Jack Campbell - Invincible

Geary checked everything else on his display, wanting to make sure he didn’t focus solely on the enigmas and miss important developments elsewhere in the star system. The spider-wolves had accelerated upward, apparently seeking an orbit out of the direct path of the combatants. The main body of Geary’s fleet should have arrived at the jump point a few minutes ago, but the light from that event had not reached them yet. The Syndics here, as well as the rebels who used to be Syndics, would within the next hour begin seeing Geary’s pursuit force, but so far none of those three flotillas had spotted the arrival of the Alliance warships or altered their previous vectors.

“The enigmas haven’t reduced their velocity,” Desjani said.

“Captain?” Lieutenant Yuon reported. “Our combined engagement speed with the enigmas will be point two six light speed. Combat systems accuracy will be significantly impacted. Recommend reducing speed.”

“Thank you, Lieutenant. Not this time.”

Geary nodded and then, confident of what to do and when to do it, activated his comms. “All units, at time four four come starboard seven degrees, up six degrees. Engage any enigma units that come within your weapons envelopes.” He had already called up the battle cruiser captains, telling them to beware of ramming tactics, so now it was just a matter of letting physics call the shots.

At forty-four minutes past the hour, the pursuit-force formation rolled up and toward the star, drastically increasing the distance at which it would pass the enigma force if that did not also change course. Geary watched the enigmas, in the last seconds before contact, seeing them leap toward the path of the Alliance fleet. He felt a moment of fear even though his instincts told him that the enigma course change would fall short.

A moment too fast to really register on human senses, and they were past the enigmas. “All units, immediate execute, come up one eight five degrees, port zero eight degrees.” As soon as the order was out of his mouth, Geary checked the fleet status display. “No hits.”

“Not on us and not on them,” Desjani agreed. “About what we expected. See these guys?” She pointed on her display to the tracks of more than a score of enigma warships that had veered wildly up toward the human formation before tearing past and angling down toward their own formation again. “Those were the rammers. They would have gone right through us if we’d been positioned for a normal firing run. You called it right, Admiral.”

“We called it right,” Geary corrected. His display lit up with symbols marking the arrival of the main body at the jump point as the light from that finally reached them. At first glance, before looking at the damage afflicting many of the battleships, the main body looked extremely dangerous, especially with the mass of Invincible bulking in the center of that formation. Humans had never built a warship that big, and now the Alliance had one.

The pursuit force was curving upward and over in a huge arc, heading back toward the jump point as the enigmas continued in that direction. But even though the enigmas had finally seen the main body as well, they now climbed up at a steep angle. “They’re going for the—the spider-wolves,” Lieutenant Castries said.

“They are indeed,” Desjani agreed. “Watch this, ladies and gentlemen. I think the spider-wolves are going to put on a real how-to lesson in evasive maneuvers for us.”

Geary halted the turn of his formation early, as it was reaching the crest of its arc up and over, steadying out so that the pursuit force was aiming for an intercept with the enigmas climbing toward the spider-wolves. He could not, for the moment, see how to bring the slower and still-distant main body into the action. “Captain Armus, proceed in-system and maneuver independently as you see fit.”

“Whoa,” Lieutenant Yuon gasped as the spider-wolf formation broke into six separate ships that began weaving around each other in a dance that spiraled ever higher above the plane of the star system. “What are they doing, Captain?”

“Distracting the bad guys,” Desjani replied with a grin.

Geary nodded, feeling the same sense of satisfaction. The spider-wolves might not be willing to participate in fighting the enigmas, but they apparently had no reluctance to help lead the enigmas into a trap. “All units, engage at will.”

The enigmas must have heard their own combat alerts sounding, frantic warnings that, while they had centered attention on the swirling flight of the spider-wolf ships, the human pursuit formation had come charging in from slightly above and behind. Enigma ships started to scatter, but too late, as the pursuit force buzz-sawed through the lower quarter of the enigma formation.

Geary felt Dauntless rocking slightly from a couple of hits as his force tore away from the enigmas again. He had to take a moment to see what the enigmas were doing this time and saw that the enigma commander had dropped his chase after the spider-wolves and swung the enemy formation around and to starboard, only to check that turn and weave back far to port. In the wake of the enigma fleet, disabled and destroyed ships tumbled out in all directions.

“Where the hell is he going?” Desjani asked.

“He’s heading for the main body,” Geary said. “They spotted Invincible .”

“The thing really is a threat magnet.”

“A magnet with some very nasty stings protecting it,” Geary replied. He brought his fleet over to port as well, aiming to hit the front of the enigma formation this time as it tried to run past him toward the main body.

That left a moment to check on results of that last pass. Geary scanned enigma losses first, seeing that thirty-one ships had been knocked out of the battle. His own ships had taken some hits, too, but the big local firepower advantage they had enjoyed had meant he had only lost two light cruisers disabled and four destroyers out of the fight, one of them, Musket , being a total loss.

Even though his ships had taken relatively few hits, system failure reports rippled across Geary’s display. Hell-lance batteries on some ships, fire control on others, here and there shields losing coverage. Another light cruiser was scrambling to get back to the formation, having apparently missed his last command, and wasn’t reporting current status, so Strike had probably suffered a comm failure.

“If they aim to ram Invincible …” Desjani cautioned.

“Even her armor won’t save her. I know.” Geary tapped a combination of ships to talk to. “Captain Armus, and commanding officers of Dreadnaught , Orion , Dependable , Conqueror , Relentless , Reprisal , Superb , and Splendid . We assess that the enigmas intend to ram our capital ships, and that Invincible will be a focus for their attack on your formation. Watch for enigma ships on collision courses with yourselves and Invincible , and ensure neither they nor any large pieces of them get through. Captain Armus, you are to take necessary action to deal with enigma ramming tactics to the best of your ability and ensure that every ship in your formation is on guard for enemy ships aiming for collisions with battle-ships, auxiliaries, and assault transports.”

The enigmas were accelerating again, trying to pull past the point where the path of Geary’s pursuit force would swing through their formation. He watched the point of contact slide farther and farther back, wondering if the enigmas would manage to slip past completely. “All units, hit them in the rear as we make contact. Watch for mines dropped in the wake of the enigma ships.” Using mines that way would be a tactic of desperation but might still cripple some of Geary’s ships if the enigmas got lucky.