Shadow Space Chronicles 1: The Fallen Race (45 page)

“
Thank you, Baron.”  The other man smiled slightly, “Every good officer has to give it up sometime.  My shuttle will be on its way the instant we exit.”

***

The fleet dropped out of Shadow only a few thousand kilometers above the gas giant.

“Oh,
good!
  We missed the planet,” Kandergain said cheerfully.

“
Commander Leone, do you feel Ensign Ferranti is up to taking over your position?” Lucius asked.  At the other man’s nod, Lucius turned to Daniel Beeson, “Well, Commander, looks like you’re moving up in the world.”

“
Baron?” he asked

“
You’ll assume command of the
Peregrine
.  I’m transferring over to command the fleet from the
Patriot.
”  Lucius felt his throat choke up with emotion.  Departure from the
War Shrike
had been hard.  To leave the bridge of his last ship command…

Lucius shook his head, then stood straight and saluted, “Commander Beeson, you have the conn.”

“Baron, I have the conn.”  The young man returned the salute, looking stunned.

“
Take good care of her.”  Lucius turned away and moved towards the airlock.

He found Colonel Proscia awaiting him there.  “The Admiral and I had a bet, as to whether I’d have to come up there and drag you down here.”

He heard Kandergain laugh behind him.  “Ah.” Lucius said, stepping aboard the shuttle.  “How much money you make?”

“
Two Republic scrip,” Colonel Proscia said.  “He gave me two to one odds.”

***

He stepped onto the flag bridge and felt out of place as Admiral Dreyfus waved him to his own chair.  “I hear I owe Colonel Proscia two drachma?”

Lucius shrugged, “If I’d known you only sent one man, I might have tried to fight him off.”  He felt a fluttery, uneasy feeling at the thought of commanding a battle from anywhere but the bridge of a warship.  He nodded his head at Reese and Kandergain, “Do you have open spots at navigation and communications for those two?”

“
I’m sure we can fit them in.”

Lucius sat, but he felt his unease increase.  He glanced over the controls and brought up the sensor relay.  “We have a relay yet from the Emperor’s ships?”  His hands fumbled with the unfamiliar seat restraints.

“Yes, we got that up already.  We’ll watch the battle in near real time.” Admiral Dreyfus said as he took another seat nearby.

Lucius stared at the screen and slowly, he smiled.  The Chxor, at least, identified the Balor as a threat.  They had altered course for a least-time intercept.  The Balor had not altered their own course.  The Balor would hit their maximum launch range soon.

“When’s the last time anyone has seen a battle on this scale?” Kandergain asked.

“
This many capital ships all in one place?” Admiral Dreyfus asked.  “Never.”

Lucius nodded, slowly, “There were a couple big battles at the fall of Amalgamated Worlds.  When the Shadow Lords destroyed Earth’s defense fleet… that might be as big.”

“No,” Kandergain said, “I was at that one.  There were only a dozen dreadnoughts on either side.”  Lucius raised an eyebrow, but she didn’t elaborate beyond, “I was there for an assassination.”

“
Whose?” Lucius asked

She shrugged, “Mine.”

“How’d that go?” Admiral Dreyfus asked.

“
It was complicated.”

“
So I’d guess,” Lucius said wryly.

“
Don’t we have a battle to focus on?” Kandergain asked.

“
Chxor are entering maximum missile range for the Balor’s heavy ship killers.” Reese said.  “No fire yet.”

They waited.  A minute passed.  The two fleets arced closer, “They might hold their fire to launch their heavies and lights at the same time,” Lucius said.

“They’re rate of closure is fast enough they might want to—” Admiral Dreyfus broke off as new icons blossomed.

“
Multiple missile launches.  It’s—“  Reese looked up, “Our sensor drones can’t track all the launches.  It’s upwards of ten thousand.”

