Democracy's Light

Chapter Forty-Five

“Open fire.”

Penny, Joshua and Daria had had a long and barely civil argument about their tactics, but Joshua had carried the day, choosing to bring the fleet out of flicker-space just outside the gravity shadow. Admiral Wilhelm’s fleet still packed two fairly intact squadrons of superdreadnaughts, according to the cloaked destroyers that had been keeping an eye on the battle, and was still incredibly dangerous. They had to take them out before they had a chance to react, but taking a superdreadnaught out quickly was almost impossible.

Almost.

The arsenal ships fired, launching a massive spread of missiles towards the rear of Admiral Wilhelm’s fleet, followed rapidly by the superdreadnaughts as they flushed their external racks. Joshua had ordered — and it had been another point of contention between him and Daria — that the superdreadnaughts were to hold back their internal tubes for the moment, removing several thousand missiles from the wall of death that was now racing towards the completely surprised Admiral Wilhelm. Penny didn’t want to think about what was going through his mind, or the inevitable consequences when the missiles finally started to strike home and annihilate his fleet, but she knew there was little choice. Admiral Wilhelm, and the Admirals who followed him, had broken their oaths and become mad dogs that had to be put down.

And if that were the case, she wondered, what did that make her and Joshua, or Daria herself for that matter? They’d betrayed their oaths a thousand times over, first when she’d abandoned Percival just before his death — although that hadn’t entirely been her doing — and then many times since, from the betrayal of the scorching fleet to the decision to take command of the Empress’s Fleet and lead it against their former comrades and allies. They’d burned all their bridges now and all that was left was to hope that they won… and that Daria would keep her word. She doubted it, somehow; Daria would view Joshua as a threat to her position, the only other person left who could oppose her successfully. She wouldn’t allow them to live.

She looked over at Joshua, watching the missiles burning towards their targets, and shivered. Joshua looked as he had on the bridge at Morrison, when he’d unleashed the fire of the first Imperial Navy arsenal ships on the trapped rebel fleet, grim and determined to punch through all opposition to defeat the enemy. It was good to see the old Joshua back, but she had no idea how long it would last. He, too, had to know that he would be expendable as soon as the battle was lost.

“Missiles away, sir,” the tactical officer said. “Impact in seventeen seconds.”

Penny nodded curtly. Admiral Wilhelm’s forces had focused all of their point defence units and systems towards the Shadow Fleet’s remaining units, not covering their rear. They could hardly have missed the fleet as it flickered into existence, but it would take time to redeploy their units, time they didn’t possess. Their remaining point defence ships were all badly out of position to help cover the superdreadnaughts… and Joshua had fired enough missiles to smoother all of the superdreadnaughts, preventing them from even helping each other. They had to look to their own defence now.

“Good,” Joshua said, calmly. “Continue to analyse their point defence patterns.”

Penny followed his line of logic. It was possible, with the fleet in such a bad position, that the point defence gunners would act to protect the flagship, at the expense of the remaining superdreadnaughts. It would be futile — Joshua had fired enough missiles to destroy a fleet twice the size of Admiral Wilhelm’s remaining ships — but it was human nature. If they were kind enough to identify the flagship, Joshua’s follow-up salvos would target it for special attention. Assuming, of course, that it survived round one.

Her gaze fell on the long-range display. The Shadow Fleet, what was left of it, was falling back in good order and linking into the planet’s defences. She’d studied the records Daria had brought with her carefully and knew just how powerful the defences actually were. Earth wouldn’t be easy to take now that Colin and his allies had built in additional defences and surprises, most of them Geek-level. The long-range missile bombardment tactic wouldn’t work again. They would have to take the system honestly if Colin decided to make a fight of it.

“Incoming missiles,” the tactical officer added. Admiral Wilhelm had managed to get at least one spread of missiles off, but it was far too late. “Point defence systems online and awaiting the word.”

“Fire at will,” Joshua ordered.

“Incoming missiles, incoming missiles!”

Admiral Wilhelm clutched the side of his command chair as an impossible fleet spawned an impossible flight of missiles, over three hundred thousand missiles racing towards his position. He had known that he was winning the fight… and then somehow Colin and his rebels had pulled a massive surprise right out of their hats. He couldn’t believe what he was looking at; the commander of that fleet had to be a madman or a genius or both. No one would have risked coming out so close to the gravity shadow with superdreadnaughts unless they were completely insane…

But it didn’t matter. “Hold our position and swing the point defence around to engage,” he ordered, falling back on older orders from his Academy days. The enemy ships had caught them right out of position, but he still had some fight left in him. “Lock missiles on the enemy fleet and fire as you bear.”

The superdreadnaught rocked as it unleashed half a broadside towards the enemy fleet, the missiles altering course and flying directly into the heart of their formation, followed by hundreds more. It was pitiful compared to the wall of missiles bearing down on them, but it would hopefully force the enemy to devote time and attention to covering themselves, rather than pounding on his fleet. He didn’t know how Colin and his rebels had pulled off such a masterpiece of coordination, but it was clear now that he had underestimated them from the start. If he’d known that Colin had been so capable, he would have swallowed his hopes to make himself Emperor and accepted whatever position he could obtain in the new order.

