by Webb, Nick
“Yes, sir.” The helmsman’s voice was quiet. The ship creaked, and they were pressed sideways as it began its acceleration.
This was it.
“Delaney!” The voice burst across the speakers. “Call off your ships, it’s us!”
That voice. It couldn’t be…. “Admiral?!”
“It’s us!”
“Cairo, Washington, break off attack and circle around. Stockholm, swing wide.” His own helmsman, anticipating the order, had slowed acceleration, though the batteries were still firing full bore. “Walker, how the hell—”
“Our resident know-it-all stole some very nice tech during the brief time he had access to those Telestine ships over Mercury.” Without her own fleet’s guns trained on her, Walker sounded almost jovial. “And from the size of the fleet you’re facing down, looks like they weren’t anticipating backup.”
“Right.” Delaney wiped his brow with a trembling hand. No one had been expecting backup.
“So let’s give ‘em a little surprise, huh?” The new fleet moved onto the holograph in a blur and resolved into a full formation of carriers. “Let’s let that bastard wonder where his ships went. I’m not in a very forgiving mood today.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Delaney’s face flashed a smile. “Legacy formation, fall back and split to flank. Good hunting.”
Chapter Thirteen
Mars, High Orbit
Fighters
The chutes opened on the Santa Maria and the fighters were flung out into the black. McAllister heard Tocks give a low whistle as the ships guided themselves into formation, accounting for their pilot’s spinning heads. They had never been ejected from a landing bay at this speed before, just like they’d never come into a battle on such a hard deceleration burn—or been ejected into the middle of a raging battle either for that matter.
But there was no time to do anything other than call the order for an attack. The ships wove up through the retreating bulk of the older ships and toward the cloud of Telestine fighters that had suddenly billowed from the enemy carrier ships.
“What’s our target?” one of the new pilots called.
McAllister gave a scowl at the comm unit. “Hit the weak points on the rear carrier.” It wasn’t inspiring. Hell, it wasn’t even all that helpful, but he didn’t have it in him to be helpful anymore.
He was supposed to be dead. With Arianna.
Maybe by the end of this, he would be.
“You heard the admiral.” Tocks picked up for him. Her voice was crisp. “We are to make sure none of these ships can run home and tell Mama about what we got for tech now. Try to take out the guns, those are weak points on the hull. Any windows you see, go for it. Any seams, likewise. And make sure those fighters don’t get a lock on you.” A stream of bullets erupted from her ship and one of the oncoming fighters burst into a cloud of silver. She gave a whoop. “Like that, right? I love these new targeting systems! Venetians can build, I’ll give ‘em that.”
McAllister said nothing. He listened to the chatter start, and then flipped off his comm unit. He was in the black, in the silence.
And here … he could hear her. Commander King. Arianna.
You have to fight, she murmured in his ear. He could feel her arms around him.
“For what?” he asked out loud.
For Earth. Every one of them you take out—
“It won’t bring you back.”
Nothing will bring me back. But, Theo—
“CAG!” Tocks’s voice burst across his personal channel. “CAG!”
McAllister swore and pulled out of the way barely in time as a Telestine fighter shot up from below him. He guided the new plane in a dizzying arc—the ships could go harder than he was used to, and faster, and his head swam with the g-forces—and caught his opponent unawares. It tried to turn, but it wasn’t fast enough and it exploded before it could get a lock on him. McAllister turned back into formation, heart pounding. “Thanks, Tocks.”
“Get your head in the game, sir,” was all she said before she cut the line.
From her silence, the ghost of King agreed. He swallowed, and switched the main comm channel back on.
“Boom, boom, boom!” Princess was yelling. McAllister heard his cackle. “That’ll show you. Think you can come here and kill civvies, huh? Didn’t your mothers teach you manners?” His tone changed. “Newbie Three, you got one on your tail.”
“Thanks!” In the corner of McAllister’s vision, one of the newbies swerved out of the way just in time. “They’re fucking everywhere!”
“Well, you know how to fix that, right?” Tocks was shouting with the adrenaline of battle. “Take ‘em down. CAG, little present for you, gonna send him sideways.” She was coming in diagonally to a Telestine fighter, who swerved into McAllister’s path.
A burst of gunfire, and the ship split nearly in two. McAllister caught a glimpse of an all-white cockpit as his ship hurtled through the debris and tried to summon the ghost of who he’d been before, the man who’d died in orbit around Mercury along with his love. “All right, form up, take the bulk of them down fast. The legacy fighters’ll take out the dregs. We need to get to the carriers.”
“Yes, sir.” He could hear the approval in Tocks’s voice. “Newbie Eight, what the hell are you up to? You’re gonna turn into shrapnel, you keep flying like that. You wanna be shrapnel?
“Copy that, Newbie Eight is now known as Shrapnel.” Princess cut through a formation of Telestine fighters in a tight spiral, laughing maniacally.
“I don’t want to be Shrapnel,” a plaintive voice said.
“Shut up and shoot, Shrapnel.”
“I want a name!” It was the newbie in fighter Six who spoke up. He turned his plane straight up and arced around to catch the Telestines in the crossfire as they made for the human carriers.
