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  Desjani made a disbelieving sound. “Those heavy-lift birds can’t get clear of the Syndics. They don’t have the speed even if they’re empty.”

  Geary nodded. “Goblin, the heavy-lift shuttles are far too slow and will be magnets for enemy fire. They cannot escape, and anything on them will be lost. One propulsion unit can’t save your ship, and the fleet can’t get back to you in time to cover you. You’re an engineer. Do the math. Get your people off that ship while there’s still time. You may regard that as an order if that makes the decision easier.”

  This time Goblin’s reply took an extra minute and sounded resigned. “Yes, sir. I’m ordering all personnel to the escape pods now. Setting power core to overload in… eighteen minutes.”

  “Sir, Incredible’s commanding officer informs us that he has given orders for nonessential personnel to abandon ship.”

  “Very well,” Geary responded. The situation didn’t leave any other choice.

  “Resolution cannot keep up with the fleet. She’s declaring her intention to close on Incredible and provide support.”

  “Approved. Tell Resolution and Incredible that we’re going to try to keep the Syndics busy.” Geary concentrated on the movements of the Syndics and his own two formations as the three groups of warships swung through the huge turns required at velocities still close to point zero eight light speed. As the Syndics came around to the right, a cluster of battleships began sliding over to fill the gap where the center of their flotilla had been, then apparently halted halfway between its old positions and the center.

  “They’re confused,” Desjani said scornfully.

  “That’s the idea.”

  Rione’s voice came from the back of the bridge. “Why are they confused? You’ve put our fleet into only two formations instead of up to six as you have in the past.”

  “It’s how those formations are constituted,” Geary advised her. “One is built around all of our battleships, slower and massive, obviously configured to slam right into the heart of the Syndic flotilla again. But the other formation contains all of our battle cruisers, swift and agile, obviously configured to hit the edges of the Syndic flotilla.”

  “I see.” Rione smiled with one side of her mouth. “They don’t know where you’ll hit, so they don’t know where to put their heaviest firepower.”

  “Exactly.” Geary shook his head as he watched the Syndics. They’d been expecting the Alliance fleet to turn back toward the jump point for Padronis, but instead found themselves lining up with the Alliance battleship formation to one side and above them, while the Alliance battle cruisers were to the other side and beneath. “I don’t think I should punch the battleship formation through the middle of the Syndics again. Not yet, anyway. If the Syndic commander reacted quickly enough and collapsed his flotilla around the center he could hurt our battleships badly.”

  Desjani thought about it, then nodded. “I agree. May the Alliance battle cruisers lead the way this time, Captain Geary?”

  “Yes, Captain Desjani. Let’s do that, while I bring the battleships around to hit the Syndics from another angle.”

  “Captain Geary, sir, Resolution and Incredible request that you leave plenty of Syndics for them.”

  Desjani laughed, and even Geary grinned despite his tension. “Tell them that shouldn’t be a problem, Lieutenant.”

  Led by Captain Tulev’s Second Battle Cruiser Division, the fifteen remaining operational Alliance battle cruisers and their light cruiser and destroyer escorts angled upward and to the right, while Geary ordered the battleships to come left and accelerate. The battleship formation moved much more sluggishly, both because of the massive battleships and because it included the three remaining auxiliaries in the fleet. Hopefully, he’d compensated properly for that in his orders.

  The Syndics were continuing their turn, angling slightly downward. Geary adjusted the track of the battle-cruiser formation to counteract the Syndic maneuvers, increasing the angle of the Alliance attack so it was climbing almost straight up toward the enemy.

  The Alliance battle-cruiser formation screamed upward at the rear bottom corner of the Syndic flotilla.

  “They’re braking!” the operations watch-stander shouted at the last moment before contact, too late for anyone to react. At the velocities they were all traveling, both sides noticed the changed vectors too late for either group of warships to compensate.

  Instead of racing past outside the corner of the Syndic flotilla, the Alliance battle cruisers slammed through that corner. The automated maneuvering systems managed to avoid collisions, which would have instantly vaporized the ships involved, but the Alliance battle cruisers still ended up enduring close passes against enemy battleships.

