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“Thank you, Captain. Good luck.” Sansar said, and the direct channel closed.

  “I guess the gloves are off,” Nigel noted.

  Sansar nodded. “This is bad.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “They’re prepared to use antimatter weapons, and they aren’t worried that we know about it.”

  It took Nigel a little longer to figure out what Sansar had already realized. “This is winner take all, then, isn’t it?”

  “Yes,” Sansar replied. “Peepo knows word of this can’t get out. They intend to kill all of us—every man, woman, and child in the system is going to have to die.”

  “We can’t allow that to happen,” he said.

  “No,” Sansar said, her voice grim, “we can’t.”

  Nigel nodded toward the Tri-V. “It looks like the battle is going well, though.”

  “Yeah, so far.” Sansar studied the battlespace. Merc Guild ships continued to materialize—How many of them did they have?—but the defenses were holding. Many of the ships had the antimatter-warhead riders, though, and a number of them had been used on the drones and asteroid bases. “Target any of those riders you see!” she ordered. “They can’t be allowed to take out any of our bases or, even worse, our ships!”

  Sansar shook her head as the battle continued to develop. What was she missing? It was a slugfest, and her forces were starting to take losses, but it didn’t look like a “maximum effort” attack—Blue Sky Above, they weren’t even clustered that tightly!—and Peepo was throwing away an awful lot of ships for little actual effect. A mobile asteroid intercepted a Maki cruiser and its light winked out. This is too easy; this isn’t what I saw!

  A new light illuminated on the far side of the Tri-V display from where the battle was being held. Then a second. Then a third, a fourth, and a fifth, all at random spots in the battlespace. The ships immediately began maneuvering toward each other.

  “This was all a ploy,” Sansar said as the realization hit her. The initial ships had gone through the stargate and all arrived in one place. Their mission had only been to draw in the static defenses and destroy some of her forces with their antimatter missiles. They weren’t the main assault, though; those ships had jumped with internal shunts so they would arrive somewhere else in the emergence area, away from the other ships where they could hopefully catch the defenders out of position and stage a breakout from the emergence area. Her inexperience in space combat had led her astray. She’d never even considered that Peepo would split her forces and make multiple simultaneous emergences.

  Sansar had reserve forces, but nothing that could contain the forces which had just appeared in the system, all of which were close to joining up. Most of her forces were engaged in stopping the initial assault, and they were now out of position to stop the invaders.

  The Merc Guild’s plan was beautifully executed, and she’d fallen for it. She began giving orders to reorient her forces and call in the reserves, while a lead ball formed in her stomach as the ships turned toward Prime Base.

  “Defense Command, Alicorn Actual,” Lech Kowalczy called. “Don’t reorient on the newcomers. You finish with the first group; we’ve got these.”

  Sansar breathed a sigh of relief. More experienced at space combat, Lech had seen the need, and the Winged Hussars forces had peeled off to take them under fire. She hoped he knew what he was doing—five battlecruisers and their escorts seemed vastly under-armed versus the battleships. Regardless, she’d let the mobile forces deal with them while she concentrated on the first wave.

  “New emergence!” a sensor tech cried.

  Sansar’s eyes whipped to the display, where a new dot was displayed. Its representation in the battlespace was so large that it gave no doubt as to what it was.

  “Dreadnought!” the sensor tech yelled in fear as the light cruisers it carried began to detach.

  This was what she had seen. More ships than she had defenses for. The battle was now truly joined, and she was an hour late and a whole pile of credits short. Then she saw the direction the dreadnought was heading.

  “They’re going for Prime Base, too,” Nigel muttered, “aren’t they?”

  Sansar nodded as she continued to send out orders via her pinplants.

  “Are we going to be able to stop them?”

  Sansar stopped for a second to answer. “No,” she said with a shake of her head. “We aren’t.” On the wider fleet action feed into her pinplants, she saw the Hussars’ main fleet element approaching the engagement zone. While they could hit the battleships, they were out of position to turn on the dreadnought. Despite all their planning to stop it, the dreadnought was going to get away.

