[05] Elite: Reclamation (42 page)

‘More company,’ he said. ‘Now the Imperials join the party.’

‘Get me a scan of the lead ship. Can you identify it?’

Luko tweaked the settings of the scanner.

‘Registered as the
Atticus
, does that help?’

Kahina nodded grimly. ‘That belongs to Admiral Brice. He was in service to my father. That is my fleet.’

‘Then they are on the wrong side of the moon. The Federation holds the approach.’

‘Can you get past the Federation ships?’

Luko studied the scanner display, nervously chewing his fingertip before shaking his head.

‘They see us soon. The sun only hide us for so long. Even with the drives off …’

‘Then I’ve got to get a message to Admiral Brice.’

Luko shook his head. ‘The Federation is jamming, you can try ...’

Kahina opened up the holofac comm system and made a brief call. There was no acknowledgement from the Imperial fleet, but she could see ships turning and heading in their direction.

‘Head for the station at full speed, everyone will see that, won’t they?’ she asked.

Luko sighed. ‘Oh yes, they will see it, ok.’

Kahina saw him reluctantly trigger the thrusters. With a rising rumble the Cobra surged ahead. On the rear-view display Kahina could see that they were trailing a bright plume of exhaust flux visible for hundreds of kilometres across space.

‘We are now a big fat target …’ Luko said, ‘so much for a stealthy approach.’

‘Just get us in range of the station.’

‘Sir, a transmission,’ an Imperial operative announced.

Brice turned, taking in the new information. A holofac appeared; it was laced with static, unstable and flickering, the audio barely discernible. He could just make out the face of a woman in the few brief moments of clarity.

‘Boost the gain.’

‘Already at maximum, sir.’

‘… miral …. ice … eed … dezvous … rams … horage … laves … ill … elp me … fend … ship.’

Brice looked at the small vessel’s trajectory plot. ‘She’s heading for the station. Covering fire! And protect that ship at all costs!’

***

‘Captain?’

Tenim and Jenu stood on the bridge of the
Xajorkith
as the Imperial fleet arrived and began forming up.

‘We have the upper hand,’ the captain responded to Tenim’s request for an update, ‘a larger force and an advantageous position.’

‘I’m glad to hear it,’ Tenim replied. ‘What about the station?’

‘It is a formidable opponent,’ the captain replied, ‘but it cannot manoeuvre. Our analysis shows it has only short to medium-range weaponry. It is no threat to this vessel, but we should be cautious with the rest of the fleet.’

Tenim looked out of the bridge windows to where the Imperial fleet was swiftly organising itself after the hyperspace jump.

‘And what would you do if you were them?’

The captain studied the Imperial fleet for a few moments and then turned back to Tenim with a wry grin.

‘I’d send in my ambassador.’

Tenim smiled in response. ‘And if they decide diplomacy is not going to work?’

The captain frowned. ‘They would try to take advantage of the station in some fashion. Some kind of pincer move would be my guess.’

A distinctive ping echoed through the bridge. The captain turned. Tenim followed his movements as he moved across to the navigation officer, leant over his console and discussed the new information.

‘What is it?’ Jenu whispered from beside him.

‘New ship contact,’ Tenim replied.

The navigation officer gestured and a holofac overlay appeared across the bridge windows, a cross-hair spinning around and highlighting a slowly moving point of light against the backdrop of space.

As Tenim and Jenu watched, the holofac system resolved the dot, magnifying it upwards until the blurred form of an old ship could be seen, trailing a bright glaring tail of blue energy.

‘Incoming vessel, Commissioner,’ the captain said, walking back to them. ‘It’s an old trading vessel, Cobra-class.’

‘What is it doing?’ Tenim asked.

‘Heading straight for the station. It’s in a hurry. Running flat out.’

Tenim looked at the ship on the holofac for a moment.

‘I believe our Imperial heiress is making her move,’ Tenim mused, stroking his beard.

‘Orders, Commissioner?’

‘I believe I put this system under interstellar martial law, Captain,’ Tenim replied. ‘That vessel is violating that directive. Jam all communications, intercept it …’

The captain waited. Tenim lowered his hand.

