The Lost Fleet - Courageous Part 19

"Paladin!" Geary yelled, not caring if he sounded unprofessionally angry during the battle. "Return to the formation immediately! Captain Midea is relieved of command. Executive officer, a.s.sume command and return Paladin to formation!"

It was probably too late. It was certainly too late. At the velocities the ships were traveling, Paladin had already veered too far from the rest of the Alliance fleet, and the Syndics were coming around to cross under the main body of the Alliance fleet but directly at Renown and Paladin.

Renown volleyed out waves of escape pods and all of her remaining specters as the leading edge of the Syndic formation approached. Her last grapeshot followed, sparkling as it hit the shields of Syndic ships and vaporized. One, then two, Syndic HuKs fell silent as Renown's weapons ripped into them. A light cruiser reeled away. The shields on a battle cruiser flared and failed in spots, letting some of Renown's h.e.l.l lances score hits on the enemy warship.

But an avalanche of fire was falling upon Renown. Her shields failed, her weak armor was penetrated in a hundred places, her h.e.l.l-lance batteries fell silent as the stricken battle cruiser jerked and tumbled helplessly from the impacts of Syndic fire.

"No systems detected still active on Renown," a watch-stander reported in a calm but trembling voice. "Renown's emergency beacon has lit off. Her surviving crew is abandoning ship."

Geary had been there, too. Hoping a functioning escape pod still existed, racing through once-familiar pa.s.sageways of his ship grown foreign from ma.s.sive damage, the enemy weapons still tearing into his mortally wounded ship.

"Core overload set on Renown. Contact lost with Renown."

On the display, the battered hulk, which minutes before had been an Alliance battle cruiser, rolled silently away, her power core set to explode to deny her carca.s.s to the enemy, the escape pods holding her crew mingling with those from the already destroyed Syndic warships.

Too late to save Renown, Paladin came tearing past and above the shattered battle cruiser. h.e.l.l lances tore out from the battleship in volleys that ripped into Syndic HuKs scrambling to escape. Two HuKs exploded under the impacts, and one more disintegrated under the blows of Paladin's h.e.l.l lances. Then the lone Alliance battleship was in among the Syndic light cruisers, its powerful h.e.l.l-lance batteries shattering the shields on two of the light cruisers, destroying one and crippling the other.

A second later Paladin, her shields glowing now under an almost constant barrage of enemy fire, encountered Syndic heavy cruisers. Paladin's own weapons tore open a single Syndic heavy cruiser as the battleship staggered onward directly toward a division of Syndic battleships.

"Captain Midea is crazy, but she's dying well," Desjani remarked somberly.

"Did she have to take her ship and crew with her?" Geary whispered in reply. Too late. Too late to relieve Midea. Too late to figure out how to control a reckless officer with a ship's fate in her hands.

"Paladin's losing shields," the watch reported.

Geary could see that on his own display. Paladin's lonely battle was far enough from the rest of the fleet by now that it took a few seconds for light from the fight to reach Dauntless. A lot could happen in a few seconds.

It took less time than that for Paladin to charge straight into the Syndic battleship division she'd been aiming for, shuddering as enemy weapons ripped into her from all sides. But Paladin concentrated her own fire on a single battleship even as her h.e.l.l-lance batteries started falling silent under the Syndic barrage. As Paladin and that Syndic battleship flashed past each other, Paladin fired her null field at the weakened bow shields of the enemy ship. Its already-stressed shields failed, and the null field penetrated into the Syndic battleship's bow, digging a ma.s.sive crater there.

As the Syndic battleship reeled out of formation, crippled, Paladin shot through the rest of the Syndic formation, taking hit after hit, systems falling dead and pieces of armor and hull being blown off under the impact of Syndic h.e.l.l lances, grapeshot, and missile fire.

As Geary's fleet came over the top of its turn and steadied on course for another pa.s.s at the Syndic flotilla, Paladin's remains tumbled onward past the Syndics, the only sign of life on the wreck a few escape pods popping free.

