No reply came. Justin plugged the numbers into his Lawrence drive and hoped he wouldn’t be too late to affect the battle.
20
Punch and counter-punch continued between the Greengold, her battlegroup, and the pirate forces. While Tehrani had more skill in tactical combat and exploited the pirates' relative inexperience in fighting as a cohesive group against them, it seemed to be only a matter of time before the CDF ships would have to retreat. She studied the tactical plot, searching for anything to use against the enemy. They have too much volume of fire compared to our shield strength.
“Whatcha thinking, Skipper?” Wright asked quietly.
“It might be time to go. If we were defending Terran Coalition citizens…”
“It might be different, but I’m not interested in sacrificing everything for a megacorp.” Wright said the last word with borderline disgust.
“Exactly.”
“It’s still our best chance to stop these pirates, ma’am.”
I know. Tehrani closed her eyes for a moment.
“Conn, Communications. I’ve got an inbound transmission from one of the civilian ships, ma’am.”
“Put it on.”
The screen above Tehrani’s head came to life with an image of a man in uniform similar to that of the other megacorp vessel, though it was more utilitarian. The outline of a sidearm could be made out in the lower left quarter of the screen. “Colonel Tehrani?”
“With whom do I have the pleasure of speaking?” she replied with mock politeness.
“Sentinel Ohmedov, Nosamo Aerothermic Technologies, security division. I want to apologize on behalf of the corporation.” He set his jaw. “I’ve got a small force of four vessels here with upgraded shields and weapons. With your permission, we’d like to join the fight.”
Tehrani’s jaw dropped so far that it nearly rebounded off her legs. “That would’ve been nice thirty minutes ago.”
“I regret we were prevented from joining you.” Ohmedov pursed his lips. “I expect to be terminated by the company, actually. But my crews and I are united in a belief that others shouldn’t die in our name without us at least making ourselves useful. Please, let us help.”
His words resonated with Tehrani. She nodded. “Very well. My communications officer will link you into our tactical network. Follow my commands, Sentinel. That is the only requirement.”
“Aye, aye, Colonel Tehrani.” Ohmedov’s face disappeared from the monitor, leaving it blank.
“I guess pigs are flying today,” Wright said with a smirk.
Tehrani snickered. “Maybe they are, but I’ll take all the help I can get at the moment.”
“Conn, TAO. The Astute’s launched another wave of Starbolts, ma’am.”
Immediately, Tehrani’s gaze went to the tactical plot. A group of eight icons rapidly gained on one of the pirate corvettes. It twisted in the void, straining to avoid the kill shot, but failed. Caught out of position, its consorts couldn’t provide adequate fire support from their point-defense weaponry. Seven out of eight warheads slammed into the vessel’s shields, and when the glare faded, another enemy ship had vanished.
“Conn, TAO. Master Four destroyed, ma’am.”
That brought their total to five corvettes out of the fight. Six to go plus the carrier. On the small-craft front, Tehrani had concerns they were losing the battle. The pirate fighters were soaking up a lot of damage, and they’d destroyed two Maulers, a Boar, and a Sabre so far.
“Conn, TAO. They’re coming back around, ma’am, on a vector for our port quarter.” Bryan paused. “I’m having difficulty getting our deflector cohesion up. We need to drop them to recharge.”
These pirates know their business. Their tactics reminded Tehrani of a pack of wild animals hunting wounded prey. “We’ll take a shot at that after this next pass, Lieutenant.”
They were probably looking for a knockout blow before the civilian security vessels got in range. It’s what I would do.
Incoming plasma-cannon and meson fire raked the Marcus Luttrell’s shields, hammering them down. As she was ahead of the Greengold in formation, the destroyer took the brunt of the attack. Pieces of hull were blasted off along with at least one point-defense turret. Vaper trailed from multiple hits as the battered ship fought back with everything she had. Neutron beams and magnetic-cannon rounds raced away from the Marcus Luttrell and smacked the lead corvette.
“TAO, firing point procedures, forward neutron beams, Master Eleven.”
“Firing solutions set, ma’am.”
“Match bearings, shoot, forward neutron beams.”
The damaged pirate vessel took the twin blue beams in stride and rotated at the last moment to present an undamaged shield arc. Return fire in the form of plasma balls and anti-ship missiles lashed out at the Greengold. While the Luttrell had taken damage, the enemy had clearly saved most of their punishment for the escort carrier.
On Tehrani’s monitor, the deflector-strength indicator dropped like a stone for both their forward and port arcs. She stared in alarm as hits on their armor registered.
“Hull damage, deck seven, section A three-one-six,” Wright said. The bridge lights blinked. “We lost a power coupling amidships.”
“Navigation, roll the ship and present our ventral shield to the enemy,” Tehrani barked.
“Aye, aye, ma’am.”
In combat, much like life, timing was everything. Sentinel Ohmedov’s timing was impeccable. His four vessels, which were barely bigger than in-system patrol boats, raced into the fray. Plasma weaponry came alive and raked the already-damaged pirate corvette from bow to stern with energy bolts. While it tried to maneuver away, the volume of fire was too much to avoid.
“Conn, TAO. Master Eleven’s taken heavy damage, ma’am. She’s drifting.”
Tehrani let out a sigh of relief, and her eyes flicked to the next target.
Not to be outdone, the pirate corvettes immediately reprioritized their targeting. While military-grade deflectors could absorb incredible amounts of damage before failure, civilian models could not. Some megacorps took the extra step of procuring better equipment for their security forces, but apparently not this one. Under a barrage of plasma shots, one security vessel exploded outright, while two others took significant damage.
“Conn, TAO. Aspect change, remaining enemy contacts. They’re pulling back, ma’am. Master One is moving forward to meet them and charging its weapons.”
To finish us off. Tehrani