“You don’t die, we’ll give you one.” Princess sounded like he was grinning. “Cap, I like these newbies. They’re our kind of crazy.”
“Yeah, yeah.” But McAllister felt himself smiling. How long since he’d smiled like this?
“All ships, focus fire on the main carrier.” The voice was new, and not on the standard comm channel. McAllister frowned. “This is Secretary General Jacob Essa. Repeat, all ships focus fire on the main carrier.”
Secretary General Essa? What the hell?
They were spread out, but McAllister saw Princess turn in his cockpit to give him a look.
“All ships, this is Admiral Walker.” The admiral’s voice was crisp and clipped, but agitated. “Hold formation, and follow original orders.”
McAllister suppressed the urge to whistle. He’d never heard the admiral’s voice sound so hard.
Essa’s voice thundered over the line. “Walker, that ship is breaking your blockade and making for the colony.”
“I am well aware of the situation.” She was furious. “All ships, continue as directed.”
“Uh, CAG?” said Tocks. The fighters had stopped firing. They wove through the battle, marking targets but taking no shots.
What would she have done? What would Arianna have said?
He knew the answer before he finished asking the question. “Follow the admiral’s orders. She’s not going to let the colony be destroyed, you know that. All of you, continue on original path. Leave the rest of these for the Intrepid’s fighters, we’re on the rear carrier. Remember, keep them between you and our carriers. One of those big rounds is gonna ruin your day real quick.”
“Aye aye, sir.” Tocks and Princess answered in unison, and the others picked up from their example.
“Come on, look alive.” McAllister slammed his fighter into full acceleration. “Admiral’s counting on us to take these bastards down. Quicker we get done here, the quicker we get some of Tocks’s moonshine. Yeah, Tocks, I know you’re brewing in the engine room.”
“It’s shit vino,” Tocks called back, using an ironically fancy term for their ethanol. “Gunnery chief’s a hell of a cannon master, not so much
with the brewing.”
“Vino is vino,” Newbie Five called back. “Gets you drunk. What more could you want?”
“Careful, Newbie, or you’re gonna get Drinking Problem as your call sign,” said Tocks. “Or better yet, Borracho. That’s Spanish for drunk, right? Don’t you speak el Spanish?”
“Yes, sir,” replied Newbie Five. “But your accento is terible,” he replied, in a smarmy version of his own slight accent.
Something unknotted in McAllister’s chest and he heard a rusty laugh break through. “Borracho, Shrapnel, form up! We’re gonna take this bastard down. For moonshine! For vino!”
Chapter Fourteen
Mercury, High Orbit
Eden
Bridge
The Eden was sleek and fast, one of the newest scout ships from Nhean’s fleet.
Unfortunately, all that meant was that Larsen and his crew had arrived at Mercury in plenty of time to watch nothing at all happen. They’d taken their time selecting a hunk of debris to hide behind, set up surveillance Walker had requested, and had been floating in bored silence since then.
He drummed his fingers on the command desk and tried not to sigh. In a supporting role, he’d always been busy with paperwork, communications, tracking formations. In his first command role, something he felt he should relish, he was bored. He had nothing to do.
He also felt like everyone was staring at him.
Probably just his imagination. He hadn’t spent a lot of time staring at Walker and Delaney, after all.
“Sir, unidentified ships approaching.” One of the crew members raised a hand.
“Project the map up on the screens,” Larsen ordered. He linked his hands behind his back and looked up with interest. At least something was happening.
His heart seemed to flip over a moment later. This wasn’t a stolen shuttle, or even a cargo ship they could hail and demand to search for the missing girl. The formation—for it was certainly a formation—was coming in fast, and pointed directly at the ruins of one of the rolling cities. Only a fraction of the original buildings had remained operational, but that wasn’t common knowledge. So who was heading there now?
A moment later, there was a stricken silence as the reading came in: Telestine. Old-style feather fighters, and a frigate.
He had watched Walker commanding the fleet for long enough to know that there was only one choice he could make.
“Hold course,” he said simply. “Send an FTL message to Walker with what we’re seeing.” He nodded to the helmsman. “Be ready for full burn if they begin arming weapons, or if they look like they’ve seen us.”
“We’re … running?” The communications officer looked like he wasn’t sure whether to be grateful or not.
“Five ships against us,” Larsen told him brutally. “We’re not going to win this if it comes to a fight.”
But they didn’t seem to want a fight. As the Eden’s watched, the ships streaked down through Mercury’s atmosphere and landed near a remote hangar.
Larsen narrowed his eyes at the satellite projection. “What the hell are they doing?”
Nobody answered. No one knew what was happening.
The minutes ticked by. Then a full hour. No distress calls from the surface. If they were under attack, they were being awfully quite about it.
Then, before Larsen could decide whether it was worth risking communications with the surface, the blotchy, half-focused images from the damaged satellites, showed the ships lifting off and racing away, still in their tight, Telestine formation.
Larsen hesitated.
“Open a channel to that hangar bay and see if you can lock onto a signal.”
“Yes, sir.” It took longer than usual, but at last the comm officer gave Larsen a thumbs up.
