Rich Man's War (45 page)

He glanced at the tactical screens.
Guillotine
would be back outside weapons range within two seconds. Mohamed had it under control. Everett popped his seatbelt buckle and climbed over to check on the captain, but he saw immediately that it was too late. The shell that burst straight up from under the captain’s console took a good deal of Alvarez along with it. A half-meter hole in the deck beneath him provided an unobstructed view into the void outside the ship.

“Captain Alvarez is down,” Everett announced over the ship’s comm net. “
Chief Everett assuming command. Is everyone else all right?”

“Engineering is fine,” came one answer.

“Turrets one and two are good here,” offered another. “That was too fast for us to get a couple shots off, but we’re okay.”

Everett turned back to his station. “What are they doing?”

“Nothing, Chief,” said Mohamed. “They’re holding tight. Think we got that assault carrier good, though. She’s moving slower than the others now.”

“Then we go back for another run. Turn us around
while I pick a new target.”

* * *

Shockwaves rattled
Argent’s
bridge as her screen of defensive fire detonated missiles just short of their effective blast radius. The sensations gave her crew a visceral reminder of their tenuous position.

“This is why you don’t shoot your missiles off too soon, people,” said Casey as he moved over to the command table. “Comms, any word from Salvation or the fleet yet? Or anybody?”

“Negative, sir!”

“Fuckers,” Casey grumbled. The command table laid out his position plainly:
Argent
continued to pull back from the invasion fleet, but she now had three pursuers, all of them destroyers. She would not be so lucky as to take anyone by complete surprise a second time.
Norfolk
drifted helplessly where she’d first been engaged, occasionally throwing out a missile or a laser blast but at a slow pace that suggested she was sorely wounded.

“We might be able to outrun all three of them if we came one-eighty and burned at full speed right now,” suggested Hawkins, who leaned on the table as the ship lightly shook again.

“Might,” grunted Casey. “Might not. It’d be a good chase either way.”

“Well, we’re supposed to draw off escorts, right?” Hawkins pressed. “We’ve taken out three already and we’ve got three more in pursuit. Isn’t that good enough?”

Casey snorted. “No.”

“We can’t take on three destroyers by ourselves!”

“I’m sorry, which one of us actually knows from experience how much punishment this ship can take from a destroyer?” Casey turned back to the table. Fortunately, the enemy’s ships had all arrived with their basic transponders broadcasting, freely identifying themselves as a nod to their claim of legitimacy and willingness to act peacefully.

Devonport
, another CDC ship, had at first moved in at full speed, but someone had clearly reined her in. She now approached at the top of a triangular pincer formation, coming at something of an arc with
Janus
to
Argent’s
starboard and
Helene
to port.

The distance between
Argent
and her opponents quickly shrank.
Devonport
fired missiles once again in a vain attempt to land an early blow. Casey suspected her captain might have reason to be a touch angrier than anyone on the two NorthStar ships following her.

Angered and accompanied by tenuous allies,
Devonport
was the weak link in this chain, and therefore the likeliest place to strike. The sensible thing to do, other than turning and running, was to do enough to keep
Janus
and
Helene
off-balance while focusing on
Devonport
, taking advantage of her aggressive behavior and watching for her to overextend, or to run her cannons and tubes into an overheating problem.

He’d faced a fight like this before, only it involved two destroyers instead of three, and they were older than these. But unlike his previous ship,
Argent
could afford to shed some of her bulk and her crew performed to a higher standard.

“Helm, I’m gonna need some quick moves here,” Casey began. “On my mark, hit a full forward burn for
Janus
at starboard there and put us in a spin. Like a bullet, right? The other two fuckers are gonna unload on us and I don’t want them to concentrate fire on a single side of the ship. Keep us rolling. Make like you’re gonna ram that bastard, but when I give the word I want you to pull a full turn and head for
Helene
instead, okay? We’re gonna shift targets at the last second. Got me?”

“Aye
, aye, sir!”

“At this range and at their speed,
it’ll happen fast. Be ready. Guns! Unload every beam weapon you got on whoever’s directly in front of us. Don’t bother with the other two bastards. Defensive volleys only if they fire missiles. And pass control of Chaff Four and Five over to me. Understood?”

“Yes, sir!”

“Engineering! Damage control parties! Stand by—this is gonna hurt. Helm, execute now!”

Spun up and ready to go for several minutes now,
Argent’s
main thrusters overcame the backward momentum of the ship almost instantly. Given the pursuit speed built up by the other three ships and
Argent’s
own rapid acceleration, the distance between her and her foes collapsed in seconds.

The enemy destroyers were ready for such a shift.
Argent
gained no particular benefit of surprise as fire rained down on her from three different angles, one of them dead ahead. Laser turrets blasted away at her hull, burning scars across metal and straining the electrostatic reinforcement that kept the metal together under such extremes. Missiles detonated ever closer, causing
Argent
to shudder violently and knocking crewmembers off their feet. One missile made it through her defenses, blasting
Argent
open mid-way across her frame. The entire promenade at her center exploded, sending furniture, glass and décor out into space.

She lost a secondary laser turret, disguised as an observatory compartment, when
Janus
clipped her with its main laser cannons. Men and women died. Alarms screamed on the bridge.

