First Principles: Samair in Argos: Book 3

by KOTCHER, MICHAEL

  “Makes as much sense as anything, sir,” the XO replied, turning back to his tactical console. “They’re coming around again sir.”

  “Shields coming back up to 55% on starboard side, Captain,” the Shield-tech reported. “Power is diverted to engines and guns, sir, so recharge is slow.”

  “Understood,” he replied. “Divert some power away from the guns to shield recharge. Target the same ship as before and hammer it for me, if you would please, Mister Kamerov.”

  “Aye, sir!” the other man said loudly, a huge grin splitting his face.

  Verrikoth watched as his two cruisers swooped around and pounced on the heavy cruiser. The bigger ship lashed out with its weapons, battering Meghna with its turbo- and heavy lasers. The other light cruiser’s shields were showing heavy spotting now and more than a few of the shots got through, hitting the ship’s armored hull. Compared to the Republic ship, his cruisers’ armor was not so much the deterrent to weapons’ fire, but when he had commissioned these ships to be built, he’d demanded that they be fast and could deal out punishment. These initial ships were meant to be raiders, perfect vessels for a spot of honest piracy. The later ships, like the one in the yard in Tyseus, would be built more as a proper, front-line warship. He wanted that ship to have heavier armor, heavy shields, heavy weapons. It would be slower, sure, but it could probably stand up to Legacy and win in a one on one battle.

  But his own ships, despite the damage to Meghna, managed a good barrage of fire in return. They hit the heavy cruiser on its port side as it was trying to rotate. Both ships concentrated every weapon they had on one particular spot, slightly forward of center of the ship. The zheen’s antennae waggled in pleasure as the shots pierced the heavy cruiser’s shields, missiles still not making it through Legacy’s point defense, but the energy weapons punched through to the hull beneath. He nodded as he watched flames belched from a breach in the hull as the atmosphere inside the breach ignited.

  “Hull breach, deck six!” the warrant officer at the damage control station cried as the ship bucked violently. “Sealing off the section.”

  “Helm, bring us back around,” Harth ordered, his voice grim. “Get us after those cruisers. I’m done playing their game.” The fleet pirate cruisers tried to pull away from the Republic ships, but the Legacy was not willing to simply let them get away. “Reroute power to the engines, bring us up to 110%. I am not going to let them get away.”

  “Captain, I have Engineering on the line for you, sir,” Khovik said.

  “Put her on,” Harth replied, expecting a call from the chief engineer.

  “Captain, I can get you up to one ten on the engines, but we won’t be able to hold it there all day,” the Severite engineer told him, sounding as though she was moving quickly through, almost running. “Twenty-five minutes, Captain, and then I either power down, or the engines overheat.”

  “Understood, Lieutenant,” he answered. “How long until you can give me my engine power?”

  “Forty seconds, Captain,” came the answer.

  “Very well,” he said and cut the connection. If the chief had a problem and she needed to let him know, she would. Meanwhile, he saw that his ship was now in pursuit of the two cruisers, who had broken off their attack and were vectoring away from Legacy, putting the heavy cruiser into a stern chase. Suddenly there was a lurch and the status feeds on the edge of Duncan’s display showed that the engines were now operating at 110% and the ship was accelerating for all she was worth. The gap between them was slowly closing. They won’t hold this vector for long. Sure enough, the cruisers broke off their straight line retreat, one diving below the plane of the ecliptic, one climbing above.

  “Alter course,” Harth said immediately, his eyes never leaving the display. “Go after the one diving below the ecliptic. Its shields are somewhat weaker than the other one.”

  “Incoming!” Droven shouted. It was a breach of protocol, but he could be forgiven. Everyone had gotten so focused on the cruisers that they’d overlooked the corvettes. By turning to follow the one light cruiser, they flew right into the teeth of the two corvettes, whose heavy lasers were lighting up space, coherent light lancing forth from the smaller ships and battering the heavy cruiser’s forward shields.

  “Forward shields are taking heavy fire! Down to 47%, 40… 32 and showing some spotting now.”

