Valiant Read online

  Valiant

  Jack Campbell

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Dedication

  Acknowledgements

  ONE

  TWO

  THREE

  FOUR

  FIVE

  SIX

  SEVEN

  EIGHT

  NINE

  TEN

  ELEVEN

  Praise for THE LOST FLEET: FEARLESS

  “Straightforward, solidly written military space opera . . . It’s

  all good fun and Campbell has actually given some thought to

  the problems of combat in space.” —Don D’Ammassa,

  Critical Mass

  “Another satisfying [Campbell] cocktail to slake the thirst of fans who like their space operas with a refreshing moral and an intellectual chaser . . . The Lost Fleet deserves to find a home on your bookshelf.” — SF Reviews.net

  “A great and gripping read. It’s a fast-paced roller coaster of action and intrigue, with realistic characters and situations.”

  —TCM Reviews

  Praise for

  THE LOST FLEET: DAUNTLESS

  “A rousing adventure.”

  —William C. Dietz, author of When All Seems Lost

  “Jack Campbell’s dazzling new series is military science fiction at its best. Not only does he tell a yarn of great adventure and action, but he also develops the characters with satisfying depth. I thoroughly enjoyed this rip-roaring read, and I can hardly wait for the next book.”

  — Catherine Asaro, Nebula Award-winning author of The Ruby Dice

  “Black Jack Geary is very real, very human, and so compelling he’ll leave you wanting more. Jack Campbell knows fleet actions, and it shows . . . [The Lost Fleet: Dauntless is] the best novel of its type that I’ve read.”

  —David Sherman, coauthor of the Starfist series

  “A slam-bang good read that kept me up at night . . . a solid, thoughtful, and exciting novel loaded with edge-of-your-seat combat.”

  —Elizabeth Moon, Nebula Award-winning author of Victory Conditions

  “[Dauntless] should please many fans of old-fashioned hard SF.”

  — Sci Fi Weekly

  “Readers will admire and like [Geary], who believes in honor, teamwork, and civilized behavior . . . This is a hard military science novel with space battles out of Star Wars. The battle scenes are so intricately described that readers will be able to visualize them . . . A fast-paced but intricate story line and fully developed characters turn this novel into a fun reading experience. Fans of David Weber, Elizabeth Moon, and Peter F. Hamilton will find The Lost Fleet: Dauntless thoroughly enjoyable.”

  — SFRevu

  “This is an amazing piece of military science fiction writing, with a protagonist who is remarkable and memorable . . . Campbell writes well. Period. The book flows well, with an excellent mix of action and philosophical debate . . . Overall, this is just a plain good read with memorable characters and scenes, and a writing style that is aimed at people who like to think and ponder while enjoying the action. Bravo.”

  — Rambles. net

  “The Lost Fleet: Dauntless is well written, with a hero who’s all too human and battle weary. There’s much here that will remind readers of Battlestar Galactica . . . The battles are well done, but it’s the characters who drive the story.”

  —Fresh Fiction

  “[Campbell’s] space operas [seek] to add new layers to the conventions of military SF.”

  — SF Reviews.net

  “Lots of fun and I devoured it in a day. I can’t wait for the sequel.”

  —The Weekly Press (Philadelphia)

  “Campbell’s book takes a sharp look at military discipline (and the lack thereof) in wartime . . . engaging and interesting.”

  —Romantic Times Book Reviews

  Ace Books by Jack Campbell

  THE LOST FLEET: DAUNTLESS

  THE LOST FLEET: FEARLESS

  THE LOST FLEET: COURAGEOUS

  THE LOST FLEET: VALIANT

  Jack M. Hemry (LCDR, USN, retired)

  and Iris J. Hemry, my parents.

  One word I never said often enough: thanks.

  For S., as always.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  I remain indebted to my agent, Joshua Bilmes, for his ever-inspired suggestions and assistance; to my editor, Anne Sowards, for her support and editing; and to Cameron Dufty at Ace, for her help and assistance. Thanks also to Catherine Asaro, Robert Chase, J. G. (Huck) Huckenpohler, Simcha Kuritzky, Michael LaViolette, Aly Parsons, Bud Sparhawk, and Constance A. Warner, for their suggestions, comments, and recommendations. Thanks also to Charles Petit, for his suggestions about space engagements.

