Opening Moves (57 page)

“Ma'am,” Farwalker replied evenly. “Forward echelons are breaking up. We are almost at the front.”

At the front. Where her battered dreadnought would come face to face with heavily armed and armored defense platforms and the republican mobile reserve. To be on the front meant instant destruction. Pyshana accepted it. Acceptance was all she had left.

“You're a credit to the service, Captain Farwalker,” she said quietly. “I was lucky to have you at Senfina.”

And suddenly everything changed.

Sickly green beams, hundreds of them, thousands, struck the Érenni defenses, followed by a massive missile volley. The whole right flank of the battle tore up, throwing the defenders into confusion as they fought to react to the surprise blow.

“
It's my brother!” Pyshana cried in unabashed excitement.

And indeed it was. The Dominion's 3
rd
Fleet surged in, its lasers running hot, all its missile tubes spewing warheads without pause.

“
Quick now! Adjust course, take us through the line!” a rush of adrenalin had her in its grip. The certainty of their death was forgotten. “Order all ships to form up and advance!”

Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more...

Érenni Cruiser PERISAI

“May demons chew off their asses in hell!” a guttural curse left Natara's lips. It was a strange sight, a strange occasion for the usually so fair-minded aliens, let alone an Érenni officer. “Flank speed, all weapons fire at will!” So much for plugging that breach, she fumed as PERISAI rocked into motion.

Even though that particular part of space had turned into a graveyard flooded with gamma radiation and dotted with burning hulks and blossoming nuclear explosions the Dominion now had a clear shot at the planet below. Every missile had the name of millions written on it.

Orders or not Natara understood with an icy crisp clearness that
she
had to act. The cruiser roared forwards, its sensor suits tried to chew through the background noise and massive jamming while LIDAR darted from one speck of space to the next, always searching for targets.

Within seconds official orders from Central Command reach them. The whole group was to advance. Every available warship was moving to intercept the Dominion fleet.

“Target acquired,” Batal said dispassionately. “Firing now.”

PERISAI's main batteries discharged, the focused beams instantly connecting with and damaging a distant enemy ship. Some Érenni gunships had already closed in on the Dominion vanguard and were now stuck in a deadly ballet with scores of Swiftpaw fighters. Defense platforms in the back of the front began to realign, moving as fast as their maneuvering thrusters allowed it to fight the inbound ships moving closer to the planet. A series of nuclear explosions stuttered across the battlefront, though who had fired them was a mystery as they seemed just as destructive to both sides.

“Priority message from Central Command, Captain,” Torok Sen's finger wiped across her console and the message displayed there also popped up in front of Natara. “We've been released from designated sector and are to engage the enemy at our own discretion to cause as much damage and chaos as possible.”

“
Understood, XO.” She leaned forward and studied the tactical display for a moment. The worst of the battle was centered in a comparably small section of space that looked like a flattened globe, with the main concentration of ships pressed into two opposing disk-shaped formation, courtesy of the limitations of the surrounding fixed defenses. “Very well. Get us down the Zed, approach vector five zero zero niner. Maximum jamming. We'll slip through the debris field and go right for their belly. Keep some anti-ship missiles in reserve.” She let her gaze briefly stride across the bridge. “This is it, people: the day we've trained for. Let's not fail our people.”

“
Keep your sword sharp, keep your mind sharper.”

-   Inscription over the gate of the Imperial Military Academy, Rasenna

C H A P T E R  1 4

Érenni Central Command

Akvô, Home world of the Érenni Republics

5
th
Day of the Battle.

August, 2797 C.E.

Mairwen didn't know exactly what was happening, but guessing from the hard expression on Gwythyr's face things were going very grimly. The broad greenish band on the tactical display ringing the planet had deep wedges in it, and even worse, a gap. A gap through which a mass of red triangles poured, to everyone's consternation.

“
Reserve units are being attacked while they are still gathering,” a controller reported, her voice almost mechanically calm. “Primary rally points are already overrun.”

“
Set up new rally points halfway closer to orbit,” the experienced Tuathaan officer said curtly. By now there was no illusion that anybody but he was running this battle for the Érenni.

“
Negative. Our forces are being pushed back too fast. We'll have to put them directly in orbit to form up in time.”

“
I don't care if the rally points are outside, across the street and under the ocean!” Gwythyr growled like an angry predator. “Get those ships organized and ready to counterattack!”

“
Sir, I can see this is a bad time…,” Mairwen began timidly.

“
Comm, get me Captain Mashiara,” Gwythyr yelled over the noise of Central Command.

“
But if you wouldn't mind…,” the ambassador continued.

“
No response,” the communications officer shouted back. “The computers no longer track her IFF as active. Her ship's off the scope. It must've been destroyed!”

“
What about the rest of the her flotilla?”

“
Could you perhaps explain this?” Mairwen gently kept on, her words seemingly lost in the cacophony.

“
Nothing!” came the reply. “Looks like they're gone, too.”

“
Gone?” Mairwen said, blinking. “Where?”

“
What about the Second Flotilla?” Gwythyr demanded angrily. “Or the Third, or the reserve squadrons?”

