Chapter 18
Garret leaned forward in the APC while a Marine medic began to treat the glass fragments stuck in the back of his neck. None of them were deep, so the medic applied a local painkiller and began to remove them while Garret closed his eyes and concentrated on the information that Ada was now relaying through his transmitter.
Admiral Lumbardon wasn’t wasting any time. He’d already filed a promotion for Lieutenant Commander William Lars to the temporary rank of Captain, and made him the Admiral’s adjutant. Billy was now busy contacting all the military commanders on Peladon, and in orbit, trying to ascertain their loyalties and combat readiness.
Meanwhile the Admiral had activated the planetary defense network. That was one of the reasons that Leonev had placed his worm virus in the military network, to keep the automated defenses from being activated. Forty large satellites floated in orbit, filled with long and short-range weapons. They were useless without activation codes from the current Supreme Commander and the Chief Speaker of the Deliberatorium (or any of the other ten Speakers given access codes). None of the Speakers siding with Leonev had those codes, and since he could not use the defense systems, Leonev had tried to disable them.
Ada had bypassed that, and now those defenses were coming online.
Twelve of the platforms had firing solutions on the incoming ships, and they had opened fire with long-range rail guns. Thousands upon thousands of small, high-explosive projectiles were shooting from them now, firing down probable flight paths of the incoming ships. They weren’t enough to destroy all of them, but unless the ships took evasive action, several would be lost and the rest would suffer heavy damage.
In a matter of minutes, the two carrier battle groups and the small planetary assault group began emergency breaking and evasive maneuvers. The changes to their flight trajectories were calculated by Ada, who had now been joined by two older destroyers as her escorts. By the time Garret arrived at Camp Tatum, the length of time for the first enemy ships to reach orbit had gone from less than ten minutes to more than three hours!
The bad news was that the planetary defense satellites with firing solutions had used up two-thirds of the available ammunition.
“Speaker, this is Marine Captain Loren Mjolnar.” Colonel Orion said as the vehicles came to a stop next to four large assault shuttles and the hatch had opened. The captain was standing just outside the hatch, dressed in urban fatigues and wearing a visored headset over his short, stubbly blond hair.
“You were in the year behind me at the Academy, weren’t you commandant?” Garret said, automatically reverting to the form of address a naval officer used for a Marine Captain onboard a ship. There could be only one Captain of a ship, and while the Marine rank of captain was the same as a naval Lieutenant, it was an insult to call a Marine captain by the title ‘Lieutenant’.
“Yes, sir, I was.” Mjolnar said with a hint of a smile at being recognized.
“As I recall,” Garret began saying as he disembarked the APC and headed for the nearest of the Assault shuttles. The medic had bandaged up the back of his head, and the local painkiller was already starting to wear off. He was going to have a bad headache from that glass. “You were part of the Dagger team in the boarding competitions during my last year there.”
“Yes, sir, I was.” Mjolnar did smile this time, and he held his head a bit more proudly.
“Colonel, you may go about your duties.” Garret ordered Orion, who was still following, but itching to get back to work. He was being assigned to secure several key sections of New Prejat, and there were already reports coming in of police forces blocking roads and rounding up people, most likely under the behest of Leonev’s faction.
“Damn glad to have to you commanding the detachment.” Garret said. Ada had already told him that Mjolnar would be commanding the Marines going up with him. She was excited about having real marines walking her deck, and was getting ready to hook their transmitters into her internal network. More than likely he was going to have a fight on his hands to get her to let them go when this was all over.
“We’ve got a total of one hundred and eighty three men, as well as two hundred tons of equipment.” Mjolnar stated as they strapped into the seats of the assault shuttle’s forward command cabin. Masako had been directed to the rear cabin, along with everyone else. The rest of the cabin’s seats were taken by three junior Marine Lieutenants, and a senior Master Sergeant who was giving everyone measuring stares. The sergeant’s eyes lingered on the bandage over the back of Garret’s neck, and he briefly nodded before the shuttle’s pilot warned of immediate lift-off.