“Hangar bay, this is the Eden, currently in orbit. Is everyone down there okay?”
Silence.
They tried again. The channel hissed and popped, but there was no answer.
“High alert!” Larsen barked. “We’re going in there, and we don’t know what they’ve left behind!”
The bridge bustled with activity, when suddenly the comm officer shouted “Sir!”
“What is it?”
“I’m receiving verified fleet code from the surface. They indicate that they are ok, that there was no damage, and that they are not in need of assistance. The Telestines just came and stole some equipment, and then took off in a hurry once they faced defender gunfire. Their audio link must be damaged, but this code is unmistakeable.”
“Stand down. Repeat, stand down throughout the ship” Larsen said. He looked around at the crew. Every one of them looked as confused as he felt.
What the hell had they just witnessed?
Chapter Fifteen
Mars, High Orbit
VFS Santa Maria
Bridge
“Ma’am, our fighters are taking the rear starboard carrier.”
“Excellent, thank you.” Walker’s fingers dragged one of the mostly-automated carriers into place on the display. The bridge of Nhean’s ship was humming with activity, officers at sleek new desks, voices low as they relayed orders and information within the ship and the fleet. Everything was new, gleaming, and the officers themselves seemed to sit straighter and work all the faster for it.
“Also….” Her new communications officer swallowed. He pitched his voice to carry only to her as he leaned in across the display. “The Secretary General is on the line. Essa ma’am.”
She could not deal with this right now. Especially as he’d just tried to order her own fighters off their target.
“Tell him I’m busy,” Walker said grimly. She felt the anger simmer higher, a wash of acid in her stomach, and she welcomed it. Rage had gotten her through this life, and she could use it now, too.
She studied the Telestine fleet for a moment, tumbling in disarray. The carrier Essa was so worried about was still moving forward, sliding between two of the new human ships, but four destroyers waited behind her, ready to catch it in their crossfire.
The communications officer was still hovering. Suppressing a sigh, Walker looked up at him. “I’ll deal with Essa when this is done.”
His hands twisted. “Ma’am—”
“Just say the first bit.” Lord give her patience. “About me being busy.”
“Yes, ma’am.” His hands began to move, typing out the message, but he bit his lip as he did so.
“Good.” When this was over, before she dealt with Essa, she was going to relay some new orders to the officers—a reminder of just where their loyalties lay. Her eyes caught a flash of movement on the display: a ship was breaking out of formation. She tapped her commlink to the Intrepid. “Delaney. Where are you going?”
“I’ve been ordered to intercept the carrier, ma’am.”
Pure rage drenched her, making her skin flush. He was ordering her fleet ship by ship? “We’ve got the carrier under control.” How she managed to keep her voice even, she was not sure. “Hold formation. McAllister, report.”
“Making a noticeable dent, ma’am.” The fighter pilot sounded pleased with himself. “Newbies doing well, new ships doing well, we’ll be moving on to another carrier soon.” His voice dropped slightly. “We are following your orders, ma’am.”
A cold smile touched her lips. “Carry on, McAllister.”
She watched the battle unfolding. The Telestines were wavering, their ranks split. One of the enemy carriers was coming about to try to run, and her destroyers were moving to intercept it. It was chaos, but the sort of chaos she knew well.
The sort of chaos Essa should understand.
“Private call from Commander Delaney, ma’am.” An officer pressed a headset into her hand.
She pressed her lips together tightly as she took the call from Delaney. “Hold position. I’ll be speaking to the Secretary General when this is over.”
“Ma’am.” Delaney’s voice, and his formality, both screamed danger. “He’s threatening us with
court martial. My bridge crew is—”
“The Exile Fleet does not answer to the United Nations.” She snapped the words sharply enough that half of her own bridge crew looked around. “That ship is a decoy and we both know it. We have an appropriate force moving to intercept it. The moment we focus fire on it, the rest of the fleet will flank and take the colony. We can’t split our forces right now. Commander, I need you to hold position.” He knew that. He knew all of it, and she closed her eyes for a moment. “I will stand between Essa and your crew, Jack, you know that. I’ll take the heat.”
When he spoke, he sounded grateful beyond measure. “Yes, ma’am.”
“You.” She snapped her fingers at the communications officer and squinted at his name badge. “Sanderson, open a channel to the fleet for me.”
Sanderson’s fingers danced over the keys and he nodded.
“All ships, this is Admiral Walker.” Her own voice echoed eerily back at her. “You have trained for today. You have learned to fight with what you have, you have learned to see through the traps the Telestines would scatter in our path.” She hesitated, and then the rage welled up inside her once more and she twisted the knife. She knew he was listening. “The Secretary General, being a civilian, is of course worried about the outcome of this battle. However, as a civilian, he is not trained in our formations. Hold your present course.” She did not wait for an answer before motioning to Sanderson to cut the main line.
“He’s going to make you pay for that,” Delaney murmured in her ear.
“Let him try.” She felt her lip curl, and gave a tiny sound of satisfaction as one of the enemy carriers disappeared on the screen. Good job, Theo. “Sanderson will keep him off your comm channels. In the meantime … we have some stragglers to kill. That carrier will be in range of our destroyers in just a moment.”