Every bone in Kira’s body ached to be in a starfighter as the countdown to their second-to-last nova ticked through her headware. If they were going to run into any trouble on their way home, the trade-route stops accessible directly from Redward would be the place.
“Nova in one minute,” Zoric said calmly.
Kira was back on the flag bridge. This time, she wasn’t alone, having commandeered Chief Waxweiler to act as her “staff” while she managed the glorified convoy that remained of the Coalition Fleet.
“All ships confirm ready and timeline,” Waxweiler reported. “Guardian and the destroyers are all at battle stations; transport sub-fighters are ready to launch.”
Kira just nodded. If Cobra Squadron were present, launching the sublight fighters aboard the army transports would be basically murder. Those experienced pilots and advanced nova fighters would obliterate the raw recruits flying the transport defense craft.
The real key to getting to Redward was Deception herself, still the largest and most powerful warship in the Cluster, and the now-battle-hardened veteran nova pilots on her decks.
“Helmet, Nightmare, Longknife, check in,” she ordered. Each of those three now led a mixed squadron of mercenary and RRF pilots. The need to put Sagairt in a fighter had been the final mark against Kira flying herself—he was borrowing her Hoplite today.
“All starfighters are ready to go,” Nightmare told her.
“I’ll be in space with all ten fighter-bombers the moment we’re out of nova,” Sagairt confirmed. “I believe your deck crew when they say sixty seconds for the rest.”
Sagairt would also launch with four interceptors. Hoffman would follow with the heavy fighters and more interceptors, and then Cartman would launch a full interceptor squadron.
“I hope this prep is for nothing,” Kira said, watching the seconds tick away. “But the target on my back is itching like crazy. Stand by for nova.”
“All hands stand by for nova,” Zoric’s voice echoed her order on the public announcement. “Five seconds. Four. Three. Two. One.
“Nova.”
The universe flashed and one section of empty deep space was replaced with another chunk…that was not empty.
“Multiple contacts,” Waxweiler reported crisply. “Still resolving; I’m eyeballing at over fifty individual contacts. Is this trade stop this busy?”
“No,” Hodzic said grimly. “There should be a few corvettes and maybe a dozen freighters.”
“Most of the contacts are in one location,” Davidović said. “Looks like corralled transports with a warship guard force. I’m flagging a destroyer and six corvettes playing guard dog on at least forty transports.”
Data was flowing to Kira’s headware, but the details didn’t matter. She knew what an interstellar blockade looked like, and there was no question in her mind.
“I’m not seeing nova fighters,” she barked. “Confirm?”
“Confirmed,” Waxweiler said a moment before Davidović could. “Enemy strength is four destroyers, twelve corvettes. No gunships, no nova fighters.”
“Good.” Kira smiled coldly. Those sixteen warships were a significant fighting force by the standards of the Syntactic Cluster—and they didn’t stand a chance against her battered command.
“Launch all nova and sub-fighters,” she ordered. “Set your course for the freighter corral. Helmet, punch out the corral guards ASAP. Longknife, Nightmare, follow up behind him and secure those ships.”
“And the sub-fighters, sir?” Davidović asked.
“Sub-fighters will split in two. Odd-numbered squadrons will remain with the army transports. Even-numbered squadrons will form on Deception, as will the other warships. Your course is for the corral, Captains.
“If these sons of dogs think they’re going to hold on to civilian shipping while we’re in the system, they’re going to learn very differently!”
* * *
Multiphasic jamming lit up space moments after Sagairt’s fighter squadron vanished into nova. Kira’s capital ships were moving forward, the two cruisers forming the tip of a wedge of lighter warships.
They were already initiating evasive maneuvers to make sure the strangers didn’t get any lucky long-range shots in, but they’d once again deployed drones outside their jamming bubble with laser links to Deception.
The details Kira had half-dismissed earlier updated as they closed. There were forty-six freighters under guard in the impromptu holding zone the blockaders had assembled, varying from ten-thousand-cubic-meter tramps to fifty-kilocubic bulk container ships.
Even the big ships looked small to her eyes, but there was still the best part of a million cubic meters of shipping interned under the guns of the Bengalissimo ships—or at least, what were claiming to be Bengalissimo ships.
“IFF codes flag them all as Bengalissimo Fleet warships, but we know diese Arschlöcher,” Chief Waxweiler told Kira. “Every one of them has a direct match in our files. They were all at Ypres. These are Institute mercs, Commodore.”
“I always appreciate the confirmation on just who we’re blowing into tiny pieces,” Kira replied. “Thanks, Chief. How long until we have an update on the nova-fighter strike?”
