The Lost Fleet: Beyond the Frontier: Steadfast (32 page)

“The Ninth Destroyer Squadron is on its way to the escape pods,” the operations watch said. “Admiral, they’re at point one five light speed, so they should reach the pods in an hour and a half.”

“Very well.” Geary studied the movement of the destroyers, worrying about their fuel status. “If this high-speed maneuvering keeps up, we’ll have to transfer fuel cells from the battle cruisers to the destroyers to keep them from running too low.”

“What we have won’t go far spread among that many destroyers,” Duellos cautioned. “What’s this?” he asked as another alert sounded.

Two light cruisers had appeared from behind the super-Earth planet, swinging around one side and heading for the refugee ships. “They jumped out early,” Geary said. “They must have received orders to move up their attack.”

“Anything sent from the battleship would have reached them at about the right time for us to see them moving now,” Duellos agreed. “Let’s see what they do when they see that the battleship isn’t with them anymore.”

After an hour spent watching for reactions, the answer was clear. “All enemy ships have seen the destruction of the battleship by now,” the operations watch-stander said, “and none have altered their vectors. Both groups of light cruisers are still on an intercept with the refugee ships.”

“And the heavy cruisers are still hanging around near the escape pods,” Duellos added. “These may not technically still be Syndics, but they’re still fighting like Syndics.”

Geary nodded in reply. Despite what propaganda said, few in the Alliance military doubted the courage of the men and women fighting for the Syndics. Alliance fighters were baffled by the willingness of Syndic combatants to die for a system that was so obviously wrong, but they had learned through bitter experience that their enemy was tough and determined. But the Syndics were also subject to rigid discipline. They obeyed orders, to the letter, or else. “How are repairs coming on your main propulsion and maneuvering?”

“They’re coming.
Inspire
is almost back to full maneuvering capability, but the two main propulsion units that are still off-line are very badly damaged. My engineers can’t give me an estimated time to repair on them.”

Inspire
wouldn’t be able to rejoin the escorts around the refugee ships before the enemy Flotilla One reached them. It would be up to Commander Pajari to keep those light cruisers and HuKs from reaching any of the helpless freighters.

Half an hour until that enemy flotilla closed on the refugee ships and their escorts, and half an hour until Destroyer Squadron Nine reached the escape pods and started hauling in prisoners. “It’s time I talked to the people in this star system. Everyone. This time I want a broadcast blanketing all comm frequencies and directed to all points in the star system.”

“Yes, Admiral,” the comms watch acknowledged. “Wait one, sir. All right. You’ve got it, Admiral.”

Geary straightened in his seat, made sure his uniform looked as good as it could, then touched the control. “To the people of Batara Star System and all ships in Batara Star System, this is Admiral Geary of the Alliance fleet. We are here for one purpose only, to return to this star system the citizens of Batara who have been stranded in Alliance space. Once we drop them off, we will not remain here. The Alliance has no designs on this star system and no interest in dictating to the people of Batara. However, we have been subjected to unprovoked attacks by warships of unknown allegiance. We have responded to those attacks and will continue to do so, taking all necessary steps to eliminate any threats to us or to the people of Batara. To the honor of our ancestors, Geary, out.”

“I’m curious,” Duellos said. “Why didn’t you tell them outright that we were on a humanitarian mission?”

“Because of something else I learned not long ago from talking to former Syndics. To them, ‘humanitarian’ means ‘scam.’ It means someone is lying about their motives and their objectives, and is simply using the word to describe a scheme for personal profit. If I had said we were on a humanitarian mission, it would have sounded to them like I was admitting that I was actually out to cheat them.”

Duellos gazed morosely toward his display. “Sometimes I almost feel sorry for them. The Syndics. But then I get angry again, remembering how hard they fought for the same system that screwed them, how many people of ours they killed in the name of that system.”

“How many did
Inspire
lose in this fight?” Geary asked.

“The final casualty count is seventeen dead, thirty-five wounded. All of the wounded are now out of danger though some will take a lot more patching up. We were lucky it wasn’t worse.”

Implacable
had only suffered a couple of wounded, while
Formidable
had lost one killed and had eight wounded. They had all inflicted far more injury upon the enemy than they had suffered, but somehow that wasn’t very comforting.

