She smiled as the conflicting vectors appeared on the display. Admiral Wilhelm had decided to be careful, taking account of the Hawthorn System’s odd nature. His starships hadn’t emerged close enough to the planet to prevent her from making her escape — the starships flickering in at the edge of the system had been enough to give her advance warning, unless he had intended to warn her all along — and they were too close to risk flickering closer. She hoped that they would try — the odds favoured crashing right into the gravity shadow — but she doubted that they would attempt anything of the sort. They wouldn’t have to take any risks at all to take Hawthorn.
“We’re up a signal,” the communications officer said. “They’re demanding our surrender.”
“No reply,” Katy said, watching the display. The enemy fleet was sorting out its vectors now, angling in to engage them as they departed the gravity shadow, but it was too late to trap them. A few thousand kilometres closer to the planet and they could have smashed her entire fleet without risking serious losses themselves. “They already know what we would want to say to them.”
She watched as the squadron came alive around the Jefferson, escorts falling into their positions, ready to intercept missiles when the Cottbus Fleet opened fire, bringing up the data network to coordinate their fire. She’d studied the records carefully from Cottbus and point defence was, it seemed, one of their few advantages. They might be able to hold their own in a long-range missile duel… and even if they couldn’t defeat the enemy fleet, they could hit it hard enough to force them to be careful. She’d already pre-placed several dozen freighters in interstellar space, ready to reload her ships with missiles and other weapons, and she didn’t have to worry about expenditure. The enemy wouldn’t have the same concerns. She’d taken the precaution of rigging Hawthorn’s industrial nodes to self-destruct once her fleet left the system.
And I could flee the system, she thought, before shaking her head. Her crew needed a victory and even if that meant taking some risks, there was no choice. We have to force an engagement on our terms, just to convince my people that we can take them down.
“Now clearing the gravity shadow, Admiral,” the helmsman said.
“Follow the Plan Romeo course,” Katy said, watching as the enemy fleet altered course slightly. They hadn’t realised it, but they had been outmanoeuvred; in the time it would take them to alter the course of their superdreadnaughts, they would have been committed to a stern chase… or to abandoning her fleet and allowing them to escape without engagement. She had a small bet going with herself that the enemy would have no choice, but to turn to engage, knowing that if she vanished, they might see her next at Cottbus. “Tactical, run an engagement profile, but withhold the arsenal ships.”
The tactical officer blinked. “Admiral?”
“Withhold the arsenal ships,” Katy said. She would have preferred to add them to her firepower, but if she shot them dry, the enemy fleet would simply flicker out and escape. They’d come back to Cottbus completely undamaged. “Order them to flicker out as soon as they are targeted and engaged.”
The superdreadnaught shivered slightly as it rolled onto the new course, daring the enemy to follow. Katy smiled to herself as the enemy fleet altered course, slowing their ships before picking up the chase, trying to catch her ships. The superdreadnaughts she’d kept with her hadn’t been damaged badly enough to slow their escape, but the starships’ ECM was working to convince the enemy that they were chasing nine near-cripples. It was even possible that they believed that the superdreadnaughts were unable to flicker out, although she cautioned herself not to believe that, not when it would have been too convenient.
“Enemy ships will enter firing range in ten minutes,” the tactical officer said. The superdreadnaught shuddered as it launched a spread of probes towards the enemy fleet, picking apart their ECM and targeting each of their starships specifically. They would have no place to hide — although, Katy admitted silently, they wouldn’t need a place to hide from her weaker fleet. “Targeting priorities?”
Katy scowled. If they’d had equal strength to the Cottbus fleet, she wouldn’t have hesitated to expend the first salvo on their escorts, trusting in her own point defence to shield her superdreadnaughts while she stripped theirs of most of their cover. They would probably be thinking along the same lines, of course. Without equal strength, they had to take down as many superdreadnaughts as they could, not least because the combined strength of four sectors would certainly give the Shadow Fleet a nasty time.
“Pick two superdreadnaughts and engage them when they enter missile range,” she ordered, calmly. The display flickered as the tactical officer picked two of the lead superdreadnaughts and targeted them for destruction. “Configure a third of the missiles for advanced penetration. Let’s see how good their point defence is in a fair fight.”
She leaned back in her command chair and watched as the red icons slowly overhauled her fleet. The enemy commander had to be spitting rocks by now, she thought; if she’d been further away, he could have flickered closer to her position, but if he risked it now he might lose her altogether. Worse, he might even expose himself to losing a handful of superdreadnaughts to her fleet, leaving him with no choice, but a stern chase. The timer ticked down as tension rose on the bridge; it was almost a relief when the superdreadnaught rolled and flushed its external racks towards the enemy fleet.
“Missiles away,” the tactical officer said. The superdreadnaught shuddered again as it unleashed the first salvo from its internal tubes. “Internal tubes away… now!”
Katy tensed as the enemy superdreadnaughts, dark and silent, closed in on her position. The enemy commander wasn’t firing, not yet, knowing that most of his missiles would burn out before they reached her point defence range. Logically, he would hold his fire for two more minutes, while her missiles screamed towards his point defence envelope, but he’d have to fire before her missiles actually engaged his ships. A single hit on the external racks could have disastrous consequences for any superdreadnaught. She doubted that they would be so lucky as to actually trigger enemy warheads, but if they damaged the external racks it might be impossible for them to separate their racks and fire their internal tubes.
“Enemy force has opened fire,” the tactical officer said, as the display sparkled with red icons, each one promising death and destruction for her fleet. “Time to engagement range, two minutes.”
Too bloody long, Katy thought, coldly. The enemy missiles were caught in the stern chase as well, but without the need to take care of human crews, they could travel much faster, overhauling her ships with ease. Her missiles took advantage of the closing speed between her ships and the enemy ships, but the enemy missiles had to work to close the gap. It was going to be a frustrating experience for them.
“Link point defence into a rear defence formation,” she ordered, watching as the enemy point defence sparkled with light and engaged her missiles. The closing speed was greater than they would normally have to handle, but they’d practiced to take on arsenal ships and heavier missile barrages than anyone had deployed, before the rebellion. “Continue to fire when the tubes are reloaded.”