This doesn’t look overly promising. Where the Hero should have been, there was a spreading debris cloud instead, and a quick computer analysis told her that the Vesta’s Air Group had suffered heavy losses, too.
But none of that changed her mission. She needed to act with all possible haste, to maximize the element of surprise.
She noticed that one of the enemy capital starships was hanging back and firing on the Vesta from afar. Fesky soon saw why—Husher had managed to blow a massive hole in its prow, leaving it vulnerable.
None of the enemy warships seemed to have registered the Spire’s presence yet. No doubt their sensors were picking her up just fine—but the sensor operators simply wouldn’t be watching for a vessel matching the former lifeboat’s profile to appear off their sterns. It didn’t fit their perceptions of what was and wasn’t possible, and Fesky intended to exploit that viciously.
“Tactical, fire twenty Gorgons at that capital starship’s damaged prow and nothing else. Meanwhile, I want fifteen Banshees and five Hydras launched at this Quatro ship, and the same number at this one too.” She marked the ships she meant on their shared view of the tactical display.
“Aye, ma’am. Firing missiles now.”
The Gorgons were already in the Spire’s forward tubes, and the other missiles she’d ordered were primed and ready for hasty loading.
It had been her idea to use stealth missiles immediately after Spire’s unexpected arrival. She was banking on the fact that the capital starship wouldn’t anticipate anything coming from this direction, let alone twenty Gorgons.
The Quatro ships were closer, however, and they did seem to pick up on the Banshee and Hydra missiles before they struck.
It didn’t matter. Their reaction was delayed, and the number of missiles Fesky had sent was too high to deal with in time—especially when five Hydras split into forty warheads.
The two Quatro ships went down as the remaining pair of alien ships turned to confront the Spire.
Before they could act, the Gorgons began landing on the Promedon’s hull. Or rather, they sailed through her prow, where her hull used to be, and deep into her guts.
The capital starship’s entire bow exploded, causing a chain reaction of explosions that traveled down her immense hull. Within ten seconds, all that remained was the shrapnel that hurtled through space in every direction.
Her officers burst into cheering, but Fesky silenced them. “We can’t stick around to celebrate!” she squawked. “Fire five Hydras each at the remaining Quatro ships, and follow with a dispersed spray of kinetic impactors. Nav, take us out of this dimension as soon as the ordnance is away.”
“Yes, ma’am!”
Chapter 51
Staring at a Tactical Display
At Fesky’s incredible success, the Vesta’s CIC crew broke into whooping and fist-pumping. While it was good to hear celebrating where only grim silence had held sway before, Husher couldn’t bring himself to join in.
The Promedon was the second capital starship to go down in as many months. With each supercarrier that went down, the IGF grew weaker. As was often said, the capital starships formed the backbone of the IGF. How many more would it take to paralyze the Fleet entirely?
He supposed that, now, he was technically an enemy of the IGF, and maybe he should be glad. But he wasn’t feeling as jubilant as his officers. Instead, a sense of dread threatened to overwhelm him. The words Teth had spoken in Hellebore echoed through his head: “I barely have to fight this war, Captain Husher. I have complete confidence that you are going to win it for me.”
Winterton was the only one in the CIC who seemed of a mind with Husher, but then, the man could be counted on not to get excited under almost any circumstances. “Sir, one of the Quatro ships Commander Fesky targeted before departing has gone down, but the final alien ship managed to evade her attack and is moving in position to hit us again.”
Husher nodded. “Coms, broadcast a repeating transmission across the battlespace encoded to Commander Ayam’s fighter. Tell him that if he thinks his pilots are still flying tight and clean, I want him to focus on taking down the final Quatro ship. But only if he thinks the subspace pilots are up to it. Tell him I don’t want to lose any more subspace fighters just because we kept the pilots flying for too long.”
“Aye, sir.”
With Ayam’s squadron spending as much time in subspace as it did in realspace, it could be difficult to get a transmission to them, which was why Husher had come to rely on encrypted transmissions that repeated until receipt of message was confirmed.
