The Alliance Trilogy Page 21

  McGowan’s expression didn’t change. “Are we to be held in reserve, then?”

  It was a fair question. The rear side of the asteroid bulged out, miles of rock that could suffer any quantity of bombardment without causing damage to the base. So why position forces there? It was like building a castle against a mountain, then ordering one’s cavalry to leave the castle and go around to the back side of the mountain.

  “I don’t have the luxury of a reserve force. You’ll be in combat quickly enough, but I don’t know how the pieces will array themselves, so I want you shielded until the last possible moment. Disguise our plans, let the enemy guess and doubt.”

  “What other pieces?” McGowan asked. “Or is the whole plan a secret?”

  “I agree with McGowan, sir,” Zenger said. “You are planning to share, aren’t you? With all due respect, that is.”

  In Tolvern’s experience, “with all due respect” generally meant an entire lack of it.

  “I’ve got an order of battle written up, together with several contingencies once things go to hell, as they always do. I’m sending them over as soon as I’ve spoken to the other commanders, in case we need any last-minute tweaks.”

  “And are we only in command of our own ships during the engagement?” McGowan said.

  “For now, yes. Each of you is independent. If I’m killed”—voicing that thought made her heart skip, but her tone didn’t waver—“then McGowan is next in line, followed by Zenger—our regular naval hierarchy. But if all three of us go down, whoever is the senior surviving Scandian captain, starting with Ulfgar Svensen, will be in command.”

  “Instead of Dwiggins?” Zenger asked, referring to the captain of HMS Apollo, the newly arrived corvette. Dwiggins would be the next ranking Albion officer.

  “I’d rather have that Hroom colonel,” McGowan said. “Or Wang, if she ever shows.”

  She ignored the unsolicited advice. “I want the minefield laid and your ships in position in fourteen hours. Can you manage?”

  They both agreed, and she cut the call.

  “Smythe, hail Boghammer. I want Svensen and Kelly both.”

  “Bunch of messages came in for you, Cap’n,” Capp said while Smythe was obeying that order. “Sixteen of ’em.”

  “Just during that call?”

  “Yeah, I got Barker shouting about something. Again. And the base commander has a question about the new guns. There’s something about the nukes on that star wolf. The white one. Icefall. Oh, and the science lab called. Brockett wants Smythe scanning the—”

  Tolvern held out her hand to stop the first mate. “Lieutenant, you handle internal ship affairs. I’ll deal with the fleet.”

  “Aye, Cap’n.”

  “And make sure they stay on task. Repairs, preparations—today is a day like any other.”

  The distance for the Adjudicator fleet to cross was vast, and Tolvern’s forces could burn through their adrenaline before the first shots were fired. Besides, who knew what small bit of repair or better calibrated weapon system would make a critical difference?

  Tolvern checked the clock. Twenty-two hours to engagement. Plenty of time. Being calm, not panicking, and treating this day like any other would do more than anything else to settle nerves throughout the fleet and on the base.

  Smythe had Boghammer on the line, and Svensen and Kelly appeared on the screen—the gruff-looking star wolf captain and the trim lieutenant in her navy uniform. McGowan had done well saddling Svensen with Kelly. She seemed to keep him in line without aggravating him enough to set him off on a rampage. In fact, the way they stood next to each other, postures relaxed, Tolvern guessed that they’d developed some sort of camaraderie.

  “We’re all spread out,” Svensen said. “Couple of wolves above the base while their crew work the surface. Others running light patrol or still back toward the planet. I’ve been doing drills with your brawler and your missile frigate, but that seems like a waste of time.”

  “Until you do flyby in battle at four percent the speed of light and one of you rams the frigate because you didn’t understand how she maneuvers.”

  “Can we assemble yet or not?”

  The star wolves were seven strong with the addition of McGowan’s survivor to the ones Svensen had jumped in with, and Tolvern intended to use them as a single fighting force.

  “I have a question for you, Svensen. Can you hold your nerve in battle? Dangerous situation, contradictory information, but you’ve got your orders. Will you follow through?”

  He crossed his arms. “Yeah.”

