Leviathan

Thirteen

“Is there any way we can confirm whether or not that hypernet gate is blocked?” Geary asked Desjani.

She called up the hypernet key controls. “I’ve never tried to ping a gate from this far away, but I don’t know why it wouldn’t work. We’ll have to wait until the ping gets there and the reply gets back to us, though. At this point, that will take more than eight hours.”

“Do it. I need to be certain whether that option is foreclosed.”

“Yes, sir.” She touched some commands. “I’m asking the gate to identify any available destination gate. If it is completely blocked, the answer will come back as none. Have you considered the strange coincidence of this situation, Admiral?” she asked, keeping her voice very low.

“What strange coincidence is that, Captain?” Geary replied in the same tones.

“The enigmas gave us the hypernet. The Syndics taught us how to block the gates. It’s like those two enemies conspired to get us into this situation.”

“To the benefit of the people behind the dark ships,” Geary said, “who would doubtless be scandalized at any suggestion that they had anything in common with the Syndics. All right. Regardless of whether or not that gate is blocked, we need to destroy the orbital docks and warehouses. That way, no matter what happens here, the dark ships will eventually no longer be a threat if the government can keep them from acquiring any alternate source of fuel cells. And we need to take the Unity Alternate government facility and find out what is there.”

“Taking the facility will require exposing Mistral and hanging the Marines out in a tough situation,” Desjani objected. “Why not wait on that?”

“Because somewhere on that facility there may be the means to lift the block on the hypernet gate if, as we suspect, there is a block.”

“Thinking of that is why you’re the Admiral and I’m not,” Desjani said.

Geary took in the information on his display, where all five dark ship formations were now converging on the projected path of the First Fleet and the accompanying Dancer forty-ship armada. All of the dark ship formations were ahead of the Alliance and Dancer ships. Closest were the four dark battle cruisers which had first appeared and were still rushing toward the Alliance forces. Behind them were the four dark battleships that had also come out of the docks. Both of those formations were just off the port bows of the Alliance warships, and if neither of them maneuvered differently, would remain in that relative position, growing steadily closer until contact.

Just off to starboard of the Alliance bows were the ten dark battle cruisers and the smaller dark warships accompanying them. Those dark battle cruisers were also steadying up for a direct intercept, but one that would take place considerably after the two dark ship formations coming from the docks. Finally, almost directly ahead were the eight dark battleships and the cruisers and destroyers with them, coming on steadily at a rate that would cause them to intercept the Alliance formation a few light-minutes before Geary’s force reached the dark ship docks and warehouses.

“They’re setting this up as if they’re going to hit us with each formation in succession,” Geary said. “I don’t think they’ll actually do that. It would let us whittle them down as each smaller dark ship formation encountered our entire force. But they’re probably hoping I’ll think that’s what they are planning, if ‘hoping’ is the right word to use for an AI’s calculations.”

“You’ve tried that trick more than once yourself against opponents,” Desjani pointed out.

“Yes, but it’s a little insulting for an AI that’s supposed to think like me to think I would fall for one of my own tricks. That first battle cruiser formation could dodge a direct encounter, then harass us until other dark ships get here. And if the dark battleships coming from the docks slow a little, they’ll reach us about the same time as the big battle cruiser formation that was hiding behind Star Alpha. We need something to keep that first dark battle cruiser group busy.” He nodded to himself, then called General Charban. “General, could you and your lieutenants put together a poetic invitation for the Dancer ships to engage that first formation of dark battle cruisers? It would help us a lot if those battle cruisers had the Dancers hitting them while we dealt with the other dark ship formations.”

“We will write them a battle hymn,” Charban said.

“Have the Dancers sent anything since all of the dark ships appeared?”

“Not a word, Admiral. They are definitely waiting on us.” Charban looked thoughtful. “I have the impression now that they regard us as the senior partner when they are in regions of space controlled by us. It may be a territorial thing. I’m not certain. But since we stopped using their version of ‘baby talk,’ the Dancers have been acting less like someone manipulating us and more like someone who is partnering with us.”

“Thank you, General.” Geary paused, then entered another call.

