Reavers (Book 3) (52 page)

The MI agents glanced at one another before reluctantly accepting.

“What do you want us to call you then?” one of the female agents asked.

“How about Brent?” he asked with a smile.  “It’s always worked for me in the past.”

Again, the agents looked to one another for support.  They seemed uncomfortable being so informal with their leader.

“No one said change was easy,” Brent said with a shrug.  “So what’s going on?”

“We thought you’d want to see this yourself, sir,” a male agent said as he activated the main monitor.

After a few seconds of warming up, the monitor showed the fleet from quite a distance off.  The fleet consisted of every MI ship that could reach the staging point in time and all the Navy ships that were close enough to make it before the deadline.  It was no doubt the largest grouping of ships since the Great War.  It was an amazing sight to see the myriad of ships in neat formation, but he had already seen it dozens of times.

In fact, he had been the one who had organized the formation in the first place.  As he was about to question the agents, a small jump window caught his attention.  The agent at the console smiled and zoomed in on the glow of the Wall.  The single Wall was shortly joined by hundreds of others.  Slowly emerging were ships of all shapes and sizes, each one different from one another with wild bright paint jobs and intricate banners and emblems adhered to their hulls.  Abruptly, a secondary monitor sprang to life.

“Did we miss the party?” Rosalyn asked as she leaned back in her chair, obviously posing to show off her figure.

Brent wasn’t sure which was more shocking, that so many pirates had shown up, or the revealing outfit she was wearing.  It covered only that which
had
to be covered and did so in a way that forced his eye toward those impolite areas.  The ruffled, silky material almost begged everyone to stare at her slack jawed.  He had to chuckle; she was just as provocative as Dante had reported her to be.

The man standing behind her was trying to look proper, but it was obvious he wasn’t dealing with her attire very well.  That had to be Andreas.  Brent had gotten a good laugh at the antics of those two.  Dante had kept him in the loop as much as possible.  Turned out the antics of her pirate crew were more entertaining than most 3Ps.

“Your timing couldn’t be better, Rosalyn,” he said with a smile as he mentally counted the ships jumping in.

“You know my name!” she said in a sultry voice.  “How flattering.  Who would have thought such an all-powerful man could be bothered with remembering little ol’ me.  I’m honored.”

He hadn’t missed the fact she had run her hands along her breasts when she had said
little
.  It had been very subtle and elegant, but it was obvious to him she was either flirting or just showing off her body for no other reason than to show it off - not that she really needed more of a reason with such a figure.

“Is Dante there?” he asked, attempting to pretend he had missed her subtext.

“Here, sir,” he said as he bowed like the tripod on the bottom edge of the monitor.

“What’s the situation?”

“Most of the guilds refused you outright, but you do have the complete support of the Rapiers, the Banshees, and the Golden Claw, along with a smattering of captains who are here without permission.  All in all, we are bringing a little under two hundred and fifty ships, sir.”

“Although, they are not all battleship class ships,” Tardos added quickly.  “Pirates don’t believe in the philosophy that
bigger
is always
better
like the Navy does.”

“That’s quite alright,” Brent said with a smirk.  “I’m sure each and every ship will be vital in the battle to come.”

“You look much healthier than I thought,” Andreas said abruptly.  “I had worried our leader would be sickly.”

“Andreas!” Rosalyn quickly scolded.

“Of course he looked sick!” Tardos said with a chuckle.  “He was completely green.  Not a good look for
anyone
.”

Brent chuckled and nodded to the agent at the communications terminal.

“We are sending you tactical information now,” he said.  “Please have your fellow captains take position as indicated.”

“You’ve got us worked into your plans
already
?” Tardos asked in amazement.  “You couldn’t have known how many ships we’d bring - if we came at all.”

“You learn to accept him at his word,” Dante said with pride.

“Back up,” Rosalyn said with a clear bit of alarm.  “What do you mean my fellow captains?  Don’t you want to talk to the guild leaders?”