The nova hadn’t even been a full light-minute, but they hadn’t lost sight of the holding pens yet. That would change as soon as—
“Now,” the Brisingr Chief replied. That portion of their data had now dissolved into multiphasic jamming as the fighters emerged.
Their sensor feed was forty seconds out of date there. Kira had to trust Sagairt and her own people to handle rescuing the trapped merchants. Her attention was on the rest of the mercenary force.
Three destroyers and another six corvettes were scattered across the trade zone, their positions more concerned with intercepting freighters than engaging in an actual fight. The closest units had detected Deception and her friends and were now maneuvering to rendezvous with their compatriots.
“Commodore, all of them have the speed to outrun our escorts,” Zoric said from the bridge. “If we leave the Cluster ships behind, the sub-fighters and Deception can catch them.”
“No,” Kira replied. “Let them run. Let them consolidate and realize that we’re not afraid of them at all.” Her smile was cold. “If they’re smart, this battle is already over.”
“Return nova from the freighter corral,” Waxweiler reported. “One of Helmet’s interceptors, downloading data by laser com. Hostiles are destroyed but the freighters appear to have enemy troops aboard.”
“Damn,” Kira murmured, then turned her attention to her senior RRF officer. “How many troops are left on those army transports, Captain Hodzic?”
“They’re mostly empty but…they’ve got at least a battalion or so worth of support troops that know which end of a blaster goes toward the enemy,” Hodzic said. “They can retake the merchant ships.”
“All right.” Kira considered for a moment. “Commodore Shinoda?”
“Commodore Demirci,” the Yprian officer replied calmly. “Would you like us to escort the Redward Army to deal with some wayward pirates?”
“They’re a military unit engaged in merchant interdiction, Commodore,” Kira pointed out. “We may not like what they’re doing, but they are accorded respect under the laws of war.
“But yes, that is what I was going to ask.”
“Much as I want to kick some Bengal butt, I think we might be more valuable with the RRA,” Shinoda said. “Adjusting course to fall back on the transports.”
“I’ll pass on the orders,” Hodzic confirmed. “What about the mercs?”
“The rest of us keep hunting,” Kira replied. “But…they’ll run. No one is going to fight two cruisers with three destroyers.”
Much as she might want them to.
* * *
“Nova signatures,” Waxweiler said, his tone satisfied. “Remaining Bengalissimo ships have withdrawn. Orders, Commodore?”
“Bring everyone about to support the transports in securing the merchants,” Kira replied. “We’ll secure them and help with whatever repairs they need to nova into Redward. Anyone heading away from Redward gets our best wishes, but our destination is set.”
She considered the big tactical display—larger than it would normally be on the flag deck, with only two of them there—and shook her head.
“We’ll keep the full fighter force out for now,” she decided. “It’s possible those guys went for reinforcements and Bengalissimo has enough cruisers out there that they could bring a few to tangle with us.”
She hoped they didn’t have enough cruisers around Redward to want to tangle with Deception and Guardian. That would suggest that either the cruisers were more upgraded than they expected or that the BF had sent a lot more ships to Redward than the mercenaries’ presence suggested.
“Multiphasic jamming is phasing down,” Waxweiler reported. “Reestablishing full communications with everyone.”
Laser com-links could often be maintained between larger warships during a battle, but they were limited in how much data could be transmitted reliably through multiphasic jamming and required precise calculation.
Plus, even the sub-fighters were almost impossible to maintain coms with inside the jamming zone. Anything smaller than a destroyer couldn’t maintain even unreliable coms during a battle—and anything more than a few hundred thousand kilometers, barely outside the jamming bubble, was a lost cause.
“It’ll take a minute or so before we have coms with the nova-fighter group,” Waxweiler warned.
“I know,” Kira reminded him with a chuckle. “I’m used to being on the other side of it, but I know.”
The warships swept toward the corral and she sighed.
“I was hoping things hadn’t gone this far yet,” she admitted. “But if Bengalissimo has mercs blockading Redward, it’s war.”
“It wasn’t before?” the chief asked.
“Oh, it almost certainly was,” Kira said. “But if they were blockading Ypres, then they hadn’t directly moved against Redward yet. Redward and Bengalissimo could still potentially talk things down from the precipice. The blockade would be a problem, but we wouldn’t already be in a shooting war.”
“If they moved in on these trade-route stops, they either ran off or destroyed the RRF lookouts,” Zoric said. “That’s been the main use the RRF has for gunships and corvettes, so it could be worse, but…”
“But the shooting has started,” Kira finished. “I doubt the RRA is going to have any problems securing the merchant ships, so we should be ready to move on as soon as our drives have cooled down.
“I’m looking forward to being back in friendly space.”
“Last time I checked, this particular chunk of void was supposed to be friendly space,” Zoric said.
“And that, Kavitha, is the problem.”