Jack Campbell: Dreadnaught

“I don’t have any alternative, do I?”

“Nope. But you already knew that, didn’t you?” she added.

Even with nine hundred alien attackers closing on the fleet, Geary couldn’t help wincing at Desjani’s jab. “Yes. But please keep telling me things I already know.”

“I’ll consider it. This plan looks as good as we can possibly manage in the time available.”

He nonetheless paused to look over it, dismayed by the hundreds of separate projected tracks for individual ships weaving in and out of each other in a pattern so dense it almost resembled an impossibly huge tangle of string. The time counter in one corner was scrolling down, indicating that he had only two minutes left to order these maneuvers, or else there would be too little time for the individual ships to execute them, and a whole new plan would have to be crafted. Murmuring a prayer to his ancestors to ask the living stars to keep his ships safe, Geary hit the approve command, and the plan flashed out to every warship, transport, and auxiliary in the fleet.

“This is Admiral Geary to all units. Individual ship movement orders are en route to you. Our attempts to communicate with the inhabitants of this star system have yielded no results, and the force closing on us appears intent on a fight. We will engage these alien craft and destroy every one that threatens our ships. After doing as much damage to the attackers as we can using the orders being transmitted, be prepared for follow-on orders for every warship to maneuver independently as required by the actions of the enemy.” He had a momentary impulse to add something stupid like try not to collide with other ships , but managed to block the words before actually saying them. “We will re-form following the engagement.” Assuming there are enough of us left to re-form. But I do need to say something else. We’re going into a tough fight. I have to tell everyone that I expect victory despite how bad things look. “Let’s show whoever lives in this star system that they made a serious mistake when they chose to attack the Alliance fleet. To the honor of our ancestors, Geary, out.”

Desjani glanced at him. “You didn’t tell them not to hit each other—”

“I managed to stop myself.”

“—but they already know that, don’t they?”

Geary paused before saying anything else, facing the reality that after very tense minutes of working and thinking as fast as possible, he would now be forced to watch events unfold, unable to intervene for a while without throwing the plan into confusion and ruining what seemed to be the fleet’s best chance to defeat this threat. “How long am I going to have to pay for that remark?” he finally asked.

“I haven’t decided yet,” Desjani replied. “It’s a good plan, Admiral, better than anything I could have come up with in the time we had. Let it run and watch the big picture so you know when to call out orders again.” She raised her voice to speak to everyone on the bridge, keying a command that also broadcast her words through the entire ship. “We are heading into battle now , and Dauntless will be leading the way. I want maximum combat readiness for all crew members and systems. Let’s show the rest of the fleet how it’s done.”

Dauntless began pivoting in response to her maneuvering orders, her bow where armament and shields were clustered most heavily coming up and around to face the oncoming horde of alien small craft. Geary sat back, watching silently as the other battle cruisers did the same.

Viewed rationally, none of it made sense. The battle cruisers were going to charge the enemy, despite the overwhelming numbers of attackers, and even though the charge was just a matter of the battle cruisers ceasing their own acceleration so that they continued moving rapidly stern first in the same direction as the fleet but also slid toward the rear of the fleet as the battleships, cruisers, destroyers, transports, and auxiliaries continued to accelerate past them as quickly as possible. Moreover, the atmosphere on Dauntless ’s bridge could only be described as jubilant even though slightly more than nine hundred alien ships were closing rapidly and would soon enter hell-lance range. This was what the crew believed that battle cruisers were supposed to do, leading the fleet against the enemy, and between the upbeat attitude of their commanding officer and their own confidence in Geary to get them out of any mess, they were ready to fight even the odds they now faced. “All units, engage targets as they enter weapons envelopes,” Geary ordered. Mines might not be of much use in these circumstances, but this was no time to try conserving missiles.

Dauntless trembled slightly as specter missiles leaped out, racing toward their targets. The other battle cruisers fired missiles as well in a staggered barrage caused by their differing distances to the enemy. “Here’s where we see what kind of point defenses they have,” Desjani commented.

Whatever those defenses were, they couldn’t stop specters. Many of the alien small craft managed slight last-instant jogs in their vectors that caused the specters to detonate too far from their targets, but other alien vessels vanished under the blows of the Alliance missiles, blown into tiny pieces by the warheads, the force of the collisions as the missiles hit home, and the explosion of their own payloads. “Look at the size of those detonations,” Desjani marveled. “Those things have some humongous warheads on them.”

“Combat systems estimate from the destruction patterns that the alien craft have substantial armor of some kind in their bows,” the combat systems watch reported.

“That’s going to make it harder for the hell lances to achieve kills,” Desjani complained. “They’re not making this easy at all.”

Geary, inwardly marveling at Tanya’s ability to find humor at times like this, just nodded in reply and waited, wondering what hidden weapons the alien ships might be armed with. But no weapons fire stabbed out from the aliens as they got closer to the Alliance battle cruisers, which now formed a rough barrier between the aliens and the rest of the fleet. “Entering hell-lance range in five seconds,” the combat systems watch reported.

One by one, the battle cruisers opened fire again, their hell lances hurling out spears of high-energy particles, the shots invisible to human eyes. The leading alien craft trembled as hits went home, knocking down shields and tearing holes in their bows, but they kept coming.

“Tough bastards,” Desjani said.

“Yeah.” He had one eye on the advancing aliens and another on status reports from the battle cruisers. As Desjani had noted earlier, combat systems were designed for very quick engagements, slashing firing runs in which a single volley or at most two could be unleashed. Hell lances could be fired repeatedly for only so long before they began overheating, and now he watched the warning signs begin popping up on battle cruiser after battle cruiser.

“Hell-lance batteries 1A and 2B are experiencing serious overheating,” Dauntless ’s own combat systems watch-stander reported. “Estimated time to temporary shutdown ten seconds maximum.”

“Very well,” Desjani replied. “How long will the others keep firing?”

“One minute maximum estimated, Captain, but combat systems predict in thirty seconds we’ll be down to only twenty percent of hell lances still firing. Five seconds to specter reload completion.”

“Fire specters as soon as they’re ready.”

The missiles tore away from Dauntless again as the fire of the hell lances faltered. Geary studied the readouts for the other battle cruisers. Leviathan and Dragon had already temporarily lost several batteries to overheating, and the fire from the other battle cruisers was weakening fast. Increasing numbers of alien ships were coming apart under the battle cruisers’ barrage, but so far the losses had barely dented their numbers, and the aliens were closing quickly.