"We'll avenge them," Geary stated as the Alliance fleet steadied out to cross over the top of the Syndic formation again. But he'd misjudged slightly this time, maybe rattled by what was happening to Renown and Paladin, and the two groups of warships tore past each other at extreme h.e.l.l-lance range, neither the Alliance nor the Syndics scoring any significant damage on the other.

"We'll get the Syndics on the next pa.s.s," Desjani predicted, her face grim.

"Yeah." Geary took a deep breath, then transmitted his next orders. "All formations, turn up one one zero degrees, port zero one degrees at time five seven." As the fleet came back around, it would invert again as the two formations wove back and forth toward each other in interlinked S curves. The Syndic commander should recognize that he couldn't achieve a good firing pa.s.s unless he broke the pattern, but the Syndics wouldn't break contact while they thought they had a chance to inflict damage back on the Alliance. They never had, stubbornly sticking to fights in misplaced displays of bravery and determination. In this fight, the Syndics had already been hurt a lot more than the Alliance, even after counting Renown and Paladin. By the time the Syndics decided to flee, they'd be too badly hurt for any major warship to get away.

"Sir, activity at the hypernet gate!"

Alerts pulsed on Geary's display. His eyes went to the area of the Syndic hypernet gate even as a watch-stander began calling out the information in a breathless voice. "Syndic forces have been spotted emerging from the hypernet gate. Twenty Hunter-Killers. Update, twenty-eight Hunter-Killers. Twelve light cruisers. Update, forty-two Hunter-Killers, twenty-six light cruisers, eight heavy cruisers. Update, sixty-nine Hunter-Killers, thirty-one light cruisers, nineteen heavy cruisers."

Geary watched the enemy symbols multiplying madly at the hypernet gate, trying not to let his dismay show.

"They've got a substantial number of escorts," Desjani remarked with what Geary thought was remarkable calmness.

Which implied a lot of capital ships.

The display and the watch-stander confirmed that moments later. "Sixteen battle cruisers. Update, twenty battle cruisers. Twelve battleships. Update, twenty-three battleships."

Geary realized he hadn't been breathing and inhaled. At least the threat symbols had stopped growing in number. He took a long moment to read the final a.s.sessment of the new Syndic force. Twenty-three battleships, twenty battle cruisers, nineteen heavy cruisers, thirty-one light cruisers, one hundred twelve Hunter-Killers.

The odds in this star system had just gone from roughly even to very bad. In capital ships alone the Alliance fleet now had only twenty-five surviving battleships and seventeen surviving battle cruisers. The battle so far had taken out three Syndic battleships and four battle cruisers, but even after those losses, total Syndic capital ships at Lakota now added up to forty-four battleships and thirty-four battle cruisers, most of those fresh and presumably with full load-outs of expendable munitions, whereas the Alliance ships had used up most of their missiles and grapeshot already. Almost two-to-one odds, and no matter what anyone else in the Alliance fleet believed, Geary didn't think that superior fighting spirit could make up for that kind of disparity in firepower.

TEN.

"IT must be the main Syndic fleet," Desjani observed, her body tense. "Their primary strike force. The Syndics in this system couldn't have sent for reinforcements and had them show up this quickly, so they must have been headed here for some other reason."

"Lucky us," Geary muttered. The hypernet gate was almost five light-hours away now, so that Syndic flotilla they were just now seeing had arrived five hours ago. But the Syndics in that new strike force had seen the Alliance fleet the moment they arrived, and had already had five hours to size up the situation and make plans. "We need to wipe out this flotilla we're engaged with. Then we can-"

"Syndic ships are turning away," a watch-stander called in a disappointed voice.

"Son of a b.i.t.c.h." There wasn't any doubt. Instead of curving back in for another firing pa.s.s, the Syndics they'd been fighting were continuing outward, accelerating past point one light to open the distance from the Alliance fleet even faster. Instead of closing on the Alliance fleet, the Syndics were now heading in another direction. "They're breaking contact."

