Birthright: Battle for the Confederation- Pursuit Read online

  Halley made her way down the street away from the conflagration. The crowd was definitely thinner down this way, and she turned to give the street once last look before heading to the rendezvous. Her heart sank.

  Using her contacts to zoom in, she saw a knot of Primans out in the open right in the middle of the street against a large crowd of locals. There, trapped between two Priman guards wearing full combat body armor, was Web. Each guard had a hold of one of his arms and was keeping him from moving while another searched him. His own eyes raced around, as if looking for Halley. Finally, despite his lack of enhancements, he seemed to look right at her three blocks down the street. Maybe he just knew where she'd be, maybe he was just hoping it was her. Halley knew, though, that he saw her.

  His demeanor changed a bit, and he stopped struggling as much. He seemed more at ease with his captivity, and even gave her a quick wink. Then the guard who was searching him, apparently finished, moved in and tapped Web with some sort of shock stick, sending him to the ground in a heap.

  Halley turned away as fast as she could and put her head down as she walked towards their safehouse. She would look suspicious if any of the locals managed to see the tears running down her soot-covered cheeks.

  Captain Vol's blood rushed. He had Avenger trapped until that cursed battleship showed up, even soiling the space around them by bringing Enkarrans of all people with them. No matter; he'd take these odds. He still outnumbered the enemy in hulls, and Avenger barely counted as mission-ready. He'd even up the odds in a second with a round of EMP torpedoes.

  "Helm," he barked as Representative Ravine stepped up beside him, "maneuver to keep this distance between us and Avenger. Keep the maximum number of batteries uncovered at all times. Weapons- full EMP torpedo salvo on Avenger."

  "Incoming torpedoes," Caho called out evenly, composure back intact, "four of them, all targeted on us."

  "It's nice to be respected by your enemies, I suppose," Elco muttered, then raised his voice in order to give his crew commands. "Keep an eye on the point defense turrets and match Majestic's maneuvers. We'll see if this inoculation against the EMP torpedoes is everything it's cracked up to be." He'd briefly mentioned that an experimental system had just been activated and was being deployed on Avenger, but neglected to inform the crew as to its origins.

  Elco tried his best to split attention between the inbound torpedoes and Majestic's attack on the two outbound Priman cruisers. The Primans and Majestic were already exchanging laser fire; the battleship had to balance the power needs of all those laser batteries with the need to power the shield generators as well, and Elco noticed laser fire stop for a moment as Majestic ripped off a volley from her four forward facing torpedo tubes, all targeted on a single cruiser.

  Majestic tried to help shoot down the incoming Priman weapons, point defense fire from several of her turrets adding to Avenger's mix as the Priman torpedoes bore down on the wounded Confed vessel. All four torpedoes in Avenger's aft mounts sprung forth as well, Captain Elco having reasoned that if his ship became disabled the things would go to waste anyway so he might as well fire them all.

  The weapons passed each other, weaving and dodging in preprogrammed patterns designed to avoid point defense fire.

  One, two, and then three Priman torpedoes were shot down. But the fourth made it, burrowing into Avenger's hull right through Torpedo Mount One. There was no huge follow-up explosion; the EMP warheads were not filled with explosives and there were no reloads in Avenger's magazines near the torpedo mounts.

  Elco realized he'd been holding his breath. He looked around and saw the bridge crew carrying on as normal. There were quick exchanges as crew coordinated maneuvers, sensor readings and damage control, but everything was still online.

  "We're still operational?" he asked the conn officer ahead of him.

  "Yes, Captain," the man replied. "The torpedo matched the EMP variant signature, but we aren't showing any of the effects from last time."

  "It worked," Elco said, trying to keep the wonder out of his voice. As far as the crew knew, he of course always had confidence in the system and believed completely that it would operate as designed. With a few taps on his screen he sent Echo’s message to Captain Montari on Majestic.

  Elco checked the viewscreen just in time to see one of Avenger's torpedoes penetrate the Priman ship's hull in a geyser of flames and debris. It lit up the ship's superstructure in the darkness, and Elco bit back an exclamation of triumph. That was also not something a dignified captain would do.

