Jack Campbell - Leviathan

“You’re trusting in the finesse and subtlety of Sel Rosen,” Desjani grumbled. “Good luck with that.”

“She’s not going to do exactly what I would do,” Geary replied. “That may be our best hope of stopping those dark ships before they can hit Ambaru.”

Five light-minutes separated the battleship screen from the heavy cruisers. The dark battle cruisers had maintained point two light speed, so it would take twenty-five minutes for them to reach the heavy cruisers. If the heavy cruisers accelerated to contact, that time would shrink, but Geary knew that Commander Rosen would be smart enough to instead bring her warships in at the battle cruisers from high angles in order to keep down the relative speed of the engagement.

The sixteen Alliance heavy cruisers were formed into two boxes, each composed of eight warships arranged in two columns, with each ship a little higher than the one ahead of it so that the formations stepped upward from front to back. One heavy cruiser formation was above and to one side of the projected track of the dark ships, while the second formation was below and to the other side. It was a classic positioning, which would allow the heavy cruisers to react effectively even if the dark ships made some major course changes to try to evade the Alliance defenders.

“She’s taking into account the maneuverability of the dark ships,” Geary noted approvingly.

“Let’s hope she’s taking into account their firepower,” Desjani said. “We’re still closing, but too slowly. We’ll be within two light-minutes of the dark ships when Rosen’s heavy cruisers hit them.”

“Still nothing from Ambaru or any of the fixed defenses?”

“Nothing, sir,” Lieutenant Yuon replied.

“If the dark ships continue down their current vectors,” Lieutenant Castries added, “we will still be thirty light-seconds distant from them and twenty minutes’ travel time from intercept when they reach Ambaru Station.”

Thirty light-seconds didn’t sound like much, unless you knew that a single light-second was the equal of three hundred thousand kilometers of distance. Nine million kilometers, the equivalent of thirty light-seconds, was hopelessly distant in terms of trying to defend Ambaru.

“Once they’ve hit Ambaru,” Castries continued, her voice professionally unemotional, “the dark ships might choose to alter vector toward the nearest jump point.”

“In which case, we will have zero chance of catching them before they reach that jump point,” Desjani said. “Rosen better slow them down, or we’ll have no chance of saving Ambaru or hitting those dark ships again.”

“Fifteen minutes until the dark ships are in weapons range of Commander Rosen’s force,” Lieutenant Yuon said.

They were so close by the time the forces rushed toward contact, only a couple of light-minutes to one side, that the images were almost real-time. As the dark ships neared them, Rosen’s heavy cruisers accelerated out of their orbits. Both formations pivoted around one of the leading heavy cruisers, as if the formations were rolling up to stand one corner, and headed toward the paths of the dark ships, the upper heavy cruiser formation diving toward contact while the lower formation climbed toward the enemy.

This time the dark ships reacted in the minutes before contact by abruptly jerking upward and to one side, toward the higher heavy cruiser formation. The dark ships plainly intended concentrating their fire on one set of Alliance heavy cruisers while avoiding the second formation.

The moment of contact was so quick that there was no hope of seeing the events happen, but Geary was also focused on what the lower formation of heavy cruisers was doing, bending their climb up and over to compensate for the change in the vectors of the dark ships. Instead of missing them completely, the lower formation hurtled past the sterns of the dark ships a few moments after the enemy battle cruisers had encountered the upper formation.

“Damn,” Desjani muttered as the results of the engagement were reported by Dauntless ’s sensors and data feeds from the heavy cruisers.

As Geary had instructed, Rosen had ordered her leading heavy cruisers in each formation to evade at the last moment, shifting from targeting the dark battle cruisers to instead aim for the dark heavy cruiser trailing them. The change in vectors had been enough to throw off a lot of the dark ship fire. And the dark heavy cruiser, hit by four Alliance heavy cruisers, was staggering along and sliding off to one side, trying to regain maneuvering control.

But the two enemy battle cruisers had also aimed some shots at the second row of heavy cruisers in each formation. Diamond , Bastille , Hori , and Presidio had all taken significant damage, losing weapons, shields, and in some cases parts of their propulsion and maneuvering thrusters. Personnel casualties were only estimates, but all four heavy cruisers had taken losses.

The twelve heavy cruisers hitting the dark battle cruisers had done their job, though. One of the dark battle cruisers had lost half of its propulsion and been slowed by hits. The other had been battered along one quarter but did not seem to have suffered serious damage to its propulsion or maneuverability.

“Not enough.” Geary sighed, trying to accept the fact that there was nothing more he could do, that catching a force of warships which did not want to fight was nearly impossible when all of space existed to offer escape, that the distances in space meant sometimes there was no way to get somewhere in time to make a critical difference.

“The dark battle cruiser with the damaged propulsion is having trouble regaining its velocity,” Lieutenant Yuon reported. “We can catch it before it reaches firing range of Ambaru.”

“Which leaves one battle cruiser to shoot up the station.” Geary tapped his comm controls. “Commander Rosen, use your heavy cruisers to finish off that dark heavy cruiser. Be aware that it will likely carry out a power core overload once helpless, so stay clear of the damage radius. There are light cruisers and destroyers coming your way from the screen which you are to assume control of to coordinate their attacks with your own.”

He looked at Tanya. “Let’s get that damaged dark battle cruiser. Too bad we can’t—”

“Captain?” Lieutenant Castries called, sounding baffled. “The second enemy battle cruiser is pivoting. He’s… braking his velocity.”

“Why the hell… ?” Desjani demanded.

Geary was staring, trying to understand, when Desjani laughed.

“They programmed them to do what you would do!” she said.

“And I would throw away my chance to hit Ambaru?” Geary said.

“You would if it meant not abandoning one of your ships to the enemy!” Desjani laughed again. “Don’t you get it? You come back for injured ships, you don’t abandon comrades, that’s how you’ve fought, and those dark ships are programmed to fight like you did.”

Geary realized that he was smiling. “Nice. The dark ships aren’t thinking about it, they’re not responding to any moral imperative, they’re just doing what their programming tells them to do in a situation like this.” He hit his comm controls again. “All units in Task Force Dancer, immediate execute, come port one four degrees, up zero two degrees. Engage assigned targets when in range. Geary, out.”

His warships angling in faster to hit the slowed dark battle cruisers, Geary made sure that enough of his warships were targeted on each to ensure they would be knocked out. What would I do if I was on one of those battle cruisers? Dive down. And port or starboard? Starboard, to get back on a direct vector for Ambaru.

He ordered a slight, last-moment change of vectors on his warships as his formation slammed into the dark battle cruisers from one side. The seven Alliance battle cruisers and the remaining heavy cruisers, light cruisers, and destroyers in Task Force Dancer threw everything they had at the dark ships, three of the Alliance battle cruisers passing close enough to the dark ships to unleash their null field weapons that ate chunks out of the enemy warships. One of the dark ships deployed a null field as well, taking a fortunately small piece out of Intemperate .