“
They launched their heavy and lighter missiles, everything, one launch.” Lucius shook his head. He saw, now, that attempting to run that gauntlet would have smashed even the largest ships of his formation.  He wondered if the Chxor would fare any better.

“
I’m seeing counter-missile fire.  Only a hundred.”  The Chxor ships didn’t mount external racks, they had to use their main tubes. 

“
One minute to impact.”  Reese said, “The Balor just reversed course, they’re maintaining the range.”

The Balor weren’t going to let the Chxor close nor to even fire a shot.  Lucius shook his head.  That was what his force faced, Lucius knew.  He shook his head.  How could they fight an enemy they couldn’t catch, couldn’t get range on?

The wave of missiles broke on the Chxor.

The sensors couldn’t track the multitude of missiles.  They couldn’t differentiate the explosions of individual warheads in the hash of radiation as over ten thousand hundred-megaton and seven thousand five-hundred-megaton warheads detonated.  For a few seconds, a new star blazed in the Faraday system.  When that glare finally faded, a dozen wrecked warships emerged, leaking atmosphere and debris.

“I’m seeing only seven dreadnoughts and five cruisers left.” Reese said.

“
Those poor bastards,” Lucius said.  He almost felt guilty.  The sensor data made the slaughter seem bloodless, but Lucius knew that aboard those ships, pain and blood existed in plenty.  Bleeding and burned crew would be scattered amongst the dead.  On ships like that, the injured would outnumber the hale.

“
The Balor reversed course again.”

Lucius watched as the armada turned and closed with the damaged ships.  The Chxor either realized they had no escape or lacked any chain of command.  They continued to close.

The Balor force closed and their heavy guns fired from twenty four thousand kilometers out.  The two forces swept closer, but by the time the Chxor had range, three more of their dreadnoughts and all the remaining screening cruisers died.

The four remaining dreadnoughts fired.  They targeted the larger Balor ships and Lucius saw two, possibly more hits.  The shields of the larger ships absorbed the fire.

The two fleets interpenetrated.  The fire continued from point blank.  A Balor destroyer died.  One of the Chxor dreadnoughts exploded.  Shields around one of the battlecruisers flared and failed.  A cruiser exploded.

Then the remaining Chxor dreadnought lost power.  The Balor continued to fire.  The hulk absorbed a dozen more hits before it came apart in a cloud of debris.

Lucius looked away, he’d just seen his own future.  He caught Admiral Dreyfus’s eyes and saw the other man knew it too.  Any course they made would force them to run that same gauntlet of fire.  That same destructive wrath would focus on his ships and the Balor would dance away until they decided to close and finish their game.

“
The Balor have altered course, again.” Reese said, his voice hollow.  “They’re making a least time intercept for Faraday.  Looks like three hours till they reach maximum missile range.”

“
Their capital ships take, what, a half hour or so to reload their racks?” Lucius asked.

Admiral Dreyfus nodded.  “They’ll have their fighters reloaded in about the same.”

At least when their turn came to run that gauntlet, they’d run into a smaller wave of fire.  The destroyers didn't carry reloads for their external racks.  Perhaps more of them would live to close with the enemy.

Lucius shook his head at the impossibility.  The Balor’s course, a predictable straight line, showed they’d finished with toying with Humanity.  He didn’t see a way to stop them, not without somehow jumping right in on top of them...

“Kandergain!” he jerked his head around, “Can you plot an intrasystem jump and overlay it on their current course?”

She frowned, “It will take me at least an hour.”

“Reese, they’re on a least time intercept course.  Assuming they’ll decelerate so they come in slow for a firing pass on the planet, plot their position in two hours.”  Lucius felt his thoughts crystallize.  “Kandergain, can you do your magic and get us to come out on top of them?”

She frowned, “I can
try
.”

“
Do it.” Lucius said.  “Whatever you need, do it.  Get us within ten thousand kilometers and we’ll win this battle.”  The Balor’s certain, predictable course gave him a slim chance of victory.

