“They should be saying more, Captain,” he said. “But there are only a handful of brief messages.”
Sameena wasn't surprised. The pirates – or whoever they were – wouldn't have wanted the locals actually talking to one another.
“Contact,” the sensor officer snapped, as his console pinged an alarm. “One starship ... it’s Captain Yew!”
Sameena let out a breath she hadn't realised that she’d been holding. “Very good,” she said. “Have him download his take to the command datanet.”
She smiled as she left the bridge and stepped into the conference room. “Well done, Captain,” she said, as Yew’s image appeared in front of her. “What did you find?”
“One heavy cruiser and one destroyer,” Yew said, bluntly. “The second destroyer appears to be missing.”
Sameena nodded. That was better, she supposed, than thinking that they could see all the enemy’s ships and then being caught because of their own overconfidence.
“We can take her,” she decided. “We’ll go with tactical plan five.”
“Understood,” Yew said. He hesitated. “I should note that the destroyer was apparently bombarding the planet. There's resistance going on down there.”
“All the more reason to intervene now,” Sameena said. The resistance would have nothing capable of stopping the destroyer from bombarding their positions at will. Their defeat was certain unless outsiders intervened. “The destroyers will accompany us under cloak. If worst comes to worst, we’ll need their firepower.”
She scowled, baring her teeth. “This has to be done,” she concluded. “Good luck to us all.”
Chapter Thirty-Nine
The Grand Senate refused to acknowledge this simple truth. Realistically, trying to fix the problems facing the Empire would have been an extremely difficult task. Instead, they struggled over portions of a pie that was steadily shrinking, while suppressing anyone who might attempt to reveal the truth. Such as your humble scholar.
- Professor Leo Caesius. The Science That Isn’t: Economics and the Decline and Fall of the Galactic Empire.
Sameena couldn't help feeling naked as the two q-ships made their way into the inner system, even though it was part of the plan. They were hellishly exposed; if they failed to damage the heavy cruiser in the first salvo, they would be trading blows with a tougher and more capable opponent than themselves. The tension on the bridge slowly rose, to the point where Sameena was tempted to send half her crew off for a nap. Instead, she just waited as patiently as she could until the heavy cruiser broke orbit and headed out towards them.
“One heavy cruiser on intercept vector,” the sensor officer said, unnecessarily. His eyes narrowed. “Captain, I think this ship is connected to the pirates we encountered in the Dueller System.”
“That’s odd,” Foxglove said. “How can you be sure?”
“Their sensors and drives are giving me the impression that they really don't know quite what they're doing,” the sensor officer said, studying the readings. “Again, they're not squeezing the most out of their systems. I don't think they even bothered to read the manual.”
Foxglove smiled. “Who does?”
Steve, Sameena thought. He’d ranted endlessly about people who bought equipment without bothering to read the manual, or at least find out what it could and couldn't do. When they didn't, he’d said, he'd often had to repair the equipment and it could be a major headache. On the other hand, half of the equipment they’d brought out of junkyards wouldn't have been junked if the owners had known more about it.
“And I think that at least one of their drive compartments is completely out of service,” the sensor officer added. “It isn't cutting into their speed, but they don't seem to have the power reserves they should have. Either that or they simply haven’t turned the engines on completely.”
Sameena smiled at the thought. Imperial Navy warships had multiple drive compartments and fusion cores, just to ensure that there was redundancy. But all the redundancy built into the starships wouldn't matter if the crews didn't know what they were doing. It was possible, she supposed, that someone might have cannibalised part of the cruiser to keep another ship going, but that would be risky. There would be no way to know when the ship might need to go to full military power.
“Any competent commanding officer would object strongly,” Foxglove said, when she suggested the possibility. “Even if they were overruled, removing the fusion core alone would be an absolute nightmare. They’d have to cut through the hullmetal, then repair it afterwards. And then they’d have to replace all of the control systems, which would be configured for one particular ship.”
