by Ken Wolfson
“Take a night off, seriously, you can’t always be Mr. War.”
Adrian shrugged. "How do you feel?"
"I’m free to wear what I want and it’s amazing. Skirts give me far more room than pants." She kicked him under the table.
"If someone could figure out how to put pockets on them they'd be uniform material," Adrian said. "I'll put Aly on it, when we find her."
"We'll find her." Adrian wondered what Alyssa would be saying if she was sitting there with them. He had to drag himself away and refocus on the meal.
"So about freedom—couldn't you wear what you wanted back on Volantis?" he said.
"No, not at all," Amelie said. She scowled. "We were public figures. I had to be dressed by a professional designer and servants, and out of my bedroom by 0630. I had to wear proper underwear under my tights, even if it was restrictive, and I couldn't dress outside House colors. All my friends had to be vetted by security first, and I couldn't go to parties without my attire being reviewed and a guard trailing me."
"You are the heir; you couldn't wipe all that away?" Adrian said. He'd always imagined young Amelie marching about her manor, in charge.
Amelie shook her head. "What could I do?"
"You are heir to the oldest and one of the most powerful houses on Volantis. You had power, and armies at your fingertips. Couldn't you tell them to fuck off?" Adrian said. Amelie smiled in a sad way.
"Oh, Adrian. You grew up in anonymity; you never had the spotlight on your every move, and you relatives watching like vultures for you to slip up." She squeezed his hand. "Trust me on something: nobles don't have ultimate power. We've got to dance for the public according to our own song; otherwise the entire show falls apart. Everything I did had to be choreographed. Think about the games you play with the admiralty. Imagine living your entire life according to that."
"There go my fantasies. While not being hungry or getting sedentary lung is nice, it still sucks." Adrian's fantasy vanished. He replaced it with a projection of what he'd do with that kind of power.
"It does, and I did rebel. My family was against me joining the fleet."
"I know." At least she was still in contact with her father, and had a personal flash drone for letter writing.
"Did I ever tell you the full story?"
"No. You said it had to do with your ex-husband and that's it," Adrian said. He was intrigued at Amelie's path through the dance that was the noble world. "Do you want to tell me?"
"Well, yeah." She finished her drink, then winced.
"I was married to Tobias Harriman of House Harriman on my 18th birthday. I wanted to join the officer academy, but that and my mother getting me a medical leave put a stop to that. Our marriage was to seal an alliance between our houses and combine our voter base for the upcoming planetary elections. I was alright with the marriage at first. He was charming and decently handsome, with a clever mind that kept us up debating into the early hours of the morning. We enrolled at Kyver University together as business majors, and while it wasn't exactly what I wanted, I accepted the happy compromise. We'd grow up together and rise through the political ranks, maybe have a few children for the servants to care for."
Adrian poured her another glass of vodka.
"I studied hard and got top GPA in my classes. He, he just got sedentary and jealous. He started with words, about how I was just showing off to make him feel insecure, and how every time I smiled at him I mocked him, and when I smiled at someone else I cheated on him." Her eyes narrowed, and fire blossomed within them. “Then he moved onto his fists.”
"And your parents did nothing?" Adrian guessed.
"Mom gave him a warning; Dad went to his parents, but they took it as an insult to their pride and threatened the alliance. So he told me it was a phase and he'd become a loving husband in good time. And no, I don't think Dad ever hurt Mom like that." Adrian found himself drumming on the table with his fingers. If that had been Alyssa...
"So he kept going?"
"Yes, he did. For five years I put on extra makeup to hide the bruises. After we graduated uni, I had enough. I thought he'd change with our first job assignment and the change of scenery, but he didn't. So, I told him I was filing for divorce. He kicked my ass, then kicked me out in my pajamas without a key or a comp. Told me I could come back when I appreciated everything he did for me."
"That's how abusers work," Adrian said.
"Yes, it is," she deflated with a sigh. Adrian took her hand in both his, and kissed it. It didn't affect the grimace on her face. "Well, I thought a while as I shivered in the cold. I was the heir of the right and honorable House Nessella and a grown woman, I had a life and I wanted it back. So, I broke into my own apartment at midnight to get my own comp and wallet back. Along the way I got my rapier."