Along with light from the hypernet gate had come orders for the Syndic ships they were engaged with. Geary was certain of it as he watched the Syndic flotilla accelerating away.

"Cowards," Desjani ground out, then shook her head. "No. They've been ordered to wait until that other big force gets close enough to engage us."

"Right." Geary took a look at the geometry of the Alliance and the Syndic forces, then at his fleet's fuel status. "We don't have enough fuel cells to catch them without going to critically low levels."

"Jump to Branwyn!" Rione suddenly cried, as if unable to understand why someone else hadn't already said that. "Proceed onward to the jump point and jump to Branwyn! We've inflicted more losses on the Syndics than they have on us, so there's no dishonor in leaving the battlefield now!"

Desjani just shook her head again.

Geary looked back at Rione. "We can't. That Syndic force that is breaking contact with us is going to stay close enough to come charging in if we head for that jump point. We have to slow down a lot to get past the minefield they laid and to the jump point. They'll wait until we're nearly at a dead stop to get around those mines, and then they'll hit us."

"We'd be easy targets," Desjani added in a tight voice.

"We can't outmaneuver them?" Rione demanded.

This time Geary shook his head. "They don't have auxiliaries with them slowing them down, and they can leave their damaged ships behind when they come at us, knowing that we can't go after them. Even if we didn't have the auxiliaries to worry about, we'd still have to keep our damaged ships with us." He pointed at the display. "The Syndics we were fighting will keep us from using the jump point for Branwyn or hurt us very badly if we try to use it. Meanwhile, the big new Syndic flotilla will head for us, knowing we can't escape through the nearest jump point without taking serious losses. When the newest force gets close enough, it and the one we were just fighting will hit us together."

Desjani nodded, her face grim.

"And you're just going to wait around for this?" Rione asked, incredulous.

"Not if I can help it." He sat down, trying to think. One thing was obvious, and that was he had to settle the fleet on a new course. "All ships, steady course up two zero degrees, starboard one zero degrees time four three."

Now what? Badly outnumbered, and things wouldn't be getting better. Maybe, maybe if he pulled off something absolutely brilliant, he could win here. But there was no way of doing so without losing the vast majority of his own ships. Any Alliance ships surviving after that would have absolutely no chance of reaching Alliance s.p.a.ce and would be lost as well. A victory here would be purchased only with the sacrifice of his own fleet and wouldn't accomplish anything but stalemating the war again. The Syndics and the Alliance would be forced to hold off attacking each other for a while as they rebuilt their fleets; then they'd both go at it once more, continuing the apparently endless war. Perhaps until both the Syndicate Worlds government and the Alliance government collapsed and human-occupied s.p.a.ce descended into heavily armed anarchy.

Even if I managed a total victory-and what are the odds of that when the enemy outnumbers us this badly?-against odds like that, my best efforts might just delay the inevitable and see the Syndics destroy this fleet while retaining enough strength themselves to finally go against the weak forces defending Alliance home s.p.a.ce.

Desjani was chewing her lower lip, her expression determined. She'd do whatever Geary ordered, certain that whatever it was would produce a victory. Geary glanced around the bridge of Dauntless and saw variations of the same fear on every watch-stander, along with the same courage that would allow those officers and sailors to charge into battle despite that fear. These sailors would die if Geary ordered it, no doubt of that, fighting their hardest to achieve victory despite the odds.

But he'd already seen what that kind of att.i.tude could produce. Paladin had possessed the same willingness to fight and die, and the end result had been death. He couldn't ask these sailors to die just because they were willing to follow his orders to do that. There had to be a reasonable hope that those deaths would accomplish something.

Okay. Options. Take out this Syndic formation before the newest one got here, then escape to Branwyn. Couldn't work unless the commander of the Syndic force they'd been fighting was an absolute idiot, and he or she didn't seem to be one. Besides, they'd clearly been ordered not to engage Geary unless the Alliance fleet tried to escape before the newest force got here.