  * * *

  CIC, EMS Shadowfax, New Warsaw System

  “They got one!” Evie Miller, XO of Shadowfax, called out. The entire CIC erupted in a cheer.

  Elizabeth was somewhat skeptical of Sansar Enkh’s ability to run the defenses of New Warsaw. After all, ships weren’t her thing. The plan had always been for Alexis Cromwell to handle space defenses, and, should anything get through, Sansar would then deal with it. This wasn’t the plan—not at all—and the Winged Hussars lived or died by planning. Plan, prepare, strike. This fight was shaping up to only be prepare and strike.

  The hapless Maki battleship which arrived first—and was promptly destroyed—was more a victim of poor fleet logistics than a successful layered defense. The Hussars training emphasized tight formations through stargates to make what just happened extremely difficult. First-year students knew the first ship out was the unluckiest ship.

  “We’re just getting started,” Elizabeth reminded her command crew.

  “Multiple emergences at a second emergence point,” SitCon reported. “Various hull sizes from battleships to cruisers. They are one point nine-two light seconds off from the first emergence.”

  “Very good,” Elizabeth said. “Prepare for an attack run on them. Helm, alter course to intercept. Comms, signal Alicorn we’re ready.”

  “Target assignments received,” TacCom responded.

  “Explosions in the enemy fleet’s midst. Two cruisers have exploded from internal damage, one battleship similarly damaged.”

  “The interdiction drones are working,” Evie said, and Elizabeth nodded. The Tri-V showed a second group of ships struggling to launch their parasite craft while simultaneously fighting off a swarm of drones.

  The emergence area was millions of square kilometers flooded with specialized drones. Once activated, the drones—nothing more complicated than fusion bombs with tracking systems and a drive—would attack anything without a clear IFF transponder. They were lethal in great numbers. The ships which exploded no doubt emerged into normal space with a drone next to their hull. The energy release from such an event was spectacular.

  “We only get one clean pass,” Elizabeth reminded them. “Forward shields to maximum, charge the spinal mount, prepare for combat.”

  The enemy fleet was emerging en masse now. Only a few seconds after they started to emerge into normal space, the big Tri-V in Shadowfax’s CIC revealed the enemy hadn’t sent the earlier fleet assets by mistake. It was an expensive feint which had gotten Sansar to commit a large percentage of her defensive assets toward that zone, expecting the remainder of the fleet to arrive there as well. Tactical assessments continued to arrive from the flagship, Alicorn. Based on the data they’d gotten on the way out of Sol, there had to be at least a third element coming as well; no one had seen the dreadnought yet.

  “Weapons range in twenty seconds,” SitCon reported.

  Too late to worry about a third element, Elizabeth thought. “Assigned targets in alignment?”

  “Almost there,” helm reported.

  Elizabeth watched the closing tracks. It would be close, but then again when wasn’t it? She missed Alexis running the show. This attack wasn’t as creative as what she would have set up. This was more blunt force than surgical.

  “On target,” helm confirmed.

  “We
apons range in ten seconds.”

  “More emergences,” a sensor tech reported. “Different area of emergence.”

  “Acknowledged,” Elizabeth said. “Data recording on automatic, concentrate on this engagement.”

  “Weapons range in three, two, one…”

  “Fire,” Elizabeth ordered.

  * * *

  The squadron of five Maki and Bakulu battleships and their escorts immediately began forming up upon their emergence into the New Warsaw system. For decades, the Winged Hussars’ hidden base had haunted many space navy merc companies’ dreams. The ability to destroy the Hussars and remove some of their best competition was a desirable goal. So, when General Peepo handed out the assault assignments, the Maki and Bakulu were only too happy to take a vanguard position in the second element.

  “The Hussars are surely going to position their best ships to defend the emergence point,” the Bukulu commander had said.