“Missiles away, sir,” the tactical officer said. “Enemy missiles entering point defence range now.”

Our inner point defence range, Admiral Wilhelm thought grimly. The destroyers, gunboats and cruisers that mounted the outer point defence systems were all badly out of position. Gunboats and destroyers could flit here and there like birds, rather than the ponderous superdreadnaughts, but it still took time to get them to the right positions… and the coordination network was about to take a hammering. He knew that without having to think about it. His fleet was about to have the living shit beaten out of it. The losses might even include a superdreadnaught called…

“Point defence engaging now,” the tactical officer said.

They might as well not have bothered, Admiral Wilhelm realised, his thoughts drawn back to the oncoming wall of red icons. The pulsars and point defence units mounted on the hull of the superdreadnaughts were doing what they could, but they might as well have been spitting into the wind. Hundreds of missiles died, but hundreds of thousand survived, falling into their terminal attack profiles and angling in towards his ships. He found himself grasping the handles of his chair as he braced for the impact he knew would be coming…

The first superdreadnaught, bringing up the rear of his fleet, was hit by seventy missiles in quick succession. It never stood a chance. Its shields went down almost at once and the remaining missiles poured into the hull, exploding within the starship’s interior and blowing it apart in a massive burst of superhot plasma. A second superdreadnaught staggered and, for a moment, he thought it had survived for a few moments longer, but then it exploded and joined its companion in death. A third and a fourth were badly damaged and fell out of formation, their drive fields billowing as their destabilised, while plasma and air leaked out of a dozen breaches in the hull. He looked at the datanet downloads from the ships, before they cut off abruptly, and knew that there would be no point in trying to repair them. They were far beyond the point where any shipyard, even the ones orbiting Jupiter, could repair the damage.

“Here they come, sir,” the tactical officer said. “It was a honour to have served with you, sir.”

Admiral Wilhelm looked up at the display and nodded once. The wave of missiles had targeted his ship and there were too many of them to stop, or even survive. The first hammerblows rang through the ship, knocking down the shields and destroying the shield generators as they struggled to cope with the massive feedback from the shields and their collapse, leaving the superdreadnaught defenceless. It heaved time and time again, massive red icons flaring into existence on the internal display, before the power failed and the gravity vanished. The inner core of the superdreadnaught, the most protected section of the ship, cracked and buckled under the pounding as consoles exploded and flames lashed through the ship.

He died before he had a chance to realise that there had been three fleets, not two, in the battle.

Penny watched Joshua watching in stony-faced silence as the two remaining squadrons of Admiral Wilhelm’s fleet were decimated. He’d seen such damage before, even inflicted such damage, but it was still terrifying. The post-war Empire, whoever ended up in control, would have to rebuild most of the Imperial Navy from scratch, just to remain competitive. The massive salvos of missiles, far more than had been imagined back in the old days before the rebellion, had changed the face of warfare.

“Admiral, the two remaining superdreadnaughts are signalling their surrender,” the communications officer said. The remains of the massive salvo had burned themselves out or expended themselves on smaller ships, allowing two superdreadnaughts to escape lightly. The sole survivors of eighteen superdreadnaughts, an invincible force before the war, had been damaged, but they were still capable of operations. Another salvo, however, would reduce them to dust and ash. “They’re asking that we accept before they lose control of their power cores and explode.”

Joshua altered the display, bringing up a near-space scan revealing the thousands of lifepods drifting through space, signalling for help. The long-standing convention had been that the victors would pick up the lifepods, but the battle was far from over and he couldn’t spare any ships to recover survivors. Penny found herself trying to recall her basic survival training. A lifepod could keep its recommended number of passengers alive for quite some time, but they were completely helpless if some sadistic bastard decided to start picking them off for target practice.

“Contact Admiral Wilhelm’s remaining light ships,” Joshua ordered, finally. “Inform them that they are our designated recovery ships. They are to pick up the lifepods and the crew from those superdreadnaughts.” He brought up a visual of the two damaged ships and frowned. “And then contact the superdreadnaughts. I want their weapons and shields completely deactivated now. If there are any signs that they have reactivated them we will open fire without further warning.”

He turned his attention back to the display. “And launch another flight of probes towards the defenders,” he added. “I want a complete update on their current status.”

“Admiral, Her Majesty wishes to address the rebels,” the communications officer injected. “She’s transmitting now.”

Colin hadn’t wasted the time that Daria’s fleet had brought him when it engaged Admiral Wilhelm at what was, effectively, point-blank range. He’d managed to get the remaining starships into a defensive formation, orbiting beside the command fortresses and the other defences. He’d also transferred himself from the assigned command fortress to a completely different fortress, aware that Daria had probably known which fortress had been assigned the task of coordinating the defence. It didn’t sit well with him, but he had already decided that he wasn’t going to run to the Rim, but die in defence of the new order he’d created.

