Chapter 37
by Dan Kirk
Garret stood at the window with Neal plastered against him, staring out at the destroyer cruising alongside the Adamant. Paul Richardson was the oldest of the destroyers from the Atrix bolt-hole, the least capable in combat, the slowest, and the most expendable. Yet, as Garret stood there watching, it received the most valuable piece of cargo Garret could ever give a ship.
The two ships, traveling at nearly half the speed of light were connected by a series of cables from one airlock to the other. A gleaming capsule quickly passed between them, delivering the precious cargo to the destroyer. Masako had argued with him for three hours before consenting to the transfer, and as Garret watched, the capsule entered the airlock safely. His wife, his son, Davin, and two other staff people that had been traveling with them were now on the destroyer, safe from the ravages of war.
“She’s not happy with you.” Neal said as the destroyer released the transfer lines and the airlock closed on the capsule.
“I know.” Garret said softly, remembering the end of the argument.
“You told me I could travel with you!” Masako’s voice had held pain as well as anger in that sentence. “In the last battles you and your ship came through without any real danger. Why can’t I go with you? Send Paul back with Davin if you must, but let me stay.”
“No, one of us should be with Paul.” Garret said firmly. “This battle will be different than those bolt-hole battles. They’ve got a full battle carrier there, I’ll only have two escort carriers. The latest report we’ve got has nearly fifteen thousand troops on that planet. Right now I’ve got ten thousand, but if I wait a few weeks to re-take Lemos, they’ll have enough citeesium off that planet to build all the ships they want, and they can build those little torpedo boats a heck of a lot faster than bigger ships. I’ve gone through the battle reports from their breakout, and those little ships are fast, heavily armed, and able to cause a lot of damage. Most of the ones that survived had citeesium armor, most of those destroyed did not have the armor. The Republic cannot afford to face them in great numbers with good armor.”
“I want to be there, though.” Masako said with a slight whine. “I’m tired of being back on Calos safe while you’re out there saving the Republic. Damn it, I’m not some sheltered woman that needs protection!”
“No, you’re a strong, capable woman.” Garret said with a smile. “I need someone who can keep an eye on Calos. Billy’s stripped the defensive fleet there. Most of the ships he left are frigates who don’t have the jump-range needed to keep up with the fleet and a couple of old destroyers that won’t be much use at Calos. It’s the perfect opportunity for Earth to make a move.”
“You think Earth might invade?” Masako asked with a dangerous glitter in her eyes.
“No, if I thought that there’d be a full fleet there defending the planet.” Garret said. “I’m more worried about political moves to cement a closer relationship with Earth, fear-mongering that Calos is unprotected, that the Republic doesn’t really care about Calos because we’ve sent our fleet elsewhere. Earth’s learned their lessons about trying to take our planets by force. I believe what we’ve seen on Calos is their first attempt at winning our worlds through politics and persuasion.”
“Yes, I agree.” Masako said with a heavy sigh. “Why didn’t you frame it like this from the beginning, Garret Atrix? If you want me to go make sure Calos hasn’t voted to join the Empire while you’re saving the Republic, I’ll do it no problem. With Tremere dead, you really do need a firm hand there, and I can do the job.”
“Yes, you can.” Garret said with a smile. “I know you Masako Atrix, if I’d started with that argument you would have dismissed it out of hand.”
“I would have, wouldn’t I?” Masako said with a demure smile. “I really wanted to be there when you destroy Leonev’s fleet.”
“I know.” He said gently, hugging her.
“Come back safe, my husband.” She said softly before turning to pack.
Several hours later, Garret stood at the window on the starboard side of his ship and watched as the Paul Richardson fired its maneuvering jets before beginning to accelerate again. The window polarized at the flash as the destroyer used its wave-fold guides to jump eleven light years away. Garret turned away from the window with a sigh. There was still a lot of preparation to make as they prepared for the series of jumps for their rendezvous with the Calosian fleet currently under Billy’s command.
“Thanks for not making me go.” Neal said softly as they headed down the passageway.
“If I didn’t have you here, who’d be bringing me my sandwiches during combat?” Garret asked.
“You’re silly.” Neal said while giggling, and Garret was surprised that his arms relaxed from around Garret so that the teen could walk beside him, with nearly a hand span of space between them.