  Tolvern glanced at Kelly. “Lieutenant? Can he?”

  “He’s no coward,” she said.

  “That’s not what I asked. If I give the Fourth Wolves direct orders and the situation changes, will they follow through or go off on their own?”

  “I think so?” Kelly’s answer came out as a question.

  Svensen grunted, looking displeased to be discussed. “Tell me what you have in mind, and I’ll tell you if you’ve got your head shoved up your backside or not. But if I say I’ll do it, I’ll do it.”

  “I want thirty mech raiders on the base. Pick them from wherever, preferably a few from each crew. The rest of you will suit up and charge at one of the three carriers.”

  “Charge as in try to destroy it?” Svensen asked. “Or charge as in send a boarding party?”

  “I want you to capture the whole blasted thing.”

  This seemed to hang in space between them. And as Tolvern hadn’t even shared it with her own officers yet, everything got quiet all around her, too. Bridge crew who’d been busy about their own work showed that they were, in fact, paying attention to her transmission, and stared.

  “Wang said to expect three star fortresses. Each is bigger and has more guns and armor than Blackbeard. We have Fort Mathilde and a number of ships. We match up well against one of their carriers, maybe even two and their dragoons. A third is too much for us to handle. So knocking one out of the battle is the first reason.

  “The second is to show these fools we’re serious. You Scandians are always going on about your mech units, how nobody can defeat you, and all of that. This is your chance to prove it. Your mechs against theirs. They won’t be expecting an assault, that’s for sure. They haven’t faced star wolves in this way before, and they’ll probably look at your ships as roughly equivalent to dragoons. Nothing more or less.

  “In fact, that’s how I want you to make it look. Can you do that? Take your wolves and make it seem like you’re attacking on the margins to draw away firepower. Then charge hard, harpoon their carrier from all sides, and send in a massive boarding party.”

  “Yes!”

  Svensen pumped a fist. Or tried to. Turned out he only pumped his stump hand, but he was so flushed and eager that he didn’t seem to notice.

  Kelly cleared her throat. “We’ll be outnumbered, sir. Got to figure that. If the aliens have enough forces to invade Mathilde, they’ll have hundreds of decimators suited up and ready to go.”

  “I’m sending Colonel Tibbs and a hundred marine units in mech suits. That will even the odds somewhat. Svensen, do you know the colonel?”

  “Heard of him. Dirty fighter. Likes to get nasty.” Svensen sounded approving.

  “Won’t they try to scuttle the ship if we’re about to take it?” Kelly asked.

  “Probably,” Tolvern said. “That’s what I’d do.”

  “And if we prevented that somehow, the other enemy ships would attack us, destroy us. Anything to keep us from taking their carrier.”

  “Most likely.”

  “And as soon as we harpoon them,” Kelly said, “the wolves lose their ability to fight. The dragoons will be all over us, and we’ll have unloaded most of our crew into the enemy ship.”

  “I know that, too. And I’ve got a plan to keep the wolves alive.”

  “But on the other hand . . .” Kelly blinked. “Assuming it works . . . we might win this thing.”

  “And if i
t doesn’t, we were going to lose anyway. But I’m not worried about your part of it. The Scandians can fight. That’s a proven fact. The Adjudicators are about to find out for themselves.”

  #

  Five hours later, with Fourth Wolves gathering for a rendezvous at roughly forty million miles from the base, Svensen went off shift to catch one final rest—three, four hours max—before engaging in battle. He got to his quarters to find Lieutenant Kelly waiting inside.

  “So you just let yourself in wherever, whenever?” he asked.

  “Maybe you space Vikings should put code locks on your doors, ever think about that?”

  “Any man on this ship knows he’ll lose his head if he enters my room without permission.”

  “Good thing I’m not a man then, isn’t it?”

  Enough of the banter. His blood was up, his energy high, and he wasn’t going to get any real sleep anyway. May as well be honest about that.

  He crossed to her in two steps and seized her in his arms. She plunged her fingers into his hair and pulled his mouth down. She crushed her lips against his with such urgency that she was almost biting him.