Geary sat watching the movements of the warships and the refugee ships, seeming slow across the huge distances they had to cross, waiting for any replies or reactions to his message. Commander Pajari had positioned most of her available escorts in two box-shaped formations, each facing one of the oncoming enemy flotillas. The destroyers of the Ninth Squadron continued their work hauling in escape pods and hauling out the men and women inside until they had all the prisoners they could carry, then heading over to meet up with either
Implacable
or
Formidable
and transfer the prisoners to the much larger battle cruisers.

He saw the movement before the combat watch reported it. “The heavy cruisers are accelerating toward our destroyers, sir!”

Moments later, the operations watch called out another warning. “Both light cruiser flotillas are accelerating onto attack runs against the refugee ships, Admiral.”

“THEY’RE
still using closely coordinated actions and still following the orders of some command authority who was not on the battleship.”
Inspire
, and Geary, were five light-minutes from rejoining the refugee-ship formation, and nearly ten light-minutes from the region of space where the heavy cruisers were moving in to tangle with the Alliance battle cruisers and destroyers. “The heavy cruisers are a distraction.”

Duellos nodded in agreement. “They won’t press the attack. They just want you looking at them instead of whatever the light cruisers try against the refugee ships. They may think you’re on
Formidable
or
Implacable
.”

“I’m still far enough away from the escorts that I need to count on Commander Pajari to do the right thing.” If he tried giving orders that would take five minutes to reach their intended recipients, based on information already five minutes older, he could seriously mess up the defense of the convoy.

The light cruisers were coming in from two directions, the original flotilla consisting of two light cruisers and four HuKs, and the second of just two light cruisers. They had pushed their velocity up to point one five light. With the convoy plodding along at point zero five light speed, that would still allow good fire-control solutions for the attackers while making it harder for the Alliance escorts to intercept the enemy. But while still short of the convoy, the light cruisers coming in from the right pulled up to race over the top of the convoy while the light cruisers and HuKs coming from the front dove down and over in a wide, reverse loop.

“Classic Syndic tricks,” Duellos said. “They want Pajari to disregard the ones in front who appear to be fleeing and chase the two zipping past just out of range overhead.”

Geary couldn’t suppress a grunt of surprise as the four remaining Alliance light cruisers leaped away from their own formation, all apparently racing in pursuit of the enemy light cruisers passing above them. Had Pajari fallen for the bait despite her words of reassurance?

But only one of the Alliance light cruisers actually steadied out in pursuit of the two bait ships. The other three kept swinging about and turning, curving along a path aimed toward the front of the refugee convoy. Half of Pajari’s destroyers had also jumped forward, moving out well ahead of the refugee ships.

The two enemy light cruisers and two HuKs there had, instead of fleeing, gone back into their loop, coming out finally, after having gone through a full circle, and heading for the refugee ships once more. But instead of finding a defense weakened by ships that had left their positions to chase the bait light cruisers, the small enemy flotilla found itself running headfirst into Pajari’s countermove.

Three Alliance light cruisers and a dozen destroyers tore into the two enemy light cruisers and four HuKs. The slashing firing run wasn’t one-sided.
Parrot
took two bad hits from the enemy HuKs, and
Spur
got battered as the enemy light cruisers concentrated their fire on her. But
Spur
and light cruiser
Flanconade
scored crippling hits on an enemy light cruiser, while the other enemy light cruiser reeled from fire coming from light cruiser
Nukiwaza
and a half dozen destroyers. The Alliance destroyer
Flagellum
got in a lucky hit on one of the HuKs, knocking out its main propulsion and leaving it helpless as well.

The surviving three HuKs fled as Pajari brought her warships back around for another firing pass. One of the enemy light cruisers fired back as it tried to limp away, but the crew of the second fled in escape pods before the second Alliance attack reached them, as did the crew of the crippled HuK.

The second firing run tore apart the still-fighting light cruiser and the abandoned HuK. The abandoned enemy light cruiser blew up as its power core overloaded under a barrage of hits.

Above and now curving slightly back from the left of the refugee-ship formation, the two bait-ship light cruisers altered their vectors as they absorbed the destruction of Flotilla One.

