Honor Bound

She slowly shook her head. Everything they’d done, all the sacrifices they’d made, and it hadn’t been enough to stop this…

“Colonel Stark,” she heard President O’Keefe’s voice over her ‘link; she could hear the horror and fear in it. “You have heard what’s happening?”

“Yes, Mr. President,” she said. “Sir, I know about the threat from the Protectorate fleet, but I have evidence that Brendan Riordan’s resources have been used by Kevin Fourcade to build an army of perhaps twenty thousand biomechs somewhere near Montreal. He’s been arming them with modern weapons and I believe he intends to mobilize them very soon… he’s probably been waiting for this strike by his fleet.”

“Isn’t this why we have orbital kinetic strike weapons, Colonel?” O’Keefe asked, a bit testy and impatient, she thought. “I’ll release their control to you… won’t that be enough to stop them?”

Shannon bit back her initial response and grabbed desperately at what little patience she had left. “Sir, those weapons are meant for use on hardened targets: weapons emplacements, terrorist strongpoints, armored columns. They are useful for fire support, but first they have to have someone to support. I need troops, sir, and lots of them.”

“Colonel Stark, I’m sorry… the RSC is needed to support the evacuation to the shelters. And I doubt they’re well-armed enough to do much anyway. We just don’t have that sort of force available!”

“Excuse me,” a harsh-edged, familiar voice came onto the ‘link. “I am sorry for intruding, Mr. President, but I was contacted by General Rietveld.” General Kage paused and she could almost hear the tight, satisfied grin on his ugly face. “I believe I may be of some help…”

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Drew Franks sagged against his seat restraints, cursing softly as he watched the sensor display on the main screen, the thermal plumes hanging over Armstrong Base like a tombstone. Everyone on the bridge seemed stunned, even acting-Captain Lee. She closed her eyes for a moment, lips moving in what might have been a prayer.

“We do what we can,” she said finally. Franks thought it was becoming a mantra to her. “Lt. Bevins, take us back toward the enemy fleet.”

“We need to reach the Decatur,” Franks said, having to fight the shock just to find the strength to open his mouth. “They don’t know about the method we used to take out the ramships. At least I don’t think they do.”

“I’ve got a fix on them, Captain,” Wolford told her. “They have two ramships closing with them, and I’m reading more Eysselink drive signatures coming through the wormhole.”

“Set course to intercept the ramships, Lt. Bevins,” Lee ordered. “Two g acceleration.”

“Where the hell are they getting all the antimatter to run those things?” Bevins wondered, touching the controls that sent them pushing back into their acceleration couches with the fist of God pushing against their chests.

“They don’t need that much,” Franks pointed out, his voice strained. “They use the wormholes to travel the interstellar distances, and conventional drives when they’re not in combat. As for where they got it… well, there have been quite a few cargo ships pirated by them over the years. And maybe they’ve figured out how to make it themselves.”

Of course, there was also the very real possibility that it had been provided to them by Riordan and the other collaborators, but Franks was pretty certain that wasn’t something that Colonel Stark wanted him spreading around.

“What’s the tactical situation?” Lee asked.

“Ma’am,” Wolford answered, “I am currently reading at least 250 ships that have already come through the wormhole, and that’s not counting the 30 to 40 that the Decatur has taken out so far-I’m guessing on that number, from the wreckage floating around. I’m not currently reading anything coming through the gate, but I don’t know that means they don’t have any more to send.”

“If we take out the ramships first,” Franks mused, “we can plow right through the rest and they couldn’t touch us.”

Lee gave a curt nod that he barely saw. “Let’s just hope the Decatur can hold out till we get there, Lieutenant…”

* * *

Captain Joyce Minishimi barely blinked this time when the globular fusion explosion lit up the main viewscreen for an eyeblink then slid away.

“That’s the last ship in this cluster,” Gianeto told her. “The others have spread out pretty far to not give us an easy target.” He hesitated. “The two ramships are still on our tail. Three minutes till the lead ship intercepts our field at current accelerations.”

“No use putting it off any longer,” Minishimi sighed. She hit a control on her station’s console. “Commander Prieta,” she called to the Engineering officer.

“Yes, Captain,” the reply came immediately, as if he had been expecting the call. And maybe he had, she thought.

“How confident are you in the bypass you’ve rigged to keep us from experiencing a terminal overload if we touch fields with one of those ramships?”

“As I told Lt. Franks when he contacted me earlier,” he replied, “I can guarantee we can survive it once. The second time…” She heard the shrug in his voice. “It is a 50-50 chance, ma’am.”

“Well, as those ramships don’t seem to be lacking for fuel,” she decided, “it’s a chance we’re going to have to take. Prepare for field intersect in one minute Commander.” She turned to Gianeto. “Larry, we’re going to go to station keeping and let the lead ship run right into us. When our fields go down, we’re going to have less than five minutes to get them back up in time to hit the other one. During that time, we need to do what we saw the Brad do: launch a pair of Shipbusters and program one of them to take out the second ship after we bring down its field. And I need that programming done in the next thirty seconds.”

“Not a problem,” Gianeto muttered, concentrating on his station as he entered the commands. A moment later, he looked up. “Done, ma’am. Ready when you are.”

“Just say the word, ma’am,” Witten announced from his station, fingers hovering over the icons that would start the deceleration.

Minishimi watched the display carefully for a moment, then hit the shipwide intercom. “This is Captain Minishimi. All hands brace for collision.” She paused. “It’s been an honor to serve with and fight beside all of you.” She locked eyes with Witten. “Hit the brakes, Francis.”

Minishimi had braced herself, but when the hit came, she was still thrashed violently, both physically and somehow spiritually in a way she couldn’t fathom, and everything went fuzzy in a way that seemed to have little to do with any trauma to her brain and more to do with trauma to reality. Somewhere deep in her consciousness, she raged, knowing that she was wasting time they wouldn’t get back, time that could cost them their lives, but it was as if she were swimming through a sea of glue to get back to herself.

“L… launch missiles!” She tried to scream it, but it choked out as a squeak that she was sure was nearly inaudible. As it turned out, it didn’t matter… she could see that Gianeto had recovered quicker than her and was stabbing the control to launch the pair of Shipbusters.

“Missiles away!” he called, the Tactical display projected around him still hazy and flickering from the near overload of the systems.

“Commander Prieta,” Minishimi was finally able to speak, the words breaking out in a bellow, as if they’d been trying to kick down a door, “can we get the drive back up?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Prieta assured her. “The bypass held and we have fuel containment. The drive is ready, on your command.”

“Lt. Witten, activate the drive field and give us a heading away from the first ship… we don’t want to be nearby when the Shipbuster hits it.”