The Lost Fleet Beyond the Frontier Invincible

Even though his ships had taken relatively few hits, system failure reports rippled across Geary’s display. Hell-lance batteries on some ships, fire control on others, here and there shields losing coverage. Another light cruiser was scrambling to get back to the formation, having apparently missed his last command, and wasn’t reporting current status, so Strike had probably suffered a comm failure.

“If they aim to ram Invincible . . .” Desjani cautioned.

“Even her armor won’t save her. I know.” Geary tapped a combination of ships to talk to. “Captain Armus, and commanding officers of Dreadnaught, Orion, Dependable, Conqueror, Relentless, Reprisal, Superb, and Splendid. We assess that the enigmas intend to ram our capital ships, and that Invincible will be a focus for their attack on your formation. Watch for enigma ships on collision courses with yourselves and Invincible, and ensure neither they nor any large pieces of them get through. Captain Armus, you are to take necessary action to deal with enigma ramming tactics to the best of your ability and ensure that every ship in your formation is on guard for enemy ships aiming for collisions with battle-ships, auxiliaries, and assault transports.”

The enigmas were accelerating again, trying to pull past the point where the path of Geary’s pursuit force would swing through their formation. He watched the point of contact slide farther and farther back, wondering if the enigmas would manage to slip past completely. “All units, hit them in the rear as we make contact. Watch for mines dropped in the wake of the enigma ships.” Using mines that way would be a tactic of desperation but might still cripple some of Geary’s ships if the enigmas got lucky.

The pursuit formation whipped up and across the back of the enigma formation, Alliance missiles and hell-lance fire slamming into the sterns of the enigma warships still accelerating toward the main body of the Alliance fleet. Geary, who had tried to hit the front of the enigma formation, realized that the relative motion, which had instead brought the formations together like this, had spared his own ships a lot of damage. The enigma ships were all stern-on to their attackers, unable to employ most of their weapons. The main propulsion of the enigma warships were also exposed to the Alliance fire, taking damage that might otherwise have been met by hull armor.

“All units immediate execute come starboard five zero degrees, down one zero degrees, accelerate to point one five light speed.” As the pursuit swung back and down again, Geary realized that he couldn’t catch the enigmas once more until after they had reached the main body. The enemy had used their superior acceleration to speed out of reach for now.

But in the wake of the enigma formation, another twenty-three enemy ships drifted, or had spun off out of control or had blown up into clouds of debris, and so far Alliance losses had been minimal.

Desjani shook her head. “Admiral, you’re asking a lot of Captain Armus.”

“I’m aware that Captain Armus is not distinguished by flexibility or quickness,” Geary said, hearing the harshness in his voice. “But he is steady.”

The spider-wolf ships had kept rising a little higher above the plane of the star system and the combatants, then leveled out heading toward the star and the inner planets. Their position would give them a box seat for the rest of the battle, taking them out of any risk of further contact with the enigmas.

The main body of the Alliance forces was almost directly ahead of Geary’s pursuit force, between them the enigma formation, which was rapidly closing on the main body and slowly pulling away from Geary’s ships.

“Contact between main body and enigma formation in twenty-five—” Lieutenant Castries’s voice broke off. “Recalculating. Main body is braking.”

“Braking?” Desjani asked in disbelieving tones. “They have so much trouble getting up to speed, and he’s braking?”

Geary watched his display, understanding dawning. “You’re thinking like a battle cruiser commander. Armus is a battleship captain. He wants the best opportunity to make the firepower of his battleships count, and that means getting the meeting velocity down to less than point two light speed.”

“But when you’re dealing an enemy who wants to ram you—”

“Tanya, he can’t dodge them. Not with those battleships and Invincible. And look what he’s doing with the auxiliaries and the assault transports.” Those ships had swung back, taking position behind a wall of combatants, which had compressed down, leaving relatively little space between them. “He knows he needs to blow away anything coming at him.”

“This is way too much like the tactics you told us not to use. Head-to-head, firepower-versus-firepower, no finesse, no fancy maneuvering.”

“There’s a time and a place for everything, Tanya.”