Valiant

ordered the rest of his battle cruisers to turn toward the enemy and accelerate, then waited a short time before beginning to call out similar commands to his battleships in their subformations. The battleships were closer to the auxiliaries, but would accelerate at a slower pace.

On Geary’s display, he could see the Big Ugly Ball formation collapsing in lopsided fashion like an irregular balloon deflating as subformation after subformation of the Alliance fleet moved inward toward points along the path the Alliance auxiliaries were taking. It didn’t look like a fleet turning to fight, but rather like each individual subformation had independently decided to act.

“Very nice,” Desjani said admiringly. “It looks terrible, but it’s very nice. If I was outside this fleet, I’d think every subformation was calling its own shots.”

“Let’s just hope it all works,” Geary muttered under his breath.

The action was playing out along a single path leading back to the jump point from Ixion, with the Alliance subformation containing the auxiliaries a moving target whose path was the aim point for the Syndic pursuit force’s box formation coming from behind and slightly above, while the Alliance Big Ugly Ball formation was collapsing from slightly above and ahead toward roughly the same spot along the projected track of the Alliance auxiliaries. Between the Alliance forces and the Syndic pursuit force was the flattened sphere of the Casualty Flotilla. As the Syndic pursuit force’s intercept of the Alliance auxiliaries drew near, Captain Cresida accelerated Furious and Implacable toward the enemy, knowing her battle cruisers would never survive a direct clash with the Syndic battleships but aiming to disrupt the enemy assault.

The Syndic path had been dictated by the paths of their targets, the lagging Alliance auxiliaries formation. The Alliance auxiliaries had kept to courses and speeds calculated so that the shortest, fastest path between them and the Syndics stayed straight through the drifting and now-totally abandoned Casualty Flotilla of badly damaged Syndic warships. Human instincts sought things to hide behind even in space and even when the objects screening them were woefully inadequate, so the auxiliaries’ movements would seem perfectly natural, a desperate attempt to shield themselves using the only possible obstacle between them and the enemy.

An enemy commander less certain that Alliance forces were disorganized, running, and close to beaten, less focused on the glory and advancement that would come with finally defeating the Alliance fleet and less angered by the renewed losses inflicted on damaged Syndic warships in Lakota Star System might have wondered why the auxiliaries had seemingly been left lightly supported. But the obvious and frantic looting of abandoned Syndic ships in the Casualty Flotilla up until the last possible moment would match Syndic expectations of an Alliance fleet desperate for supplies.

Now the entire situation appeared quite natural to someone not looking beneath the surface appearance of fleeing Alliance warships trying to keep the false cover offered by the hulks of the Casualty Flotilla between them and the threat of the onrushing Syndic pursuit force. The Alliance battle cruisers turning to rush pell-mell into battle also matched expectations, as did the belated maneuvers of the Alliance battleships also to come to the aid of the auxiliaries. It was all no doubt exactly what the Syndic commander expected.

If everything looks like it’s going according to plan, Geary’s second commanding officer had liked to say, try to spot whatever you missed that’s about to bite you in the butt.

Apparently not having had the benefit of such advice, the Syndic CEO was confidently charging along the straightest, tightest intercept his flotilla could manage, doubtless already imagining the sweet taste of victory. The abandoned ships in the Casualty Flotilla couldn’t maneuver and had no weapons operational, and so posed no threat to warships that could safely cut very close to the predictable paths of the drifting wrecks.

If not for the inspiration provided by Victoria Rione’s suggestion, the Syndic CEO might have been safe in assuming that was true. Minefields, after all, were supposed to be as well concealed as possible, not sitting out in plain sight. Mines were also supposed to be small enough to be hidden by stealth features, not as huge as the power cores of warships.