“Combat lift.” The pilot warned before pushing eight g’s in a combat style lift-off from the ground. It was the most stressful of lift-offs, but one designed to give the enemy the fewest possible chances to fire at the shuttle.
“All four shuttles are up safely.” Mjolnar reported a moment later from a screen in front of his seat. Garret was in the senior officer’s seat, meaning he didn’t get a terminal. That was fine, because Ada was watching their liftoff very closely from orbit.
“Combat’s breaking out in spurts all over the planet.” Mjolnar said as his screen received an update from the emergency bunker under the Deliberatorium. It was designed to act as a backup in time of war to the primary HQ, which was now heavily damaged by an intentionally set fire. “So far things seem to be evenly split.”
“The surface is not our concern, unless they’re about to take control of planetary defenses.” Garret advised him.
“Not bloody likely, sir.” Mjolnar gave his opinion. “Fifth Corps is moving in to position now to guard the capitol building. It’ll take a nuke or two to pry them out of there.
“Let’s hope so.” Garret breathed heavily as his head flashed with pain. The order of battle was coming in now, for both sides, and it was not looking good in space. In fact, it looked like Lumbardon was going to have the easier time of this whole fight.
Besides the two destroyers now escorting the Adamant, there was three more heading in from nearby sectors. They would arrive in a little under an hour. Three frigates were also heading in at maximum speed, and would arrive a half-hour after the destroyers. The space station reported they were now able to launch fighters, and three squadrons of space-capable fighters were launching up from the planet too. That gave him nearly a hundred fighters to counter the one hundred and eighty-four in the approaching fleets, as well as the four squadrons of bombers they carried. There was a heavy battle cruiser in the space docks, along with three heavy cruisers and a handful of light cruisers, but they were all locked down by another computer virus that had infected the station.
Not to mention only half the light cruisers even had crews. They were all being scheduled for decommissioning like the Tarawa. So far, all attempts to communicate with the fleet at Oberlin Station was unsuccessful, although the commander of that fleet was known to be an Academy graduate, and was likely loyal to their side. Garret knew he really could use the battle carrier in that fleet, along with its battleship, two heavy battle cruisers, and eight heavy cruisers. If they arrived, he’d be on an almost equal footing with his opponents, led by Lefhaus Admiral Robbinton.
“We’ve reached low orbit.” The pilot’s terse voice came over internal comms and Garret nodded at a new piece of information from Ada.
“Commandant, my ship is now transmitting her layout specs to your computer.” Garret told the Marine officer. “Study them and brief your officers and men. Your primary responsibility is to defend the ship in case of boarding. Secondary will be possible boarding operations of an enemy ship. Plan around those two priorities.”
“Aye aye, sir.’ Mjolnar replied, and he began to pull up the specs on his screen. Ada would incorporate the Marine, his officers, and his clone troops into her network. Now that the crew was integrated as well, and all passengers were offloaded except those he brought with him, she’d be able to spot any intruders and guide the marines to them without fail.
Ada, have the doctor prepare transmitters for the passengers I’m bringing with me. Garret ordered his ship and received an immediate assent, as well as the good news that the space dock had learned the O’Leary ship bays were not affected by the virus. There were four military ships in their docks for repairs, and two of them could be made combat-ready. Lumbardon was issuing an emergency call-up of recently retired or discharged military personnel and would have crews for those two ships within two hours.
Meanwhile the planetary defense satellites expended the last of their ammunition in a new salvo that added another two-hour delay to the arrival of the enemy ships. It also managed to obliterate one of their heavy cruisers, and heavily damage another light cruiser which was now limping away, trying to get up to speed for a wave-fold jump.
“Oh my.” Mjolnar said as he leaned back in his chair and his eyes unfocused for a moment. The happy hum in Garret’s head told him that Ada had managed to link their implanted transmitters into her system.
