“Sort of,” Geary confirmed. “The coin-shaped subformations are very flexible. I can pivot each of them easily because of the shape and the smaller size. But they’ll be arrayed differently than in the Echo Five we used at Lakota.” Four coins were forming up in a diamond shape, their broad sides facing the enemy. In the open center of the diamond but farther back, a larger coin centered on Dauntless also faced the enemy.
“Are the auxiliaries bait again?”
“No. I’m trying to protect them. I’ve got them in the back of my part of the formation because I have to do something with them, and if the Syndics try to go after our auxiliaries there, they’ll have to run a very nasty gauntlet to get near them.”
He waited, everyone waited, as the minutes crawled by and the Syndics raced closer. Surely the Syndic commander wouldn’t simply charge up the middle. But the Syndic wasn’t maneuvering, wasn’t aiming for one part of the Alliance fleet. Twenty minutes to contact. Fifteen minutes to contact. Was the Syndic paralyzed with indecision, stupid, or carefully waiting until the last possible moment to shift his formation’s course?
It was getting too close, and the Syndic box could still veer up, down, or to the side against any single Alliance subformation. Geary knew he couldn’t wait any longer. He mentally split the difference between possible Syndic actions, figuring out Alliance maneuvers that were particularly tricky because of the way momentum would affect course vectors after changes in heading. Hoping he’d gotten it right, he called out orders. “Formation Echo Four Two, turn together and alter course to port zero eight five degrees up one zero degrees at time one five.” That would cause Echo Four Two to change from a flat formation like an onrushing wall with all ships facing forward, into a knife-edge with the ships facing the thin edge, slicing left and up across the space the Syndic flotilla should cross about the same time. “Formation Echo Four Three, turn together and alter course to starboard zero eight one degrees, down one zero degrees at time one six.” The same thing, only with the subformation on the left side of the diamond slicing to the right and down.
He had to take a breath before calling the next two orders. “Formation Echo Four Four, turn together and alter course up zero nine zero degrees at time one seven. Formation Echo Four Five, turn together and alter course down zero nine five degrees at time one eight.” That would bring the top and bottom of the diamond slashing across the center as well.
Now for the biggest single portion of the fleet, the large trailing formation containing Dauntless and the auxiliaries. “Formation Echo Four One, pivot down zero nine zero degrees around flagship Dauntless as guide and alter course up zero one zero degrees at time two zero. All units in the Alliance fleet fire missiles and hell lances as the enemy enters engagement envelopes.”
Desjani raised both eyebrows as she absorbed the orders. “If he keeps coming up the middle, we’ll nail him.”
“Let’s hope he does.” Geary stared at his display, where the Syndics were charging closer at tens of thousands of kilometers per second. His image of the enemy was now almost real-time, only a few seconds delayed by the time required for light to cross the distance between opposing forces. “Damn. There he goes.” The ships in the Syndic box had all angled upward slightly at the last possible moment, aiming to hit the Alliance subformation at the top of the diamond.
But that formation wasn’t there anymore, already turning, momentum carrying it in a wide curve down and toward the Syndics. A Syndic barrage of missiles followed by grapeshot tore toward the expected location of the Alliance subformation, but instead of meeting the Alliance ships the grapeshot met empty space. The Syndic missiles curved into stern chases, trying to catch up with targets that had dodged to one side.
But the Syndic flotilla had made a much smaller course change, so that successive Alliance subformations had crossed near the path of the Syndics moments before the enemy, volleying out missiles of their own. Most of the Alliance specters smashed into the leading edges of the Syndic formation, wreaking havoc with the lighter warships and pummeling the battleships and battle cruisers in that part of the Syndic box.
“Damn,” Geary repeated under his breath. The change in the Syndic course hadn’t been very big, but it had been enough. The Alliance subformations had avoided getting hit by the Syndics, but were also out of hell-lance range as the Syndics cleared the missile barrage. At least he hadn’t wasted any of his fleet’s limited supply of grapeshot.
