Democracy's Light

Chapter Twenty-Six

“Admiral, we have unidentified starships at the edge of the system.”

Admiral Katy Garland nodded from her command chair. The shortage of experienced personnel — and the casualties caused by the Battle of Cottbus — had forced her to take command directly of the Jefferson, while sending Captain Chalker to command the Franklin, which had lost its commanding officer to a lucky hit. Katy was still astonished that the superdreadnaught had been damaged at all, but according to the engineers, the shield generators hadn’t been properly calibrated for the mission. It had been the result of the fleet setting out too early, without a proper period of working up where all such flaws would have been removed, but she couldn’t help feeling that it was a bad omen. The Imperial Navy was desperately short of experienced personnel.

“I expected as much,” she said, trying to paste a confident expression on her face. The once-proud 2^nd Fleet had been seriously dented, but the fortnight they’d spent in orbit around Hawthorn hadn’t been entirely wasted. The nine superdreadnaughts they’d salvaged from the battle had been worked up to the best of their ability and had been over-crewed, while the smaller ships had been carefully prepared for the coming engagement. “General signal to all ships; execute Plan Romeo.”

“Aye, Admiral,” the communications officer said. “The fleet is acknowledging. They’re standing by.”

“Good,” Katy said. She looked over towards the helmsman. “Helm, take us to Position Alpha.”

The mighty superdreadnaught thrummed into life as the main drive fields kicked in, pushing it out of orbit and up towards the edge of the gravity shadow, followed by the remainder of the fleet. Katy was mildly surprised that Admiral Wilhelm hadn’t arrived already — by her most optimistic estimate, he should have arrived at least a week ago — but perhaps they’d hurt them worse than they’d thought. Post-battle analysis had suggested that they’d handed out a beating, but hardly enough to deter him from continuing his war against the Provisional Government. He had to know that the Provisional Government wouldn’t allow him to take his winnings and leave the table, so he had little choice, but to continue on to Earth… which meant taking Hawthorn. The same iron logic that had forced Colin to engage Morrison would force Admiral Wilhelm to engage Hawthorn, or risk losing his rear to her attacks.

She tapped her console and called up the intelligence from the Freebooters. It had astonished her to discover just how far the Freebooter intelligent net actually extended, right into Cottbus itself, and she was more than a little annoyed that she hadn’t been given access at once. She wondered, in fact, if Colin himself knew just how far the network stretched, although it was hardly an Imperial Intelligence-style network. It tended to concentrate more on Imperial Navy officers who could be bribed, or who had no objections to selling Imperial Navy supplies to the Freebooters — or pirates, or even rebels — but it did include a surprising amount of political information. One piece of data, linked into clues that Imperial Intelligence had picked up, suggested the location of a supply base. She intended to deal with it as soon as she abandoned Hawthorn.

“The enemy starships appear to have flickered out,” the sensor officer said. “They could be…”

An alarm sounded. “Emergence, multiple starships,” the sensor officer said, as her display updated. “I’m reading three squadrons of superdreadnaughts, with escorts.”

“So we’re only outgunned two to one,” Katy said, wryly. In theory, her nine Independence-class superdreadnaughts should have been able to stand up to two squadrons of General-class superdreadnaughts, but no one had tried in practice. The three squadrons of superdreadnaughts that Admiral Wilhelm had deployed — she wondered, absently, if he was actually commanding the force — shouldn’t have any difficulty dealing with her ships in a straight fight. “Run a tactical analysis and put the results up on the main display.”

She smiled as the conflicting vectors appeared on the display. Admiral Wilhelm had decided to be careful, taking account of the Hawthorn System’s odd nature. His starships hadn’t emerged close enough to the planet to prevent her from making her escape — the starships flickering in at the edge of the system had been enough to give her advance warning, unless he had intended to warn her all along — and they were too close to risk flickering closer. She hoped that they would try — the odds favoured crashing right into the gravity shadow — but she doubted that they would attempt anything of the sort. They wouldn’t have to take any risks at all to take Hawthorn.

“We’re up a signal,” the communications officer said. “They’re demanding our surrender.”

“No reply,” Katy said, watching the display. The enemy fleet was sorting out its vectors now, angling in to engage them as they departed the gravity shadow, but it was too late to trap them. A few thousand kilometres closer to the planet and they could have smashed her entire fleet without risking serious losses themselves. “They already know what we would want to say to them.”

She watched as the squadron came alive around the Jefferson, escorts falling into their positions, ready to intercept missiles when the Cottbus Fleet opened fire, bringing up the data network to coordinate their fire. She’d studied the records carefully from Cottbus and point defence was, it seemed, one of their few advantages. They might be able to hold their own in a long-range missile duel… and even if they couldn’t defeat the enemy fleet, they could hit it hard enough to force them to be careful. She’d already pre-placed several dozen freighters in interstellar space, ready to reload her ships with missiles and other weapons, and she didn’t have to worry about expenditure. The enemy wouldn’t have the same concerns. She’d taken the precaution of rigging Hawthorn’s industrial nodes to self-destruct once her fleet left the system.

