The Genevian Queen: The Complete Series, page 43
“Good thing we waited till they were well within range,” Heather said as the second barrage caught just as many ships in its net as the first. This time, only five hundred ships were damaged enough to no longer be combat capable.
Potter said.
“What, fighting you off on their network?” Heather asked.
Garth chuckled. “I guess that’s good and bad. At least they won’t be able to turn those guns on us.”
“I see it,” the chief said. “Permission to fire on that dreadnought, Colonel?”
“Granted,” Heather replied. “Let ‘em have it.”
The Lance’s main gun fired a second later, the DMG’s beam of energy streaking across the hundred-thousand kilometers of space before slamming into the dreadnought Ona had targeted. At close range, the ship was cleanly holed, the beam speeding off into the black, obliterating a destroyer on its way to infinity.
“They’re braking,” Ona said, her voice rising with excitement. “We did it!”
Heather hated to be a downer, but shook her head. “I don’t think so. Look, they’re shifting to pass over OP, not around. We can still hit them, just only with half of the ring’s guns.”
The AI got off two more salvos at the enemy fleet, each time firing with fewer and fewer of the station’s weapons until finally she gave a sad sigh over the audible systems.
“That’s it, then, eh?” Heather had hoped to cause more damage before they had to directly engage with the enemy ships.
There were still roughly three thousand Nietzschean vessels, and though most fleets would break and run after losing so many of their number in such a short time, this one did not.
They’re defending their homes. By hitting here in Pruzia, we’ve given them nowhere to run. The colonel shook her head. No, that’s not true. They have a whole empire, just like Genevia did.
“Well, that’s weird,” Ona whispered. “A ship just jumped in.”
“One of ours?” Heather asked, pivoting the holotank’s view to show the newcomer.
“Yes, Colonel,” she replied. “One of our destroyers from Genevia. It’s hailing.”
“Put them on.”
Heather turned to the main display, curious who had arrived on the lone destroyer, only to drop her jaw when she saw who it was.
“Rika?”
BULWARK
STELLAR DATE: 06.14.8950 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: GMS Baelor, near Outer Pruzia
REGION: Pruzia System, Nietzschean Empire
“Looks like you’re having a good time here, Heather,” Rika said, marveling at the number of Nietzschean ships that had been taken out of commission. “Though they’re not letting up, are they?”
“No, ma’am,” the colonel shook her head on the holodisplay. “We turned Outer Pruzia’s weapons against them, but the station has managed to take enough of them offline that it’s just twelve versus three thousand now.”
Rika nodded. “And they’re too spread out for your DMG to do much good.”
“Yeah, we exhausted that option early on.”
Rika glanced at Chase and Leslie, both of whom shrugged.
“Nothing for it,” she decided. “Time for us to retreat a bit.”
“Retreat?” Heather spoke the word as though it made her stomach turn. “We can still wear them down.”
“Just fall back a few hundred thousand klicks. Let’s see if they follow us. There are a lot of hulls drifting close to OP. They might stop to take care of that mess first.”
A calculating expression took shape on Heather’s face. “You have something in mind, don’t you?”
“You might say that,” Rika replied. “It’s going to involve an insystem jump, and for that, we need a buffer between us and the Niets.”
“Uh…I should warn you the Lance isn’t doing too well. We’re having a hell of a time keeping the black hole stable. If we jump insystem with this many gravity wells around….”
Rika pursed her lips. “Well…if we have to leave it behind, we leave it behind. Either way, we’re making the jump. I’ve set a rally point. Pass the orders to your ships.”
“We’re on it,” Heather responded, a smile quirking a corner of her mouth. “And, Rika?”
“Yes, Colonel?”
“It’s really good to see you.”
“You too, Heather. It’ll be in the flesh shortly.” Rika shook her head, turning to Chase. “To be honest, I’m kinda amazed she destroyed that many. How long do you think till they realize Yarislav is under attack?”
“Fifteen minutes, tops,” he replied. “The real question is whether or not they fall back to defend it, or just try and finish us off.”
“Who cares?” Kelly cried from behind them. “Holy shit, flying a destroyer is fun! How come you never let me do this before?”
Rika turned, unable to keep herself from smiling at the SMI. “I distinctly recall you making me promise not to stick you on a ship when there’s ground action to be had.”
“Sure, yeah, but there are lots of times when there’s nothing happening dirtside.”
“Really?” Shoshin folded his arms across his chest. “When?”
“Uhhh…when we’re forming up and stuff.”
Rika waved a hand in dismissal. “Well, this is your chance, make the most of it. See that formation of corvettes trying to flank the Lance? Let’s take it out.”
“Don’t have to tell me twice,” Kelly crowed.
“I love how disciplined you keep her,” Leslie said in a droll tone. “It’s quite impressive.”
“She was, and I ran a tight ship.”
“You all know I’m right here, right?” Kelly asked as she shifted vector to intercept the corvettes. “We’re t-minus six, then those bastards are gonna get it.”
