“I didn’t want to reveal my intentions while the snakes held so many hostages on that planet, but your ground forces commander must have somehow figured out how to make the enigmas kill every snake on the ground for him. Once I had confirmed that, well…” She waved around casually. “A lot of snakes died a short time ago on my ships here. Some sort of epidemic, do you think? And all of their malware was rendered useless before it could cause catastrophic failures. I am free to act as I will. We have two common enemies. I will always hate you for what you caused to happen to my father, but I have admired from afar your repeated frustrating of the Syndicate’s plans. And you have some powerful friends. One very powerful friend named Black Jack among them. I would like him to be my friend, too. Once we have swept the enigmas from this star system, we will talk about what to do with Iwa. My ships will not fire upon yours unless they are fired upon first, or if an attack seems imminent. I trust you will continue to operate with discretion. Now, if you will forgive me, I have some more enemies to dispose of.”
Her lips quirked as if Imallye was fighting down another smile. “For the people, Imallye, out.”
Iceni stared at the place where Imallye’s image had been, then laughed. “You devious bitch! You completely fooled me. And you fooled the Syndicate into giving you the warships and star systems you now control. Brilliant. I do not want someone as dangerous as you as an enemy.” She tapped a comm control. “Kommodor Marphissa, I am pleased to inform you that Imallye’s flotilla will not attack us. She says she will deal with the enigma warships that launched from the planet.”
Marphissa shook her head in denial. “Madam President, we can’t afford to believe—” She looked to one side. “She’s changed the vector on her ships. They’re not heading to intercept our transports.”
Iceni pulled up her own display, and watched as Imallye’s warships in a couple of whipsaw passes took out a third of the enigma force chasing the transports. “I’d say that is pretty powerful proof that Imallye meant what she said.”
“She could still stab us in the back,” Marphissa argued.
“I agree. We will not give her the opportunity to do so. Focus your full attention on destroying the first enigma force, which is probably about to realize that their ambush has blown up in their faces, and I will maintain a watch on Imallye to see if she maneuvers at any point to be able to hit us by surprise.”
“Thirty minutes to contact with enigma armada one,” the senior watch specialist announced.
Marphissa eyed the oncoming enemy, who had long ago steadied out on vectors aiming straight for where the center of her formation would be when the two forces made contact. She had already pivoted her warships so the sterns, and the main propulsion units, were facing the enemy. It would be necessary to brake soon to ensure the meeting with the enigmas was slow enough to allow some hits on the enemy.
The enigmas would brake their velocity as well, she knew. The aliens wanted to destroy her flotilla as thoroughly as they had the Syndicate flotilla.
And she wouldn’t make the mistake of assuming they would go straight through her formation and risk going head-to-head with the battleship. No, the enigmas would maneuver, and it wasn’t hard to guess what their target would be.
What would the enigmas expect her to do?
After so many encounters with different foes, Marphissa was surprised at the answer that came to her. Yet it felt right.
“All units in Midway flotilla, immediate execute, reduce velocity to point one light speed.” Having given that order, Marphissa swiftly tagged two people on her comm panel, then gestured Kontos to join the discussion.
“You don’t need my approval,” President Iceni began.
“I am not asking for approval,” Marphissa explained. “I want your opinion. And those of Kapitans Mercia and Kontos as well. I was trying to anticipate what the enigmas would expect me to do, what final maneuver they would think I would conduct just before contact, and I realized they would not expect me to maneuver at all. They will expect me to hold course, straight through them.”
She waited while the others reacted to her statement, then as they thought about it.
“Just as the CEO of the Syndicate flotilla did?” Kontos asked. “But we just saw his flotilla being destroyed.”
Iceni was nodding, though. “How many flotillas were destroyed in a similar way during the war with the Alliance? We kept doing it. Both sides kept doing it. It was all we knew. And sometimes it worked.”
“They know we have changed,” Mercia said.
“Do they?” Marphissa asked. “We have not fought the enigmas before. The Syndicate has, and the Syndicate continues to usually employ the same tactics it always has.”
Iceni nodded again, her eyes thoughtful. “The enigmas know that Black Jack’s fleet fights differently, but they also know that we are not Black Jack. What they know of warships like ours is that they fight like that CEO led them to fight.”
“And that we do not let failure cause us to change our tactics,” Marphissa said. “The enigmas will expect us to do the same as always. They have not fought us before. They have not seen us fight that we know of. We will surprise them if we maneuver on the final approach.”
“Maneuver how?” Mercia asked.
“The enigmas will target Pele and our heavy cruisers. They can take out all three of those ships in their first pass if they can concentrate their fire on them. Agreed?” Everyone nodded. “So I will jog the formation upward, changing who the mass of enigma ships encounter.”
“Midway,” Kapitan Mercia said.
“Yes,” Marphissa said. “Not a battle cruiser with limited armament and armor and shields, but a battleship.”
Iceni looked down and off to the side, thinking. “Even a battleship will take some damage from an assault like that.”
“Agreed,” said Mercia. “But it is what battleships do. It’s what Midway is made for.”
“Is there a risk we’ll lose Midway?” Iceni asked.
“Based on our analysis of what we’ve seen of the firepower of the enigma warships, there is only a small chance,” Marphissa said. “Mostly due to the possibility of a suicide ramming such as the enigmas attempted against some of Black Jack’s ships.”
“They attempted the suicide ramming when that seemed their only remaining option,” Kontos pointed out. “And if they are not expecting Midway to be where they encounter her, they will not have a ship in position to ram in any case.”
“Hopefully,” Marphissa agreed. “We could hurt them badly during the first engagement. We must hurt them badly then, because they will know to avoid the battleship after that, and a battleship cannot bring the battle to warships as agile as the enigma craft against their will.”
There was a moment’s silence as everyone waited for Iceni to render her opinion. Finally, Iceni nodded. “I think your reasoning is sound, Kommodor. I look forward to seeing it employed.”