“I’m just glad you’re here.” Garret said honestly, and was pleased at how Neal’s face lit up in a bright smile.
It would take them several jumps at maximum power to rendezvous with Billy, with more than one jump each day. They would have to travel at maximum acceleration each time after a jump to make the rendezvous. Then it would take three more jumps before they reached a good staging area for the attack on Calos. That gave him time to prepare a battle plan, but it also gave the enemy plenty of time to plunder Lemos. If they were there for a quick hit and snatch raid, they’d be long gone with all the ore already mined by Lemos. On the other hand, if they were trying to consolidate their gains, they’d stay there and dig in heavily.
With the blockade fleets so heavily damaged, the Republic could not respond in great enough force to retake Obduros. They could probably attack the planet, but they’d arrive there only to have Leonev’s fleet breathing down their necks a few days later, attacking them from the rear. If the traitor General had enough of those little torpedo boats, which at this point Garret wasn’t going to dismiss out of hand, the returning fleets could find the Republic forces easy pickings.
No, Garret thought to himself as Adamant and the fleet of ships with her made their next jump, they had to do more than just drive Leonev’s fleet off of Lemos. They would need to smash the ships that were there now, destroying a good part of Leonev’s forces. That was the decision of the planners at the Republic HQ, and it was a good decision. If they could smash Leonev’s forces, divided as they were at the two planets they’d attacked, then the three core traitor worlds would fall rather easily and there would be no counter-attack from the dead ships.
As his ships built up speed again, Garret sat down with his senior officers and really began planning. Fleet headquarters had sent recordings to them before the last jump that were taken by the defense forces stationed at Lemos. The sight of a fleet battle carrier and its fleet appearing only a few thousand kilometer away from Lemos’s space station was frightening, and given the limited forces, he couldn’t quite blame the commanders of those forces for surrendering.
The last few moments of the transmission, before the jamming equipment on the battle carrier jammed normal communications, showed fighters and the new torpedo boats surging from around the carrier into attack formation. Then the signal had been jammed and Garret’s peek into the operations of Leonev’s forces was gone. He already knew from other sources that Admiral Seward, the woman who had long been a supporter of Leonev’s was in command of the fleet. She was a good officer and tended to study her enemies as much as she could. More than likely she had rather extensive files on Garret and would know that he’d be the likely commander sent to face her.
Garret worked late into the night, reviewing the recording of the attack on Lemos with care, zooming in on each of the ships, looking at their power curve ratios from the infrared scanners and other readings taken by the space station’s upgraded sensors. After the first pirate attack on Lemos, the Republic had upgraded the facility’s security systems and scanners. It would have been enough to stop a minor attack, but not enough for a major attack like this one.
“You should take a break.” Neal said just before midnight. “Are we going to go to sleep tonight?”
Garret looked up from the computer screen in his cabin’s dining room table to study Neal, who was in the seat next to him. Under the table, Neal’s feet rested on his. Both of them had taken off their boots hours ago, and Garret was glad that they had. He enjoyed the physical contact almost as much as Neal.
“What are you doing?” Garret asked him as he saved his work.
“It’s a recorder Lelaine gave me a week before her and Masako broke up.” Neal said with a frown, picking the small device up and showing it to Garret. “I was just checking the memory core. When the battle happens, I think I’ll wear it and record what happens. She was always saying how people love real recordings of major events.”
“Do you miss her?” Garret asked.
“Kind of, but I knew she wasn’t going to stay around forever.” Neal said with a shrug. “Some people I can just feel that they won’t be around a lot. She was one of them. She liked Masako well enough, but I could tell she wasn’t really in love. Lelaine was always more worried about herself than others, so when she got that job offer I knew she would take it and leave. That’s okay though, because she really does like you and won’t tell the secrets she knows.”
“We were all sorry to see her go.” Garret said truthfully. Lelaine had left the week before Paul was born, to take a job with a Peladon-based news service.
“At least she was better than that Aaron.” Neal said with a slight shudder, surprising Garret.
“What do you mean?” Garret asked cautiously.
