“I see. And what’s to keep Jonas from simply moving out of the way? Those rocks will mass far too much to be moved.”
“Actually, not much,” I admitted. “But they’ll be approaching from behind Haven, if we’ve timed it right. Of course, he’ll also have a bit of a battle to occupy his attention. I’m hoping he won’t notice the rocks in time to light off Nemesis ’ inertial drives. Dreadnoughts are not very maneuverable, you know.”
“Can’t he destroy them?”
I shrugged. “To tell you the truth, sir, I don’t know for sure. A dreadnought carries some sizable fusion warheads. But I don’t know how sizable, other than the five planetbusters she carries. He can’t use those, of course. They take almost half an hour to prepare and launch. But, we have four rocks. By the time they reach Haven, they’ll be in a row, seconds apart.” I shrugged again. “I’m sorry, sir, but it was the best I could come up with. We simply didn’t have time to build a fleet large enough to tangle with a dreadnought.”
The clock ticked down to our launch time. Valkyrie and the thirty-two armed rim tramps… ah… privateers all carried holds full of attack boats. Other boats, already in the system, were driving in from our asteroid base, hopefully too small to register on Jonas’ detectors. Predator escorted Relentless and Valkyrie.
Our fleet lifted and drove for the jump point. The die was cast. There was nothing more for me to do until we emerged in Haven’s system. Despite my best intentions, I found my eyes coming to rest on Suli, immersed in her jump calculations. I wished I’d found a way to leave her behind on Bolt Hole.
Our rim comps let us emerge at a jump point far farther inside the Haven system than would have been possible for Empire vessels. I scanned my monitors anxiously. Suddenly a speck of light swung into view around Haven, and one screen resolved it into the kilometer-wide globe of Nemesis, still in her standard Fleet orbit. I breathed a huge sigh of relief, and began looking for Dauntless and Raptor. There! Dauntless preceded Nemesis in her orbit. Finally, Raptor emerged from behind Haven. Other screens showed me my own fleet. Cargo locks on all of the privateers were open, and they were spewing clouds of boats as they drove for the orbiting warships. This was the showdown.
Even from our advanced jump point, and at full acceleration, we were hours from Haven. My largest concern was that Jonas would break orbit with Nemesis. It was vital that he keep her in orbit. I did expect Dauntless and Raptor to break orbit to gain fighting room.
I was wrong. It must have been Jonas’ orders that kept them from moving out. Surely, both captains realized that by staying in orbit they compromised much of their ships’ fighting ability.
At any rate, the three ships simply maintained their orbits and cleared for action. Nemesis launched almost a hundred Strengl and Wasp fighters, Dauntless twenty more.
As planned, the privateers broke into three attack groups, and each headed toward one of the enemy ships, accompanied by a cloud of armed boats. I cursed as Valkyrie slowed; but she wasn’t a combatant, she was a flag C amp;C ship, and had no place in the line of battle.
Six privateers and a dozen armed boats had headed for Raptor. Suddenly, Raptor broke orbit and began frantically transmitting surrender messages. Evidently, her captain had simply been waiting for his chance to desert Jonas’ forces. I had one privateer approach her and board. In moments, the privateer’s captain confirmed the surrender of the destroyer. I left two more privateers and their attendant boats to guard Raptor, and rerouted the other three and their boats to one of the other targets.
The captain of Dauntless had worries of his own. His own sister ship, Relentless, a destroyer, Predator, and over ten privateers, as well as more than fifty armed boats were attacking him. The Strengl s and even the Wasps had been simply brushed aside, out flown by the boats, and outgunned by the privateers. The boats swarmed so thickly around Dauntless that they were getting into Relentless ’ and Predator ’s lines of fire.
Again the boats were putting on their space ballet, dancing, weaving, pirouetting, then suddenly arrowing in, slicing with their lasers, and bouncing away, to resume their evasion dance.
Dauntless ’ captain tried to fight a textbook battle against Relentless and Predator, as he’d been trained. However, his training hadn’t included small, heavily armed ships that could maneuver like fighters, but carried the armament of frigates. Then there were the boats…
The plan had been to concentrate on Dauntless and Raptor, and simply keep Nemesis too busy to come to their aid. Once the battle cruiser and destroyer had been defeated or destroyed, we’d be able to focus completely on Nemesis, even if the asteroids failed.
It seemed to be working, or else Jonas was cooperating, behaving as stupidly as we’d hoped.
Nevertheless, flares began to appear, each marking the death of one of our privateers or boats. Dauntless was beginning to show her damage. Her shields were dangerously weakened in several areas, and nearly a third of her weaponry was apparently disabled. However, she was taking a serious toll on my fleet. Her battle comps might not be able to deal with the boats, but they could track the privateers. Track them and attack. The flares became more numerous.
When two more flares announced the deaths of two more privateers, I lost patience, and called in one of our unconventional weapons. A privateer broke free of the battle, swung away, and drove at maximum into an orbit exactly opposite the battle cruiser’s. Once clear of both Dauntless and Nemesis, she opened her cargo hatch, and a crewman gently nudged a long cylinder out of the hull. The privateer slowed and altered course to blast back to the battle as the cylinder sped at several thousand kilometers per second around Haven and toward the battle cruiser on a collision orbit.
I followed the beacon it carried until it disappeared behind the planet, and waited anxiously for several minutes until it reappeared. I triggered a control, and a flash announced the disintegration of the cylindrical container, revealing a packed mass of fist-sized rocks.
The flash must have been noticed aboard Dauntless, too. She began frantically firing at the mass of rocks. But her powerful lasers merely fused small rocks into larger ones. Her particle beams were simply absorbed. Missiles and projectiles only scattered the rocks a bit, making them even more dangerous.
Armed boats and privateers scrambled out of the way as the rocks closed on the cruiser at incredible velocity. The thousands of rocks impacting her weakened shields at ten kilometers per second simply overwhelmed them. When the mass of rocks passed, they left a shredded, airless hulk in their wake.
The destruction was so complete and sudden that for a moment, everyone in the battle was stunned. Even Nemesis stopped shooting. Then Relentless, Predator and the remaining privateers changed course and engaged Nemesis.
Nemesis was ready. Her crew had plenty of notice to make their preparations. This was what I’d been dreading. I’d hoped to be able to find a way to beat Jonas without having to slug it out with the dreadnought. However, even if my asteroid plan worked, we’d have to keep Nemesis busy until they arrived…
Nemesis was old, and in my opinion obsolete. However, she was still one of the most powerful weapons systems ever designed by man. It was going to be a very expensive distraction, in ships and people.
I gritted my teeth and ordered our forces to concentrate on the old warrior. But even my repeated warnings couldn’t prepare my people for the reality of a dreadnought.