‘… and blow it out of the stars.’

***

Kahina saw the targeting system light up with threat warnings once again. She was quite used to the sound. She knew what it meant. She instinctively pulled her flight harness tighter around her.

Luko was studying the instruments too.

‘I am thinking you are not very popular in the Federation, signorina.’

‘The feeling is mutual.’

On the scanner a series of red dots had broken off from the Federation armada and were rapidly closing the distance. A corresponding series of yellow dots were swarming from the Imperial fleet, but it was clear the Federation ships would arrive first.

‘My ships will defend me,’ Kahina said, watching the scanner. ‘But we’ve got to give them more time.’

Luko widened the scanner radius until the Sun, the ringed planet Mestra and the other bodies in the system were visible. The different trajectories of the combative ships were plotted with estimated times of interception. They had only minutes before the ships would arrive.

‘If you crazy, I be crazy too.’ Luko said with a grin.

Kahina felt the sharp turn as he wrenched the
Bella Principessa
around onto a new course.

‘What are you doing? We need to get to the station!’

Luko shook his head. ‘We will not make it in time. We need … how you say … a diversion.’

The
Bella Principessa
stopped turning. Luko had pushed the controls back to a neutral position. Kahina looked out of the cockpit windows. The gas giant Mestra was dead ahead, its rings shining brightly in the light of the Prism sun.

‘What are you doing?’

‘Making sure we stay alive.’

***

Even at full thrust, the Cobra was no match in raw speed for either the Federation or Imperial fighters. The Federation craft were standard F63 Condors, small single man fighters, their sharp angular design a testament to their purpose. With no jump drive and only short-range flight capability they did one thing and did it well. They were fast, they were nimble. They swarmed a target and despatched it. Their only relative weakness was a lack of armour and minimal shielding.

Their Imperial counterparts shared the same design brief, but Imperial aesthetics once more determined their overall appearance. Where the Federation ships were stubby and gaunt, the Imperial ships were outstretched, organic, but no less intimidating.

Both classes of ships had but a single purpose. Speed … and bringing their weapons to bear as soon as was practically possible.

The Federation wing Commander checked his squadron, seeing them automatically drop into a delta formation as they closed on the target. The range was dropping fast, despite the Cobra’s sudden course change towards the gas-giant.

 ‘All ships, target is Cobra-class vessel ahead. Engage and destroy. Watch for Imperial interceptors, but do not engage. I repeat, do not engage Imperial fighters.’

‘Imperial fighters coming in hot,’ his wingman said. ‘ETA thirty seconds.’

The wing Commander adjusted his own scanners.

‘All ships, lock missiles on target and fire at will. I repeat, fire at will.’

***

Kahina heard the threat warning again. The words ‘
Incoming Missile
’ flashed on the console. She could see half a dozen marks streaking towards them. The gas-giant was huge in the forward windows. Luko spun the Cobra around and changed course again, triggering the electronic countermeasure system. Kahina braced herself as the unpleasant experience of ship based combat started all over again.

On the scanner, all but two of the high speed trailing marks of the missiles flickered and vanished, dashed to oblivion by the
Bella Principessa’s
electronic defences. The remaining two continued to close.

Kahina turned her attention away from the scanner and back to the cockpit windows, gasping in horror at the sight that confronted her.

Luko had steered his ship away from the approaching curve of Mestra, but was now aiming the ship directly into the ring system. Already small debris was flickering past the ship; bright streaks of fire marking the demise of dust and debris as it impacted against the ship’s shields and instantly vaporised.

‘What are you doing?’ Her voice was high with alarm.

‘We cannot outrun them, signorina.’ By comparison, Luko’s voice was calm and resigned. ‘We must evade them.’

‘But you can’t fly a ship through the rings … that’s impossible. You’ll kill us!’

Luko grinned a mad man’s grin. ‘The word impossible, signorina, is found only in the dictionary of fools.’