“I don’t trust him.” Neal said with a frown, looking down at the table instead of meeting Garret’s gaze. “He’s your friend, I know, but we don’t like each other at all. The one time he saw me heading towards your room when he was on his way in, he got really nasty. Aaron thinks you and me are having sex and won’t listen if anyone tells him different. Masako said I shouldn’t tell you, but I don’t like keeping secrets from you.”
“I appreciate you telling me Neal.” Garret said, trying not to let his agitation show in his voice. There was no reason for Aaron to be rude to Neal, ever. He’d have to have a conversation with Aaron when he got back to Calos.
“Yeah, well I figure it wouldn’t be too bad to tell you.” Neal said with a shrug. “Lately, he’s been like Lelaine was before she broke up with Masako and took the job offer, so I figure he’s getting ready to leave.”
“Thanks for sharing that too.” Garret said with a smile. Aaron leaving, setting himself up in business on Calos or another planet would probably be for the best. He felt a yawn start, and let it happen before smiling at the red headed teenager. “How about we head to bed?”
“That’s good.” Neal said with a smile as he stood up and stretched. “I was getting tired.
Strangely enough, each night that he spent in bed with Neal without sex was actually easier than the night before. This time he didn’t wake up with Neal humping him in his sleep, and he enjoyed the soft feel of the undershirt covering Neal’s back. Garret’s self-control was good so far, but he didn’t quite trust himself for flesh-on-flesh contact. Within minutes he was fast asleep, and barely woke up when
They’d jumped again during the night, and were well on their way to being ready for their next jump by the time he finished his early morning workout and breakfast, all with Neal tagging along beside him. The corridors of the Adamant were packed with troops and crew, but everyone made way for him, with his two bodyguards in front and two bodyguards behind. Devin insisted on the heavy security detail even though
“You need to get accustomed to having the security detail with you at all times, my lord.” Devin had told him when Garret got up the nerve to protest the fact that there were four guards around him at all times. Since his arm was still bruised, Garret had a reminder of why it was necessary, and he had given in on the matter of his guards. At least they weren’t in his cabin at all times, just when someone other than a very small list of people were in there.
He’d insisted with Harrington that he would stand a bridge watch so after breakfast and a shower, he went to the bridge where he took over from Lieutenant Mitchell, one of the few officers that didn’t come from the bolt-hole. Montagne and Mjolnar were already at the situation table at the back of the bridge, running the simulations that Garret had ordered the night before. The ship was running smoothly, and he had very few orders to give or reports to acknowledge, so he spent most of those four hours going over status reports from the fleet.
Two destroyers were having troubles with systems that would require spare parts to repair. According to the manifest sent by Lumbardon, Billy had three supply ships with him, so when they rendezvoused, the ships could get spare parts from them. All of the destroyers would also have to take on more fuel, although all the ships in his fleet had enough food supplies and ammunition.
No fleet operated without a ton of paperwork to keep it running. Garret made a good dent in those reports and requests by the time his shift ended and he turned over the bridge to Harrington while he went back to the situation table and listened to the results of the simulations that had been run so far. It was good news, although he’d be happier when there had been several more simulations run on his ideas. Neal joined him, and Garret realized most of the last four hours, Neal had been wandering around the bridge talking with various crew members and had even spent an hour at Lukas’s tactical station.
“How about some lunch?” Garret asked as Harrington gave a thirty-minute warning for their next jump. They’d be up to speed in fifteen minutes, and after downloading or transmitting all waiting messages, they’d jump again. Together they headed up to the cabin where their lunch was already waiting. Today it was roast beef sandwiches with green legumes from Peladon.
“I like this life.” Neal said after wolfing down his sandwich and leaning back to sip on his teilon juice, made from a fruit native to Atrix Prime.
“What do you mean?” Garret asked him.
“It’s so orderly and routine on a ship.” Neal said with a smile. “We have set things we do each and every day, and yeah, it’s kind of like that on Calos, but here it is even more routine. Everyone knows what they are supposed to be doing, where they are supposed to be and all that stuff. It’s nice.”
“I’m glad you like it.” Garret replied to the explanation with a smile on his face. “It is a lot easier to deal with life knowing what to expect. The only thing is, we’re in deep space and anything can happen out here.”
“Like what?” Neal asked. “I mean, yeah we could get jumped by enemy ships, but what about when we’re not at war?”