“I’ll pass, thank you,” Brent said with a small smile.  “No offense, but the last thing I want is for them to think they have any say in what we are going to do.  Don’t need any more chefs in the kitchen.  After all, we can’t win this war by committee.”

“You mean . . .”

“That’s right.”  Brent’s smile expanded into a full-blown grin.  “You’re now the fleet liaison to the pirates.  Congratulations on the promotion.”

Time seemed to grind to a standstill as the fleet readied for the battle.  Every action had seemed to take an excruciating amount of time, but finally every ship was armed and ready.  Thanks to Marie’s supervision they had replaced at least half of the beam turrets in the fleet in under a month.  That was something that would make even the most experienced shipwright’s jaw hang listlessly in awe.  Once the pirates had arrived she managed to cut the retrofit time to next to nothing as she put them to work on the rest of the ships.  Turned out they were masters of on-the-fly repair and modification.

Brent looked over the status reports in front of him.  The last step had been to convert the bridge of the MI’s mobile headquarters into a strategic command center.  It’s massive hanger filled to the brim with extra munitions and a small fleet of tiny ships to rearm the armada.  From the captain’s chair he could oversee the entire fleet.  Every last ship was reporting ready with a full stock of missiles and plenty of nervousness.  They knew the odds were against them, but they remained firm.  Tapping on the display of the fleet’s formation, Brent opened a communications link with the key ships.

“Report,” he said in a calm voice.

“The Navy is ready for anything those asteroid-riding buggers can toss at us,” Shen said with an excited smile.

“The Vanguards are in place,” Nobue said, clicking his heals together.  “My agents wanted me to tell you it has been an honor to serve with you.”

“Don’t make it sound like this is suicide,” Rosalyn said with a seductive wink.  “You’ll be chasing after me in your metal cauliflowers again in no time.”

“For the final time, Vanguards do not look like
cauliflowers
!” Nobue grated his words.

“The guilds are as ready as they will ever be,” she reported as she ignored Nobue.  “I’m yours to command; be gentle,” she said with obvious innuendo.

“What exactly is the plan?” Cain asked.

Brent leaned to his right to see past all the displays in front of him.  Gathered on the bridge were all his friends.  In unison they bowed to him like the tripod.

“Didn’t expect us to sit this one out, did you?” Tyra asked.

“We are all here to support you,” Sanderson said, dressed in a perfectly pressed uniform.

“No way was I going to watch from the sidelines,” Hiroko said as she leaned on Owen’s shoulder.

“You have
my
support as well,” Henry said.

Only Cain seemed to pick up on the double meaning.  Brent was glad to see everyone.  Abruptly, he noticed an odd sense of fear from the rear of the gathering.  Hiding in the back of the group were the four troopers from Hellacus.  Apparently, they still followed Sanderson and Kindra around.  They seemed to be overwhelmed by everything.  The girl who had been frightened of him earlier was already hiding.  She clung to the back of one of the men - Frank Bosch was his name, if he remembered correctly. 

Brent had gone to the trouble of looking up their service records, but had been so busy with the battle plans he had forgotten to find out why she was so frightened of him.  He hoped there would be time afterwards to clear up the matter - he didn’t like being feared any more than he did being revered.

“The plan is simple,” Brent said as he sat upright and addressed everyone.  “We are going to do exactly what Renoff had planned.”

“
What
?” Nobue and Shen shouted in unison.

Rosalyn looked at the other two in confusion, having missed the entire affair.

“This is no suicide run, but his end goal was correct.  The weakness of our opponent is their home base.”

“Their what?” Nobue asked.

“He means the artificial moon,” Shen said.  “So if we wipe out their base, we win.”

“Definitely, but that’s not our goal,” Brent said with a confident smile.

“So what’s your plan then?” Rosalyn asked.

“It’s my guess our friends in the V shaped asteroids live under either a hive or caste system.  When the Shard attacked the bombers on Jeirude, there was no change in the enemy’s battle plans whatsoever.  They just kept coming with no regard for personal safety.  However, the instant the Shard posed a threat to the command ship in orbit, the bombers all left immediately.”