“She takes some getting use to.” Garret advised him with a small smile and Mjolnar just shook his head as if clearing it before turning to his officers to start giving them assignments.
How does it feel to coordinate a planetary defense? Garret asked his ship and got a happy hum from her.
Good, but Bonadventure is about to take over. She answered with a mental sigh. The ship she referenced was in space dock, but was now back online. Even without being able to leave the dock she’d be able to run the communications networks with her Type VIII artificial intelligence. That would free Garret’s ship up to deal with the defense of the planet.
“All passengers prepare for combat docking.” The pilots voice rang out over the loudspeakers and Garret braced himself in his seat. The shuttle shook and he was pushed back into his seat, but the shuttle stopped moving fairly quickly and he looked out a porthole to see the familiar inside of his ship’s landing bay.
“Let’s get a move on, commandant.” Garret said with a rush of happiness to be back home. His mental humming matched that of Ada’s as he waited for a shuttle crewman to undock the hatch. Then he was bounding down the stairwell, and returning the salute of his Security Chief. “Gunder, Commandant Mjolnar here will be coordinating the Marines with shipboard security. See to it he has everything he needs.”
“Welcome back, Captain.” Gunder said with a nod, and not a trace of territoriality was in his gaze as he sized up the Marine officer. Gary was next, and he rushed forward to give Garret a hug.
“Welcome back, Garret.” Gary said with genuine affection.
“It’s good to see you, too.” Garret said as he extricated himself from the hug.
“O’Malley got the renovations done to your quarters just last week.” Gary filled him in as he began walking to the bridge.
“Good” Garret said, glad to have that done in his absence. “Get Masako comfortable as soon as you can. I’m sure she’ll want Lelaine in her section with her, and get Deci set up with Davin and Devin.”
“Deci?” Gary asked with surprise.
“Yes, Tremere sold him to me.” Garret said quickly, cursing that he’d forgotten to tell Gary. Truth was, Deci had been even closer to Gary than he had been to Garret.
“That’s great news!” Gary was excited, and almost turned back to where the other civilians were offloading.
“There are also two civilian men who came with me.” Garret continued as he exited the hangar bay and stopped for a moment just inside the ship’s passageway. “David Darby is a company employee, but set him up in Class A berthing, not one of the big suites, but a good cabin. The other is Aaron Lewis. Put him in one of the suites, and make sure someone is watching him at all times. I think I can trust him, but I’d rather know for sure. Also, have Gunder put a couple of his men outside the cabin to tail Aaron wherever he goes, okay?”
“Got it, what about these Marines?” Gary asked. “Ada says they’re staying.”
“I have no idea how long they’ll be here, but put the enlisted into Class C cabins for now.” Garret ordered. “Put the senior enlisted and junior officers into Class B cabins and put their commander into one of the A cabins.”
“Any other surprises?” Gary asked.
“Yeah, pray we’re still alive in two hours.” Garret told him before heading off down the passageway. He nodded to crewmembers he passed, all of them brightening as they saw him and gave him some form of verbal greeting. It really was like coming home and it made him feel a little better as he finally reached the bridge and entered.
“Captain on the bridge!” Warrant Officer Lukas cried out as soon as he saw Garret, and Garret paused to look his bridge over. It looked little different except it was now crowded with people and filled with the hum of conversations as many of them handled the communications circuits for the planetary network. Alexandra Harrington stood from his chair and smiled at him.
“Welcome home, Captain.” She said with a real smile. Her forehead had a crease in the middle, like she’d been spending a lot of time wincing.
“It’s good to be back.” Garret said with a nod. “Update, please?”
“Our passengers are now being transported down to the planet and the shuttles will be used to ship a combat crew up to the Tarawa.” She began. “That ship should be ready to join us by the time the enemy gets close enough to engage. Her weapons are now activated and she’s got three Class VI anti-ship lasers as well as four torpedo tubes, and a belly full of planetary bombardment cannons. I’d rather we had a cruiser, but she’s got enough weapons to be useful.”
