The Lost Fleet: Beyond the Frontier: Guardian

“Good. With Rione having a vote, that means four votes. Left to themselves, those three senators might have settled on a two-to-one result after a little infighting. But with four votes, Rione can shift every time a majority starts to develop and keep everything stymied at two to two. Senator Navarro must have known she would be able to do that if he gave her his proxy.” Navarro, weary as he is of the ugly politics afflicting the Alliance, was canny enough to figure out how to frustrate any attempted interference with me. But if he anticipated the need for that, did he think I might face this situation? Did he know someone might try to set up this ambush at Sol? Or did Navarro just plan for the worst in case it was needed?

“Ten minutes to entering estimated threat envelope,” Lieutenant Yuon said.

“Are you going to keep your bow pointed at them?” Geary asked. Dauntless had been going backwards at very high speed ever since pivoting around to slow her velocity.

“Until I guess their missiles are launching,” Desjani confirmed. “I want my strongest weaponry and shields facing them.”

The remaining minutes passed with the usual slowness they acquired when waiting for a critical event. When Dauntless entered the missile threat envelope, there would be only a few seconds to react, but Geary sat back with every sign of calm confidence as he waited for Desjani to make her decision.

For her part, Desjani no longer seemed aware of him, her focus locked on the display before her.

“Entering—”

Lieutenant Yuon broke off as Dauntless pitched downward and accelerated at the maximum capability of her main propulsion units, then rolled into a skidding turn tens of thousands of kilometers wide as the thrusters on her port bow fired at full power.

Geary braced himself against momentum forces strong enough to leak past the inertial dampers. A low groan of straining metal and composites rose around him as Dauntless herself protested the stresses on her hull. On his display, red danger symbols marked a volley of missiles bending around in pursuit of Dauntless.

“They fired first,” Desjani said. “Request permission to return fire.”

Not only had the Covenant ships fired first, but they had unleashed a volley of missiles instead of a single warning shot. Any question about whether they sought Dauntless’s destruction had now been answered. “Permission granted. Take all necessary actions to defend Dauntless and the Dancer ships.”

Geary’s comm alert pulsed urgently. The senators had noticed the last maneuver, probably when it pitched them from their seats. “Yes?”

Senator Costa glared at him from a virtual window. “What is happening?”

“We have been fired upon by the warships of the Covenant flotilla, Senator. They opened fire without provocation, using sufficient force to have destroyed Dauntless if we had not maneuvered to evade their attack.” Don’t ask. Don’t ask. Don’t ask.

Geary’s silent plea was answered. Costa didn’t ask what Dauntless was doing now, her image vanishing without another word. She doubtless assumed that the battle cruiser was simply avoiding the attack and getting clear of danger.

On Geary’s display, the Covenant missiles were still closing on Dauntless, whipping through tighter turns than the battle cruiser could manage, the long arcs of their intercept vectors curving toward the place where Dauntless would be if she maintained her current course and speed.

But under Desjani’s command Dauntless bent her path upward and to starboard. The missiles had to react, swinging through wider arcs, burning their propulsion furiously as they sought to compensate for the battle cruiser’s latest maneuver.

“Admiral?” Lieutenant Iger’s image had appeared beside Geary. “Sir, the numbers of missiles in that volley match the number of missile launch points we had previously identified on the Covenant ships.”

“Good, that’s— What?” Geary moved his hand against the strain of Desjani’s latest maneuver, calling up data. “That’s all? On that many ships? That means the big ones only have two launchers apiece?”

“And the small ones have none,” Iger confirmed.

Geary stared at the statistics. “These ships have armament roughly comparable to our own auxiliaries. They’re a little better armed, but not much. Why the hell would anyone build a warship that big, that expensive, and that elaborate and put so few weapons on it?”

“I . . . don’t know, sir.”