“So if we can pose a threat to the moon, they should all retreat?” Shen asked.

“That’s the best scenario,” Brent said with a nod.

“What’s the worst?” Ronald asked.

“Worst case, it makes them fight harder as they try to defend their leaders.  However, if we can do enough damage to the moon we might be able to limit the amount of control those leaders can exert.  In any case, our only chance is to go after the moon with everything we’ve got.”

“That’s all well and good, but what exactly do you want
us
to do?”  Rosalyn asked.  “I don’t have a single ship powerful enough to damage a planet.  I’m happy to dance to whatever music you pick, but it looks like I’ve got the wrong kind of shoes.”

“Don’t worry, you won’t be attacking the moon,” Brent said to Rosalyn.  “The pirates have the fastest and most plentiful missile systems.  You’ll be our front line.  All you have to do is keep up a constant screen of missile fire to hold back the enemy fighters.”

“Sounds simple,” Rosalyn nodded.

“Shen, I need your ships to help out Rosalyn while your heavy hitters line up their shots,” Brent said.  “You’ve got seven ships capable of punching through just about anything.  I’m going to need you to get them in position and firing as soon as possible.”

“The Navy won’t fail you,” Shen said with a hearty salute.

“What about us?” Nobue asked.  “Vanguards are devastating against our
own
ships, but seem to have no effect against these enemies.”

“Power is power, regardless of source,” Brent said with a smile.  “While the energy weapons of the Shard couldn’t destroy the bombers, they did knock them off course.  I need you and your Vanguards to punch a hole through the enemy fighters so Shen’s weapons can get through.”

Nobue clenched a fist and nodded eagerly.  They were all ready.  Brent tapped on the displays and brought up a link to all the public address systems within every ship in the fleet.

“Greeting, stalwart defenders of humanity,” he announced to every last crewmember.  “We are about to jump into enemy territory.  They have us vastly outnumbered and have no regard for their own safety.  They will throw everything they have at us without restraint.  However, their strength is also their weakness.  They lack our resolve, our purpose and our dedication to those back home who cannot fight.  They will feel the strength not only of our weapons, but of our humanity!  We will fight as one and push them back.  I myself have two children waiting for me back home, and I know most of you have someone waiting for you.  We will stand between them and this foe.  We will fight.  We will win!  We
will
prevail!”

Brent could feel the growing resolve in the fleet.  They were ready for the fight ahead.  Though he couldn’t actually hear it, he could imagine the crewmembers cheering and shouting to their victory.  He gave the order, and the fleet started the final jump.  The ships were ready.  The crews were ready.  All that was left was the hard part, actually pulling it all off.

Brent had anticipated the number of fighters to be staggering, but no amount of imagining or number crunching could compare to the reality.  The moon was completely covered in a living, pulsing shell of V shaped asteroids.  They were done hiding.  Not even a speck of the grayish white could be seen through the swirling mass of fighters.  In the distance it looked like a massive beating heart.  The ships had jumped perfectly and were already in position. 

Before the first salvo of missiles left the fleet, the shell of fighters was already breaking up.  Like whips of sand, the fighters coalesced into long streams and flew toward the waiting fleet.  The missiles of the pirates quickly closed and started igniting the horde.  Despite their losses the fighters kept coming.  The Navy ships launched their heavy ordinance, creating blooms of light and fire in the path of the whips. 

The V fighters shifted their strategy and broke up into random patterns, finally trying to evade the incoming missiles.  That alone was an acknowledgment Brent’s plan was working.  The Vanguards took position and started warming up their main weapon arrays.  In one unified burst the Vanguards fired their massive columns of blue energy.  The V fighters moved in the path of the beams to block the attack, but the force was too much and easily knocked the fighters away.  A large hole was created right down the center of the enemy formation.

“You’ve got your shot, Shen,” Brent said, struggling to keep his voice calm.