  “Taking damage to the forward hull,” the warrant at damage control reported. “Turbolaser battery 1A has taken a hit, guns are out of action.” Another hit rocked the ship, then two more. “Shield generator node is out in the forward section!”

  “Forward shields are down to 11%!” the shield tech called, sounding worried. “Trying to rebuild our shields, but without that node, I can’t get it all back, Captain.”

  “Do your best,” Harth ordered, watching his display showing the ships race past the icon for Legacy. “And get us in range of that damned light cruiser, helm. Mister Kamerov, the instant you’re in range, you open fire. Get their engines, slow them down.”

  “Aye, sir!” Kamerov reprioritized his weapons. “In missile range now, firing on the cruiser.” Four missiles separated from the heavy cruiser, racing toward their targets. The cruiser twisted, trying to evade, firing its point defense lasers wildly, spraying the area behind it with energy blasts. Three of the missiles were shot down, but the fourth slipped through and exploded against the ship’s shields. Energy bled through and damage sparkled across the four main propulsion units of the light cruiser.

  “Got him!” the XO crowed, pumping his fist in the air. “Firing forward turbolasers!” Energy lashed out, tearing into the aft section of the pirate ship. An instant later, the light cruiser’s acceleration suddenly dropped and the heavy cruiser rapidly closed the gap. Both ships exchanged fire, ripping into each other’s shields and then into the armor.

  “Pour it on, Mister Kamerov,” Harth said, leaning forward slightly in his chair, gripping the arms of his chair so tightly that he actually was surprised that pain was radiating from his hands. The ship rocked as another salvo struck hard.

  “Shields on the port facing are failing,” the shield tech cried. Another hit. “Shields on the port side are completely gone.”

  “Should I roll the ship, Captain?” the helmsman asked, his hands ready on the controls.

  “No,” Harth replied, much to the surprise of all his officers. “There are other ships still out there and they’re going to be coming back around. We need to keep our opposite facing strong for when they do.” The guns continued their determined pounding back and forth, but it was simply a matter of numbers. In under a minute, the light cruiser’s guns had been wrecked and it was bleeding air from nearly a dozen breaches. Legacy was only doing slightly better. Half her portside guns were silent, her shields were completely down and there were three hull breaches on that side of the ship. The breaches were sealed off but the heavy cruiser was far from intact at this point.

  “Get me Gunnery Sergeant Rajendra,” Harth suddenly ordered, referring to the head of the ship’s Marine contingent.

  “Wait one, Captain,” Khovik replied, pressing a few commands on his console. “I’ve got him.”

  The image of the blunt-nosed Marine appeared on the Commander’s display. “Gunny, where are you?” he asked.

  “I’m on deck Four, Cap,” the Maine non-com answered. “Working damage control with half of my guys. What do you need?”

  “I need you to suit up,” Duncan ordered. “As fast as possible. We have a light cruiser we’re about to grapple with and I’d like for you to get over there and secure it for me.”

  It was as though Duncan had started handing out candy. “Yes, sir! I’ll have my whole platoon ready in five. Any idea how much in the way of resistance we can expect?” he asked. The background behind him was changing rapidly, indicating that he was hustling through the corridors of the ship, heading to Marine country.

  Duncan shrugged. “There’s no way to know, Gunny. I’d say to expect heavy resi
stance.”

  He barked a laugh. “I always do, Captain,” he said, sounding downright jovial. “That way I can be pleasantly surprised if it isn’t.”

  “Right.” The captain chuckled. “I’ll leave it to you how you want to handle the boarding, Gunny. But if you’re going to jump across I’d like to be informed.”

  “No, sir,” Rajendra replied. “I’ll be using the assault shuttles. Both of them.” He grimaced. “Though, sir, if you could see that the guns aren’t shooting us down, that would be a big help.”

  “I’ll take care of it, Gunny,” Harth assured him, nodding slightly. “And we’ve already shot out their engines, so they won’t be getting anywhere.”

  “I’m on it, Captain. Don’t worry, my boys and I will take care of it for you. You break ‘em, we take ‘em.” He chuckled to himself, gave a sloppy salute and signed off.

