Christopher Nuttall - Democracy's Light

“Thirdly, we will dispatch raiding units into the Cottbus Sector to enhance Admiral Garland’s efforts and force Admiral Wilhelm to divert his own units to cover his rear,” he concluded. “Time, for once, is on our side. We merely have to cover three places long enough to bring the new ships into production and then we can drive on Cottbus and bring the war to an end.”

He watched them all filing out of the room, leaving him alone. It all seemed so futile and hopeless, even though he knew that it wasn’t hopeless, not yet. The truth was simple; they could stop Admiral Wilhelm eventually, but would it be in time to save the reformed Empire? If the Admiral came directly at Earth, the cost of stopping him would be horrific, in both blood and treasure… and the Empire might come apart. The first-rank worlds would seek their independence, the second and third-rank worlds would take the remainder of the Family businesses and facilities and chaos would spread everywhere. The rule of law would be broken. The only good aspect of the entire crisis was that it might unite Parliament against Admiral Wilhelm…

The starchart glowed in front of him, almost mocking him. Defeat was unthinkable… and yet, the Empire had thought the same. They hadn’t believed that they could be defeated, until it was too late. Was his Empire going to go the same way… and fall down straight into chaos? Was that how the story was going to end?

“Admiral, we have unidentified starships at the edge of the system.”

Admiral Katy Garland nodded from her command chair. The shortage of experienced personnel — and the casualties caused by the Battle of Cottbus — had forced her to take command directly of the Jefferson , while sending Captain Chalker to command the Franklin , which had lost its commanding officer to a lucky hit. Katy was still astonished that the superdreadnaught had been damaged at all, but according to the engineers, the shield generators hadn’t been properly calibrated for the mission. It had been the result of the fleet setting out too early, without a proper period of working up where all such flaws would have been removed, but she couldn’t help feeling that it was a bad omen. The Imperial Navy was desperately short of experienced personnel.

“I expected as much,” she said, trying to paste a confident expression on her face. The once-proud 2 ndFleet had been seriously dented, but the fortnight they’d spent in orbit around Hawthorn hadn’t been entirely wasted. The nine superdreadnaughts they’d salvaged from the battle had been worked up to the best of their ability and had been over-crewed, while the smaller ships had been carefully prepared for the coming engagement. “General signal to all ships; execute Plan Romeo.”

“Aye, Admiral,” the communications officer said. “The fleet is acknowledging. They’re standing by.”

“Good,” Katy said. She looked over towards the helmsman. “Helm, take us to Position Alpha.”

The mighty superdreadnaught thrummed into life as the main drive fields kicked in, pushing it out of orbit and up towards the edge of the gravity shadow, followed by the remainder of the fleet. Katy was mildly surprised that Admiral Wilhelm hadn’t arrived already — by her most optimistic estimate, he should have arrived at least a week ago — but perhaps they’d hurt them worse than they’d thought. Post-battle analysis had suggested that they’d handed out a beating, but hardly enough to deter him from continuing his war against the Provisional Government. He had to know that the Provisional Government wouldn’t allow him to take his winnings and leave the table, so he had little choice, but to continue on to Earth… which meant taking Hawthorn. The same iron logic that had forced Colin to engage Morrison would force Admiral Wilhelm to engage Hawthorn, or risk losing his rear to her attacks.

She tapped her console and called up the intelligence from the Freebooters. It had astonished her to discover just how far the Freebooter intelligent net actually extended, right into Cottbus itself, and she was more than a little annoyed that she hadn’t been given access at once. She wondered, in fact, if Colin himself knew just how far the network stretched, although it was hardly an Imperial Intelligence-style network. It tended to concentrate more on Imperial Navy officers who could be bribed, or who had no objections to selling Imperial Navy supplies to the Freebooters — or pirates, or even rebels — but it did include a surprising amount of political information. One piece of data, linked into clues that Imperial Intelligence had picked up, suggested the location of a supply base. She intended to deal with it as soon as she abandoned Hawthorn.

“The enemy starships appear to have flickered out,” the sensor officer said. “They could be…”

An alarm sounded. “Emergence, multiple starships,” the sensor officer said, as her display updated. “I’m reading three squadrons of superdreadnaughts, with escorts.”

“So we’re only outgunned two to one,” Katy said, wryly. In theory, her nine Independence -class superdreadnaughts should have been able to stand up to two squadrons of General- class superdreadnaughts, but no one had tried in practice. The three squadrons of superdreadnaughts that Admiral Wilhelm had deployed — she wondered, absently, if he was actually commanding the force — shouldn’t have any difficulty dealing with her ships in a straight fight. “Run a tactical analysis and put the results up on the main display.”

She smiled as the conflicting vectors appeared on the display. Admiral Wilhelm had decided to be careful, taking account of the Hawthorn System’s odd nature. His starships hadn’t emerged close enough to the planet to prevent her from making her escape — the starships flickering in at the edge of the system had been enough to give her advance warning, unless he had intended to warn her all along — and they were too close to risk flickering closer. She hoped that they would try — the odds favoured crashing right into the gravity shadow — but she doubted that they would attempt anything of the sort. They wouldn’t have to take any risks at all to take Hawthorn.

“We’re up a signal,” the communications officer said. “They’re demanding our surrender.”

“No reply,” Katy said, watching the display. The enemy fleet was sorting out its vectors now, angling in to engage them as they departed the gravity shadow, but it was too late to trap them. A few thousand kilometres closer to the planet and they could have smashed her entire fleet without risking serious losses themselves. “They already know what we would want to say to them.”

She watched as the squadron came alive around the Jefferson , escorts falling into their positions, ready to intercept missiles when the Cottbus Fleet opened fire, bringing up the data network to coordinate their fire. She’d studied the records carefully from Cottbus and point defence was, it seemed, one of their few advantages. They might be able to hold their own in a long-range missile duel… and even if they couldn’t defeat the enemy fleet, they could hit it hard enough to force them to be careful. She’d already pre-placed several dozen freighters in interstellar space, ready to reload her ships with missiles and other weapons, and she didn’t have to worry about expenditure. The enemy wouldn’t have the same concerns. She’d taken the precaution of rigging Hawthorn’s industrial nodes to self-destruct once her fleet left the system.

And I could flee the system, she thought, before shaking her head. Her crew needed a victory and even if that meant taking some risks, there was no choice. We have to force an engagement on our terms, just to convince my people that we can take them down.