  The lone Priman ship was falling behind, though, as Majestic pressed her attack on the two Priman cruisers and Avenger stayed tucked in close. Captain Montari was a master at making the most of the battleship's weapons. He bore straight at the Priman ships, daring them to maneuver. When they did, he let them have full laser broadsides from all of Majestic's batteries. As available energy became depleted, he rolled to show the ship's tough armored keel to the least damaged ship, slowing his maneuver just long enough to unleash a six-torpedo volley at the vessel. Seconds later, the Priman ship was engulfed in a fireball, materials within ripped apart and rended back to the elements.

  The other Priman cruiser fought on, pummeling Majestic's keel with laser and torpedo fire. Point defense turrets only allowed a single torpedo through, and while running power to the shields meant the laser batteries couldn't charge, Majestic took no serious damage while rolling out of her maneuver. Laser hits scorched hullplates and the sole torpedo hit dug into the ship's keel armor and expended all its energy before making it into the ship's interior; while Elco wanted to swoop through and administer a coup-de-grace, it wouldn't do to steal somebody else's kill so he settled for continuing to help screen the larger ship.

  Majestic took another torpedo as the two ships jockeyed with each other, this one through the upper dorsal amidships area. The ship bore through the explosions, emerging from the fire and energy wave to continue the battle as her laser batteries all began to link fire control and converge on key systems of the Priman vessel. The weakened Priman's shields couldn't last long, and soon enough her engines were dark, hull chewed up and torn to pieces by Majestic's merciless attack. The Starshaker class battleships, numbers badly diluted by demand and battle damage these days, were designed to slug it out with vessels of equal size in huge fleet engagements; a pair of Priman cruisers was not going to give a battleship captain pause before committing to a fight.

  Elco spared a second to look at the holo field and the pair of Enkarrans fighting the other two Priman vessels. Each side was down one vessel. A Priman and Enkarran vessel were floating lifelessly side by side; he couldn't tell if there were anchor cables, the superstructures were caught on each other or something else. Had one rammed the other? Had there been an attempt to board one of the ships?

  Either way, the last Priman was running and the Enkarran ship broke off the chase to go investigate the paired-up Priman and Enkarran cruisers.

  "Now what do we do?" Ravine asked Captain Vol quietly so as not to show the whole bridge crew her fear and self-doubt. Their EMP torpedoes had failed. Their decisive edge was gone and it had only lasted a few weeks.

  "We leave," Vol said without emotion, and walked to the helm station to give orders.

  The torpedo hit had shaken Ravine; she'd been in capital ship combat before, but it sent a shiver down her spine as she remembered the sounds the ship had made as the Confed torpedo had struck home. Never had she been on the receiving end of such damage. The ship screeched, seemed to yowl in pain. She'd heard crew down the corridors as they yelled and fought fires, died in explosions or from oxygen deprivation or smoke inhalation. Is this what continued war with the Confederation, much less the whole galaxy, would lead to? she wondered. Was forcing everyone to admit her race should be in charge worth the carnage to her people and those they ushered along in centuries past?

  She'd have a long trip back to Priman space to ponder those questions.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN


  Commander Loren Stone stood at the big diagnostic board at the rear of the bridge in the sensor shack. He let his thoughts wander as he tried to take stock of the damage and somehow formulate a plan.

  Avenger had been damaged again, a situation that was all too common these days. Before the war, if your ship hit a micrometeor or tore off a gun barrel while docking, your FITREP was going to say so and your career would grind to a halt. These days, anything short of major yard work was hardly deemed worth reporting to Navy HQ in the Delos system.

