Virtues of War (54 page)

“No, sir,” Katja and Jack said, more or less together.

“No, sir,” Breeze said.

There was tension all round. None of them were comfortable in their fast-attack roles, especially now that
Rapier
’s mission had changed so dramatically. Thomas was confident that Jack could handle ASW, but he was less sure about Katja and Breeze. Katja at least had a good attitude, which is why he’d given her the more thought-intensive AVW—keeping an eye out for enemy ships trying to sneak toward the EF.

With anti-attack warfare, all Breeze really had to worry about was getting the three turrets to shoot at anything that openly threatened
Rapier
. She was pretty good at self-preservation.

They reached their sector within minutes. Jack aimed for the leading edge, then cut back the engines almost to idle. The ship would drift in space, watching for stealth ships, letting the Expeditionary Force’s main body slowly catch up. Several minutes of silence passed on the bridge as Jack examined the Bulk and Katja searched deep space.

“No bearing lines from the Fleet,” Jack said finally. “Confirm there’s been no contact since the attack yesterday?”

“None,” Thomas said. “It’s at the point where we think we might have nailed him on the counterstrike.”

Jack’s response was doubtful. Yesterday, the EF had learned with certainty that the Centauris had at least one stealth ship in the area. The Terran stealth ship
Asp
had conducted a long game of cat-and-mouse with the enemy, and lost. That left the EF with only one remaining stealth ship.

“You don’t think so, Jack?” Katja asked.

He shook his head, eyes still forward. “I reviewed the logs this morning. At the depth both stealths were at, nothing would hide from our sensors.”

“What does depth have to do with it?”

“The farther into the Bulk you go, the stronger gravity becomes and the more massive everything gets.
Asp
was destroyed at fourteen peets, and the singularity was strong enough to bend radio signals between our ships. The enemy stealth went even farther in after the attack—if we’d got her we’d have known.”

“How far in can a Centauri stealth go? Can our torpedoes even get her?”

“I think their newest boats can reach fifteen peets, and our torpedoes are rated for sixteen. Beyond that we start getting into some weird physics. But that’s all polysyllabic stuff.”

Thomas thought that was a strange thing to say, but Katja seemed amused by it. She made to respond, but cut herself off as a new symbol flashed into existence on the display. Moments later a report came across the AVW circuit from the cruiser
Admiral Nelson
, in the sector several dozen thousand kilometers aft and above
Rapier
.

Unknown contact inbound.

As they watched, another contact appeared. Then a third. In formation, no EM emissions.

“Captain, OpsO,” Katja said, “three suspects bearing one-one-five mark one-five-zero, closing. Assess possible Centauri warships.”

“Concur,” Thomas said. “Battle stations.”

The alarm sounded, muffled in his ears as Thomas locked down his faceplate. Throughout
Rapier
, the skeleton crew were bringing the weapons to ready and flashing up all backup systems.

“
Rapier
, this is Echo-Victor.”
It was the voice of
Miami
’s former CO, now sitting in Thomas’s former seat at
Normandy
’s command console.
“Investigate suspects five-eight through six-zero, weapons free, over.”

“This is
Rapier
, roger,” he said. “Request star fighter cover, over.”

“This is Echo-Victor, confirmed, out.”

He switched to the internal circuit. “Pilot, come hard right to one-one-five mark one-five-zero, attack speed.”

Rapier
swung hard to the right and accelerated to her maximum cruising speed. On the 3-D, two blue symbols began to close his position—star fighters. The three suspects accelerated noticeably. Judging from their radar return, they looked like big ships.

“AA weapons free,” he said. “OpsO, get the strike camera locked on.”

Katja moved quickly to activate the camera. She magnified. Several shiny objects became clear on the console.

“Looks like Centauri. But I can’t tell what kind.”

Thomas stared at the monitor, thinking hard. Three big targets. There was no way that many battle cruisers could have snuck up on them—besides, battle cruisers would already have launched missiles at this range. Space Guard cutters? Three of them would be no match for the EF, even in its weakened state. And cutters wouldn’t paint so big on the radar.

