Eagle (Jacob Hull) (27 page)

Acknowledgements came in when the units of the formation heard him, but Jacob’s attention was already on the line ahead of him. The enemy was uncertain, surprised to see the Celostian flagship bearing down on them at full acceleration. A few of their units were skittish; perhaps recordings from Kryshaen had been able to make their way through the enemy ranks. He smiled. “Let’s go!”

The enemy line belched missiles and torpedoes at extreme range, and the projectiles were immediately met by a wave of counterfire. Flechettes, flares, and other desperate efforts destroyed three quarters of the massive salvo, and what
Eagle
herself did not manage to stop, her escorts did their best to turn aside. There were still some that got through, and Jacob’s fingers tightened on the arm rests of his command chair as they closed to impact.

Three missiles hit the
Eagle
. One failed to do much more than bounce off the armor before it exploded; the other two slammed into the bow armor and shook the ship with the explosions. Yet Jacob’s flagship survived, and they closed the distance to nearly railgun range.

Captain Martino’s order came over the flagship’s communication systems. “Railgun nests, suppress fire from enemy units; disable targets Alpha-Nine and –Ten directly ahead. Target Charlie-Five is an alternate priority.”

The tactical system helpfully updated Jacob’s display to show the location of the two cruisers in Martino’s sights. Both unfortunate Oduran ships had placed themselves at the center of the Oduran line, between the
Banner
-class dreadnaughts and in front of their flagship. Charlie-Five was a Collective ship that had taken up a position just below them. None of them looked like they were going to hold up for long.

When
Eagle
reached railgun range, the enemy fleet seemed to have been shocked by the flagship’s survival. They belatedly started to open up with their railguns, and
Eagle
’s intact point defense screen blasted the shells as they entered defensive range. The few that managed to make it through the web of plasma fire added to the damage on the bow, but Jacob didn’t see any reports of critical damage appearing yet. He spared a quick glance for his escorts;
Edward
and
Henry
were taking a similar beating, but both cruisers were still intact and starting to fire back.

Then
Eagle
’s banks of railguns began to fire, and the Odurans finally started to take their own casualties. The
Scythe
-class cruiser designated Alpha-Nine received the first barrage. It was only a two shot burst from the guns lining the flagship’s hull, but it was enough. The cruiser shattered under the sudden attack, its fragile frame broken in several places. A similar burst turned the bow of Alpha-Ten into a mass of wreckage, and it reeled out of formation on an uncontrolled course.

The guns then turned their attention to the
Banner
-class dreadnaughts whose railguns had been battering away at Jacob’s force. Their main armor was turned to face the assault, but Martino seemed to want to merely disrupt their targeting ability. Short, sharp bursts sprayed explosions all across the enemy’s main armor, and their barrage faltered for a moment.

Missiles launched again, stretching toward Jacob’s formation even as they closed to point blank range. Not as many came this time; the enemy had chosen to disperse their fire. All the same, there were two sharp shocks as the
Eagle
was hit, but the armor seemed to be holding for the moment. Jacob smiled when his force reached point blank range, and Captain Martino pivoted the ship to slide through the gap in the two dreadnaughts, their railguns still firing away.

“
Missiles, stand by for salvoes.” Captain Martino’s voice was tense, but there was no sign the strain was about to break the man. Jacob waited for the next command; it came when the
Eagle
drew even with the enemy line, the missile bays on the top and bottom of the ship pointed straight at the
Banner
-class ships’ vulnerable flanks. “Fire!”

Eagle
’s twelve missile bays belched fire, and the projectiles they launched raked across the gun decks of the dreadnaughts to either side of them. The missile blasts sewed explosions all along the enemy flanks, sending both Oduran craft reeling away from
Eagle
as fires burned where railgun turrets and missile bays had once been. Neither ship was ready to take advantage of the open target
Eagle
’s DE sails presented, and Jacob’s gaze went to the third dreadnaught, now directly ahead of them.

The toad-like hull of the
Troll-
class vessel wasn’t designed to be impressive. From what Intelligence had been able to decipher, the class had been built to take advantage of long-range missile duels, and its armament had been heavily weighted for that kind of distant combat. Unfortunately for this ship, it now faced the
Eagle
at railgun range, its seventy-two guns swiveling to find their target. Jacob smiled as he imagined Admiral Yeseti’s expression when they opened up in one protracted volley.

It was the longest burst
Eagle
had ever fired; every gun sent six shells hurtling toward the squat target. Jacob wondered how close Martino’s gun crews had come to melting the turrets off their hull, but he shoved those idle thoughts aside as the shells shot in toward the enemy flagship, a flood of devastation not even a dreadnaught’s main armor could have shrugged aside. Plasma lanced out from defense turrets. Shells exploded as those lines of thermonuclear fire intercepted them, but the grand majority of them swept past those defenses to strike the enemy’s armor.

Explosions wracked the enemy vessel, throwing out fragments of shattered armor plates. The blasts pounded those defensive measures, scouring the protection from the dreadaught’s hull until the shells managed to punch through and scatter shrapnel through the interior of the ship. Secondary explosions shook the dreadnaught long after the barrage came to an end. Fire and atmosphere leaked from half a dozen tears, and the enemy flagship heaved to one side to turn away from any further engagement.

The entire enemy task force turned after them, heading out to
Eagle
’s starboard side, and Jacob touched a control. “High Admiral to immediate task force, broad turn to starboard until we’ve come around to engage the enemy again. Continue to engage targets at opportunity.”

