Christopher Nuttall - Democracy's Light

“Incoming missiles,” the tactical officer said. The enemy fleet missiles might have been less numerous, but they were falling on an already damaged enemy. Arun’s point defence had been weakened badly by the previous exchange of fire. “Brace for impact…”

The swarm of missiles fell on the Shadow Fleet. Either because the enemy had identified it as the flagship, or because of the macabre working of chance, the General Grant came in for extra attention. Arun felt himself praying again as the missiles started to crash into the hull, breaking though the shields and slamming deep into his flagship. The entire starship heaved… and then he knew no more.

“Admiral, the General Grant has been destroyed.”

Colin winced. He’d wanted to be on the starship, leading the Shadow Fleet into battle, but Arun had talked him out of it. Arun hadn’t even made any mistakes, either; who would have believed that the enemy would try something as crazy as bringing arsenal ships out so close to the gravity shadow. They might have lost half their fleet, or all of them; hell, for all he knew, Admiral Wilhelm might have done just that…

But it had worked out for him. He had destroyed almost all of the Shadow Fleet that had been stationed at Earth, leaving only a handful of damaged ships to stagger back towards the orbiting fortresses, just as Colin himself had done, almost a year ago. He’d lost a vast chunk of his own fleet and would lose more when he challenged the defences in orbit around the planet, but the odds still favoured him breaking through the defences and securing control over Earth.

It might be time to start thinking about the emergency plan , Colin thought, and cursed Daria under his breath. She had known all the details of the emergency plan, to flee to the Rim and start again, if the Empire would tolerate another round of Civil War. He hadn’t realised how much he had depended on her until she had proven to be a traitor — if the past Empress could be defined as a traitor — and without her contacts, re-establishing himself along the Rim might be difficult. The Empire would get its civil war anyway… Admiral Wilhelm would not be unopposed.

“Damn you,” Colin muttered, watching as Admiral Wilhelm’s fleet collected itself and formed up again. They were taking their time. He had one last card to play, but he hadn’t wanted to use it until they were definitely back against the wall. “What have you cost the Empire, you stupid…?”

“Emergences,” the tactical office snapped. New icons appeared on the display, red and ominous. “I have multiple emergences from flicker-space!”

Colin stared.

“Contacts, right behind us,” the tactical officer shouted. “They’re coming in right behind us!” Admiral Wilhelm stared up at the display as the newcomers arrived. Had Colin pulled a final surprise out of his bag? Where had those ships been? “They’re firing!”

“Open fire.”

Penny, Joshua and Daria had had a long and barely civil argument about their tactics, but Joshua had carried the day, choosing to bring the fleet out of flicker-space just outside the gravity shadow. Admiral Wilhelm’s fleet still packed two fairly intact squadrons of superdreadnaughts, according to the cloaked destroyers that had been keeping an eye on the battle, and was still incredibly dangerous. They had to take them out before they had a chance to react, but taking a superdreadnaught out quickly was almost impossible.

Almost.

The arsenal ships fired, launching a massive spread of missiles towards the rear of Admiral Wilhelm’s fleet, followed rapidly by the superdreadnaughts as they flushed their external racks. Joshua had ordered — and it had been another point of contention between him and Daria — that the superdreadnaughts were to hold back their internal tubes for the moment, removing several thousand missiles from the wall of death that was now racing towards the completely surprised Admiral Wilhelm. Penny didn’t want to think about what was going through his mind, or the inevitable consequences when the missiles finally started to strike home and annihilate his fleet, but she knew there was little choice. Admiral Wilhelm, and the Admirals who followed him, had broken their oaths and become mad dogs that had to be put down.

And if that were the case, she wondered, what did that make her and Joshua, or Daria herself for that matter? They’d betrayed their oaths a thousand times over, first when she’d abandoned Percival just before his death — although that hadn’t entirely been her doing — and then many times since, from the betrayal of the scorching fleet to the decision to take command of the Empress’s Fleet and lead it against their former comrades and allies. They’d burned all their bridges now and all that was left was to hope that they won… and that Daria would keep her word. She doubted it, somehow; Daria would view Joshua as a threat to her position, the only other person left who could oppose her successfully. She wouldn’t allow them to live.

She looked over at Joshua, watching the missiles burning towards their targets, and shivered. Joshua looked as he had on the bridge at Morrison, when he’d unleashed the fire of the first Imperial Navy arsenal ships on the trapped rebel fleet, grim and determined to punch through all opposition to defeat the enemy. It was good to see the old Joshua back, but she had no idea how long it would last. He, too, had to know that he would be expendable as soon as the battle was lost.

“Missiles away, sir,” the tactical officer said. “Impact in seventeen seconds.”

Penny nodded curtly. Admiral Wilhelm’s forces had focused all of their point defence units and systems towards the Shadow Fleet’s remaining units, not covering their rear. They could hardly have missed the fleet as it flickered into existence, but it would take time to redeploy their units, time they didn’t possess. Their remaining point defence ships were all badly out of position to help cover the superdreadnaughts… and Joshua had fired enough missiles to smoother all of the superdreadnaughts, preventing them from even helping each other. They had to look to their own defence now.

“Good,” Joshua said, calmly. “Continue to analyse their point defence patterns.”

Penny followed his line of logic. It was possible, with the fleet in such a bad position, that the point defence gunners would act to protect the flagship, at the expense of the remaining superdreadnaughts. It would be futile — Joshua had fired enough missiles to destroy a fleet twice the size of Admiral Wilhelm’s remaining ships — but it was human nature. If they were kind enough to identify the flagship, Joshua’s follow-up salvos would target it for special attention. Assuming, of course, that it survived round one.

Her gaze fell on the long-range display. The Shadow Fleet, what was left of it, was falling back in good order and linking into the planet’s defences. She’d studied the records Daria had brought with her carefully and knew just how powerful the defences actually were. Earth wouldn’t be easy to take now that Colin and his allies had built in additional defences and surprises, most of them Geek-level. The long-range missile bombardment tactic wouldn’t work again. They would have to take the system honestly if Colin decided to make a fight of it.

“Incoming missiles,” the tactical officer added. Admiral Wilhelm had managed to get at least one spread of missiles off, but it was far too late. “Point defence systems online and awaiting the word.”

“Fire at will,” Joshua ordered.

“Incoming missiles, incoming missiles!”