“And the Blue Jay?”
“The asteroid rotates slowly under its own power,” the ship captain observed. “The hangar exit will point directly away from us just as we reach range of the rock. The Falcones will try and hold the ships back until then – it will be the safest time for anyone to run. We will track her then,” the tiny Asian man said confidently.
“Mister Wong, Lord Azure,” the young woman who’d helped Azure with his comms earlier interrupted. “You’ll want to see this message.”
She threw it up on the bridge’s main screen before either of the two men who ran the ship had time to question her. The swarthy image of Julian Falcone glowered out from the screen as he spoke.
“All Hunters in Darkport,” he said grimly, “this station is under attack. We will pay one hundred million Martian dollars, plus munitions, repairs, and death benefits, to any crew that engages Mikhail Azure’s ship.”
The loose formation of Hunter ships Azure had been watching suddenly tightened up, the heat signatures of all four ships increasing as they spun up secondary fusion reactors to power their weapons.
“That’s the price of a good-sized starship,” Azure observed. “I think we have them scared.”
“Scared or not, he’s got the Hunters in,” Wong told him. “Strap in, my lord. This is about to get ugly.”
In the space around them, the Azure Gauntlet’s laser turrets opened fire on the pitiful salvo that the Falcone missile boats had died to deliver. Without guidance, and with radiation scrambled sensors, even military antimatter missiles fell easily.
A handful broke through the lasers, but the Mage standing next to the simulacrum was ready. In an almost casual display of power, he blotted the remaining missiles from space with a single blast of fire.
#
David glared at the main viewscreen on the Blue Jay’s bridge and the relentlessly closed main hangar doors of Darkport. They’d detached from the docking tubes and connectors as soon as Jenna’s sensor feed had shown the arrival of the cruiser, but Darkport Control had ordered them to stay where they were.
A single ship – an armed bounty hunter ship, from what the burly Captain could tell – had been allowed to leave. The remaining collection of freighters and blockade runners, over thirty starships, was blockaded inside the massive cavern hangar by immense metal doors he hadn’t even realized Darkport had.
“You should see some of the offers we’re getting to carry people away from Darkport,” Jenna told David dryly. “We’re into buy a small mansion territory – a small mansion in New York.”
“Let someone with fewer of their own problems take them,” David replied sharply. “I just want out of this place. Damien?”
“Before you ask boss, yes, I can probably open the doors,” the young Mage told him from his usual spot in the simulacrum chamber. “Of course, the small arsenal the Falcones have strapped to the rock might object.”
The Blue Jay’s Captain nodded sharply. “Any word on outside?”
“The cruiser just blew away the missile boats,” Jenna told them grimly. “Looks like the Falcones have bought the Hunter ships outside – I think they’re maneuvering to fight. I’m guessing the exterior launchers and lasers are charging up too. It’s going to be ugly.”
“And we’re stuck in here?” David complained aloud. “I’m about ready to risk that they won’t want to shoot at us, even if …”
“Incoming coms from the station,” Jenna told him, then threw the transmission up on the viewscreen, replacing the image of the hangar doors.
“All ships, this is Julian Falcone,” the swarthy, heavily-built man in the suit informed them. “In twelve minutes, Mikhail Azure’s personal warship will come into range of Darkport. Fortunately for all of you, about thirty seconds before that, the hangar will have rotated to point directly away from him.
“At that time, we will open the hangar doors, and I recommend that you all run for it,” the crime lord said bluntly. “We will use the station weapons to cover your retreat. I hope to defeat Azure, in which case you will all be more than welcome to return to the base.”
“Uh-huh,” someone said into the channel. “We’re supposed to believe you’ll expend resources to protect us? Right!”
“Oh, we will also be covering a number of our own ships,” Falcone told the voice dryly, then leveled a hard glare on the camera. “But I am also somewhat old fashioned, and I believe that if a man has paid me for protection, I owe him some god-damn protection.
“If you don’t trust me, do whatever the hell you want,” he finished, “but I will only attempt to provide one window of opportunity. After that, you can dodge the cruiser on your own.”
