“We won’t need much longer,” Marphissa said.
“Hell lance batteries are beginning to overheat,” the weapons systems specialist warned.
Marphissa breathed another one of the prayers that Bradamont had told her. Designed for fights of very short duration, the particle beam weapons could not sustain firing for long periods. If they overheated enough and shut down too soon Manticore would lose critical weapons capability.
That was just one of her concerns. Was the green malware marker changing color? Not yet. Marphissa blinked rapidly, trying to spot the first trace of change in hue.
The stern shields on the battle cruiser collapsed. Manticore’s shots began impacting the ship, slamming into Vengeance’s main propulsion units and in some cases triggering secondary explosions.
“Hit them!” someone on the bridge whispered exultantly.
Marphissa stared intently at the malware status marker. Had the green shade flickered? There it was again. “Kapitan, continue your attack with any weapons that can bear on the enemy but get this ship turned and start braking hard!”
Diaz clearly wanted to keep landing blows on the enemy, but hesitated for only a fraction of a second before calling out orders. Manticore’s main propulsion cut off again. Vengeance, though pivoting now as fast as the thrusters could bring the battle cruiser around, was still rocketing forward at undiminished velocity. The distance had already opened enough that Manticore’s grapeshot was no longer effective, but the heavy cruiser kept throwing out missiles as fast as the launchers could reload and firing any hell lance whose projector could bear on the enemy as Manticore’s bow swung through another half turn.
Facing away from her foe once more, Manticore lit off her main propulsion and began reducing velocity as fast as the ship and crew could endure. The inertial dampers shrilled protests again as red stress warnings pulsed on displays and the heavy cruiser’s structure groaned under the conflicting forces that threatened to shatter it.
Marphissa, her head once again pressed against the back of her seat by momentum forces leaking through the inertial damper fields as Manticore labored to slow down, saw the malware marker abruptly turn as red as the stress warnings. Seconds later, Vengeance, bow pointing straight up relative to Manticore, began firing the hell lances that could target the heavy cruiser astern, following those with a stream of missiles that rolled and spun onto intercepts aimed at the heavy cruiser.
With the distance between the two warships now increasing rapidly, Manticore dropped out of range of the battle cruiser’s hell lances after only a few shots had been fired, flaring against Manticore’s shields and weakening them but not breaking through. Marphissa breathed a sigh of relief as the chance of a full volley of Vengeance’s hell lances slamming home vanished. But the missiles were another matter.
“Target incoming missiles with hell lances and grapeshot,” Diaz ordered, his face reflecting the strain that the entire crew was feeling as Manticore continued to brake velocity at a rate that was producing increasingly urgent warnings from the ship’s systems.
With Manticore’s stern facing toward the rapidly receding Vengeance as the heavy cruiser reduced speed, few weapons could engage the oncoming missiles. Diaz opened his mouth to give a command.
“Hold your current vector and propulsion settings,” Marphissa ordered.
Diaz gulped as if swallowing his unspoken command before replying. “Yes, Kommodor.”
“Stand by for maneuvers, Kapitan. Keep your combat systems targeted on those incoming missiles, and remember that maneuver that Captain Bradamont showed us against the Syndicate warships.”
Marphissa waited for the right moment, watching as the missiles tore closer, hoping she had learned enough from watching and listening to Bradamont. “Main propulsion off!”
Diaz repeated the order, but Marphissa’s command was already being carried out. Manticore’s propulsion units ceased laboring to lower her velocity. Her speed unchecked now, the warship was moving faster than if she had kept slowing down. The incoming missiles, aiming to hit the heavy cruiser where she would have been if she had kept braking, were now aiming for a point behind where Manticore was.
Two missiles passed close enough to Manticore for their proximity fuses to detonate. The warship shuddered as the shock waves of particles and shrapnel slammed into her shields, but the shields held. The rest of the missiles shot past the heavy cruiser and labored to turn fast enough to reengage their target. Most of those missiles disintegrated as their structures failed under the stress of the too-rapid maneuvers. The few that survived were almost at a standstill relative to Manticore when they came out of their turns, and having raced past the heavy cruiser were now facing Manticore’s heavily armed bow. Hell lances tore into them and wiped out the remaining missiles.
“We are out of range of Vengeance’s weapons,” the combat systems specialist announced, sounding dazed.
Marphissa could see the battle cruiser on her display, the massive warship still pivoting under the push of her own thrusters to face back fully toward Manticore. “I need an assessment of damage to Vengeance’s main propulsion units.”
“Preliminary estimate from our sensors is that Vengeance has lost eighty percent of her main propulsion,” the senior watch specialist said.
“Eighty percent?” Marphissa felt herself finally beginning to relax. “And he got his velocity up to nearly point three five light speed before we clipped his wings. With that much momentum, that much mass, and only one-fifth of his normal propulsion working, it’s going to take Vengeance a long time to slow down again.”
Diaz was working on his maneuvering display. “Our systems say Vengeance won’t be able to get his velocity down to reengage us before overshooting the jump point. We can just keep going, following Vengeance at a distance, until we reach the jump point after he overruns it. Imallye’s light cruisers and HuKs back at the planet’s orbit are so far out of position they couldn’t catch us unless we dropped our velocity to the pace of a CEO going to hand out bonuses to workers.” He put up one hand to rub his forehead, smiling in disbelief. “Your plan was a good one, Kommodor.”
“I’m certain that you never doubted me,” Marphissa replied dryly, then smiled as well to take any sting out of the words.
Diaz squinted at his display again. “Our engineering specialists are saying that while we did extensive damage to the main propulsion on Vengeance, none of it was extreme because the battle cruiser was able to shift her stern out of a direct line with our incoming fire. They believe that the damage can be repaired without wholesale replacing of those units once the battle cruiser reaches an orbital dock. That won’t be until long after we leave Moorea, of course. Granaile Imallye is going to be very unhappy.”
“I imagine she is already very unhappy.”
The message that arrived from Vengeance several minutes later confirmed Marphissa’s guess. Imallye wasn’t sprawled in her seat this time but sitting rigidly, her eyes lit with a cold fury that chilled Marphissa even across the many thousands of kilometers already separating the two warships.