Harvester of Glory wasn’t running.
Harriet Tanaka was quite certain of that. The Laian war-dreadnought still outmassed every other capital ship in the system combined, and while her thirteen remaining escorts weren’t much bigger than the Imperial and Terran heavy cruisers, they were definitely more dangerous.
But Pincer Kandak was trying to keep his options open. By maneuvering away from Duchess of Terra and her escorts, he was keeping outside of missile range and potentially luring Vice Admiral Kurzman away from the planet.
He also wasn’t responding to her attempts at communication and he wasn’t heading out-system.
“Sooner or later, he’s going to come for us,” Captain Sier noted. Harriet’s flag captain had been with her since her first ship and had stood at her side when Duchess of Terra had been given an impromptu commissioning into the Imperial Navy and sent to Earth’s defense against the Kanzi.
“If his orders are as definitive as it sounds like from his conversation with Kurzman, he has to,” Harriet agreed. “He’s just weighing how much it’s going to cost.”
She sighed.
“Also, quite likely, he’s waiting for the Parliament to decide whether or not they really want to commit an act of war against an Arm Power. If he follows through on his threat to bombard the colony, the lack of witnesses would work just as well despite our larger naval detachment.”
“Assuming he stopped our couriers from getting away,” Sier pointed out. Kurzman’s couriers were too close to the planet. There’d been no way they’d have escaped past Kandak’s fleet.
There was equally no way that Kandak could stop Harriet’s courier ships from making it to Sol and the starcom there, unless…
“If our ghosts in hyperspace were his, he might be able to rely on that,” she said.
“We know what the Laians can do,” Piditel objected. “Stealth fields, sure. We’re pretty sure the random stealth ship that Kurzman saw when he arrived was Laian, despite the Wendira ships running around the system. But hyperspatial-anomaly cloaking?”
The big Rekiki shook his long snout.
“That’s beyond them.”
“We thought it was beyond everyone,” Harriet said. “I’d buy it of the Mesharom; we don’t have their abilities nailed down quite as well as most of the Core Powers.”
“Agreed, but the Laians are the closest Core Power to us,” Piditel replied. “We’ve spent quite a bit of time making sure we know them better than anyone else.”
“And is the Grand Parliament really likely to want a war?”
“It’s a war they’d win,” Sier said. “It would be an unimaginable mess that would likely see the largest deployment of starkillers ever, but they’d win.”
“I don’t know the Laians well,” Harriet admitted, “but from the couple I met on Earth, they don’t seem the sort to make a desert and call it peace.”
The Yin and Rekiki both stared at her in confusion.
“The Grand Parliament, for all their flaws, seem to have at least some degree of commitment to protecting their people,” she clarified. “I have to wonder if they’re actually willing to embrace a war that would see billions of Laians dead in exchange for whatever the hell is down on Hope.”
“They accepted the chance of it,” Sier said slowly, “but now they face the certainty. They may blink.”
“We can hope.”
“The problem is that the Wendira and the Mesharom won’t.”
#
Emperor of China curved in space, the small fleet of warships they’d assembled to defend Hope moving with her as they maneuvered to stay between Harvester of Glory and the planet beneath them.
Pat Kurzman watched the hologram display silently. There wasn’t much for the Admiral to do at this point. Once the Laians made their move or someone else arrived, that would change, but for the moment, his task force simply had to stay between Harvester and Hope.
“Have we found any signs of more stealth ships?” he asked Chan. “The post-processing should be complete now, correct?”
The A!Tol Imperium had learned ways to find stealth ships. Unfortunately, those ways required as much as an hour of processing of the data after the sensors picked it up. It wasn’t enough to find or engage a stealth-fielded ship, but it was enough for them to at least confirm if one was present or not.
“We’re assuming we can find Wendira or Laian stealth ships,” his chief of staff reported. “But…given that we did manage to find signs where that Wendira carrier arrived, that seems reasonable.”
“And?”
