Jack Campbell - Guardian

“They fired first,” Desjani said. “Request permission to return fire.”

Not only had the Covenant ships fired first, but they had unleashed a volley of missiles instead of a single warning shot. Any question about whether they sought Dauntless ’s destruction had now been answered. “Permission granted. Take all necessary actions to defend Dauntless and the Dancer ships.”

Geary’s comm alert pulsed urgently. The senators had noticed the last maneuver, probably when it pitched them from their seats. “Yes?”

Senator Costa glared at him from a virtual window. “What is happening?”

“We have been fired upon by the warships of the Covenant flotilla, Senator. They opened fire without provocation, using sufficient force to have destroyed Dauntless if we had not maneuvered to evade their attack.” Don’t ask. Don’t ask. Don’t ask.

Geary’s silent plea was answered. Costa didn’t ask what Dauntless was doing now, her image vanishing without another word. She doubtless assumed that the battle cruiser was simply avoiding the attack and getting clear of danger.

On Geary’s display, the Covenant missiles were still closing on Dauntless , whipping through tighter turns than the battle cruiser could manage, the long arcs of their intercept vectors curving toward the place where Dauntless would be if she maintained her current course and speed.

But under Desjani’s command Dauntless bent her path upward and to starboard. The missiles had to react, swinging through wider arcs, burning their propulsion furiously as they sought to compensate for the battle cruiser’s latest maneuver.

“Admiral?” Lieutenant Iger’s image had appeared beside Geary. “Sir, the numbers of missiles in that volley match the number of missile launch points we had previously identified on the Covenant ships.”

“Good, that’s— What?” Geary moved his hand against the strain of Desjani’s latest maneuver, calling up data. “That’s all? On that many ships? That means the big ones only have two launchers apiece?”

“And the small ones have none,” Iger confirmed.

Geary stared at the statistics. “These ships have armament roughly comparable to our own auxiliaries. They’re a little better armed, but not much. Why the hell would anyone build a warship that big, that expensive, and that elaborate and put so few weapons on it?”

“I… don’t know, sir.”

Tanya was right. These people forgot about war-fighting when designing their ships. “Captain Desjani, your estimate about the firepower on these warships was correct.”

“Thank you, Admiral. That’s all I need to know.”

The threat symbols on Geary’s display were winking out as Covenant missiles ran out of power and went zooming off on their last vector, unable to maneuver and heading into endless, empty space. Desjani had brought Dauntless up and over and was now arcing back downward and to port as the Covenant formation raced to pass beneath her, making final adjustments in her track as the other warships stuck stubbornly to their own vectors.

“Targets designated,” Desjani said, her voice loud and almost unnaturally clear. “I want these, ladies and gentlemen. Make your shots count.”

Dauntless whipped through the outer edge of one wing of the Covenant formation, the other warships there and gone too fast for human senses to register, the battle cruiser still shuddering slightly from having unleashed every weapon that would bear.

Encounters in space often happened far too quickly for humans to react, but automated systems could track and fire at the proper instants, choosing just the right millisecond to unleash weapons at where another ship would be when the weapon passed through that same spot. Now Dauntless ’s sensors were evaluating the result of that firing pass while Desjani brought her battle cruiser sweeping back to starboard to come up behind the Covenant warships.

One wing of the Covenant formation had disappeared. Three of the little corvettes were simply gone, their power cores overloaded by Dauntless ’s barrage of hell lances and grapeshot, and the megacruiser on that wing had been broken into several large pieces, which were tumbling in the wake of the Covenant formation.

The Covies had fired back, but Dauntless had taken most of the hits on her shields, only one penetrating to damage the hull. “Get that grapeshot launcher back online,” Desjani ordered. She sounded frustrated, not triumphant. “We didn’t get enough of them, and now we’re the ones in a stern chase,” she grumbled to Geary as Dauntless ’s main propulsion units pushed the battle cruiser to ever-higher velocity.

“We’ll get them,” he said with more confidence than he felt, one eye on the hull-stress meters, which were edging into red danger zones as Desjani’s maneuvers pushed the battle cruiser to the limits of what her hull could withstand even with the help of the inertial dampers.

A sudden commotion behind him marked the return of the senators to the bridge. “What is going on?” Senator Suva demanded.

“We’re defending ourselves and the Dancers in accordance with the orders given to me by the government,” Geary replied, while Desjani studiously ignored the presence of the politicians.

“Then the weapons which this ship fired were defensive?” Senator Sakai asked, his tone as mild as usual.

“Absolutely.”

“We are in a combat situation,” Rione said. “Our presence on the bridge is disruptive.”

Costa and Suva rounded on her, but before they could speak, Sakai did. “Envoy Rione is correct.”

“She is not,” Suva insisted. “This hero has started another war while she kept us tied down with debates!”

Rione met Suva’s eyes with cool resolve. “Who fired the first shot, Admiral?”

“They did,” Geary said. “A volley of missiles as soon as we were within range. We had no alternative but to defend ourselves against a force that the authorities in Sol Star System have told us is unwelcome and uninvited.”

Lieutenant Yuon cleared his throat apologetically as he interrupted the debate. “At our current closing rate, we’ll be within range of the rear of the Covenant formation in forty-two minutes, Captain.”

“We’re chasing them?” Suva asked, disbelieving. “If they want to kill us, why aren’t we just avoiding them?”

Geary called up the display at the observer’s seat. The Covenant formation, one wing gone, had continued on a long, shallow trajectory that crossed the path of the Dancers much farther inside the star system. “They are still pursuing the Dancers. They’re on an intercept course with them. They have indicated an intent to attack the Dancers, too. What would you have us do, Senator?”

Suva covered her eyes, then nodded. “I am not a fool, Admiral. Our discussions with the Covenant commander have been even less fruitful than those with my companions on the grand council. Too many minds are set too firmly in opposition, and some of those minds will not stop at debate. Do what you must to save all of us. We’ll try to sweep up the mess afterwards.” She sounded defeated and worn-out.

Costa glared at her. “Now you see why our earlier decisions were necessary to ensure the safety of the Alliance—”

“You would talk of those decisions here?” Sakai asked, his voice still calm but somehow easily cutting across Costa’s.

Senator Costa jerked, looking around as if she had indeed again forgotten where she was. “I… no.” Her gaze fastened on Rione. “Some individuals may have a voting proxy, but they do not have authorization to know everything that the grand council has done for the Alliance.”