Casey accepted the losses.

Argent
gave almost as good as she got, though she was not an obvious match for
Janus
in a head-to-head battle.
Janus
turned to bring the batteries and defensive guns on her broadside to bear in the face of
Argent’s
charge.
Helene
and
Devonport
continued to rain down a murderous torrent of fire. A single laser breached one of the bridge bulkheads, cutting from one corner at port and straight out again into the overhead. Atmosphere quickly vented out, and with it went most of the sound. Everyone could still hear one another over the comms nets provided by their helmets, and vibrations felt through the ship’s decks and crewmen’s seats still offered some of the same sensations, but the environment felt dramatically different.

“DC One to bridge now!” demanded Hawkins over the ship’s comm net.

“Guns, fire missiles one and two! Helm, turn and burn on
Helene
!” Casey ordered. He fired off the chaff batteries under his personal control, directing them in an arc around
Janus
in the wake of the two missiles
Argent
sent loose.

Janus
intercepted those missiles with her own chaff tubes, but the series of explosions around her in so many directions at once played havoc with her sensors. For the moment,
Janus
lay blinded.
Devonport
was slow to react.
Helene
, once lined up for a back-stabbing shot and now the primary focus of
Argent’s
wrath, was suddenly on the wrong foot.

“All weapons on
Helene
!” demanded Casey. “Don’t let up! We’ve got three seconds at this! Go! Go!”

Another nearby explosion shook
Argent
once again, causing a further minor breach in the bulkheads of the bridge.
Argent
gave everything she had in her headlong charge. Her laser cannon hammered away at
Helene
, straining the destroyer’s hull. Secondary batteries scored hits. Missiles flew in through a brief gap in
Helene’s
defenses and detonated right against her hull to catastrophic effect.

“Helm! Fly right into her! Go!”

The ships closed at a terrifying speed, but the tactical screens all around the bridge offered up clear visuals of a destroyer already undergoing a cascade of ruptures and explosions.
Argent
kept firing as she rushed in. A heartbeat before impact,
Helene
suffered one more devastating missile strike, one that flew across such a short distance that
Argent
felt some of the resultant explosion.

Crewmen on the bridge felt a terrifying
, silent shudder as
Argent
charged straight through the cloud of burning gases and debris. Systems shorted out and lights flickered. Numerous holo screens died. One of the ship’s internal monitor stations all but exploded, eliciting a shriek from the tech seated in front of the screens.

Casey looked over his shoulder. He found Hawkins there, waving his hands and gesturing to the four damage control techs who rushed in… accompanied by a ship’s security team.

“
Devonport
is turning to pursue!” warned Quentin, standing on the other side of the command table from Casey. “
Janus
is clearing that cloud!”

“Full defensive!” Casey ordered. He didn’t pay any attention to the tactical boards now. His eyes scanned his surroundings desperately until he found something useful.
Argent
shook again under the force of a missile exploding not far behind her engines. Casey bent over with the blast, reaching down to the deck to grab the shard of metal that slid past his foot.

“Orders, captain?” pleaded his helmsman. He’d read the writing on the wall right away;
Argent
couldn’t hold this course for long.

Casey’s eyes swept the bridge again. The damage control techs moved to the obvious trouble spots, but one in particular kept looking back to the command table. The security team spread out to cover the exits. Hawkins remained nearby.

His right hand was once again on the holstered pistol at his hip.

Casey watched the boards.
Devonport
sent more missiles after her, firing as if she had an endless supply. He held his tongue and waited as crewmen voiced warnings and reports over the comm. With no commands coming from the captain, fear and chaos grew.

Argent
shook violently with another near hit, one that did real damage to the hull just past her engines. Again, lights flickered and crewmen fought to hold on.

The
distraction was all Casey needed. He spun around in the brief darkness with his improvised dagger clenched in his fist, driving its pointed edge straight into his first officer’s neck under his helmet.

Hawkins didn’t scream. He couldn’t. The magnets in his boots and at the joints of his vac suit kept him from tumbling far from his position. Casey recovered his balance and dragged himself back to the table. “Helm, hard to zenith!” he ordered. “Straight up! Go! Guns, return fire on
Devonport
! Let ‘em have it!”

The motion gave
Argent
the extra space her defensive turrets needed to blast away another of the missiles that threatened to take out her engines. As Casey surmised, the CDC destroyer had already been too exuberant with her guns to put up a full screen of defensive fire.
Argent’s
batteries hit a number of spots against
Devonport’s
sides, but her missiles came all too close for comfort.
Devonport
emerged from the resultant explosive cloud to find
Argent
turning face to face on her.

The next shot from
Argent’s
main cannons struck a lethal blow straight through the weakened armor plating over
Devonport’s
bridge. Though the destroyer did not snap or explode like her fallen comrades, the results were clear and immediate. She turned slightly from her course while her guns fired blindly and then sputtered, drifting like a shark suddenly struck blind.

Argent
now faced only a single opponent, and though wounded, she still held together with most of her weapons at the ready. Casey let out a breath. He’d whittled down the numbers arrayed against him. He could handle any single opponent.