Trailblazing
The broadcast Jake's daughter sent to everyone who would listen was being sent far and wide using the Order of Eden's own hyper transmitter network. To Jake, it was a grim display even though he nearly cheered at the conclusion of her short speech. The footage of her executing Tafford and defeating the Order Knights made him feel sheepish about privately questioning her skill and resolve. As a warrior, she was on par with him, and he saw even more potential. Her resolve was beyond steady. It was easy to believe that Alice would be merciless in carrying out her orders. Even though the accomplishments were violent, even grisly, he was filled with relief and pride.
"Sir, the Sky Queen is back. Lieutenant Commander Murlen can confirm that there's another Order Fleet on the way. They will be here in seven minutes, twenty-eight seconds. I'm passing his scan data to Fleet Command," Liara reported.
Commodore Valent looked at the predicted arrival points on his tactical map and shifted in the captain's chair. The fleet coming was large enough to lock the entire Haven System down, blocking ships from escaping using any faster than light transportation technology. Each of the new battlegroups had a heavy cruiser at its centre. Agameg looked at him with a rare, sullen expression before returning his attention to the rest of the bridge, straightening up.
Jake could only assume that the Issyrian realized what he did: if Haven Fleet stayed, fought the ships that were already in system, then tried to defeat the new wave, they could win. It was a narrow possibility, but it would cost them everything. He thought it through quickly, counting the sacrifices it would take to force a victory, and was sure that only three or four of their ships would remain, and they would be in terrible condition. The War Forge would be destroyed, they'd have to cancel every contingency they had and draw the ships they were holding back into the fight, and it wasn't likely they would survive either. "All right," he breathed to himself. He cleared his throat. "We're going to get the order soon," Jacob said to his bridge staff. They all looked to him. "We are going to go after a target at close range with only the Rassaaga at our side. It'll be an old-fashioned firefight, and it has to be over quickly. When we've destroyed our target's interdiction capabilities, the fleet will jump."
"Sir, destroying our objective will open up a small area on the edge of the solar system, the Untouchable is the main problem," Lieutenant Commander Huun, the Tactical Officer, said.
"He hasn't seen Alice's transmission," Ashley said over her shoulder.
"I saw it, but I don't see an antimatter alert coming from the Base Ship. The Untouchable doesn't seem to be at any great ri… Oh, never mind, there it is," he said. "Apologies."
"No worries, Lieutenant Commander," Jake said, smiling a little at the Nafalli's dutiful doubt as much as seeing that his daughter was clear, on the Clever Dream, flying to their escape point in a cloaking field. He wouldn't see her again for some time, at least not in person, but at least she was safe. "When that Base Ship goes up, we strike this battlegroup and that'll open a corridor wide enough for our fleet to escape."
"Does that include the Freeground ships?" Agameg asked in a whisper.
"Who says they didn't leave before the Order got here?" Jake asked, protecting the secrecy of Phase Seven. Not even he was read in on it, but he had a feeling that it involved ships hiding in or near the Haven System, and some kind of backup plan. The number of ships he guessed they put aside for it wouldn't have made a difference to the defence of the Haven System, but they could be key to a longer game. "I have no idea where those ships went."
"Signal from the Rassaaga; they're in position and ready to assault the main cruiser in the Battle Group we're shadowing," Liara reported.
Jake checked the charge on the Merciless' systems and was happy to see that everything was up to one hundred percent. "Tell our fighters to get ready for emergency landings. As soon as we drop our cloak, they head for our bays. Tactical: point all beam weapons and cannons at the destroyer between us and the Devastator. When it's disabled, we concentrate everything on the Heavy Cruiser."
"Aye," both departments replied.
The Devastator. It was a Heavy Cruiser that could have served as a command ship in most other militaries. It had thousands of troops, could launch several fighter wings, hidden missile and torpedo bays and powerful shields. If he wasn't looking at it from the bridge of the Merciless, Jake would have been intimidated, but even though it was less than half the size of the Heavy Cruiser, Jake's ship had more firepower and a much faster response time. The Merciless and the Rassaaga were superior in every way, but destroying the Devastator, or even disabling most of its systems would take time and exchanging fire would cause damage they couldn't afford to take at the moment. They had to make sure the systems that were keeping Haven Fleet from escaping were disabled or destroyed, that was the smart play. Long range attacks, stealthed munitions of any kind could be intercepted, they didn't come with the control Jake would have in a close engagement. Then again, he didn't have to think things through alone. "One more check," Jake said to his Tactical Department, "If we back off and launch our heaviest torpedo at the Devastator, its shields would still be up?" he asked.
"They would be down to nine percent. Adjacent ships would take critical damage, but it would still be able to maintain an interdiction signal," Huun replied. "The simulations confirm it."
"That's if they don't stop our torpedoes en-route?"