“There’s always danger in deep space.” Garret reminded him. “For instance, when I was a second-year cadet and on my way to the fleet Admiral Lumbardon commanded, we had a little incident. The cruiser I was on received a distress call from a cargo ship and diverted to investigate. We found the ship about half a light year off of the main trade lane, all battered and beat up by this weird object. Scans revealed it was alive, some type of deep space creature.”
“I’ve never heard of things living in space.” Neal said with disbelief in his voice.
“Yeah well, the Republic keeps a lot of secrets.” Garret said with a smile. “Anyway, this thing was actually feeding on the ship’s hull, eating the metal.”
“How’d you get it off the ship?” Neal asked with wide eyes.
“Well that’s the thing, the ship’s lasers didn’t make a dent in the thing.” Garret explained, his eyes twinkling as he continued telling the space story. “Our ship had citeesium armor so it didn’t like us as a food source. Finally we told the civilian crew to abandon the ship and we torpedoed it, but the creature blocked them before they could hit the ship. Then it started to hump the civilian ship like it was mating.”
“Gross.” Neal said with a scrunch of his nose. “What did you do?”
“We picked up the escape pods and went on our way.” Garret said with a smile. When I was coming back after my tour, we detoured to see if we’d find anything. What we did find gave us the willies.”
“What did you find?” Neal asked.
“The damn thing had had babies.” Garret said with a smile. “Somehow it had mated with the cargo ship and there were all these little half cargo ship, half creature things flying around.”
“Okay, now I know you’re kidding.” Neal said with a smirk.
“Yeah, but I had you going for a minute, didn’t I?” Garret replied with a chuckle and Neal’s eyes twinkled before he got out of his chair to sit in Garret’s lap and give him a big hug.
“I love you.” Neal whispered.
“I love you too, Neal.” Garret replied, stroking the boy’s hair. “You done?”
“Yeah, I am.” Neal replied. “You’ve got to go over the next batch of reports, don’t you?”
“Yes, and it’s a good time for you to work on getting caught up with your lessons.” Garret reminded him. Neal groaned, but pulled out his homework from their bedroom and sat back down to begin working on the stuff while Garret continued going over fleet materiel conditions.
Garret was relieved when they made the last of the jumps needed to rendezvous with Billy’s ships. Two jumps a day was serious business, and left everyone feeling a little drained. With the thirty-eight combat ships Billy had brought from Calos, they now had eighty combat-ready ships to take into Lemos. The initial invasion force that had entered Lemos space from Obduros was composed of forty-six ships. With the size of Leonev’s ships, and the size of the ships in this combined fleet of Garret’s and Billy’s, Billy would have been drastically outgunned even though numerically they were just about even.
“Glad you could make it, Admiral.” Billy’s holographic image said from the front of Garret’s bridge.
“I’m glad you waited for me, Commodore.” Garret smiled. “Would you and your staff like to come over for a planning meeting?”
“We’ll be on the shuttle in five minutes.” Billy replied with a grin. His image winked out and Garret turned around in his chair to look at the officers standing the situation table behind him. He nodded and they began pulling out memory sticks to take with them to the briefing room. The large room was usually used by the ship’s pilots as a ready room for their mission briefings, and it was the only room with the right equipment and the ability to hold the number of people who would eventually have to be briefed on the battle plan. Garret could hold the briefing by holo-conference, he’d done that in the past, but he wanted everyone in the same room for this one, merely having to raise a hand to ask a question. They’d also have a reception afterwards in the main wardroom, allowing the various ship commanders to talk with each other for a few minutes. It always seemed to improve fleet performance when the commanders of the ships at least knew each other’s names and faces.
“What’s this?” Garret asked after Billy had arrived with eight staff officers and they’d hugged each other. Garret’s finger was picking at a silver-colored undershirt Billy had on beneath his uniform coveralls. Billy’s grin was wide as he leaned in to whisper into Garret’s ear.
“We ordered enough of the material your crew uses on the last supply run and dyed them in Lars Silver colors.” Billy said. “When I heard about their resistance to laser fire, I wanted them. Plus, the crews like having their own ‘colors’.”
