Royal Highness, Prince Onrad-would depart almost immediately to travel at the best speed possible in an attempt to drive around Anak's flank and attack from the rear. This force had been selected from the swiftest ships available: thirty-six T-and K-class destroyers, a group of light cruisers including Defiant and Deadly, six of the newest and speediest battlecruisers under the flag of Rear Admiral (the Hon.) Zorn Hober, Vice Admiral Erat Plutron's four fast battleships, and the heavy disruptors of eight battleships commanded by Rear Admiral Le'o Argante. TG 16 was also ordered to intercept and engage Liat-Modal's transports on the way-if they could be located.
The second defensive squadron, Task Group 17, was Atlanta's main line of defense. It was scheduled to depart a day or so after Onrad to confront Anak's battle fleet head-on.
This powerful armada comprised fifty-four destroyers, eighteen light cruisers, and fifteen of the Empire's newest battleships. Unfortunately, six of the latter were even now undergoing urgent repairs from recent-and severe-battle damage.
A third defensive force, Task Group 18 under the pennant of Vice Admiral Congor Folkrum, comprised Penda's last line of defense-his reserves, such as they were. The small armada combined eighteen powerful P-class destroyers with eight heavy cruisers and four old battleships-grizzled veterans of more than thirty years' duty each. These outmatched ships were to sortie as a last-ditch defense line-but everyone understood that unless Anak's forces had been significantly weakened by that time, the Task Group could have only limited effect before it was destroyed.
The briefing continued for nearly a metacycle more, providing details the crew would need for their departure during the second Night-watch metacycle. Collingswood saved one final announcement for the end. She had been named commander of Task Group 16's light cruisers, and Defiant would carry the designation COM/LC-16 under command of acting Captain Baxter Oglethorp Calhoun.
Brim grinned to himself as he made his way through the excited throng toward the bridge.
No doubt about it, Carescrians were on their way up in the Fleet-at least one tiny segment of it, anyway....
During the last few moments of Dusk watch, Brim relaxed at his glowing console while noises of imminent departure swept the bridge. Somewhere behind him, a Reynolds wave-tuner muttered in its casing as it cycled frequencies. He could feel the steering gear running through its spherical pattern, and deep in the bowels of the ship a gentle pulsing indicated that Ursis had the gravity generators idling in preparation for takeoff.
Outside, rain spit occasionally from a low ceiling, but underneath the air was clear.
Below Defiant's bridge, mooring squads moved along the wet hullmetal securing dockside gear, pulling covers from the optical mooring system, and dogging down inspection hatches.
On an adjoining gravity pool to port, I.F.S. Deadly moved restlessly to the shifting winds, her bridge Hyperscreens aglow like scowling, hooded eyes. Brim smiled in spite of the grim circumstances-the new cruiser certainly looked as if she were aptly named, at any rate. Far out to sea, the green light from a navigational buoy blinked in the darkness as it rode to the swells, and the old Gradygroat hymn abruptly surfaced from some recess of his mind: Oh Universal Force of Trath,
That guards the homeland of our youth,
That bidd'st the mighty cosmos keep
Thine own appointed limits deep:
Oh hear us when we ask your grace
For those at peril far in space....
Somehow, the venerable anthem seemed terribly appropriate. He wondered what the Gradygroat gunners might be thinking in their useless space forts. They'd certainly know that something was up on the surface. They could probably see it...
At approximately Twilight watch plus three cycles, Onrad's task Force 16 began to loose for space. By Night:0:50 all canals were cleared of traffic, and the high-speed Drive tender I.FS. Nimrod got underway, standing out toward takeoff vector 91E in the harbor. Less than fifty cycles later, the last of the support ships-I.F.S. Gregory Steele- cast off from its gravity pool and nosed up the grand canal with a load of spare gravity generators. Next, while larger warships continued to test their navigational gear and generators, destroyer flotillas began to move along the canals toward the harbor, then thunder up from the bay every few moments in groups of four. The cruisers were scheduled to follow close on their tracks. As Brim made his last checks of Defiant's steering systems, a communications yeoman appeared beside his recliner. "Message for you," she said quietly.
He frowned. "Why didn't it come through my COMM window?" he asked.
"All the normal COMM links have been shut down for more than a metacycle. Lieutenant,"
she asserted. "This message came through the maintenance channels and-well," she laughed soundlessly, "I thought you might want this one delivered a little differently...." At that moment, alarms chimed on the bridge while Calhoun called all hands to stations for departure, and as quietly as she appeared, the woman was gone.