“David, we’re going to need you,” he said, keying his private channel. He’d hoped not to have to deploy the final surprise, but there were four squadrons of superdreadnaughts out there, with escorts. They would get hurt, but they had the firepower to punch though Earth’s defences and force them to surrender. “Get your people into position now…”

“Admiral,” the tactical officer said, “we’re picking up a message from the fleet.”

“On screen,” Colin ordered.

Daria’s face appeared in front of him. She’d altered her face slightly, he saw, but it was still recognisably her. It took him a moment to realise that she now reassembled herself as she had been fifty years ago, before she had been forced to flee Earth and take up residence along the Rim. Unlike so many others who had fled the Empire, she had barely altered herself, either in a display of bravado or vanity. Cordova had told him, when they’d had a moment to chat before he had left to go to his starship, that there had even been a fashion to have pleasure slaves in the image of the Empress.

“They like to think that they were fucking her,” he’d said. “It was a power thing for that generation.”

Daria’s voice was icy cold. “I am the Empress Janice,” she said, her face cold and very composed, as if she had spoken to God personally and received answers she didn’t like. “I was forced to flee Earth by men and women of the Thousand Families who feared that I would upset their tidy little doomed worlds. I had acted to save the Empire from the doom that overtook it. My reward was to be forced to flee, with dogs snapping at my heels, and hide along the Rim until my time came again.”

She paused. “My time is now.

“In the name of the Empire, I call upon Earth to surrender without further struggle,” she continued. “Your position is hopeless. Bombarding the planet would be an easy task for my fleet. Your defences cannot hope to stand us off for long, nor do I have any incentive to spare the lives of those who oppose my rightful return to the throne. Give up the struggle, surrender yourselves, and you have my word that you will be treated with honour. Fight… and you will be destroyed. You have five minutes to decide.”

“Open a channel,” Colin ordered, as Daria’s image vanished from the display. He waited for the communications officer’s nod. “Daria — Janice — this is Colin Harper, President of the Empire. Your time is over. You know this as well as I do. The old order died the day that Earth fell — indeed, before then, when I led my people into revolution and exposed the Empire’s weakness. Admiral Wilhelm, Stacy Roosevelt, Tiberius Cicero and even you attempted to restore the old order, but its time has passed. The Empire’s iron grip is no more. You may win this fight, you may destroy Earth and all who defy you, but you will not be able to restore the Empire you once ruled.”

He took a breath. “I’m sorry, but I won’t surrender, I can’t,” he continued. “The new order, one where democracy and justice and the rule of law push the Empire into reformation, must survive… and it will survive. The worst you could do is shatter the Empire and push us all into barbarism. You could not rebuild the old order.

Penny looked up at Joshua. His face was expressionless.

“You can stop this now,” Colin continued, almost pleadingly. “End this. Surrender your fleet. We won’t kill you, or any who followed you, even after what you did at the Cicero Estate.” Penny saw Joshua’s head jerk at that. “Please, end this now, before more people have to die.”

The signal stopped. “The Cicero Estate?” Penny asked. “What happened there…?”

“I don’t know,” Joshua said. He tapped his console. “I know who will, however…”

Daria’s face appeared in front of them. “Continue the advance,” she ordered, crisply. “If Colin is bound and determined to make a fight of it, we will finish him and…”

“Tell me something,” Joshua said, cutting her off. “What happened at the Cicero Estate?”

“Nothing you need to concern yourself with,” Daria said, her face expressionless. “Concentrate on the advance, Admiral. Victory is within our grasp.”

“No,” Joshua said, angrily. “You will tell me what happened at the Cicero Estate.”

They stared at each other for a long moment. “Tiberius Cicero had a plan to… remove Colin from play,” Daria said, finally. “It went spectacularly wrong, he ended up dead, and I had to flee.” Penny saw Joshua wince. He’d liked the young Cicero. Tiberius had even brought him out of retirement to command the fleet at Morrison. “Colin is currently blaming the entire disaster on me because I was the only survivor on the wrong side.”

Joshua lifted an eyebrow. “Indeed?”

“Indeed,” Daria said. They locked eyes again for a long chilling moment. “Attend to your duty, Admiral.”

The tactical officer interrupted. “Admiral, we have something odd approaching from the direction of Earth,” he said. Penny felt a moment of relief that the confrontation had been ended, although she wasn’t sure any longer what side she was really on, or even what side Joshua was on. “It doesn’t match anything in the tactical database at all.”

“Show me,” Joshua snapped, pushing Daria to one side. He paused as he stared down at the odd readings. Penny followed his gaze, but couldn’t make head or tail of them. It was almost as if they were about to be attacked by shuttles in a boarding action, never mind the fact that it would be certain suicide. “What the hell are they?”