“You sly bastard, I didn’t even know about the material’s energy resistance until after I got shot.” Garret whispered while lightly punching his brother’s shoulder.
“How are mother and father?” Billy asked on a much more somber note.
“They’ll recover.” Garret said with a frown. He pulled a pad out of his uniform’s leg pocket and handed it to Billy. “They both sent you a few messages on this.”
“Thanks.” Billy said with a nod, putting the pad away in a pocket of his own. “Now, shall we get down to business? We’ve got a planet to take back, Admiral.”
“Yes, we do Commodore.” Garret said with a smile as he headed to the first row of plush leather seats. Like pilot briefing rooms since the time of the first sailing aircraft carriers of the old
“How are you doing, Neal?” Billy asked as Neal sat in the seat on the other side of Garret while the technicians prepared the first holographic simulation.
“I’m good, Billy.” Neal answered. “How are Frederick and Imaline?”
“Imaline’s exhausted and
The first round of briefings took two hours to go through, and Garret called a break while the two command staffs began discussing their different ideas. Neal had ordered a light snack for all the men and women in the room, and as they began to eat the snacks, they began to incorporate the best elements of the two plans. Three hours later Billy and Garret ordered their staff to work up some more simulations based on the revised plans while they set about developing their command and control protocols for the battle.
Billy dined with them that night, and when he hinted at staying the night onboard Adamant, Garret managed to send Neal on a very brief errand to the bridge while he informed Billy of how the assassination attempt had affected Neal. Billy just shook his head.
“You’ve managed to keep your goal of not actually having sex with him?” Billy was amused and impressed. “Garret, I think you’re finally growing up.”
“Shut up.” Garret said as he leaned on Billy’s chest for a moment. It was nice to shelter in Billy’s arms for a few moments until Neal returned to the room and immediately attached himself to Garret’s side.
“Are you going to be sleeping with us tonight?” Neal asked Billy.
“No, there is far too much that needs to be done.” Billy answered with a smile. “Maybe some other time, Neal.”
“Okay.” Neal said with a soft frown of disappointment.
The next morning, ship time, the two command staffs got together again with Billy and Garret to present what they’d developed by working until the early hours of the morning. The plan was a good one, able to accomplish all the goals that Garret had set forth. He gave the men his approval before dismissing them to get some rest.
“Are you sure about this?” Billy asked him when it was just the three of them in the briefing room. Neal was up on the dais, running the hologram through a part of the simulated battle while Billy and Garret remained sitting in their seats. “You’re not leaving them any avenue of escape, and you know full well what that will mean.”
“They’ll fight like cornered rats until the end, or they’ll surrender.” Garret said with a shrug. “Either way, Leonev will never see any of these ships again in his fleet.”
“If we pull this off.” Billy frowned as Neal paused the simulation at the point where Garret’s force would jump into the battle.
“We will, we have no other choice.” Garret said. “We can’t let this rebellion continue to grow, it has to be ended and these worlds brought back into the Republic. It’s been far too long already. I won’t have our sons growing up in a divided Republic, weak and vulnerable to its enemies.”
“You’re right.” Billy said with a long, slow exhalation. “I want to make sure
“Let’s call it for the morning.” Garret said. Their combined fleet was now almost up to jump speed, with all the ships having refueled, re-supplied, and finished their repairs. Tonight they would jump to the staging area, and tomorrow they could wait a few hours for the briefing and conference to begin before accelerating again.
“Well then, I’d better get back to my ship before those men pass out from exhaustion.” Billy said as he stood up, gave Garret a hug and walked out.
“How are you doing on your assignments?” Garret asked Neal as they left the briefing room. Neal groaned at the question, and Garret smiled.
The next morning, eighty officers crammed into the briefing room that held only thirty of the plush leather chairs. The senior officers, including Harrington, Johanssen (the commander of the Retribution), and the two officers commanding the escort carriers were all in the front row. Around and behind them sat other officers based on seniority of ship and rank. The rest spilled over into the two aisles and along the edges of the room as Major Montagne began the briefing. Garret took the podium after him, and finished the briefing before opening the floor to questions.
“Why aren’t we allowing them to escape?” Harrington was the first hand in the hair, and Garret answered her question first, since he’d asked her to raise it from the beginning. As he’d hoped, the question and answer set the framework for the rest of the questions, and Garret spent a good two hours answering detailed questions from his ship commanders.