"And what'd you do?"
"I walked into the ball he was attending without me, soaked from the rain and bleeding from broken glass, and challenged him to a duel right there."
"And he accepted?"
"He had to. Part of the game: if someone tosses their glove at you, you've got to fight them or you’re a coward and can never wash away the stench. So, he drew his rapier as he lectured me about how I was causing us so much stress, and how I was trying to singlehandedly break the alliance between our families and undo the work of our parents, because I wanted him to stop punching me, because he was stressed by my misbehavior." She punched the table with ever word. Every thump pained Adrian as he imagined her helplessness.
"Want to stop?"
"I'm good. We dueled. He was bigger and stronger, but he'd been slacking on practice, while I'd used sword fighting as an escape for my misery. I ran him through the eye and he died on the spot." She put her head down on the table. Her shoulders rattled from a drawn-out sigh. "I question my judgment sometimes."
"People bully you until you stop them. You made the correct choice,” Adrian said.
"Thank you."
Adrian slipped around the table and threw his arms around her.
"My parents didn't find out until the enlistment letter arrived. And his parents came to the door with their swords, screaming for my head. I like to think they arrived at the same time."
"Well, you're still welcome on Volantis, so clearly something worked out," Adrian said.
"My dad tanked his alliance and his shot at the governor's throne to bail me out. I mean, he burned money and hard political capitol so I could set foot on Mother Volantis once more. He didn't talk to me for a decade. I had to reach out; I sent him a letter." She waved the rapier over her head. Adrian noticed for the first time it bore not the seal of a military forge, but an N. "He sent me this. We're still not talking like family, close and trusting, but at least we have an agreement."
"Are you happy with being an officer?"
"Yeah. I wanted two things. To make my own path away from my parents, and help the Systems. I've done both." She winked, and slipped her foot up his thigh. "And I got a bonus payout or two in the bargain."
Adrian grinned back. "Do your parents approve of me?"
"I don't care." She leaned over and closed her eyes for the kiss. Adrian met her. While she was distracted, he pinned her leg between his boots. "Hey!" she said, into him. He just continued the kiss until he let her slip away. "Can I get that back?"
"No."
She wrinkled her nose, which was adorable. "You’re such an arsehole.”
"I am an asshole." He slipped off a boot and rubbed her foot under his.
A roar shattered their peace to dust. Adrian was thrown into the table, and his vision flared white from pain. He gritted his teeth and caught himself
"Again?" Amelie said.
The klaxon wailed, three times. Adrian stood. Another roar, but this time he was prepared. His glass fell from the table and shattered. Amelie was thrown to her knees, hair wild. Adrian helped her to her feet.
"We dress, then bridge. Time to fight."
#
Chapter Twenty-Five: The Battle of Vervunder
28th Day of the War
Adrian was the first officer of the first watch on the bridge. He launched straight into the command zone. Vindication was intact; the missiles had missed her berth. Sixth Gehenna was leaping into action. Destroyers set up a perimeter around the anchorage, ignorant of the debris cloud that swatted several of their number, and spat fire at the sensor signatures of the approaching projectiles.
Several dozen torpedoes were splashed by the destroyers. Five made it through and struck a cluster of supply depots twenty kilometers distant. Fire raced along the anchorage pipes, leapt damaged safeties, and rolled into several warships mid-undock. Their crews screamed over all radio frequencies and were smothered out by roaring flames.
"There's a fuel depot feeding into our dock. Get us free at all costs," Adrian said.
"Yes, sir," Grissom grunted. He was wearing boxers and a fleet jacket with nothing beneath.
"Harbor control is responding. Give them a second," Zoey said. Another hit landed, this time on a capitol ship drydock ten klicks away. The wounded dreadnought inside rolled over and tore away the superstructure around it. Squirming bodies spilled into space.
"Sir, what if we have to percussive override?" Cage said. He gulped, clearly against the option of firing into their own station, but aware of the possible necessity.