  The couldn’t be bothered to find the bed, but sank on top of his polar bear rug and undressed frantically. It stayed frantic as they mutually ravished each other. As if it were the last time. And maybe it was.

  Later, when they were gasping and spent, and he was kissing her forehead and the sheen of sweat on her brow, she eyed the bear.

  “An actual bearskin. On a starship.”

  He raised an eyebrow. “Did I mention I killed it myself?”

  “With a spear. Yes, I think you might have.” She lifted herself on one elbow, and his body stirred as he took in her lithe form and her gently hanging breasts. “Never thought I’d fall in love with a Viking warlord. Never, ever . . . ever.”

  “Love? I thought we were just having fun.”

  She poked his chest. “No you didn’t, you big liar. I was the one who thought it was fun, and you were the one who took it seriously. Now we’re both in it deep.”

  “Assuming we don’t kill each other. Or someone else kills us first.”

  “Someone is going to try to kill us,” Kelly said. “That’s for sure.” She grabbed for her clothes. “How about we make a pact not to die?”

  “I’ll agree with that.” Svensen sat up and reached for her waist. “Any ideas on how to seal the deal?”

  She pushed him away with a laugh. “I don’t have the luxury of a private room anymore, and Jörvak will be coming off shift in about ten minutes. I want to be seen coming out of my own quarters and not yours when he arrives.”

  “Jörvak should mind his own business.”

  “How about this?” she said. “We’ll save up for a big celebration when we’ve won this thing.”

  Svensen let a mock serious frown cross his face. “That sounds like the best reason yet not to die.”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Captain Jess Tolvern stood on the bridge, tense and anxious. The enemy force was still a blur on the screen, with aliens baffling the best passive sensors of her fleet. But dragoons were breaking away from the star fortresses, and the first wave of missiles rolled in front of the Adjudicator fleet. She didn’t yet know the full size of the enemy fleet, and could no longer wait to find out.

  “Give us a hard sounding.”

  Smythe sent word to the war junk. It hit the enemy fleet with active soundings, and suddenly the Singaporean vessel was a bright glow a few thousand miles off Blackbeard’s starboard flank, below them on the Z-axis, no longer hidden. The enemy would have seen the Singaporean ship as well, so it immediately went dark and began evasive maneuvers. If she could stay hidden, she’d move around to Blackbeard’s port at close range. If not, she would fall back to the shadow of Fort Mathilde’s guns.

  The war junk was the Alliance’s eyes and ears. Tolvern couldn’t afford to lose her.

  “First data coming back now, Captain,” Smythe said. “We’ll have an exact count in a few minutes.”

  “Keep the enemy fleet on the main screen.”

  Her cruisers, Peerless and Triumph, remained in back of the asteroid, along with the two destroyers, the four of them shielded behind a minefield. Tolvern’s other ships—a missile frigate, a corvette, and six sloops of war—the three McGowan brought, plus Bailyna Tyn’s three, now united under the colonel’s command—remained between Blackbeard and the fort. Warthog shifted into position in front of the battle cruiser like a shield.

  The Fourth Wolves lurked wide, nudging forward as if eager to nip at the aliens’ flank, but wary about the enemy guns. Svensen was holding his nerve so far, though as soon as he saw the array of ships they faced, he’d no doubt start straining at his leash.

  Lomelí and Ping began launching countermeasures to take down the incoming wave of enemy missiles. Tolvern resisted the urge to check her console to see the effect, keeping her eyes fixed on the main screen. Fixed on those blurry shapes.

  And suddenly the blurs cleared as Jane interpreted the data from the Singaporean sensors and brought it into resolution. Tolvern drew in a sharp breath.

  Four. There were four star fortresses.

  The final ship was partially concealed in the shadow of one of the lead ships. And it had its own riders, six dragoons hugging the mother ship closely. Their toroid coils glowed like rings of blue flame.

  “Designations, Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta,” Smythe said. “Star Fortress Bravo has the engine signature of the ship that hit us across the frontier.”

  Bravo, Tolvern thought with a flush of anger. I’ll make you pay for what you did to my husband.

  “And Delta was one of the ships that drove us out of Fortaleza,” Smythe said. “The other two have unknown signatures. They don’t appear to match anything faced by the fleet so far.”