The capital ships launched their devastating projectiles.  In the silence of space, the warheads rushed toward the moon with reckless abandon.  Brent held his breath as the fighters scrambled to fill the gap created by the Vanguard.  Even with their incredible speed, they were too slow to fill the gap.  The warheads zipped past the pursuing fighters and slammed into the surface of the moon.  The sounds of cheering filled the communications links as a bright white flash engulfed the impact site.  Brent focused on the incoming readings.  As the flash of the impact subsided, the real data started pouring in. 

His heart instantly sank.  They had done some damage, but it was nowhere near as much as he had thought. Quickly doing the calculations, he estimated it would take over three hours of continuous bombardment to breach the moon’s surface.  Whatever the moon was made out of was resilient stuff.

The fleet had enough missiles to last at most four hours.  Provided they could keep the fighters at bay, they would still be cutting things close.  Brent switched the sensors over to a tactical view of the entire battle.  A steady stream of V fighters were pouring out of the moon.

For every one the fleet managed to destroy, three immediately took its place.  This was a battle of attrition, and the fleet wasn’t on the winning side.  However, there was a silver lining.  Brent had organized the fleet to provide a complete sphere of coverage.  These things didn’t seem to realize they could attack from multiple vectors.  The entirety of their forces charged head on without any thought of going around the screen of exploding missiles.  He quickly reorganized the fleet into a more defensive position.  They had to hold out.

For two hours the fleet kept up the barrage without fail.  Shen and the Vanguards had been pelting the moon like clockwork while Rosalyn kept the fighters as far away as she could.  Through it all, Brent had kept a close hand over the fleet, moving ships about to compensate for any shift in the attack patterns of the enemy fleet.  The moon looked like a honeycomb with thousands of large craters in its surface around the focus point of their bombardment. 

According to the sensors, they had penetrated more than he had anticipated, but they still had a long way to go.  Another burst of blue light erupted from the Vanguards.  However, something was different.  Brent zoomed in on the V fighters in the target area.  They were pulling away in advance of the beams.  They sat and waited as close to the edge of the beams as they could without being knocked away.  Shen’s ships launched their projectiles.  The fighters hurled themselves into the beams at full speed.

Most were instantly thrown away, but a few managed to penetrate the protective field of blue light.  The projectiles slammed into the waiting fighters and detonated in a brilliant flash.  The explosion wasn’t anywhere near the moon.  The enemy had figured out how to nullify his attack.  The fleet was now completely powerless against the moon.  As a bead of sweat rolled down Brent’s brow, a far more terrifying sight filled the screen.  Ships were jumping away.  Several of the pirate ships were fleeing.

“What’s going on?” he demanded as he established a link with Rosalyn.

“The cowards are leaving us to die, that’s what,” she shouted back in a furious tone.  “I’m doing my best, but the guild leaders have already left.  It’s only a matter of time before the rest of their forces follow suit.”

“Do whatever you can to convince the rest to stay,” Brent said as he quickly linked up to Shen.  “We’ve got a problem.”

“I saw that.  What are your orders?” Shen asked with forced determination.

“Abandon the moon.  Focus all your weapons on helping the pirates keep those fighters off us.”

Shen nodded and the Navy ships shifted their attacks.  They managed to compensate for the loss of the pirate guild leaders, but Brent knew it wouldn’t last.  If they lost too many more of the pirates, their protective screen wouldn’t be able to stop all the V fighters.  If even a few got through the screen of missile fire, they’d be able to compromise the entire fleet.  Another group of pirate ships started to jump.  The lack of missile fire let the V fighters grow closer.  Without warning, the Vanguards opened fire on the jumping pirates and completely vaporized them.

“Anyone who jumps away is betraying humanity and is a traitor in the extreme,” Nobue shouted over the communications link.

Brent cut the link to all the other ships.

“What do you think you’re doing?” he shouted at Nobue.

“Court-martial me later,” he said unapologetically.  “I just bought you some time.  The pirates are leaving, and you know it.  It won’t take them long to realize the Vanguards can’t attack them all.  I give them fifteen minutes before they put two and two together, tops.”