Take out the newest Syndic force? Charge it and hope clever tactics could compensate for enemy superiority? That was a slim reed to cling to, especially since the Syndic force they'd already fought would charge right after them, and as he'd told Rione, could out-accelerate the Alliance fleet. He'd still end up facing both Syndic forces at once, and with them operating in two big formations like that, they'd probably be able to wipe out his auxiliaries, even if Geary managed to avoid the destruction of the rest of the fleet.

Just run like h.e.l.l? Where? Aside from the fact that many of his captains would balk at fleeing from an enemy even under these circ.u.mstances, there were also the problems that he couldn't out-accelerate the Syndic flotillas, and the jump point for T'negu would just take this fleet into a maze of mines, with the Syndic forces here coming right behind. Running toward open s.p.a.ce might keep the Syndics from catching them but would be slow suicide as the ships all ran out of fuel cells far from any star.

There was always the jump point back to Ixion, but the Syndic force they'd left there would surely be coming out of that at any time and- Okay. There's an option. Maybe not the sort of option that Black Jack would choose, but I'm not Black Jack.

So, a plan to run for the only possible safe way out of this star system, without making it obvious that he was running. Fortunately, for once the expected arrival of more enemy reinforcements offered him a way to do that and conceal his intentions for as long as possible from not only the enemy but also his own fleet.

"We need time, and we need to confront these Syndic forces individually," Geary announced, suddenly aware of how silent it was on the bridge of Dauntless as everyone waited to hear him speak. "The only way to do that with the ones we were fighting is to trick them into going after us. We can do that and engage the next wave of Syndic reinforcements into this system."

He pointed at the display. "We're going back to-toward the jump point for Ixion. At any time we expect the Syndic force we left at Ixion to come into this star system using that jump point. If we're close enough when they do, we can overwhelm them." Only four battleships and four battle cruisers had been in that force. "This Syndic flotilla we've been fighting will have to come to the rescue of that force, which will give us a chance to b.l.o.o.d.y it again."

"That still leaves the biggest Syndic flotilla," Rione objected.

"Yes, it does. We'll have to see how it reacts and hit it however we can." Don't lie to them. Lay the groundwork for escaping this star system. "We can't fight all of these Syndic formations at once. We need to hit them individually."

Captain Desjani studied the display herself for a moment, then smiled. "We're not retreating."

"No, Captain," Geary replied with all of the confidence he could fake. "We're changing the direction of our attack."

HE repeated the phrase to a hastily gathered conference of fleet commanding officers about ten minutes later as the Alliance fleet lined up on a course back to the jump point for Ixion. "We're changing the direction of our attack."

A long silence followed, born partly of time needed for his commanding officers to absorb the new plan and partly of the time required for light itself to carry the information between the different formations of the fleet. "We don't know the other Syndic force is going to exit that jump point," Captain Cresida argued. Loyal as she was to him, she wanted to fight the Syndics.

"I'm hoping it will, and I think we have good reason to believe it will." Plausible reason, anyway. "We need to force Syndic Flotilla Bravo to voluntarily reengage with us, because we can't run them down, given the state of our fuel cell reserves." A number of officers turned and glared toward the commanders of the auxiliaries, as if this were somehow their fault. "If we force a fight with the Syndic flotilla coming from Ixion, we'll have it badly outnumbered, and Syndic Flotilla Bravo will have to come to its a.s.sistance or we'll be able to wipe it out."

Geary forced a confident smile. "Of course, we do intend wiping out the flotilla from Ixion, then turning and hitting Syndic Flotilla Bravo as it tries to save its comrades."

Tulev nodded, even more stolid than usual. "We must defeat these Syndic flotillas in detail, one by one, separately. If they combine or get close enough to coordinate their attacks, we'll be in a very difficult position."