Admiral Dreyfus spoke, his voice thoughtful, “We’ll drop out of shadow space with close to zero relative velocity.  If we misjudge their position by even a little, we’ll be sitting ducks for everything they have.”

“And we could be way off on our estimate.” Lucius said.  “They might decide to make a fast attack run on the planet to avoid any planet-based defense.  They might come to a halt at the edge of their range and volley missiles in at the planet till they destroy everything.  They might alter course by a few degrees and we’ll run calculations for a point several million miles off their actual course.”

“
But we can’t do anything about that,” Lucius shrugged.  “If we can get in range, if we can put our superior weight of firepower into play, we can win this.  That’s the only way we can win this.”  He pointed at the drifting remains of the Chxor force, “Otherwise, we’ll look like that.  They outmaneuver us, they outrange us, and they can pull higher accelerations.  We don’t have any other option.”

“
Shut up, both of you,” Kandergain snapped.  “I think I can plot it so travel time will be only a few seconds.  We’ll know before we jump if this will work.”

“
Oh.” Admiral Dreyfus said, then he frowned, “If the jump looks like it won’t work, what’s our back-up plan?”

“
Really, as long as they move along that line, we’ll be able to intercept them at that point.” Lucius shrugged, “Otherwise… make a lot of noise out here and hope they turn away from the planet?”

“
And then?”

Lucius sighed.  He met the other man's gaze, and then quoted from memory, “Do you really want me to admit I’m making this up as I go along?”

Admiral Dreyfus frowned thoughtfully, “You would have to throw one of my worst quotes back at me.”  He growled, “I knew I should have pushed that reporter out an airlock.”

“
Probably.” Lucius admitted, “He also immortalized your ‘I’ll keep fighting till I sober up and realize it’s futile,’ one from the Battle of West Eden.”

“
You’re kidding!?” Admiral Dreyfus frowned.  “I don’t even remember saying that one.”

***

“
Jump calculations complete.” Kandergain said, sounding tired.  “It will take approximately thirty seconds, real time for us to cross the system and reach the coordinates.  I’ve marked them ‘Point Victory.’”

“
They’ve maintained course, so far.” Lucius said.

“
Which probably means they’ll alter it now.” Admiral Dreyfus said.

“
If they do, we’re screwed.” Lucius answered.  “They’ve only got twenty minutes to do that.  We briefed all the ships,” He ticked off his list, a finger at a time, “All fighter squadrons are ready to launch, all missile racks are rearmed and we’ve done scratch repairs on what we could… am I missing anything?”

Admiral Dreyfus shook his head, “I think that’s everything.”

“Message from Emperor Romulus, Baron.” Reese said.

“
Good morning, your Highness.” Lucius said.

“
Admiral Mund just briefed me on your plans.  I see a possible way to ensure they maintain their course.” The Emperor said.

“
What’s that?” Lucius frowned.

“
If my ships light off their drives and go out to meet them, they’ll probably use a similar attack run as they did with the Chxor.  I can time it so they reverse course in the same position.”

“
They’ll only do that if they fire their heavy salvo at you first.” Lucius said.  “Out of the question, I’m not going to let you throw away your men—“

“
Not your choice, Baron.  I’m your ally, not your subordinate,” the younger man said.  “I can’t save Nova Roma by myself.  I need your ships.  If you throw them away here, you won’t be able to help me later.”

“
If you’re
dead
, Highness, I won’t be able to help you either!” Lucius snapped.

“
I talked with Admiral Mund.  If we light off our drives and plot an intercept course right about now, they’ll alter their course and you’ll be able to engage them at zero relative velocity when you emerge at Point Victory.”

“
Baron!  The Nova Roma ships just went active, they’re putting on full speed for an intercept course with the Balor.  It looks like Captain Kral is taking most of the captured Chxor ships along,” Reese called.  “The Balor ships are altering course!”