“Stand by for exit from jump space,” the operations watch-stander called.
“Weapons ready,” Desjani ordered. “Set them to fire on auto the instant they identify targets within their engagement envelopes.”
The same orders were being given on every ship in the fleet. Geary sat, tense, wondering if the next few seconds would hurl the Alliance fleet into its most desperate fight since they had left the Syndic home star system.
“Exiting jump space in five, four, three, two, one. Exiting now.” The stars reappeared. Dauntless yawed down and over as the fleet’s warships began a preplanned evasive maneuver. It took a moment for Geary to get his mind around what he was seeing as the fleet’s sensors rapidly updated the display before him.
The first thing that registered clearly was that no weapons were firing. Then he saw that there were no Syndic warships near the jump exit. He breathed a prayer of thanks, then pulled out the scale on his display to see where the enemy was within the star system.
Being a border system, Atalia had been the scene of many clashes between the Syndicate Worlds and the Alliance. Most of the wreckage from those clashes had been allowed to extend slowly through the empty spaces of the star system. The remains of Syndic and Alliance warships had been accumulating in this star system for almost a hundred years.
But scattered along a ragged arc stretching between the seventh planet of the Atalia Star System and the jump point for Varandal lay spreading fields of debris that were still fairly compact, some flocks of escape pods, and a small number of damaged Syndic warships. “The aftermath of a battle?” Geary asked.
“One that’s still going on,” Desjani corrected.
TEN
Pulling his display out farther, he saw them. Almost four light-hours away, Alliance and Syndic warships were clashing. The jump point for Varandal was about as far from Atalia’s star as the jump exit at which the Alliance fleet had arrived, but partway around the curve of the outer boundaries of the star system. Geary stared at his display as the fleet’s sensors added details. He almost winced as a cluster of Alliance ships vanished, then realized that they had not been destroyed but had jumped out of the system. More Alliance warships vanished, leaving him wondering how many had been here. One remained, however, a single battleship staggering toward the jump point as overwhelming numbers of Syndic warships made firing passes.
“The system identifies that battleship as the Intractable,” Desjani reported. “She was one of the battleships left behind to guard Alliance space when this fleet went to the Syndic home star system.” She hesitated before continuing. “When we left, Intractable was part of the same battleship division as Dreadnaught.”
Dreadnaught, the ship commanded by Jane Geary, his grandniece. Had Dreadnaught already jumped for Varandal, or were pieces of that Alliance battleship drifting through this star system?
In time, the fleet’s sensors could analyze the most recent debris and make guesses as to how many warships had died here in the latest engagements. For the moment, Geary could only watch images almost four hours old, knowing that there was nothing he could do to save Intractable as she covered the withdrawal of the rest of the Alliance force with her.
“It won’t be much longer,” Desjani muttered, watching the same images as Geary. “Intractable was the only Alliance warship left near the jump point. Everybody else had already gotten away.”
“Is there any chance that she made it to the jump point?”
“Not unless the Syndics decided to stop shooting.”
Rione was leaning forward, her voice urgent. “We have to do something. Distract the Syndics. Something!”
“Madam Co-President,” Geary replied heavily, “the Syndics won’t even see this fleet for almost four hours. Intractable was almost certainly destroyed nearly that long ago. We’re just seeing it now.”
“Damn,” Rione whispered.
On the four-hours-old images, Intractable seemed to have lost maneuvering control, sliding sideways and over as Syndic hits pushed the Alliance battleship off course. “Her crew’s leaving,” Desjani said, as escape pods began flinging themselves away from the stricken battleship. “There still seem to be a few weapons working, though.”
Four hours ago, a volley of Syndic missiles had been fired, curving in to slam into Intractable and shatter the massive warship, by then almost defenseless. Intractable’s hull had broken, the forward portion spinning away while the after portion came apart into smaller pieces. Geary closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them to see the remnants of the battleship tumbling in different directions, no sign of life remaining on them. May your ancestors welcome you and the living stars warm your spirits.
“We’ll avenge them,” Desjani almost snarled.
“Yeah. We will. We’ve obviously found the reserve flotilla.” Geary began working up the intercept, assuming the Syndics would turn back toward this jump point. “How long until the fleet’s sensors give us a picture of what happened here?”
“It should be pretty quick now.” On the heels of her words, system estimates began popping up. Desjani’s jaw tightened as she viewed her displays, where the fleet’s sensors and evaluation systems were showing their analysis of the latest wreckage. “The most recent debris correlates to two or three Alliance battle cruisers. Somewhere between nine and thirteen destroyers. One or two light cruisers. Four to six heavy cruisers. And two battleships, counting Intractable.” She let out a long breath. “Intractable held off the Syndics so the rest could get away, but there’s no way for the sensors to tell us how much that was.”
“At least it wasn’t one-sided.” Geary watched new estimates appear. “It looks like they cost the Syndics one or two battle cruisers, a battleship, somewhere between ten and twenty HuKs, six or seven heavy cruisers, and eight to eleven light cruisers. Plus what was too damaged to pursue them through the jump.”
A badly damaged Syndic battle cruiser, three heavy cruisers, and one light cruiser were spread out along the path of the battle, all of them limping on courses toward the second planet in the star system. Near the jump exit, another battle cruiser mauled by Intractable’s last stand looked like it was turning toward the inner system, too.
The fleet’s sensors were peering four light-hours across the edge of the star system, looking through the debris of battle to evaluate the size of the Syndic force, and those results finally appeared as well.
“Sixteen battleships, fourteen battle cruisers, twenty heavy cruisers, forty-five light cruisers, one hundred ten Hunter-Killers.” He’d been hoping that Lieutenant Iger’s estimates were way too high. In fact, they seemed to have been all too accurate. “That’s what’s still operational in the reserve flotilla.”
“We can take them,” Desjani insisted.
“We’re going to have to. But I can’t finish plotting an intercept until they turn around and settle on new vectors.”
He waited impatiently, the Alliance fleet eating up the distance to the jump point but close to two days’ travel away, until Desjani suddenly gasped. “They’re not turning around. They’re re-forming. They’re going to jump after the Alliance ships that escaped.”
“Jump to Varandal?” The only thing worse than fighting the reserve flotilla here might be having to fight it at Varandal if the Syndics were able to inflict enough damage at that star system before the Alliance fleet could catch up to them.