Sameena nodded, looking at the heavy cruiser. It was clearly ex-Imperial Navy; a blocky hammerhead of a starship, bristling with weapons and sensor blisters. In some ways, it reminded her of Jamie’s destroyer, only scaled up and armed with more weapons. But then, few Imperial Navy starships would win design awards. Only luxury liners and a handful of RockRat starships were designed with aesthetics in mind.
“I’d suggest configuring the missile strike to target their drive section,” the sensor officer said. “Unless their damage control crews are absolute wizards, they won’t be able to recover after we hammer them.”
Foxglove scowled, but nodded. “I’ll have to divert some firepower to target their missile tubes,” he warned. “We don't want to let them have more than one free shot at us.”
Sameena left it in their hands as she contemplated the heavy cruiser. The sensor officer was right, she decided; whoever was in command of the ship didn't know precisely what they were doing. It was a frustrating mystery, all the more so because even the Imperial Navy had ways and means to cope with incompetent officers. Why would pirates capture the ship and then not learn how to master its systems?
She pulled up the report from Dueller and scowled at it. The survey teams had highlighted several facts, oddities that had caught their attention. One of them nagged at her mind; pirates weren't known for basic hygiene, but this crew had been almost as clean as an Imperial Navy crew. There hadn't been any urine on the deck or shit in the tubes. Sameena hadn't understood – she knew precisely how Captain Hamilton would have reacted to someone who pissed on his deck – until Foxglove had pointed out that pirate ships normally stank dreadfully. Their commanders kept their men on a very loose leash indeed.
One of the books she’d read for her exams had gone into some detail on pirate society. Apparently, those who entered the pirate world rapidly lost all socialisation, forgetting the laws and customs of civilisation. It had explained that the pirates, when faced with a new recruit, would force him to stain his hands with blood, ensuring that he could never go back to the Empire. And once broken, the new pirate would swiftly wallow in his own filth until he was no better than any of the others. It was chilling to realise that she might have ended up like that, if she had been captured by the pirates.
Or sold to them, if Captain Hamilton had been any less decent, she reminded herself. And shivered.
“We’re picking up a message now,” the sensor officer said. There was a hint of nervousness in his tone. “They want us to prepare to be boarded.”
“Surprise, surprise,” Sameena said. The message they’d sent to Maxwell had claimed that they were carrying spare parts, something the pirates would want desperately. It might cause them to hesitate if they suspected that something was wrong. “Send back a whiny message explaining that we have urgent business on Maxwell.”
There was a long pause. “They repeated their message,” the sensor officer said finally, as the display lit up with bright red light. “And they’ve locked onto us with weapons sensors.”
“Charming,” Sameena muttered. Interstellar etiquette frowned on locking onto someone’s hull unless one had bad intentions. It had started at least one war prior to the Unification Wars, when one side had thought the other intended to open fire and launched a pre-emptive strike. “Send them a cringing message demanding to k
now what’s going on.”
“They’re ordering us to cut drives,” the sensor officer said. “And they’re launching shuttles.”
Sameena nodded. “Have you targeted our weapons?”
“Yes, Captain,” Foxglove said. “I will coordinate our first strike with Lying Bastard.”
“Good,” Sameena said. She gritted her teeth. She’d hoped that the heavy cruiser would come closer before she had to open fire, but luck clearly wasn't on her side. As it was, the heavy cruiser might be able to get two or three barrages off before her first strike slammed into its hull. And it would have plenty of time to get its point defence up and running. “Deploy all of our drones and decoys as soon as you open fire.”
She hesitated, studying the display. The shuttles were separating themselves from the looming bulk of the heavy cruiser and zooming closer, just like the previous set of shuttles from the last pirate ship. She felt a flash of Déjà Vu, then pushed it aside. She couldn't afford distractions, not now.
“Target the shuttles with point defence,” she added. “And ... fire!”