  The four Syndic battleships anchoring that corner threw out a barrage of hell-lance fire that tore apart Steadfast, riddled Intrepid, and hammered Inspire, while Illustrious took more damage on top of that suffered at Cavalos, and Courageous spun out of control as the Alliance warships cleared the Syndic formation.

  “Intrepid thinks she can keep up but all of her combat systems are out,” Dauntless’s combat watch reported. “Inspire has full maneuvering but has sustained heavy damage to weapons systems. We can see escape pods leaving what’s left of Steadfast.”

  “What about Courageous?” Geary demanded.

  “No communications, sir. She’s off the fleet net. Sensors register all systems dead.”

  Along with who knew how many of her crew.

  “Roberto Duellos is very hard to kill,” Desjani commented.

  “Let’s hope so.” Geary shoved his worries for Captain Duellos to the side and grimly focused on the Syndic flotilla. The Alliance battle cruisers had been hurt, but had also been able to hit the corner of the flotilla with a lot of firepower. The two Syndic battle cruisers there were both too badly damaged to keep fighting, and one of the enemy battleships had taken enough hits that it was falling out of formation, while another seemed as badly off as Intrepid, able to maneuver but otherwise badly hurt. Most of the Syndic light cruisers and HuKs in that corner of the flotilla had been knocked out or destroyed, but there were more Alliance escorts also missing now or helplessly falling behind.

  Fortunately, the Syndic maneuvers that had put the Alliance battle cruisers badly out of position had also positioned the Alliance battleship formation to hit another corner of the Syndic flotilla head-on. This time the four Syndic battleships there were not only badly outnumbered locally but facing warships as heavily shielded and armored as they were. Gallant and Indomitable were the focus of the enemy fire, and both suffered damage as their shields failed in spots and Syndic grapeshot or hell lances made it through to their hulls. But as the Alliance formation opened the distance again, they left three of the four Syndic battleships out of action and three Syndic battle cruisers in pieces.

  “That more than evens the odds,” Desjani remarked.

  The rest of the Syndic flotilla swept toward Goblin, which vanished into a ball of fragments a moment later as its power core overloaded. Beyond where Goblin had been, Resolution and Incredible threw out everything they had left at the approaching Syndics.

  Geary involuntarily closed his eyes as a corner of the Syndic flotilla tore past Resolution and Incredible. When he opened them, he was astonished to see that both Alliance ships were still there. “They survived? That’s…”

  “Incredible?” Desjani murmured. “Resolution shielded Incredible as much as she could. She got shot to hell, and Incredible took more damage, but the Syndic intercept must have been far enough off to save both ships.”

  Luck had saved Resolution and Incredible, but a moment later the gods of war favored the Syndics.

  “Damn,” Desjani commented. “There goes Intrepid.” Missiles had leaped out from the Syndic formation during the last firing pass, aiming at the projected course for the Alliance battle cruisers. Because of the last-minute vector changes, most of those missiles had been too far off the Alliance track to get hits and had
curved through space, chasing the Alliance ships. Many of the missiles were destroyed as their slow relative speeds in a stern chase made them easier targets for the Alliance escorts, but one made it through to the already heavily damaged Intrepid. The stricken battle cruiser seemed to buck as the missile hit her dead astern, smashing her propulsion units. Intrepid spun off to the side, her weakened structure visibly buckling under the stress of the impact and the sudden changes in course and speed. “She’s not going to be recoverable, sir.”

  Desjani didn’t seem shaken by the losses of Intrepid and Courageous, but then Geary knew that she’d seen far worse. “Let’s avenge her.” He tried to relax, watching the tracks and projected paths through space, attempting to factor in the seconds of time delay in the images he was seeing. “Formation Indigo One, come right two five degrees, down one six zero degrees at time five three.” The Alliance battle cruisers came up and over, swinging down and to the side for another pass at the Syndics. The Syndic commander was trying to concentrate what was left of his flotilla, bringing the ships together until the group of enemy warships once again almost resembled a square box, though a much smaller one than the Syndics had started with. At the same time, he tried a tight maneuver, rolling the entire formation up and around to the left to face the Alliance battle-cruiser formation.

