Virtues of War (21 page)

Her display was already lighting up with more contacts moving between the Anubian moons, and as
Rapier
rapidly closed the distance, the scope became busier. Katja was competent when it came to open-space operations, but strike training hadn’t prepared her for the navigational hornet’s nest of a busy planetary system.

She activated the comms circuit. “Captain, sir, Officer of the Watch.”

Thomas responded quickly.
“Captain.”

“We’re entering the Anubian system. I’ve checked in with long-range VTMS and traffic is getting heavier. Request you come to the bridge.”

“On my way.”

Moments later, the hatch swung open and Thomas appeared. He eased his suited form into the seat next to Katja and brought up his own display. Katja quickly explained the traffic situation, pointing out the five-ship convoy ahead. They weren’t on a collision course, but they would pass a little closer than most space-farers would like.

Thomas nodded. “Any sign of the EF?”

Katja scanned her display, adjusting her scope to examine Laikan orbital space more closely. It was difficult at this distance to make sense of the mass of contacts, but there did appear to be a large grouping in low orbit. She indicated it to Thomas.

“But still no sign of their beacons,” he said, then he activated
Rapier
’s secure comms. “Echo-Foxtrot One-Five, this is
Rapier
on Fleet Reporting, over.”

Silence was the only response. No static, no white noise. He switched channels.

“Echo-Foxtrot One-Five, this is
Rapier
on Command Net, over.”

Silence.

“OpsO, try hailing the EF on the warfare circuits.”

“Yes, sir.” Katja spent a minute attempting to hail the fleet on the various channels used for battle coordination. There was no response and she said as much.

When he didn’t respond, she glanced over at him. His expression was focused, his eyes hard.

“We just lost the beacon for the jump gate,” he said.

She checked her display. Sure enough, where a moment ago the eternal jump gate beacon had shone, there was nothing but blank scope.

“Directed, local interference?” she offered.

He nodded. “Like someone is trying to cut off Astral Force units in the Anubian system in a way that a casual observer wouldn’t notice. It might even escape the attention of the ships themselves.”

Katja felt her stomach tighten. “But why?”

“Our entire expeditionary force is assembled in Laikan space, doing routine exercises. It’s a rare opportunity for an enemy to strike without word getting back to Terra.”

“Terra has no quarrel with Laika, or any of the Anubian colonies. Why would they want to attack?”

Thomas’s eyes possessed unusual intensity as he turned to look at her. “Terra—by which I mean us—just openly attacked a major Sirian colony. And guess who was already there to defend them?”

Katja’s throat went dry. “Centauria.”

“Centauria’s military presence on Cerberus has been revealed. Terran military circuits are jammed. And the EF is vulnerable in low orbit around Laika.”

Katja felt her emotions slip away as the now familiar, premission clarity took over her mind. “Battle stations?”

“Battle stations.”

She pressed the general alarm button. For eight seconds the klaxon sounded throughout the ship. She brought up the damage control panels on her left, watching as the engine room began switching systems over to battle mode. The extra generators were flashed up. Secondary fire-fighting and vacuum-control systems came on line. Hull power-transfer took over from the main busses.

Artificial gravity kicked in at the various locations around the ship where crewmembers needed to be grounded. Katja felt her own weight return as she sank into her seat.

Chief Tamma clambered onto the bridge and sank down into his seat in front of Thomas. Breeze was quick behind him. During the moments that the hatch was open, Katja heard orderly shouts and clatter as the crew headed for their stations.

Tamma took the flight controls from Katja, and Breeze brought up the weapons systems.

Anubis’ bright, swirling cloud banks began to loom large ahead, but
Rapier
’s path kept the gas giant to port. The 3-D display clearly showed Laika as it moved in its orbit, and as Katja searched she thought she could just make out the brilliant white disk against the background stars. The disk grew quickly into a recognizable sphere as
Rapier
hurtled toward it at nearly five hundred thousand kilometers each minute.