“What do we do if those torpedo boats are able to get a clean path at us?” One destroyer captain asked.
“What if our primary and secondary drop zones are unusable?” The captain of a landing ship tank asked with a serious frown.
“How do we handle ships that surrender while combat is still occurring?” Another destroyer’s captain asked.
Almost all were good questions, and quite a few required the assembled officers to act as planning staff, giving ideas for how to solve problems that could arise during combat. While Garret and Billy’s staff compiled the issues discussed, and possible solutions for a final briefing, the assembled officers moved to the enlisted mess deck for a ‘reception’. It was the best space for the reception since it was large enough to hold all eighty ship captains, and another eighty senior officers that each captain had brought along. The crews of the various ships mixed and mingled for just over two hours while Garret wondered how many of them would never bring their ships back home after the battle.
“Pre-battle jitters again?” Billy asked him softly as they stood watching the groups of officers talking, laughing, chuckling, and smiling at each other. These men and women knew as well as Garret that anything could happen. Not even Garret was beyond facing the possibility of death since his heavily-armed ship would be in the thick of the battle. In case his ship was destroyed or damaged enough its communications were knocked out, command of the battle would switch to Billy. If Billy’s was taken out, it would go to the captain of the escort carrier Clemenceau, and so on and so forth down to the smallest, most junior commander of a destroyer. In a fleet, every ship knew who was next in the chain of command, so that even if one ship was all that was left, its captain would know he was in command of the fleet, and the mission, and would know it was his duty to attempt to carry out the mission.
“Yeah.” Garret muttered.
“Want to see if we can ditch Neal for a few minutes?” Billy asked with a husky voice. “I need to relax for at least a few minutes.”
“He should be fine.” Garret said, looking over at Neal who was surrounded by a group of female and male officers asking him questions. Together, Billy and Garret hurried out of the room and found the nearest empty compartment on the ship, which turned out to be a local control station for one of the ship’s point-defense batteries.
“I love you.” Billy said softly, a half-hour later as they lay on their uniforms to keep the cold floor from freezing their nude bodies. “If something were to happen to you…”
“I know.” Garret said softly. “I feel the same way.”
“We’d better get dressed.” Billy agreed, standing up and then embracing Garret one last time, along with a passionate kiss. As soon as they re-entered the reception room, Neal was at Garret’s side, but all he did was sniff in an obvious way and smile up at Garret.
“You okay?” Garret asked him and Neal hugged him tight.
“Yeah, but next time, just let me know, okay?” Neal asked. “I know I’m being kind of silly about having to be around you all the time, and if you just let me know you need some alone time, I think I won’t freak out, as long as it’s not too long.”
“Okay, that’s a deal.” Garret said with a laugh and a ruffle of Neal’s hair.
The next briefing session was quick and productive. Only a few more questions were asked, a few last tweaks of the battle plan, and then the Adamant’s landing bays became very busy as the assembled officers returned to their ships. Twelve hours after that, the fleet reached jump speed, and Garret sent the last transmission they would send to Fleet HQ.
It begins.
Then the fleet went into total communications blackout. Every bit of communications equipment was turned off and locked down, and all the ships turned off their active sensors. For two hours they cruised just above jump speed and waited. The first transmission from a spy came from the carrier Clemenceau, and was cut off before it had lasted more than three seconds. The carrier managed that by decelerating below jump speed, making wave-fold communication impossible.
The second came ten minutes later on one of the destroyers from Calos and was dealt with similarly, although on analysis it was learned the transmission had been very short, just a few words. A search by the captains of the two ships found the two spies, and interrogation was begun, although Garret would not wait for the results before continuing with his plan. Once Clemenceau had accelerated back to jump speed, Garret ordered the launching of the first scout ships.
