The Lost Stars: Tarnished Knight

Iceni jolted her attention back to the bridge of the heavy cruiser. Drakon had apparently been right about Rogero’s virtues as a leader. “We may save the battleship after all.”

“What?” Marphissa asked with an appalled look. “Something—?”

“Never mind. Where’s the rest of the other flotilla?”

“Here.” The other flotilla glowed brighter on Iceni’s display, the vector from it leading inexorably to the battleship. “Fourteen minutes before they can open fire on the battleship. I’ve warned the shuttles to get on the opposite side of the battleship so they can’t be targeted.”

“Good.” The course of their own formation was bending just as relentlessly toward the damaged heavy cruiser.

“The damaged heavy cruiser is putting out escape pods,” the operations specialist said. “One . . . two . . . three.”

Marphissa frowned at the display. “Only three? We can’t have killed that much of the crew already.” Red danger markers flashed on the displays. “The cruiser is firing its still-operational hell lances? We’re still far too— Damn. They’re firing on their own pods.”

“Who’s in the pods?” Iceni demanded. “Snakes or crew members trying to escape the snakes?”

“Three more escape pods just ejected.”

“We’ve got comms from one of the pods,” the communications specialist cried. “Kommodor, they say they’re crew, trying to escape and surrender. The snakes control the bridge.”

Marphissa looked at Iceni. “Are they really crew? Or escaping snakes? What do we target?”

“The cruiser. If the snakes turn out to be in the escape pods, we can easily run them down later.”

“But if the cruiser is already controlled by what’s left of the crew—”

“Then they waited too damned long before taking over.” Iceni kept her tone cold to hide the sick feeling in her gut. I have to decide now. I hope I’m right.

“One minute to intercept.”

Marphissa tapped a control. “All weapons target the cruiser. We want a kill this time,” she ordered in a flat voice.

The flotilla flashed by the heavy cruiser, hell lances and grapeshot slamming into the crippled unit, and as they curved away, Iceni watched the display light up. “We blew their power core. Did the escape pods get far enough clear to survive the core explosion?”

“Yes. They took some damage, though.”

“They’ll have to live with it for a while. No. Send that damaged light cruiser and HuK to intercept the escape pods,” Iceni ordered. “They can handle that. Get the rest of us back to the battleship.”

The remainder of the other flotilla was still aiming for the battleship, but they would see the fate of the heavy cruiser at any moment. Iceni, trying to guess how much damage the light escorts could do a battleship without operational shields, touched her comm control. “All units in the flotilla approaching the battleship, this is President Iceni. Be aware that my forces have seized and now control that battleship and everything on it. A portion of its weapons are operational.” Almost pure bluff since the soldiers probably couldn’t get to any of the few working hell lances in time to fire them at the approaching warships. “All the snakes aboard it are dead. Your flagship has been destroyed. Any unit that ceases attacking my forces will be granted mercy. Stop fighting for the Syndicate system. It failed. Fight for yourselves. For the people, Iceni, out.”

And she waited. Waited for the light-speed message to reach the other flotilla, itself only a couple of minutes from reaching the battleship, and for the light from any reaction to come back to her.

And saw one of the other formation’s light cruisers suddenly peel away, bending toward empty space.

“That got their attention,” Marphissa commented with a grin. “There goes another.”

“Three HuKs taking evasive action away from their formation,” the operations specialist said. “Because of time variations, the actions don’t seem to have been coordinated.”

The remaining two light cruisers and three HuKs in the other formation abruptly altered their own vectors, curving upward to avoid the firing envelope of the battleship and cross above the gas giant. As they cleared the gas giant, one more light cruiser and another HuK lurched away from their comrades, leaving the formation down to one light cruiser and two HuKs, which seemed to be aiming toward Kane. “Second planet,” Marphissa predicted. “That will be their objective.”

“Why run back there?” Iceni asked.

“Because there are probably some high-ranking snakes on that planet who are going to want to be evacuated. Comms, see if we can get into contact with any of those light cruisers or HuKs that left their formation. Are we to continue toward the battleship, Madam President?”

“Yes. Make sure the light cruiser and HuK picking up the escape pods are ready for anything. I want to know who is really in those escape pods. If they’re occupied by snakes, those snakes may be armed.” She turned to look at Rogero’s view, seeing the still-sealed bridge hatch. “Colonel, status report.”