The star fighters streaked past, easily overtaking the fast-attack craft. The image in the monitor was growing, but not quickly enough. Thomas hated this uncertainty.

“Pilot, flank speed!”

Rapier
pushed forward to one tenth the speed of light. Thomas gripped his chair as the entire vessel began to vibrate. The image in the monitor quickly filled the screen and kept growing. Katja zoomed out. Thomas stared at the image. There weren’t three big ships—there were many smaller ones, packed in close formation.

Alarms sounded. The ship couldn’t sustain this emergency speed for long.

“Pilot, attack speed!”

Jack pulled back. Thomas continued to stare at the image in his monitor, counting up the enemy ships. He opened the AVW circuit.

“Echo-Victor,
Rapier
, suspects now desig hostile. Centauri cutters, ten of them. I say again, one-zero hostiles!”

Echo-Victor’s response was lost in the alarms as fast-moving contacts broke away from the cutters. Leading the charge, the star fighters jinked and dodged. One evaded. The other didn’t. A visible flash of light through
Rapier
’s bridge windows revealed the kill.

“Hostiles inbound!” Breeze shouted.

“Evasive. AA weapons free!”

Jack pulled hard to port. Then back to starboard. Thomas groaned against the g-forces and vaguely heard the
bang-bang-bang
as decoys launched. The ship heaved over again. Top and bottom turrets thundered to life. Tracers flashed out. Missiles exploded.

Rapier
dove hard and dropped below the plane of the battle. Missiles chased. Tail turret joined the fray. All three weapons sprayed a wake of rounds behind the ship. The remaining missiles flew into the maelstrom and were destroyed.

The Centauri cutters spread out in a line abreast, closing the EF at high speed. Thomas saw the second star fighter wink out of existence on his display. More were inbound from the main force, and
Admiral Nelson
was charging forward to engage. The EF main body—the two invasion ships and two supply ships—were moving to distance themselves from the attack, with
Jutland
acting as blocker. The other cruiser,
Admiral Halsey
, was racing from her station on the far side of the Terran ships to join the battle.

Thomas realized that the enemy ships were passing
Rapier
at distance, their attention clearly focused on the EF. A wave of missiles was unleashed en masse, headed for the rapidly approaching
Nelson
. The cruiser returned fire, a stream of missiles launching in rapid succession. From his distance, Thomas couldn’t tell which weapons got through on either side.

He and his little ship were now outside the battle, overlooked as the enemy closed to point-blank range with
Nelson
. Thomas felt his teeth grind together. Those cutters were designed for fast interdiction against pirates—they were deadly at close range.
Halsey
was still on the far side of the EF, closing at top speed.

One of the destroyers,
Cape Town
, broke from ASW picket and was moving to help
Nelson
.

Rapier
wasn’t designed for space battles. Yet she had four morningstar missiles and three self-defense turrets. And now, two torpedoes strapped where the strike pods had once been. He steeled himself for death.

Thomas Kane was not going to be accused of cowardice again.

T
homas quickly surveyed the battle. Where could
Rapier
do the most damage?

“Intercept hostile six-seven. Target with morningstars, salvo size four.”

Jack swung the ship in the z-axis and pointed toward the Centauri cutter at one end of the battle line. Katja locked on with all of her missiles.

“Target locked, in range,” she said.

“Fire!”

Dazzling orbs of yellow light blasted forth in sequence from
Rapier
’s wings. They accelerated clear, long tails stretching behind them as they closed on their target. The Centauri cutter, focused on
Nelson
, never had a chance. The missiles smashed through its small hull, tearing it apart in flames that leapt far with the escaping air.

The display revealed a swarm of robotic sentries holding the star fighters at bay, isolating
Nelson
from aid.
Cape Town
tried to charge through the swarm, batteries blazing.
Halsey
was just approaching the main body.
Jutland
launched long-range missiles at the cutters. The other three destroyers closed in for main body defense to free the battleship to engage.