The two carriers launched a quarter of their scouts at the same time, and the small ships disappeared as they jumped to Lemos. Four hours later, more scouts were launched and began their scouting run. Data began to flow back in to the fleet as Garret reopened Adamant’s communication systems. One of the scouts from the second batch was destroyed after it was intercepted by two of the new torpedo boats, but Garret had the information he needed and the fleet jumped to a second staging area where it again began to build up speed. This time when they reached jump speed, Garret ordered another round of scouts being launched and sent to Lemos. It had been nineteen hours since the first scout had appeared in Lemos space, and his plan had the desired effect. Admiral Seward, the commander of the Leonev battle group had kept her ships on alert, expecting an attack at any time. They reacted quickly to the appearance of the scouts, sending out two torpedo boats to intercept them, but Seward kept her fleet in its current formation.
She was obviously waiting for the second flight of scouts before deploying them for battle.
“Jump in accordance with pattern Bravo-two.” Garret ordered when he’d reviewed the data from the scouts. Seward was expecting him to follow a pattern, and Garret refused to do that. The active scans from a second set of scouts would have helped him better prepare for the battle, but it would have given her warning and he didn’t want to do that. Surprise was a weapon that Garret refused to give up.
The Retribution jumped first, taking two smaller cruisers and ten destroyers with him. Three of the scouts from the second flight had left behind small drones. While not capable of reaching half the speed of light on their own, the drones could maintain that speed, and the scouts had launched them just before they jumped out of the system. Two of the drones had gone undetected by Admiral Seward’s forces, and as soon as he arrived in the system, Billy sent a transmission activating them. Flying at high speeds, they turned on their active sensor packages and began transmitting the data to Garret’s ship. Twelve minutes after Billy had jumped into the system, Garret got his first active data feed. The drones would scan and transmit data for up to six hours. Their location in the system meant that the information he was getting from them was eight minutes and thirty-four seconds old, but it still gave him a better picture of what was going on in the battle area.
As planned, Billy’s forces had appeared well out from Lemos itself. They began accelerating towards the enemy. Seward knew this wasn’t the full attack, but she had a choice to make. Billy’s ships didn’t have fighter escorts, and she had to know that Billy had left Calos with two escort carriers. Together the two smaller carriers almost equaled her battle carrier as far as fighters. Garret didn’t know exactly how she’d react at this point, and so he’d sent in Billy’s squadron first.
Seward had one battleship in her fleet, and she dispatched it along with four cruisers and five destroyers to take Billy’s force out. Behind them six of the torpedo boats followed, waiting until Billy engaged the battleship before they surged forward to attack Billy’s ships. Garret let out a breath he’d been holding and prepared to issue more orders.
“Squadron Charlie, jump in accordance with Bravo-nine.” Garret ordered and watched the holo-display flicker as the ships jumped out. He was sitting in his command chair, watching the battle unfold on the situation table, which had a bigger display area than the forward hologram. Neal was sitting at a station in that table, quietly helping Montagne keep the data updated. It was something important, but did not require the years of training most of the people in the room had, and Garret was grateful Montagne had come up with the idea. It made Neal feel useful, and more than just an observer.
He had to wait eight minutes to see the result of his order, and he watched closely as Billy’s ships slowed their advance, setting up a defensive perimeter around the Retribution. Seward was holding her carrier in check, waiting for the two escort carriers to show before joining the battle. It was a wise move, keeping her forces gathered together, where they could concentrate their firepower, and it kept her carrier well protected from bombers that could be launched by the escort carriers. At Billy’s current speed, his ships were still ten minutes away from contact with the approaching battleship when the second group of ships appeared.
Anwhal appeared, escorted by a cruiser and four destroyers, just behind the battleship’s position where it was advancing on Billy’s formation. Because of the laws of physics, the new ships that appeared at a dead stop were immediately left far behind by Seward’s battleship and its escorts, but as the Anwhal began to pick up speed, Billy’s forces surged forward at maximum acceleration. An older model of ship built along the same guidelines as Adamant, the Anwhal had sixteen ground-attack fighters. While capable of operating in space, the fighters were slower and less capable than true space-superiority fighters. That didn’t mean they were useless, and as the commander of the battleship ordered the six torpedo boats in the rear of his formation to take care of the new ships, Anwhal launched her fighters. The fighters attacked the torpedo boats in four groups of four fighters, and within minutes, four of the torpedo boats were destroyed while a race began between the two surviving boats and the thirteen surviving fighters. Seeing the loss of his precious boats, the battleship commander ordered a cruiser and four destroyers from his group to fall back and attack the Anwhal while he trusted his ship and the few escorts still left to take out Billy’s force. Meanwhile, Seward launched a squadron from her carrier and sent them to join the attack on the Anwhal.