“They’re heading for the jump point for Tiyannak,” the operations watch on
Inspire
reported. “So are the HuKs surviving from Flotilla One.”

“More good news,” Duellos exclaimed, pointing to his display.

Events that had taken place over ten minutes earlier were now visible to
Inspire
. The two enemy heavy cruisers had pushed their diversion moves a little too far, and Captain Savik had positioned his battle cruisers just right. A sudden burst of acceleration from
Formidable
and
Implacable
had brought one of the heavy cruisers within extreme missile range, and the resulting volley from the battle cruisers had scored enough hits to slow the heavy cruiser appreciably. As its companion fled along with the two HuKs accompanying it, the stricken enemy heavy cruiser fired back in futile defiance as
Implacable
and
Formidable
swung in and blew it apart in a single attack run.

By that time, one of the three HuKs running for the jump point for Tiyannak had veered off, making a dangerously tight turn to bring it back toward the inhabited world. That would be the one HuK that Araya had thought Batara had managed to get working, probably dragooned into service with the Tiyannak forces but now reasserting independence as the former conquerors fled.

“We have met the enemy, and Batara is ours,” Duellos said with a grin.

“Not that we want it or intend keeping it,” Geary said, trying suppress his own elation.

The job wasn’t over yet.

 • • • 

EVERY
one of Geary’s ships and every spy sat dropped off by them was tied into a single surveillance net by automated systems. Anything one ship or satellite could see, anyone on any ship could see just as if they were looking directly at it. Now Geary sat on the bridge of
Inspire
, watching his display as shuttles dropped down into atmosphere with more refugees. Already, the off-load seemed to have been going on forever, and there were close to half the refugee ships still to go.

The entire contingent of Alliance warships and all of the refugee ships were in orbit about the main inhabited world. Batara’s antiorbital defenses had chosen discretion over senseless valor, remaining silent as Geary’s warships wove their way just above the atmosphere.

The image of a speaker for the government of Batara occupied a virtual window next to Geary’s seat. “We must protest this continued violation of Batara’s sovereignty,” the speaker insisted for perhaps the sixth time since the off-load had begun with Colonel Voston’s regiment being dropped into a large, central square of the main city.

The regiment had formed a wide perimeter, clearing a big open area in the square for the shuttles to land and refugees to stay once they were dropped off. The three FACs had all been launched, their sleek, manta shapes gliding through the atmosphere and alternately hovering over the drop-off areas or swooping around the perimeter in a distinctly menacing fashion. If Batara still possessed any FACs of its own, they had stayed hidden rather than tangle with the Alliance warbirds.

“We are returning your citizens,” Geary told the speaker in a tone of voice that made it clear he wasn’t going to yield. “We have already defended your precious sovereignty by destroying the warships from Tiyannak that were operating at Batara. We will not tolerate any interference with our mission. That’s all.”

He ended the call. “Captain Duellos, have your comm people screen any more calls from that source. Unless they have something new and important to say, I don’t want to waste any more time with them.”

As if on cue, another alert sounded. Geary found himself looking at another virtual window that popped into existence, this one showing the view from Colonel Voston’s battle armor. “We got a situation developing, Admiral. My hack-and-crack platoon set up shop here when we landed and have been monitoring all comms and networks. The local government has been using code words to assemble a response to us.”

Voston turned slowly, letting Geary view what Voston’s armor was seeing. Rows of nondescript, brutally bland buildings were interrupted by openings for streets and alleys, all of them packed with people. “This is what’s going on just outside our perimeter.”

“I’ve been watching the crowds from overhead,” Geary said. “The citizens have been protesting in the streets since before we arrived in this star system.”

“It’s what’s been coming through the crowds that’s the problem,” Voston said. “They’ve been infiltrating and forming a screen between our soldiers and the crowds. Some ground forces, some of what look like police, and a lot of mob-militia types.”

“That doesn’t sound like something aimed at attacking you,” Geary said.

“It’s not. And they’re not here to protect us from the outside crowds, either. There’s a lot of comm talk going on, and a lot of it is ugly. The thugs are going to wait until we leave, then they’re going to move in and do their best to massacre every single man, woman, and child we just dropped off here.” Voston’s distaste for those waiting to attack the refugees came through clearly despite his attempt to sound impassive. “Just thought you should know.”