  And in memory of USS SPRUANCE (DD-963): launched 10 November 1973; commissioned 20 September 1975; decommissioned 23 March 2005; sunk as a target off the Virginia Capes 8 December 2006. The first and finest, she taught me about ships the hard way.

  THE ALLIANCE FLEET

  CAPTAIN JOHN GEARY ,

  Commanding (acting)

  As reorganized following the losses suffered immediately prior to Captain Geary assuming command in the Syndic home system.

  Ship names in bold are those lost in action, with the name of the star system of their loss given afterward.

  SECOND BATTLESHIP

  DIVISION

  Gallant

  Indomitable

  Glorious

  Magnificent

  THIRD BATTLESHIP

  DIVISION

  Paladin (lost at Lakota)

  Orion

  Majestic

  Conqueror

  FOURTH BATTLESHIP

  DIVISION

  Warrior

  Triumph (lost at Vidha)

  Vengeance

  Revenge

  FIFTH BATTLESHIP

  DIVISION

  Fearless

  Resolution

  Redoubtable

  Warspite

  SEVENTH BATTLESHIP

  DIVISION

  Indefatigable (lost at Lakota)

  Audacious (lost at Lakota)

  Defiant (lost at Lakota)

  EIGHTH BATTLESHIP

  DIVISION

  Relentless

  Reprisal

  Superb

  Splendid

  TENTH BATTLESHIP

  DIVISION

  Colossus

  Amazon

  Spartan

  Guardian

  FIRST SCOUT BATTLESHIP

  DIVISION

  Arrogant (lost at Kaliban)

  Exemplar

  Braveheart

  FIRST BATTLE CRUISER

  DIVISION

  Courageous

  Formidable

  Intrepid

  Renown (lost at Lakota)

  SECOND BATTLE CRUISER

  DIVISION

  Leviathan

  Dragon

  Steadfast

  Valiant

  FOURTH BATTLE CRUISER

  DIVISION

  Dauntless (flagship)

  Daring

  Terrible (lost at Ilion)

  Victorious

  FIFTH BATTLE CRUISER

  DIVISION

  Invincible (lost at Ilion)

  Repulse (lost in Syndic

  home system)

  Furious

  Implacable

  SIXTH BATTLE CRUISER

  DIVISION

  Polaris (lost at Vidha)

  Vanguard (lost at Vidha)

  Illustrious

  Incredible

  SEVENTH BATTLE CRUISER

  DIVISION

  Opportune

  Brilliant

  Inspire

  THIRD FAST FLEET AUXILIARIES DIVISION

 
Titan

  Witch

  Jinn

  Goblin

  THIRTY-SEVEN SURVIVING HEAVY CRUISERS

  IN SEVEN DIVISIONS

  First Heavy Cruiser Division

  Third Heavy Cruiser Division

  Fourth Heavy Cruiser Division

  Fifth Heavy Cruiser Division

  Seventh Heavy Cruiser Division

  Eighth Heavy Cruiser Division

  Tenth Heavy Cruiser Division

  minus

  Invidious (lost at Kaliban)

  Cuirass (lost at Sutrah)

  Crest , War-Coat , Ram , and Citadel (lost at Vidha)

  Basinet and Sallet (lost at Lakota)

  SIXTY-TWO SURVIVING LIGHT CRUISERS

  IN TEN SQUADRONS

  First Light Cruiser Squadron

  Second Light Cruiser Squadron

  Third Light Cruiser Squadron

  Fifth Light Cruiser Squadron

  Sixth Light Cruiser Squadron

  Eighth Light Cruiser Squadron

  Ninth Light Cruiser Squadron

  Tenth Light Cruiser Squadron

  Eleventh Light Cruiser Squadron

  Fourteenth Light Cruiser Squadron

  minus

  Swift (lost at Kaliban)

  Pommel , Sling , Bolo , and Staff (lost at Vidha)