“Squadron Bravo, jump and engage plan Charlie-two.” Garret ordered with a small smile on his face.
This was the key moment in the battle, and eight minutes later Garret’s smile widened. The escort carrier Yarolsav appeared in the battle zone with an escort of seven destroyers, positioned between and off to the side of the area where Billy’s squadron was now engaging the battleship in long-range torpedo and rail-gun fire. The battleship’s superior firepower was already verging on overwhelming Billy’s forces, and he lost a destroyer moments after the Yaroslav appeared. While the small carrier’s escorts began their own long-range torpedo fire, the carrier launched all of its fighter squadrons and its bomber squadron. The small craft, flying out of their tubes at high speed, formed up quickly and began to head towards the battleship.
Now was the point where Seward had to make a choice that would determine what Garret did next. More than likely, she would have guessed that Garret was nearby, directing the battle from the signals being received by the drones. She would also know the time-delay Garret was dealing with, and take that into consideration. There was also the likelihood that she knew Garret had another escort carrier in reserve. His plan should be to pull her defensive forces away from the planet so he could get his troop ships in behind her.
She chose the safe option, Garret saw a few moments later as her carrier began to launch fighters and bombers. They were more than enough to overwhelm Yaroslav, but left her enough to defend against another escort carrier. It was a good, solid choice, and one that Garret almost felt sorry for her making. It would make his next moves more dangerous.
“Remaining squadrons, implement plan Delta-Three.” Garret ordered and prepared himself for the jump as Harrington gave the appropriate orders. The bridge had been lit in the blue combat lighting already, but there was an added edge to everyone as they prepared for the jump. Garret even closed his eyes when Harrington gave the order to jump, issuing a silent prayer to whatever deity that did exist that his plan would work.
No matter how well-trained they are, tired crews responded slower to surprises, and when Garret laid all his cards on the table, Admiral Seward’s crews were just too tired to react with the speed that would have saved their fleet. They had been on alert status for days, and for the last day had spent most of their time at battle-stations ever since the first scout appeared in the Lemos system. They were physically exhausted from Garret’s patient waiting before beginning his attack.
Later, after the battle, historians and military analysts would comment that the freshest crewmember on Seward’s flagship had less than three hours of sleep in the last twenty-four hours while Garret’s forces were at their freshest, peak condition. Garret Atrix was well known for daring, even brash maneuvers, and his last jump was in the finest of those traditions.
The first of his ships to appear in the system was the escort carrier Clemenceau with a cruiser and four destroyers in protective formation. It appeared halfway between Yaroslav and Seward’s carrier, the
Admiral Seward, a competent officer, veteran of six battles with the Sol Empire, and a commander of a battle group for one of them reacted immediately to the appearance of the second escort carrier. She launched all of her remaining fighters, and all of the bombers her ship held while ordering a battle cruiser and six of her destroyers to engage the second carrier. For several minutes, they accelerated away from the
Adamant and
More Republic ships appeared in the system, and the destroyers and cruisers that appeared from Garret’s flagship began to unleash devastating fire on ships that were positioning themselves to attack the Adamant or the
It took ten minutes from the moment that Adamant appeared for the
In the end, the battle lasted exactly two hours and six minutes from start to finish. Seward’s ships tried to retreat, but a force of destroyers held back for just that reason jumped in and cut off their line of retreat. Eight of them surrendered, but the rest were destroyed before they could escape. All the troops on the planet surrendered as soon as their fleet was destroyed, and Garret began landing his own troops to take them prisoner.
“Congratulations, Admiral.” Harrington said as the troops began landing. “You managed to destroy an entire enemy fleet while only losing eight ships. That’s another one for the history books.”
“Thanks.” Garret said with a frown, thinking of all the people who had lost their lives that day. History would record nearly thirty thousand deaths on that day, and for the first time since the first years of the Great War, most of those who had died were not clones. How that would play out, Garret was too drained to worry about as he began issuing orders on how to deal with the prisoners from the escape pods, surrendered ships, and the troops on the ground.