The same wouldn’t be true as the Syndic box encountered the big trailing Alliance formation. The Alliance auxiliaries, which had been at the back of the formation, had pivoted to the top as the Alliance wall rotated flat and angled upward, protecting them from the fire of the Syndic warships that would pass just under the Alliance ships. “You called this one dead-on,” Desjani murmured, her eyes still fixed on her display.
“Maybe too close,” Geary replied, hastily triggering his command circuit. “Alliance ships in formation Echo Four One, employ all weapons, including grapeshot.”
Dauntless and the other Alliance warships with her hurled out their missiles, followed by tightly packed fields of ball bearings. The Syndic box actually had more warships in it than the Alliance formation with Dauntless, but almost every Alliance ship in the flat-coin formation could engage the Syndics, whereas only the upper layers of the Syndic box could fire on the enemy.
The warships in the upper part of the Syndic box staggered as they hit wave after wave of Alliance missiles, followed by wave after wave of grapeshot as the length of the enemy formation shot past under the length of the Alliance almost horizontal plane, the formations almost touching as the rear of the Alliance warships passed the enemy. The Syndics hadn’t had time to reload the missile launchers they’d used against the first Alliance subformation, but pumped out their own barrage of grapeshot.
In the tiny fraction of a second in which this was happening, hell lances also flashed out, hitting shields weakened by earlier hits and warships whose shields had suffered failures under the blows.
Geary knew he couldn’t take time to evaluate the results of the clash, so even as Dauntless was still shuddering from hits and her watch-standers were calling out damage reports, he sent out more orders. “Formation Echo Four Two, turn starboard one one zero degrees up zero two degrees at time two four. Formation Echo Four Three turn port one one eight degrees up one six degrees at time two four. Formation Echo Four Four turn starboard zero five degrees down one three one degrees at time two five. Formation Echo Four Five turn starboard zero eight degrees up one five two degrees at time two five.” He gasped a breath and kept going. “Formation Echo Four One, turn starboard zero three degrees up one six zero degrees at time two five.”
The combined maneuvers should all bring the five pieces of the Alliance fleet up, down, over, and around and back toward the Syndic box. As he saw what the Syndics were doing, he’d have to adjust his orders, but for now it was enough to order his ships onto the right general headings.
Finally, with a moment to check the results of the encounter, Geary steadied himself as he checked the ship status reports. Most of the Syndic missiles that had chased Formation Echo Four Five had been destroyed by Alliance defenses as they tried to catch up with their targets, but a number had made it through. The heavy cruiser Gusset had lost propulsion, the light cruisers Kote and Caltrop had been knocked out, the destroyer Flail blown apart by several hits, and the battle cruisers Intrepid and Courageous had suffered damage but were staying with the formation.
The brutal exchange of fire between Echo Four One and the Syndic box had cost the Syndics more than it had the Alliance, but the destroyers Ndziga and Tabar had been destroyed, the light cruiser Cercle riddled into wreckage, and the heavy cruisers Armet and Schischak both put out of commission. The scout battleship Braveheart had lost all of its propulsion and weapons and fallen away from the formation as well. Many other Alliance ships had taken damage, though the battleships had naturally suffered the least.
The fr
ont edges of the Syndic formation had taken the brunt of missile volleys, then the top had fought the close engagement with Echo Four One. The Alliance advantage in numbers had told, particularly against the most heavily outnumbered Syndic light cruisers and HuKs. Of the twenty-five light cruisers the Syndic force had entered the battle with, twelve were destroyed or too badly damaged to fight, while the Syndic’s forty-two HuKs had lost almost twenty of their number. Five Syndic heavy cruisers were out of the battle. Best of all, four Syndic battle cruisers were out of action, one destroyed and three badly torn up. In addition, one Syndic battleship had lost most of its propulsion and was falling back as the Syndic formation began curving to one side for another strike at the Alliance ships.
I bungled that, Geary thought bitterly. The Syndic commander reacted so late I couldn’t concentrate my attack properly.
Desjani seemed cheerful, though. “Look at the damage on them! They won’t be able to survive another run like that.”
