The Lost Fleet: Fearless

The jump point exit remained more than eight light-minutes away. No signs of Syndic pursuers had appeared yet. Task Force Furious had finished its work and was headed for its ordered position. Desjani was eyeing the distance to the jump point exit with concern. “Should we slow, sir? If we’re too close when the Syndics come through…”

Geary shook his head. “Not yet. We don’t have Invincible covered yet.”

“Yes, sir.” Desjani grinned.

If he ever lost Desjani’s approval, Geary reflected, he would know for sure that he had messed up as badly as any human possibly could. “We’ll hold our speed until we’re within a light-minute of Invincible, and if the Syndics haven’t shown up at that point we’ll-”

“Enemy forces at the jump exit,” a watch-stander cried as alarms wailed.

Geary blinked in amazement at the images on his display as the Syndic vanguard flashed into normal space. Not a swarm of light units, but twelve battle cruisers, arranged in three vertical diamond formations. It made sense, he realized, if the Syndic commander thought he would be facing four battered capital ships with very few screening units surviving. Why send light units through to be destroyed by a potential desperate ambush when losses could be minimized by sending through a force capable of overwhelming the four damaged Alliance capital ships if they had chosen to make a stand at the exit?

Unfortunately for the Syndic commander and the twelve battle cruisers, this side of the jump exit actually held the rest of Geary’s fleet and a dense minefield.

The Syndic battle cruisers sailed majestically away from the exit at.1 light speed for a few seconds, doubtless seeing the waiting Alliance force and having those few moments to realize the tables had been turned on the pursuers. Geary watched the images of the Syndic battle cruisers begin to turn, pivoting to alter course downward. He had a second to wonder why fleeing ships almost always sought to “dive” down instead of “climb” up, as if they were aircraft or even people running on the surface of a world, even though the two directions were purely arbitrary and required exactly the same effort in space.

In this case, as the Syndic battle cruisers pivoted their bows downward, it meant they ran into the minefield not bow on, but broadside on, offering even bigger targets for the waiting Alliance mines. If their escorts had been leading the way, the deaths of smaller units on the mines would have warned the battle cruisers, but instead the first warning the capital ships received was when they hit the mines themselves. Explosions rippled down their lengths, collapsing shields so that other mines could strike the hulls. The battle cruisers reeled as the mines blew holes in them and sent fragments flying into space. One of the battle cruisers blew up as its power core overloaded, then two more in quick succession, the three ships turning into fields of shrapnel blossoming out from the scenes of their deaths. Of the nine remaining battle cruisers, eight were drifting away out of control, rocked by occasional new explosions as an outlying mine battered them or as damage set off internal explosions.

The last Syndic battle cruiser, in even worse shape than Invincible, staggered on past the minefield with most of its propulsion blown and combat systems out of action but still managing to hold a course. Geary checked the geometry of the battlefield. “Warspite is just within maximum specter range of that battle cruiser. Is it worth trying to get hits?”

Desjani nodded. “That Syndic isn’t going to be dodging any missiles. He’s a sitting duck.”

“Just like Invincible would’ve been for them,” Geary agreed. “Warspite, this is Captain Geary. Engage the leading Syndic battle cruiser with specters. All other ships hold your fire. This can’t be the entire Syndic pursuit force. You’ll have plenty of targets to play with soon.”

Forty seconds later the answer came back from Warspite. “Aye. Engaging lead battle cruiser.” On his display, Geary could see four specters leaping out from the Alliance battleship and heading in long, shallow curves toward intercepts with the crippled Syndic.

“No matter what they’ve got left, twelve battle cruisers gone is going to go a long ways toward evening things up,” Desjani observed.

“Yeah. Where’s the rest?” Geary wondered.

His words were answered almost immediately. The jump exit, now barely seven and a half light-minutes away, was suddenly filled with ships. Geary forced himself to carefully study the enemy formation. A deep rectangle, broad face toward the Alliance fleet, capital ships arranged at each corner and in the center, the gaps filled with lighter units.

“Twenty capital ships,” Desjani noted. “Sixteen battleships and four battle cruisers. Thirty-one heavy cruisers. Forty-two light cruisers and HuKs.”

“More than enough to wipe out the Alliance ships they followed here,” Geary observed.