"Now isn't the time for timidity," Captain Casia objected. "If we turn and chase the Syndic flotilla we've already fought, we can finish them off and then engage the rest."

"They'll run us out of fuel cells, and then we can drift until blown apart by the Syndics," Duellos stated, anger showing. "It's called physics. Run the data yourself. You've just lost a battleship from your division because an officer thought being bold was the same as being smart. Didn't you learn anything from the loss of Paladin?"

"This fleet fights!" another officer insisted. "We don't run!"

"Tactical repositioning is not running!" Commander Gaes insisted. "We're in Lakota! We attacked a strong Syndic star system. How can you call that running?"

"We should rethink that attack," Commander Yin argued abruptly.

Geary gave Yin a questioning look, surprised that she'd drawn attention again after being relatively quiet at recent conferences. But then Captain Midea had been dominating the bad officer side of discussions in the last few conferences as she spun increasingly out of control. If only he'd recognized what she was doing, the increasing lack of discretion, and found cause to relieve Midea of command before the last battle. But he couldn't have done that if everyone else had seen it simply as Geary's attempt to silence someone saying something he didn't want to hear. So now he spoke firmly but calmly to Yin. "Explain that, please."

Yin flicked her eyes around nervously. "It's obvious that the fleet's movements are constrained by some of the ships. Some can't move as fast as the others, and that limits our ability to fight." True enough, but Geary waited, not trusting the amount of tension he saw in Commander Yin. "Some of the ships are slower by design, the auxiliaries. Others are temporarily slower due to battle damage, like my own Orion."

A lot of officers were giving Yin narrow-eyed looks now, wondering where this was going. Yin gulped but forged on, speaking quickly. "It's obvious. Get the slower ships to a safe place so the rest of the fleet can fight unenc.u.mbered."

"A safe place?" Duellos asked.

"Ixion. We're going that way, anyway. Get close to the jump point, let a formation including the damaged ships and the auxiliaries jump toward Ixion, and the rest of the fleet will be able to maneuver and fight better." Yin was breathing rapidly, staring down at her hands as they clasped and unclasped on the table before her.

It wasn't an entirely unreasonable proposal, if anyone had trusted Commander Yin. Her behavior made it clear that even Yin was worried about how the other officers would see it. After a long and hostile period of quiet, Duellos spoke again, his voice deceptively light. "Remarkable. It sounded just as if Captain Numos were speaking just now. The voice was Commander Yin's, but the advice and the words seem those of Captain Numos. Odd, isn't it?"

Yin flushed. "Captain Numos is an experienced officer and the veteran of many battles."

"Which he survived by running from," Captain Cresida snarled. "That's exactly what he wanted to do at the Syndic home system, too! Every ship for itself!"

Voices erupted all around the table, some shouting at Yin, some at Cresida. Geary searched his controls and punched the command override, quieting all the noise instantly. The ability to shut everyone up at times like this was about the only thing about being fleet commander that he liked. "Everyone listen. This kind of debate isn't doing us any good. Our enemies are the Syndics. Captain Cresida, it's true that Captain Numos has been charged with abandoning his responsibilities in the face of the enemy, but he has not yet been convicted of that."

Cresida looked unhappy but nodded. "I apologize for my remark about a fellow officer, sir."

"Thank you. Now, Commander Yin, Captain Numos is supposed to have only enough human contact to meet the requirements for humane treatment. He is not supposed to be giving advice on the running of your ship or of this fleet. Are you in fact consulting with him on those matters?"

Yin's eyes were everywhere but on Geary's. "No. No, sir."

If he could only contrive a way to get Commander Yin down to the interrogation room in the intelligence section on Dauntless and see how the sensors there evaluated answers like that. But then Geary was already certain Yin was lying. Duellos was right-the words and the proposed course of action sounded very much like Captain Numos. Numos would have presented the words with a superior sneer rather than obvious anxiety as Commander Yin had, but then Geary suspected that Numos had a lot more experience with lying to his own advantage.

