The Phoenix War (54 page)

“Bandit Squadron has been completely
destroyed and Owl Squadron is routing, our starboard flank has
collapsed—Your Majesty,
we are exposed
!” said the ops
chief.

“We
have
to pull back,” said Captain
Adiger. “There is nothing between us and the enemy’s vanguard.”

Kalila saw that it was true. Her eyes were
locked to the tactical display, it showed a horde of enemy warships
that’d broken off from the main battle, they were charging forward,
furiously closing on the Harbinger and the remnants of Hammerfist
Squadron, and all that stood in their way was the Black Swan itself
and the shambles of what had been Royal Squadron. She watched the
lights blink out around the Black Swan.
So very many
…

“Helm, turn us about and get us—”

“
No
,” said Kalila, loudly interrupting
Captain Adiger. Everyone looked at her. “We stand our ground.” It
was a difficult order to give, but a necessary one. Even if it did
mean their lives.

“Your Majesty, we
cannot
hold this
position,” said Adiger. “Our fleet can’t defend us out here, we
need to move toward them or else retreat to the outskirts of the
system. Otherwise the enemy vanguard will be upon us.”

Indeed it would, Kalila knew. And the Black
Swan, for all its awesome strength, was no match for the sixty
warships of the enemy vanguard. She understood that. But she also
understood that if she didn’t buy Hammerfist Squadron all the time
it needed to eliminate the rest of the Apollo Yards then the enemy
would use the infrastructure here to quickly rebuild and repair its
fleet and then all the blood spent here this day would be for
nothing. Her most loyal servants had given their lives for their
queen and her cause. She could not expect them to sacrifice and not
be willing to do the same herself, if it proved necessary. And if
failure was inevitable, and the collapse of the Empire guaranteed,
she’d rather face that end here, in this spot, trying to do
whatever she possibly could to oppose it, instead of letting hope
slip through her fingers in a selfish attempt to save her own
life.

“I gave you an order
sir,
I expect you
to obey it,” she looked at Adiger with fire in her eyes.

He bowed. “As you command. All officers, we
make our stand here.”

“Sir, they’re closing on us fast and our
shields have dropped below thirty percent!” protested the defense
chief. “Our portside armor is nearly gone.”

“Then show them our starboard side!” snapped
Adiger. Kalila was glad to see him remember his duty.

“Aye, sir. Weapons range in seventy-five
seconds.”

“General Order to the fleet,” said Kalila,
thinking this was probably the last they’d ever hear from her. “As
soon as the last platform goes, all ships are ordered to withdraw
from the system immediately. Do not regroup,
retreat
. That
is all.”

“Relaying message, Your Majesty,” said the
comms chief.

“Weapons range in sixty seconds.”

“Lock on targets and standby to fire,” said
Adiger.

Kalila took a deep breath, thinking,
if
there are gods, let them be gods of grace
.

***

“Sir, the center pylon of the fleet is caving
in, the forward battlegroups have all been destroyed or crippled.
Our losses are exceeding three hundred ships, sir, and
growing
,” said the ops deputy chief.

Good
, thought Virgil Prime,
more
souls for the void
. “Sometimes a just cause requires
sacrifice,” said Virgil Prime, knowing he had to say something
reassuring because that’s what the real Virgil Tiberon would do.
“We have to remember—”

“Sir,
look
!” interrupted Commander
Junius, he pointed to one of the tactical displays which showed the
Black Swan, alone and away from its fleet, about to be incinerated
by the fast-approaching vanguard. “We’ve got her now!”

“What?” Virgil Prime asked. He took care to
keep his voice calm, but inside he was deeply alarmed. “We’ve
managed to corner the Black Swan?” he feigned excitement.

“Yes we have,” said Junius with a broad
smile. “And she’s not even trying to retreat. She knows she’s done
for. Congratulations, Admiral, your victory has won us the
war.”

Virgil Prime plastered a fake smile on his
face but immediately he started trying to think of what he could do
to salvage the situation while still remaining in character.
“Weapons range?” he asked urgently.

“About twenty seconds.”

“Order them back,” Virgil Prime snapped.
Unable to think of anything clever he could say or do to stop the
attack on the Black Swan.

“Sir?”

“Now! Call them back! Tell the vanguard to
hold fire and withdraw!” All he knew was that the attack had to
stop. It wasn’t the One True God’s plan for the human queen to die
here. If she died, her cause would die with her, and that was
not
the plan. “
Do it!
” He knew this decision would
likely get him into trouble but there seemed to be no other way.
Perhaps this is the fate the One True God has chosen for me
,
he thought.

“Aye sir. Relaying order.”