  “Bad move.” Desjani bared her teeth. “We look like an easier target, but we’re faster than he is. That’s not a very experienced commander.”

  “Neither are some of his captains, apparently,” Geary replied, watching the Syndic warships scramble to get into position and carry out the major changes of their vectors. One of the Syndic battleships blundered into a Syndic heavy cruiser, causing most of the heavy cruiser to disappear in a flash of light while the battleship reeled away with major damage. “One more down.”

  The intended compact Syndic square spread and warped out of shape as the Syndic flotilla failed to make the turn.

  “Formation Indigo One, come right two zero degrees, up one five degrees at time zero six.” The Alliance battle cruisers raised their bows slightly as they turned, sliding around to aim for an intercept of one side of the flailing Syndic flotilla. “Formation Indigo Two, come left two eight five degrees, up two one zero degrees at time zero eight.” The battleships, now well below the Syndics, began turning upward as the Alliance battle cruisers closed on the enemy again.

  This time, with the enemy caught in temporary disarray, the Alliance battle-cruiser formation roared past one corner of the Syndic flotilla at almost perfect range, lashing out at the exposed Syndic warships with a large local superiority in firepower.

  Dauntless shuddered heavily in the wake of the firing pass. “One Syndic missile got through, Captain. Damage aft. Hell-lance battery six bravo out of commission. Reduced capability from main propulsion unit alpha.”

  “Can we keep up with the formation as it maneuvers?” Desjani demanded.

  “Engineering is boosting output from the remaining main propulsion units, Captain. Damage control teams are reinforcing damaged hull sections. Damage control central requests we avoid major maneuvers for the next ten minutes.”

  “Tell them to make it five!”

  “Yes, Captain. Five minutes.”

  Illustrious, still carrying plenty of damage from the fight at Cavalos, took more hits, along with Valiant and Daring. But the outnumbered Syndics in that part of the flotilla had lost three more battle cruisers.

  “What the hell are they doing?” Geary burst out with as the Syndics continued to swing up and around in a corkscrew movement.

  “Beats the hell out me,” Desjani confessed.

  “They’re just continuing the same—We got the CEO. They’re following their last orders because no one else has established themselves in command yet.”

  “Nice,” Desjani almost purred, watching the Alliance battleship formation rip through the diminished Syndic flotilla. Only ten Syndic battleships and battle cruisers remained operational after that, though the Alliance formation shed Gallant as it bent back for another firing run.

  “Propulsion damage on Gallant, but she can still defend herself. They’re concentrating their fire,”

  Desjani noted with grudging approval. “Throwing everything they can at the battleships that have already taken the most damage. Look at how badly Redoubtable got hit, too.”

  “At least she can still keep up with the formation.”

  Desjani spun to face her engineering watch-stander. “Five minutes are up. Can I maneuver?”

  “One more minute, Captain,” the engineer pleaded.

  “I don’t have one minute!”

  “Ready for maneuvers,” the relieved watch-stander gasped as he received the report.

  “Good,” Geary approved. “Let’s go.” On the heels of his words, the Syndic flotilla altered course radically, bearing back around and down. “Where…?”

  Geary brought the battle-cruiser formation toward the Syndics in as tight a swing as he could, trying to guess on which vector they’d steady out. The answer became clear after several minutes. “They’re going after Resolution and Incredible.”

  “We’ll get at least one more pass at them before then,” Desjani pointed out, “and so will the battleships.”

  “Any updates from Gallant?” Geary asked. He could scroll through the display looking for that information himself, but he needed to spend that time and concentration on the big picture.

  “Gallant reports about half of her combat systems remain active,” the operations watch reported.

  “Shields weak but regenerating, several major breaches in hull armor being sealed. Estimated time to regain some maneuvering control is twenty minutes.”

  Deciding that Gallant could look out for herself for the time being, Geary lined up the battle cruisers on another intercept with the Syndic flotilla and adjusted the track of the battleships so they’d hit the Syndics again.

