Christopher Nuttall - Democracy's Light

“Interesting,” he mused, watching the readings. It was hard for even the Nerd-designed drones to pick out perfect detail from the haze of distortion caused by ECM and the detonation of so many missiles, but it looked as if the Shadow Fleet had taken a beating. Twelve ships appeared to be missing, presumed destroyed, while others were staggering away from the battlezone, leaking air and plasma into space. They were probably intending to cut across the gravity shadow and run, but he could have them intercepted, if he chose to do so. “Launch a second spread of probes and advance the point defence escorts.”

Captain Keene blinked at him. “Admiral, with all due respect, that will expose us to the fire of their arsenal ships,” he protested. “They survived the missile bombardment.”

“We have nine superdreadnaught squadrons to their seven, not counting escorts,” Admiral Wilhelm said, flatly. He waved one hand towards the display, focusing it on the orbital fortresses defending the planet, behind the Shadow Fleet. “Our opponent is trying to fall back on the defences and if they combine their firepower, they’re going to be much harder to take. We cannot afford to shoot ourselves dry, understand?”

Captain Keene nodded. They’d lost their supply dump and Wakanda, despite hopes and an incompetent government that could turn gold into dross, hadn’t been a source of any replacement missiles. A starship, even a superdreadnaught, without missiles was a sitting duck, easy prey for anyone who suspected the truth. If they shot themselves dry, the remaining rebel forces that defended AlphaCent would race to the Solar System and destroy them before they could escape. There was little point in trying to raid a rebel supply dumb either. They didn’t know where they were. The only way to resupply would be to head back to Cottbus… and by then it would be too late.

Admiral Wilhelm frowned. “Add the arsenal ships to the targeting systems as priority targets,” he added. “We can afford to spare the superdreadnaughts some of our missiles, just to try and dispose of the arsenal ships. Its worth the risk.”

“Aye, sir,” Captain Keene said.

The superdreadnaught’s drive seemed to hum louder as it slid closer to the gravity shadow and glided across it. Admiral Wilhelm tensed, even though he felt nothing, knowing that almost everyone in the fleet who knew that they were crossing the gravity shadow felt the same. Like flicker-shock, it was supposed to be psychometric, although in this case he suspected that the headshrinkers were right. There was no obvious difference in normal space between the interior and exterior of a gravity shadow, although anyone attempting to use a flicker drive inside the shadow wouldn’t have a chance to regret the mistake.

The enemy fleet was having drive problems, he realised. That shouldn’t have been surprising, although it wasn’t something that any sane officer would have counted upon. The effects of the bombardment would have destabilised a few drive fields and even though it could be countered, and probably would be countered, it would take time for the engineers to recalibrate their drives, limiting the maximum speeds of the targeted ships. His opponent had evidently decided to keep his ships together, regardless of the danger of being caught away from the orbital defences, allowing his fleet to close the range.

“Tactical, see if you can locate the enemy flagship,” he ordered, as the range continued to close. They would be in firing range in just under a minute. “If you can…”

“Negative,” the tactical officer said. “They’re using standard datanet transmission protocols. If they have a flagship surviving — and they must, because they’re still in good formation — I can’t identify it.”

“Never mind,” Admiral Wilhelm said. There were bare seconds left now. “You may fire at will.”

“Tactical, you are authorised to open fire,” Arun said, as the enemy fleet finally closed the range into firing position. He had expected Admiral Wilhelm to push it harder, but at least he had given them the time to make a start at some of the repairs and program new targeting patterns into the missile launchers. “Fire at will.”

The tactical officer pushed a single key. “Who’s Will?” He asked. “Missiles away, I repeat, missiles away.”

The superdreadnaught shuddered as it unleashed it’s first massive barrage. The damage the enemy fleet had inflicted during the first round had smashed some of the external racks, but thankfully the majority of them remained intact, allowing them to launch a far more powerful broadside than the enemy would be expecting. The remaining superdreadnaughts and the arsenal ships opened fire at the same time, launching a monstrous spread of missiles towards the enemy fleet. It might not have been quite as big as the massive salvo Admiral Wilhelm’s arsenal ships had launched, but it was almost as terrifying. He hoped Admiral Wilhelm enjoyed being on the receiving end as much as he himself had enjoyed the experience.

“The enemy are launching missiles,” the tactical officer said. The display sparkled with new and deadly icons, far more than he had expected. “They have definitely duplicated the external racks as well.”

Arun muttered a word under his breath in Hindi. “Is there anything of ours that they don’t have?” He asked, angrily. “We fight the war and Admiral Wilhelm picks up the remaining pieces of Empire?”

The display updated again as the superdreadnaughts unleashed a second volley, then a third, trying to hit the enemy as hard as they could. Sophisticated targeting programs isolated the real enemy superdreadnaughts from the hundreds of decoys, retargeting the missiles to ensure that not a one would be wasted. Geek-issue ECM and ECCM was still more advanced, he saw with considerable relief, but Admiral Wilhelm’s inventors were catching up quickly. If they had held off for another two months, if that had been possible, they would have been a far more formidable threat…

But by then, the Provisional Government would have been firmly entrenched , he realised, grimly. Admiral Wilhelm had timed his offensive perfectly, although he couldn’t have known — or had he known — about Daria. If Daria had been working with him, she would have been easily able to ensure that he had direct access to the latest Geek developments, regardless of their security. She had been trusted by almost everyone, including Colin himself. She had had clearance to go everywhere, a snake in the grass, watching and waiting for the moment to strike. He couldn’t understand how she had coordinated so many different parts of her plan, or had she? Had she merely taken advantage of events?

He ground his teeth together and watched, grimly, as the first wave of missiles challenged Admiral Wilhelm’s defences. The Cottbus Sector Fleet had added quite a few improvements to their software, he saw, but fortunately their hardware wasn’t quite as advanced as the Shadow Fleet’s systems. The missiles were targeted, but their weapons couldn’t move quite fast enough, even though they had used a brute-force approach to building heavy point defence escorts. They carried more weapons than Shadow Fleet ships, but they didn’t have the targeting systems… and hundreds of missiles slipped through the gap. As he watched, vengefully, Admiral Wilhelm’s starships started to die.

The main body of the missiles had been targeted on the superdreadnaughts, but several hundred had been steered towards the point defence escorts and the battlecruisers. He couldn’t understand why Admiral Wilhelm had included them in his wall of battle, unless they were intended for something unexpected, and so he’d added them to the target list. Smaller and weaker than the superdreadnaughts, their speed useless when tied to the wall of battle, they died in their hundreds as the missiles roared down on them. The superdreadnaughts took mounting damage as well, their point defence struggling to the end to protect their command ships, but only marking them out for later attention. The second and third salvos arrived, targeting already damaged ships, punching through weakened armour and cracked hulls, shattering and destroying thousands of lives in split seconds.