Christopher Nuttall - Democracy's Light

“Admiral, the freighter has just returned from Ysalt.”

Admiral Katy Garland nodded once as the green icon popped into existence on the display. She’d sent the Freebooter ship into the system ahead of her fleet, just to provide an up-to-date reconnaissance report, and it seemed that her gamble had paid off. Admiral Wilhelm’s forces might have been using Ysalt as a supply base, but they’d clearly decided that it wasn’t worth the effort of providing it with a strong mobile component to enhance the fixed defences.

Unless they’re lurking under cloak and it’s a trap , she thought, rather sourly. She’d been caught out that way once before and this time she would be more careful, far more careful. Admiral Wilhelm had to know that she would be searching for vulnerable points in his defences, but would he know that she’d located one of his supply bases at Ysalt? How could he know, unless he knew that the freighter that had just flickered through the system — and the previous Freebooter ships that had paused in the system, hoping to sell their wares — were spying for her. If he knew that…

She shook her head and concentrated on the images flickering up in front of her. Ysalt had been heavily fortified back when the Empire had been expanding into the Cottbus Sector, but cold-blooded calculations had ‘proven’ that Ysalt was actually less useful as an fleet base than Cottbus. It actually possessed a small independent population, stubbornly refusing to commit themselves to the Empire, and forcing them to comply would have been pointless. They had had nothing that the Empire actually wanted and, as long as they stayed on the planet, they weren’t even a bad example as far as the Empire was concerned. Their only real use had been to convince the Imperial Navy that Cottbus was a much better base for future operations.

And that logic had just been turned on its head. Ysalt was the closest world in the Cottbus Sector to Earth and a logical supply base. Starships, particularly superdreadnaughts, might be able to fire and recharge their energy weapons effectively indefinitely, but missiles had to be constructed at industrial nodes, forcing the Admiral to run supply convoys through his space and into hostile space controlled by the Provisional Government. The Shadow Fleet had used covert bases and hundreds of freighters, but according to the analysts, Admiral Wilhelm shouldn’t have had enough freighters to supply his fleet. If it were to be operating in the direction of Earth, striking deep into the heart of the Empire, it would need a supply base. She doubted that Ysalt was the only one — no commander worth his salt would put all his eggs in one basket — but it made a convenient target.

“We’ll go with Plan Theta,” she decided, finally. The handful of starships in the system — the ones she could see, she reminded herself — wouldn’t be enough to deter her from launching the attack. They would probably choose to flicker out and run rather than be destroyed in a stand-up battle. “Helm, begin the countdown. We flicker out in five minutes.”

“Aye, aye, Admiral,” the helmsman said. A countdown timer appeared on the display as warnings echoed through the starship, warning the crew to brace themselves against flicker shock and nausea. No amount of bracing, in Katy’s view, would compensate for the effects of flicker shock, but the crew had to be warned. The handful of people who boasted of no ill effects after flickering through interstellar space tended to be liars, or deluded. “Flicker drive locked on coordinates and powering up.”

Katy leaned back in her chair and braced herself. The crew’s morale had skyrocketed after the brief violent encounter at Hawthorn, although she knew that they had barely dented Admiral Wilhelm’s war machine. He could suck up the loss of a handful of superdreadnaughts and keep going, although even he had his limits. The thought of just how many superdreadnaughts were going to be lost, on both sides, during the war chilled her. The Empire had never built enough, as far as the Imperial Navy was concerned, and replacements were slow in coming. The post-war Empire, whoever ended up running the government, was going to be very weak.

Perhaps that’s a good thing , she thought, as the final seconds ticked away. The Empire’s monopoly on superdreadnaughts and superdreadnaught construction had kept it firmly in power; none of the first-rank worlds could stand up to even one of the sector fleets, as Gaul had proven. If the Shadow Fleet hadn’t come to the rescue, Gaul would have been scorched… and it knew it. If the first-rank worlds started building superdreadnaughts as well, the entire basis of the Empire’s power might disintegrate. It would certainly be harder for anyone to throw their weight around.

“Flickering,” the helmsman said. The display blanked once as the starship flickered through interstellar space. At such range, barely a light year from the system, it was bare seconds before they flickered back into normal space. Katy braced herself, but the shock still stung, the cumulative effects of two shocks in close succession tearing at her. She winced, hearing the sound of someone vomiting on the deck, and pulled herself back together as the display started to fill up with new icons. “We have arrived in the system.”

“I had noticed,” Katy said, concentrating on the display. They’d drilled the battle stations drills long enough for her to be confident that the fleet would come to battle stations without her having to do more than issue basic orders. The fleet’s fire control system, years ahead of anything Admiral Wilhelm should have had, linked the fleet into a single weapon, under her command. The fleet should have been able to match two of Admiral Wilhelm’s squadrons without breaking a sweat, although without knowing just how far the new weapons had spread, Katy wasn’t inclined to run such risks. “Tactical?”

“Seventeen enemy starships detected, including four battlecruisers,” the tactical officer reported, calmly. The display continued to update as more enemy starships brought their drives online, some trying to form into a combat formation while others, probably freighters, started to run towards the edge of the gravity shadow and escape. It looked, very much, as if they had been taken by surprise. She could only hope that her first impression was correct. “Two destroyers have just flickered out; vectors suggest that they are flying to Cottbus itself and Nova Berlin.”

Admiral Wilhelm’s headquarters and one of his industrial nodes , Katy thought, as the fleet shook itself down into attack formation. She watched as probes sped away from the ships, hunting for any turbulence that might mark the presence of cloaked starships, while studying the defences of the planet below. The display kept updating as the defences, older fortresses and automated platforms that would have been a threat before the rebellion, came online, linking into the unified command network and preparing for action.

“Locate the main supply base,” she ordered, already knowing where it had to be. The tactical officer illuminated a series of old asteroids, once used as a source of metal and resources for the planet below, hanging in high orbit. They could have been spun up to generate gravity and converted into habitats, but instead they had been left drifting in space, which suggested that they were being used as supply dumps. The presence of modern missile systems defending them only convinced her that she was right. “Align our vector on them and prepare to engage.”

“Aye, aye, Admiral,” the helmsman said. The starship shivered slightly as the drive fields finally started to propel it through space. Katy watched, grimly, as the enemy fleet started to form up in front of them, knowing that a lot of good men and women were about to die for their master. They couldn’t stop the superdreadnaughts from wrecking the entire system and they had to know it.