Victoria Rione’s image gazed back, her expression serene but her eyes dark. “It’s a little early for last-minute instructions, Admiral.”

“I may be too busy with other matters at the last minute,” Geary said. “There’s something else that you need to find on that facility. There is a real possibility that the hypernet gate here has been blocked in the same manner that the Syndics blocked theirs. We won’t have confirmation of that for several hours yet, but the tactics of the dark ships make me suspect that has happened. If the gate is blocked, and if there is anything on that facility that would allow us to unblock that gate, we need it.”

“If it is there, I will find it,” she replied. “If you can get us to the facility.”

“Mistral will get you there,” Geary said. “And I’ll make sure that Mistral can get there.”

After he ended that call, Desjani indicated her display. “So, we stay the course?”

“For now,” Geary said. “We still have over an hour and a half before that first dark battle cruiser formation closes on us. I have no intention of holding this vector long enough for all of those dark ships to hit us at their leisure, though.”

She leaned close, ensuring the privacy fields around their seats were active. “Have you noticed that when the dark ships are maneuvering, we’re seeing more judicious use of fuel cells? They’re not going to maximum burn on everything like they did at Bhavan.”

“I noticed,” Geary said. “They never repeat a mistake. This is like Bhavan, but a lot worse.”

“Jack, we’re going to have a hell of a time getting out of this.”

She almost never called him that when they were on her ship.

“I know. But if nothing else, we’ll get those support facilities. Even if we don’t make it out of this star system, the days of the dark ships are going to be numbered.”

“We who are about to die salute you!” she murmured.

“Tanya—”

“It’s all right. I should have died a dozen years ago, and I should have died a dozen times in the years since then. Lead on. Even if we lose this one, we’ll win in the long run, and it’ll be a fight they’ll be talking about for centuries.”

An hour later, Geary brought the fleet to full battle readiness again. Just about everyone on every ship was already at their battle stations, since they all knew about the oncoming enemy and had watched the dark ships’ approach for the last hour. As a result, every ship reported ready in record time.

He had spent the last hour trying to think rather than worry. He could outsmart the dark ships. He had done that more than once, with Tanya’s help in many cases because the dark ship AIs had been programmed to think like Black Jack and were confused when confronted by the Black Jack/Tanya Desjani team effort.

But the dark ships had known he had to go for their base. Because he had known that it was his only chance to beat them. Maybe someone had tipped the dark ships off with specific information, but in their place, Geary would have tried to lay just such a trap as this.

But he wouldn’t have given his opponent even a chance to get at the support facilities. The dark ships were still weak on logistics, still thinking in terms of tactics, not in terms of long campaigns. That gave him an opening.

He just didn’t know what to do after destroying those docks and warehouses.

“Twenty minutes to contact,” Lieutenant Castries said. “The dark battle cruiser formation is braking their velocity. Given the angle they will encounter us, projected combined velocity at the moment of intercept will be point two one light speed.”

“A little fast, but close enough for our fire-control systems to get good hits. Still holding the vector?” Desjani asked Geary.

“Still holding,” Geary said. “Just in case they do decide to charge us straight on.”

“If they do, Dauntless and Mistral will be their priority targets.”

“And with the screen of battle cruisers and battleships they’ll have to get through, none of them will survive to get a shot at us,” Geary said. He tapped his comm controls. “All units in First Fleet, I expect that this first formation of dark ships will make vector changes to avoid contact. If they do, the Dancers will handle them. If they do not, if they attack our formation, let’s make sure none of them survive the first pass.”

It felt odd, going into an engagement determined not to make any last-moment maneuver. Throwing off the enemy’s fire was always important. But he felt certain that these dark battle cruisers would not throw themselves away on a hopeless attack.

Because he would not have done that.

“Five minutes,” Lieutenant Castries said.

“The Dancers still haven’t moved,” Desjani noted.

“They will,” Geary said. “The dark ships are going to go after them.”

“You think so?” Desjani studied the situation. “Yes. If they come a little up and to port, they’ll go right through the Dancer formation instead of ours.”