  Spur , Damascene , and Swept-Guard (lost at Lakota)

  ONE HUNDRED EIGHTY-THREE SURVIVING DESTROYERS

  IN TWENTY SQUADRONS

  First Destroyer Squadron

  Second Destroyer Squadron

  Third Destroyer Squadron

  Fourth Destroyer Squadron

  Sixth Destroyer Squadron

  Seventh Destroyer Squadron

  Ninth Destroyer Squadron

  Tenth Destroyer Squadron

  Twelfth Destroyer Squadron

  Fourteenth Destroyer Squadron

  Sixteenth Destroyer Squadron

  Seventeenth Destroyer Squadron

  Twentieth Destroyer Squadron

  Twenty-first Destroyer Squadron

  Twenty-third Destroyer Squadron

  Twenty-fifth Destroyer Squadron

  Twenty-seventh Destroyer Squadron

  Twenty-eighth Destroyer Squadron

  Thirtieth Destroyer Squadron

  Thirty-second Destroyer Squadron

  minus

  Dagger and Venom (lost at Kaliban)

  Anelace , Baselard , and Mace (lost at Sutrah)

  Celt , Akhu , Sickle , Leaf , Bolt , Sabot , Flint , Needle ,

  Dart , Sting , Limpet , and Cudgel (lost at Vidha)

  Falcata (lost at Ilion)

  War-Hammer , Prasa , Talwar , and Xiphos (lost at Lakota)

  SECOND FLEET MARINE FORCE

  Colonel Carabali commanding (acting)

  1,560 Marines divided into detachments on battle cruisers and battleships.

  ONE

  TWO of the armored bulkheads surrounding hell-lance battery three alpha on the Alliance battle cruiser Dauntless shone like new. They were new, the broken fragments of the originals having been cut away and new material fastened into position. The other two sides of the compartment housing the hell-lance battery were scarred by enemy fire but in good enough shape to have been left in place. The hell-lance projectors themselves betrayed recent repairs, using improvised fixes that would never pass muster with a fleet inspection team, but the nearest fleet inspection team was a great distance away back in Alliance space. For now, with the Alliance fleet trapped deep inside Syndicate Worlds’ space, all that mattered was that these hell lances were ready once again to hurl their charged-particle spears at the enemy.

  Captain John Geary ran his eyes down the rank of the hell-lance battery’s crew. Half of the sailors here were new to this battery, having been cannibalized from other hell-lance crews on the ship to replace losses suffered at Lakota Star System. Like their battery, two of the original crew still bore marks of combat, one with a flex-cast covering his upper arm and another with a heal-pad sealed over the side of her leg. Walking wounded, who should have been allowed to recuperate before returning to their guns, but that was a luxury neither Dauntless nor any other ship in the Alliance fleet could afford right now. Not with combat once again imminent and the fleet in danger of total destruction.

  “They insisted on returning to their duty station,” Captain Tanya Desjani murmured to Geary, her expression proud. Her ship and her crew. They’d fought hard and well, they’d worked around the clock to get this battery back online and ready to engage, and now they were ready to fight again.

  He couldn’t forget that the damage that had been repaired, the sailors who weren’t here because their bodies awaited burial, were the result of his decisions.

  And yet now those sailors watched him with eyes reflecting confidence, pride, determination, and their unnerving faith in Black Jack Geary, legendary hero of the Alliance. They were still ready to follow him. They were following his orders, right back to the place where this fleet had left a lot of destroyed ships. “Damn fine work,” Geary stated, trying to put the right amount of emotion into his voice and no more. He knew he had to sound concerned and impressed but not overwrought. “I’ve never served with a better crew or one that fought harder.” True enough. Before being rescued from a century of survival sleep and brought aboard Dauntless , his combat experience had consisted of a single, hopeless battle. Now he had a fleet of ships and sailors depending on him, not to mention the fate of the Alliance itself.

  And maybe the fate of humanity as well.

  No pressure. No pressure at all.

