Jack Campbell: Imperfect Sword

Marphissa knew that she had to sound confident even though she still had no specific idea how to stop that Syndicate battleship. Any hint of uncertainty, of fear, in her voice and attitude would be scented by the specialists on the bridge and race through this ship and the rest of flotilla like a plague moving at the speed of light. She could lose this battle before a single shot was fired if her crews lost confidence in her.

At least her next move was fairly simple. Both her formation and the Syndicate formation were now racing through space along almost the same path at point two light speed, which meant their relative velocity was zero, the two groups of ships staying the exact same distance apart even though both were moving very quickly. It reminded Marphissa of two ground vehicles on a highway, both moving fast in the same direction at the same speed.

Her formation, in front, would need to slow down to get within weapons range of the Syndicate formation. “We’ll need to brake down to point one light,” she told Diaz as she set up the maneuver. “The timing is right for us to hit the Syndicate flotilla just as Pele is about to get there. Hua is going to have to watch both of our formations and decide what to do.”

Marphissa considered options, then decided to stick with automated control of the maneuver one more time. “All units in Midway flotilla primary formation, I have sent the command for our ships to pivot one hundred eighty degrees and begin braking.”

Thrusters on Manticore and the other ships pushed their bows up and over, so that the ships were now moving stern first through space, their bows facing the oncoming Syndicate flotilla. To an observer on a planet, their feet firmly planted in a place with an up and down, Marphissa’s ships would have appeared to have looped onto their backs, the crews now upside down compared to their previous alignment. But to the crews, nothing felt different or looked different except that they were now facing the opposite direction. As the pivots ended, main propulsion lit off on all the ships, braking their velocity so that the pursuing Syndicate warships could finally begin to catch up.

“This is pretty simple,” Diaz commented. “We’ve already got our bows with our strongest shields and armaments pointed at the enemy. All we have to do is slide over a little at the last minute to avoid going head-to-head with that battleship.”

Marphissa nodded, then noticed the frown on Bradamont. “What’s wrong?”

“I don’t know,” Bradamont said. “I just don’t trust situations that seem too simple and too easy.”

“We’ve got over an hour before we get within range of them,” Marphissa said. “I expect they’ll start braking soon, too, now that they see we’re ready to fight.”

But as the minutes crawled by, the Syndicate flotilla kept charging onward at point two light speed. “We’re getting down toward point one light,” Diaz reported, “but the Syndicate is still moving at point two light speed along the same vector as us. If they don’t brake, we’ll meet them at a relative velocity of point one light.”

“That’s not good,” Marphissa said. Human fire control systems could do a decent job of scoring hits at velocities of up to point two light speed. Higher speeds than that caused accuracy to fall off fast. But slower speeds caused accuracy to increase just as rapidly. “They’ve got too much of a firepower advantage for us to meet them at point one light. We could get badly chewed up passing through them. Why aren’t they braking? Is CEO Boucher smart enough to realize how that complicates our attack?”

“How could she be?” Diaz protested. “Happy Hua doesn’t know enough— Oh, hell. That’s why.”

“What?”

Diaz waved an angry hand at his display. “You and I look at the situation and say, all right, we’re still forty minutes from contact. Plenty of time to pivot the ships and prepare for the engagement. But Hua Boucher is looking at it and sees us getting closer to her. She is told that to brake she must turn her ships so that their sterns face us, the most vulnerable parts of the ships where the least firepower can be brought to bear. And because she can see us coming and doesn’t really understand how great the distance is between us, she won’t do that. To her, it’s too close to a fight for her to allow her ships to present their sterns to us.”

Bradamont slapped her forehead. “Damn. Kapitan Diaz is right. Boucher is making this a lot harder for us because she doesn’t know what she’s doing.”

“Great,” Marphissa said. “That’s great.” She ran both hands through her hair, thinking. “We have to brake our own velocity down more.”

“How much more?” Diaz asked.

“They’re coming at us at point two light and not slowing down, and we want to engage them at a relative velocity of point two light! We have to get as close to zero absolute velocity as we can, maybe point zero one or point zero two light.”

“That’s very slow for a battle situation,” Bradamont cautioned.

“I know! But what happens if they can target us too well when we get near that battleship? The slower we’re going, the harder it will be for them to hit us, right?”

“Right,” Bradamont agreed. “And Boucher is certain not to understand that, since it’s so counterintuitive for someone thinking in planetary terms. For what it is worth, Kommodor, I concur in your assessment of the necessary tactics here.”

Marphissa’s hands moved rapidly as she set up the next maneuver. “We keep braking at a rate that will bring us down to point zero one light when we meet the Syndicate flotilla. I’ll let all of my ships maneuver on their own during the attack run because that will mess up enemy firing solutions assuming our movements will be perfectly coordinated by the automated systems, but I’ll also have an order already in the ships’ systems to begin accelerating again the moment after we pass through the Syndicate formation. The Syndicate ships will be moving so fast they won’t be able to turn back and hit us before we get our velocity up again.”

“Looks good,” Bradamont said, then shook her head. “Warn Kontos on Pele .”

“Warn him?”

“He’s also assuming that the Syndicate flotilla will brake before the encounter. That will throw off his own approach. I’ve noticed that you young officers tend to push your ships to the limits of their capabilities on your maneuvers, so if Kontos misjudges what the enemy is doing here, Pele won’t physically be able to compensate. Kontos will overshoot the encounter and miss his firing run.”

“Ah! Thank you for that warning!” Marphissa called Kontos, explaining what she thought CEO Boucher was thinking and planning, then sat back, rubbing her forehead. “I have so much left to learn.”

Marphissa’s formation continued braking, going slower and slower, though only their instruments told them that. Just as it was hard in the immensity of space, without nearby references, to tell when you were going very fast, it was equally difficult to know when you were dropping your speed to what amounted to a crawl for warships. It all felt the same.

“Ten minutes to engagement range,” the senior watch specialist announced.

“All units,” Marphissa ordered, “we will hit the upper, port edge of the Syndicate formation. I want fire concentrated on the two light cruisers holding the corners of that edge. Enemy Hunter-Killers are secondary targets if you can’t get a good shot at one of the light cruisers. Don’t waste any fire on the battleship even if it looks like a hit is possible. It’ll just bounce off his shields. For the people, Marphissa, out.”

At the velocities of space combat, enemy ships went from being way out there to there in what seemed the blink of an eye. If you were following standard Syndicate tactics, that wasn’t much of a problem because you were headed straight for the enemy and hopefully your automated maneuvering systems, operating far faster than a human could react, would avoid collisions as the two forces went directly head-to-head. But standard tactics led to bloody encounters as the two sides slugged away at each other.