Rebel (43 page)

“I do not expect that you will, Grand Admiral. However, my battle fleet will not surrender. Please remember as the day’s events unfold that I have taken two surrenders today. I will not delay in taking a third.”

“We’ll be taking your surrender if we haven’t blown you to bits,” the Butcher snapped with all the equanimity of a five-year-old. The screen went dead.

After a pause for everyone to catch their breath, Vicky turned to Admiral Bolesław.

“That didn’t go so well,” he said.

“I don’t know. Every ship that was monitoring that channel now knows I’m willing to accept its surrender, and we now know who is trying to command that screwed-up situation over there. Admiral von Mittleburg, who is your Uncle Vitaly?”

“We are not blood relatives, but my father fought with him during the Iteeche War, and he used to own a vineyard next to my grandfather’s. I don’t know how they got their hands on him.”

“Is he good?”

“One of the best,” Admiral von Mittleburg assured Vicky.

“Then we will have to hope that he is good enough to separate his Sailors from the Empress’s butchers so that many of them won’t have to die today,” Vicky said evenly.

The two admirals looked at her and nodded sadly.

CHAPTER 62

T
HE
battle began to develop very much along the line that Admirals von Mittleburg and Bolesław had foreseen. But not entirely.

Vicky’s fleet was a good fifty thousand klicks closer to St. Petersburg, braking with their well-armored bows aimed in the general direction of the Empress’s forces. Those forces were also braking to make orbit, but the bit of extra distance they had to go meant Vicky had a good shot at their vulnerable rocket motors and reactors.

Vicky had the advantage.

For her part, the Empress had twice as many battleships as Vicky. Formed into four battle lines of nine battleships, they could spread out and engulf Vicky’s smaller force, concentrating their fire two to one against her two battle lines of seven and nine.

The Empress began to use that advantage five minutes before the biggest battleships would come in range with their 18-inch guns. Grand Admiral Kuznetsov had his four battle lines stacked an even distance from each other. Now they began to spread out. The lower line dropped lower and edged closer. The upper line went higher and also closer. The middle two squadrons held back.

“It’s time we do something about that,” Admiral von
Mittleburg said. “Ališ, you take the high squadrons, I’ll take the low ones.”

For a few minutes longer, the grand admiral kept his formation as it was, then the two middle ones began to edge up, following the top squadron, the one that was trying to outmaneuver Admiral Bolesław’s lone squadron.

“No surprise there,” Admiral von Mittleburg said. “Execute Redistribution Plan 3,” he ordered.

The destroyers that had returned to the battle line had been used hard, some more than others. Admiral von Mittleburg had them reorganize themselves into four divisions with the Fourth Division holding all the badly dinged-up destroyers that could still answer bells.

On his orders, Fourth Division took station in front of his battle squadron. The other three divisions moved over to support Admiral Bolesław. The two least damaged divisions formed up on the engaged side of the battleships, one forward, and one aft of them. The Third Division settled in among the rocket boats, ready to support where they were needed.

The twenty-eight rocket boats had been evenly divided between the two battle lines. Now, Admiral von Mittleburg’s rocket boats split in half, one group staying with him, the other following the destroyers over to join Admiral Bolesław’s battle line.

It was clear that the Empress was aiming everything at Vicky. Now, Admiral Bolesław’s line was enlarged to defend her.

The Empress’s two middle battle lines were now well on their way to closing on Vicky’s battle line as they came in range of the
Retribution
’s 18-inch lasers.

Backad“For what they are about to receive, may we be truly grateful,” Admiral Bolesław said softly, then his voice boomed. “Task Force 2 and accompanying ships, begin Evasion Pattern 2.”

Around Vicky, the task force began to jink according to one of the moderate dodging patterns.

Now the Grand Admiral did something to reduce the vulnerability of his battleships. One minute from 18-inch range, his remaining twenty heavy cruisers cut their deceleration and shot out, coming in range of the battle line well before they could hope to use their 8- or 9.2-inch main battery.

“Battleships with 18-inch lasers, fire at the heavy cruisers.
Transfer fire to the battleships when they come in range. Cruisers, close on the hostile cruiser line,” von Mittleburg ordered.

Fifteen of the heavy cruisers were supporting the three battle lines engaging Vicky. Five were in the smaller force covering Admiral von Mittleburg.
Retribution
,
Ravager
, and
Trouncer
reached out with their first broadside. Fire was widely spaced; Vicky’s gunners expected the cruisers to be dodging, and they weren’t wrong. But they were prepared. All they needed was one good hit on a heavy cruiser’s armor to swat it down.

Two cruisers across from Vicky and another two facing Admiral von Mittleburg were speared through by laser light and left drifting or struggling to keep way on. One exploded.

The seven biggest battleships in Vicky’s force reloaded. It took thirty to thirty-five seconds before they got off their second salvo at the remaining sixteen heavy cruisers. The
Trouncer
was the last. This time, von Mittleburg’s BatRon 22 aimed for the cruisers across from Vicky. Again, four heavy cruisers died. The hostile cruiser gun line was down to twelve.

Vicky’s ten heavy cruisers and six light ones should be able to keep them out of mischief. Better yet, if Vicky ordered a destroyer attack now, the Empress would have few cruisers to protect her battleships.

Again, the battleships reloaded. When next they fired, they’d be exchanging shots with the Empress’s 18-inch battleships.

“Commander Blue, how is the Empress’s jamming going?” Vicky asked.

“Not so good, Your Grace. I think some of the cruisers we blew away had jamming gear on them.”

“So what can you tell us?” Admiral Bolesław asked.

“I have a good idea which battleships are the 18-inchers.”