Sneaky Bastard rocked as she unleashed her first missile salvo. The point defence opened fire in the same instant, vaporising the incoming shuttles. She could have sworn that she saw the heavy cruiser flinch on the display, although it was almost certainly her imagination. Even so, it took longer than it should have for the heavy cruiser to return fire. It spat out a wave of missiles towards her ships.
“ECM and decoys deployed,” Foxglove said. “Standard deception patterns activated.”
Sameena sucked in a breath as her missiles roared into the heavy cruiser’s engagement range. It’s point defence opened fire at once, wiping out a handful of missiles, but it seemed to be having problems coping with two separate barrages of missiles. Lying Bastard’s shots were coming in from a slightly different vector and it seemed to be confusing the enemy ship. The sensor officer was right, she realised grimly; the enemy really didn't know how their ships worked. A computer wouldn't have been too shocked to coordinate a proper defensive pattern.
“They’re launching a second barrage,” the sensor officer reported. “Missile impact in ...”
Sameena watched, grimly, as her missiles slammed into the heavy cruiser’s hull. It’s point defence seemed to have gotten better in the last few seconds, but not good enough to prevent four laser heads burning into its drive section. The ship’s power curves flat-lined abruptly, leaving it drifting in space. A moment later, a series of internal explosions tore the ship apart.
“Incoming,” Foxglove snapped.
Sameena hit the key on her command chair. “All hands, brace for impact,” she snapped. “I say again, all hands ...”
Sneaky Bastard shuddered, as if an angry god had hit her with a hammer. Sameena hung onto her chair as the gravity failed , several consoles going dark as parts of the ship’s control network failed. Moments later, the gravity field reasserted itself, pulling at the crew so hard it was a wonder that none of them fell out of their seats. Sameena twisted her head and peered over at the live feed from damage control. They’d taken at least four direct hits and the missile launchers were completely out of action.
Did they aim at them deliberately, she asked herself, or did the seeker warheads choose their targets for themselves?
She pushed the thought to one side as the gravity slowly returned to Earth-normal. “Damage report,” she snapped. “How badly are we hit?”
Foxglove scowled. “We’ve lost our missile launchers, our power distribution network is crippled and we’re venting air,” he snapped. “The ship is on the verge of breaking apart.”
Sameena winced. Sneaky Bastard had never been intended as her permanent command, but losing her still hurt. “Tell the crews to prepare to evacuate,” she ordered. “What about Lying Bastard?”
“Took one minor hit to the rear section,” the sensor officer reported. “The damage control parties report that it is under control, but they’ll need at least two weeks to carry out repairs.”
Assuming that we can find the parts, Sameena thought, ruefully. They might just have to tow both ships back to Madagascar.
She looked over at the main display. “What happened to the other enemy destroyer?”
“High-tailing it out of the system,” the sensor officer said. “They started to run as soon as they saw the heavy cruiser explode.”
“Smart guys,” Sameena muttered. She raised her voice as she keyed her console. “Captain Yew, advance to the planet and attempt to determine enemy positions. Then bring in the troops.”
“Understood,” Yew said. “Will you be transferring your flag?”
Sameena hesitated. She didn't want to leave her crew, not when their ship had to be evacuated, but she did want to keep an eye on Captain Yew. “Once I’ve supervised the evacuation,” she said, finally. “I trust you to make contact with what remains of the planet’s government.”
There had been one hundred crewmen on the q-ship, far more than any trader ship would consider necessary. Thirty-two of them were dead or seriously wounded – and Sameena knew that she’d been lucky. If the enemy had been more competent, Sneaky Bastard might have been blown completely out of space. But they’d won – and their enemy was nothing more than a drifting hulk. She watched as the bodies were bagged up for the funeral and the wounded were moved to Lying Bastard, then insisted on being the last one to board the shuttle that left her ship. Sneaky Bastard would be nothing more than a drifting hulk too, at least until she was repaired. The enemy ship was well beyond being useful for anything, but scrap metal.