The channel cut off and David looked over at Jenna and the screen with Damien’s image.
“I have this sinking feeling that even with thirty other ships around us, that asshole is going to shoot at us,” he told his two officers. “Thoughts?”
“I’m not coming up with much beyond ‘run like hell,’ boss,” Jenna admitted.
Damien seemed to consider for a long moment, and the Mage nodded.
“I think so,” he said. “If we keep on a relatively steady course and acceleration, I think I can hide us from the cruiser’s sensors.”
The Captain stared at his Mage in shock for a moment. “You’re kidding me, right?” he asked bluntly.
“I couldn’t do it in empty space,” the youth admitted. “But we’re going to be in an area with explosions and a bunch of ships firing their engines. I can split up our heat signature to attach to everything around us and mis-direct their radar and lidar.” He hesitated. “I don’t think I’ll be able to do it for long, but I think I can get us far enough out to jump.”
“Get ready then,” David ordered, before his doubts solidified. “Any edge we can get,” he reminded himself and Jenna aloud. “We need out of this system – and away from that cruiser!”
#
Azure watched as the four Hunter ships formed into an even square facing the Gauntlet. The modified yachts started moving towards the Syndicate cruiser, their acceleration slow for no reason he saw.
“Should we be slowing down to board Darkport?” he asked Wong, quietly so as not to betray his ignorance to the rest of the bridge crew.
“We’ll be firing retro-thrusters shortly,” his Captain told him, “but to actually be able to dock with Darkport, we’d need to start full deceleration, which would have us pointing our engines at the station – and three-quarters of our weapons away from it.
“We’ll make a slow firing pass of the station and remove most of the weapons with our forward batteries, then return once we’ve neutralized their batteries and defenders.”
Azure nodded his understanding. The Crime Lord knew the limits of his skill-set, and fighting a space battle was well beyond them.
“What about the hunters?”
“The four of them could probably take a pair of Navy destroyers,” Wong observed, watching the defenders’ formation. “They know what they’re doing, too – that square clears both their offensive and defensive lines of fire, but lets them support each other too.”
The pirate captain shrugged, and flashed his boss a bright grin.
“Not enough,” he concluded, turning to his crew. “Monroe!”
The ship’s gunner turned to face Wong. “Yeah, boss?”
“Once we’re in range, pick a target and give her the full forward battery,” Wong ordered. “Rinse and repeat until we need to start shooting at the rock.”
“Gotcha.”
“How long to range?” Azure asked quietly and Wong shrugged.
“Five minutes for us to range on the hunters,” he said. “Eight for us to range on the station. If they have the same missiles as those shuttles, the hunters will range on us as we range on the station.”
“And Darkport?”
The asteroid flickered in Azure’s display as a highlight settled on it, marking the weapons bases they had identified so far.
/> “I expect them to have heavy ground-based missiles,” Wong admitted. “They’ll range on us when we range on them.”
Wong walked away from Azure, checking in on other stations as Azure began to run through the various displays on his chair’s console. One of the video feeds was from a recon drone that had settled in to watch the hangar bays.
Those doors stayed resolutely shut as the timer in the corner of the screen ticked down, and Azure was starting to wonder if the Falcones were planning on letting anyone out when Monroe’s sharp announcement cut through his thoughts.
“Range on targets, firing one through sixty,” he declared aloud. A moment later, the entire multi-million ton mass of the Azure Gauntlet shivered as her main weapons fired.
“Time to impact, seven minutes and counting,” the spectacularly haired gunner continued. “Time to reload, ninety seconds.”
“Bandits are firing!” another pirate tech suddenly announced. “I’m reading seventy-two missiles inbound, Phoenix VIIs.”
“I guess they’re feeling spendy on Falcone’s dime,” Wong told the bridge crew with a teeth-baring grin. “Monroe, keep pouring it on. Kelsier, run the turrets and keep us clear. Hu, if Darkport launches, I want to know yesterday.”
