An alert appeared, showing that the sensors on both Pele and Gryphon had picked up unusual fluctuations from the power cores on both light cruisers.
Simultaneously, the two light cruisers leapt forward as their main propulsion kicked in at full, one cruiser homing in on Gryphon and the other aiming for Pele.
Chapter Nine
Missiles tore away from Midway’s warships, the ones fired by Gryphon having such a close target that they impacted within seconds as Gryphon hurled a full volley of hell lances and grapeshot at the light cruiser. One moment that light cruiser was trying to bend its vector fast enough to hit Gryphon, and the next its entire forward section had been blown to dust, the stern section rolling wildly up and off to the side.
Pele had a slightly longer time to shoot, but the light cruiser aiming for her was already lined up for intercept. Kontos didn’t take any chances, pivoting Pele to ensure every possible weapon could come to bear on the attacker. The light cruiser was hit by a barrage that immediately collapsed its shields, tore through the light armor on its bow, then ripped down the length of the ship.
Pele continued onward, a field of small debris and dust passing astern and beneath her marking the remains of the second light cruiser.
The heavy cruisers which had been pretending to pursue the light cruisers had also altered vectors, swinging through an arc as they aimed to hit Gryphon before she could rejoin Pele.
“They weren’t planning to ram,” Mercia said, her eyes intent on her display. “The light cruisers were going to get right next to our ships and detonate their power cores. Gryphon would have been destroyed and Pele crippled, then the heavy cruisers would have finished her off.”
“There haven’t been any escape pods coming off what is left of the light cruiser that went after Gryphon,” Bradamont noted. “I wonder how large the crews were on those light cruisers?”
Kapitan Stein on Gryphon hadn’t done the instinctive thing and tried to evade the heavy cruisers, which would have only slowed down Gryphon and made her an easier target, instead charging right into the attack. The three ships had rocketed past each other at a combined velocity of nearly point three light speed, so fast that even their automated fire control systems could not compensate for the relativistic distortion that warped the ships’ views of each other. Every shot fired missed.
With Pele now bearing down on them and Gryphon swinging in a vast arc to intercept again, the two Syndicate heavy cruisers bolted back for the jump point. The Syndicate warships had not finished their own turn back when Pele raced past above them and hammered one of the heavy cruisers so badly that it began sliding off to one side, unable to maneuver.
The second heavy cruiser abandoned its comrade, accelerating all out, as Gryphon swung in from one side and below to hit it in another swift pass. Gryphon rolled out and began a huge, graceful arc aimed this time at the crippled Syndicate heavy cruiser, while Pele settled onto a stern chase of the fleeing cruiser.
Bradamont watched as Gryphon had hit the damaged heavy cruiser again, suffering some hits herself but taking out some of the Syndicate warship’s weapons and inflicting some damage in its main propulsion. Hurt as it was and trapped inside an enemy star system, the Syndicate heavy cruiser was doomed. Bradamont waited to see escape pods begin to launch as the Syndicate crew abandoned ship.
Instead, before Gryphon could finish swinging up and around for another firing run, the heavy cruiser had abruptly dropped its remaining shields and shut down its weapons.
The transmission from that ship resembled the earlier ones from the light cruiser, but did not have any feeling of having been staged. An Executive Fourth Class with blood running unheeded down one arm of his suit spoke in halting words. “We surrender to you. All snakes aboard this unit are dead. We swear it! This isn’t a trick. We won’t fire on you again. We heard that Iceni and Drakon are for the people. We surrender.”
The second heavy cruiser kept fleeing despite the very small lead it had, firing on Pele as the battle cruiser finally overtook it. With a fairly small relative velocity to the heavy cruiser, Pele was able to methodically smash the heavy cruiser from stern to bow as the Syndicate warship made futile attempts to outmaneuver its foe. Only a few escape pods launched before the second heavy cruiser’s power core overloaded because of the damage, and blew the battered warship into fragments.
Bradamont, realizing she had been sitting on Midway’s bridge for a long time watching the battle that had played out hours ago, stretched and smiled. “Kapitan Mercia,” she said loudly. “Black Jack would be proud to have such ships and such men and women fighting alongside his own.”
Mercia’s eyebrows went up. She knew that Bradamont almost always referred to Admiral Geary by his name and rank, not using the Black Jack nickname that Syndicate and former-Syndicate personnel always employed. Then Mercia gave Bradamont a genuine smile, different from her usual stiffness toward the Alliance officer. “One of his own would know.”
Another alert, this one a mild tone. Mercia gestured toward the symbol that had appeared at the jump point from Iwa. “Manticore has returned. Your chance for glory has passed.”
“You don’t know how glad I am to know that.”
Moments later, the first transmission from Manticore arrived. As she watched and listened to Marphissa’s report, Bradamont felt any sense of relief fading rapidly.
Drakon studied Kommodor Marphissa’s report, knowing that his expression was falling into grim lines. “Which major problem are we going to discuss first?”
“Oh, why not the enigmas and their secret base,” Iceni said. She looked tired and unhappy, which wasn’t too surprising considering the matters that needed to be addressed.
“Their deep underground secret base,” Drakon said, knowing that Gwen Iceni wouldn’t want him to soft-pedal anything. “Deep, deep underground. Probably designed for defense, with a lot of angles to hide behind, choke points to funnel attackers into, and materials that will block sensors and communications by enemy forces.”
Gwen Iceni had called a meeting when Marphissa’s report came in. They all sat in another conference room at Drakon’s headquarters. With at least one potential assassin running loose on the planet, it made sense to avoid using the same rooms or the same routes or the same routines. Predictability made a killer’s job much, much easier.
“The corridors would very likely be designed as a maze,” Colonel Malin added.
“And,” Drakon continued heavily, “we would be attacking enigmas, who, according to Black Jack’s reports, prefer to blow things up rather than have them captured.” He looked toward Captain Bradamont, who had returned to the planet just in time for this meeting.
Bradamont nodded. “Ships, installations, you name it. It seemed everything we encountered was rigged with self-destruct capability. The enigmas don’t want anything left that could provide any information or clues about them.”
“You’re saying an assault by ground forces would be a suicide mission,” Iceni observed, looking steadily off to one side.