“Then it’s time to hit the big ones,” Admiral Bolesław said as he gave
Retribution
and his other two big-gunned battleships orders to fire at the closest 18-inch battleships held in thrall to the Empress’s power.

At the end, he added, “Willi, you make sure Guns concentrates his salvos. Go for four hits on the same spot. Two hits almost burned through Engle’s ships off Brunswick. Let’s see what four can do.”

“You bet, Admiral. You can count on the
Retro
.”

“I do,” Ališ said softly as he rung off.

CHAPTER 63

O
F
the twenty-seven battleships in the three squadrons closing on Vicky’s Task Force 2, seven were 18-inch battleships, none as big as the
Retribution
. The nine facing Admiral von Mittleburg had only two. Not only were the odds, seven to nine, the best Vicky would face today, but the distribution of the two forces was a bad mismatch.

However, Vicky’s ships had something the Empress’s ships didn’t have.

Battle experience.

The gunnery officer on
Retribution
had let his assistant handle the cruiser shoot while he studied the battleships. The
Empress’s Rage
had trouble getting up to battle RPMs and its jinking was pretty pathetic. The gunnery officer didn’t need a computer to figure what that one would do next.

When the captain asked Guns to pick a target, he chose
Rage
and advised the other battleships to leave her be.
Retribution
had eight guns forward in four turrets and the same battery aft. The aft battery could be swung out just enough to engage
Rage
. As he’d been ordered, Guns targeted two turrets, four 18-inch lasers, at one spot on
Rage
’s aft end. He had a total of eight turrets; he targeted them for tight salvos against
four spots where he expected burnthrough on the
Empress’s Rage
. He was not disappointed.

On his command, all sixteen lasers fired: twelve immediately, four more as the ship’s rotation brought them to bear. It was difficult at one hundred thousand klicks, but optics seemed to show steam boiling off
Rage
’s ice hide in four spots. Then there was a flash aft, a reactor lost containment, and, a blink later, there was nothing more than a ball of gas to look at.

Vicky and Admiral Bolesław stared at the screen as
Empress’s Rage
was eaten by her own plasma. “God help those poor beggars,” Bolesław prayed.

“Amen,” was all Vicky could add.

Ravager
and
Trouncer
had fired at the next two larger battleships. BatRon 22’s two ships concentrated on the two opposite them. They hit them, but nothing as spectacular as
Retribution
’s blasting
Rage
to gas.

All seven 18-inch battleships across from
Retribution
concentrated on Vicky’s flagship. It danced out of the space it had been headed for and suffered only one hit that singed the meteorite catcher.

The remaining eight largest battleships in the Empress’s fleet reloaded their lasers, as did Vicky’s seven.

“Task Force 2, prepare to go to Evasion Plan 4,” Admiral Bolesław ordered. Vicky had known the man long enough to taste the tension behind his words.

“
Ravager
and
Trouncer
, concentrate your fire on three places on your target battleships. That’s what your new gun cradles are meant for.”

“I thought we were,” said the skipper of the
Ravager
. “They may not be jumping around like us, but they’re a bitch to predict.”

“Check with Guns on
Retribution
. Find out which target he’s chosen, then pick ones you think are jumping around the least.”

“Understood.”

The tracking clock at the top of the screen counted down to when the battleships should be reloaded. It was based on when the
Retribution
last fired and how long it would take to reload. All the other battleships in Vicky’s fleet took more time to recharge their lasers. Now they would discover if the Empress’s battleships could meet the standard thirty-second reload.

Then Grand Admiral Kuznetsov made a smart move.

CHAPTER 64

T
HE
opposing battle lines cut their deceleration and shot down. In one bold move, they came even with Vicky’s ships, put their vulnerable sterns out of reach, and cut the range.

“Execute Evasion Plan 4,” Admiral Bolesław snapped. “
Scourge
,
Sachsen
,
Baden
,
Krasnoyarsk
, and
Karelia
fire!” The last two of the 16-inch ships that now joined the fight were making their shakedown cruise right into a fight.

Among Admiral von Mittleburg’s ships,
Vigilant
and
Relentless
joined in.

Now, only two of Vicky’s ships, the battlecruisers
Stalker
and
Slinger
, with their 15-inch lasers, were still out of the fight.

Against Vicky’s fourteen engaged ships, the Empress had fifteen: eight surviving 18-inch ships and seven 16-inchers. Her twenty remaining battleships were old boats hauled out of the reserve fleet to pad the Empress’s numbers. She would soon find out how worthless they were.

The rolling salvos from both fleets were a bit ragged. There was a good ten-second interval between
Empress’s Fury
firing its 18-inchers at
Retribution
and the last of the 18-inch battleships across from Vicky,
Empress’s Ravager
, getting off its
broadside. Possibly the sudden cut in deceleration tumbled their firing solution.

Maybe they just took too much time to reload.

The next salvo would tell more.

Retribution
again jinked out of the space it had been headed to, seeded that direction with chaff, and went somewhere unexpected. The 168 shots filled a lot of space: one nailed a 4-inch turret while five just burned ice.

“Thank God for the extra meter of ice,” Admiral Bolesław prayed.

Five seconds after the last of the 18-inch lasers fell silent,
Empress’s Punisher
got off the first 16-inch salvo. Six more added their fire but only managed to fill the space where the
Retribution
had been.

“Every battleship is firing at me,” Vicky muttered.

“So it would seem. But look on the bright side. We got
Fury
.”

Vicky sardonically raised an eyebrow.
Empress’s Fury
had been so intent on getting a solid firing solution that it had held its course a few seconds too long.
Retribution
’s guns made it pay the price for its intense focus on killing Vicky.

Now the Empress had only seven 18-inch battleships.