Azure sat back, watching the crew of his ship fight for him. There was little he could do other than watch his screens now.
Ninety seconds after the first salvos launched, Monroe sent a second salvo blasting into space. Twenty seconds after that, the hunters returned fire. Azure noted the slower reload time, but evaluating the competence of the hunter ships was outside his purview.
Before the third salvo launched, though, there was movement on the screen from his recon drone. He pinged the sensor tech immediately, in case Hu hadn’t seen it.
“They’re opening the hangar to release the freighters.”
“Keep your eyes peeled, ‘cause that means the station is going to launch again!”
A third salvo blasted clear of the pirate cruiser, and Azure watched the scans of the ships fleeing Darkport carefully.
“Holy mother of devils,” a voice cut through the buzz of the bridge, and Azure’s gaze snapped to the sensor tech and the image on the screen.
“Darkport has launched,” Hu said in a dry voice. “I’m reading one hundred fifty – I repeat, one five zero – heavy missiles inbound.”
Azure looked at the screen, taking a moment to interpret the unfamiliar data codes. Gauntlet had fired more missiles than the asteroid so far – they had three salvos sweeping out at the Hunter ships, still with over three minutes to go before impact. The Hunters had fired almost as many, with two seventy-two missiles salvos blasting towards Gauntlet.
Even he knew that a single hundred and fifty missile salvo was a different kettle of fish.
“I see we’re earning our pay today,” Wong said after the sharp moment of silence. “Monroe, hold tubes fifty-one through sixty for counter-missile deployment. Begin transferring area denial munitions to those tubes.
“Kill me those Hunters, and then we’ll deal with Darkport,” the ex-Hunter ordered.
The external cameras on the bridge suddenly dulled, the computers auto-filtering as the first explosions began to light up the space around the stolen cruiser.
Lasers reached out from the Hunter’s modified yachts as well, and Azure almost immediately saw the difference between the Gauntlet’s defenses and those of the essentially civilian ships. The Azure Gauntlet had dozens of Rapid-Fire-Laser-Anti-Missile turrets. The bounty hunter ships had a dozen apiece, and they were weaker and shorter-ranged than the Gauntlet’s as well.
“Got him!” Monroe shouted as his first salvo ran home. With four of the ships networking their defenses, Azure hadn’t been sure for a moment. Of the sixty missiles they’d fired, three made it through the gauntlet of coherent light to impact.
With eight hundred megaton antimatter warheads, three was more than enough.
Of the seventy-plus missiles the hunters had fired back, one made it past the lasers. The Mage at the amplifier flicked it away with ease, his eyes focused on the next salvo.
The second exchange ended the same way, another hunter ship dying in flame. The remaining two ships were withdrawing under the shield of the asteroids defenses now, though. The Gauntlet’s third salvo ran into a salvo of counter-missiles from the asteroid that almost saved them. Two missiles broke through, and then revealed that Monroe had perhaps grown cocky with his third round.
The missiles split at the last moment, each homing in on a different target. One missile slammed into each of the surviving hunter ships, and two separate explosions lit up the side of Darkport’s asteroid home.
“Brace yourself,” Wong ordered. With the last of the bounty hunters’ missiles gone, the first salvo from Darkport itself was inbound.
“Lord,” Hu interrupted Azure’s focus on the battle. He turned to face the small Asian woman who was running the sensors. “We can’t find the Blue Jay.”
“What do you mean?” Azure demanded.
“We’ve identified every freighter that has fled Darkport,” she told him. “Your target isn’t among them.”
“There’s no way they’d stay,” the Crime Lord objected. “They have to be there.”
“I know,” Hu said helplessly, clearly anticipating his anger. “We do not see her.”
Azure glanced back at the recon drone’s footage of the fleeing freighters. Each of them was now tagged with a name, clearly identified by the crew and computers. The Blue Jay wasn’t among them. There was a pattern, though, and he began to reach for it.
Then the entire ten-million-ton mass of the Azure Gauntlet leapt like a startled puppy and his screens crashed with the main bridge lights.