And I could flee the system, she thought, before shaking her head. Her crew needed a victory and even if that meant taking some risks, there was no choice. We have to force an engagement on our terms, just to convince my people that we can take them down.

“Now clearing the gravity shadow, Admiral,” the helmsman said.

“Follow the Plan Romeo course,” Katy said, watching as the enemy fleet altered course slightly. They hadn’t realised it, but they had been outmanoeuvred; in the time it would take them to alter the course of their superdreadnaughts, they would have been committed to a stern chase… or to abandoning her fleet and allowing them to escape without engagement. She had a small bet going with herself that the enemy would have no choice, but to turn to engage, knowing that if she vanished, they might see her next at Cottbus. “Tactical, run an engagement profile, but withhold the arsenal ships.”

The tactical officer blinked. “Admiral?”

“Withhold the arsenal ships,” Katy said. She would have preferred to add them to her firepower, but if she shot them dry, the enemy fleet would simply flicker out and escape. They’d come back to Cottbus completely undamaged. “Order them to flicker out as soon as they are targeted and engaged.”

The superdreadnaught shivered slightly as it rolled onto the new course, daring the enemy to follow. Katy smiled to herself as the enemy fleet altered course, slowing their ships before picking up the chase, trying to catch her ships. The superdreadnaughts she’d kept with her hadn’t been damaged badly enough to slow their escape, but the starships’ ECM was working to convince the enemy that they were chasing nine near-cripples. It was even possible that they believed that the superdreadnaughts were unable to flicker out, although she cautioned herself not to believe that, not when it would have been too convenient.

“Enemy ships will enter firing range in ten minutes,” the tactical officer said. The superdreadnaught shuddered as it launched a spread of probes towards the enemy fleet, picking apart their ECM and targeting each of their starships specifically. They would have no place to hide — although, Katy admitted silently, they wouldn’t need a place to hide from her weaker fleet. “Targeting priorities?”

Katy scowled. If they’d had equal strength to the Cottbus fleet, she wouldn’t have hesitated to expend the first salvo on their escorts, trusting in her own point defence to shield her superdreadnaughts while she stripped theirs of most of their cover. They would probably be thinking along the same lines, of course. Without equal strength, they had to take down as many superdreadnaughts as they could, not least because the combined strength of four sectors would certainly give the Shadow Fleet a nasty time.

“Pick two superdreadnaughts and engage them when they enter missile range,” she ordered, calmly. The display flickered as the tactical officer picked two of the lead superdreadnaughts and targeted them for destruction. “Configure a third of the missiles for advanced penetration. Let’s see how good their point defence is in a fair fight.”

She leaned back in her command chair and watched as the red icons slowly overhauled her fleet. The enemy commander had to be spitting rocks by now, she thought; if she’d been further away, he could have flickered closer to her position, but if he risked it now he might lose her altogether. Worse, he might even expose himself to losing a handful of superdreadnaughts to her fleet, leaving him with no choice, but a stern chase. The timer ticked down as tension rose on the bridge; it was almost a relief when the superdreadnaught rolled and flushed its external racks towards the enemy fleet.

“Missiles away,” the tactical officer said. The superdreadnaught shuddered again as it unleashed the first salvo from its internal tubes. “Internal tubes away… now!”

Katy tensed as the enemy superdreadnaughts, dark and silent, closed in on her position. The enemy commander wasn’t firing, not yet, knowing that most of his missiles would burn out before they reached her point defence range. Logically, he would hold his fire for two more minutes, while her missiles screamed towards his point defence envelope, but he’d have to fire before her missiles actually engaged his ships. A single hit on the external racks could have disastrous consequences for any superdreadnaught. She doubted that they would be so lucky as to actually trigger enemy warheads, but if they damaged the external racks it might be impossible for them to separate their racks and fire their internal tubes.

“Enemy force has opened fire,” the tactical officer said, as the display sparkled with red icons, each one promising death and destruction for her fleet. “Time to engagement range, two minutes.”

Too bloody long, Katy thought, coldly. The enemy missiles were caught in the stern chase as well, but without the need to take care of human crews, they could travel much faster, overhauling her ships with ease. Her missiles took advantage of the closing speed between her ships and the enemy ships, but the enemy missiles had to work to close the gap. It was going to be a frustrating experience for them.

“Link point defence into a rear defence formation,” she ordered, watching as the enemy point defence sparkled with light and engaged her missiles. The closing speed was greater than they would normally have to handle, but they’d practiced to take on arsenal ships and heavier missile barrages than anyone had deployed, before the rebellion. “Continue to fire when the tubes are reloaded.”

One of the targeted enemy superdreadnaughts staggered and fell out of formation, wreaked by internal damage, while the other blew apart in a sheet of superhot plasma. The first ship, she noted, was spewing out lifepods, suggesting that the ship had been badly damaged and had perhaps even lost damage control. The survivors wouldn’t have to worry about being picked up by hostile forces, she saw; the enemy commander had detached a pair of light cruisers to pick them up. It was a considerate thought and suggested that Admiral Wilhelm, whatever drove him, had earned the loyalty of his crews. It would make him a far more dangerous opponent than Admiral Percival.

