The Last Charge (The Nameless War Trilogy Book 3) (48 page)

Berg felt herself flush with embarrassment but the Admiral had already moved on.

“Landfall is the jewel in their conquest crown and possibly the last place before the Spur itself where they might be compelled to stand and fight. Therefore I propose that rather than continuing to sweep forward across a broad front, we make a narrow front drive to Landfall, thereby cutting off the Nameless line of retreat.”

“That, sir, runs the risk of leaving Nameless combat units in our rear areas,” Laura Lewis commented.

“Given their willingness to accept casualties, we couldn’t rule out them sacrificing a few smaller units to harass our supply lines,” added another officer.

“And sir,” Dandolo spoke up, “that assumes that they are actually retreating. The Nameless might just be clearing the area around us.”

“All of those points are valid,” Fengzi replied, “which in my opinion means we need to attack ground they must defend. Landfall is the only place that meets that definition.”

“Is it though, sir?” Gordon persisted. “Much as we know they have committed resources to Landfall, right now it is in no way contributing to their war effort. If we take it from them, it will not be making any contribution to ours.”

“But everything they have gained will be lost,” Fengzi replied frowning.

“Yes, sir, but if the Home Fleet has cut them off from their home bases, then right now they are living on borrowed time. If someone comes at you with a knife, you’ll willingly grab the blade and loose a couple of fingers rather than get stabbed in the chest! This might be their attempt to grab the blade.”

“What would you recommend, Gordon?” Fengzi asked after moment.

“Go after the supplies sir. If they are cut off, then the battle at The Spur will become one of endurance, what they already have over on this side of the rift will be the last of their oxygen. Anything they manage to heave back up the line, gives them a little more to hurl at the First Fleet.”

Fengzi drummed his fingers on the podium.

“How would you go about it?” he eventually asked.

“Take the fleet beyond Landfall. Take out an entire stretch of gates and blockade them.”

“No.”

“Sir…”

“No, Gordon,” Fengzi said more forcefully. “We do not have the ships to impose an effective blockade. We already know from experience they can replace gates quickly. We need to force contact on the enemy and I believe a direct assault on Landfall represents the best way to do that.”

Berg raised a hand and Fengzi nodded towards her.

“Sir, we could send portion of the fleet to…”

“If the whole fleet couldn’t enforce a blockade then a squadron certainly won’t cut it,” Fengzi interrupted. “The strike boat carriers will be dispatched to go deep. They’re not much use for a fleet action anyway. Now unless someone has any other point, we jump out at seventeen hundred hours.”

“We’re potentially leaving a lot of Nameless units along our own supply lines,” said Gordon in a resigned tone.

For a moment, Fengzi looked like he would lose his temper, but instead he emitted a long sigh.

“That can’t be helped – and if they do attack our supply lines, well, then we’ll have stayed in contact.”

“Gordon has always been a bit of a narrow focus man,” Dandolo remarked as he and Berg made their way back to their respective shuttles. “From what I’ve ever seen, he tends lack a feel for the big picture.”

“You don’t think a blockade would work, sir?” Berg asked.

“With ships spread out, to my mind it would be too vulnerable to the Nameless coming through one system en masse and overwhelming whatever ships we have there, before the rest of our fleet can join them. But that’s a moot point. We barely have enough supply ships to get us as far as Landfall, let alone any further.”

“Let us hope Landfall is enough,” she replied, while thinking that Gordon might not be the worst at not seeing the big picture.

“Indeed, Captain. I’ll see you there.”

___________________________

24th April 2069
 

When the war started was a matter of definition. As second-in-command of the
Mississippi
, Berg would say that first encounter had been the beginning. The history books would be likely to record it as the destruction of Baden Base; either way, Berg had been there for both and now she was back.

The last time she’d seen
Baden had been from the bridge of the destroyer
Mantis
as they desperately ran for the Red Line. She could still remember the sight of it burning as if it had happened yesterday. Any ships that couldn’t run were still here and it had taken months for her nightmares to fade.

T
he fires were gone, long since snuffed out by the vacuum of space. The debris remained, however. Given time, the weak gravity of the asteroid on which Baden had been built would pull it all back down, but for now anything that hadn’t been blown completely clear still orbited the asteroid.

On the visual display she could make out an engine here, a radar tower there and the entire gutted hulk of the carrier
Yorktown
, lying broken at the mooring she’d been trapped against. Yet that was still easier to bear than the smaller contacts, those tiny drifting human shapes. As
Black Prince
nosed closer to the station, every so often her sweeping searchlight would illuminate a body. Each time that happened, the light’s operator would hesitate and sigh across the command channel. Berg had spoken to him about it the first few times he’d done it but had since given up. You couldn’t damn someone for having humanity. The focus wasn’t tight enough to make out faces but it was enough to see that most of the dead hadn’t managed to get into their survival suits. Perhaps they’d been luckier than those who had.

“Captain, do you think there might be anyone still alive?” the coms officer asked quietly.

“If someone made it to an escape pod but didn’t eject, then they could have easily survived this long in hibernation.” Berg shook her head before continuing. “If we take the system, then we can send people into the station and… ” she hesitated for a moment, “ … and the wrecks to take a look. But that’s not a question for today.”