Geary watched the path of the Syndic pursuit force, the big box sweeping with its broad side forward on a vector that would cause the flattened sphere of the Casualty Flotilla to pass almost right through the center of the Syndic formation. Because the Alliance auxiliaries had headed slightly down, and the Syndic pursuit force was coming from above, the flattened sphere of the Casualty Flotilla was cocked slightly upward relative to the pursuit force’s box, reducing the angle at which they’d meet. That box had greater length and width than the crushed sphere of the Casualty Flotilla, but slightly less depth. As the pursuit force raced toward its intercept of the Alliance auxiliaries, numerous Syndic warships inside the box formation made minor adjustments to their courses, in many cases aiming to skim just above or below the ships of the Casualty Flotilla, to let the Casualty Flotilla pass through the pursuit force’s box.

The smart proximity fuses, which had been cannibalized from Alliance mines and mounted on the outside of the hulls of the hulks, their parameters adjusted to reflect the destructive effect of the improvised weapons they were now linked to, watched the oncoming enemy ships, calculating when to detonate their charges in order to catch targets moving toward them at almost a tenth of the speed of light. As the Syndic formation reached the right point, the fuses triggered overloads in the still-active power cores of the abandoned ships in a rippling mass of destruction into which the Syndics raced with no time to react.

An entire region of space lit up as so many power cores blew, including that of Audacious, the broken battleship striking one last deathblow against the enemy. A dense field of high-velocity debris, particles, and energy burst outward in all directions, reaching maximum intensity and size in the fraction of a second in which the Syndic formation sped through that area of space.

Geary watched, tense, as the center of the Syndic formation disappeared inside the massive explosions. The edges of the Syndic box were outside the zone of destruction, but its center had been caught almost perfectly.

Moments later the display updated, evaluating the Syndic pursuit force’s status as it shot out of the still- expanding death throes of the Casualty Flotilla.

Muffled cheers erupted around Geary. Captain Desjani gasped a brief sound of glee. He simply stared, shocked at how much damage had been inflicted on the enemy.

Every ship in the Casualty Flotilla had disappeared, of course, totally destroyed by the explosions of their power cores. Most of the Syndic HuKs in the blast area had also vanished, those caught in the densest portions of the explosions blown into pieces too small to be worth tracking. Larger chunks of debris marked the remains of light cruisers and those heavy cruisers which had been caught dead on by the blasts. Two heavy cruisers emerged from the edges of the detonation field intact, but with their systems blown, falling off helplessly down and to port. Only five heavy cruisers survived in the outer parts of the Syndic formation.

Every Syndic battle cruiser in the zone of destruction had been knocked out, some literally broken into pieces and others still in one piece but with no operating systems. Of the thirteen battle cruisers the Syndic pursuit force had boasted, nine were either destroyed or out of commission.

Out of the pursuit force’s thirty-one battleships, twenty had been caught in the blast zone. Eight of those were still intact but knocked out. Another nine were badly hurt, staggering onward with shields blown and many systems out. The other three were damaged but appeared still combat-capable.

“I think the odds just shifted in our favor,” Desjani announced, her eyes bright with battle lust as the opposing forces began to come together.

Chances were the Syndic CEO in charge of the pursuit force had either died in the destruction of the Casualty Flotilla or was on a ship with all systems blown and unable to communicate with his own ships. Lacking new orders, the surviving Syndic warships stuck to their last commands, bearing down on the fleeing Alliance auxiliaries. Their formation now resembled the outline of a box, with the center torn out and trailing behind as crippled ships fell away.

Furious and Implacable, their hopeless charge now facing a much-diminished enemy, tore across one side of the now-empty Syndic box, concentrating their fire on the leading Syndic battleship as the moment of firing opportunity came and went in a flash. The Alliance battle cruisers’ escorts focused their own fire on the lighter units with the Syndics, taking out a few HuKs and two light cruisers.

As Captain Cresida’s warships rocketed away and began the vast turn required to make another firing pass at the Syndics, the enemy battleship, which had caught successive volleys of specter missiles, grapeshot, and hell lances, began sliding out of position, its aft propulsion systems still at full strength, but its forward sections torn