“Agreed on both parts.” Garret told her. That was good news, because the Tarawa was now their third heaviest armed capitol ship. One of the destroyers just edged her out, being a late-model O’Leary design of the same design as Billy’s old destroyer. “Where are those fighters?”
“They’re still in the process of lifting off, and the planetary forces are sending up six tankers” Harrington responded. “Ada says she still has four refueling ports and extender hoses, but we’ve never done a fighter refueling before.”
“No time like the present.” Garry shrugged. “Alexandra, you and the crew are doing a splendid job. I wish we had a separate CIC…”
“We will in about forty minutes.” She said with a grin. “You know the forward lounges were meant to be part of the bridge/cic combo, and they never took out the cables, just painted over them. O’Malley has a team in the starboard lounge now setting up some consoles and hooking them in to the ship’s systems.”
“Where did he get the extra consoles?” Garret asked with a little bit of confusion while Ada snickered.
“He’s been holding on to them just in case something like this ever happened.” Alexandra grinned.
“Okay, when it’s done, you’ll be in charge of the ship, I’ll command the overall battle from the combat information center.” Garret decided.
“With pride, sir.” Harrington said as she went to formal attention.
“Now, let’s talk about the ship’s combat readiness, and what you think of our escorts.” Garret said as he sat down in his command chair and began to get down to the nuts and bolts of the business at hand.
It took Alexandra just a few minutes to update him on the status of ship’s personnel, including how rested they were, and on the operations capability of all the ship’s systems. The hangar deck crew, who were also part of O’Malley’s engineering teams, was getting a workout today. She also updated him on the ship’s supplies of potable water and food, which would be important he realized if they had to operate for more than a week. Also, the ship’s reactor fuel would be a problem if they operated at full combat power for more than a few days.
“Incoming call from Fleet Admiral Lumbardon!” Warrant Officer Markal said from his station just as Alexandra finished reviewing the status of their fuel levels.
“Put him on main screen.” Garret ordered, and a holo image of the admiral appeared in front of the helm and navigation console.
“Garret, glad to see you made it safely.” Lumbardon greeted him with a nod of his head.
“Thank you, Admiral.” Garret answered. “I hope you don’t mind, but I borrowed a few hundred marines on the way.”
“I’ve already been informed, and approve.” He replied “I assume you are aware that your brother has been promoted to Captain?”
“Yes sir.” Garret answered.
“Good, as of five minutes ago, the Deliberatorium has approved the emergency appointment of you to the rank of Commodore and assigned you as Commander of Peladon Space Defenses. Congratulations.” Lumbardon said with a ghost of a smile.
“Thanks.” Garret said with an answering frown. He just hoped this was truly temporary. “I hope other business is being attended to as well?”
“Yes, well, making sure we have legitimate officers in key positions is a priority.” Lumbardon said. “Now, the real reason I’m calling. Five minutes ago we figured out where Leonev is hiding. Ground forces from the 115th met resistance from a group of police officers. They captured three of them who all sang like birds. He’s in an old bunker eighty kilometers outside Newhaven. We’re sending about three hundred heavily armed soldiers to take him out. If we’re lucky we can end this now.”
“Only if we get the six speakers with him.” Garret added. “They’ve been declared traitors alongside him and they’re not going to go meekly to their execution.”
“We’re aware of that.” Lumbardon said with a frown. “We’re scrounging up some atmospheric fighters to shoot down any escape vehicles, and I want you to move some of the space fighters we’re sending you to cover orbital escape routes.”
“Aye aye, Admiral.” Garret said promptly and the image winked out. “Markal, inform the space station to launch a squadron of fighters and place them in orbit over Newhaven. Ada will send them the coordinates.”
“Aye aye, Commodore.” Markal said and Garret almost let out a groan. The rank of Commodore was just below that of Rear Admiral and above that of Captain.