“It could have been worse,” Foxglove said, as they watched the ship fade into the distance. “And we killed a much bigger ship in the process.”
Sameena nodded. By the Imperial Navy’s standards, they’d come out ahead – but if they’d had the Imperial Navy’s sheer weight of numbers, she would never have had to send a pair of q-ships up against a heavy cruiser. What if there were more of them? God knew that the Imperial Navy’s disposal procedures were careless to the point of recklessness. A cruiser that had been listed as being sent to the breakers might have been sent to pirates instead. Or an independence-seeking movement. Or a faction beyond the Rim, seeking to prepare for the fall of the Empire. Given the time to build up her own finances, Sameena might have started buying old ships too.
“Take us to link up with the destroyers,” she ordered. The remainder of the crew could stay with the Lying Bastard, but she needed to keep an eye on Captain Yew. “And see if you can get me a report from the planet.”
The resistance seemed to have launched a major attack as soon as they realised what was going on, she discovered. Apparently, the occupation force hadn't bothered to remove or execute the crew on the orbital station, who had remained in touch with their allies on the ground. The resistance had been alerted the moment the heavy cruiser was blown to atoms.
“The enemy dropped a large number of troops around Landing City,” Yew reported, as she stepped onto his bridge. It was smaller than she had expected, although she was gratified to discover that the crew looked thoroughly professional. “They’re also still in firm possession of the spaceport. However, the resistance has secured a handful of smaller landing strips and airports and would like us to deploy troops there.”
Sameena scowled, remembering Rosa. “Drop the advance teams first to check the situation, then we can land the rest of the troops,” she ordered. “Are they supplying targeting coordinates for KEWs?”
And another Landing City, she thought, inwardly. Sooner or later, someone is going to go to the wrong one.
“We’ve hammered all of the listed targets outside the cities,” Yew informed her. “However, I have been reluctant to actually fire into the cities. The prospect of civilian casualties is simple too high.”
Sameena couldn't disagree. KEWs were relatively precise, but a single mistake could cost lives. Far better to deploy her troops, get the enemy isolated and then hammer them from orbit, if
they refused to surrender. But there was something about the enemy deployment that puzzled her. It was almost as if they had had more in mind than looting, rape and mass murder before vanishing back into space.
Foxglove put it into words. “They intended to hold the planet indefinitely,” he said, softly. “Look at their deployments.”
“I don’t know much about deployments on the ground,” Sameena admitted, reluctantly. “Why do you think they meant to stay?”
“Most of their positions are designed for population control,” Foxglove said. “They’ve occupied the outskirts of the main cities, crossroads and bridges, the spaceport and most of the airports ... everywhere they need to occupy to keep the population from moving around freely. I’d be surprised if they hadn't started registering the population by now. And I really don't like the implications of us not being able to contact any of the former planetary government.”
Sameena followed his logic. “You think they’ve been killed?”
“It was standard procedure during the Unification Wars,” Foxglove admitted. “You land a sizable force, keep bombardment platforms in orbit to hammer anything too big for your groundpounders to handle ... and you arrest or execute everyone who might have the reputation to organise resistance. The Empire had plenty of penal colonies where former political leaders could be dumped; these people, I suspect, will simply have killed the planet’s leaders.”
Captain Yew motioned for Sameena’s attention. “The first landing elements report that the resistance is very pleased to see them,” he said. “They’re calling down the rest of the troops now.”
Sameena had seen enough problems with unloading a simple freighter to know that there would be problems unloading three giant freighters full of troops and their equipment. Somewhat to her surprise, the unloading proceeded with minimal delay, allowing Dueller’s troops to start advancing on the enemy positions. Guided by the resistance and supported by precise orbital bombardment, resistance rapidly became futile. One by one – and then in droves – the enemy troops began to surrender.
The Empire's Corps: Book 05 - The Outcast Page 38