John Ringo: Claws That Catch

“You hurts me with those words, Cap’n…”

“Put Yourself! On Report!”

“Am I still supposed to put myself on report, CO?” the COB asked.

“No, but we’re still dropping mines. Just as soon as we modify them a little.”

“It’ll be okay,” Weaver said, uncomfortably patting the linguist on the shoulder. “Seriously. Nobody will know.”

“You could hear it through the entire solar system!” Miriam screamed. “And the Blade records EVERYTHING! Oh My God. My reputation is so ruined. I’m going to have… otaku !”

“Hey, I was a chimpanzee for God’s sake,” Carpenter said. “And what are… Oh-ta-… whatever.”

“Anime fans,” Bill said darkly.

“Oh. Them.”

“She was playing J-pop!” Gants said, bouncing on the deck and waving his arms over his head like a monkey. Some people took longer to get over the effects of the field than others. “ Sou da ne bokura atarashii jidai wo !”

“Jesus, man,” Red snapped. “Get ahold of yourself. You’re embarassing me.”

‹Drive systems failures in Units 57,035,837 and 8,808,992. Infestation at seventeen percent in Unit 779,877. Cleaner Systems Class One through Three production initiated in all units.›

Ensure uninfected conditions in Units 125,867 and 7,507,434. Dispatch to anomaly. Escort: three Class Fourteen Space Combat Units, one Class Nine. Escorts are not to enter anomaly docking bay. Begin construction of Class One and Two cleaners, enroute. Launch fighters. Twenty percent to escort boarding parties.

With the infection of the primary ground unit construction ship, Unit 779,877 which the Blade had identified as a cruiser, the entire mission to explore the anomaly and retrieve its scientific and technical data was in jeopardy. If the infestation could be brought under control, though, in time the fleet could be completely reconstructed. Well, except for…

‹Units 57,035,837 and 8,808,992 entering retrograde orbit.›

Destroy them.

There was a pause from the secondary entity that handled communications within the massive brain-ship.

Since Dreen sentients occasionally fissioned — breaking off a lower-level sentient for colonization or to create a new brain-ship — explanations were apparently in order.

When Organism 8139 consumes all functional material in the units, the organism will break out, spilling into space. The units will be on our direct course to the anomaly. Destroy them now, maximum firepower. Ensure all units of Organism 8139 eliminated.

‹Order sent.›

“Sir, we’ve got two interesting things going on here,” the TACO said. The Blade had reached the edge of the warp-denial field and was shadowing the massive Dreen fleet, hoping against hope that Weaver and Miriam could figure out how to use the Tree to defeat it.

“Go,” Prael said, looking over at the boards. A number of ships had broken away from the Dreen fleet. Six of them seemed to be accelerating towards the Tree while the other two…

“We’ve got a Dreen task group, consisting of one cruiser, Sierra 31, two troop carriers, Sierras 38 and 42 and three destroyers, Sierras 48, 50 and 53, accelerating towards the tree. The group has been designated CruRon One.”

“We need to set up to intercept that task group,” the CO said. “Get Astro started on a course.”

“Yes, sir,” the TACO said. “Message already sent to Astro, sir. The odd thing, though, is this other task group. I’m not even sure that’s the right thing to call it. The Dreen fleet is in deceleration to match orbit with the Tree at this time. Two ships have stopped deceleration. That means that they will arrive near the Tree before the rest of the Dreen fleet.”

“Another attack group?” the CO asked.

“I don’t think so,” the TACO said. “They simply stopped deceleration. The cruisers and destroyers have enough legs they can accelerate from their current position and still decelerate later. Not much accel, but it will get them there faster. This group is just… drifting if you will, sir. And on their current course they’re on a retrograde orbit. Unless they get under power soon, they’re going to miss the Tree and slam into the star. They are, however, pulling away from the rest of the fleet.”

“Bomb ships?” the CO asked. “A suicide run? Can the Dreen get the star to go nova or something?”

“Possible, sir,” the TACO replied. “But then why not accelerate? I think they’re just… broken, sir. Looks like drive system failure to me.”

“Well, let’s hope so,” the CO said.

“Whoa,” the sensor tech said. “The Dreen are firing.”

“On what?” the TACO said. “We’re not in range.”

“Those two disabled ships,” the sensor tech replied. “Every ship is firing that has line-of-sight. Sierras 41 and 46 are gone , sir. They’re just gas. And they’re still pumping plasma into the area.”

“Wow,” the CO said. “The Dreen have a hell of a penalty for having a bad Eng. I need to point it out to ours. How’s the modification of the missiles going?”

“Queasily, sir,” the TACO said. “But we’ll have at least one spread converted in twenty minutes or so. It was a nontrivial exercise.”

“That pretty much describes everything we do, Lieutenant.”

“So how did you get the beams to work?” Weaver asked when the linguist had finally calmed down.

“It was just a method of thought,” Miriam said, standing up and taking her place at the keyboard. She looked at it distastefully but powered it on. “I’ve had so much poking around my brain, I’ve sort of learned to poke in odd spots myself. I’ll see if I can do it again.”

“Okay,” Weaver said. “What do you want to play?”

“Anything but J-pop…”

“Colonel, are your dragonflies prepared?”

“Now that they’ve been resupplied, Captain Prael,” Colonel Che-chee replied. “I even have calmed my males. They very much did not care for waiting in space with no way home.”

“Glad to hear they’re okay,” the CO said distantly. “It’s important that you stay close to the ship. Our maneuvers will be minimal on the firing end, but we will be maneuvering. Especially on the second jump.”

“Understood, Captain,” the colonel replied. “Are we going to do this or not?”

“Dreen fighters redeploying in our direction, sir,” the TACO said.

“We’ll do a multidirectional jump, then,” the CO replied. “Set it up. I want to jump into the boarding group, out to a point triangulated between them and the main fleet then into the main fleet and back out.”

“Into the main fleet, sir?” the TACO said.

“Yes,” Prael said.

The Blade exited warp at whatever velocity and vector she had had prior to entry. This meant that each time she entered a star system, she had to adjust to the local vectors. More importantly, it meant that to attack a ship, she first had to match course and speed, then flash in, drop out of warp, fire, and flash out.

Her approach was superluminal, making locking onto her nearly impossible. But for the brief seconds she was exposed at the firing end, she was vulnerable. And Dreen destroyers and cruisers had excellent targeting software.

“Sierra 31 is releasing vapor,” the TACO reported. “We got in some hits at least. No change in delta V.”

“CIC, Damage Control,” the Eng reported. “Hull breach in section forty-two. Two KIA, one WIA.”

“They got in some licks, too,” Prael said. “Colonel, lock your flies to the hull for this one. Maximum spread.”

“Acknowledged,” Colonel Che-chee said. “Must report one dragonfly and rider destroyed.”