“Mr. Markal, the correct form of address for a ship’s captain is “Captain”, even if he holds a higher rank.” Alexandra Harrington rebuked him, although she was smiling slightly.
“Yes, sir, sorry, sir.” Markal said before setting to the task Garret had set him.
“Congratulations, sir.” Harrington said a moment later.
“Sir, they’ll launch fighters in five minutes.” Markal stated and Garret nodded before turning his mind inward. He had a planet to protect, and only minimal forces to accomplish that mission. One choice was to keep his forces close to the planet, where the short range weapons of the defense platform, and the great space station itself could add to their firepower. The only real problem with that strategy was that his ships would be in the planet’s gravity well, and would not be as maneuverable. They’d be sitting ducks, leaving the enemy’s bombers and capitol ships free reign to bombard the planet and the space station with long-range torpedoes, missiles, and mass drivers. For a moment he considered that it might just be wiser to cram every Speaker and their families onto the ships he had, and get them out of Peladon space. Then they could round up more forces, although they’d end up being the ones to have to stage an assault on the Republic’s capital planet…
“Commander, tell me what you think about this…” Garret said softly, motioning for Alexandra to lean in closer. She nodded during his brief outline of his thoughts on a plan. They spent several minutes talking about it, and were interrupted by Markal.
“Sir!” Markal’s voice was starting to get hoarse. “The squadron commander of the fighter squadron reports that there’s a short range, low orbit jumper heading towards them from the target site and we’re getting warnings from a Colonel Jessup that the target’s fled in a jumper!”
“Order them to…” Garret started to say, but cut himself off. He pushed a few buttons on the right-side computer console and a graph appeared on his screen with tracking of the jumper in question. Ada added a projected course for the jumper and he smiled. “Order the fighters to chase the craft, and to miss on purpose.”
“Sir?” Markal questioned and Garret gave him a stern look.
“I don’t want them to hit the jumper, just make it look like they’re trying.” Garret ordered.
“Sir, the orders from Admiral Lumbardon were clear.” Harrington interceded and Garret nodded at her.
“Yes, and I’m in command here.” Garret stated. “It’s a command decision and if he doesn’t like my explanation, he’ll punish me accordingly. You on the other hand, will obey my orders.”
“Yes, Commodore.” She said stiffly and nodded at Markal who turned back to his station and transmitted Garret’s orders. Garret could hear him repeating them and then forcefully reinforcing the orders. That was good.
“Markal, get me the station’s commander next.” Garret ordered, and a moment later the image of the older woman appeared on the screen. Technically she was a civilian administrator, but she controlled the station’s security forces.
“What can I do for you, sir?” She asked in a harried voice. Her hair disheveled, and she had circles forming under her eyes already.
“There’s a jumper heading for your station.” Garret informed her. “Leonev is on board.”
“Fighting just broke out two minutes ago between unknown clone units and the station’s security forces.” She informed him. “They’re trying to secure a path from docking station one-eight-three and most likely Docking Bay Twelve. That’s a bay with several military ships in it, including four frigates and two courier ships. The frigates are unmanned at last report, as are the courier ships. They’re also locked down by that damn virus just like every other ship.”
“Good.” Garret said with a smile. “Can you track computer signals from the jumper to the docking station, or maybe from the ships in Bay Twelve to the docking clamps holding them there?”
“Yes.” She said after a moment of thought, and a small smile formed on her face.
“Good, let the enemy forces on the station secure their path.” Garret suggested, so as to not offend her sense of propriety. He wasn’t sure she’d be offended by an order, but it was better to make sure. “Don’t lose men trying to stop them, it’s not worth it. I believe they’ll leave with the dear General once he’s used his override code to unlock the docking station and the ships in the Docking Bay.”
“Then we’ll have the code and can unlock all the other ships.” She added. “Good thinking, Commodore.”
