The enigmas lost another four warships as they overwhelmed the rest of the human formation, but only one Syndicate warship had survived the second encounter. The heavy cruiser badly damaged in the first pass had lagged enough behind its comrades that the enigmas had not been able to target it as well. Most of the enigma ships cleared the debris field that marked the remains of the last Syndicate battle cruiser, two heavy cruisers, and nine HuKs, then turned to head for the Syndicate transports and freighters orbiting the planet. They had a great distance yet to cover, almost two light hours as they chased the planet around its own orbit. But a dozen enigma craft had peeled off from their formation and angled around to hit a much closer target, the sole surviving Syndicate heavy cruiser.
“Why isn’t he launching escape pods?” Kontos wondered. “That unit doesn’t have a chance. Why not save as many of the crew as possible?”
“The enigmas will just target the escape pods,” Marphissa said. “They don’t want any humans watching them, even humans who couldn’t possibly hurt them.”
“I guess the enigmas believe that being watched does hurt them,” Kontos said, bewildered. “Why?”
“The enigmas have probably said the same thing about us while they watched humans butchering other humans for a century. They’re aliens. They don’t think like us, they don’t care about the same things as us. We have no idea why they’re so obsessed with privacy, and they aren’t about to explain it to us.” Marphissa narrowed her eyes as she studied her display. “That cruiser doesn’t have a chance, but he’s maneuvering to meet those enigma warships. At least they’re going down fighting. I wonder if he—”
The answer to her question came before she finished the sentence. An hour and a half ago, the distance now lessened as Marphissa’s warships raced toward the scene of battle, the heavy cruiser had met a dozen alien warships racing close by to ensure the destruction of the human warship. The doomed cruiser’s commander had not chosen to die futilely, though.
Instead, the heavy cruiser had detonated its power core at the precise moment when the enigma warships were darting in to administer a death blow.
Wrathful cheers erupted on the bridge of Pele as only six enigma warships staggered out of the field of destruction created by the heavy cruiser’s deliberate sacrifice.
“He got six of them,” Kontos breathed. The Kapitan turned to sweep the bridge with his glance, silencing the celebration. “That leaves twenty-eight alien warships for us,” he reminded his crew.
Marphissa drew in a long, slow breath. As the tracks of the enigma warships steadied out, she could see the projected track for her own flotilla intercepting them before they could reach the planet. “And all of those who died bought the time their people needed. We will honor their sacrifice by completing the task they could not, and ensuring the safety of those they died to protect!” It sounded like something an Alliance officer would have said, full of idealism and honor. Maybe she had spent too much time around Captain Bradamont.
But none of the crew seemed surprised or unhappy at what Marphissa had said. Instead, they appeared ready to cheer again, but cast worried glances at Kontos. He made a small affirmative gesture, and then they did cheer.
Because she was leading them into battle with a force that had just annihilated a flotilla similar to their own.
Kontos must have been reading her thoughts. He shrugged. “Humans are crazy, too.”
“Yes,” Marphissa agreed. “But it’s our crazy. We were willing to leave them alone to their crazy; they wouldn’t take the deal, so we’re going to show them what happens when you push people too far.”
She took another look at the planet looping about its star. Above the planet were the symbols marking the three Syndicate troop transports and four Syndicate freighters. From the over-an-hour-ago images visible, the troop transports were still busy landing every passenger they carried, while from their movements the shuttles servicing the freighters must be dropping their cargo haphazardly to save time. It was past time for her to make another decision.
First she made another call to Colonel Rogero. “I can detach our troop transports at any time, Colonel. Do you wish to proceed with the landing?”
“Yes,” Rogero replied without visible enthusiasm. “I’m not in the habit of giving up before trying, and staying on the transports wouldn’t give my soldiers any chance of fighting back. I haven’t heard back from anyone with the Syndicate ground forces. If what we were told by the Syndicate flotilla commander is correct, there must be a lot of snakes enforcing Syndicate loyalty on the surface of that planet. There’s a chance that when we get close enough to the planet my people will be able to find a way to contact some of the Syndicate soldiers through circuits the snakes aren’t watching. That’s my best hope at this point. I’ll also be able to get a better look at the enigma presence by using the sensors on the transports to scan the planet.”
“Good luck, Colonel.” There wasn’t anything else to say. As soon as that message was over, Marphissa called Leytenant Mack on HTTU 332. “Leytenant, you are hereby placed in charge of both troop transports, subject to the orders of Colonel Rogero. You are to detach from our formation and proceed on a direct vector to meet the planetary objective in its orbit at the best velocity you can manage. Are there any questions?”
Mack did not look particularly thrilled at the assignment. “What will our escort be?”
“You’ll have a distant escort, Leytenant,” Marphissa said dryly. “This flotilla. Nothing I could detach to go with you would be strong enough to stop any of the three enemy warship formations in this star system, so instead I will keep them occupied while you land our ground forces.”
“Yes, Kommodor,” Mack said. “I understand and will comply.”
“We will do our best to cover you,” Marphissa said. “Once you get the soldiers landed you won’t be nearly as attractive a target for enemy attack.”
She ended the call, feeling extremely guilty.
Kontos gave her a sidelong look. “What if the enigmas spring their ambush as soon as the transports get close to the planet?”
“Then we couldn’t stop them from reaching the transports anyway! The transports’ track will diverge slowly from ours,” Marphissa insisted, gesturing to the projected courses arcing through space on her display, “so we’re not going to be far from them when they reach the planet.”
By the time the transports finished braking into orbit and landing the soldiers, though, Marphissa’s formation would be well past and going very fast away from them. She knew that, Kontos knew that, Mack knew that, and very likely Colonel Rogero knew that. It just couldn’t be helped. “If I had twice as many ships…” Marphissa muttered.
Kontos nodded wordlessly, his mouth a thin line. He knew just as well as she did that the transports would have a very small chance of survival when they had finished doing as she had ordered, and that any other course of action she might have ordered would have been even worse for the chances of everyone in the flotilla.
She tried to find some satisfaction in knowing that the situation had simplified a bit with the destruction of the Syndicate flotilla. Now it was only a three-way fight in space, as well as a looming three-way fight on the planet.
Only a down patch had sufficed to get Colonel Rogero some rest in the hours leading up to the assault on the planet. His stateroom on this troop transport, having been intended for at least sub-CEO rank in the Syndicate, was actually comfortable, but that hadn’t helped. He slept only intermittently, and was awake an hour before his alert time, feeling anything but alert.