The Lost Stars: Shattered Spear (33 page)

Rogero traced out some troop orders on his display, then called all of his unit commanders. “Listen up. We’re going to fall back by sections toward the positions that were occupied by the Syndicate ground
forces. We don’t know how many are left or if they are still hostile, but we need to get access to whatever supplies they managed to land. The scouts will continue to screen this hole in case any enigma ground forces issue from it to hit us as we reposition. Everyone else will regress toward the Syndicate ground forces site, firing on Syndicate soldiers only if first fired upon. Accept surrender if it is offered. Any questions? Move!”

Large numbers of soldiers began crawling and scuttling back toward the Syndicate site, while others held position and covered their movement.

The enigmas spotted something and launched another heavy barrage.

Rogero huddled between two substantial rocks, gazing grimly outward. It would take a while to get his soldiers moved between barrages, and then he would have to worry about surviving snakes or terrified Syndicate workers continuing the human war while the aliens lashed at both sides.

At least no flying monkeys had shown up yet.

*   *   *

LEYTENANT
Mack had watched as the enigma pursuit got closer and closer to his ship at a steadily increasing rate as the alien ships outaccelerated what the troop transports could manage. He had watched, because that was all he could do. His transport lacked all but a few, minor weapons, lacked armor, and had fairly weak shields for a ship of its size.

But he was still better off than the four Syndicate freighters. Mack’s two transports had surged past the freighters twenty minutes ago. The freighters, in a vain attempt to see if the enigmas would chase the transports instead of them, had angled off to the side and down. Mack had tried to think of ways to help the freighter crews, but their maneuver had taken them too far from the track of his transports. About twelve minutes after Mack’s transports had passed them, the enigma
formation had swung over and overtaken the freighters one by one, annihilating each in turn. The crews of two of the freighters had tried to flee in the one escape pod available on each freighter, but the enigmas had blown both pods apart with brutal efficiency.

The enigmas, having lost only a little time, eased back onto direct intercepts with Mack’s ships.

In less than ten minutes, Mack’s transports would meet the same fate as the freighters. The Syndicate troop transports would survive perhaps half an hour longer before the enigmas reached them as well.

Even if there had been any chance of evading the alien attack, the pirate flotilla charging toward the transports would have been impossible to escape.

Despite his attempts to avoid thinking about it, Mack found himself wondering if he would get a quick death, or if the pain would last awhile before the end came. He would learn the answer soon enough.

With both the enigmas and Imallye’s formation converging on the two Midway troop transports, the aliens and the pirate’s ships were roughly even with each other, Imallye’s forces slightly higher and farther away from the star than were the enigmas who had launched from the planet. Imallye’s ships had accelerated up to point three light speed, so they had come from behind the enigmas to a position slightly ahead. The enigmas were also accelerating, but since their launch from the planet had only made it up to point two light speed.

So when Imallye’s ships suddenly altered their vectors a bit to starboard and slightly down, they rapidly closed to within range of their weapons, the relative speed between the pirate’s ships and the alien warships slightly less than point one light speed.

Leytenant Mack stared in disbelief as the battle cruisers and heavy cruisers in Imallye’s force unleashed missiles on the leading enigma warships, following quickly with hell lances and grapeshot as the range dwindled. The enigmas were firing back, but Imallye’s pass was too swift and her track too far ahead of the alien formation for most of the enigma
ships to engage her warships. A half dozen of the enigma craft at the front of their formation exploded or took damage serious enough to knock them out of the fight, while Imallye’s ships took only a few hits.

In the wake of the attack the enigmas kept accelerating, continuing their pursuit of the transports, en route to a linkup with the rest of the enigma armada.

But instead of swinging out wide, Imallye shifted her ships through a tight vector change to port, using her still-superior velocity and the small differences in the course of the two formations to veer across the front of the enigma formation again.

This time five enigma ships were knocked out.

With a third of their number lost, the enigmas finally broke off, bending downward in a vast curve that was still tighter than any human warship could manage.