His hope was that losing the final Quatro ship would deal a blow to enemy morale, at minimum. With any luck, it would make Captain Norberg reconsider this whole thing, especially given the threat of Fesky’s reappearance at any moment. In truth, Husher had no idea when the Spire might make it back here, but Norberg didn’t know that.
Before any of that could happen, Fry looked up at him from her work. “Sir, we’re getting an unencrypted broadcast from a com drone that entered the system just sixteen minutes ago. It appears to be a vid recorded by Captain Zora Sawyer of the Thessaly system defense group.”
“Play it on the main display.”
Sawyer appeared, looking haggard. Husher knew her by reputation only, but his understanding was that she was a supremely competent captain. His first thought upon seeing her was that for her to look this bad, something had to be very wrong.
And indeed it was. “I’m sending this message via com drones to all surrounding systems. I only pray that they all arrive. Thessaly is under heavy assault by nine Progenitor ships, who have destroyed one of the colony’s orbital defense platforms and who are now laying waste to the colony itself. The system’s ten defending warships are moving to engage, but I fear it won’t be enough.” Sawyer paused, seeming to falter before continuing. “It’s my fault the Progenitor ships were able to blow a hole in the colony’s defenses. This all began when the eleven warships commandeered by the Sapient Brotherhood entered the system and began moving on the colony. I was overconfident, and I ordered all defending ships to engage them, with the intention of dealing with them permanently. It didn’t occur to me that the Brotherhood might be working with the Progenitors. If you’re listening to this message, I’m begging you—please come to Thessaly’s aid.”
With that, Zora Sawyer vanished from the main display, her words having crushed any positive sentiment the Vesta’s CIC officers might have been experiencing.
Missiles continued to fly across the battlespace, traded between the Eos and the Vesta, along with their supporting ships. Pythons continued to engage each other, with another one exploding every few seconds.
“Commander Ayam just succeeded in taking down the final Quatro ship, Captain,” Winterton said, his tone neutral.
Husher drew a ragged breath. “Get me Captain Norberg, Coms,” he forced himself to say. “She’ll have gotten Captain Sawyer’s message just the same as us.”
As he waited for Fry to send the transmission request, more words sounded in Husher’s head, this time from Captain Anthony Flores: “You will come to regret your decision.”
At last, Norberg’s hardened face appeared on the display, where Zora Sawyer’s had been moments before. “Husher. What could you possibly have to say to me now? You’ve finished wiping out our Quatro allies’ presence in the system, you’ve destroyed one of our sister capital starships, and you show no signs of remorse.”
“It’s hard to read remorse by staring at a tactical display,” Husher said. “And I do regret having to do what I’ve done.”
“You didn’t have to do anything, other than simply hand over the fugitive.”
He nodded. “That’s what I’m getting at. You were just as willing to fire on IGF ships as I was, all because of a demand the Assembly of Elders made of you. I refuse to enable the IU’s descent into tyranny, Norberg. We’ve been over this.”
“Then why have you contacted me?”
“Didn’
t you just get the same broadcast I did?”
“Yes. I plan to lend aid to Thessaly as soon as I’m finished dealing with you.”
Are you kidding me? “Captain Norberg, I think you’re making that sound a little too easy. As you pointed out, we’ve already done serious damage to your forces, and if this continues we’ll do even more. You’ve no doubt caught on to the nature of the modifications made to the Vesta’s lifeboat. We’re calling it the Spire now, and she’s going to come back, on an attack vector you don’t anticipate. Next, it could be your ship that goes down.”
“What are you trying to accomplish by threatening me like this?”
“I’m not threatening you. I’m offering a forecast of what will happen if this battle continues.”
“How can it not continue? You’re a threat, Husher. You’ve been a threat for a long time, and the orders have finally been given to put you down.”