Jacob forced himself to turn his attention elsewhere. Across the barrier of dark matter, Leon’s battle was still progressing. The organized tactics of the Oduran and San Marcos forces had virtually disintegrated into a wild melee of ships, all pouring fire at Leon’s smaller number of craft. Their numbers weren’t nearly as many as they had been when they started; at least five of the Oduran cruisers were gone, along with a large number of their escorts. Leon’s force, by comparison, was doing much better; here and there a ship was missing in his formation, but most of them were still intact, if a little battered.
Galahad
appeared to be holding up well under the fire, and as Jacob watched, Leon’s ship eviscerated a converted
Equestrian
-class ship with its plasma lance.

An explosion rocked the ship, and Jacob’s attention turned back to his own forces. The Oduran flanking forces had been late in anticipating the charge through the main line, but now they had maneuvered into engagement range. There were at least six cruisers, most of them
Brute
-class vessels, escorted by a flock of smaller craft.
Eagle
’s guns, still cooling from their previous attacks, weren’t ready to respond as they closed with the task force. As Jacob watched, the enemy launched more strikes against his vulnerable DE sails. He touched a control. “
Henry
,
Edward
, cut across the formation with your escorts to fight off the enemy attack. When you’ve struck them, switch positions and rejoin the
Eagle
.”

Both cruisers acknowledged the order, swerving sharply toward the center of the formation. The course change made them drop back, and their weaponry had much better firing solutions on the incoming forces. They began to target the closest craft, chewing them apart with precise salvoes of railgun fire. Those ships began to fire back, and both cruisers trembled as the railgun shells ate away at their armor and bit into the hull beneath. Neither ship exploded or fell away, while the front ranks of the Oduran force were shot to pieces.

As the remainder of those forces passed by the two cruisers and their escorts,
Henry
and
Edward
both rolled to come around in pursuit. The two
Crown
-class cruisers unleashed a hail of missiles and torpedoes in the wake of those forces, likely hoping to better the odds of
Eagle
’s survival. Captain Martino added to the defensive fire with another salvo of missiles from
Eagle
’s bays, catching the Odurans in a crossfire before they could reach close range. Antimissile defenses worked furiously to destroy the projectiles before they could reach their targets, but this time there were too many, and the Odurans were in too loose a formation. They had only barely managed to close ranks when the attacks arrived.

Missiles punched through the armor of the cruisers, leaving gaping wounds that trailed debris and crew. At least one torpedo made contact, slicing through a cruiser’s hull and punching through the front of the ship with a trail of destruction left in its wake. Four of the larger ships wavered and fell out of formation, with plasma streaming from punctured reactors or a devastating loss of atmosphere. Several destroyers vanished as well, exploding into brilliant gouts of fire and hull fragments.

The casualties stunned the Oduran formation, and their crews finally decided they had enough. Both remaining cruisers launched a single burst of railgun fire—most of which was ill-aimed or easily intercepted by defensive turrets—and then swerved to avoid further contact. Their lighter units started to run too, since without the cover and firepower of the heavier craft it would only be a matter of time before they were overwhelmed and destroyed. As panic spread through them, their coordination fell apart. Ships scattered on their own initiative, leaving them isolated and vulnerable when individual Celostian ships caught up with them in force.

Jacob watched their course for a few moments,
then shook his head. “High Admiral to fleet, do not pursue those ships. Let them run.” They were heading back for the dark matter barrier, where they would have to pass through the passage before they could escape. It was obvious they had no intention of returning to the battle, and Jacob was not about to let his ships get distracted when Yeseti still had an intact force that could reach Celostian territory. He glanced at Leon’s battle, where another of the
Brute
-class ship had just taken a pair of missiles in the side and broken in half. “Captain Nivrosky, be aware your forces may need to anticipate routed Oduran forces moving past you.”

Leon responded several moments later, his voice tense.
“Acknowledged, High Admiral.” There was a pause, and then he spoke with a bit more relief. “Situation update; the Odurans on our side of the barrier are running. Should we pursue them into the passage?”

On the other side of the passage, Oduran forces were starting to withdraw. It wasn’t the same, disorganized rout that had overtaken the Oduran flanking forces; flights of corvettes and frigates made sweeping defensive attacks to keep Leon’s forces from crippling the retreating cruisers. At the same time, they were obviously intending to retreat into the passage. Jacob idly wondered if they wanted to link up with Admiral Yeseti, or if the fight with Leon had simply proven too much for them. He touched a control.

“High Admiral to
Galahad
, do not pursue them into the passage. Maintain your position around the exit and make sure they aren’t able to withdraw. I don’t want to risk them turning on you in that narrow space. High Admiral, out.”

Those orders given, Jacob watched the retreating forces for a few more heartbeats, and then one of his officers called out. “Sir, Captain Bellworth is indicating he is about to attack. Do you have any orders for him?”

Jacob’s attention snapped to Admiral Yeseti’s task force, where Isaac was closing with terrible speed. “Tell him to keep them from jumping to New Manassas. We want to keep the fight here if we can.”

The officer bent to his work, and a heartbeat later Isaac’s forces slashed across the Oduran lines. Those lines had been horribly weakened by the clash with Jacob’s personal command. Fully half of the ships that had belonged to the so-called San Marcos Collective had been left as a string of broken wrecks behind the main battle line. All three dreadnaughts showed marks of significant damage, with the flagship obviously struggling to keep up with the rest of the task force.

Isaac had noticed those weaknesses as well. His cruisers came in at an angle to the enemy forces rather than meeting them head on. Isaac’s ships didn’t stay in a compact, stable formation. They spread out in a broad firing line that would give them the best chance to score hits. The refitted
Crown
-class cruisers led the way, tearing through the Odurans and San Marcos ships with their rail guns and torpedo bays flashing with fire. All four ships took fire as they struck; railgun projectiles smashed armor plates, missiles carved sections of hull away, and the occasional plasma lance strike spiked through the elderly ships.