  “And they’ll be no match for five battleships and our squadron of escort ships,” the Maki commander had completed the thought. The two races were not really enemies, but they weren’t really allies, either. In situations where they were both under Mercenary Guild command, though, they worked together, if reluctantly.

  The squadron was not in full formation yet when a dozen ships reported damage, including two Maki cruisers that were destroyed outright from internal explosions.

  “Drones!” the TacComs of both races’ ships called out. “Thousands—no tens of thousands of drones!”

  “Sensors to close range, maximum sweep! Order the battleships to bring weapons online. Escorts, set CID weapons on automatic!”

  The close-in defensive lasers were designed to intercept missiles or drones. Many of the Maki and Bakulu ships could also re-task their main laser batteries for defensive fire, as well. In an instant, thousands of lasers crisscrossed space, slicing drones apart and causing many to prematurely detonate. Tactical screens were awash with interference due to the radiation waves from nuclear detonations.

  Despite the unrelenting torrent of fire, ships were still hit. Several were cruisers and frigates struggling to undock and get clear of the battleships they’d rode into New Warsaw. They were caught with their shields down and torn apart.

  The losses were inconsequential. The squadron had more than 100 ships, and, although one was damaged, the five battleships were intact. Within a minute, the battleships’ powerful defensive lasers were employed, and the anti-drone weapons-fire doubled. They’d destroyed about half when the squadron’s sensors detected the enemy ships.

  “Attacking squadron, inbound!”

  “Five battlecruisers, unknown configuration. Two battlecruisers, Steed-class. Eight cruisers, Crown-class. Passing average 4,000 kilometers astern, direction 1-0-4 mark 3-5.”

  The Maki and Bakulu commanders both regarded the data and the speed of the approaching ships. It took a second to process what they were seeing and realize the drones weren’t the main attack. They’d expected a static defense waiting for them, like what had met the first wave. The Hussars were going to pass at speed and rake them with fire. Instead, the entropy-cursed Humans had known when they would be arriving. They had to; it would have taken hours to push up to such a speed.

  The commanders were stuck in a quandary. Change defenses to face the hurtling Hussars’ ships and open themselves to the still significant swarm of drones? Or weather the coming attack to keep the drones off them?

  The Maki, favoring a strong offense, elected to have their three battleships reorient on the attacking forces, counting on their escort frigates to protect them.

  The Bakulu, being more defensive, had their two hold their ground.

  * * * * *

  Chapter Nine

  CIC, New Warsaw Defense Command, New Warsaw System

  “What are we going to do about the dreadnought?” Nigel asked.

  “I’m still working on that,” Sansar said. “I’m hoping the Hussars have something they can use to stop it, or at least slow it down a little.”

  “If we finish off the first wave quickly, can we reorient what we have to take on the dreadnought?” Nigel asked.

  Sansar shook her head slowly. “A little, but most of what we have are the static defenses—the asteroids and mines. The ships we have are mostly mercenary cruisers and lighter-armed ships. If they go up against the dreadnought…”

  “It would be a slaughter,” Nigel finished.

  Sansar winced as one of the asteroid bases was taken out by an antimatter “missile.” Although the weapon functioned like a missile, they were ships in their own right; each was almost the size of a corvette, and it took a lot to stop one. The defensive lasers weren’t enough to take one out with a single shot; the ships’ defenders had to hit them multiple times with the defensive lasers—no easy task when they were going so fast—or use the offensive lasers to burn them down.

  And each offensive laser was one that couldn’t be used on the enemy forces.

  Losing an asteroid base was a considerable blow, and that was the third one the Merc Guild forces had destroyed. In addition to the weapons on the station, they had also drilled out hangars in them. The last one to be destroyed had taken a squadron of the Avenger bombers—along with their SalSha crews and maintenance folks—”into the light.”

