Birthright: Battle for the Confederation- Pursuit (29 page)

Lieutenant Caho announced a comm request
coming in, and Elco just nodded.

"Captain Elco," a very pleased
looking Captain Oberon Montari said from the cavernous bridge of the
battleship.  "I received a message that you were looking for help.  I even
brought along the messenger."  The gray-skinned Trin captain indicated a
man to his left, and Admiral Bak stepped into view, throwing a rare but crisp
salute to Elco, which he returned.

"Admiral," Elco began,
"it's a surprise to see the both of you."

"No time to waste," Captain
Montari continued, "there are Priman ships to destroy.  I don't want to
overstep, Captain, but your datalink shows functioning starboard laser
batteries only.  Would you like to hold on our lower starboard quarter?"

"Lead on, Captain," Elco said,
hope returning to him,
real
hope, for the first time in weeks. 
"Helm, hold formation low and starboard on Majestic.  I'll give the order
to break off if need be, but until then we'll stay with the protection she
offers."

"Yes, Captain."

No sooner had they started to move than
two Enkarran cruisers appeared as well, off the rear of the pair of Priman
cruisers to Avenger's starboard, now turning the tables and putting those two
enemy ships in the middle of an allied formation.

Captain Elco looked at his displays and
saw a waiting private message.  He was about to dismiss it when it opened and
started playing itself, audio damping field popping into place so nobody but Elco
could hear.  It was the face of a twenty-something human male, apparently in
some sort of bunker or storage space.  He looked weary in the way of someone
who'd been fighting for too long.

"Captain Elco," the man began,
"my name is, well, Commander Stone gave me the nickname Echo.  I like it,
so you can call me that.  I know you won't have much time to listen to this,
what with the Priman ship in orbit, but it's important you listen for these few
seconds.  I'm an AI, the object of your search.  Your mission here led to a
dead end, but I can assure you nothing of value will be available to the
Primans here.  By now, I'm dead, having set off an explosion you probably saw
marking the place where Commander Stone's shuttle departed from.  My message is
this: I discovered the Priman EMP torpedo readouts in your database while I was
researching Loren and his associates.  Please don't worry; I didn't obtain any
information of importance and since I'm gone I can't be a risk to you anyway. 
The point is that I've discovered a way to nullify their torpedoes.  You have
to consider their payload as a virus, not a chemical or kinetic weapon.  It
infects your ship's computers and systems.  I apologize for this next part in
not obtaining your permission first, but by opening this message a program ran
which inoculated your main computer; you are now immune from the torpedoes. 
There is an attachment to this message that you can send to other ships if you
determine you're comfortable with it.       

"That's all, Captain.  Your XO,
Commander Stone, is a respectable and honorable man.  I hope he feels the same
about me."

With that, Echo smiled and cut the
connection.  Elco was speechless.  Who was this person, claiming to be an AI
and launching code on his ship?  He didn't have time to ponder that, though, as
the first Priman laser blasts were sparking off Avenger and Majestic's shields.

Captain Montari had set Majestic on a
direct path towards the two outbound Priman ships, apparently more motivated by
engaging two targets at once.  Elco considered making an argument for going
after the command ship, but there wasn't time to be divisive, add to the fact
that he didn't know for a certainty that there was anyone truly important
aboard the vessel.

Halley laid there in silence as the Priman
guards bolted after Web.  She cursed everything; herself, the Primans, the war,
the designers of this building, even Web for being so impulsive.  None got more
blame, though, than she.  She could barely stand up, though she willed herself
to do it despite the stabbing in her side and shortness of breath.  She also
knew that her nanites couldn't fix all of the damage, at least not completely. 
It had been months since she'd had an infusion of new ones and a reprogramming;
while they could make more of themselves using resources in her own body, to be
truly effective they needed to be made beforehand using exotic materials and
power cells.  Her own nanites were worn out and not nearly as capable as they
once were.  She'd simply have to make up for that shortcoming with aggression
and cunning.

The first problem was getting out of the
garage unseen, because Web's plan was for nothing if they realized there were
definitely two people working together.  She knew that the Primans had to have
security footage of them coming into the building together, but as far as
subversive activities went, only he was on the record.  So, no detection was
allowed.

After a minute, she decided the garage
was empty and hiked herself painfully to a standing position.  Actually, it was
more of a doubled-over crouch, but technically she was up and decided to award
herself the honor of calling it 'standing'.

She removed her security hat and outer
jacket; she couldn't dump them here or again the jig would be up, but she'd
ditch them the first chance she got.  The blood-soaked and blackened undershirt
wasn't going to help her cause, but she balled up and jacket and held it under
her left arm, disguising the area somewhat.

Cranking up her nanite-enhanced hearing
as far as it would go and using every spectrum her contacts allowed her to see,
she pronounced the garage and outer corridors clear.  Limping to the garage
exit, she entered the darkened alley.  Normally the area was well lit and used
as a sort of loading dock, but her explosives had caused power outages all over
the area and the lights out here as well as the entire building next to this
one were dark. 

Shuffling through the debris, she exited
the only way she could; back onto the main ground level street.  This area was devoid
of higher level thoroughfares and so all the action was taking place at street
level.  The area was chaos: smoke, fires reflecting orange light off glass and
polished surfaces, sirens, angry voices clamoring over loudspeakers, personnel
racing back and forth between various crisis points, and finally civilians,
some workers, some just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Halley made her way down the street away
from the conflagration.  The crowd was definitely thinner down this way, and
she turned to give the street once last look before heading to the rendezvous. 
Her heart sank.

