Opening Moves (54 page)

His reaction wasn't what Pryatan had expected.

“
Very well,” he said calmly. “Inform Strategos Pyshana and the other two fleet commanders that we'll need at least an hour to prepare and move into position.”

His captain's eyebrows rose quizzically. He answered her with a mirthless smile.

“We're going to run headfirst into a wall. Put our most damaged ships in the vanguard. Transfer their personnel to other ships except for skeleton crews. Then put them into defensive formation with a dreadnought and link them into its fire control.”

The long-haired captain nodded sympathetically and relayed the order. It was a new facet she had discovered in her commander, besides the cold precision he displayed in battle and the near childish glee that danced across his face when his plague bombs were released over their targets. They were going to lose the ships in the vanguard. She knew that, and so did Corr'tane. But there was no need to throw good after bad. The dreadnoughts could take the beating far better than any other ships, and the damaged vessels would be able to clear some path, one way or another. And he had just taken fifteen thousand sailors out of the line of fire.

“Understood, Strategos.” She was relieved that she had not been the focus of her commander's temper, but also a little confused as to why her previously impassioned superior seemed so cold.

In truth Corr'tane was deeply scared. Akvô's planetary defenses, thinned out as they were, had killed anyone who got even moderately close, and he knew his sister had the bad habit of always leading from the front. It was a point where his reasoning had failed to reach his sister. Pyshana labored under the silly idea that a strategos should be heroic, when in truth the most important thing was for a fleet commander to keep a clear head and an eye for the overall battle. That was somewhat tough to achieve if your ship was in the midst of the enemy's fire, flag bridge or not. Leading from behind also ensured you survived to command another day.

Corr'tane hated failure as much as any other true Ashani, but failure always carried with it the chance of learning from one's mistakes. Death did not.

Unfortunately, he was powerless to do anything. She was now his equal in rank and standing. There was no way for him to order her to stay back, and he couldn't add forces to ensure her safety. It all came down to luck and fate, two things which had been cruel to his family in the past.

As if to free his mind of his fears he concentrated on the maneuvering of his own forces and the already beginning evacuations. At least he would be able to safe
some
people today. At the edge of his vision his sister's fleet began to array for battle in the holotank's tactical display, and the orbital defenses shifted.

Dreadnought SUNBURST, 12
th
Dominion Fleet

These ships were a credit to their race and made Pyshana proud to be an Ashani. The previous attacks had failed, but not one ship had retreated! They had attacked and fought to the last, earning themselves undying glory. And now, with their debris still cooling, she would lead a greater attack, the attack that would finally break the Érenni.

“
Divisions signaling ready, Strategos,” Captain Farwalker reported. Since her performance at Senfina, Pyshana had made sure Farwalker remained by her side as commander of her personal dreadnought. She trusted her to fight the ship while she handled the battle in general. “Leading fleet assets assembled. The other forces will follow us in.”

Pyshana nodded. She stood at the center of the bridge, savoring the moment. The military wasn't the career she would have chosen in her youth, and the path that led her here was twisted and confused. Still, it was in this moment that she realized this was
right
, everything that had happened to her had happened because she needed to be here,
now
, leading this attack which would earn her people a great victory. She was where she was
born
to be.

“
This is Strategos Pyshana to 12
th
Fleet,” she began, her voice carrying over the communications' channels to the hundreds of ships under her direct command. “We are preparing an assault into the teeth of the enemy defenses once more. These defenses have claimed the lives of many of our comrades, but we will not hesitate to attack the same weapons which killed them! We will not pause to consider the danger, we will not allow their sacrifice to be in vain. I'm young and new to my role, as are many of you, but we know what our duty demands of us. We have inside us that same spirit, that same strength which drove the heroes of the past to greatness. Many judge us on our age. After today they will judge us on the numbers of enemy dead piled at our feet!”

She had a remarkable instrument in her possession, a warfleet of the Ashani Dominion: as subtle as a whisper, as precise as a scalpel, and as powerful as a nuclear warhead. It was a living beast with bones of metal and claws of flame, but at its core it was the crews manning the ships that made the real difference, that made this fleet
better
than the ships waiting on the other side of the Érenni guns.

“
This is our hour, our moment. We must not fail! We must not dishonor our people! We must fight and not give way. Show them what it means to be an Ashani warrior.”

She ended the transmission, every fiber in her body straining like a sprinter on the blocks. The image of the planet Akvô filled the displays in front of her. The lush world was the future home of her people and the salvation of her race.

“They think they know what we're capable of,” she whispered, perhaps to Farwalker, perhaps just to herself. “After Senfina they think they know the depth of our resolve and our power. But they know nothing.” Today would leave a mark in the history books. Today, a civilization would die. “First wave, all ahead flank. Fighters deploy to intercept missiles and frigates sweep on the flanks.” Pyshana return to her command chair and settled into her shock harness. “May the generations to come remember us. Commence the attack!”

Érenni Central Command

Akvô, Home world of the Érenni Republics.

“We've got movement,” a controller called out from her console. “Enemy activity along the perimeter!”

Immediately the control room's main display switched from a representation of the whole star system to a tactical image of local space around Akvô. The planet dominated the screen, a thin line of blue surrounding it representing the outer edge of its defense network, mines and satellites and weapons' platforms and all. At the fringes of the blue line three massive red triangles, their points pressed against the blue line, their numbers too large for the system to display them as individual units, surrounded the planet. Smaller covering forces crisscrossed the space between them.