The cutters broke their line, swarming over
Nelson
. The cruiser’s defensive weapons fired non-stop, but far too many hits got through. One cutter exploded under a determined counterstrike. Another reeled from
Jutland
’s long-range attacks. But it was too little—
Nelson
was taking too much damage.

“Pilot,” Thomas said, “target hostile six-five with torpedo. Close into range.”

Jack steered with one hand and activated his weapons with the other.

“Our torpedoes are weak here on the brane. I’ll need to fire both to ensure a good singularity.”

“Do it!”

The cutters noticed
Rapier
again, and one broke off the attack on
Nelson
to fire. Tracers flashed past the cockpit as
Rapier
banked hard, continuing to close.

“I’ve got a solution,” Jack said. “Coming into range.”

“Fire!”

There was a double bang as the torpedoes were ejected from the hull. They accelerated past the ship, slowly shrinking from view as they phased into the Bulk. The Centauri cutter broke off its attack and tried to run, but it had no ASW defenses. Thomas watched as its port side crumpled. A second later its starboard side twisted and wrenched itself apart.

“Holy shit!” Breeze said.

Rapier
’s turrets opened fire as fast, short-range missiles rocketed toward her.

Jack jinked hard and evaded.

The cockpit lurched violently. Thomas’s head slammed back in his helmet against the seat. Alarms screamed.

“Hull breached on upper deck, starboard side,” Katja said. “Main cave.”

Two of the cutters had broken off from
Nelson
and were closing on
Rapier
. Thomas felt like screaming—but he would not back down.
Nelson
was still surrounded.
Cape Town
was reeling from robot sentry fire.
Halsey
still wasn’t in range.
Rapier
was the only distraction.

“Close to point-blank range. Keep them on our beam.”

Jack obeyed without question, flying straight into the hail of rounds.
Rapier
shuddered under the onslaught but quickly closed to within the range of her own turrets. Jack swung the ship to port to open the firing arcs of all three weapons.

Nothing happened. No shots fired. Centauri rounds continued to rain down. Thomas stared at Breeze, his AAW officer. She was gripping her console, staring in fear up through the windows at the looming cutters.

Thomas used his command console to designate the two hostiles to the turrets, set to permanent engage. Instantly the rapid-fire thudding of the guns echoed through the hull. He tried to reach out to hit Breeze, but his straps kept him restrained.

“Brisebois!” he shouted. “Man your station!”

The Centauri shots were falling astern. Thomas heard a single bang against the hull, and saw Jack wrench the stick to reverse his turn. The three turrets continued to strafe the lumbering cutters with ease. After Jack’s third turn, the enemy retreated from the engagement.

“Damage report!” Thomas said.

“Total depressurization of the main cave,” Katja said. “Sealed and contained. Fuel leaking from starboard wing, one percent per minute. Engine room is transferring between tanks to minimize loss. Stress indications in both wing supports. All missiles expended. All torpedoes expended. Turrets at thirty percent ammunition remaining.”

Rapier
swung low beneath the battle. Thomas surveyed visually and checked his display.
Cape Town
had fought her way through the sentries and had drawn three of the cutters away from
Nelson
. The beleaguered cruiser still battled with three more, and even as Thomas watched she started to break apart, weapons firing defiantly.
Halsey
and fresh star fighters were fast approaching the enemy force.

Then a panicked voice came over the command circuit.

“This is
Jutland
! Torpedo! Torpedo! Torp—”

Static.

Thomas’s eyes snapped up toward the Expeditionary Force’s main body. The ships were too far away to see, but he caught a faint ripple in the stars. On the 3-D display, the blue symbol for the battleship
Jutland
disappeared.

“Oh my God,” Breeze said.

“Conducting graviton search pulse,” Jack said. His active ASW search gear sent out a strong, omnidirectional blast of gravitons. Thomas brought up the ASW circuit and heard other units doing the same. Within seconds, a datum dropped into the display.

The hostile stealth was halfway between the EF main body and the enemy cutters. Rapid commands ordered
Halsey
and
Cape Town
to break off their battle with the cutters and close the datum.
Kristiansand
and
Goa
did likewise from the EF main body. Every Hawk in space moved at full speed to prosecute.