Using her contacts to zoom in, she saw a
knot of Primans out in the open right in the middle of the street against a
large crowd of locals.  There, trapped between two Priman guards wearing full
combat body armor, was Web.  Each guard had a hold of one of his arms and was
keeping him from moving while another searched him.  His own eyes raced around,
as if looking for Halley.  Finally, despite his lack of enhancements, he seemed
to look right at her three blocks down the street.  Maybe he just knew where
she'd be, maybe he was just hoping it was her.  Halley knew, though, that he
saw her. 

His demeanor changed a bit, and he
stopped struggling as much.  He seemed more at ease with his captivity, and
even gave her a quick wink.  Then the guard who was searching him, apparently
finished, moved in and tapped Web with some sort of shock stick, sending him to
the ground in a heap.

Halley turned away as fast as she could
and put her head down as she walked towards their safehouse.  She would look
suspicious if any of the locals managed to see the tears running down her
soot-covered cheeks.

Captain Vol's blood rushed.  He had
Avenger trapped until that cursed battleship showed up, even soiling the space
around them by bringing
Enkarrans
of all people with them.  No matter;
he'd take these odds.  He still outnumbered the enemy in hulls, and Avenger
barely counted as mission-ready.  He'd even up the odds in a second with a
round of EMP torpedoes.

"Helm," he barked as
Representative Ravine stepped up beside him, "maneuver to keep this
distance between us and Avenger.  Keep the maximum number of batteries
uncovered at all times.  Weapons- full EMP torpedo salvo on Avenger."

"Incoming torpedoes," Caho
called out evenly, composure back intact, "four of them, all targeted on
us."

"It's nice to be respected by your
enemies, I suppose," Elco muttered, then raised his voice in order to give
his crew commands.  "Keep an eye on the point defense turrets and match
Majestic's maneuvers.  We'll see if this inoculation against the EMP torpedoes
is everything it's cracked up to be."  He'd briefly mentioned that an
experimental system had just been activated and was being deployed on Avenger,
but neglected to inform the crew as to its origins.

Elco tried his best to split attention
between the inbound torpedoes and Majestic's attack on the two outbound Priman
cruisers.  The Primans and Majestic were already exchanging laser fire; the
battleship had to balance the power needs of all those laser batteries with the
need to power the shield generators as well, and Elco noticed laser fire stop
for a moment as Majestic ripped off a volley from her four forward facing
torpedo tubes, all targeted on a single cruiser.

Majestic tried to help shoot down the
incoming Priman weapons, point defense fire from several of her turrets adding
to Avenger's mix as the Priman torpedoes bore down on the wounded Confed
vessel.  All four torpedoes in Avenger's aft mounts sprung forth as well,
Captain Elco having reasoned that if his ship became disabled the things would
go to waste anyway so he might as well fire them all.

The weapons passed each other, weaving
and dodging in preprogrammed patterns designed to avoid point defense fire.

One, two, and then three Priman torpedoes
were shot down.  But the fourth made it, burrowing into Avenger's hull right
through Torpedo Mount One.  There was no huge follow-up explosion; the EMP
warheads were not filled with explosives and there were no reloads in Avenger's
magazines near the torpedo mounts.

Elco realized he'd been holding his
breath.  He looked around and saw the bridge crew carrying on as normal.  There
were quick exchanges as crew coordinated maneuvers, sensor readings and damage
control, but everything was still online.

"We're still operational?" he
asked the conn officer ahead of him.

"Yes, Captain," the man
replied.  "The torpedo matched the EMP variant signature, but we aren't
showing any of the effects from last time."

"It worked," Elco said, trying
to keep the wonder out of his voice.  As far as the crew knew, he of course
always had confidence in the system and believed completely that it would
operate as designed.  With a few taps on his screen he sent Echo’s message to Captain
Montari on Majestic.

Elco checked the viewscreen just in time
to see one of Avenger's torpedoes penetrate the Priman ship's hull in a geyser
of flames and debris.  It lit up the ship's superstructure in the darkness, and
Elco bit back an exclamation of triumph.  That was also not something a
dignified captain would do.

The lone Priman ship was falling behind,
though, as Majestic pressed her attack on the two Priman cruisers and Avenger
stayed tucked in close.  Captain Montari was a master at making the most of the
battleship's weapons.  He bore straight at the Priman ships, daring them to
maneuver.  When they did, he let them have full laser broadsides from all of
Majestic's batteries.  As available energy became depleted, he rolled to show
the ship's tough armored keel to the least damaged ship, slowing his maneuver
just long enough to unleash a six-torpedo volley at the vessel.  Seconds later,
the Priman ship was engulfed in a fireball, materials within ripped apart and
rended back to the elements.

The other Priman cruiser fought on,
pummeling Majestic's keel with laser and torpedo fire.  Point defense turrets
only allowed a single torpedo through, and while running power to the shields
meant the laser batteries couldn't charge, Majestic took no serious damage
while rolling out of her maneuver.  Laser hits scorched hullplates and the sole
torpedo hit dug into the ship's keel armor and expended all its energy before
making it into the ship's interior; while Elco wanted to swoop through and
administer a coup-de-grace, it wouldn't do to steal somebody else's kill so he
settled for continuing to help screen the larger ship.

Majestic took another torpedo as the two
ships jockeyed with each other, this one through the upper dorsal amidships
area.  The ship bore through the explosions, emerging from the fire and energy
wave to continue the battle as her laser batteries all began to link fire
control and converge on key systems of the Priman vessel.  The weakened
Priman's shields couldn't last long, and soon enough her engines were dark,
hull chewed up and torn to pieces by Majestic's merciless attack.  The
Starshaker class battleships, numbers badly diluted by demand and battle damage
these days, were designed to slug it out with vessels of equal size in huge fleet
engagements; a pair of Priman cruisers was not going to give a battleship
captain pause before committing to a fight.