If Geary had needed any confirmation that Numos was still working against him despite being relieved of command of Orion and arrested, he now had it.

Duellos spoke in a professionally detached tone. "I'd recommend against doing as Commander Yin proposed. How could we be certain we'd be able to rejoin with the damaged ships and auxiliaries? That force would be well enough off, since they would have all the supply capability in the fleet to themselves and would even be capable of reaching Alliance home s.p.a.ce with those supplies, though I am of course speaking purely theoretically, since I know Commander Yin would never consider abandoning the rest of the fleet. Though of course the rest of the fleet would be fighting to the death here, and there probably wouldn't be many Syndic forces able to mount a rapid pursuit of the ships that had gone ahead to Ixion. But that is, as I said, purely a matter of theory and not something I would think any fleet officer would consider doing."

Yin was pale as death now, staring at Duellos. His emphasis on her name had clearly conveyed the idea that another officer with that force might try to abandon the fleet. Numos remained under arrest on Orion, but if Orion were detached from the rest of the fleet, how long would he remain confined?

And despite requiring Cresida to apologize, Geary knew d.a.m.ned well that Numos would run like a rabbit if he had command of that formation and the auxiliaries and their supplies with him.

n.o.body was saying anything. Rione gave Geary an impatient look and jerked her head as if to remind him that there was a fleet conference going on.

Geary studied the expressions around the table, relieved to be finding little apparent support for Commander Yin's proposal. "Thank you, Commander," he stated flatly. "I don't think it would be wise to adopt your proposal. This fleet will remain together and return to Alliance s.p.a.ce together." He saw instantly on the faces of the others that it had been the right thing to say. "I know you are all inspired by the sacrifices of Renown and Paladin. Let's take out plenty of more Syndic ships in the names of those brave warships." He felt like a hypocrite praising Paladin, but her crew had died bravely enough. They shouldn't suffer in anyone's estimation because their captain had failed them. "But let us also learn from the example of Paladin. Hold together, and we can destroy the Syndics. Fail to do that, and they can destroy us."

No one seemed ready to debate that point with the images of the death of Paladin still vivid in their minds, but Captain Armus of the battleship Colossus frowned at the display as if still thinking. "Captain Geary, that new Syndic strike force, the one that outnumbers us, can intercept us prior to our reaching the jump exit for Ixion."

"That's true, if we hold the same course and speed. We're going to try to throw off any attempted Syndic intercept." He indicated the display. "They're five light-hours away from us, so they won't even know we're headed for that jump point for another five hours. We'll make some minor adjustments on the way to the jump point, just enough to confuse a Syndic intercept that's reacting hours later."

Armus nodded reluctantly. "What do we do if that big new flotilla does manage to intercept us? Especially if Syndic Flotilla Bravo remains intact and positioned to also engage us?"

Everyone looked at Geary, waiting for his answer to a worst-case scenario. He couldn't really present a detailed answer, not knowing how the Syndics would be positioned, what their formations would be, a hundred big and little details that would make all the difference in his response. But it occurred to him that there was one thing he could say. "What do we do? We fight like h.e.l.l, Captain, and make them sorry they caught up with us."

No one else spoke, so Geary nodded politely. "That's all. Captain Casia, Captain Duellos, please remain for a moment." The images of the other officers disappeared quickly, leaving Casia and Duellos giving each other challenging looks across the table. Desjani also remained, but retreated outside the range of the conference software to give Geary privacy with the other two officers. Rione just sat and watched. "Captain Casia," Geary stated formally, "my regrets for the loss of Paladin from your division." Casia, who looked as if he wanted to accuse Geary of being at fault in what happened to Paladin, nodded abruptly. "That's all."

Duellos sighed after Casia had gone. "He's probably trying to decide if getting rid of a loose cannon like Midea was worth losing Paladin."

"Probably. My regrets for the loss of Renown."