Rocks and boulders started to hurtle past. Kahina instinctively ducked as one spiralled past close to the windows. A flash of light from the rear view signalled the demise of the remaining missiles, but Kahina could see the Federation fighters were now in range. Bright bursts of laser fire leapt from them. The
Bella Principessa’s
shields flared in response. Rocks smashed around them as the incoming fire found innocent targets.

Luko didn’t reduce speed, but guided his ship deeper into the rings, wrenching it around the bigger rocks. Kahina could see an unending field of rock stretching out into the remote distance, through which the light of the Prism star flickered uncertainly. She could see Luko had been doubly cunning; the Federation fighters had to contend with a difficult target, their sight and instruments blinded by the fierce starlight, amidst a tumbling menagerie of clashing rocks, ice and debris. All Luko had to do was not crash.

‘Take the weapons,’ Luko instructed tersely. ‘Shoot at anything that gets in the way!’

Kahina grabbed the controls in front of her and placed her fingers around the trigger. Rocks hurtled past, she swallowed down on nausea as the ship gyrated. Tracer fire from the pursuing Federation ships continued to flail nearby, occasionally blistering off the rocks, shattering their surfaces and adding more debris to the maelstrom.

Kahina felt the ship lurch beneath her as Luko wrested it around a large boulder tumbling in their direction. As it cleared their path another was revealed, heading straight towards them. Kahina instinctively triggered the weapons. The Cobra’s forward weapon array burst forth, splashing liquid fire across the surface of the asteroid …

… which resisted the onslaught.

Kahina stared in horror as the surface of the rock rushed up to meet them; they would be dashed across it. She could see the craters, fine riles and fissures on the surface, growing larger with terrifying rapidity. Certain death, impacting on the surface.

She kept her finger on the trigger.

Like a crystal cut by an expert jeweller, the rock abruptly split along its length under the fury of the
Bella Principessa
’s weapons. Luko rotated the Cobra around its centre axis as the two halves moved slowly away. Kahina stared at rock walls as they shot past the cockpit windows.

Almost close enough to touch.

Harsh yellow light flickered from behind them. Two of the Federation fighters had not been so fortunate. Having not anticipated the trajectory of the shattered asteroid they had ploughed directly into its remains, their fragile hulls scattered to dust by the collision.

***

The Imperial cruiser
Atticus
turned slowly and began heading away from its previous position, adopting a course towards Mestra. Cutters and other warships adopted flanking positions alongside. Huge drive units, dozens of metres in diameter, glowed with the white heat of disrupted atoms. The glowing fury of harnessed power coursed through the ship.

Across a few hundred kilometres of space the Federation fleet was performing a similar manoeuvre. Both fleets were traversing the long sides of an isosceles triangle, it was inevitable that they would meet at the pinnacle.

Admiral Brice watched as the Federation battleship grew in the port bridge windows. He could see it was also running at flank speed. A race, in essence, even if the huge ships were ponderous in the extreme.

He toyed with the idea of sending the faster Cutters ahead, but it would have been foolhardy to leave his flagship unprotected with the Federation fleet so close. His counterpart in the Federation fleet seemed to be having similar thoughts. The Federation fleet remained in formation, moving only as quickly as the enormous Federation battleship.

‘Firing range in five minutes,’ his first officer reported, anticipating his next query. ‘All port batteries primed, shields biased to port. We’ve lost contact with the fighters, sir. They reported the civilian ship had entered the rings.’

Brice nodded.

‘Admiral,’ Cuthrick interjected from behind, ‘at least let me try to reach an accord with the Federation. This does not need to escalate into a war.’

Brice reviewed the telemetry on the various scanners and tactical displays around the bridge. He might as well give the wretched politicians a chance. It would make no difference to the outcome, but it would make life easier after the event. All possible avenues would have been explored.

‘Very well, Ambassador. You shall have your chance. Be quick, you have … one minute and forty-five seconds before the situation will become academic.’

Cuthrick exchanged a look with Gerrun and Zyair. Brice shook his head in contempt as Zyair gestured urgently.

Cuthrick signalled for a holofac transmission.

***

‘The Imperials are signalling,’ The Federation captain reported. ‘Ambassador Cuthrick for you, Commissioner.’