“I have the frigate,” Lakinda reminded him. “More important, I’m a senior captain. Your rank?”
There was a pause. “Mid captain,” he said reluctantly.
“Pommrio?” Lakinda prompted.
“Also mid captain,” the other replied. “Very well, Xodlak. The Pommrio cede command to you. But be warned: If I see you slanting this operation to favor your family over ours, I reserve the right to withdraw my support and my ships.”
“As do I,” the Erighal said.
“So noted,” Lakinda said. “Let’s focus on rescuing the Springhawk and keeping ourselves alive, shall we? All right. We’ll start with a modified double-wing formation: frigate in the center, Xodlak cruiser to starboard, Pommrio cruiser to portside. Patrol ships fill in the wings, staying far enough back to be partially shielded, far enough forward to deliver laserfire. Once the gunboats split their attack formation, you’ll all be largely on your own, but I suggest the patrol ships stay close to one of the larger warships. Questions?”
“No, Senior Captain,” the Pommrio said.
“Repositioning my ships and awaiting your arrival,” the Erighal added. “And don’t dawdle—those gunboats are moving up fast.”
“Acknowledged,” Lakinda said. “Helm, boost our speed fifteen percent. First?”
“Weapons crews running pre-combat checks,” First reported from the weapons console. “We’ll be ready once they open fire.”
Lakinda felt her lip twist. Once they open fire. Even here, facing a clear and present threat, the rules against preemptive strikes persisted. “Good,” she said. “Midsummer officers and warriors: Prepare for battle.”
“This is it,” Samakro said, gazing at the Springhawk’s tactical repeater as he strode down the control room aisle. The eight family ships had finished gathering into a modified double-wing, and their formation was poised to meet the incoming gunboats.
Fortunately, from the transmissions the Springhawk had been able to eavesdrop on, it looked like Lakinda was in overall command. The plan would probably still work if one of the other commanders had claimed that position, but it might have made things trickier.
“Remember your orders,” he added, pausing behind Laknym’s station. “And watch yourselves—we don’t want this ending too quickly.”
He leaned over Laknym’s shoulder. “You ready, Lieutenant Commander?” he asked softly.
“Yes, sir,” Laknym said.
“Good,” Samakro said. Whatever the young man’s uncertainties had been about firing on his own family’s ships, he’d apparently been able to put them aside. “First shot coming up. Make it count.”
Laknym nodded. The gunboats reached firing distance …
Ahead, in nearly perfect unison, the wall of gunboats erupted with laserfire.
“Three hits!” Sensors snapped. “Ventral bow, dorsal port side, ventral port side.”
“Weapons, open fire,” Lakinda ordered. “Target the ones that shot at us. Damage?”
“Barrier down twenty percent,” Sensors reported as the Midsummer’s lasers opened fire, raking across the gunboats. “Targeting Sensors One and Five down twenty percent; switching to manual targeting to compensate. No nodes hit, weapons clusters undamaged.”
“Acknowledged,” Lakinda said, feeling some of her tension draining away. Samakro had done it. He and his team of gunboat controllers were actually making this look real. “Weapons?”
“Two hits,” First reported. “One on dorsal bow—no clear damage indicated—second a possible kill shot on portside laser.”
The starscape ahead of them had become a blaze of laserfire as the gunboats and Chiss warships dueled. The gunboats delivered one final salvo and then broke off, their intertwined attack formation suddenly blossoming outward. “Watch it—they’re shifting to single combat,” Lakinda warned. “Patrol ships, stay sheltered as best you can.”
“Belay that, Force Alpha,” the Erighal commander cut in. “The Erighal do not hide like children. Engage at will, and engage fully.”
“Nor do the Pommrio abandon others to fight in their stead,” the Pommrio commander added. “Patrol ships, form up on my flanks.”
Lakinda grimaced. But she should have expected that. Capturing the nyix mines might not be as important as it was an hour ago, but maintaining family honor was always a priority.
And practically speaking, once a battle devolved into one-on-one, it really was every ship for itself. She should be happy the tentative alliance had lasted this long.
“As you wish,” she said to the other commanders. “But stay together, guard one another’s backs, and set up kill shots wherever you can.”
“Set up shots among our own ships, or with the others?” First asked pointedly.
Family first: The words whispered through Lakinda’s mind. Words that had been with her since childhood. Words that had colored every thought and been a background to every decision. Words that had become even more important after she was raised from her obscure origins and made a part of the Xodlak.
And right now, words that could do nothing but get in her way. “With whichever damn ship is in position,” Lakinda said tartly. “Just remember that we’re all Chiss. Xodlak, Erighal, Pommrio—we’re all Chiss.”
“So we are,” the Pommrio said with quiet menace. “Let us make these aliens very sorry they ever crossed our path.”
“Multiple hits on family ships,” Dalvu reported. “Minor hull damage on two of the Erighal patrol ships, minor hull damage and one laser inoperative on Pommrio cruiser, targeting sensors inoperative on Xodlak and Pommrio cruisers and all three Erighal patrol ships. Reduction in barrier strength on all vessels. No other damage detected.”
Samakro exhaled a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. “Well done,” he called to the fourteen men and women at their control consoles. “Open up your formation. Time to go to one-on-one.”
He touched Laknym on the shoulder. “And that,” he reminded the other, “is why you’re all shooting at your own family’s ships.”
“Yes, sir,” Laknym said, sounding marginally calmer.
Samakro focused on Laknym’s displays, watching the starscape twist violently as he maneuvered his gunboat around and between the answering laser blasts. This aspect had been just one more point of genius in Thrawn’s plan.
Because each family’s warships had their own set of unique differences, specifications, and peculiarities, and each family made a point of training its fleet warriors in those details. That meant that those warriors, and only those warriors, knew how and where to attack their family’s ships with a maximum of ferocity and a minimum of actual damage.
The battle raged on. The gunboats continued to swarm the Chiss warships, firing madly and as ineffectively as possible, focusing on targeting sensors and empty sections of hull. Their opponents, with no such restrictions to slow them down, fired back with lasers and occasional breachers, steadily grinding away at their attackers’ numbers.
As each gunboat was destroyed, its control panel went dark, and its operator was finished. They all reacted differently to that endpoint, Samakro noted: some clenching their fists in frustration, others just slumping back in their seats in relief, others making tension-relieving small talk with neighbors who had similarly been idled. The number of gunboats dropped to eleven, then nine, then eight—