Valiente (54 page)

At least four hours. The tense muscles in Geary’s back relaxed a bit.

His fleet could do a lot of damage with a four-hour head start.

THREE more Syndic light cruisers were torn apart, then the major elements of the Alliance fleet converged on the Syndic Casualty Flotilla. A new swarm of escape pods marked many of the remaining crew members on the crippled Syndic warships without any combat capability abandoning their vessels. With the Casualty Flotilla inching away from its Alliance attackers, the engagement speed was a relatively slow point one light speed, or a mere thirty thousand kilometers per second. Fleet engagements often involved ships crossing paths at combined speeds of close to point two light speed, the limit beyond which targeting systems could not effectively adjust for relativistic effects, which warped the outside view of the universe.

As it was, even at point one light speed a firing pass came down to a mere fraction of a second in which weapons were in range, automated systems aiming and firing since human senses couldn’t possibly react quickly enough.

The First and Seventh Battle Cruiser Divisions, totaling only three warships each, roared into range first. The Alliance ships were all approaching from behind and slightly above the big, flattened sphere of the Syndic formation. The sphere was a lousy combat formation but had probably been chosen as the most efficient for repair work. With the remaining Syndic ships in the Casualty Flotilla unable to maneuver, the Alliance warships could safely cut through the Syndic formation to attack any ship within it. Captain Duellos’s
Courageous
led
Formidable
and

Intrepid
in a close pass over the single Syndic battleship in the formation that had been able to charge up some weapons. Normally a battleship could have slugged it out with three battle cruisers for some time, but in this case the damaged battleship had many systems only half-repaired. Its shields were spotty, its armor still had many penetrations unsealed, and most of its weapons were inoperable. The Alliance battle cruisers unleashed a devastating barrage as they tore past, hell lances aimed to knock out anything still working on the battleship.

As Duellos’s battle cruisers raced onward,
Opportune
,
Brilliant
, and
Inspire
targeted one of the Syndic battle cruisers and a nearby heavy cruiser, which had managed to get some weapons working. A flurry of hits left both Syndic warships totally disabled as the Seventh Battle Cruiser Division followed Duellos’s ships toward the crippled battle cruiser that had earlier left the Casualty Flotilla and was trying to join up with the two Syndic battleships charging on their futile mission to protect the damaged ships.

Several minutes later, Captain Tulev’s
Leviathan
led his battle cruisers to knock out two more heavy cruisers and finish off the surviving weapons on the battleship.

Captain Desjani had slipped into her targeting mode, her eyes locked on her display as

Dauntless
,
Daring
, and
Victorious
closed the distance to the remaining Syndic Casualty Flotilla battle cruiser that still had working weapons. “
Dauntless
and
Daring
target weapons,
Victorious
target other working systems,” she ordered.

The big Syndic formation flashed past too quickly for Geary’s senses to register anything, but the display updated rapidly as the fleet’s sensors evaluated the results of the firing pass. The Syndic battle cruiser was tagged with a mission-kill marker, all systems taken out, as
Dauntless
’s watch-standers called out the results of the enemy’s weak defensive fire. “One hell-lance hit on forward shields. No damage.
Daring
reports two hits, no damage.
Victorious
reports no hits.”

“It’s too easy,” Desjani grumbled.

“You’ll get a decent fight out of those two battleships up ahead,” Geary assured her.

“That’s right.” Desjani brightened up, focusing on her ship’s next targets.

About five minutes later, the Sixth Battle Cruiser Division hit the Syndic Casualty Flotilla.

Captain Badaya only had
Illustrious
and
Incredible
surviving in his division, but that was more than enough to handle the two injured Syndic heavy cruisers, which were the only warships in the Casualty Flotilla that still had any working weapons. As the last two Alliance battle cruisers smashed the Syndic heavy cruisers, a final burst of escape pods erupted from Syndic warships throughout the Casualty Flotilla, marking the last crew members abandoning their ships now that all hope of resistance was gone.

“They’re not blowing up their ships, either,” Rione observed.

“No,” Geary agreed. “Same logic as with the repair ships. The Syndics own this star system and know we’ll have to leave, so they’re hoping to salvage those ships afterward if we don’t have a chance to destroy them. We’ll have to make sure they can’t do that.”

