Jack Campbell - Guardian

“It looks like you were right, Tanya.” Changing tactics aimed at slowly wearing down this fleet, taking it down piece by piece and ship by ship, until it was weak enough for the Syndics to try a conventional attack to finish off the remnants. “The Syndics can’t hide in space the way ground forces can on a planet, but they’re still trying to keep us off-balance with constantly shifting threats and tactics.”

There was no time to call out individual ships or plan maneuvers on the display. “Fourth Destroyer Squadron, Seventeenth Destroyer Squadron, Tenth Light Cruiser Squadron, immediate execute turn port zero… three zero degrees. Eighth Heavy Cruiser Division, immediate execute turn starboard zero one zero degrees.”

It would take precious seconds for the command to reach the ships, then more seconds for the orders to be understood and carried out. He could only hope that there would be enough seconds left to make a difference, and that these sudden alterations of position among those ships would not expose the formation as a whole to greater damage if the Syndics really did try suicide runs again.

“She really is a Geary,” Desjani murmured in admiring tones as she watched her own display. “The rest of us were thinking about what had happened last time, but she thought about what could happen this time.”

“What does that make me?” Geary asked, mentally lashing himself for not seeing what Jane had, for making assumptions about what the enemy would do, for being—

“Not perfect,” Desjani replied. “And smart enough to listen when someone reminds you that you might have missed something.”

Watching the two groups of new warships racing to meet his formation as it climbed above the plane of the star system, Geary could not find much comfort in her words. The exposed destroyers and light cruisers were moving, their vectors curving in toward the mass of the formation, while the warships of the heavy cruiser division nearest those destroyers and light cruisers were curving out slightly to help cover them. Had he acted in time, had Jane Geary’s suggestion been right, what would the Syndics actually do…

Groups Alpha and Bravo shot past the Alliance formation, their tracks changing at the last moment to curve outward, weapons slamming shots toward the Alliance light cruiser that was still most exposed.

“ Pectoral took a hit through her shields,” Lieutenant Yuon announced. “Minor damage. One hell lance off-line.”

Groups Alpha and Bravo were still turning, arcing up and over in a maneuver Geary knew very well. “They’re going to make another run.”

Another alert pulsed on his display.

“Groups Cable and Delta are accelerating onto intercept courses,” Lieutenant Castries said.

Geary glowered at his display, knowing his options were limited. If I send a pursuit force after any of those groups, I expose that pursuit force to attack by the other three groups while the group it targets avoids contact. If my pursuit force is strong enough to handle that threat, it will be too slow to catch the highly maneuverable groups of Syndic warships, and it will weaken my main formation.

Tanya was watching him, confident he would order some sort of pursuit, but Geary shook his head. “They’ve got us reacting to them. They want me to send ships out of the formation to chase them. I’m going to do the opposite, to give us time to think.”

The necessary formation was the oldest in the book, a sphere. But he needed to designate where his units would go on the surface of that sphere, and how large it would be. “Armadillo,” he told Desjani.

“What?”

“Formation Armadillo.”

“Is that real?” She entered the request, then started in surprise. “Are you serious? A perfect sphere? That formation is—”

“Lousy. It disperses firepower. Against a strong opponent, it’s a disaster because the opponent can concentrate against any point on the sphere. But if your opponent is a lot weaker than you, it offers no vulnerable points to attack. Everything is equally well defended.”

“We’re going on the defensive?” she asked, her voice growing sharp. “They’ll see this and think we’re afraid. They’ll think we’re curling up in a fright ball and too scared to fight them. The fleet won’t understand that kind of behavior before the enemy.”

He felt a stab of anger at her tone of voice and the pointed questions she was asking. “Yes, Captain Desjani, we are going on the defensive until I have time to think and evaluate what’s going on in this star system. We are going to frustrate the Syndic tactics aimed at destroying our escorts, and we’re going to frustrate whatever plans the Syndics have to stampede me into making decisions.”

She subsided, flushing slightly. He thought Desjani might be angry, but from the way she avoided his eyes, it was more likely embarrassment. “My apologies, Admiral.”

“That’s all right. If I wasn’t having to react to your anger, I’d probably be mad as hell myself. Help me set this up. But I’m going to make our attackers’ job a little more difficult while we’re doing that.” Geary tapped his comm controls. “All units in First Fleet, immediate execute down one eight zero degrees.”

That would bring them back toward the threatening derelicts right at the jump exit, but on the other side of them since the fleet had curved upward and now would bend downward, looping high over the old ships. He would still have to watch for any unit getting too close to those old ships, though.

Unless…

“I’m seeing that the old ships near the jump exit are not broadcasting any identification. Is that correct?”

“Yes, sir,” Lieutenants Castries and Yuon replied in unison.

“Emissary Rione, does anything in the peace agreement with the Syndics restrict any action by me against hazards to navigation?”

She looked puzzled. “I will have to check, Admiral.” Rione began entering queries, studying her display intently.

Desjani paused in her work arranging ships around the sphere of the Armadillo formation. “Hazards to navigation? Does that mean what I think it does?”

“I hope so,” Geary said, drawing a slight smile from her. Maybe this particular Tanya storm would pass quickly.

Rione blinked as she refocused on Geary. “Admiral, all the peace agreement says is that standard navigational practices are to be respected. I believe that is only in the agreement because it’s part of the boilerplate for treaties.”

“Thank you, Madam Emissary. Captain Desjani, have the rules for dealing with navigational hazards changed in the last century?”

She shook her head, smiling wider. “No, sir. Any ship encountering a navigational hazard to the movement of other ships is to either post warn-off beacons or take necessary steps to eliminate the hazard.”

“I don’t think we need to expend any warn-off beacons,” Geary said. “Especially since those derelicts are so close to the jump exit. An arriving ship might not have time to avoid them in response to a warn-off.” He studied his display briefly, watching the increasingly shabby formation of the First Fleet as it came over and headed straight down relative to the plane of the star system.

The way the fleet’s formation was now arranged, one of the battle cruiser divisions would be on the side closest to the old ships as they went down past the jump exit.

“Captain Tulev, this is Admiral Geary. The ships I have just designated as derelicts pose a hazard to navigation. You are to alter the course of the Second Battle Cruiser Division sufficiently to target and destroy the derelicts using specter missiles. Do not close within hell-lance range. Return to the formation after firing missiles. Geary, out.”