Jack Campbell - Leviathan

Just before contact, Geary pivoted his battle cruiser formation, bringing their bows down and back, and began accelerating along the reverse of the curve he had been following.

The dark battleships, still moving at point one five light speed, had so much momentum along their track that they had no chance of reacting quickly enough to try to catch Geary’s battle cruisers. The dark ships tore past and onward, trying to bend their path into a tighter turn, their main propulsion once again roaring at maximum.

Geary brought his battle cruisers down and over, while the battleship formation Tango Two swung through its arc and began diving as well, and the other battleship formation, Tango Three, changed its own vector to push back upward.

Would the dark battle cruisers realize in time that Geary was aiming to bracket them with his three formations as the dark ships came climbing toward the former path of the Alliance ships?

“Blast,” Desjani grumbled as the dark battle cruisers swung wider to their port, aiming for Geary’s battle cruisers and avoiding the Alliance battleships.

Once again, the dark ships had a lot of velocity and a lot of momentum. Geary twisted his formation and raced over the top of the dark battle cruisers at such a distance that no engagement was possible.

The image of Captain Ulrickson appeared. “ Fearless has one of the damaged main propulsion units back online. We can keep up now. May the living stars bless you for giving us the time to get the fix done, Admiral.”

“Thank the living stars that the dark ships fell for the diversion, Captain,” Geary replied.

He had to focus intently on his display again, watching the curving paths of the dark ships as they came around making the tightest turns their hulls could withstand. The main battleship formation of the dark ships was rearranging in midturn, merging with the two small formations on either side, then re-forming into two dark battleship formations each holding six battleships as well as nine heavy cruisers, nineteen light cruisers, and about forty destroyers. Since the dark ships boasted more weapons than typical Alliance warships, and Geary’s ships bore accumulated damage from months of campaigning and too few resources for repair, each new dark battleship formation was more than a match for each of Geary’s battleship formations. The dark battle cruiser formation was also stronger than Geary’s battle cruiser force, with about twice the firepower.

“They don’t have to hit us with multiple formations at once. I think instead they’re going to try to box in one of our formations and hit it hard with one of theirs,” Desjani said.

“I think you’re right, but we won’t let them,” Geary vowed, already working up new orders to counter the moves of the dark ships. “At some point, the dark ships have to make a mistake.”

He narrowly got Tango Three out of another dark ship attempt to catch that formation, tried to use the momentum of the dark battle cruisers’ latest maneuver to trap them, failed as he was forced to avoid another set of moves by the dark battleships, got Dauntless and the other Alliance battle cruisers free of a triple attack that tried to force him into contact with one or more of the dark ship formations, swung Tango Two out of a forming trap, began to set up another attack, had to shift his battle cruisers away from that, moved Tango Three at the last moment to avoid yet another dark ship attack by all three enemy formations…

Geary lost track of time, completely lost in the constant dance of the three Alliance and three dark ship formations. He made a few mistakes which were minor enough to avoid disaster, but the dark ships made no mistakes, giving him no openings.

His ship commanders, as aware as Geary of how close they were to being annihilated, made no protests for once despite the lack of firing on the firing passes that always avoided getting close enough for combat when the dark ships had the advantage. And it seemed the dark ships with their superior maneuverability and firepower always had the advantage.

Geary roused himself from his intense focus on his display to become aware that Dr. Nasr was standing beside him and offering a small med patch.

“You are in need of this, Admiral,” Dr. Nasr said.

“A stim patch?” Geary blinked, trying to recall when this engagement had begun. “How long have we been conducting firing passes against the dark ships?”

“You began these series of maneuvers sixteen hours ago,” Dr. Nasr said, sounding composed but also unyielding. “You are required to apply a stimulant patch to maintain alertness and mental clarity. My assistants are ensuring that everyone in the crew receives a patch. All other ships are also administering stim patches.”

“How long are they good for?” Geary asked.

“They will have to be renewed after eight hours. You can apply a series of six patches one after another if judged necessary given the situation, but beyond that you risk negative health and mental outcomes.”

“I had to do a series of six once,” Desjani said as she slapped a patch on her own arm. “I don’t recommend it. Coming down from that was hell.”

Sixteen hours. Geary applied his own patch, then refocused on the situation. Battles in space could be extremely long but rarely involved extremely long periods of continuous action. If nothing else, wide-ranging maneuvers would eventually buy time for an exhausted nap between firing runs.

But against the dark ships, this time it had been a seemingly endless succession of attacks, counterattacks, evasions, and lunges. One set of fast maneuvers after another, constantly straining ships and their crews.

Motivated by a sudden concern, Geary called up data on fuel cell status for his warships. “Most of our destroyers are down to thirty-five percent on their fuel cells,” he told Desjani.

“That’s not surprising,” she grumbled. “We’ve been jerking around the entire fleet time and time again.”

But the dark ships had been pushing themselves even harder.

Geary, who had decided at some point just to strive to keep from being beaten badly, felt a sudden glimmer of hope. The dark ships had definitely been programmed for tactics. Specifically his tactics. And Lieutenant Castries had already noted that the dark ships appeared to be using Battle Priority profile on their maneuvering solutions.

Had anyone programmed the dark ships for logistics concerns?

The ships that had hit Indras and then Atalia had used up their entire supply of bombardment projectiles, holding none back for emergencies. That implied a lack of attention to the expendable weapon supply aspect of logistics. Did the dark ships also not pay enough attention to other aspects of logistics?

And was Dr. Nasr right about what would happen if the dark ships hit a firm limit in their programming that they had not previously rationalized their way around?

Could he manage to avoid a decisive encounter for enough more time to find out?

He bent grimly to the task, avoiding each new lunge by the dark ships and attempting new attacks by his own warships, which were always frustrated. Another pass… another… six formations comprising hundreds of warships twisting and spinning through the vastness of space, each seeking the fraction of a second of advantage that it would need to inflict major damage on one of the other formations.

His commanding officers and crews continued to follow Geary’s orders, continued to believe that he would find a way out of this, while he prayed that he and his ships would hold out long enough.

The moment he had dreaded finally came, after nearly twenty hours of continuous combat maneuvering.

Tango Two had been forced to nearly kill its velocity to dodge a firing pass from a dark battleship formation. Now, its warships pointing straight up and main propulsion back on full, Tango Two was trying to regain speed, while Geary tried to bring the other two Alliance formations to its aid.