Duellos’s battle cruisers overtook another Syndic heavy cruiser trying to join up with the surviving Syndic battle cruiser, lashing it with a barrage that tore the heavy cruiser apart. Not much farther onward lay the crippled Syndic battle cruiser limping frantically toward the oncoming but far-distant pair of Syndic battleships. Right behind Duellos’s warships came the battle cruisers of the Seventh Division, which slapped the remains of the heavy cruiser with a few more hell-lance hits as they tore past.

The Syndic battle cruiser seemed in a hopeless position, but as Duellos brought
Courageous
,

Formidable
, and
Intrepid
in for a killing shot, the Syndic pivoted at just the right moment and accelerated downward and to port. Duellos’s battle cruisers were moving so much faster than the Syndic that they couldn’t react in time and could only hurl a few long-range hell lances at the enemy ship.

But
Brilliant
,
Inspire
, and
Opportune
were far enough behind the first Alliance battle cruisers to be able to react to the evasive maneuver, and close enough behind that the Syndic couldn’t maneuver again before they got within range.

Geary tried to pull up mental images of the captains of
Brilliant
,
Inspire
, and
Opportune
and found himself oddly unable. Why hadn’t those battle-cruiser commanders ever impressed themselves on him? The realization bothered him, and he tried to bookmark in his memory the need to look up all three when time permitted.

The Syndic battle cruiser rolled and pitched slightly under the push of its working maneuvering thrusters. The change in aspect allowed the battle cruiser to bring its surviving hell lances to bear, and the charged-particle streams shot out, targeting
Brilliant
as she,
Inspire
, and
Opportune
altered their own vectors slightly to pass just to starboard and above the Syndic warship.

Brilliant
’s shields flared from a few hits while she and
Inspire
hurled volleys of hell lances into the weak shields of the Syndic ship. The Syndic’s shields collapsed under the barrage, then the Alliance hell lances lashed through the enemy battle cruiser, slicing apart hull, bulkheads, equipment, and any crew members unfortunate enough to be in the way.

By the time
Leviathan
,
Dragon
,
Steadfast
, and
Valiant
reached the Syndic battle cruiser, the enemy couldn’t maneuver and could only fire back with a single hell lance. Tulev’s battle cruisers battered the Syndic and went onward toward the battleships and lighter units trying to join up, leaving a silent hulk in their wake.

“His weapons and propulsion units are all dead, but something’s still working on him, and his crew hasn’t abandoned ship,” Desjani remarked, her voice almost pleading for an order to swing

Dauntless
over and get in the deathblow on the Syndic warship.

Geary nodded, his eyes on the display. “
Daring
is in a better position to finish him off. Let’s let her do it.” Desjani nodded, barely hiding her disappointment.

Daring
angled slightly up and over, flashing by the crippled Syndic battle cruiser in another flurry of hell-lance fire. As
Daring
raced onward, the Syndic ship abruptly exploded as its power core overloaded. “Did any escape pods get away?” Geary wondered, suddenly realizing he hadn’t seen any.

A watch-stander shook her head. “A couple launched just before the core blew but got caught in the explosion.”

“Bastard,” Desjani muttered, clearly referring to the commanding officer of the Syndic ship who’d waited too late to allow the crew to abandon ship.

“You’re unhappy about Syndics dying?” Geary asked, surprised at Desjani’s being concerned about that. Tanya Desjani not only considered it her duty to destroy enemy ships and kill enemy military forces, but had usually seemed to derive a vengeful pleasure from the act.

Now she frowned at his question. “It’s just as well those crew members won’t be a threat to our people anymore,” Desjani explained, “but their commanding officer still had an obligation to give them a fighting chance. You know what I mean.”

He did, having given just such orders to most of his own crew to abandon ship a hundred years ago, as his fight at Grendel went from desperate to hopeless. “Yeah. I know.”