“How many, and where?” Gwythyr barked. He needed details to formulate a response.

“
Estimates are twenty-five hundred ships!” the controller's voice trembled. “All three main formations are on the move!”

Gwythyr grunted like a boxer who had taken an unexpected hit. His hands clasped tightly around the edge of the nearest console; he had to steady himself as if he truly had taken a physical blow. Twenty-five hundred...!

This was the biggest attack yet, and looking at the ships queuing up it looked like the Dominion was counting on this to deliver the hammer blow that would shatter the defenses' backbone. And it might do just that.

Gwythyr – and Central Command with him – had counted on the Ashani pressing for a quick victory in the style of the ferocious '
L'audace! L'audace tojour!
' spirit they had shown at Senfina. Drawing them into his fields of fire while keeping his own mobile reserve at hand to deliver crushing, mortal blows he was certain he could have defeated this very type of stubborn advance.

But the Dominion hadn't humored him. There had been a battle on the first day which had bloodied the damn cats' noses, and there had been plenty of incursions after that. But aside from that first clash the others had been by fighter squadrons and small units trying to map paths through the minefields. By now the wrecks of Ashani fighters, gunboats and frigate-sized vessels out there must have numbered in the thousands.

The problem was that he had prepared his plan for an enemy who came at him with a hammer. Yet, for the past three days the Dominion had gone after his defenses with a scalpel. The asteroids, the incursions, the long-range missile barrages; they all had thinned his defenses and his stocks of heavy weapons. Part of it was a lack of firing discipline on part of the inexperienced Érenni operators, but there was nothing he could do about that. He ground his teeth.

“
Alert the ready forces. Have our ships ready to plug any gaps in the lines,” he ordered gruffly, staring at the enemy armada half a million kilometers away. Slowly, like a single boulder waiting to become and avalanche, it edged closer. “Orbital defenses lock on and fire the instant they reach range. Ground defenses, stand by.”

The control room ran with silent energy as the operators activated their particular area of sky. With the minefield thinned out during the past days he Ashani slowly moved closer, gradually wearing down the defenses there through attrition and sacrifice. The satellite weapons whirred into life once more, adjusting slightly to bring their lasers and missile tubes to bear. Warships gathered just beyond the curve of the planet, ready to dash forward if the need arose while the few ground based missile batteries opened their silo doors and prepared.

Gwythyr looked up at the changing display, his face so furrowed in worry that his facial tattoos conflated into one black mass. They were out of tricks and traps by now, and both sides sensed it. The only thing they had left rely on was courage, a trait many believed the Érenni lacked. Today would finally answer that question.

Heavy Cruiser PERISAI, Republican Defense Force.

Captain Natara felt the acceleration as her ship moved into its assigned station as part of a small flotilla of 'firefighters'. Across the inner perimeter of their passive defenses small pockets of warships were gathering and joining forces, leaving unaffected sectors to bring their weapons to bear on the expected assault. Nuclear explosions dotted the sky, small suns erupting suddenly and fading away just as quickly. Like an implacable spring flood Ashani warships gradually closed on them.

“All stations, report,” she asked with a calm that was all too superficial. Inside she was facing an onslaught of emotions, not the least of which was fear.

“
Weapons are primed and ready,” Batal, the Komerco mercenary announced, his voice devoid of any emotion. He was being paid to take part in a battle likely to end in the demise of the people who owed him his salary, a battle just as likely to claim his own life.

“
Sensors ready.”

“
Engines ready...”

Natar listened to the steady stream of readiness reports, but her heart wasn't in it. She had family down on Akvô, too. A husband and three co-wives and scores of children they brought up together, as much as her schedule and deployment allowed it. The idea of losing them to a ball of nuclear fire or one of the Dominion's bio weapons made her blood boil. Her hands clasped around the edges of her seat, gentle long fingers digging deep into the cushion.

Officer Torok Sen stepped up to her captain, maintaining the same unreadable mask for a face she had worn all these past days as she offered her salute. “All sections report ready. Ship and crew are prepared to defend our people.”

Only slowly did Natara withdraw her eyes from the image of her race's home world. Mechanically she looked up at her executive officer and nodded, accepting the report. The Érenni Defense Force had barely had the time to become a true navy, but they still had their traditions and rituals. Captain Natara recognized the importance of observing this formal protocol as a way of setting the crews' minds on the task at hand. Rigid structures helped to prevent them from getting lost or scared, now that the full scale of what was at stake was becoming obvious to each and every one of them.

“Understood, XO. Assume combat formation and get to your station,” Natara fastened her shock frame and shut her helmet. The rest of the bridge crew followed her lead. “Prepare to jam the enemy and power up our full electronic warfare suite. Set all defensive batteries to automatic fire and wait for orders.”

“
We're not moving to the front, captain?” Batal asked in puzzlement.

“
No, Mr. Batal. We'll stay out of the fixed defenses' line of fire until the Dominion vanguard approaches the edge of the minefields. Once they think they're through, we hit their flanks while the orbital defenses meet them head on.”

The ship cut its engines and settled into position with the rest of its group. Gunships, tasked with anti-fighter duty, moved up from bases on the planet to assume covering positions beside the heavier vessels. Central Command had barely six hundred
ships ready to fight, but nearly a fifth of them had already sustained battle damage in the clashes during the prior days. Even with the planet's concentric defenses the odds were still very poor.