"Hold," Adrian said. "Grissom, flip the switches."
"Our outflow valves are secure, but the inflows are still open. I'll need a few minutes. Maybe Zoey can hack the system from our end?" Grissom said.
"That encryption would take me an hour to break," Zoey said. Around 20% of the next salvo slipped through. Two broke off and aimed for Vindication's berth. They dove through a cloud of shrapnel, missed the wreckage of several destroyers, and slammed into that supply depot. Plasma blossomed inside the station. Compartments flashed over, one after another. Everyone inside, the officers trying to organize their people and enlisted just doing their jobs and civilians searching frantically for safety were caught in that and reduced to ash.
"We are cast off and navigation is full green," Grissom said, and hit the throttle. Vindication leapt free, just as flaming hydrogen sprayed out the open pipes and suffocated out in space. The dock, and the battlecruisers to either side of her, disintegrated.
"Good luck!" Harbor Control screamed, just before static consumed his voice. Adrian nodded; not a stranger. Zoey shuddered.
"Zoey, get the fleet command channel into my headset. What're our orders?" Grissom maneuvered the supercarrier into orbit at the center of the rallying fleet. The carriers were nestled together at the rear, protected by lines of destroyers and battlecruiser pickets.
Zoey patched Adrian's headset into the fleet network. Every ship had a single unique signature that would highlight on the overlay on Adrian’s desk. The rumor mill said ocular implants were coming down the pipe from Armada R&D. If there was a next generation of commanders they’d link directly to their TACNET displays.
Adrian went to the top of the comms overlay and accessed the fleet command channel.
"What're we doing?" Commander 3rd Brevet Maeve Rodgers of the dreadnought Wildfyre demanded.
"Why were fleet groups one through five pulling out of orbit?" Commander 1st Brevet Tovias Slynn of the dreadnought Durantula said.
"Comms discipline!" Silver said. When she had silence, she spoke. "As everyone above four bars knows, I pulled the squadrons out of orbit to make a spoiler assault on the Hullen positions. I trusted the planetary defenses to intercept any incoming projectiles, and my staff is currently raising corporate command to put them online. Judging by the velocity of those torpedoes, the move was unfortunately timed, as they would've had to have been launched forty-eight hours ago. That's before I made this tactical maneuver." A few COSs began praying to their gods for favor. "Our plan remains the same. Third will leave a skirmish wing of one destroyer wing and a fleet carriers’ group behind to defend the orbitals. All other ships will rally on my flagship and begin the assault. The enemy remains in blockade formation; we can isolate their ships and defeat their fleet in detail. Do your duty and we will be victorious."
"Yes, ma'am," Adrian said. Now this was a plan he liked. Emoche Hulle's followers were indeed spread out, awaiting reinforcements and lacking a proper interceptor perimeter. Their carriers, and behind those their critical supply ships, were hanging unguarded in space, like at Vykhor before them. He sent a text message to fleet command. “Awaiting assignment.” The order was processed by one of her many staff specialists and fed into the churning brain of sixth fleet's tacticians.
Minutes later, a text order flashed across his screen. Vindication was assigned to gold squadron, under Flank Admiral Lord Novaren Davis in the carrier Westbrook. Adrian was unfamiliar with the name. "Helm, there's our deployment orders. Join their formation. Comms, find the squad channel and access it," he said.
An hour later, Silver gave the order to launch fighters.
“Fighters up.” All wings went up, forming a great cloud around sixth fleet. To Adrian, it resembled a typhoon making landfall on Tollyon's southern coast.
"Squad leaders, call targets by priority, then range. First priority is those carriers covering the mobile depots Vervunder-III's near side, bearing vector two-two-seven delta. Cruisers, run cover against those destroyers," Silver ordered. More specific deployment orders followed.
"The enemy's blockade formation has left their capitol ships exposed as they attempt to reform," Lord Novaren Davis said. "We will take advantage of this. Deploy in aggressive formation. Our target is the carrier group bearing vector seven-seven-two-delta-zero. Range: ten million miles." Westbrook took the lead for the carriers.
