It was not possible, but Kier had no words to describe it otherwise. Steadfast in Duty damaged before the battle even began. Steadfast in Pursuit nearly eviscerated by the cloud of oh-so-dangerous fighter craft. She could still kill them all, but the cost would be utterly prohibitive.
Keller appeared to be reading her mind, able to outguess Steadfast at Dawn at every turn, something no Imperial fleet had ever managed.
Kier was torn. Duty dictated that she defend Trusski against this aggression, but Keller had never threatened the planet itself. Kier could see that now.
And those fighter craft were brand new. Nothing in the records showed anything like them, from the bizarre, two-nosed, horseshoe design, to the fact that they carried amazingly-heavy beams and not a single missile. Most Imperial models relied on missiles as their primary armament, with a tiny beam weapon almost as an afterthought.
Kier would have never ordered Steadfast in Pursuit into that buzzsaw had she known what lay in store. She had been waiting off to one side, right at the edge of sensor range, for Keller’s flagship to come rescue the smaller craft from her attack.
But Keller never came. Where was she?
Steadfast at Dawn and her children had gone spinward thirty degrees and out a further ten AU from the point where the fightercraft had been. It was a safe spot, as near as she could tell. Nothing close, and no ships in real-time scan, although there would be sensor ghosts for hours, the downside of crossing JumpSpace at relative transluminal speeds so many times.
“Maneuver Advocate, order Steadfast in Pursuit to return to Energiya for repairs,” Kier finally ordered, looking over the massive damage. Casualties had been mercifully light, but the ship has lost nearly thirty percent of its armaments when the front Power Absorbers staggered under the sudden load. The ravens attacking its flesh after that had savaged the vessel.
She still had a battleship and two cruisers. With surprise, she could still significantly damage one or more of the four capital vessels Fribourg had committed.
She would have some blood, for her pain.