  “Hostile vessels are coming around for another pass on our starboard side,” the domak ensign called out. “All four of them.”

  “We have to hold position, protect the Marines as they cross,” Harth said. “Shields, do what you can to increase power to our starboard side.”

  “Aye, Captain,” the ensign replied, hammering at keys on his console. “I’ll need to divert power from propulsion.”

  “Do it,” Harth ordered. “We’re going to be holding position anyway relative to that light cruiser.”

  “Now we have them,” Verrikoth said, his mouthparts squirming, a thick saliva dripping from the inner most pincers. “All ships: lock onto the port side of that ship, to one point halfway down the hull. I want their shields to collapse and I want that ship destroyed! I want its crew dead! I want to feast on that arrogant captain’s flesh!”

  The bridge crew was exchanging terrified looks, but they were quickly cut off, their eyes or optical appendages turning back to their consoles. No one dared contradict or question the Captain; in fact none of them dared speak or make noise outside of the normal operations of their duties. And it wouldn’t have been the first time the Captain had torn someone apart and eaten them. It hadn’t been a member of his crew, it had been one of his slaves, but everyone knew he was capable of it.

  The pirate cruiser and its escorts opened up, energy weapons blazing with power, impacts hammering the Republic cruiser. All of the lighter pirate ships were coming in under serpentine attack patterns, while the Ganges was coming in on a direct attack vector. The light cruiser was much more nimble than Legacy, but even that ship couldn’t dance around quite so well as the corvettes and the cutter.

  “Yes, yes!” the pirate lord crowed, hissing slightly, nearly shouting. “Again! Hit them again!”

  The Ganges rocked as more and more hits came in from the Legacy’s turbolasers and as they drew closer, the Republic ship’s batteries of heavy lasers opened up. “Forward shields are failing, Captain.” A series of vicious hits jolted the whole ship and Verrikoth stumbled, catching himself on the rail in front of the sensor station. “Shields have collapsed, hull breach in section one, deck two.” Another hit rocked the Ganges, this one followed by a series of explosions within the ship. “Hull breach, section one, deck three, we’ve got internal explosions and severe internal damage.” The zheen sitting at the damage control station stabbed frantically at his controls, his blunted fingers sealing bulkheads and rerouted control runs and power relays. “Breaches are sealed, Captain. I’m rerouting function around the damage now.”

  The ships converged, both sides pouring on the strikes. But the light cruiser faltered before the crushing onslaught of Legacy’s weapons. A flurry of missiles raced out and exploded in the Ganges’s path. The ship’s weapons intercepted most of them, but a few got through, and tore up the ship’s unshielded bow. Several salvos pummeled the nearest corvette, which veered off, accelerating for all she was worth. The second corvette changed its attack vector, aiming not for Legacy, but straight at Ravage. The Republic corvette returned fire and tried to evade, but attacks from the pirate cutter had battered her shields and she couldn’t twist out of the way in time.

  The heavy lasers struck the forward superstructure, punching through the lighter armor ripping into the internals. The energy blasts tore into the forward capacitors which detonated, tearing open the forward section of the ship. Atmosphere ignited, as equipment and crewmen, or parts of them, were blown out into space.

  “Ravage has been hit!” Droven called out. “Heavy damage to her forward section, she’s lost main power. She’s adrift.”

  “Damn it,” Harth swore, trying to remain calm. There was nothing he could do to cover Lieutenant Tran and his ship, not with the shuttles racing over to board the pirate cruiser. He couldn’t move the Legacy from where it was. “Mister Kamerov, can you tag me that cutter?”

  “Sorry, sir,” the XO said. “They’re being clever, keeping either the disabled cruiser or the Ravage between us and them. And that little cutter isn’t a huge target.”

  “Do your best,” Duncan told him. “If they stick their head out, you chop it off.”

  “Aye, aye, sir!” the XO said eagerly, retargeting the weapons.

  “Yesss!” the pirate lord hissed in triumph. “They sstole that sship from me. I tore it from their handz!”