Astern of
Black Prince
, the rest of the squadron held at Baden’s Red Line, ready to offer support if needed. Other ships were checking the blind spots behind the various planetary bodies before the main body of the fleet moved in. They didn’t have long. Their arrival hadn’t triggered any urgent FTL transmissions but in a few hours, the slower light speed emissions from their engines would reach Landfall, where the Nameless would definitely pick them up.

Their enemy had no doubt picked the station’s bones bare after their first great victory, but nothing more. If they were about to stand and fight, it wouldn’t be here. At Berg’s command,
Black Prince
turned away.

___________________________

The Second Fleet filed back into real space a good fifteen light seconds out from the planet’s Red Line. As soon as
Black Prince
cleared the jump conduit, communications reported a mass of FTL transmissions. More ships were now assembled than when
Black Prince
had been here for the Fury convoy – a lot more, in fact.

“Tactical, what breakdown are you getting?” Berg asked as they got into position.

Fengzi had wanted his fleet formed up and ready before they entered the mass shadow. By extension, this offered the Nameless the opportunity to come forward to meet them.

“Count is still provisional at this point, Captain,” came the reply, “but at the moment we are seeing three cap ships, possibly two carriers, a dozen cruisers and over twenty escorts or scouts, plus several dozen transports, all of them in orbit.”

“Is that all? Could some of those transports be warships?”

“That’s a negative, Captain. We’re picking up their engine emissions on the passives and they are consistent with gateships... Hold on! Fresh contacts... negative those are more gateships and a second gate in lunar orbit. The second group of gateships are moving towards it. We are also seeing multiple small contacts coming up from the surface of Landfall.”

“This isn’t a defence,” Berg said as she came to a realisation, “they’re evacuating!”

“Captain, that... that appears to be correct.”

On the holo, she could see the activity around Landfall become more frantic. Some gateships broke orbit and started accelerating towards the closest gate. The two presumed carriers disgorged their fighters, and then did something strange. Both turned and began to accelerate after the gateships. Bugging out? Berg wondered as she watched, her expression puzzled. The rest of the warships were also on the move, but there was a clear separation between the smaller and larger ships. The smaller ones were moving forward and around to get onto the flanks, but their larger ships were showing no inclination to close in. They weren’t in full retreat like the gateships and carriers, but they were definitely being tentative. The fighters showed no reluctance, however. They were accelerating at full bore straight towards the Second Fleet.

“Bridge, Sensors. Contact separation, we have incoming.”

More blips appeared to join the fighters, all converging on the Second Fleet.

The Second Fleet had only one small carrier to supplement the fighters carried by the heavy cruisers and battleships. The Ravens rushed forward to meet their Nameless counterparts, while the rest of the fleet began to accelerate towards the planet. With the human ships formed up and on the move, Berg had a moment to study the screen as the opposing fighters clashed. The focus of the holo wasn’t tight enough to make out individual craft but she did see the Nameless break through.

“Sensors, give me a close-up of the fighters!” she snapped.

The holo zoomed in just in time to see two fighter blips – one human, one Nameless – converge. And disappear. The front rank of Nameless fighters had blown a hole by the simple expedient of ramming anything that got in the way! The carriers weren’t hanging around because none of the fighters were coming back. As they tore open a gap in the human screen, the rest of the Nameless charged through, engines on full burn. Berg realised what they were facing just as the collision detection alarm sounded.

“Suicide ships inbound!” she warned, “Helm, stand by for instructions!”

The Nameless warships launched a combined salvo timed to reach them just as the fighters did. The human fighters had been wrong footed and were now frantically pursuing. They probably would have done better to concentrate on the salvo of missiles now accelerating through and past them. Floundering between two targets, they dealt with neither. Berg tightened her grip on her armrests as she saw five fighters turn their way.

“Engines! Stand by for full power! Point Defence, commence, commence, commence!”

Space around the fleet lit up as every gun fired. Plasma bolts burned through the approaching fighters, attempting to at least break up their formation. Several blips disappeared as fighters were vaporised. Individual ship captains realised what they were facing and the Second Fleet’s formation began to loosen, as vessels looked for room to manoeuvre. On the
Black Prince
, the collision alarm sounded again as two of the approaching fighters latched onto
Black Prince
and came burning in, behind two cap ship missiles. Impact from any one of them would be devastating. Should they attempt to dodge them or stand fast and place faith in their guns to knock them down? Berg had a split second to decide.

“Engines, hard back! Helm, port ninety, bows down twenty!”

She could feel the hull groan at the abuse, as
Black Prince
lurched violently out of formation. The cap ship missiles tried to match the manoeuvre but they were too late; they were still trying to turn as they flashed through the space
Black Prince
should have occupied. The fighters were quicker to react and came in firing both guns and missiles but met a storm of counter fire. One took a burst of fire that ripped away the entire cockpit area. Without control it skimmed past, close enough to knock away an aerial. The second detonated when a round of flak ploughed through it. Fragments peppered
Black Prince
’s port wing with holes.

Reports started to come in, but immediately Berg could feel the damage was only cosmetic. On the holo, however, she could see several ships were flagging damage codes and gaps in the fleet’s formation. Those Nameless fighters that had missed their targets were trying to turn but the pursuing human fighters would catch them first.

“Bridge, Coms. Signal from
Colossus
, we’re to take
Saladin
’s place in the formation.”

“Sensors, give me a visual on
Saladin
,” Berg ordered.

When it appeared on her screen she hissed with horror. Their squadron mate’s entire bows had been completely obliterated. Its forward bearings gone, the centrifuge was swinging loose.