Corvette/Assault. Those words summed up his place in this universe. His dream. His masterpiece of art, awaiting a wall suitable from which to hang.
CR-264 had been the last of the old warriors in service. Compact but deadly. They had replaced the design with the destroyer, bigger and more flexible, but in doing so had given up that thing that made the Cutters so effective. Like being able to kick a Fribourg battleship in the shins, as he flew by close enough to throw things at it. Like sauntering into the wall of Imperial missiles at Petron, slaughtering them without let or hindrance.
Tomas Kigali found RAN Ballard on his boards, tucked up and behind the other three cruisers in the shadow of the little world behind which they were hiding.
A cruiser, yes. Big and powerful and capable of tremendous feats of survey navigation. Impressive and elegant in her lines, but very much was a civilian in this war.
At barely an eighth Ballard’s displacement, CA-264 was more than a match for firepower. And CA-264 could do something that was simply beyond Ballard.
Kill things.
Not that it was likely in the next three hours, but you never knew when all hell was going to break loose. Jessica seemed to summon the crazies to her like a witch, but she always had him and Robbie and Alber’ close at hand.
Not today, though. Just Kigali and his assistants: three escorts, a scout, a mine-hunter, and a patrol.
Most of the doom-dealing would fall on his shoulders, if there were to be any.
Tomas Kigali smiled like a crocodile.
Senior Centurion Arsen Lam looked up and grinned. He had been with Tomas since he was first commissioned, and then exiled to a forgotten boat on a irrelevant frontier. Today, he was still handling the Tactical duties, but now they were escorting Jessica and her team.
Kigali would have said leading, but CA-264’s spot was in the tail, with CS-405 up in the van. Still, everyone listened to him when it came to maneuvering and combat.
Centurion Aki Ridwana Ali arched a chiseled, delicate eyebrow at the two of them, as though restraining herself from rolling her eyes at them. Again. Ali had worked her way up from an enlisted punk, and, like Tomas, had found her spot, her destiny, flying this ship.
At least First Lord Kasum had made good his promise to hold these crews together, for as long as their members desired. Tomas couldn’t imagine trying to break in a new team in the middle of a new war.
“What evil are you two up to now?” she asked.
“First Ballard,” Tomas replied.
“Think it will work here?” Arsen cocked his head slightly. After this many years together, they could almost communicate telepathically.
“Not today,” Tomas said. “Thinking about the next time, when some Buran badass is sitting deep in orbit, thinking he’s safe from us because our JumpSails keep us from pulling his sort of tricks.”
“Think the kids can handle it?” Lam pursued the topic.
“No,” Tomas concluded. “But let me talk to Jessica. Imagine a jousting run that’s just us leading Alber’ in, full bloody tilt, red-line on the sails until we drop out, then slingshot down and out, with something like two, two and a half hours to get everything tuned back up to make our getaway. At Ballard, we were trying to slow down.”
“Drive by with rotten tomatoes, boss,” Aki observed tartly.
“Us, sure,” he agreed. “Imagine that fool opening fire on us as we blow by, and then Alber’ shows up a minute later and catches him looking the wrong way and hammers him with everything he’s got.”
“First Ballard,” Arsen called it. “Pretty messy.”
“Yeah, but a lot of that was a heavy destroyer being too close to a light cruiser as Alber’ killed it.” Kigali said. “Plus, Rajput had already been beaten bloody before that. This will be Type-4’s and plasma bubbles, followed by every other beam he’s got, in a raking pass.”
“Think they’ll fall for it?” Aki asked.
“Auberon’s here,” Arsen said. “That’s going to get someone’s attention. If nobody knows about the cruisers, they might do something stupid.”
“One can only hope,” Tomas said.
He checked his boards one last time as he tuned out the ongoing commentary from the other two. Too much maybe stirred into this pot to get really tactical, other than to make plans, like Jessica always did. Plus, the clock was counting down.
He opened the comm that connected him to the others. Denis would listen in, but this was going to be Tomas’s show, at least for now.
“Escort Team, this is Kigali,” he ordered in a stern voice, the old man of experience and gravity. “Begin your acceleration to engagement profile. Maintain formation and prepare for transit orders from the flag.”
Auberon would be doing the same, but Kigali wanted everyone already under a head of steam when they went in, so they could emerge hot. He had the tail-end slot, so CA-264 would be the one maneuvering against the bulk of the Star Controller when they got there.
Acknowledgements from everyone, including Denis. Just waiting for Jessica now.
“Squadron, this is Keller aboard Auberon. I have the flag,” she said in that low, serious tone she affected when giving orders. “All ships transit now.”
CA-264 leapt into hyperspace like a porpoise playing in the surf, leaving RAN Ballard out here to keep watch and be safe.
There was a war to fight.