Geary didn’t answer, focusing on the movement of the Syndics. They were still coming around in the huge turn necessary when ships were moving at point one light speed, but he felt certain they were aiming to hit Echo Four One again, perhaps hoping to get some shots at the Alliance auxiliaries this time. He snapped out orders to the other four formations, bringing them in to cross the track the Syndics would follow to intercept Echo Four One once more, his tone drawing a wary look from Desjani.
This time he’d guessed right. As the tattered Syndic box came toward Echo Four One from port and slightly below, the other four Alliance subformations ripped past close ahead of it in quick succession, each pass inflicting more damage on the leading Syndic units so that the front of the Syndic box kept getting shredded and replaced by the warships behind it. More enemy heavy cruisers, light cruisers, and HuKs exploded, broke apart, or simply fell away with critical systems destroyed. Two more Syndic battle cruisers reeled out of the formation, followed by a third, while the forwardmost Syndic battleships took more and more hits.
The Syndics could only hit back at each Alliance formation once, and while they scored some hits, they failed to inflict serious damage on any ships.
“Echo Four One,” Geary ordered harshly, “turn port zero eight degrees up one four degrees at time four three.”
The Syndic box kept on course. Either the Syndic commander hadn’t spotted the Alliance maneuver in time or his flagship had been damaged and couldn’t communicate orders quickly enough. The Alliance formation centered on Dauntless swept over the top edge of the frayed front of the Syndic box, this time able to repeatedly hit the Syndic ships there while taking much less fire in return.
Desjani uttered a small whoop of pleasure as a Syndic battleship exploded in the wake of Echo Four One’s firing pass, followed by the core overloads of another battleship and one of the surviving battle cruisers.
But Geary just stared at his display, trying to rebuild his picture of events and how to bring the different pieces of everything together again. The Syndics were coming around to starboard now, angling slightly down. Alliance fleet subformations were swinging outward on four widely different vectors, their distances from the flagship varying. Geary tried to keep it all straight, tried to coordinate the actions of his subformations, and found it slipping away. He’d been rattled by his failure to call the maneuvers right on the first pass, and now the movements and the necessary maneuvers through different levels of time delay had grown too hard to grasp. But he couldn’t just release the fleet for general pursuit. Not yet. All of his ships would swarm toward the Syndic flotilla in a wild melee that would drastically increase the risk of collision and negate a lot of his advantages in numbers and firepower. Nor could he count on handing the movements of the subformations over to the artificial intelligence in the maneuvering system, because that would focus on predictable highest-probability moves and therefore be predictable itself as well as probably in error.
He didn’t realize he was staring wordlessly at his display, trying to get his mind around the complexity of the situation, as precious seconds ticked by. But then Rione was hissing a question in his ear. “What’s wrong? Our losses aren’t that bad.”
“Too complicated,” Geary whispered. “Can’t coordinate …”
“Then trust your subordinates, Captain Geary!” Rione whispered back angrily. “Let the commanders of your subformations maneuver their own forces while you handle this one!”
Damn. She’s right. Why do I think I have to do this myself? I chose subformation commanders I could trust to do a good job, and now I’m not trusting them. “Captain Duellos, Captain Tulev, Captain Badaya, Captain Cresida, maneuver your subformations independently to engage the enemy.”
The complexity overwhelming him shrank to manageable levels as Geary’s problem narrowed down to maneuvering his own piece of the fleet and keeping an eye on what the other subformations were doing. He swallowed, feeling in control of the situation again, then realized he’d regained control of everything by not trying to control everything personally. Remember that. This isn’t a one-person show. You were starting to think you were Black Jack, weren’t you? he chided himself. “Echo Four One, turn port one seven five degrees, down two one degrees at time five seven.”
Absurdly, even though the battle was continuing, everyone on Dauntless’s bridge seemed to relax. It took Geary a moment to realize that his own anger and distress had been throwing off the others. He forced himself to look around with a smile. “Well done so far. Let’s finish the job.”