The onrushing Alliance battle cruisers, totally in their element as their speed allowed them to run down lighter enemy combatants, gleefully shattered a succession of Syndic HuKs and light cruisers, almost as an afterthought blowing apart the two remaining operational Syndic heavy cruisers nearby. Watching his battle cruisers charging through space to smash enemy ships while the Alliance battleships were still just short of reaching the Syndic Casualty Flotilla, Geary finally understood why the best officers in the Alliance aspired to command battle cruisers. It was as glorious as a charge by ancient horse cavalry on a planetary surface. But even now he couldn’t help wondering how many times battle cruisers had been ripped open in battle against more heavily armored battleships, and whether the number of engagements in which battle cruisers had been able to charge gloriously across the field of battle came anywhere close to the number times they had suffered from their lack of armor.

Behind
Dauntless
and the other battle cruisers, the Alliance battleships had altered courses slightly, aiming farther above the Syndic Casualty Flotilla and at an intercept with the two Syndic battleships still several light-minutes away. All around them, destroyers and light cruisers that had finished wiping out nearby Syndic ships were joining up with the battleships. In the very rear of what could loosely be called the Alliance fleet formation came the four fast fleet auxiliaries with their escorts of four battleships, Captain Cresida’s two battle cruisers, and about twenty light cruisers and destroyers. Unlike the other Alliance ships, the auxiliaries had kept their courses aimed straight for an intercept with the Syndic repair ships in the center of the flattened bubble making up the Casualty Flotilla.

“Our leading battle cruisers are two light-minutes short of those two Syndic battleships,” Desjani remarked. “They’ve been designated Syndic Flotilla Bravo. I wonder why the system didn’t just call them the Syndic Suicide Flotilla.”

She had a point, but Geary gestured to indicate the Alliance auxiliaries. “If they can somehow bull their way through to our auxiliaries, they could hurt us in a critical way.”

Desjani shook her head. “If they manage to get past everything we’ve got headed for them, they’ll be so weakened that Cresida’s ships can handle them.”

“I’m not happy with battle cruisers dueling with battleships, ” Geary noted, worried that his aggressive commanders might get carried away in the thrill of the battle so far. But he couldn’t give orders telling them not to be too aggressive. None of them would listen. He tapped his communications controls again. “All Alliance battle-cruiser formations, upon completion of firing passes against Syndic Flotilla Bravo, brake your velocity to match that of the Syndic Casualty Flotilla and await orders. All Alliance battleship formations are also to brake velocity to match the Casualty Flotilla’s speed as soon as Syndic Flotilla Bravo has been destroyed.”

As he was speaking, shuttles sprang away from the Alliance ships bearing down on the Casualty Flotilla, each shuttle bending its course toward specific targets. Most were aimed at the wreck of

Audacious
, but others headed for Syndic repair ships and nearby warships to ensure they were truly abandoned and safe for the Alliance ships to approach.

The shuttles were still headed for their objectives when Duellos’s battle cruisers and Syndic Flotilla Bravo tore past each other at a combined velocity just in excess of point two light speed.

At that velocity, relativistic effects distorted the view of other objects enough to make targeting difficult, and the firing window when weapons were in range of the enemy was the tiniest fraction of a second.

As the two formations of ships separated again, Geary could see that the shields on the Syndic battleships had been weakened, but no hits had been scored. The Syndics, though, had concentrated their massive firepower against
Formidable
, doubtless having seen the damage that Alliance battle cruiser still carried from her last encounter with the enemy.
Formidable
had taken a flurry of hits, losing much of her combat capability, but had avoided taking any more damage to her propulsion units and kept up with her sister ships.

Brilliant
,
Opportune
, and
Inspire
hit the Syndic battleships next, weakening the enemy shields a little more,
Opportune
taking several nasty hits in the process.

Tulev’s four battle cruisers concentrated their fire on the Syndic battleship closest to them as they shot past just to port of the enemy, managing to cause some spot failures of the battleship’s shields but taking a few hits to
Dragon
.

Desjani brought her battle cruisers in while Geary hoped she wouldn’t push her firing pass in too close to the still- extremely dangerous Syndic battleships. The Syndics tried to concentrate their fire on already-damaged
Daring
, but Desjani had arranged the intercept so that
Daring
was farthest from the enemy, helping
Daring
to avoid the damage that
Formidable
had suffered.