“Who wants weapons?” Rika asked. “Shields are up for grabs too.”
Keli held up her hand, but Chase was already speaking. “I’ll take weapons.”
“I guess I’ll do shields and stuff,” Keli grumbled. “Does this thing have countermeasures?”
“I sure hope so,” Leslie said. “Though, with stasis shields, we probably won’t need them.”
Rika nodded to Kelly. “Just stay in sync with her. Our only vulnerability is the exhaust exit.”
“Right, no pew-pew up the bum-bum or we go boom-boom.”
Leslie groaned, then stopped and laughed. “OK…I think I’ve had too much time dealing with politicians and other self-important people. This is just what the doctor ordered.”
“Looks like the Niets are following,” Chase commented. “Leaving Outer Pruzia to fend for itself with those drifting hulls.”
Rika sighed. “I guess that was a fool’s hope. We’re going to need to keep up the pressure until they get word that Yarislav is under attack. Oh shit…I should probably tell Heather that.”
She quickly passed the message regarding where the bulk of the Marauders were, and then returned her focus to the upcoming engagement.
Kelly had the ship on course to pass behind the corvettes. If the smaller vessels were smart, they’d break and run—or at the very least, attempt to move out of the destroyer’s range.
Instead, the seven smaller ships came about to engage the Marauder vessel.
“I mean…I guess if they want to die,” Chase said with a shrug. “I’ll gladly oblige them. This thing has fourteen twenty-centimeter beams, I can hole two of them at once in under fifteen seconds.”
“Normally, all seven of them could take us in less than that,” Rika replied. “The only thing I can imagine is that the Nietzschean Command hasn’t briefed the rank and file on what stasis shields can really withstand.”
“Sounds like there’s some arrogance in their leadership,” Chase said. “Not that this surprises me.”
“I mean, they’re used to destroying Genevians in space,” Shoshin grunted. “They had an entire war to learn that we’re no threat in the black.”
Chase gritted his teeth, bending over his console. “Let’s teach them that’s no longer the case.”
The destroyer’s beams came to life, relativistic particles streaking through space to slam into the Nietzschean shields.
Just as he’d said, Chase kept his focus on two of the corvettes, breaching their aft shields before the ships had a chance to come about. Both craft lost their port engines within seconds, spinning out of control before they had a chance to stabilize.
Chase paid them no mind after that, turning his beams on the next two ships.
The remainder of the corvettes had spun, their bows both protected by heavier shields and sporting their primary weaponry. All five enemy ships fired at once, their beams dissolving against the destroyer’s stasis shield.
Leslie laughed, clapping her hands with glee. “Oh, I wish I could see the look on those bastards’ faces.”
“Probably all look pretty similar,” Rika said before turning to Chase. “You saving the missiles?”
“Yeah, figured we might want to use them for the run on Valhalla.” Another corvette fell to the ship’s beams. “Not like we need them, anyway.”
A destroyer from the Marauders’ Lance’s escort joined in the fight, taking out another corvette before the last three broke formation and boosted away on disparate vectors.
“Let them go,” Rika said. “It serves our purpose at present to have them think they can run away.”
“Run, little Niets, flee.” Kelly waved a hand in dismissal. “But not too far, we still want to kill you later.”
Rika flipped the forward display to show the overall battlespace. “Don’t get greedy, we’re still looking at a few thousand more of those bastards.”
“Might be time to get the missiles ready,” Chase muttered. “These guys just don’t know when to call it quits.”
A formation of enemy cruisers was advancing on the Lance, closing from below, while another group was advancing from above. The Pinnacle-class ship began to pivot slowly, bringing its main weapon to bear on one group, while the other ships began to hammer the Marauders’ flagship with their beams and rails.
“Move us in toward that lower formation,” Rika directed. “We have to shield them just in case.”
“Then who’s shielding us?” Kelly asked as she obeyed the order.
“Chase,” Rika said.
“What?” he glanced up.
“I meant that you’re shielding us.”
For a moment, he appeared confused, then gave a quick nod. “Oh, yeah, I get it. Sorry. Just so you know, powering both our weapons and shields while going solo against, what… twenty-seven destroyers isn’t really a winning strategy.”
Rika nodded. “We don’t need to kill them, just last long enough for them to learn that Yarislav is getting hammered.”
“OK, I’ll tell our reactor that,” he quipped.
“Whatever edge we can get,” Rika replied. “We—”
She was cut off by an unexpected explosion in the enemy formation.
“I thought we weren’t switching to missiles yet?”
“We’re not.” Chase looked her way. “None of our ships fired that.”
Leslie pointed at the forward display. “Is that…a fighter?”
A small ship was darting through the enemy formation, its shields shedding point defense beams while twin blasts of instant death lanced out from its nose again and again.
“There go two more cruisers,” Rika whispered as she brought up the small ship on the main holotank. “What is that thing? I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“We’re being hailed,” Leslie said. “It’s from that ship, I think.”
“Enemy of my enemy and all that,” Rika muttered. “Put it up.”