Captain Desjani completed ordering some priorities for repairing the damage Dauntless had taken in the first encounters with the enemy, then smiled at him like a lioness who was anticipating kills. “They should have run after the first pass. If we can get their formation to break now, their remaining units won’t last long.”
“Maybe we can help that along.” Geary gestured to Desjani. “Can I get a circuit up to contact the Syndic flotilla?”
Desjani raised one eyebrow, then pointed a finger at her communications watch-stander, who tapped rapidly for a moment and nodded in confirmation, holding up four fingers. “You have it, sir. Channel four.”
Letting out a calming breath, Geary activated the circuit, trying to speak with casual confidence. “To all warships in the Syndicate Worlds’ flotilla engaged with the Alliance fleet, this is Captain John Geary, acting commander of the Alliance fleet. You are doubtless expecting reinforcements in the form of the large Syndicate Worlds’ force this fleet encountered at Lakota about two weeks ago. Be advised that we destroyed that force in its entirety. It won’t be showing up here or anywhere else. I urge you to surrender now and avoid further senseless loss of life.”
That brought another smile from Desjani. “You’re probably going to hurt their morale.”
“That’s the idea.”
“I’ll see what more Dauntless can do to hurt them physically.” Echo Four One had come around again, approaching the frayed Syndic formation at a high angle this time.
Before Echo Four One could reach the Syndics, Echo Four Three and Echo Four Five hit the front of the battered box again, leaving another enemy battleship drifting in their wake.
“Use the rest of the grapeshot,” Desjani ordered her combat-systems officer as Echo Four One and the Syndic formation raced toward each other again.
Another flash of contact, then Geary watched the fleet’s sensors evaluating damage to the Syndics as Echo Four Two and Echo Four Four came in from above and below the Syndic box. The three remaining Syndic battle cruisers had lost all shields and were lashing out frantically at extreme range as the next two Alliance subformations approached. Only six heavy cruisers remained with the box, the rest of their number scattered in various states of destruction along the path the Syndic formation had taken through space. Five light cruisers and a dozen HuKs also had survived. The core of the Syndic formation remained its battleships, five of which were still in good shape.
Geary barely had time to hope that
the commanders of Echo Four Two and Echo Four Four didn’t push their luck too far against the five battleships when his subformations made their latest firing runs, tearing past so close to the Syndics that Geary felt a momentary spurt of fear.
In the wake of the latest Alliance assault, one more Syndic battleship staggered away from the box formation and two of the three battle cruisers were gone. But Courageous, Incredible, and Illustrious had taken serious damage, the heavy cruiser Gusoku had blown up, and the destroyers Cestus and Balta were also gone. “This battle is not going well,” Geary muttered to himself.
But Desjani heard. “The Syndics aren’t making mistakes,” she agreed. “But it won’t save them. One more firing run—”
“They’re breaking!” the operations watch-stander shouted exuberantly.
“Thank you, Mr. Gaciones,” Desjani replied. “I can hear without you yelling.”
As the embarrassed watch-stander turned back to his duties, Geary watched on his display as what was left of the Syndic box finally disintegrated. Two of the battleships stayed together, and three HuKs clung to their protection, but every other Syndic ship bolted in different directions, seeking to outrun any Alliance pursuit.
That simplified things. “All ships in Echo Four Two, Echo Four Three, Echo Four Four, and Echo Four Five, general pursuit. Break formation and engage any enemy targets of opportunity. Echo Four One will engage the two battleships that have remained in company.”
Which was easier said than done given the time and space needed to turn the warships of Echo Four One, but the Syndic battleships were too close and too cumbersome to be able to outrun pursuit. As Echo Four One swung around, Geary watched the rest of his subformations fragment so fast it looked like they’d been blown apart by some huge blast. Individual Alliance warships locked on to Syndic warships and leaped onto firing runs, each surviving Syndic ship becoming the target of many Alliance strikes. On the display, the projected paths of the Alliance warships formed a tangled web from which the Syndics were frantically trying to escape.
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