The ships of the EF were still much too small to see from this distance, but then Katja found that she could see them on her display. She stared for a moment at the familiar blue icons of Terran ships, clustered very close in low Laikan orbit.

“Captain…” she said, “I can see the EF’s beacons on my display.”

Thomas immediately activated the comms. “
Normandy
, this is
Rapier
on Command Net—radio check, over.”

A voice came back immediately, with no sense of alarm.

“Rapier
, this is
Normandy
, roger, over.”

“This is
Rapier
, roger. Request
Normandy
actual this circuit, over.”

Katja checked on the status of the Expeditionary Force. They were conducting an underway replenishment in low orbit. The supply ships, hemmed in on all four sides by warships in tight formation, were transferring stores through flexible tubes. The other warships were spread out in a standard picket defense, ready to ward off anyone foolhardy enough to try and cause trouble during this vulnerable but essential fleet evolution. The low orbit provided the cover of a deep gravity well to further render stealth attacks extremely difficult.

“
Rapier
, this is
Normandy.
Actual, over.”
Captain Chandler himself was now on the line.

Thomas responded. “This is
Rapier
, urgent message. Terran circuits in the Anubian system are being jammed. We have not held EF beacons since Cerberus—assess you are shining only locally. I suspect hostile action is imminent. Over.”

There was a pause. When Chandler spoke his voice was slow and careful.

“Roger… We have had no indication of jamming. There is no hostile activity to speak of. We have tracked your approach and assume you have just reactivated your beacon—please confirm. Over.”

Thomas pursed his lips in frustration.

“
Rapier
’s beacon has been shining since Cerberus. Request that you check for the beacons of
Kristiansand
and the jump gate. Both are beyond the jamming radius. Over.”

“Wilco.”
A pause, then,
“Report on the Cerberus operation, over.”
Chandler’s voice had grown stern.

Thomas kept his voice calm and professional. “Success. Five live hostages recovered and no strike team casualties.” He looked ready to add more, but held his tongue. “Over.”

“Very good. Well done on completing your mission.
Normandy
is engaged in an UNREP and unable to recover you at this time. Stand off and await recovery in two-zero mikes. Over.”

“
Rapier
, roger, over.”

“
Normandy
out.”

Katja listened on the command net as orders were passed for the next group of ships to prepare for UNREP. She didn’t know all the details of Fleet replenishment, but she did know that it wasn’t an easy maneuver. Eight ships had to clear a tight formation around the supply ships, and eight more had to maneuver in to replace them, one at a time.

“Captain, sir, Pilot,” Tamma said. “Fuel is down to fifteen percent. Confirm standard orbital braking to save energy?”

Thomas considered. “Affirmative. We have time before
Normandy
clears.”

Laika had grown much larger, and the lights of civilian ships moved in front of the stars. Tamma had adjusted
Rapier
’s course to whip once around the moon before rendezvousing with the Expeditionary Force. This orbital braking would use Laika’s gravity to further slow the ship, place her in orbit, and line her up for a meeting with the EF, all with minimal ship’s power required.

Katja stole a glance at Thomas. Bold yet prudent, and absolutely unflappable. The memory of a joke he had told in
Normandy
’s star lounge suddenly flashed into her mind, of how she had laughed and felt so good in his company. She pushed it away, but in the same moment hoped that they would have the opportunity for some personal time again, and soon.

Laika’s blue, green, and white surface grew to fill half the sky. Tamma rolled the ship so that her topside faced the planet, and Katja took a moment to take in her first good look at a new world. Lights dotted the dark surface, spaced fairly regularly across the major continent. A few lone ones indicated the far-flung, resource-based cities in the far north.

Several moved against the dark backdrop, reminding Katja that there were other ships in the vicinity, and that
Rapier
was in the middle of a carefully controlled maneuver. She glanced at her display, and idly noted that none of the other orbitals posed a threat along
Rapier
’s path.

An interesting formation of ships was visible on the display, ten of them moving in a line abreast like cadets on the parade square. She wondered if it was some kind of survey mission—the Laikans were well known both for their environmental husbandry and their scientific prowess. The line was located less than one hundred kilometers below
Rapier
’s path, moving in the same direction but slower than the fast-attack craft.

