He had concentrated his attacks against the dark ship formation containing four battleships, using each of his formations to slice through the array of dark ships in even quicker succession than the dark ships had aimed at the Alliance forces. The dark ships were trying to shift vectors again, trying to bring their other four formations onto paths that would allow them shots at the Alliance formations that were ducking inside the curves of the dark ships’ approaches.
Gamma Four went through first, ten of Geary’s battleships against four of the dark ships. Despite the advantage in numbers, the superior firepower on the dark battleships and the accumulated damage on Geary’s battleships meant the forces were roughly equal. The battleships on both sides threw avalanches of fire at their enemies as the Alliance formation cut edge on through the rectangular dark ship formation.
If that had been it, the engagement would have been inconclusive. But on the heels of Gamma Four came Gamma Three, eleven more Alliance battleships hammering at the dark battleships that had just been flayed by Gamma Four. Overstressed shields collapsed on the dark battleships, hell lances and grapeshot penetrating to flash against the dark ships’ armor.
Reeling from those blows, the dark ships immediately faced the seven battle cruisers of Gamma Two. Battle cruisers didn’t have the same punch as battleships, but they were hitting dark ships that had already been struck by two attacks within seconds. Tulev’s and Duellos’s warships slammed shots into the dark warships, then as they raced onward, Gamma One came through, another six battle cruisers striking enemies reeling from the prior blows.
As the Alliance formations and the dark ship formations separated and tore away in different directions, Geary ordered more course changes even before seeing the results of the attacks. Gamma Four stayed on the same vector, sliding in a vast curve opposite its former path. Gamma Three pushed its main propulsion units, forcing its warships into a tighter curve, and also angling upward. Gamma Two let momentum carry its ships in a wider curve and down. And Gamma One began coming about under full thrust from its battle cruisers’ main propulsion to climb between the other three formations at an angle to them.
Then he looked back, seeing what had happened in those flashes of combat.
Two of the dark battleships were knocked out, one drifting helpless and the other one torn apart. The dark ship formation had also lost two heavy cruisers, three light cruisers, and a dozen destroyers.
Gamma Four, the first Alliance formation to face the dark battleships, had not come off unscathed. Amazon had taken the brunt of the dark ships’ fire and was rolling slowly through space at a slight angle to her previous vector, unable to maneuver, many of her weapons knocked out. Captain Armus’s Colossus had also taken a lot of hits but was in good enough shape to remain with the formation and continue in the fight. Heavy cruiser Turret was gone, along with light cruisers Chase, Corona, and Foin. Amazingly, only one destroyer, Annellet, had been lost.
An image appeared before Geary, an officer in a survival suit, on the darkened and damaged bridge of a battleship. “Commander Choiseul reporting in. Captain Penthe is dead. Amazon’s power core is damaged and unstable. We are conducting an emergency shutdown. All propulsion is out. Most weapons destroyed. Given dark ship targeting of escape pods in previous engagements, I have refrained from ordering personnel to abandon ship, but if it becomes obvious that Amazon is about to be destroyed, I will order the escape pods launched. To the honor of our ancestors, Choiseul, out.”
The image vanished.
One of the dark ship formations, the one holding ten battle cruisers, had bent through the tightest turn it could manage, clearly aiming to finish off Amazon.
“They’re giving us an opening,” Desjani said quickly.
“I see it.” The two Alliance battleship formations could not alter vectors quickly enough to engage the dark battle cruisers, but Geary’s battle cruisers could. “Gamma Two,” he sent, “intercept the dark battle cruisers targeting Amazon. Gamma One will assist.”
Geary looked over at Desjani. “Captain, this one is yours.”
“Yes, sir.” She didn’t sound as exultant as she usually did when given such an opportunity. Tanya instead radiated grim determination as she gave orders that continued Gamma One’s turn and bent the vector downward again.
Gamma Two had dramatically tightened its turn, also coming up, as Tulev’s Leviathan led the charge to assist Amazon’s survivors.
“Amazon has shut down her power core,” Lieutenant Castries said. The battleship was completely helpless now, a derelict doing a ponderous, uncontrolled tumble through space.
With the dark battle cruisers sweeping down and only minutes from firing, the wreck of the Amazon began volleying out escape pods as her surviving crew sought whatever tenuous safety the pods might offer.
Something in the Marine views distracted Geary for a moment. He moved one hand to close them out, then paused as he saw Marines moving into a large compartment filled with command equipment. The room resembled the primary command center on Ambaru Station at Varandal, but was even larger. Several individuals in generic civilian suits like those of the man and woman Geary had arrested at Ambaru were standing around, hands raised, except for one who was repeatedly and angrily swiping at what must be virtual controls in the air before her. She spun about and began berating the Marines. Even though Geary wasn’t listening to the exchange, he could tell the woman was trying to assert authority over the Marines. More Marines entered, along with Victoria Rione and Colonel Rico. Rione said something to the woman that caused her mouth to snap shut, then Rico ordered some of the Marines to restrain her.
He couldn’t spare the time to find out the details, but the frustration on the part of the suits’ leader and the purposeful way Marine hackers were moving to the facility’s command locations made it clear that the data destruction sought by the agents had not been achieved.
Realizing that it no longer mattered whether Victoria Rione found the critical information needed to restore access to the hypernet because fleeing and leaving the dark ships able to use the gate to attack Unity was not an option, Geary minimized the Marine windows and focused all attention on the clash of battle cruisers that was about to occur.
The dark ships flashed past the wreck of Amazon, pouring fire into the derelict. With Amazon’s power core shut down, the only way to destroy what was left of her was by an overwhelming number of blows that shattered her armor and hull. Ten dark battle cruisers had enough firepower to accomplish that.
Amazon came apart under the merciless barrage, breaking into large and small pieces that spun away from each other.
Even though nearly every dark weapon was aimed at finishing off the battleship, shots from some of the smaller dark ships targeted the escape pods, knocking out or destroying several and certainly killing the men and women inside.
“Damn them.” Geary did not realize he had spoken those words aloud, but he knew that he wasn’t aiming his wrath at the cold minds of the dark ships but at the people who had programmed them and the people who had decided to trust in such weapons.