  Geary smiled at the crew of the hell-lance battery. “In six hours we’ll be back in Lakota Star System, and we’ll give you something to shoot at.” The sailors grinned back fiercely. “Get a little rest before then. Captain Desjani?”

  She nodded to him. “At ease,” she ordered the gun crew. “You’re off duty for the next four hours, and authorized full rations.” The sailors smiled again. With food stocks running low, meals had been cut back to stretch available supplies.

  “The Syndics will be sorry we came back to Lakota,” Geary promised.

  “Dismissed,” Desjani added, then followed Geary as he left the battery. “I didn’t think we could get Three Alpha fully operational in time,” she confessed. “They really did a fantastic job.”

  “They’ve got a good captain,” Geary observed, and Desjani looked abashed at the praise even though she was a seasoned veteran of far more battles than Geary had fought. “How’s Dauntless doing otherwise?” he asked. He could have simply looked up the data in the fleet readiness system, but preferred being able to talk to an officer or a sailor about things like that.

  “All hell lances operational, null-field projector operational, all combat systems optimal, all hull damage from Lakota either repaired or sealed off until we can get to it,” Desjani recited immediately. “We’re at full maneuvering capability.”

  “What about expendables?”

  Desjani grimaced. “No specter missiles left, twenty-three canisters of grapeshot remaining, five mines, fuel-cell reserves at fifty-one percent.”

  Ships were never supposed to go below 70 percent fuel-cell reserves, to leave enough margin of safety. Unfortunately, every other ship in the fleet was at about the same level of fuel-cell reserves as Dauntless, and he didn’t know when he could get any of those ships back up to 70 percent even if they managed to fight their way out of Lakota again.

  As if reading his mind, Desjani nodded confidently. “We’ve got the auxiliaries with us to manufacture new expendables, sir.”

  “The auxiliaries have been building new expendables and repair parts as fast as they can. Their raw-material bunkers are almost empty again,” Geary reminded her.

  “Lakota will have more.” Desjani smiled at him. “You can’t fail.” She halted for a moment and saluted him. “I need to check on a few more things before we reach Lakota. By your leave, sir.”

  He couldn’t help smiling back even though
Desjani’s confidence in him, shared by many others in the fleet, was unnerving. They believed he’d been sent by the living stars themselves to save the Alliance, miraculously found frozen in survival sleep but still alive, just in time to get stuck with command of a fleet trapped deep in enemy space. They’d grown up being told the legend of the great Black Jack Geary, epitome of an Alliance officer and a hero out of myth. The fact that he wasn’t that myth didn’t seem to have impressed them yet. But Desjani had seen enough of him firsthand to know that he wasn’t a myth, and she still believed in him. Since Geary thought a great deal of Desjani’s own judgment, that was very reassuring.

  Especially in comparison to those officers in the fleet who still thought he was a fraud or the mere shell of a once-great hero. That group had been working to undermine his command since he’d very reluctantly taken over the fleet after Admiral Bloch was murdered by the Syndics. He hadn’t wanted that command, still being dazed by the shock of learning that the people and places he had known were now a century in the past. However, as far as Geary was concerned, he hadn’t had much choice but to assume command since his date of commission was also about a hundred years ago, making him by far the most senior captain in the fleet.

  Geary returned Desjani’s salute. “Sure. A ship captain’s work is never done. I’ll see you on the bridge in a few hours.”

  This time Desjani’s grin was fiercer as she anticipated battle with the forces of the Syndicate Worlds. “They won’t know what hit them,” she vowed as she headed off down the passageway.

  Either that or we won’t, Geary couldn’t help thinking. It had been an insane decision, to take a fleet fleeing a trap from which it had barely escaped and turn it to charge right back into the enemy star system in which it had narrowly avoided being destroyed. But the officers and sailors on Dauntless had cheered it, and he had no doubt those on other ships had as well. There were many things he was still trying to figure out about these sailors of the Alliance in a time a century removed from his own, but he knew they could and would fight like hell. If they were going to die, they wanted to do it facing the enemy, on the attack, not running away.

  Not that most of them expected to die, because most of them trusted him to lead them home safely and save the Alliance in the bargain. May my ancestors help me.