  Although Sansar wasn’t as experienced as the Hussars at space combat, even she could see that the Merc Guild forces were starting to make gains as the defenders ran out of mines, drones, and asteroid bases. She had hoped to save the Avengers to go after the dreadnought, but hope wasn’t an actual strategy, and she needed the extra throw weight.

  “Launch the bombers,” she ordered. “We need to finish this group off.”

  * * *

  Ferret One, Asteroid Defense Base Kilo, New Warsaw System

  “Ferrets, check in,” Thorb’s bombardier, Second Lieutenant Skald, called.

  “Two, up and ready.” Thorb nodded as the rest of the bombers checked in. He could see some of the twelve bombers in his squadron on his right wing—they were far too close to each other, but it was necessary so they could stay hidden in the asteroid’s shadow.

  “They are ready,” Skald said. “At least, they think they are.”

  Thorb winced but didn’t say anything. He’d had the same thought. While there was almost nothing he wanted less than having to take an entire squadron of newbies into combat, one of those few things was to give the Merc Guild uncontested access to Prime Base and all of the women and children—both Human and SalSha—who hadn’t had a chance to evacuate yet. Having lost eleven crews from his squadron in the assault on Earth—most of whom had been well trained—he knew it was statistically unlikely that he would return with all of his crews—most just out of training—this time. Still, the grahp had come to the system, and it was time for everyone to go out and face it. And, the truth of the matter was, sometimes when the grahp ate one of the inexperienced warriors, that gave the seasoned ones a chance to sneak in and kill it…not that anyone would ever say that, of course.

  And, if worst came to worst, they were all in two-person bombers. No one would go into the light alone.

  “The Badgers, Minks, and Wolverines all report ready, too,” Skald said. “The asteroid the Weasels were based on got hit. They’ve gone into the light.”

  Thorb sighed. They’d already taken 20% casualties, and they hadn’t even gone into battle yet. If he had to lose a squadron, though, Space Attack Squadron Five was the least experienced—they had just finished training and none of them had seen combat. The Badgers, Minks, and Wolverines had all participated in the assault on Earth and had come away with minor losses, so most of their crews were combat veterans.

  He dialed up the airwing net. “All SalSha, this is Thorb. On my command, we will accelerate into a skew turn up and over our asteroids, spreading out as we go. Hit your targets then regroup back here for rearming in case we’re needed for additional attacks. We cannot let the Merc Guild make it to Prime
Base. It’s either kill or be killed, and I’d rather do it to them than have them do it to our pups.”

  Several excited calls came back. He could tell they were mostly from the new crews in his command, who didn’t know what they were getting into yet. The other squadrons’ crews knew very well what war looked like and focused on getting themselves and their ships ready for combat, double- and even triple-checking checklists and settings.

  “Here we go,” Thorb transmitted. “Three, two, one, mark!” He smoothly pushed the throttle forward. “Tighten it up, Four,” he added as that ship started to drop behind. “Everyone, fly off me, not your wingman.” With twelve bombers in a row, if everyone tried to stay in position on the craft to their left, the last craft would be playing crack-the-whip the whole time.

  “Defense Command, Ferret One,” Skald called as Thorb began the pull up and over to head toward the battle. “We are up with twelve Avengers, looking for a target.”

  “Good to have you, Ferrets,” the controller said. “Sending targeting data now.”

  Thorb glanced down at the display and tweaked his steering marginally as the new heading came in. “What are we going for?”

  “We drew the short end of the seaweed,” Skald replied. “The Badgers are with us, but we got the last Maki battleship. Defense command thinks they can contain the rest of the Merc Guild fleet, but they can’t do anything with the battleship as it is now. We either have to destroy it, or at least wear down its defenses so someone else can.”

  Thorb shook his head. While they were wearing down the battleship’s defenses, it would be wearing down his squadron…and there weren’t any more SalSha available to fill the empty seats this battle was going to cause. But it had to be done, for the good of all.

  He advanced his throttles. “Follow me,” he commed to the squadron. “We have a battleship to kill.”

  * * *