The tactical officer worked his console as the follow-up salvos adjusted their attack profiles, focusing on new targets. The Geek-designed systems worked well, but Katy was dismayed to see just how quickly the enemy point defence adjusted to the incoming missiles. The point defence weapons hadn’t been seriously improved, much to her relief, but the point defence sensors had been improved to the point where they would have been capable of countering her attacks, if they’d had better weapons.

“That can’t be coincidence,” she realised, grimly. “Someone sold them the details behind our weapons and sensors.”

“It looks that way,” the tactical officer agreed. He scowled down at his console as the missiles laboured to catch up. “Their ECM is slightly obscured, but it reads out as rather like a Mark-XXI system.”

One the Geeks invented, Katy thought, feeling her blood run cold. If Cottbus had such systems in deployment — and that took more time than most laymen appreciated — what else did they have in their arsenal? How had they done it? Did they have spies within the Jupiter Shipyards, or even the Rim shipyards? If they knew where they were, they could attack them… and a successful attack on the Geek-built shipyards would cripple the Shadow Fleet. Who the hell sold our secrets to them?

“Incoming missiles,” the tactical officer said. The tactical display altered itself, focusing in on the incoming missiles, as he spoke. Katy could have altered it back, but there was little point. If the point defence network failed them, they would have no choice, but to run for their lives. “Entering point defence engagement range now.”

Katy watched, already knowing what she would see. The enemy missiles were flying right into the teeth of her point defence, but their penetration capabilities and support systems were literally years ahead of anything they should have possessed. Incoming missiles, particularly in a stern chase, were easy to detect, but these missiles moved with the same capabilities as the Shadow Fleet’s missiles… and some of them were slipping through the point defence.

We didn’t see all of this at Cottbus, she thought, as the first missiles slipped through the defences and slammed into a superdreadnaught, concentrating on knocking down its shields. The thought was galling, but it had to be accepted. If she had refused battle at Hawthorn, she wouldn’t have known about the improvements in Admiral Wilhelm’s systems until it was too late. We’re going to have to go into every system on the assumption we’re facing modern systems…

She scowled. She’d spent two years in the Logistics Department of the Imperial Navy, before being assigned to the Havoc as First Officer, and she had a rough idea of just how hard it was to get modern hardware out into the hands of people who needed it. The Sector Fleets on the Frontier tended to be better equipped than those in the interior sectors, but it wasn’t uncommon for modern hardware, stolen by corrupt officers in various logistic hubs, to get out to pirates first before reaching the Imperial Navy. No matter how much technology Admiral Wilhelm had obtained, from whoever it was who was supplying him, there would be hard and fast limits.

The problem seemed insolvable, but she had enough experience to figure out parts of it. Admiral Wilhelm wouldn’t have sent modern hardware to worlds that weren’t directly involved in his war effort, because that would have been nothing, but a waste. He would have needed to arm four sector fleets, which suggested that he wouldn’t have had enough modern hardware to equip his worlds anyway, with the exception of Cottbus. The logic seemed tempting enough, but logic, in so many ways, was merely a way to be wrong with confidence. The only way to know for sure would be to attack one of his logistics hubs and see what happened.

In other words, no changes there, then, she thought dryly. The concept of up-to-date intelligence in modern warfare was something of a joke. The enemy would have days, if not weeks, to change everything before her forces arrived. At least we can run a Freebooter or two through the system first.

She looked up as the superdreadnaught twitched, and then expelled another flight of missiles towards the enemy fleet. The range was closing now as both sides went to rapid fire and, at such ranges, the enemy’s superiority in missile weight would begin to tell. She watched dispassionately as they launched wave after wave of missiles, staggering the launches so that her point defence would always be engaged, and knew that it was time to disengage.

“Helm, prepare to flicker out,” she ordered, watching as the enemy fleet launched another wave of missiles. If they were lucky, the fleet would waste hundreds of missiles on targets that weren’t there any more. “Communications, inform the other ships to follow us out to the first waypoint on my command. I think its time to leave.”

She smiled as the enemy missiles closed in on her position, her point defence opening fire to engage them. “Flicker,” she ordered. She braced herself as soon as she issued the order. “Take us out of here.”

The burst of nausea shocked her, as always, but it was driven away by relief and amusement. She’d destroyed one superdreadnaught and badly damaged two more, for no losses at all, beyond minor damage. By almost any standard, it was an excellent naval victory and one that would restore confidence to her entire remaining fleet. She could almost forget just how bad the odds actually were… and just how low their chances of actually surviving had become.

“Set course for the second waypoint as soon as we reach the first,” she ordered, as she called up the tactical map of the sector. Oddly, being away from Hawthorn had left her feeling rather free, almost like old times. “We’ll reload… and then we have some raiding to do.”