"Exactly, there is a chance that they're researching our cloaking technology right now, and it might not be as effective as it was even an hour ago. It's what Haven Fleet would do," Kadri replied.
"Just making sure," Jake said. There were five Heavy Cruisers in the system and more on the way. If they wanted to take the Devastator's interdiction systems out, the Merciless and the Rassaaga had to do it at close range with their directed electromagnetic beam weapons at their full effectiveness. It would have to happen quickly, before the Order crew could bring their entire arsenal to bear in response. He waited for the signal. If the antimatter alarms were going off on the Untouchable, then the bomb must be close to critical.
He glanced at the Clever Dream on his tactical display. It was well on its way to the jump point, getting ready to go. The War Forge was taking damage for the first time, a small section of its aft shielding failing. One of the massive manufacturing compartments was struck, and a nuclear flash blasted against the hull. That broke one of the large armour doors open, a vulnerability. He imagined that there was already a discussion going on about dethatching that manufacturing bay, letting it drift then self-destruct so the rest of the base could restore its shield integrity. If they didn't clear a path soon, there would be more damage, the War Forge would be at greater risk. Jake wished he could turn the Merciless towards one of the two enemy battlegroups that were attacking it, trying to close to short range so the larger munitions launched by the mobile ship yard could be ruled out as viable options, but he knew he was where Fleet needed him. Jake put the image of the Untouchable up on the main bridge holographic display. "I've never been so eager to see antimatter go off," he said, bouncing his fist on the arm of his command seat.
"Unencrypted transmissions from the Untouchable confirm that emergency teams have found the accumulator bomb, they're trying to disarm it now," Liara reported.
Jake smiled and leaned back in his chair. "Wrong direction, guys. You don't run towards a…" The Untouchable was replaced by a white light for an instant, then the bright, partially molten remains of the hull were revealed. Only some of the outermost, thickest sections of the outer hull survived, and they were heated to misshapen red and yellow shards. "That's our signal, begin firing sequence," Jake ordered.
Lieutenant Command Huun and the Tactical department were ready, and the electromagnetic pulse beams along with every cannon they could turn towards the destroyer following along the bottom side of the Devastator opened fire. For a moment the Order destroyer's shields stood up to the barrage, then they came down and its hull was torn to shreds. Five medium yield nuclear torpedoes struck it in succession, sending the broken hulk into the Devastator's shields slowly, angling up perfectly so the least damaged part of the destroyer dragged along the energy barriers protecting the Heavy Cruiser. As planned, the Rassaaga and the Merciless opened fire on the Devastator, concentrating on the sections of shields that covered the large interdictor transmitter antennae that ran along the hull.
Jake wished he could take control of a gun emplacement personally, but he watched the tactical display instead, as he should. Everything the Haven Fleet had in the fight turned away from their targets, making best speed towards the section of space that would be open once the Rassaaga and the Merciless were finished. The Order crew aboard the Devastator must have been in shock, they were only taking light defensive fire. "Sir, Samurai wing is almost completely aboard. Traveller and Carnie will be landing in less than thirty seconds, if you can call what they're doing landing," Flight reported.
"Are our pilots intact and aboard?" Jake asked.
"Yes, but I have reports of minor damage across our retrieval bay, the deck crew is already complaining."
"Tell them to get Ronin to have the pilots sign their divots in grease pencil so the crew knows who owes them a drink later," Jake said, appreciating a snicker from Huun to his right.
The first volley from the Devastator struck their hull, the energy barrage crossing the quarter kilometre between their ships in an instant, taking their shields down to eighty four percent. "We're going to take too much damage if this continues for long," he looked to the readings from the Rassaaga and shook his head as he saw their shields took only three percent damage. "Dammit, we found one of the only ships in the Order fleet with someone who knows what they're doing." It made more sense to concentrate on one of the Devastator's assailants than to spread their fire out, and the commander chose the Merciless. The destroyers and two carrier escorts with the Devastator opened fire, concentrating on the Merciless. "Transfer as much power from our port shielding to our starboard shields as we can. We need to keep this up until we take those interdiction systems out."
"On it, Sir," Finn's voice said in his ear. He preferred to be in the main engineering section, even though it put him in the main body of the ship instead of in the bridge section. "I'll enhance the gravitational shielding on that side so we can reduce our vulnerability to long range attacks, shouldn't cost us much on the shield facing the Devastator."
"Good thinking, Finn," Jake said as he watched the section of shielding they had to defeat on the Devastator lower another twenty-eight percent. They were down to forty-two percent, while the Merciless was down to thirty-eight. "Hurry."
"The Rassaaga is offering to manoeuvre closer so they can shore up our shields," Liara reported.
"Tell them to remain in position, we can't alter our strategy now, it'll only extend the fight and give other Order ships time to fill the gap we're making here," Jake replied.