The display switched from the battlespace to a view of a small cockpit with a single woman sitting at the controls. At least…she seemed to be a woman. Her skin and hair were alabaster, surrounded by a nimbus glow.
Her arms, which were stretched out to work the console’s controls, appeared indistinct, almost as though they were in more than one place at once.
“T-Tangel?” Rika asked. “You’re alive!”
“That I am,” the white woman responded. “Rumors of my death, and all that.”
“Then Tanis and Angela? We got an update a few days back saying they were alright. Does this mean—”
“We’re separate now. In a nutshell, I gave them their body back after I constructed my own.”
Another cruiser exploded, followed by another a few moments later.
“What in the deep black is that ship firing?” Chase asked, mouth agape.
“Antimatter beams,” Tangel said as though that were something a person could pick up at a local commissary. “I’m saving the real weapon for later.”
“Real weapon?” Rika asked, shaking her head in disbelief. “Why are you here, Tangel?”
White lips twisted into a wry smile. “I’m here to help you, Rika. Sol has fallen, as have the Trisilieds. Nietzschea is the last major Inner Stars empire to oppose the Alliance. When we got your message that you were planning to strike at their heart, I decided to come and help.”
“We’ll take all the help we can get,” Leslie said. “But…do you have any more of those ships? That would really help.”
“One of a kind, sorry to say,” Tangel replied. “Kinda breaks a lot of rules just by existing. We don’t want to add more of them to the mix.”
“Well, that’s no fun,” Kelly muttered. “Think I can take it for a spin?”
Tangel shook her head. “No.”
During the course of their conversation, she’d taken out a total of eleven cruisers, causing the formation to break and disperse. Chase fired on a few smaller escort craft in order to discourage them from continuing on toward the Marauders’ Lance, while Tangel boosted her fighter toward the second group of enemy ships engaging the Lance from above.
“So, what’s your plan here, Rika?” Tangel asked. “I can draw away some of these Niets and keep them from your DMG ship, but once the bulk of their fleet comes around Outer Pruzia and gets in range, one little fighter won’t make a lick of difference.”
“I know,” Rika sighed. “We’re hitting Yarislav as well. It should just take a few more minutes for the Niets to get word. Stars…I feel like I’ve been saying that for hours. Anyway, we’re hoping they’ll pull back to defend it.”
Tangel’s brow lowered. “And leave Outer Pruzia? I can’t see them doing that. Did you try using their weapons against them? I see a lot of drifting hulls over there.”
Rika nodded. “Yeah, Heather gained control of their weapons systems and took out about a thousand of their ships.”
The ascended woman chuckled. “I bet that was surprising. Oh…wait. Look at that, the bulk of their fleet is decreasing thrust. Your plan just might be working.”
“Thanks.” Rika took the praise while switching to broadcast to the other twelve Marauder ships. “Fall back onto the vector I’ve set. We’ll show the Niets we have no further plans for Outer Pruzia. That, along with the attack on Yarislav, should be enough to convince them to pull off the pursuit.”
“We’ll do our best,” Heather said. “Potter’s at her wit’s end trying to keep our pet black hole from devouring the Lance. It’s going to take us a bit to shift vector that much.”
“Really?” Tangel asked. “It should be perfectly stable. Let me take a look.”
The fighter darted toward the DMG ship.
“Could you open a hole in your shields?” Tangel requested.
“Do it, Heather,” Rika ordered.
“You got it,” the colonel replied. “Getting this thing under control would make my day. We were considering jettisoning it, but that comes with its own set of problems.”
Leslie barked a laugh. “Problems for the Niets. I don’t see that as a negative. Serve them right to see a planet or two get devoured.”
Rika shot her friend an exasperated look. “Behave, you.”
“Never.”
“Fine.”
“Good.”
During the short exchange, Tangel’s ship had passed through the Lance’s shields and settled on the super-dreadnought’s hull.
“Doesn’t she need to dock in a bay or something?” Chase asked.
“Don’t think so,” Rika said. “She can go right through the hull.”
Shoshin laughed. “Now that’s a trick I’d like to learn.”
Rika couldn’t help a soft laugh.
The bridge fell into silence as the destroyer escort formed a widely dispersed shield around the slowly turning Marauders’ Lance, the Undaunted taking up the center of the formation. After the havoc that Tangel’s fighter had wreaked on the enemy, they seemed hesitant to engage as well.
C’mon, you idiots. We’re falling back, you’re under attack elsewhere, get out of here.
“We’re golden!” Heather shouted across the channel. “I don’t know what Tangel did, but Potter’s singing her praises, and we have full maneuverability.”
“It would take a bit to explain,” Tangel chimed in. “Suffice it to say, the Nietzscheans bit off a bit more than they could chew with this design, but with a few alterations, it’s quite ingenious.”
“Does this mean it can also fire at the theoretical maximum rate?” Rika asked.
“A little more than that, now,” Tangel said. “Why don’t you come over to the Lance? We should talk about what you have planned next.”