“
No response, sir. Either they're all engaging the enemy and are being jammed, or they've all been destroyed.”

The Tuathaan yelled in anger. His fist came down on a console with a crack that even drowned out the command center's noise. The outburst of rage utterly terrified Mairwen. “What's left up there?”

After a moment the answer came through. “I have Captain Natara of the cruiser PERISAI standing by. She's in command of the 9
th
Reserve Squadron. The tenth and eleventh are also in position and under her orders. Every other squadron of ships is redeploying, too, but it'll take them too long to get there as the planet's blocking their path.”

“
Captain Natara, this is Command Central, do you read?” Gwythyr spoke directly to PERISAI's commander..

“
I get you loud and clear,” Natara replied, her voice filtering through the speaker system. “We can see Dominion units ahead of us widening the breach in our defenses. Others are engaging elements of the 6
th
Cruiser Squadron.”

“
We see it, Captain. It's of utmost importance that the Ashani fleet does not reach orbit! Your orders are to proceed forward and hold the Ashani advance at any cost. Do you understand me Captain?
Any
cost.”

“
We're on a silent approach vector from the Zed axis. Preparing to attack now. What support should we look for?” Natara inquired.

“
Captain, there is no support to offer,” Gwythyr said somberly. “We have ships regrouping, but they won't be ready before the Ashani have broken free of the defense and have a clear shot at the planet. We need
time
, a few minutes to slow down the Dominion!”

“
Slow them down,” the disembodied voice repeated. “Can the homeworld be defended?”

“
If you give us the time to gather our forces, perhaps. But without that time we will all die.”

“
We understand, sir. In range to intercept now. May the goddess guide our strikes and keep you alive. PERISAI out.”

“
Good luck, Captain. We'll send whatever we can spare,” Gwythyr said quietly into the dead channel.

“
She's going to die, isn't she?” Mairwen stared at him in both amazement and sadness. “You've just sent her to die.”

“
Her and about five thousand more. This is war, Madam Ambassador.” Gwythyr held her gaze unflinchingly.

“
I would not have sent her. Nobody here would have! It's suicide!”

“
I know you wouldn't have. That's why I am here, why you brought me here.
I
can give those orders,
I
can send warriors to their death,
I
can get them killed so more of your people do not have to die. And her sacrifice, and that of her comrades, will not be in vain. She might just save this world.”

The chatter inside Central Command was suddenly drowned by a deep rumbling. The massive underground structure began to tremble first, then to shake.

“What is that?” Mairwen looked around, her eyes wide with fear.

“
Sensors, what do you have?” Gwythyr shouted over the ruckus.

“
We have incoming!” came the answer. “Confirmed hits on a silo twenty-five kilometers east! They're targeting the sensor arrays at the edge of town!”

“
Everyone take cover!” Gwythyr roared. “On the floor, quick!” The sturdy Tuathaan slid under a console and pulled the lithe Mairwen with him. She stumbled in the effort to not hit herself.

“
...three! Two! One!” the controller counted down, yelling over the noise of panicked Central Command.

First there was only a low, rolling thunder. For a second nothing seemed to happen. Then it all washed over them.

The ground heaved. The whole structure creaked and moaned, and a cacophony like a rocket engine starting right next to them roared through the command center's dome. Concrete dust and debris the size of a bricks fell from the ceiling, clogging up lungs, smashing bones and heads indiscriminately. The power flickered on and off several times before auxiliary generators jumped into the breach.

“
This is hell!” Mairwen screamed, unable to control herself any longer. Her eyes were wide with panic and she fought against the iron grip that held her beneath the console.

“
Yes, it is!” Gwythyr shouted, his face twisted in a mirthless cheer. “An orbital strike, standard Ashani military procedure. We're lucky!”

“
How is this lucky!?” she screeched.

“
It could've been right on top of us!” he chuckled a little and pushed himself out from under his cover. As he got back on his feet he sneezed and shook himself to get rid of the pale dust that covered him. It had settled on every screen and technician in the room, covering all in a ghostly shroud. “Look lively, we are still fighting!” the Tuathaan called out almost jovially. “If they had known where the command center's located they would've gone after us and not those silos. You're not all dead yet, so get moving! Clean off your stations and give me a report!”

Mairwen picked herself up, coughing on the thick air. She heard more coughs, and also shouted reports as control was restored and consoles sputtered back into action.

“I'm rerouting main sensors through the secondary array in the mountains,” someone called out and Gwythyr nodded, rubbing his nose clean of dust.

“
I want the orbital reserves sent forward to help Captain Natara,” the Tuathaan ordered. “Keep the other fleets assembling at the rally point.”

“
The orbital reserve fleet were those ships too damaged to fight!” Mairwen said. “They won't last a second!”

“
The Dominion must destroy them before advancing,” Gwythyr remarked coolly. “Even if they can't really hurt the Ashani back they do serve a purpose.”

“
These are people you are talking about! They have names and lives and families!” Mairwen wailed in sadness, clutching her hands against her chest.