“And you can bet the Dancers have seen that, too.” He knew he sounded confident. He hoped he was right.

The last minutes seemed to pass very slowly.

The moment of contact came and went too fast for human senses to register.

“No engagement!” Lieutenant Yuon announced.

Geary realized that he had been holding his breath and let it out slowly.

“Oh, nice!” he heard Desjani say.

Focusing on his display again, Geary saw that the Dancer formation had dissolved in the minute before contact, the forty bright ships sweeping down and over to catch one flank of the dark ship formation as it tore past. While none of the Dancer ships were the size of human battleships or battle cruisers, and none carried as much armament, forty of them could do a fair amount of damage, especially against smaller Alliance warships.

A dark heavy cruiser was reeling out of formation, unable to control its movement. One of the light cruisers was gone, nothing but debris remaining. A second had broken into sections, which were disintegrating as they tumbled through space. And one of the dark destroyers was gone as well.

“They’ll think twice before trying that again!” Desjani said gleefully.

“Damage to some of the Dancer ships, but none are disabled,” Lieutenant Yuon reported.

The dark battle cruisers were whipping around, the Dancers swarming and rising to meet their turn like huge, shining bubbles flying upward, all pretense of a rigid formation vanished in favor of something that resembled the movements of a school of fish.

“It’s too bad the Dancers don’t have more firepower. The dark ships didn’t take into account the maneuverability and skills of the Dancers,” Geary said. “The dark ships won’t make that mistake again, but the Dancers should keep that one group of battle cruisers busy.”

Which left four more groups of dark ships.

The battleships that had come out of the docks had started out an hour behind the dark battle cruisers and accelerated more slowly, so they were now more than two hours from contact. The three groups of dark ships that had come out from behind the two stars were pushing their own velocity up, aiming to reach Geary’s formation at the same time as the first group of battleships.

“We could detach enough ships to help the Dancers finish off that first group of battle cruisers,” Desjani suggested.

“That’s what they want,” Geary said. “To get us focused on fighting those battle cruisers, then the groups here after them, until our option to do anything else disappears. We’re going to hold together, we’re going to blow through any opposition that we can’t avoid, and we’re going to wipe out those docks and warehouses. Then we’ll engage the dark ships. By that time, we’ll also know whether or not the hypernet gate is blocked to us.”

He called up his division and squadron commanders, repeating what he had told Desjani. The news that the gate might be blocked was met with as much anger directed at the dark ships as fear for the consequences. Captain Badaya, though, saw a positive side to the situation. “They can’t get away from us this time!”

“We’ve got them trapped,” Captain Duellos agreed, smiling slightly.

Captain Jane Geary smiled broadly. “Nothing to lose. Let’s hit them just like Black Jack would.”

“We’re going to do just that,” Geary said, accepting the role of Black Jack as needed now. “We’re going to hit them and keep hitting them. If the fleet has to break into small formations centered on the battle cruiser and battleship divisions, I trust you all to operate independently, and I know you will all carry out your duties in a manner that does honor to your ancestors.”

He ended the call, concentrating once more on the situation. The first group of dark battle cruisers, scarred by the Dancer attack but still powerful and fast, was behind and above the Alliance ships, accelerating again. But they were beginning to roll to one side to evade the Dancers’ second pass. That was taking the dark ships off a vector to intercept Geary’s formation again. “General Charban, please inform the Dancers that they are doing all I could ask for, and to please continue keeping those dark battle cruisers occupied.”

“We may be inventing a new art form,” Charban replied. “Improvisational battle haiku. I will inform them. Admiral, I’m looking at this situation. Is it as bad as it appears?”

“Yes,” Geary said.

The dark battle cruisers fell increasingly far behind as they dodged repeated attacks by the Dancers, who could outmaneuver even the fastest and most agile dark ships. But after forty-five minutes of provocation, the dark battle cruisers darted directly onto a chase after Geary’s formation, ignoring a slashing Dancer attack that took out more of the dark cruisers and destroyers.

