The Enemy of an Enemy

“We have two more fleets arriving. The firstshould arrive about four hours after the battle starts, and thesecond should arrive about two hours later. Combined, they willalmost double our numbers,” he said.

“Excellent. At present I estimate theirnumbers to be about three times greater than the Dragon Claw’sfleet,” I said.

“Grandmaster Vydor, it sounds like you havethought of everything that could be thought of before the battle.If I understand you right, these things we will be fighting cannotfunction without their masters, and you will be attempting toeliminate their masters, while we kill the … things,” he said.

“Yes, Captain, that is it exactly,” Isaid.

“Then we will spread the plan to the ships,and jump in one hour. Good luck,” he said and signed off.

Chapter Thirty-Three

We gathered around for the trip through jumpspace, this time knowing that it was not what was in jump spacethat we had to worry about, but what was on the other side. As theblueness of it wrapped around us I looked for the spirit of lightthat had been following us, and he was there in his customaryplace, smiling and looking friendly. “Who are you?” I asked.

“Keep following the narrow path of light, andyou will find me,” was his answer.

We again came out of the jump with nopost-jump effects; apparently we had grown enough in our powers tomove in and out of jump space without issue. As soon as we returnedto normal space I took out a scroll which I had created some timeago. I opened and read from it. As I read each word the scrollstarted to burn up, and when I was finished the scroll wascompletely consumed. In its destruction it released a powerfulconcealment spell that would wrap our ship in a cloak ofinvisibility which not even the Council of Sorcerers couldpenetrate. This would guarantee that we could attack on our timingand terms, not theirs.

I switched the view mode on our observationdeck viewing screens to show tactical information about thebattlefield. I saw the Dragon Claw and her fleet slipping into avery standard attack formation that appeared to be focused on thestation.

On the other side I saw a huge army ofdemons, spirits, and other foul creatures that had somehow createdspiritual spacecraft to fight in. When they saw the fleet theybegan to redeploy to counter the attack formation they saw.

“Vydor, it looks like he plans to attackthe station. He must have decided not to follow your plan,”said Darnath.

“Studying the captain’s battle strategieswas a required course in the Academy. His plans are the best I haveever seen. He knows exactly what he is doing, and he knows that weare dependent on him to handle his part of the plan. I suspect thathe will bring some firepower against the station in order to helphide the fact that they are not attacking the stationdirectly,” I said.

As the enemy redeployed the captainrearranged his fleet, this time into an inverted crescent. When thesorcerers saw this, they moved their forces again. Back and forthwent the dance for a while. “He is stalling,” I said to theothers.

“Why?” asked Kellyn.

“Well, if I know him as well as I think Ido, he plans to attack about one hour before the first of ourreinforcements arrive. Look at all the patterns he is using. Theyare not random, they are carefully chosen to test the speed andmobility of the enemy, as they constantly have to move to adapt.The sorcerers continue to focus their positions on perceivedweaknesses in the captain’s formations, and since they are focusingheavily this is constantly opening large weaknesses in their ownlines. Their inexperience is showing and the captain is using thatto his utmost advantage,” I said.

While watching the dance, I heard the captainspeak a single word over the intership communication link:“Deploy.” That was all that was needed. Suddenly all the largeships moved to the back of the line and the smaller attack vesselsmoved to the front. The fleet then arranged its pattern into a verysolid and aggressive attack formation. I knew this one well. It wasthe subject of one of my papers at the Academy. Once the ships werearranged he issued another one-word order: “Launch.”

Suddenly Ravens, Falcons, and all other kindsof craft started launching from the larger ships. Everything fromsingle-pilot fighters up to the biggest war vessels that could becarried in a ship’s bay was launched. They all moved out to form aline in front of the fleet, and it was an impressive show offorce.

I felt fear coming from the enemy as thecaptain skillfully moved the final pieces of his attack plan intoplace. The enemy’s forces pulled back into a tighter, moredefensive stance. Memories of a speech the captain gave to my classcame back to me. In that speech he explained that he was never init for the long run. A battle is won by bringing your full might tobear all at once in the opening move. He went on to say that anyonewho has a long-term plan for a battle is a loser and a failure. Hisrecord backed up his boast; he never lost.

Then the final order came: “Attack.” And theentire fleet moved forward with every weapon firing. As they did, Ifelt Kellyn cast her power over the fleet twice. The first time wasa protection magic of some kind. It bolstered their resistance tospiritual and magical attacks. The second one increased the powerof their weapons against spiritual creatures. Somehow, with thosetwo spells she increased the overall power of the fleet bytwenty-five per cent.

“Commander, move us in close to the stationand hold us there. Time your men’s entry on to the station tocoincide with the second fleet’s arrival,” I said via the comm.

“Yes, Grandmaster,” he said.

The Dark Knights were already aboard theirthree ships, and the bays were already depressurized. They werevery anxious to bring the fight back to those who had killed theirsquadmates. I could sense the eagerness and anticipation emanatingfrom them.

Around us the battle raged on. The captainwas using a lot of different methods at once to attack thecreatures, most probably trying to determine which was mosteffective. “The fools think they are fighting on theground,” I commented, as I noticed the enemy formation wasfairly linear. The captain must have noticed this too, because heforced his own formation to match.

Any ensign looking at the battle would havebeen baffled at the captain’s arrangement, and screaming for him totake advantage of the enemy’s weak formation, but they would havebeen wrong. Right on schedule, the second fleet came out of jumpspace, not behind the enemy, but on a plane perpendicular to thecaptain’s attack, catching the enemy completely off guard.

Although every one of their crew would havebeen out of commission for a while after the jump, the ship’scomputers were already linked to the Dragon Claw’s and theyautomatically began targeting and firing all weapons. Once the crewrecovered from the jump they would take over control.

I checked the station on our tacticalmonitors and I saw the Dark Knights already punching a hole throughthe outer layer of the station and pouring in. Excellent, so farall was going as planned. I turned my attention back to the battle,and the second fleet had begun deploying their fighters and smallercraft. The enemy still greatly outnumbered us, but the numbers weremuch closer now. I felt Kellyn cast her beneficial magic on thesecond fleet and they, too, grew in power.

“Everyone, prepare for our attack on thestation. This is how I want it to go. You will break up into groupsof two and each pair of you will drop in to assist one of the DarkKnight squads. You will be facing mostly lower-level sorcerers atthat point, and you should have no problem. Once the six of you arefully engaged I will land on the station to hunt their primarycontrol group. Our presence there will do one of two things. Itwill either grant us victory, or draw out the Seven. Since theythink we are still too weak to beat them, I am counting on itdrawing them out. When that happens, all come to me and we willstand against them. If in our attack we end up weakening theshields enough for the fleet to destroy the station, then everyonehuddle close to Darnath and he will shield us until we can jump outof there.” Each of them indicated that they understood, then Isaid, “It is time,” and they all disappeared.

Via our link I was able to track theirmovements. As they hit the station I saw a chunk of the enemyspirits disappear from the army. Good, we got their attention. Iwaited back on the Nevermore. I knew that my entry into the battlewould have a drastic impact on the outcome and I wanted to time itfor maximum impact.

All three groups of Dark Knights were pinneddown under heavy fire from what appeared to be a mix of