“A bigger threat than the Progenitors? Such a threat that you’ll waste ships that could otherwise have been used to fight them? Captain Norberg, civilians are dying right now by the tens of thousands, just one system over. Captain Sawyer was concerned about her com drones making it to the surrounding systems—what if ours was the only one that got through? Are you willing to risk an entire system just to settle the IU’s vendetta against me?”
Norberg pursed her lips and didn’t answer.
“We can keep fighting,” Husher said. “But it’s exactly what Teth wants, and it will lead to our mutual destruction, whether today or someday soon. I’m proposing an alternative, Captain. I’m proposing we set aside our differences for the moment so we can go and deal with the real threat.”
For a long time, Norberg continued to study him in silence. At last, her shoulders rose and fell with a deep breath, and she said, “All right, Husher. We’ll work together. For now.”
Chapter 52
The Price We Pay
Winterton announced the transition into Larkspur, and Husher braced for what he knew was coming.
“We’re already getting signals from Thessaly’s planetary net,” Ensign Fry said as she sifted through them on her console. “None of them are of tactical significance, but…” The ensign swallowed, clearly struggling with what she was seeing. Her gaze drifted into the distance, the characteristic stare of someone watching Oculens footage. Then her eyes found Husher’s. “Vids of Larissa being scoured from the face of Thessaly from above. Citizens running from Ravagers and Amblers, panicking, getting gunned down. Bodies littering the streets, people wandering aimlessly, shouting the names of family members.” A tear slid down Fry’s cheek.
Husher let her finish relaying what she saw. From a tactical perspective, he should have cut her off, so that they could turn to the task at hand. But this was important, too—so that everyone in the CIC knew exactly what the Progenitors were capable of.
Part of him wanted to tell Fry to forward the footage to Captain Norberg, but she would have access to it, too. He realized his body had tensed in the command seat, and he forced himself to relax. He was sure his CIC officers felt the same anger he did.
Which is fine, as long as it’s controlled, and served cold.
“How are the planet’s defenders faring, Winterton?”
“Thessaly’s fighter defense group has taken a beating, and six of the original ten IGF warships remain, including Captain Sawyer’s destroyer. The Brotherhood ships are still in the system, sir. They’re headed for the Larkspur-Shadbush darkgate.”
Noni peered at him from the Nav station. “Should we pursue, sir?”
“Negative.” As much as he would have liked to blast those ships from space, they couldn’t afford to withhold aid from Thessaly any longer. As long as the Brotherhood didn’t stray from their course out of the system, he had to let them go.
“Coms, send Captain Norberg a transmission request.”
“Yes, sir,” Fry said, and seconds later, Norberg was back on the main display.
“We need to decide who will command our forces,” he said. “We’ll limit our responsiveness if we both try to call the shots.”
“I could command mine, and you could command yours.”
“I think that’ll be limiting, too. It’s much easier to execute a strategy with just one person giving the orders.” He would have thought that was obvious, and it surprised him to have to spell it out. Maybe Norberg just doesn’t like agreeing with me.
“I have more ships than you,” she said.
“So you want to be the one in command,” Husher said, nodding. It would be difficult for him to relinquish ultimate control over the Vesta and her remaining battle group ships, but he was prepared to do it. Just getting Norberg to join him in fighting the Progenitors had been a major accomplishment, and he’d known it would come at a price.
“Actually, no,” Norberg said, surprising him again. “I think you should have the command. You have a lot more combat experience than me, Captain Husher.”
He realized his eyebrows had climbed up his forehead, and he lowered them again. “Uh, thank you, then, Captain Norberg.”
She nodded curtly. “Do you have any orders to give, yet?”
“I do. The planet’s spin has taken the site of the Progenitor attack a little closer to our position, but the hole in Thessaly’s defenses still faces away from us. We’re still going to have to loop around the planet, and I think we should adopt a course that follows a wide arc through the system, so that we approach the planet perpendicular to its surface.”
Norberg frowned. “I know I just handed command to you, but I would have thought it better to approach parallel to the planet’s surface, so that we have the still-functional defense platforms backing us up.”
