Valiant

across the field of battle came anywhere close to the number times they had suffered from their lack of armor.

Behind Dauntless and the other battle cruisers, the Alliance battleships had altered courses slightly, aiming farther above the Syndic Casualty Flotilla and at an intercept with the two Syndic battleships still several light-minutes away. All around them, destroyers and light cruisers that had finished wiping out nearby Syndic ships were joining up with the battleships. In the very rear of what could loosely be called the Alliance fleet formation came the four fast fleet auxiliaries with their escorts of four battleships, Captain Cresida’s two battle cruisers, and about twenty light cruisers and destroyers. Unlike the other Alliance ships, the auxiliaries had kept their courses aimed straight for an intercept with the Syndic repair ships in the center of the flattened bubble making up the Casualty Flotilla.

“Our leading battle cruisers are two light-minutes short of those two Syndic battleships,” Desjani remarked. “They’ve been designated Syndic Flotilla Bravo. I wonder why the system didn’t just call them the Syndic Suicide Flotilla.”

She had a point, but Geary gestured to indicate the Alliance auxiliaries. “If they can somehow bull their way through to our auxiliaries, they could hurt us in a critical way.”

Desjani shook her head. “If they manage to get past everything we’ve got headed for them, they’ll be so weakened that Cresida’s ships can handle them.”

“I’m not happy with battle cruisers dueling with battleships, ” Geary noted, worried that his aggressive commanders might get carried away in the thrill of the battle so far. But he couldn’t give orders telling them not to be too aggressive. None of them would listen. He tapped his communications controls again. “All Alliance battle- cruiser formations, upon completion of firing passes against Syndic Flotilla Bravo, brake your velocity to match that of the Syndic Casualty Flotilla and await orders. All Alliance battleship formations are also to brake velocity to match the Casualty Flotilla’s speed as soon as Syndic Flotilla Bravo has been destroyed.”

As he was speaking, shuttles sprang away from the Alliance ships bearing down on the Casualty Flotilla, each shuttle bending its course toward specific targets. Most were aimed at the wreck of Audacious, but others headed for Syndic repair ships and nearby warships to ensure they were truly abandoned and safe for the Alliance ships to approach.

The shuttles were still headed for their objectives when Duellos’s battle cruisers and Syndic Flotilla Bravo tore past each other at a combined velocity just in excess of point two light speed. At that velocity, relativistic effects distorted the view of other objects enough to make targeting difficult, and the firing window when weapons were in range of the enemy was the tiniest fraction of a second.

As the two formations of ships separated again, Geary could see that the shields on the Syndic battleships had been weakened, but no hits had been scored. The Syndics, though, had concentrated their massive firepower against Formidable, doubtless having seen the damage that Alliance battle cruiser still carried from her last encounter with the enemy. Formidable had taken a flurry of hits, losing much of her combat capability, but had avoided taking any more damage to her propulsion units and kept up with her sister ships.

Brilliant, Opportune, and Inspire hit the Syndic battleships next, weakening the enemy shields a little more, Opportune taking several nasty hits in the process.

Tulev’s four battle cruisers concentrated their fire on the Syndic battleship closest to them as they shot past just to port of the enemy, managing to cause some spot failures of the battleship’s shields but taking a few hits to Dragon.

Desjani brought her battle cruisers in while Geary hoped she wouldn’t push her firing pass in too close to the still- extremely dangerous Syndic battleships. The Syndics tried to concentrate their fire on already- damaged Daring, but Desjani had arranged the intercept so that Daring was farthest from the enemy, helping Daring to avoid the damage that Formidable had suffered. Dauntless and Victorious slammed shots at the Syndic battleship that still had the strongest shields, weakening the enemy’s protection further while managing to avoid taking more damage themselves.

That left Illustrious and Incredible to hammer the first Syndic battleship again. As the last two Alliance battle cruisers finished their firing passes, the enemy battleships kept onward, their shields seriously weakened but their armor and all weapons and other systems intact, still headed on a curving intercept course aimed at the Alliance auxiliaries.

But bearing down on the Syndic battleships were the Alliance battleships of the Second, Fifth, and Eighth Divisions. Twelve to two would have been awful odds under any circumstances, but the Alliance battleships also had shields at full strength while the Syndics’ shields were slowly recovering.

Geary grinned as he saw that the three Alliance subformations had stuck to the maneuvering plan that coordinated their movements. Gallant, Indomitable, Glorious, and Magnificent slashed by just above the Syndic battleships, followed milliseconds later by Relentless, Reprisal, Superb, and Splendid making a firing pass just beneath the Syndics, a few seconds after that Fearless, Resolution, Redoubtable, and Warspite pounding them from the starboard side. That much firepower hitting that quickly left the beleaguered Syndics without a chance. The Syndics fired back, scoring a couple of hits on Glorious and Fearless, but as the twelve Alliance battleships pulled away, they left behind them an expanding ball of debris that marked the destruction of one Syndic battleship and a tumbling mass of wreckage that had once been the second enemy battleship. A few escape pods spat from the ruin of the second battleship as it tumbled silently off to one side of its original vector.

By the time Captain Armus’s Tenth Battleship Division reached engagement range thirty seconds later, all his four battleships could do was tear the remains of the second Syndic battleship into a lot of smaller pieces of wreckage.

Geary sighed with relief, then broadcast commands again. “All Alliance ships with the exception of the Auxiliaries formation are to assume station on flagship Dauntless as indicated.” On his display, the intended formation looked like a ragged ball extending outward in front of and slightly above the Syndic Casualty Flotilla, the subformations built around Alliance battle cruisers and battleships arranged roughly in a sphere. It wasn’t pretty, but it would do.

Desjani gave him a questioning look, knowing that Geary favored neat formations. “Saving fuel cells?”

“That’s part of it. This keeps maneuvering by our ships to a minimum. I was also thinking that if the fleet looks a little sloppy when the Syndic pursuit force arrives, they might think the Alliance fleet is still on the verge of falling apart like it appeared when we left Lakota the first time.”

“Will they believe that after seeing what we’ve already done to the Syndics in this star system?” she asked doubtfully.

“The odds were good enough that even a disorganized force could have mangled the Syndics here. Maybe it won’t fool the Syndics, but there’s no sense in wasting fuel cells right now. Once the pursuit force shows up, we’ll get moving fast and get everything neatened up then.”

All the Alliance warships had pivoted to use their main propulsion units to slow down so they wouldn’t get too far from the critically important Alliance auxiliaries, assuming their positions in the formation that Geary had mentally labeled the Big Ugly Ball. With that situation well in hand, the Syndic pursuit force still not having arrived, and the nearest operational Syndic combatants almost a light-hour distant and hauling ass away from the Alliance fleet, Geary gave in to temptation again and pulled up a view from one of the Marine officers retaking the Audacious.

The shuttles had mated not only with the remains of Audacious ’s external air locks and shuttle dock but also with a few spots where big holes had been blown in the battleship’s armor. Marine detachments had swarmed into the silent ship, ready for anything. Now, Geary’s view from the combat armor of the Marine he’d chosen showed the battleship’s interior rendered strange by tremendous amounts of internal damage and a lack of regular lighting. The Marine lieutenant and his squad reached an internal air lock that had been repaired just enough to function and passed through into areas where temporary patches had been slapped