Fifteen minutes after, with the dark battle cruisers behind racing to catch up, the Dancers chasing those dark ships, and four dark ship formations approaching ahead, Geary sent new orders. The dark ships in front of Geary’s force were already beginning to decelerate in anticipation of intercepting his formation in half an hour. “All units in First Fleet, immediate execute, accelerate to point two five light speed.”

“What happens after we blow through them?” Desjani asked.

“We start braking, drop off Mistral as we blow past the government facility, continue braking to ensure the accuracy of our bombardment as we swing past the orbiting support facilities for the dark ships, blow away those facilities, then break into three formations and go after the dark ships.”

“Got it. Need help configuring the formations?”

“I would be grateful for your assistance, Captain.”

Because of the distance still separating the forces, it took the dark ships several minutes to see that Geary’s force was accelerating, limiting their time to counter his move. All they could do was further reduce their own velocity, and the three dark ship formations that had been hidden behind the two stars were already braking at near maximum.

Their carefully planned maneuvers thrown off by Geary’s acceleration, the dark ships were now coming in at rates that would cause them to encounter Geary’s fleet at slightly different times instead of all at once.

“Estimated relative velocity at contact with closest dark battleship formation is point two seven light,” Lieutenant Yuon announced.

“Nobody is going to get many hits at that speed,” Desjani said.

On Geary’s display, the thin, curving lines marking the projected paths of the dark ships were growing in diameter, shading lighter on their outer edges, reflecting growing uncertainty as to exactly where the enemy ships were and exactly what their vectors were, as the relative velocities grew so large that human sensors and tracking systems could not fully compensate for relativistic effects that warped their view of the universe. The closer objects got to the speed of light, the worse the relativistic effects, and the harder it was to see an accurate picture of what was outside of a ship. It was just one of the reasons why warships rarely pushed their velocities above point two light speed, but it was an important reason.

The dark ships would be having the same problem precisely tracking Geary’s warships. It was hard enough hitting something on the fly while shooting past at tens of thousands of kilometers per second. If you didn’t know exactly where that ship was and would be, the problem became an impossible one.

At five minutes before contact, with the different formations only about one light-minute apart, Geary sent new orders. “All units in First Fleet, immediate execute, pivot one six zero degrees port, down zero four degrees, brake velocity to point one light speed. Mistral, maneuver independently as required to close on the government facility.”

The Alliance warships swung their bows far over and slightly down, then lit off their main propulsion, not only slowing their velocity but also altering their path through space. The long curve of the First Fleet’s projected course began shifting to swing just past the government facility, then through the vast field of orbiting docks and warehouses.

Mistral’s track, though, began diverging as the assault transport started braking much harder than the warships and aimed directly for the government facility. Still nestled within the Alliance formation, Mistral started sliding back and slightly to the side relative to the other ships.

The dark ships had only a couple of minutes to spot Geary’s alterations in course and speed, their task complicated by having to guess what vectors the Alliance warships would steady out on and by the relativistic distortion smearing their views of the other ships.

The dark battleships immediately to the front of Geary’s formation misjudged how much his ships were turning and swung too wide for an encounter as the two forces tore past each other.

Less than a minute later, the dark battle cruisers that had come out from behind one of the stars skidded past just ahead of Geary’s fleet, having guessed wrong about how hard he would brake his ships’ velocity.

One of the two dark battleship formations still forward of Geary almost immediately afterwards raced past behind the Alliance warships.

The second of the dark battleship formations guessed better, skimming the top edge of Geary’s formation. Weapons fired on both sides, but the relative velocities were still too great to get decent fire-control solutions, and nearly every shot missed.

Behind, the first group of dark battle cruisers, still pursuing Geary’s fleet, was closing more rapidly as Geary’s warships slowed down, and behind the dark battle cruisers in turn, the Dancer swarm chased those dark ships.

To port and starboard, above and below, the dark ship formations whose attacks had been frustrated by Geary’s maneuvers were swinging around to set up new intercepts.

“We’ve got some vector divergence on the five heavy cruisers left to those dark battle cruisers behind us,” Desjani noted. “They’ve spotted Mistral’s movement, and they’re moving to intercept.”