  Tolvern nodded at Capp. “Verify that, Lieutenant.”

  They were already losing resolution of the enemy fleet, but that would change as soon as the ships began to exchange heavier fire. Worrying information, all the same. Four capital ships and twenty-four dragoons. The Fourth Wolves had become the most critical part of her plan. Fail to take out one of the carriers, and there was no hope of winning the battle.

  “Warning,” Jane said, her tone calm, almost too cool over the com. “Class-one detonation expected.”

  One of the missiles, getting through. But a class one was nothing. Tolvern shut off damage notifications for anything below a two.

  Tolvern gave her missile frigate a target and the green light to attack. Her own gunnery got the same word. The war junk, notification about their target. Alerts to the corvette, to McGowan and Zenger.

  HMS Catapult struck first, the frigate sending a massive barrage of missiles that targeted the lead star fortress. Blackbeard’s missile batteries followed, chased by Hroom serpentines, operating at their extreme range, but with so many corkscrewing bomblets that they demanded enemy attention.

  The star wolves had been overhauled to include more effective Albion missiles since the end of the last war, and Svensen’s forces contributed to the onslaught. They raced in at an angle.

  Star Fortress Alpha shed velocity to fall back and allow the dragoons to throw down countermeasures. Most of the Alliance missiles exploded or spiraled out of control before reaching the enemy fleet. But a handful broke through, and the smaller bomblets from the Hroom attack further confused the enemy response.

  Plenty of light and action now, and the Adjudicators couldn’t hide their ships against the backdrop of explosions. One dragoon took a pair of missiles to a rear shield in quick succession, and the engine leaked plasma before the alien crew got it under control. If they hadn’t still been at such range, Tolvern would have tried to sneak in a few torpedoes. But no, better to hold the stronger punches for later.

  Unfortunately, enemy shot was getting through, too. A handful of small explosions pinged against Blackbeard’s hull in spite of effective countermeasures. More struck Warthog. There was
too much to bring it all down. Tolvern sensed Jane in the background, the AI’s prim schoolmarm voice anxious to relay how much damage the battle cruiser was taking.

  “It’s all coming our direction, sir,” Smythe said. “They’re targeting us and only us. The brawler is only taking incidental fire.”

  “We bloodied their noses last time. They know what we’re capable of.”

  “Aye, and we’ll do it again,” Capp said.

  But Tolvern couldn’t stay in place and slug it out as the fortresses and dragoons slowed their velocity to engage her with kinetic fire. She withdrew toward Fort Mathilde, dragging her forces with her, all except for the wolves, who nipped at the alien fleet, targeting a pair of flanking dragoons.

  Svensen made a quick charge, a burst of pummel guns. The dragoons came under withering fire, and the enemy could no longer ignore the affront. A dozen dragoons peeled away from screening Delta to confront the wolves, and Svensen turned as if to flee.

  Time to give him cover. She called out her non-reserve reserve.

  Peerless and Triumph emerged from behind the asteroid, with a pair of destroyers trailing, and the four ships accelerated toward the incoming enemy fleet. Bailyna Tyn fell in with her six sloops of war. The corvette, which had been lingering to one side, darted forward with a burst of speed.

  Still hanging behind the battlefield, Catapult let loose a fresh barrage of missiles that arced over the charging Alliance fleet and softened the enemy in advance of the attack. The missile frigate wasn’t targeting Alpha, the lead star fortress, but the mass of dragoons shielding her from attack, ten ships in all.

  “Get in there, you piss nozzle,” Capp said when it briefly seemed as though Peerless would linger behind and let Triumph charge in alone. “Don’t be a bloody coward.”

  But McGowan was only positioning his ship next to the other cruiser. Peerless and Triumph swung about in a perfect maneuver and let loose with their main batteries. Apollo slashed in from above. She got off two torpedoes and cannon fire as she dashed across the battlefield, with dragoon fire in helpless pursuit. The sloops of war came in behind the two cruisers, using them as cover, and belched a stream of bomblets from their serpentines batteries. Pulse fire followed.