Homeworld (Odyssey One) (39 page)

Several sets of eyes turned to her and she sighed, noting that it might have been better to keep her mouth shut. Still, she hadn’t, so she decided to explain.

“They were baiting a trap, General. Weston decided that there was a good chance that they wouldn’t wiggle the bait around too much for fear of losing the fish. So he took a shot and it paid off,” she said. “Say what you will about Eric Weston, but he’s always been a tactical prodigy. The man knows how to read intentions in the least bit of information, and he’s willing to take a chance if the situation calls for it.”

“What do you suppose he’s doing now?” the general asked, a little gruffly.

“Most likely? He’s picked his next target and is closing the range,” she said. “There’s no way he can count on getting any more shots like that, so he has to close to knife range to finish this.”

“He should paint them and pop them,” Admiral Sandecker growled. “There’s too much risk in closing like that. The transition cannons would easily take out all four of them without exposing the
Odyssey
to this kind of danger.”

“That’s true, Admiral,” Gracen answered. “And honestly I think I may agree with you. However, Captain Weston knows the enemy better than most and he thinks we should hold those in reserve.”

“Reserves won’t help us if we lose the
Odyssey
, Admiral,” Sandecker countered. “That ship holds almost two-thirds of
the transition cannons in
existence
. If they go down, they may well take the Earth with them.”

“I know. And so does he,” she said. “So far he took out a quarter of their forces without exposing himself to counter fire. Give the man a chance.”

“I just wish we’d updated the
Enterprise
ahead of the
Odyssey
.” Sandecker curled his lips up slightly. “Weston is too damned much of a loose cannon.”

Gracen sighed, not liking the fact that one of her captains was being badmouthed in this gathering, especially one currently fighting for them all. But honestly it wasn’t anything she hadn’t thought herself a time or two in the past. Eric Weston had always been a controversial choice for the captaincy of the
Odyssey
, and she was quite certain that if anyone had known just how important the posting would become there was no way he’d have been tapped for it.

For better or worse, however, he was the man in the hot seat.

Don’t fuck this one up, Eric. None of us can afford it.

N.A.C.S.
ODYSSEY

“BANDIT TWO ENTERING our range, sir.”

“Thank you, Waters,” Eric said, glancing to his left as he spoke. “Any sightings on our other two playmates?”

“We’ve got a ghost hit, about twenty light-seconds behind Two,” Winger said. “Can’t swear to anything, but it may be Bandit Four.”

“And Three?”

“No sign. Sorry, Cap.”

“Keep your screens peeled,” Eric said, “but be ready to lose the sails. We’re going to be mixing it up a little closer than I’d prefer this time.”

“Aye, Captain, got it covered. Sails are being stowed the moment you launch on this one.”

“Very nice. Keep it up.”

The
Odyssey
’s sensor sails were a vital part of her scanning gear, particularly in a situation where they had to rely on passive scanners, but they were also fragile. Mostly mylar material coated in an adaptive surfacing to better absorb radiant energy, they could be torn easily by anything from stray micrometeorites to harsh language, if it came right down to it.

Certainly, the high-speed maneuvers inherent to space combat could produce more than enough stress to tear the valuable material, so stowing it before the fight really kicked off was just good planning.

That said, putting the sails away had its downside, mostly connected to the loss of scanner resolution that occurred when they were stowed, but that was what Winger was trained for.

“Lock up Bandit Two. Give me a medium spread pattern from the pulse torpedoes,” Eric ordered. “Everyone else, watch the repeaters and call out if you even think you’ve got a line on Bandit Three.”

The bridge chorused with acknowledgements, leaving Eric to ponder his next move.

It wasn’t what he was going to do that he was thinking about. No, he was much more concerned with what the enemy was going to do in response. His next action was clear: Take out Bandit Two. Simple, straightforward, and actually pretty easy, given the experience they now had with the Drasin.

That still left two more cruisers out there waiting to jump him, and potentially their screening elements, if they’d launched fighters. He rather didn’t think they had, though, since a fighter screen would have shown up during the flash of Bandit One’s spectacular exit from this existence. Even in regular radiation levels, a screen would be much more likely to glint off something.

“Soft lock on Bandit Two,” Waters announced after a few seconds. “Eighty-three percent likely targeting solution.”

“Fire as we bear.”

“Aye, aye. Firing as she bears, Captain.”