“I was expecting that.” Geary tapped his controls. “Captain Tulev, take your battle cruiser division and maneuver to intercept the dark heavy cruisers behind us that I have designated. Those dark cruisers are aiming for Mistral. I don’t want any of them getting to her.”

“Understood, Admiral.”

Leviathan, Dragon, Steadfast, and Valiant began braking harder, also veering out more, aiming for an intercept on the dark heavy cruisers before they would reach Mistral.

A notice told Geary that Mistral was calling him. He accepted the call, seeing Commander Young’s image appear in a virtual window before him. “Admiral, we’re getting a look at more of the government facility as our angle of approach changes. There’s a covered dock attached to that facility,” Commander Young reported. “Big enough to hold a single battle cruiser or an assault transport, and the doors of the dock are open wide. When the staff on the facility tried to flee, they must have not bothered closing the dock doors behind them. I can get Mistral inside instead of dropping off my shuttles for the first wave of the Marine assault. All of the Marines can hit the facility at once, my shuttles won’t be exposed, and Mistral will be safe inside the dock.”

“Will you be safe?” Geary asked. “That dock is an easy target.”

“Admiral, there are no signs of that facility having been fired on. We’ve got plenty of indications that the dark ships have shot up shipping in this star system, but not a mark on any of the orbiting facilities. If the dark ships have any inhibits left active at all, at the top of their list would be not to fire on the government facility where their human overseers were located. It’s still a gamble, sir,” Young admitted, “but I think it is less risky than trying to play keep-away with the dark ships while also sending in and recovering multiple waves of shuttles and Marines.”

Geary stared forward, weighing options and risks, then nodded. “Very well, Commander. You are authorized to enter the dock and launch the assault from there. Notify Colonel Rico. Make sure you don’t loiter outside the hangar lining up your approach and matching velocity. I’m going to do all I can to keep the dark ships off you, but if you’re just hanging in space, you’ll be a very easy target for them.”

Commander Young grinned. “Admiral, I can dock ol’ Miss anywhere I’ve got a meter to spare on the sides and in front and back. Consider it done.”

Young’s image had no sooner vanished than Desjani gestured for Geary’s attention. “The dark battle cruisers behind us have seen Tulev’s battle cruisers moving. They’re altering vectors to intercept Tulev at the same time he intercepts their heavy cruisers.”

“Good.” Geary touched his controls again. “Captain Badaya, you are to take the First and Sixth Battle Cruiser Divisions, as well as the Third and Fifth Heavy Cruiser Divisions, and the Second, Twelfth, Fourteenth, and Seventeenth Destroyer Squadrons, and join with Captain Tulev’s Second Battle Cruiser Division to intercept the dark battle cruisers moving to engage Mistral. Captain Tulev, your division is now part of Formation Delta One commanded by Captain Badaya.”

Captains Badaya, Duellos, and Tulev acknowledged the orders, as did the commanders of the heavy cruiser divisions and destroyer squadrons. Illustrious, Incredible, Inspire, Formidable, and Implacable accompanied by ten heavy cruisers and thirty-one destroyers altered their vectors, sliding outward and up toward the path of the oncoming dark battle cruisers.

Geary could see Desjani glowering at her display. “I’m holding back Dauntless and the rest of the Fourth Battle Cruiser Division for a reason,” he said. “I want those dark battle cruisers to think they have a chance of getting to Mistral. If I added four more battle cruisers to our intercept force, the dark battle cruisers would be certain to veer off. But they might believe they can handle nine of our battle cruisers, especially since I am not part of that force.”

“You’re trusting Badaya to handle them.” Desjani grumbled.

“He’s the senior officer among those three battle cruiser division commanders, and Badaya can handle an overtaking intercept.”

“You still owe me one. Sir.”

Mistral was falling back fast now as she braked to match orbital velocity with the government facility. Geary’s battle cruiser formation Delta One was dropping back even faster so as to intercept the oncoming dark ships before they reached Mistral. Those dark battle cruisers had joined up with their heavy cruisers again and were coming on steadily, apparently ignoring both Badaya’s Delta One formation before them and the Dancers approaching from behind.

