Jack Campbell: Dauntless

Captain Desjani nodded, her frustration clear. “I can’t beat them to it without accelerating to the point that my aim will be lousy. I’d rather get in the third blow than risk missing the bastard completely.”

Geary looked back as his display, where the curving lines through space that marked the projected paths of both Alliance and Syndic warships formed an oddly beautiful pattern against the backdrop of the stars. At this scale, he could easily see how the paths of multiple Alliance ships were converging on the courses of every individual Syndic ship. This isn’t a battle any more. The surviving Syndics are so badly outnumbered and already so damaged that this is just a massacre.

I know we have to destroy the Syndic fighting forces to survive, but why can’t the Syndics have the brains to surrender when the situation is obviously hopeless?

On the other hand, the Alliance fleet’s situation seemed hopeless back in the Syndic home system and surrender was a lousy option then.

The irony finally hit him that this one-sided slaughter was what would’ve happened to the Alliance fleet in the Syndic home system if it had fallen apart and tried to run as individual ships.

Vanguard reached the D-Class battle cruiser first, pounding it with a barrage of hell-lances and then sweeping onward with its sights set on another target. Fearless came in next, from a different angle, its shots hitting the Syndic battle cruiser in the stern. Secondary explosions ripped pieces off of the Syndic warship’s stern as it began rolling erratically through space, apparently no longer under control.

“Our turn,” Desjani breathed. “Combat systems watch, is there anything left on that hulk that still needs killing?”

Dauntless swept down on the crippled Syndic battle cruiser, which was tumbling through space while escape pods burst from it in irregular volleys. “Captain,” the combat systems watch reported, “we’re picking up powered systems still active amidships.”

“He’s not dead yet, then,” Desjani observed with a grim smile. “Hell-lances target midships section of the battle cruiser. Fire when the target enters range.”

The great tumbling shape of the battle cruiser made for a difficult target, but Dauntless ’s hell-lances flashed out and punched into the Syndic ship’s hull as Dauntless rocketed past, nearly every shot slamming into the midships area of the battle cruiser.

“No systems activity registering now,” the watch reported as the wreck of the battle cruiser receded behind them, still fitfully spitting out occasional escape pods.

“He’s not worth another pass,” Desjani decided. “Shifting target to heavy cruiser bearing zero two zero degrees relative, three one degrees up, range point three light-seconds.” Dauntless swung in response to her maneuvering systems, arcing up and slightly to the side in a smooth curve. The Syndic cruiser, which also displayed the marks of damage already inflicted earlier in the battle, tried rolling and diving away, but was too close and didn’t have enough of a relative speed advantage. Desjani adjusted Dauntless ’s course and slashed over the fleeing heavy cruiser at close range. Dauntless ’s shields easily absorbed the ragged series of shots fired by the damaged cruiser, while the Alliance ship sent a heavy series of barrages at the Syndic ship that first collapsed the cruiser’s remaining shields, then ripped into the ship.

“Damage assessment,” Desjani rapped out as Dauntless and the cruiser rushed away from each other on diverging courses.

“Heavy damage to Syndic cruiser,” the watch hastily reported. “Confirmed hits on all areas of the hull. Ma’am, we just spotted escape pods leaving the cruiser.”

“Do we have a confirmed kill on that cruiser?” Desjani demanded.

The watch hesitated, pouring over the information being collected by Dauntless ’s sensors. “Heavy damage, and the cruiser no longer appears to be under control, but I cannot confirm a kill.”

Desjani frowned in thought. “It could be a ruse.” She scanned the area. “And there’re no other Syndic ships nearby that aren’t being brought to battle or haven’t been taken out already. Let’s bring Dauntless back around for another pass at the cruiser.”

Dauntless began laboriously curving around for another run on the Syndic ship, using her propulsion systems to brake and allow for a tighter, though still gigantic, turn. The turn had barely begun, when an Alliance destroyer flashed past the Syndic cruiser and slapped it with several more hits. Then, two-thirds of the way through Dauntless ’s turn, the watch called out again. “More escape pods leaving that cruiser. Lots of them.”

Geary gave a lopsided smile to Desjani. “I guess they figured out you were coming back.”

“As if we’d let them get away in any case,” Desjani replied before issuing another order to her crew. “Continue firing-run maneuver but hold further fire until I give orders to shoot.” Geary and Desjani watched the target intently as Dauntless swung farther back, now closing on the battered heavy cruiser again, but almost .2 light-seconds away after the wide turn her velocity had required. “Two more escape pods, I see,” Desjani commented. Moments later, light flared as the cruiser’s power core overloaded. “That might’ve been an accident, but if they’d intended on hurting us with that, they did it way too soon.”

“Hard to tell,” Geary replied. “Maybe they were just scuttling the ship to keep it out of our hands.”

Desjani snorted. “An abandoned heavy cruiser isn’t going to have anything on it that we’re interested in. They’d have destroyed anything of intelligence value. All we’d do with it is set the power core to overload so the Syndics couldn’t use it again. They just saved us the trouble.” She glared at her display in frustration. “There’re no more targets near us.”

Geary checked his own display again. The number of Syndic ships still active had dwindled rapidly, with the destruction of more being registered by Dauntless ’s sensors even as Geary watched. A few Syndics were still trying to flee, but Alliance pursuers were closing in on them from multiple angles. The remaining Syndic ships would be wiped out in short order.

It’s over. He stared at the cloud of debris that was all that remained of the heavy cruiser that Dauntless had last targeted. I don’t want to know how many human beings died over the course of the last few hours. The great majority who died were our enemies who were trying to kill us, and the ugly truth is that’s all that matters right now.

The star that humans had named Kaliban had acquired a great many more objects in orbit. Most of those objects were small, the shattered debris that was all that was left after Syndic warships had either blown themselves apart or Alliance boarding parties had done the same thing to prevent the ships from being salvaged and reused by the enemy. Also among the remnants of battle were a swarm of Syndic escape pods scattered through a wide area of space, carrying the survivors who’d managed to leave their ships before the end. Small, unarmed, and with just enough range to reach safety within the Kaliban System, the pods were no threat to the victorious Alliance fleet.

“Those crews could fight again. They will fight again,” Desjani argued. “I’m not saying we should have target practice on the escape pods, but rounding them up and taking the crews prisoner would be a good idea.”

Geary let her see he was considering the idea before he shook his head. “Where would we put them? They’d fill every brig on every ship and have large numbers left over. And we’d have to feed them.”