Chan shook his head.
“There’s at least one ship out there,” he admitted. “We can’t say more; they’re moving around a lot and the data is an hour out of date. Maybe two.”
“Any idea of size?” Pat asked. “I don’t think the Laians stealth-screen war-dreadnoughts, but the Wendira might hide their star hives.”
“Nothing that big. They might be able to wrap a stealth screen around a ship that big, but the scan processing would find it pretty clearly. I’m guessing there may be another damned Wendira covert carrier and probably a scout ship or six of somebody’s.”
“Those stealth carriers are giving me a headache,” Pat complained. “They’ve got the firepower to walk right over us. What the hell are they playing at?”
“Being cute,” Chan said. “Probably wanted to steal the ship before anyone knew it was there.”
“At least two groups knew it was there before we did,” Pat said. “The Wendira and the Kanzi. Everyone else started showing up after we dug the ship out. I suspect the Wendira are going to be answering some pointed questions from the rest of the Core Powers once this is over.”
“I just hope we’re around to hear about the consequences.” Chan paused. “But since Harvester of Glory just gave up on playing matador, I’m not taking bets on that.”
Pat turned his attention back to the hologram. His chief of staff was correct. The Laian battle group was now bearing directly for Hope.
“Get me Tanaka,” he said quietly. “Pincer Kandak has volunteered us to be the anvil. It appears my old friend gets to play the hammer.”
#
“We’re coming in behind him as fast as we can,” Harriet told Kurzman. “We’ll range on him forty seconds after you do.”
“He’s giving us the best opportunity we’re going to get,” the Militia Admiral replied. “He’s got to know that, which means he thinks he can take us.”
“I think the odds are more even than that,” she said. “We’ll crush him between us, finish this mess before it gets any worse. Kichi to you, Admiral. We’ll meet you in the middle.”
Harriet linked in her capital ship commanders and escort squadron leaders with a swipe of her hand.
“All right,” she told the collection of sentients facing her. Only two of her capital ship commanders were human, and none of the escort formation leaders were. Between the twenty-eight cruisers and six capital ships of her task force, seventeen of the Imperium’s races were represented, and seven of those species were on this channel.
“Pincer of the Republic Kandak is done playing and he’s heading straight for Hope. We’re going to intercept him and demonstrate just why he shouldn’t have decided to fuck with the Imperial Navy.
“If any of your ships are not fully ready for action, fix that,” she told them. “We range on the Laians in eleven minutes.”
Harriet smiled coldly.
“Battle formation K-17,” she concluded. “Let’s stick to the plan and beat the big bastard to death.”
K-17 assembled her entire force into a three-dimensional wall of battle, allowing every one of her cruisers and battleships to maneuver independently to avoid fire but also stacking their missile defenses and offensive firepower.
Two of her fast battleships and a third of her cruisers didn’t have the new armor, anti-missile turrets, or drones. Three years wasn’t nearly enough time for the Imperium to have upgraded every ship in a fleet almos
t three thousand vessels strong.
Twenty-eight cruisers, four fast battleships and two super-battleships still made for a lot of launchers. And proton beams, too, though if they got close enough to use those, they were going to be in trouble.
Minutes ticked by as the three forces moved toward each other, massive chunks of the system passing beneath both Harvester and Harriet’s force while Kurzman’s fleet moved out to block the Laian approach.
“Harvester has entered her missile range of the Militia force,” Han announced. “…She has not fired.”
“What is he playing at?” Piditel demanded.
“Terrans call it ‘chicken’,” Harriet told him. “He’s waiting to see if we blink first. There’s no question of who fired the first shots today, but…he might still be hoping we’ll stand aside.”
“That’s not going to happen, is it?” the Rekiki asked. “Admiral Kurzman will make his range in just under sixty seconds.”
“No,” she replied. “No, if he doesn’t turn his sixty-million-ton ship around in the next forty-five seconds, he’s going to face a world of hurt.”