  “Sir, we’ve lost most of our forward weapons,” Tyler said, indicating the display. His ship was in tatters and he wasn’t sure that the Ganges would survive too much longer. “We need to break off. We’ve already lost one of the cutters, Meghna is disabled and being boarded and Ganges is hurt.”

  The pirate lord whirled, hissing menacingly. But suddenly his antennae drooped. “Very well, Commander, you are correct. Order all sshipss to break and accelerate for the hyper limit. I have worked too hard to conssolidate my forcez to lose them all here.” More hissing. “I want that Republic sship! No, we will jump for Tysseuss.”

  “Helm, alter course, vector away from the Republic ship,” Tyler ordered harshly. The helmsman was only too happy to obey that order.

  “Sessilan and Korokat are breaking off their attack on the cruiser,” the com-tech reported, sounding relieved. “They’re racing away on different vectors. Toroj is also moving off on another vector, Captain.”

  “Make ssure they all know to loop around and vector towardz Tysseuss,” Verrikoth stated plainly, his antennae raising again. “Contact Cierre and Ajax. They are to finish their loading and move sstraight for the hyper limit at max acceleration. All sshipss will make a short hyperssspace jump and rendezvous at a predetermined sset of coordinatesss.” He stepped over to the navigation console and the navigator slid to the side to allow him access. He typed in a few commands. “Here.”

  “Yes, sir,” the navigator said. “I’ll get that course plotted right away.”

  Verrikoth’s compound eyes couldn’t be read, but anyone who looked at the pirate lord standing on the bridge of the damaged light cruiser could see disappointment radiating outward from him. This was not the plan he wanted to be following, but it was clear that the Republic heavy cruiser was too much for his lighter forces. We will fall back to Tyseus. Ironhide and Wrath are there, as well as the fighter squadron. More than enough forces to supplement my flotilla, now that we have lost Meghna. Curse that Republic pig. Once my own new flagship is ready to fight I will get a second chance to destroy them!

  “Captain, the pirate ships are all breaking off,” Droven said, sounding bewildered. “They’re all running away on different vectors, but I’d guess they’re all heading for the hyper limit.”

  “They’re heading somewhere specific,” Duncan predicted. “They’re all going to scatter for the hyper limit, jump out and head for a specific set of coordinates to regroup. Then from there they’ll head on to their true objective.”

  “Could be Tyseus, Captain,” Kamerov replied, turning away from tactical. “We fought those ships there; they had that heavy cruiser in the construction yard.”

  Duncan twisted his lips, tapping his fist on the arm of the chair and cursed. “Now I wish we would have tras
hed that ship. I second guessed myself more than once while we were in the system.” He sighed heavily. “I never thought that bastard could take Byra-Kae.”

  But Kamerov was smiling. “But sir, think of it this way. He might have taken it but he couldn’t keep it. We’ve taken it back.”

  “Yes, Mister Kamerov,” the Captain replied, nodding. “I believe you are correct.” He checked the display. “Damage report?”

  “Hull breaches on the port side, port side shields are down. Starboard shields are also down, but we’re working to rebuild. Hull damage and a few systems are out on the starboard side. Port side has lost two turbolaser batteries, two of the four missile launchers are down. Engineering has dispatched teams for repairs.”

  “Very well. Comms, what’s the status of the Marines?”

  Khovik nodded. “Shuttles are landing their troops now. Gunnery Sergeant Rajendra is debarking now.”

  “Keep me informed of their progress.” Duncan checked his status feeds; the pirate ships were definitely on their way out of the system. So, he and his ships had come in here and chased the pirate lord out of the system, doing what the local picket force couldn’t. Of course, he’d had a heavy cruiser at his disposal and the Commodore who’d been in command here only had a pair of destroyers. They were tough ships, Adder-class destroyers, to be sure, but they clearly had been bested by the trio of pirate cruisers. But that begged a question.

  “Where is Verrikoth’s third light cruiser?” he asked.

  “Sir?” Kamerov asked, confused. “There were only two here.”

  “Correct,” Duncan replied. “But when we saw him at Ulla-tran a few months ago, he had three cruisers and all of them jumped on a vector for this system. But we never saw any sign of it.”