“Twenty-two minutes to intercept of dark battle cruisers by Delta One,” Lieutenant Castries said. “Mistral reports estimated docking time at facility in thirty-five minutes.”

Desjani, still grumpy, was eyeing her display. “The other dark ship formations are coming back onto intercepts, but they won’t be able to engage us again until after we pass through the region holding their orbiting support facilities. Clumsy of them. They’re giving us a clean shot at what they need to keep fighting.”

“It’s just like at Bhavan,” Geary said. “Whoever programmed the dark ships put a lot of effort into the tactical model but didn’t put nearly as much work or emphasis on logistics. The dark ships are still thinking primarily in terms of destroying us, not in terms of defending their support structure from us. And they’re not going to get a chance to rethink those priorities.”

He called up the bombardment routines again and, designating all of the docks and warehouses as targets, told the fleet’s combat systems to come up with a launch plan for when the Alliance warships went through the region of space holding those facilities. Not certain if the battle cruisers in Delta One would be back with the main formation, Geary told the combat systems to make full use of the awesome bombardment capabilities of the twenty-one Alliance battleships as well as Desjani’s Fourth Battle Cruiser Division. This time, with such short flight distances between launch platform and target, any unpredictable or varying interactions of the gravitational fields of the two stars had too little impact to worry about. The proposed plan popped up almost instantly. “Can you do a sanity check on this for me, Captain Desjani?”

She looked over the plan on her own display, brightening as she saw the sheer size of the bombardment. “We’re going to make sure nothing survives this run.”

“Right,” Geary said. “I don’t want to have to worry about coming back to finish the job.”

“It looks very good to me.” She checked another part of her display. “It also looks like you were right, Admiral. Those dark battle cruisers are going to try to take Badaya. They want Mistral bad and probably figure they can whittle down our number of battle cruisers at the same time.”

Their bows facing backwards while their main propulsion labored to slow them down, the ships under Badaya’s command already had the majority of their weapons and strongest shields pointed toward the enemy. The dark battle cruisers, though, having ramped up their velocity to catch Geary’s ships, were now having to brake harder and longer in order to effectively engage the Alliance battle cruisers, their sterns toward the enemy they were rapidly closing on. And as the dark battle cruisers and Geary’s battle cruisers both slowed, the Dancers gained more rapidly on both of them.

Those aboard Mistral, Geary reflected, were probably feeling extremely nervous at the mass of human, automated, and alien warships swiftly bearing down on them.

“Badaya is cutting it close,” Desjani warned. “The dark ships are going to be almost in range of Mistral when he engages them.”

“He wants the dark ships to hold their vectors,” Geary said, “and maybe he’s hoping they’ll be holding their fire as well, waiting to engage Mistral.”

“We did that to them at Bhavan,” Desjani said. “They won’t fall for it again.”

“We’ll know in less than two minutes.” He had no doubt that the dark battle cruisers would be stopped. He could only hope that his own battle cruisers would not pay too high a price.

The dark battle cruisers pivoted at the last possible moment, bringing their bows forward to face the Alliance force. They came within range of Badaya’s battle cruisers seconds before the Dancers caught the dark ships from behind. Even at the comparatively slow relative velocity at which the ships engaged this time, the exchange of fire happened too quickly for human senses to follow.

But Geary had no trouble spotting the explosion which, from its intensity, could only mark the destruction of a battle cruiser, as well as lesser detonations that heralded the deaths of heavy cruisers and destroyers. The fleet’s sensors were still trying to evaluate the outcome, who had lost what, when the Dancers ripped through the remains of destroyed ships to hammer the dark ships again.

The formations diverged, finally giving Geary a clear look.

“Mistral is all right,” Desjani said. The assault transport was still braking, now being overtaken by the fast-moving fields of wreckage from the shattered warships that had been pursuing her.

“We lost Motte,” Geary said as the report of the heavy cruisers’ loss came in. “As well as Moulinet, Remise, Mause, Spitfire, and Skyraider.” Two light cruisers and three destroyers. “Lots of damage to Dragon, Incredible, and Implacable.” Those three battle cruisers seemed to attract a lot of hits in every battle.