  Still, there were issues to consider. Chief Engineer Fyr was badgering him to take the main reactors completely offline for a day or so to complete his repairs on the hyperdrive section. They'd have to vent and recharge all the lines and it just couldn't be done with the reactors running. The problem was that Avenger needed power for her other systems, and the standby power units had been damaged as well. They'd been at an impasse until someone had suggested ripping apart the captured Priman cruiser that the Enkarrans had left behind. The Enkarrans had taken their wrecked cruiser in tow and had left the Priman ship in orbit with Avenger and Majestic to do with as they pleased. Captain Elco and Admiral Bak had considered giving it to the Faarians as a gesture of goodwill, but then they'd had a better idea.

  Chief Fyr offered to take his engineers over to the ship. The Priman crew had departed in their lifeboats before the Enkarrans could capture anyone, and the small Marine detachment aboard Majestic had cleared the ship and sealed off what they couldn't verify as 100% secure. The Chief had promised to tear the ship apart more efficiently than pack predators on a wounded member of the herd in order to get parts and materials to feed to the 3D printers. Meanwhile, he'd jury-rig power connections so the Priman ship's generators could power Avenger. It had all seemed like such a neat and tidy idea at the time.

  Now, six hours later, Loren was flustered. They couldn't risk long range travel in their current condition, even with a battleship escort, so the repairs had to commence. They'd dragged the stricken Priman cruiser out-system and were parked low over the surface of a tiny rogue planet that orbited the system in an eccentric orbit, something which the Faarians would no doubt not care for if they'd been able to detect the activity. He'd watched the connections go green and then Chief Fyr scrammed the reactor after verifying the ship was on external power. Avenger had seemed to deflate with an anguished sigh, like a person blowing out a weary breath and then holding out as long as they could before drawing another one.

  Captain Elco had shuttled over to Majestic to talk strategy with Admiral Bak, and Loren wished he'd return so he could concentrate on a few small tasks at a time instead of trying to manage an entire ship.

  "Commander," he heard the comm tech say from the front of the bridge. Loren turned and walked over by his own command chair before replying.

  "Yes?"

  "Message from the Governing Council, sir," the tech said with a puzzled expression. "It's on the Primary Defense circuit."

  Loren's brow furrowed. That was the seldom-used encrypted frequency that allowed the Confed government to communicate directly to its warships, bypassing or supplementing the naval chain of command as it were.

  "I can't even take that up here, can I?" he asked.

  "Only three places on the ship, sir," came the confident reply. "Captain's quarters, C3 conference room, or the Emergency Control Center."

  "Then I guess I'm heading down to C3," Loren acknowledged. "Send it down in a minute, if you please." Why couldn't Captain Elco get to deal with whatever those headcases wanted now?

  Captain Elco walked slowly with Admiral Bak through the bridge tower of Majestic. Battleships were intended to be command ships, and as such, in addition to the large main bridge there was a flag bridge immediately aft of it in the tower. If it had been his ship, Admiral Bak would have set up his shop there, but as he was only along for a short ride he'd let things be and simply requested a station on the upper level of the main bridge. He believed that the crew should see senior officers among them, that they shouldn't just be shadowy figures hidden in secret compartments who never came out for air.

  It was on the upper port side level of the bridge where Elco and Bak stood now, elbows resting on the railing as they both leaned over to look at the bridge proper below them.

  "I wanted to tell you first," Admiral Bak began, "before you got it in your daily briefings." The admiral paused, gathered his breath, as if what he was about to say would physically hurt him to do so. Maybe it would.

  "We had our first real live, knock-down drag-out fight with the Secessionists," Bak admitted. Elco could only respond with a look of shock. "The worst part was that Senator Dennix sent that little rodent Enric Shae to observe. More likely it was to make sure nobody felt like they could trade a few shots and then break off. Basically, Shae was there to make sure the fight was on. We lost two cruisers and they lost an escort carrier and a destroyer."

  "This is insane!" Elco replied, trying his best to not raise his voice or show his reaction to the crew. "Why are we fighting each other?"

  "Because then we're not fighting the real enemy," Bak said through gritted teeth.

  Neither knew what to say, Elco simply staring into the top of the large 3D holo field on the bridge level below them for a minute.

  "So what did you think of Garrett's message?" asked Elco softly, trying to change the subject to something that had a better ending.