“A message from
Vengeance
,” the senior specialist gasped to Mack.

Feeling dazed, he accepted it, seeing the image of Granaile Imallye before him. Black skin suit, large knife, large hand weapon, glittering insignia, and a small smile on her lips. “I bought you some time, Iceni’s minion. Keep going and hope she can protect you from the other group of enigmas.
This
group won’t get past my ships.”

Mack had to swallow before he could speak. “Th-thank you, honored . . . honored . . .”

Imallye made a cutting motion with one hand. “I’m busy. Contact those Syndicate transports ahead of you and tell them I’d be happy to accept them into my forces after this fight is over. Or they can die, if that’s their preference. Out.”

Her image vanished.

Mack managed to breathe in deeply, then gestured to his senior specialist with one hand that shook as he tried to point with it. “Get me a link to those Syndicate transports.”

The specialist nodded, biting her lip. “You’re going to do what she said?”

“Am I going to do what Imallye said? Hell, yes, I am going to do what Imallye said! Anyone who disapproves is welcome to trade places with me for the last hour!”

*   *   *

DESPITE
the damage that
Manticore
’s formation had endured so far, Bradamont felt herself smiling. Kapitan Stein on
Gryphon
had caught the flotilla she was fighting in a perfect firing run, angling in from one side as the Syndicate formation tried to loop upward, that had knocked out one of the light cruisers and two of the Hunter-Killers. Stein had lost one of her HuKs, damaged and out of the fight but hopefully salvageable. But over two hours ago she had hurt the Syndicate flotilla facing
Gryphon
’s force badly enough that it had turned and run back for the hypernet gate. “Kapitan Stein, excellent work. Continue pursuit until the Syndicate flotilla you are fighting enters the hypernet gate, then come on and join us so we can get rid of this Syndicate flotilla as well.”

It would take nearly half a day yet, but at some point Midway’s combined flotilla would nearly equal the remaining Syndicate flotilla, and from what she had already seen of the Syndicate commander, she knew she could hold him off indefinitely with that force. Or at least until the rest of Midway’s warships returned.

“Watch him,” she warned Diaz. “The commander of the flotilla we’re facing will have also seen the other flotilla fleeing and know that
Gryphon
will be coming to join with us. He’ll be trying harder to knock us out fast and may take some unexpected risks. Don’t give him any openings.”

*   *   *

GWEN
Iceni rubbed her chin as she saw that another reply had come in from Imallye. Sighing, she accepted the call.

Imallye wasn’t on the bridge of her battle cruiser, but in what was obviously her stateroom, decorated with some small but ostentatious
examples of the loot she must have acquired from conquered worlds. Imallye wore a smile this time. Not a friendly smile. More like the smile of a co-conspirator who didn’t trust her cohorts. “I’ll always hate you, Iceni, but I hate the Syndicate more. The Syndicate used you to get my father. They thought they could use me to help get you and other disloyal elements. I don’t know what the enigmas think, but I can see what they did, and my sources within the Syndicate told me that Black Jack suspects the enigmas think they can use humans to get other humans.”

She leaned closer, intent, her eyes searching as if they could see Iceni. “I sent agents to study you. I wanted to know who you were using, so I could use those people against you. But my agents said they couldn’t find anyone. They kept reporting that you were acting so clean that the snakes were getting very suspicious of you. My agents wondered why any Syndicate CEO would fail to use people. They didn’t realize that you might actually be feeling guilty.”

Imallye leaned back again, smiling slightly once more. “Maybe you are. Do you know why I named this ship
Vengeance
? To always remind myself that only mindless machines let their actions be dictated by anger and attempts at revenge. The snakes didn’t realize that, of course, though they didn’t trust me, either. It took me a long time to find every snake that the Syndicate had planted among my crews and locate every piece of malware they had sown in my ships’ systems. Your Kommodor helped with that when she employed that piece of snake malware against me since it provided me with an up-to-date example of the latest snake tricks. But I had to wait a little longer, until those governing the star systems I had allegedly conquered were ready to set in motion actual overthrows of Syndicate authority.