One blessing was that in a bow-on engagement, there had been few hits on propulsion and maneuvering systems. None of the damaged Alliance warships would be unable to keep up with their fellows.

Unfortunately, that was also true of the dark ships.

On the positive side, one of the dark battle cruisers was gone and the other three had been damaged enough to break off their attack. The dark ships had also lost two more heavy cruisers, another light cruiser, and four more destroyers.

“If they hadn’t veered off their attack vector, they would have been wiped out,” Desjani said, her right hand forming a fist that she rapped against her seat in frustration. “It looks like they tried to shift targets at the last instant to the ships in Delta One, then to the Dancers.”

“I bet they did,” Geary said, studying the results of the engagement replayed in very slow motion. “That was their fix to what we did at Bhavan, to allow last-moment retargeting outside normal parameters. But that meant in this engagement they ended up losing their chances at a lot of shots by shifting targets too often and too easily.”

He grimaced as he looked over the results, and the sharp curve of the path the remaining dark ships in that group were following as they swung out to one side and down relative to Geary’s formation. “We didn’t hit them hard enough.” He had always tried to avoid battles of attrition in which each side wore down the other, taking and inflicting losses at terrible rates. But he was beginning to believe that this battle would offer no alternatives to that strategy that weren’t even worse.

“Delta One,” Geary sent, “maintain your position relative to this formation until we clear the enemy support facility region.”

The government facility, a vast structure orbiting in solitary splendor, gleamed as Geary’s fleet swept past it. Hazard lights were visible on the outside of the structure, and on Geary’s display the exterior view of the facility was overlain with sensor readings of heat leakage and power use that showed which portions of the facility were in use. The intended home for an Alliance government in exile radiated a sense of great strength as well as great size, which struck Geary as ironic given its intended function. The only way this facility would ever have been occupied by the Alliance government was if Unity had fallen and most if not all of the Alliance had been occupied by the Syndics. Its use for its intended functions would have marked last-ditch desperation and defeat, not strength.

“We might have had to use this,” Desjani said. “If you hadn’t shown up.”

“And now it’s my job to neutralize it,” Geary said. “Are the living stars laughing?”

Mistral was partly out of sight around the curve of the facility as she backed in to the dock, her main propulsion flaring at full power as the assault transport slowed rapidly over the last few thousand meters before exactly matching the orbital vector of the facility. Geary saw Mistral’s propulsion stutter once as Commander Young fine-tuned the braking slightly, maneuvering thrusters also adjusting the transport’s angle of approach. Seconds later, the transport glided into the dock, comm relays dropped in Mistral’s wake still providing a solid link to the assault ship for the rest of the fleet even though she was now completely within the hangar.

As far as Geary could see, no other dark ships were maneuvering to attack Mistral. Now that she was inside the dock, the dark ships appeared to have completely lost interest in her. “Good work, Commander,” Geary sent. “The dark ships are not continuing to target Mistral. But don’t forget that the dark ships may well be trying to work around whatever prevents them firing on that facility and on you. We don’t know how much time you have.”

New virtual windows had popped up next to Geary’s seat, showing the views from the armor of Marines who were already charging off Mistral and storming the facility. If he wanted to, Geary could call up the view from the armor of any Marine in the assault force, but at the moment he had a job to do dealing with the dark ships. He couldn’t waste his attention riding the shoulder of a Marine lieutenant or sergeant or private.

Still, the windows were there, visible to a glance to the side, so Geary could remain aware of what was happening with the Marines without focusing his attention on them. He saw assault teams hacking the controls on hatches to allow access to inside the facility before he was called back to the larger picture by Desjani.

“We just got the ping back from the hypernet gate,” Desjani said. “You were right. The hypernet gate is reporting that there are no other gates accessible from it. It’s blocked.”

“I wish I’d been wrong on that one.” Geary touched a comm control. “Victoria, the gate is blocked. We need to know how to unblock it.”

“I was already assuming the worst, Admiral,” she replied. Rione had not yet left Mistral but was poised to follow the Marines inside the facility. “It saves time in situations like this. If that information is on this facility, I will find it.”