  Nodam Bak chuckled. "Somehow he got it printed out hardcopy and inserted in a sealed envelope with my daily updates. Imagine my surprise when I saw that you wanted volunteers to charge headlong into an ambush. I thought, that's a horrible idea, but we should do it anyway and see what happens."

  "Well, I'm glad you came. I'm sorry the weapon and AI mission didn't pan out, either," Elco admitted. He'd told Bak about the AI who'd left him the message and had also delivered a copy of the EMP vaccine, but attempts to isolate any potential AI bio signs on the surface were met with failure. They'd quickly accepted that whatever the real story with the mysterious life forms was, they were going to stay out of the limelight and had nothing to offer towards defeating the Primans.

  "It sounds like there might have been something there, to be honest," Bak said with regret in his voice, "but with all those Primans bearing down I guess I'd rather have anything at all that could be useful blown to the elements than fall into Priman hands."

  They said nothing for a minute after that as they both worked through their own mental checklists of things that needed to be handled.

  Finally, Admiral Bak spoke again. "Give me a minute at that station over there, ok? I'll cut Avenger some new orders to head to a repair yard and then we'll go from there."

  Elco nodded and stayed put as the Admiral walked across the deck to an unused terminal and started entering commands. At least their work was done for a while.

  Loren strode quickly into the C3 conference room and tapped the wall tab on the viewscreen that was oriented towards the table Captain Elco used. He remained standing, though, a cross between wanting to not give the impression he had time to sit and chat and barely concealed displeasure at having to talk to Senator Dennix or one of his people in the first place. If only the man knew that right now there were people in the process of obtaining the data that would show just how corrupt and treasonous he was. No amount of media bias, spin control or blame-shifting could hide the stark truth about what Confed's leadership had been up to. No; this was the end for that bunch, and Loren only hoped that their punishment would be adequate.

  He turned around to see there was already somebody waiting on the other end. It was Enric Shae.

  "Commander Stone," Shae said, fake smile on his face. Loren remembered when Shae had actually been his senior in the navy, but that seemed like a decade ago, before the man had abandoned the service to ride the coattails of Senator Zek Dennix.

  "Mr. Shae," Loren replied coolly. "You're using the highest-coded frequency Confed has; I assume something important is in the work
s."

  "It is, Commander, and I'm glad you answered, because what I have to say is for you, not your captain. Captain Elco is a fine officer, of course, but a bit, well, rigid, for the times. We need flexible people. Like you, Commander. You've been all over and thought up plenty of interesting schemes since the war began."

  Loren didn't know what the man was up to, but he didn't like it. The hairs on the back of his neck were standing up and he felt like he needed a shower after talking to the man for barely a minute. He simply raised an eyebrow in response to Shae's words, and so the man continued.

  "Today, Commander, is where you and Avenger decide how you're going to help Confed with this war. You can't afford to be stuck in the old ways; you need to see that only by coming to an agreement can we stay in control of the Confederation."

  "You're referring to your treaty with the Primans," Loren said without inflection. Even Shae must be able to read Loren's opinion on the matter.

  "Of course, Commander," Shae said, waving a hand in the air as though swatting an insect that was buzzing around his face. "We need the military's assistance to stay in control. Things are getting hot in some parts of the Confederation, and this ridiculous secessionist movement is making it worse. We need the military to stand with us and help maintain order."

  Still, Loren said nothing, preferring to see Shae's frustration grow as the man realized Loren wasn't biting on whatever implied offer was out there for the taking.

  "You don't see it, do you?" asked Shae. Loren shook his head.

  "Avenger and a select few others are one of the biggest problems in our negotiation with the Primans. Your ship's name angers them, and you needed to keep a low profile while we were at the table. Now, I see a report that you were engaged in come sort of covert operation while supposedly on a diplomatic procurement tour. You engaged and destroyed Priman warships and even dragged Captain Montari and Majestic into your web of troubles. You disobeyed orders today, Commander, along with a host of other issues we've had with Avenger; it's time to pay up and decide where you go tomorrow."