Rapier
would pass overhead in about thirty seconds. Katja turned her eyes “upward” to look.

There was nothing there but the dark surface.

She looked again at her display, wondering if she had miscalculated the formation’s relative bearing. Then she looked back at the night sky.

Still nothing.

A flash of orange light caught her eye. Then a second. Then more. About 100 kilometers away, between her and the planet, Katja saw a rapid succession of orange flickers in the blackness, like tiny flames burning for a split second before snuffing out. They reminded her of nighttime strike exercises back on Earth. Planetary missiles often revealed a burst of flame as they were booster-assisted from their launch pads, before their ramjet engines kicked in.

Tiny, dazzling points of light suddenly burst in the sky, out ahead of where the flames had been. Katja watched, mesmerized, as one by one the mini-stars exploded to life and raced eastward across the distance, pulling away as
Rapier
continued to brake.

“Holy shit!”

“What?” Thomas demanded.

Katja pointed upward at the dazzling points of light that were racing away ahead of
Rapier
.

“What are those?”

Tamma, the seasoned pilot, recognized them first. “Missiles!”

Katja was thrown sideways in her seat as he instinctively jinked the ship hard left and then hard right.

“Hold course,” Thomas roared. “They’re not aimed at us!”

Katja stared at her display. “They’re in an orbital trajectory. Eastbound!” The line of ten ships increased its speed, and began to spread out. “They were launched from that line of ships!”

Thomas barked orders. “Pilot, intercept course on those missiles—flank speed. NavO, take with turrets—fire at will. OpsO, flash report to the EF—enemy sighted!”

Katja ignored the pressure that shoved her back into her seat as
Rapier
accelerated and dove toward the rapidly receding wave of missiles. She forced her hand forward to flick the comms circuit, switching to AAW—anti-attack warfare. She hailed the Expeditionary Force.

“Flash! Multiple vampires inbound, orbital trajectory!” She studied the info on her display. “Archons two-seven-five!” She needed to indicate the direction of the assault, but the EF was still invisible over the horizon. She pursed her lips in helplessness. “From far-side! From far-side! Look west! Look west!”

Even though
Rapier
had accelerated to a dangerous speed, the missile exhausts didn’t seem to be growing larger in her vision. Their combined light cast a faint glow across Laika’s largest ocean, far below. She watched as the massive form of Anubis rose above the horizon ahead, its swirling cloud formations shining brightly in the impending sunrise.

The AAW circuit burst to life.

“Station calling flash,”
came a stern voice,
“this is Echo-Whiskey: identify yourself and explain your last transmission.”

“This is
Rapier
, inbound from the west, still below the horizon! There are about forty goddamn missiles ahead of us, headed in your direction. And there are ten enemy warships coming up behind us!”

“
Rapier
, this is Echo-Whiskey… roger, out.”

Katja jumped as
Rapier
’s top and bottom turrets rattled the bulkheads. No longer in the cocoon of her strike pod, she heard loud and clear the angry, rapid-fire discharge of
Rapier
’s close-in weapons. Rounds streaked across her field of view. Two of the mini-suns exploded as Terran slugs tore through their engines and fuel tanks.

Breeze issued orders to the turret gunners to augment her electronic manipulation of the targeting system. More rounds thundered away, but the enemy missiles began maneuvering wildly, even as they advanced toward their targets.

Rapier
pressed the attack, pushing beyond safe orbital speed to try and catch the missiles. A growing cone of red began to form around the ship’s nose, and then the blinding light of Sirius appeared and obliterated everything else from view. Katja shielded her eyes from the sunrise even as the bridge windows automatically tinted to block the light.

Her 3-D display showed the tactical situation as it unfolded.
Rapier
was running close behind the missiles, and while some had been destroyed, there were still far too many out there. She grunted softly as
Rapier
jinked hard, then Thomas bellowed over the ship-wide broadcast.