#
The lights flickered back on, along with Azure’s screen, after a few moments of pitch black. Some of the consoles stayed on through the blackout, providing an eerie light in the space that Azure was suddenly all-too-aware was basically a large steel coffin.
“What the hell was that?” he demanded.
“Emergency defense override,” Wong told him. “The ship diverted all available power to an electromagnetic weave in the hull that’s supposed to dissipate antimatter before it annihilates the hull.”
“That seems dangerous,” Azure observed dryly.
“We took three gigaton-range direct hits and we’re still here,” his ship captain told him brusquely. “I can live with the inconvenience. Damage report!” he bellowed at his staff.
“All three hit on quadrant two,” Monroe told him grimly. “We lost ten tubes and over a dozen laser turrets. Hull integrity… is holding.”
The mohawked pirate sounded surprised. Azure was surprised – three gigatons worth of explosions, and they weren’t even breached?!
“They built this ship tough,” Wong observed. “Ninety seconds to next salvo. Please tell me we’re targeting the launchers.”
“An entire salvo on its way, another launching shortly,” the gunner promised.
Leaving the battle in Wong’s capable hands, Azure turned back to the scan of the freighters and the pattern he’d noticed.
“Ship’s Mage,” he barked. He hadn’t actually learned which of the three was on duty. “Use the amplifier to scan this space,” he ordered, highlighting a region in the middle of the gaggle of fleeing starships.
A moment passed in silence.
“It’s there,” the Mage replied flatly. “That’s one hell of a thaumic signature – how come the sensors can’t see it?!”
“Because he’s shielding against those, and didn’t realize he’d stick out like a sore thumb to a Mage,” Azure told him calmly. “Montgomery’s a clever bastard. Wong – can he shield his jump signature?”
The Tracker faced the crime lord and shrugged. “Unlikely,” he told Azure. “A Mage remaining behind probably could, but I suspect he would like to leave with his ship.”
“Indeed,” Azure settled back in his chair. “Then once we have captured
Darkport, he will be easy to pursue.”
Wong looked uncomfortable. Behind him, missiles exploded in space on the main screen as Darkport’s defenses began to shred the Gauntlet’s attack.
“That salvo hurt us,” he told Azure softly. “We’re down a sixth of our launchers – and we just got less than ten missiles through their defenses with full salvo.”
“Are you saying we can’t take Darkport?” the master of the Syndicate asked slowly, his voice cold.
“No,” Wong replied, his voice equally cold. “But we will have to close to amplifier range to do so now, which means we will get hurt by their missiles and lasers.
“If we take Darkport, my lord, we will not be in sufficient condition to pursue the Blue Jay,” the ex-bounty hunter laid out flatly.
“I recommend we wait until we have the scan of the Jay’s jump, and then jump out to our fall-back position. We will be able to make repairs and pursue your prey. We have three Jump Mages to their one – it will only take a few days at most to catch up and capture Montgomery.
“Then, with that bird in the hand, we can return and capture Darkport,” Wong concluded. “Every jump capable ship is in that flock of refugees. There will be no help for the Falcones – no reinforcements that can arrive before we return.”
“We can still have them both, my lord, but we must leave off the attack today.”
Azure turned away from his Captain, eyeing the asteroid ahead of them. Nine missiles had detonated on the rock’s surface, gouging massive chunks out of the planetoid and wiping away defensive weapons. Enough still remained that he believed Wong. If they took too much damage reducing Falcone’s defenses, they would lose the grand prize.
“Very well,” he replied. “But if we lose Montgomery, Wong…”
“We won’t.”
#
Damien struggled to maintain the cloaking spell. For the first time in a long time, it wasn’t his power that was the problem but his concentration. The spell wasn’t overly demanding in terms of energy and even his limited strength could handle it, but tracking all of the complex components of burying the Blue Jay’s energy signature in other ships took a lot of focus.
Starship's Mage: Omnibus: (Starship's Mage Book 1) Page 34