“Thank you.” Garret told her. “Now, the code might be keyed only for those bays, and if that’s the case, transmit it to my ship. My AI here should be more than capable of breaking it and applying it to the other ships.”
“I’ll do that, sir.” She said with what was now a full smile. “Anything else?”
“No – thank you.” Garret told her and signaled for the transmission to be broken.
“I’d have never thought of that.” Harrington said with a note of approval in her voice. Garret didn’t need her approval at the moment, but it was nice to have.
“That’s why he’s the Captain.” Masako’s voice from behind him surprised him a bit. He hadn’t heard her come on the bridge. She gave him a nod and sat down in one of the two guest chairs flanking the command chair.
“Welcome to the bridge.” Garret told her before turning back to the side panel display of the fighters engaging the jumper. Whoever was piloting the jumper was good, but so were the fighter pilots. He doubted anyone would believe they were intentionally missing. When a blast from a fighter hit the jumper amidships, he winced but it was a glancing blow and the jumper didn’t blow up. “They better be careful.”
“Who?” Masako asked and Garret filled her in before deciding on his next course of action.
“Commander, inform our escorts we’re going to be moving.” Garret ordered. “We only need the codes from Leonev, we don’t need to let him escape.”
“We won’t know what ship he’s on, and four frigates is nothing to sneeze at, especially since none of the station’s offensive weapons will be able to focus on him from that angle.” Harrington stated.
“We’ll have to do our best.” Garret supplied and she nodded before bellowing out orders. The holo display in front switched to a tactical view as the ship closed its viewports and prepared for battle. The crew had been at battle stations practically since arriving in the system, so there was no call to stations.
“We’ll be in position within ten minutes.” Harrington reported. “The enemy ships appear to be gathering up speed again. Estimate they’ll be in weapons range in ninety minutes.”
“Thank you.” Garret said softly, leaning back in his chair and thinking. The pain in his neck was now just a gentle throbbing, just reminding him it was there and little more than that. “I want a full spread of torpedoes focused on the frigates, from us and our escorts. The destroyers are to engage the frigates with their primary lasers as well. We’ll target the courier ships. Focus on their engines, I want them alive if we can do that.”
“Yes sir.” Alexandra said and turned to give orders to where Lukas and several other clone crewmembers manned the weapons stations.
“Crew of the Adamant.” Garret said after activating the ship’s intercom. “It is good to be back home, with you, on this ship. In the last few months, you have done good work and I am proud of your accomplishments. The tasks I am to ask of you today, though, are far beyond what any of us have ever expected.
“Many of you were not strangers to combat when you were hired on this vessel, and none of you are strangers to combat after the events at Lemos. I know some wondered why even those whose duties are cleaning the cabins have been trained and drilled regularly in damage control or other operations the ship might expect if we were to enter combat. The answer to that is before us today. We are being called on to defend the Republic against traitors who would see our way of life destroyed. Today, the Adamant stands as the front line of defense against these traitors.
“We are about to enter a series of combat evolutions that will test us as we have never been tested before. More than likely, we will face heavy damage, and all of our skills will be needed to keep this ship operating. It is likely that not all of us will survive, but if you do your best, I promise to give my all to making sure as many of us make it through this day as possible. Thank you, and good luck to us all.”
“Nice speech.” Masako whispered into his ear. She was leaning forward in her chair, and her voice held a hint of playfulness. “I’d almost think you were a politician, not a starship commander.”
“You’ll make someone a fine wife.” Garret teased back and she almost slapped him in the back of the head, but remembered at the last minute that he was injured back there.
“I’ll get you later.” She promised playfully and Garret let himself smile at that. She really did know how to put him at ease. He was almost scared of what their relationship would be like ten or twenty years from now.
“We’re halfway there.” Alexandra said from further back on the bridge where she was leaning over one of the engineering consoles. “We’ve got a fluctuation in our primary coolant on number two reactor. O’Malley says he’ll get it locked down in a minute.”