In a flash of intense nuclear fire, the Merciless' shields were down to three percent. Solid and energy rounds collided with their forward starboard section, testing and cracking the hull plating there, rendering two heavy gun emplacements unusable as a series of heavy rounds skipped off the edge of their hull, got caught under their shields and collided directly with the emplacements. "Finn!" Jake burst over the intercom.
"Got it, got it!" he said as the shields on their port side were restored to twenty-eight percent. He did not expect the enemy captain to launch a nuclear strike that would damage both ships' shields, the Devastator's commander had a ruthlessness Jake wasn't used to seeing. It didn't win him the battle, however. The sections of shields that he and the Rassaaga were breaking down failed, and their gunfire raked the armour protecting the antennae. That was Haven Fleet's biggest advantage in a close firefight. Their beam weapons were good at breaking shields down, but their solid projectile and antimatter arrays excelled at busting heavy hulls apart, and Jake watched as the Devastator tried to manoeuvre. Its escort destroyers pursued the Merciless and the Rassaaga as a wave of fighters turned back towards the companion carriers. It wasn't concentrated fire, so the damage was spread across the Haven Fleet ships' shields, but the counterattack was already taking a toll.
The smaller countermeasure guns sent streams of ammunition at incoming torpedoes and missiles, breaking most of them apart before they could reach them. Gravitational shielding turned rounds and heavier munitions away from the ship, and the few that could get through didn't strike as intended, glancing instead of smashing directly into their hard energy shielding or hull. "Shunt beam weapon power to shields, we can finish this job with cannons," Jake said as he watched the power level of the interdiction system the Rassaaga was responsible for destroying drop to zero. The aft antenna's shield plating gave way, torn apart by the Merciless' roaring guns and an instant later it was destroyed as well.
"We are all clear to jump," Ashley reported.
"There's a clear, wide corridor for all ships to jump away," Kadri reported, a little jovial for the first time in days.
"Move us away from this battlegroup at full military thrust," Jake said. "On to position Theta."
"System wide transmission from the War Forge," Liara reported.
Ayan appeared in the middle of the bridge. The holographic clarity was perfect, he could have thought she was standing in the middle of the bridge. Her expression was stony, hard. "To every civilian ship that was hiding, waiting, hoping that we would open a door for you to escape; now is your chance. It won't last long, I'm sorry. To the Order of Eden invaders: I won't add much to what my daughter told you, she speaks for all of us. I only add a warning: Haven Fleet is leaving. That doesn't mean you're welcome, or that this system is safe for any of you. We will know how you treat our people while we're gone, and you'll pay for any abuse. We are watching. We will return."
The Merciless and the Rassaaga were accelerating away from the Devastator and its battlegroup, getting ready to cloak. They were almost ready to jump.
Her image became garbled, broke down into distortion, then was replaced by Lucius Wheeler in a long coat over a dark green heavy vacsuit. "Yeah, more sabre rattling, more grand-standing. Okay, you got aboard a Base Ship, blew it up, wow. So you killed about thirty thousand trainees, maybe fourteen thousand actual crew, about twenty thousand landing troops. You just delayed things a little, but I'm in charge now. Hey, Haven System people, it's Admiral Lucius Wheeler, one of the British Alliance's most wanted, a bit of a lovable rogue if I do say so myself. The Haven Fleet is," he yawned large, taking his time to overcome it, even stomping his foot a couple times before it was over, "sorry, just the name makes me look forward to naptime. So boring. Anyway, you gave those amateurs a shot, now I'm taking over with the Order of Eden. I've known Ayan and Jake, the real ones, not the fake replacements you've come to know, for a long time. I'll tell you a few stories about them, show you how the Order likes to take care of its people, put things in order, and make you all nice and safe. It's gonna be an improvement, believe me. There will be a Spacerwares on every corner, regular transit and communication systems across the moon, good food, better entertainment, well, you'll see. Tamber's in for a renaissance. Oh, and Haven Fleet: go ahead and leave. You opened the door, you earned that, so don't let it hit you on the ass on the way out. I've got this, I'll take care of these people from now on. The Carthans abandoned them, now you're leaving, I get it, governing is a big deal, it's hard, but I've got a huge staff, so I'll be happy to step in. Oh, but don't come back unless you're waving a white flag." He disappeared, leaving Jake's blood boiling.
The bridge was completely silent. He realized he was leaning on his interlaced fingers, brooding already, and straightened. "I want to turn this ship around and regroup so we can finish this fight," he said. Commodore Valent stood. "But if we did, if the entire fleet took a stand right now, there would be nothing left. The best we can hope for is that the people of the Haven System weather what comes well while the Fleet regroups, recruits and grows elsewhere. We have to go so we stand a chance later."
"Ready to jump," Ashley reported, sounding tense.
"Get us out of here," Jacob said, glancing at the tactical map, where the War Forge, the Clever Dream and dozens of other ships were opening dimensional rifts and leaving. "We'll be back soon."