“Five minutes to bombardment launch,” Lieutenant Yuon said. “Uh, combat systems are still requesting confirmation of plan and authorization to launch, Admiral.”

“Thank you, Lieutenant,” Geary said. He called up that data again, saw that nothing had changed to alter his intentions, confirmed the bombardment plan, then authorized the launch to take place automatically as his warships reached the right points along their paths. “Do you ever think it ought to be harder to cause this much destruction, Tanya?”

Desjani gave him a disbelieving look. “No. It’s too hard as it is. If something needs to be destroyed, let me destroy the blasted thing.”

“Not everyone has your sense of restraint, Tanya.”

“Excuse me, Admiral?”

He didn’t answer as Geary’s fleet swept through the orbital region holding the docks and warehouses. The docks were huge, rectangular structures, with almost-as-large superstructures on their backs that contained repair and fabrication facilities, offices, living spaces for workers, life support, and a variety of other necessities for a typical shipyard. On the fleet’s sensors, all of those areas intended for human use looked dark and cold, kept just warm enough for equipment to function properly, or with all life support shut off, as frigid as empty space. The docks were lifeless by any biological definition, but power usage within provided clear signs of the mechanical “life” that ruled within them. “Like haunted houses,” someone whispered.

The warehouses resembled enormous beehives, rounded structures with external access and loading docks located all around them on different levels. The main cargo off-loading docks were at the top and bottom of the warehouses to allow new material to be distributed throughout the structure using very large cargo elevators in the core.

Each of the docks and warehouses also boasted a single propulsion unit whose thrust could produce a significant change in their orbits given enough time. It was an expensive addition to such facilities, but if the Alliance fleet had been able to launch a bombardment from light-hours away, the structures would have had ample time to make the relatively small alterations in their orbits that would cause the bombardment projectiles to completely miss their targets. However, with Geary’s warships planning on launching so close to their targets and the rocks moving so fast, in this case the propulsion units would be totally useless.

The size and numbers of the structures rivaled that of a major shipbuilding region of space in a wealthy star system. If the Alliance had been forced to retreat here, these structures would have allowed the Alliance to continue to launch raids on the Syndic conquerors.

Geary wondered what point that effort would have had. Victory would have been impossible unless the Syndicate Worlds had been so badly stressed by winning that it fell apart and left an opening for the Alliance government to reoccupy the ruins of Alliance star systems. But by the time Geary had been reawoken after a century of war, there no longer appeared to be any point to most things about the war. Neither side believed they had any chance of winning, but the Syndicate Worlds would not stop attacking, and the Alliance would not surrender, and nothing else mattered, no other courses of action were considered possible.

He was about to destroy a symbol of that stubborn insanity.

A hail of bombardment projectiles launched from Geary’s warships, hurtling toward the vast structures designed to support ships like them but now dedicated to the dark ships.

The solid metal projectiles nicknamed rocks by fleet personnel had no warheads, no explosives, but were traveling at more than thirty thousand kilometers per second. Each carried an immense amount of kinetic energy, and when they struck anything, that energy was released.

Under the impacts of dozens of hits on every target, docks shredded, flying apart into clouds of large and small pieces. Warehouses exploded, those containing weapons or fuel cells vanishing in rapid successions of gigantic explosions as their contents self-detonated, their contents and their structures becoming a mass of small particles flung outward. In the space of seconds, structures built at immense cost in time, money, and labor were turned into a huge field of debris.

“No matter what happens to us here, it was worth it to blow away all that,” Desjani said, smiling at her display. “Someday, thousands of years in the future, that ring of debris will have spread to form a thin ring within this binary star system. That’s something to imagine, isn’t it?”

“An asteroid belt composed of the ruin of war,” Geary mused. “We’ll name it Tanya’s Ring.”

“A debris field big enough to form a belt in a star system, named after me? Now I can die happy.”

He glanced at her and confirmed the impression he had from Tanya’s tone of voice.

She wasn’t joking.

And with all five dark ship formations coming back at the Alliance ships again, and the hypernet gate still blocked, there seemed to be all too great a chance that it might happen before this day was out.