Adrian deployed his fighters in arrow formation. The Furies and decoys were the tip of the arrow, to absorb the initial impact from enemy interceptors and point defense fire. Though less sturdy than the Jotunns, they were far more nimble, and primarily armed with anti-fighter 40mm cannons and light missiles, making them the ideal screen. He put the Jotunns back, on the flanks of the arrowhead, where they'd be less exposed until they made their attack runs. EWAR support ships made up the shaft of the arrow. The interceptors would break the enemy screen and draw fire into the center. The Jotunns would sweep in from the flanks and hit the target's rear. This was a combat plan that'd been used since the days of two-dimensional infantry and Sorse-mounted cavalry warfare on Tollyon, during the dark age.
"All ships, combat acceleration. Kill some blue-clad motherfuckers," Lord Davis said. Westbrook red-shifted as she picked up acceleration.
"Copy, Vindication engaging," Adrian said. "Attack vectors."
The thrumming under his boots ramped up as Grissom pumped her engines into high gear.
#
Chapter Twenty-Six Breaking Down
Adrian stared into the hemorrhaging TACNET as rage and fear fought within him, tearing him apart between fight and flight to deal with the battle deteriorating out of control around him.
"They had a full-complement fleet hiding under the rings.”
The Hullen had waited until Sixth was hammering through the scattered opposition—then it struck. Rayven and capitol ships poured from the dark side of a moon sheltered below the rings and attacked. Sixth was caught accelerating into the enemy; any maneuver they wanted to make, they'd have to reverse thrust first, costing them extra time and power while they changed vectors. Their carriers were at the rear. It was a sword rammed straight up their ass.
And Molyneux was at the center of this counterattack.
Two dragoons whipped past across Vindication’s bow. Railgun fire splattered against her dorsal barriers, and they were gone.
"Recall all our fighters and throw up a screen. None get through," Adrian said. A screen would work for the time. Those dragoons and the Jotunns running support would take time to chew through the carriers and tenders at the rear of the formation. Eventually they'd reach Vindication and nothing would save her.
"Do we r
un?" Cage said.
"We run when command gives us the order to withdraw," Adrian said, his voice shaking.
Molyneux loosed another salvo into Westbrook's crumbling hull. Novaren shrieked his death, then went silent. His carrier's plasma drives faded to zero output and the running lights died. Fires glowing inside her cracked armor, she drifted past the red surface of Vervunder-III and continued into deep space forever,
Molitor fired a few nukes at the hulk to be sure. Then he pointed Molyneux's angular nose back along his escape vector and fired her drives. Her acceleration caught up to her velocity in the reverse direction. She decelerated to a halt, then piled up speed towards the remainder of the Systems fleet.
Adrian studied Vindication's diagnostics. She was unscathed by the rout progressing around her, miraculously ignored in the melee. She was at full barriers, full engines, and while her armor remained a crunchy jigsaw puzzle, her bones beneath held strong.
"Helm, alter course to intercept vector with Molyneux, cruising acceleration." Adrian reasoned that, if Silver wasn't withdrawing, he'd kill the most valuable target on the field.
"Yes, sir. Range to intercept, five-thousand kilometers post-drift compensation," Grissom said. His beard rings rattled as gravity shifted. "Here we go—blaze of glory run."
"Reload the bombers—wings one and two with EMP warheads, three and four with thermal. Fire control, initiate fire mission on the target. Fire until target is destroyed." Adrian had been made as an officer alongside Molitor. Someone literary would appreciate the poetic irony.
Molyneux had fallen out of formation in the melee, a pair of DDs were all that stood between them. The destroyers noticed the supercarrier bearing down, and moved to intercept. Vindication's point defense grid kept them hopping while she blazed through. Adrian grasped his gladius' hilt until his knuckles ached. It was a calming thing.
Amelie seized his shoulders and shook them. Sweat and lavender perfume washed over him. "Break off now, you'll kill us all!"
A quartet of DNEs target-locked Vindication. Overclocked railguns hammered her barriers.