“Our range in eighty seconds,” Sier informed her from the bridge. “Any new orders?”
“No. As soon as you enter range, target Harvester of Glory with everything we’ve got. Deploy defensive drones now. His may be better, but at this point, we’ve got a lot more of them.”
Twenty seconds to Kurzman’s range. Kandak had already given up his best opportunity to pound the defenders with missiles. What was he playing at?
“Any communication from the Pincer?” she asked.
“No.”
“Kurzman has fired!” Han’s superior, Commander Kav Ikil snapped. A slight spray from the Indiri’s always-wet red fur sprinkled across the junior officer, and Harriet made a mental check mark as Han ignored it in favor of updating the charts.
Cross-species interaction was always a minefield, and the Indiri looked like nothing so much as wide-eyed, red-furred frogs to human eyes. They were vaguely disturbing but had become one of humanity’s fast allies.
“Kandak has returned fire,” the junior Chinese-Russian officer reported. “There’s too many missiles in space for detailed numbers, but both of them have their defense drones out.”
Harriet checked the distances. Her range in ten seconds. Harvester continued to charge toward the defensive fleet, and there was no way that Kurzman’s people could avoid him now. He was going for beam range—and A!Tol Intelligence had no idea just what the war-dreadnoughts and assault cruisers mounted for shorter-ranged weapons.
They knew its range was enough shorter than the light-minute or so of interface-drive missiles that the missiles still made up a vast portion of the Laians’ armament, but that was it. It seemed either no one had survived seeing the things deployed, or anyone who had was too terrified to sell that information on the black market.
“Range,” Ikil stated calmly. “All units firing, impact is twenty seconds after Admiral Kurzman’s salvo. Standing by for second salvo.”
“Let’s take the fight to them, people,” Harriet ordered, coming to a decision. “Keep closing the range. Let’s see if we can keep him too busy looking over his shoulder to plan what he’s going to do to Pat!”
#
The salvos slamming into Pat’s fleet were weaker than they had been the first time, and his people had had the time to make up their losses in drones and regenerate their shields. The damage to their armor and other systems that his super-battleships had taken wasn’t so easily fixed, but it was also less important.
The Laian missiles died in their hundreds, a cascade of fire that was stopping well short of his ships this time. The same multilayered defense glittered in space, and Pat watched carefully for the switch in fire patterns that would risk his fleet.
So long as Harvester focused her fire on his super-battleships, the odds were in his favor. A few missiles leaked through, but the capital ships’ shields easily absorbed them.
“This didn’t work last time,” he observed softly. “What does Kandak think he’s going to do this time?”
“I’m not certain, sir,” Chan replied. “But I’m guessing close to beam range.”
Pat nodded slowly. They’d attempted a time-on-target salvo again, but this time, the Laians had been waiting for it. The drones had dodged backward when the missiles had swarmed them, giving them precious extra fractions of a second to defend themselves with.
“Order all ships to stand by proton beams and plasma lances,” he ordered. Maximum effective range on any of his beams was five light-seconds—which meant the closing ships were still a full minute from that range.
“Tanaka’s missiles are coming in from behind,” Chan told him. “They’re not having any more luck than we are.”
Pat studied the hologram and wished for short-range FTL. If he and Tanaka could coordinate their salvos, they’d hammer down the Laians’ defenses with sheer numbers of missiles, but…
The Imperial ships were almost two light-minutes away. There wasn’t enough time.
“Plasma lance range in twenty seconds and closing.”
“Thunderstorms are to focus on the secondary ships,” Pat ordered, closing his eyes. “All other vessels will target Harvester with proton beams and give her everything we’ve got.”
He felt as much as heard the change in the next moment, his flag deck suddenly going completely silent in shock. He reopened his eyes, staring at the hologram display as Emperor of China suddenly went into even crazier evasive maneuvers than normal.
President Washington was crippled. When he’d closed his eyes, the super-battleship had been moving in company with his own vessel, unleashing fire and thunder on the Laian war-dreadnought.