“Tell him I’m counting on him not to use the head anytime soon.” Garret joked, getting several chuckles from the bridge crew. It was needed, cutting the tension that had been building, and he could see his crew buckling down and preparing for what was to come.
Bonaventure has planetary comms under control now. Ada reported with a hint of regret, but Garret just gave her a silent ‘well done’. That meant she had more processing power available, and decided to use it to build his battle plan. He could hold the plans in his head, where she could read them directly, and then she could put them together into a message packet that could be distributed to the other ships. It was just one of the advantages of her AI power and the transmitter link. Yes, his plan could work, but it wouldn’t be easy and it wouldn’t be fun. Well, it wouldn’t be fun until the last part.
The only problem, as Ada quietly pointed out was that he’d done something similar during the Battle of Lemos. He’d have to make sure his enemy didn’t suspect the trap, and that would put about half his fighters and several of the smaller ships into harms way to convince the enemy what they were seeing was very real. That left a rock in his gullet, the idea of sending people to die just for a psyche op, but then again, he’d had to make similar decisions before, and he’d trained for them at the Academy.
Sometimes in war, such things were necessary.
“Beginning deceleration.” Westley commented. This normally exuberant pilot had been rather quiet since he’d come to the bridge. Garret put that concern out of his mind though; he had other things a trifle more important to deal with.
“Sir, receiving a hail from the station.” Markal reported.
“On screen.” Garret ordered.
“Commodore, we’ve got the code.” The station’s commander said with a wide grin. “The ships in Bay Twelve our powering up and station forces are engaging what appears to be a last stand group of clones. They’re all but suicidal to keep us out of the bay.”
“Don’t waste your personnel.” Garret advised her and she nodded her agreement.
“I estimate you’re going to have company in two minutes.” She said. “As soon as they leave the station, we’ll try the codes.”
“Let’s hope they work.” Garret told her.
“Good hunting, Commodore.” She told him before cutting the transmission. She had a lot to handle, nearly as much as he did. Now all that was left to do was wait.
“Bay doors are opening!” Harrington exclaimed exactly ninety-eight seconds later. The administrator’s estimate had been pretty good. Garret had been betting on sixty seconds.
“Open fire!” Garret ordered, and the ship shook as four torpedoes fired from the lower hull. Beams of deadly energy also struck out from the Adamant as well as from the destroyers. The enemy ships had been expecting the attack, from their diamond formation of frigates with two couriers in the middle. One of the torpedoes struck the nearest frigate, and it exploded in a ball of fire. The other seven torpedoes were either destroyed by defensive fire or missed completely. Laser fire from the older destroyers escorting his ship raked two more of the frigates, crippling them but not destroying them. The Adamant swung sideways so all four of her lasers could be brought to bear.
Two of the lasers struck the trailing courier ship, neatly clipping off her engine array. One of the other two lasers hit their target a glancing blow, but it jinked at the last moment, evading the full devastating firepower of Garret’s flagship. It accelerated with what was likely an O’Leary booster, and was out of effective range before the next salvo had a chance to find her.
“Do we pursue?” Westley asked with an edge to his voice. Whatever was bothering him apparently wasn’t bothering him now.
“No.” Garret said with a frown as the crippled frigates and courier ship all began to signal their surrender. He punched a button on his console before speaking again. “Commandant Mjolnar, prepare boarding parties. We’ve got some damaged ships for you to take.”
“We’ll be ready to launch in five minutes, Commodore.” The Marine officer sounded positively cheerful at the news.
“How much you want to bet Leonev wasn’t on the ship that’s crippled.” Masako asked quietly as she leaned forward in her chair again.
“No bets on that one.” Garret muttered. “We’ve been too lucky so far.”
“Tell that to the dead.” Alexandra Harrington muttered, just loud enough for Garret to hear.
He couldn’t quite find it in himself to disagree with her.
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