  The wait to contact was agonizing this time. Resolution and Incredible drifted helpless, both ships too badly damaged to have any hope of surviving another Syndic attack and neither having enough working weapons to have much chance of inflicting any damage on the enemy. The Syndic box, even smaller now, was curving in from above and the left. Farther to the left and slightly higher, the Alliance battle cruisers were swooping down on the Syndics. Off to the right and roughly even with the Syndics, the Alliance battleships were boring in steadily.

  It must have become apparent to the Syndics that they didn’t have a hope of rendering death blows to Resolution and Incredible before being savaged by the rest of the Alliance fleet. As the two Alliance formations drew close, the Syndic flotilla abruptly dove, greatly increasing its down angle and steadying out toward where the smaller Syndic formation was holding off from the battle. Geary rapped quick commands to the battle cruisers and the battleships, correcting for the Syndic moves.

  As the Alliance ships steadied onto their new vectors, collision-warning alarms blared. Geary barely had time to jerk his gaze to the alerts before the Alliance battle cruisers raced through the Syndic flotilla from one side and above almost at the exact same instant as the Alliance battleship formation tore through from the other side and slightly above.

  For that heart-stopping instant, a lot of warships going on widely different vectors at very high speed threaded past each other, automated maneuvering systems screaming alarms in protest as they tried to avoid collisions in the maelstrom of warships. Meanwhile, the automated combat systems on every combatant saw a suddenly target-rich environment and gleefully hurled out shots in all directions. Then the three formations were diverging again. Geary inhaled heavily as he realized he’d forgotten to breathe for a moment.

  Even Desjani looked pale. “Sir, have you considered the possibility that there could be such a thing as being too good at compensating for the movements of the enemy?”

  “Not until just now.” He took another breath and checked his display, then checked it again. “We lost some more destro
yers, but that was probably to enemy fire. No collisions?”

  “All the same, let’s not do that again, sir.”

  “Okay.” The Syndic flotilla’s box, subjected to so much firepower at once from different angles, had disintegrated. Two battleships were still slogging along their track, but both had sustained significant damage. No Syndic battle cruisers remained, and the escorts had been slaughtered. Conversely, with so many targets at once, the Syndics hadn’t been able to concentrate their fire. Aside from some unfortunate cruisers and destroyers, the Alliance fleet had avoided more serious damage. Geary breathed a sigh of relief. “Formation Indigo Two,” he ordered the battleships, “break formation and get those two remaining Syndic battleships. Formation Indigo One, general pursuit. Avoid the two surviving Syndic battleships until they’ve been reduced by our battleships.” The last thing he wanted was another loss like Opportune.

  To his surprise, Desjani didn’t instantly whip Dauntless around to go after a target. She saw his reaction and shrugged. “The only thing left worth killing is those battleships. Besides”—she pointed to her ship’s status display—“we’re down to thirty-five percent fuel-cell reserves.”

  “Thirty-five percent?” In peacetime he would have been court-martialed for letting fuel-cell reserves get that low on ships under his command.

  “Good thing we saved Titan, Witch, and Jinn,” Desjani observed. “We’re going to need every fuel cell they can squeeze out between here and Varandal.”

  FOUR

  The butcher’s bill after a battle was always the worst part. Geary read through the names. Courageous, Intrepid, Exemplar, Goblin, heavy cruisers Tortoise, Breech, Kurtani, Tarian, and Nodowa. Light cruisers Kissaki, Crest, Trunnion, Inquarto, and Septime. Destroyers Barb, Yatagan, Lunge, Arabas, Kururi, Shail, Chamber, Bayonet, and Tomahawk. At that they were very lucky. If they’d had to flee the star system with the Syndics in pursuit, easily three times that many cruisers and destroyers would have been lost, plus more battle cruisers and battleships. As it was, the Alliance fleet had time to make repairs and get the ships moving again. Resolution, though shot to hell, would be able to keep up with the fleet, but he didn’t yet know if he’d be able to save Incredible. Gallant had enough maneuvering control back to fight once more, though many of her weapons remained out of action.