“A valid thought, but that will also give us fewer viable firing solutions, and it will limit our ability to spread out—or to retreat, if it comes to that. The Progenitor ships are powerful, and not to be underestimated.”
“Well, I’ll yield to your judgment, Captain. As I agreed to. Is that all?”
“For now. I’ll send over what formation I’d like us to adopt via my Coms officer. Oh, and I think it best if Commander Ayam is given command of all three Air Groups.”
“Very well. Norberg out.” With that, she vanished from the screen.
“Nav, I trust you heard me tell Captain Norberg how I’d like to approach the planet?”
“Yes, Captain.”
“Good. Devise a course that follows my specifications.” He turned toward the XO’s seat. “Based on what you’ve seen so far, do you think my read of the situation checks out?”
Ek paused, presumably to consider the question. “Your usual caution is commendable. However, caution is your trademark, and the Progenitors will know that. It is always difficult to predict how thoroughly they will have anticipated our actions.”
“Right,” Husher said, and sniffed. “So, what’s your prescription? Try to be more reckless?”
“I would advocate even greater caution than you are accustomed to.”
“Okay. I’ll take that under advisement.”
Ek turned away, as though finished, but then turned back. “There is also the fact that, if any of our shots miss, they could hit the planet below.”
Husher smiled. “Missile tech has advanced since you entered Klaxon’s oceans, Ek. They’re designed to self-destruct before they get close enough to a planet’s surface to do damage.” His smile faltered, then. “As for kinetic impactors, we’ll try to go easy on them, and we’ll angle our shots so that they’ll hit depopulated areas if they miss. If they hit, though…yes, they’ll cause significant damage. But the Progenitors are already laying waste to the surface. The most important thing now is that we stop them as quickly as we can, before they can move on to other regions.”
Ek nodded.
Given the Promedon’s destruction, Husher and Norberg had been forced to find places for her Air Group wherever they could—mostly in unused hangar bays, where the fighters would be able to take advant
age of the launch tubes there, but many of the starfighters ended up sitting on flight decks. They wouldn’t be able to scramble with nearly the same energy as the other pilots, but it was better than nothing.
With two capital starships, three combined battle groups totaling eleven ships, as well as three Air Groups, Husher knew he’d be justified in calling their force a small fleet. Under normal circumstances, he’d feel quite confident in engaging just nine enemy ships, especially when he factored in Thessaly’s fighter defense group, as well as the six IGF ships already fighting.
But with the Progenitors, nothing was predictable. As if to underscore that fact, as the Vesta and her allied ships closed in, an IGF frigate exploded over the planet, followed almost immediately by a missile cruiser.
And just as the Vesta entered missile range, the Progenitors neutralized the destroyer captained by Zora Sawyer.
Husher’s grip on the command seat’s armrests tightened. “Coms, tell Commander Ayam to scramble all three Air Groups. I’ll let him decide how many to put on offense and how many to assign to missile defense, depending on how much the Progenitors send our way. But tell him to standby to prioritize any warship that’s targeting one of ours with a particle beam. And let him know we’ll be leaning heavily on his subspace squadron again.”
As soon as the fighting with Norberg and the other IGF captains had ended, Husher had ordered the entire Air Group to get as much rest as possible before they reached Thessaly. Hopefully, it would be enough for the subspace Pythons to perform some more miracles. We sorely need them.
Unfortunately, the capital starship Fesky had destroyed had never been equipped with subspace fighters, and Ayam had taken out the Eos’. The price we pay when we fight amongst ourselves, ignoring the real enemy.
“Captain,” Winterton said, and his voice wavered, which made Husher stare at him. A wavering voice from the sensor operator was equivalent to a bloodcurdling scream from anyone else.
“What is it?”
“Six Progenitor destroyers and three carriers just appeared ten thousand kilometers off our sterns. They’re moving to hem us in.”
Ixan Legacy Box Set Page 44