“I didn’t want to reveal my intentions while the snakes held so many hostages on that planet, but your ground forces commander must have somehow figured out how to make the enigmas kill every snake on the ground for him. Once I had confirmed that, well . . .” She waved around casually. “A lot of snakes died a short time ago on my
ships here. Some sort of epidemic, do you think? And all of their malware was rendered useless before it could cause catastrophic failures. I am free to act as I will. We have two common enemies. I will
always
hate you for what you caused to happen to my father, but I have admired from afar your repeated frustrating of the Syndicate’s plans. And you have some powerful friends. One very powerful friend named Black Jack among them. I would like him to be my friend, too. Once we have swept the enigmas from this star system, we will talk about what to do with Iwa. My ships will not fire upon yours unless they are fired upon first, or if an attack seems imminent. I trust you will continue to operate with discretion. Now, if you will forgive me, I have some more enemies to dispose of.”

Her lips quirked as if Imallye was fighting down another smile. “For the people, Imallye, out.”

Iceni stared at the place where Imallye’s image had been, then laughed. “You devious bitch! You completely fooled me. And you fooled the Syndicate into giving you the warships and star systems you now control. Brilliant. I do not want someone as dangerous as you as an enemy.” She tapped a comm control. “Kommodor Marphissa, I am pleased to inform you that Imallye’s flotilla will not attack us. She says she will deal with the enigma warships that launched from the planet.”

Marphissa shook her head in denial. “Madam President, we can’t afford to believe—” She looked to one side. “She’s changed the vector on her ships. They’re not heading to intercept our transports.”

Iceni pulled up her own display, and watched as Imallye’s warships in a couple of whipsaw passes took out a third of the enigma force chasing the transports. “I’d say that is pretty powerful proof that Imallye meant what she said.”

“She could still stab us in the back,” Marphissa argued.

“I agree. We will not give her the opportunity to do so. Focus your full attention on destroying the first enigma force, which is probably
about to realize that their ambush has blown up in their faces, and I will maintain a watch on Imallye to see if she maneuvers at any point to be able to hit us by surprise.”

*   *   *

“THIRTY
minutes to contact with enigma armada one,” the senior watch specialist announced.

Marphissa eyed the oncoming enemy, who had long ago steadied out on vectors aiming straight for where the center of her formation would be when the two forces made contact. She had already pivoted her warships so the sterns, and the main propulsion units, were facing the enemy. It would be necessary to brake soon to ensure the meeting with the enigmas was slow enough to allow some hits on the enemy.

The enigmas would brake their velocity as well, she knew. The aliens wanted to destroy her flotilla as thoroughly as they had the Syndicate flotilla.

And she wouldn’t make the mistake of assuming they would go straight through her formation and risk going head-to-head with the battleship. No, the enigmas would maneuver, and it wasn’t hard to guess what their target would be.

What would the enigmas expect her to do?

After so many encounters with different foes, Marphissa was surprised at the answer that came to her. Yet it felt right.

“All units in Midway flotilla, immediate execute, reduce velocity to point one light speed.” Having given that order, Marphissa swiftly tagged two people on her comm panel, then gestured Kontos to join the discussion.

“You don’t need my approval,” President Iceni began.

“I am not asking for approval,” Marphissa explained. “I want your opinion. And those of Kapitans Mercia and Kontos as well. I was trying to anticipate what the enigmas would expect me to do, what final
maneuver they would think I would conduct just before contact, and I realized they would not expect me to maneuver at all. They will expect me to hold course, straight through them.”

She waited while the others reacted to her statement, then as they thought about it.

“Just as the CEO of the Syndicate flotilla did?” Kontos asked. “But we just saw his flotilla being destroyed.”

Iceni was nodding, though. “How many flotillas were destroyed in a similar way during the war with the Alliance? We kept doing it. Both sides kept doing it. It was all we knew. And sometimes it worked.”