“What can we do?”

“You mean against the mob types? We don’t have to wait for them to move. They’re in a threatening posture. Give me the word, and we’ll start wiping them out if that’s what you want.”

“You’ve only got a regiment on the ground,” Geary said, appalled by both the situation and by Colonel Voston’s casual suggestion for handling it. “If you start shooting, the crowds may start moving against you, and you’ll be swamped.”

“We’ll go down shooting.”

“Colonel, I didn’t bring your regiment here so you could all commit suicide in a blaze of combat and glory! Between the refugees we’re dropping off and the crowds gathering around the site, there are already close to fifty thousand civilians to worry about.”

“Syndics,” Voston said.

“Civilians,” Geary repeated. “What are the numbers on the mob militias, police, and local ground forces?”

“Ummm . . . our armor sensors and my hack and cracks are estimating a few companies of ground forces, maybe five hundred cops, and a couple of thousand mob types. Odds are only the mob types will do the dirty work while the uniforms pretend to be maintaining security but actually hold back any crowds that might try to help the refugees.”

“There are a lot more than a few companies of ground forces available to the local government in that city,” Geary said.

“Yes, sir, but these are the loyalists, the ground forces that will do whatever the guys in charge say. The rest of the ground forces are probably not as high on assisting in the slaughter of their fellow citizens.”

Geary sat watching the images of the crowds.
I only have a regiment of ground forces to deal with this, and another regiment tied up on the refugee ships and scattered around on all of those ships. Plus three FACs, which are doing a great job of intimidating the locals. But that’s not enough. I can’t leave Colonel Voston’s regiment down there indefinitely, and I can’t use my warships unless I want to start bombarding the city.

Wait a minute.
He focused on the crowds again, remembering what the two refugee leaders had told him in their last conversation. “Colonel Kim, where are Araya and Naxos right now?”

Kim answered up immediately. “They’re on the way down. I watched them load into a shuttle half an hour ago, so they should be getting close to drop-off.”

“Excellent. Colonel Voston, I want your hack-and-crack platoon to get together with two refugee leaders named Araya and Naxos, who should be landing soon. Give Araya and Naxos full access to your gear so they can break into every available network and comm system down there and start spreading the word about what’s going on. Have both Araya and Naxos identify any other refugee leaders who can assist them in that.”

“Tell them what’s going on so they can tell the whole planet?” Voston asked. “I’m supposed to brief Syndics?”

“No, Colonel, you’re supposed to brief people who will prevent the Syndics from controlling this planet again. The local government controls the planetary comm systems and networks, but we can break in and get out whatever information we want. No one here will believe anything
we
say, but they’ll recognize the refugee leaders and listen to them. Once those crowds, and the not-so-loyal ground forces of this planet, find out what’s happening, they may solve this refugee problem for good in a way that won’t stain our honor.”

“Yes, sir. It’s your war.”

The crowds around the landing site kept growing as Araya and Naxos were given access to the Alliance comm gear and began blanketing planetary communication systems with their pleas and calls for a new government, as well as images of the government toughs and military forces menacing the returned refugees. Geary had to admire the way the specialists in the ground forces unit managed to get images that didn’t show any trace of the Alliance soldiers protecting the perimeter of the refugees’ landing site. As far as the vids and pictures showed, the refugees were defenseless against the looming threat of government-controlled violence.

“More local military deploying,” Colonel Voston reported, his voice and words terse. “Armor and heavy weapons as well as some leg ground forces.”

Geary took a look at part of his display, where a partial globe centered on the refugees’ landing site showed military bases over much of the planet. “They’re moving everywhere, not just near you.”

“Right. We can’t tell where they’re going, because all the orders we’re picking up from the government are telling them to remain in garrison. Those forces aren’t following those orders, though. My hack and cracks aren’t picking up anything that might tell us their intentions from the units that are moving, so if they are communicating with each other, they’re using means that no one can intercept.”

“This was a Syndic star system,” Geary said. “From what I’ve heard, figuring out how to communicate without being intercepted is a common thing in Syndic societies.”