When he’d opened them, the front third of the seventeen-million-ton super-battleship was simply gone and the remainder was spinning out of control as her remaining crew tried to regain control.
As Pat watched, a massive ball of lightning-spewing plasma simply appeared next to Emperor of China, the evasive maneuvers having just barely maneuvered the super-battleship such that it appeared outside her shield.
More, smaller plasma packets began to appear around his cruisers. Liberty staggered as she ran headlong into one. Her shields held against that shot…and then three more sequenced plasma balls appeared inside her hull and vaporized Harold Rolfson’s cruiser.
“Where the hell are they coming from?” Pat demanded, Emperor of China lurching under his feet as the incoming fire overwhelmed her shield.
“They’re just appearing. The Laians are teleporting the damn things onto us!”
#
“What in darkest waters is that?” Ikil demanded, staring at the sensor readings.
“That’s what I was hoping you could answer,” Harriet pointed out, watching as two of the Stalwarts she’d sent to reinforce Kurzman blew apart, their shields overwhelmed by impossible bursts of ball lightning appearing in deep space.
“I’m seeing energy spikes on the Laian ships, and then…that,” the Indiri told her, gesturing at the hologram.
“Time delay is under point one seconds,” Han added to his commander’s comment. “Range appears to be about ten light-seconds with near-instantaneous delivery.” The junior officer shook his head. “Time delay may be due to our distance from both of them, too. It could easily be instantaneous.”
“My god,” Harriet whispered. An instantaneous energy weapon. No wonder the Laians had phased out plasma lances in favor of…whatever the hell this was. The only thing saving Kurzman’s fleet was the time it took the light from their ships to reach the Laians.
“Admiral Kurzman is closing with the enemy,” Ikil reported. “They’re turning to keep the range open, it looks like he’ll bring them to lance range for his remaining Thunderstorms, but…”
As he spoke, the Thunderstorm-class heavy cruiser Clarion Call came apart, a burst of ball lightning and plasma materializing in the middle of the kilometer-long ship.
&
nbsp; “Cut them off,” Harriet ordered. “Take us in, maximum speed. All ships, stand by to engage the enemy as closely as possible.”
“That may be suicide, Echelon Lord!” Sier objected from the bridge.
“If we abandoned Kurzman to face that on his own, that may as well be murder,” she snapped back. “Move, people. I want that dreadnought dead!”
#
The Laians weren’t getting everything their own way. With two fleets pouring missiles into them, both Harvester and her escorts were taking hits. Shields were flickering across the Laian battle group, and even as more of the Imperial cruisers died, two of their Laian counterparts joined them.
Harriet’s task force launched their charge directly toward the war-dreadnought, and Kurzman’s came from the other side. As hammer rushed toward anvil, the weakness of Kandak’s position became clear—he’d pushed to close to the range of his FTL energy projectors but in so doing had put his ships between the two fleets.
Harvester of Glory could avoid one of the Imperial fleets reaching proton-beam range but only by allowing the other one into it. Missiles continued to ravage his formation as the three fleets closed, but Kurzman’s original defending fleet was being massacred in front of Harriet’s eyes.
Somehow, Emperor of China was still intact. She’d taken several near-misses, but the super-battleship was still flying and firing as she continued to charge toward the Laian ship.
Duchess of Terra led her own consorts toward Harvester from the other side, long-range proton-beam fire already beginning to sparkle across the Laian warships’ shields.
Harriet could run the numbers in her head. They weren’t going to win this. Those energy projectors changed the entire equation at close range, but closing to proton-beam range was the only chance she had of doing real damage.
Their only hope was to inflict enough damage on Harvester of Glory that she’d be trapped in the system until Admiral Villeneuve and Fleet Lord Tan!Shallegh arrived.
That way, their almost-inevitable death would be worth it.
Terra and Imperium (Duchy of Terra Book 3) Page 28