The
Odyssey
, still mostly on a ballistic course, took another eighty-three seconds for her tubes to come to bear on the target, and then the pulse torpedoes were ejected out
into space by the magnetic launchers. The antimatter-based weapons lanced away from the
Odyssey
at speed, their similar electrical and magnetic charges causing them to spread in flight as they crossed the intervening space between ship and target.

Charged particles, even the smallest ones like anti-deuterium atoms, have a mass, and as such are unable to break the light-speed limit in the way that tachyons can. Even so, they’re extremely low mass by the standards of the
Odyssey
’s magnetic accelerators and so could easily be pushed to significant fractions of light-speed. That didn’t make their movement fast enough to completely avoid detection, unfortunately, though at short to moderate ranges it would take an extremely observant and quick-reacting scanner technician to react in time.

The Drasin, however, were both observant and particularly quick reacting. The drone designated as Bandit Two by the
Odyssey
had a full six seconds warning before the final terminal assault of the pulses of antimatter fell upon it, and it reacted in a way that had worked in the past.

A thick squadron of fighters formed a screen ahead of the ship, pouring out on command, and the first two pulses slammed into them with a furious vengeance. The annihilation of matter and antimatter tore the fighters to shreds, sending energy cascading through the local area with enough power to slag the material of the rest of the fighter screen.

Two of the pulse weapons tore through the hole created and slammed into Bandit Two, while three others spread wide and missed to either side. Spiraling out of control and buffeted by the charges of the matter around them, those three managed to surprise and slam into the drone ship flanking Bandit Two.

Plumes of plasma erupted from the stricken drone ships labelled by the
Odyssey
as Bandits Two and Four, announcing their locations and status to the universe at 299 million meters per second.

Even at that expeditious speed, however, it took almost half a minute for the bridge of the
Odyssey
to register the event. A short roar of satisfaction echoed around the room, several of the junior officers being a fair bit louder than they needed to be, but even Eric and Roberts bared their teeth and pumped their fists (albeit quietly and mostly hidden by the stations from behind which they were working).

“Lock them in. HVM strike, Lieutenant,” Eric ordered.

“Aye, Captain. Targeting solution locked in.”

“All banks, rapid fire.”

The
Odyssey
keeled about slightly, bringing her HVM banks to bear on the target, and the magnetic accelerators began pulsing in rapid fire. Multi-ton slabs of steel and iron flickered away from the ship, accelerating into high relativistic speeds on their way to a meeting with the stricken Drasin ships.

“Captain! I think I just got a shimmer off Bandit Three!” Winger spun around. “Coming in hard on our nine o’clock low!”

“Evasive action!”

The
Odyssey
twisted in space in accordance to the sudden furious program initiated by Lieutenant Commander Daniels, the vectored thrust sending the ship into a chaotic set of turns that actually forced people on board to hold on to their seats despite the effect of the
Odyssey
’s large CM generators.

“They just went hot!” Winger called out. “I think they might have spotted us.”

“Armor to best deflection!” Eric ordered.

The time for stealth was past, he decided. “All systems to full combat power, go active.”

“Aye, aye, sir. All systems, going active.”

The powered down and heavily insulated systems of the N.A.C.S.
Odyssey
surged to life with a flare that, while weak when measured by the standards of the Drasin or Priminae, was more than enough to bring light to the darkness about her. RADAR and LIDAR systems went to full strength, pouring gigawatts of power out into space, while the sleeping reactor now awoke with a vengeance. Energy began surging into the ship’s capacitors to replace what they had used in battle already.

“Got them! Damn they’re close!” Winger swore.

“Send the data to Tactical!” Eric snarled.

“Already there.”

“Got them,” Waters said. “She wasn’t kidding. How on Earth did they get that close, Michelle? You usually have eyes like a hawk.”

“Well, pardon me for being distracted by the massive
explosions
,” Winger growled.

“Children, please,” Eric chided lightly. “We have more important things to deal with at the moment.”

“Sorry, sir.”

“Sorry, sir.” Waters echoed Winger’s words. “Looks like they’re on an attack run. Stand by for laser strike.”

“Signal all hands to brace, then, and get me a targeting solution on him,” Eric said. “And Michelle, update on Bandits Two and Four?”

“Splashed, Captain. Direct hits with HVM launch,” she answered. “They were already crippled. No way they could get clear.”

“That’s what I want to hear—”

“Laser bloom!” Winger called, cutting him off. “Near miss, Captain.”