Virgil Prime watched the ships approach the
Black Swan. He gripped the armrests of his chair firmly and felt
such intense pressure in his mind that he almost began reverting to
his natural form—a transition that would kill him. Fortunately, at
the last possible moment, the ships racing toward the Black Swan
scattered and withdrew.

“The vanguard is returning to the fleet,”
reported the ops chief.

“Now just what the
hell
was that?”
asked Junius, he looked shocked and angry. “I know you’re the
admiral here but
dammit
, Virgil,” he pointed. “You owe me an
explanation.”

I owe you nothing
, he wanted to say,
the One True God’s ways are infinitely beyond your puny human
understanding
. Instead he looked his XO squarely in the eyes
and said, “Regicide is not our mandate, winning this battle
is.”

“We have standing orders from the Steward
himself to eliminate all traitors,” said Junius. “I don’t think
he’ll be happy about this”

“I made the call. I’ll take the heat for it,”
said Virgil Prime. “As for you, you’ll remember your place.”

Junius nodded. “Aye, aye, sir.” He looked
disgruntled but compliant.
That will do for now
, thought
Virgil prime. Knowing the humans would not react well to this. But
their feelings were as irrelevant as the wishes of insects.

“Sir, the last of the Apollo Yards has been
destroyed,” reported the ops chief a moment later. “The queen’s
fleet has begun to withdraw.”

“Order our forces to regroup.”

“Aye sir.”

He tapped the switch on his chair, setting it
to broadcast throughout the entire ship. “Attention all crew, this
is Fleet Admiral Tiberon. The Battle of the Apollo Yards is quickly
ending. Let us take a moment of silence to honor our fallen
brothers and sisters and those of the Apollo Yards.”

Virgil Prime tried very hard to seem sorry
that so many had died and the Yards themselves had been destroyed.
But it was difficult to feel sorrow for the loss of something the
One True God had always planned to annihilate.
It is just. As is
He
.

***

“We’ve cleared sufficient distance to jump,”
said Rafael.

“Jump
now
,” ordered Calvin. Eager to
put Tybur, its clouds of debris, and the Rotham warships behind
them.

“Initiating alteredspace jump,” said
Alex.

In a flash of darkness the starlight
vanished.

“We are now in alteredspace,” said Alex.
“Jump depth of seventy-three percent potential. Everything is
stable.”

“All systems are within expected parameters,”
said Rafael.

“Move aside,” said Calvin, practically
pushing Alex out of the way so he could sit at the pilot’s station.
As soon as Calvin was physically able to reach the controls, he
entered the command codes to connect to the Black Swan over
kataspace.

We have to warn the queen not to engage
the Assembly’s fleet
, thought Calvin urgently.
The Rotham
are coming. They’re poised to invade the Empire! We have to tell
her before it’s too late!

Kalila sat in silence, face buried in her
hands, trying to find solace in the peaceful seclusion of her
office. The destruction at the Apollo Yards had been unfathomably
horrific. Hundreds of Imperial ships were now spread across the
system in countless pieces and the body count that was in the
hundreds of thousands and still rising.

How? She wondered. How did it all go so
wrong? It wasn’t supposed to be like this. It was supposed to be a
swift and decisive victory with minimal loss of life. Instead it
had been a vicious bloodbath. With her forces and those fighting on
behalf of Caerwyn Martel taking excessive losses. By the time her
ships had finished their mission and escaped the system she’d lost
over forty-percent of her fleet. And many of the ships that
survived were badly scarred and damaged, and full of wounded
officers.

Caerwyn’s fleet had fared no better. They’d
taken intense losses as they’d kept almost manically committed to
the engagement, never letting up the pressure on Kalila’s forces
regardless of what it cost them. The only reprieve had been when it
was clear the Black Swan was trapped and about to be destroyed, for
some reason then the enemy had not pressed their advantage.
Offering a brief window of calm in the otherwise all-consuming
firestorm.

We got the Yards at least
, she
thought, trying unsuccessfully to rally her spirits. The Apollo
Yards had been reduced to debris and would not be able to field and
supply a large military fleet. Not without extensive rebuilding, a
project that would take years…

I didn’t want to destroy them. But they gave
me no choice. She felt tremendously guilty about the decision she’d
made, especially considering the terrible price that’d been paid to
purchase success, even though she knew there’d been no other way.
Not if she hoped to restore the Empire to its proper order and
glory. And realize justice for her father’s ghost, and those of her
siblings.

The sound of the door sliding open
interrupted her thoughts. It was Captain Adiger.

“Pardon the intrusion, Your Majesty, but
we’ve just received an urgent message,” he said. His eyes were sad
but he stood resolute. “It was from Calvin Cross.”

“Thank you, Captain. What did Mister Cross
have to say? Good news I hope.”

“I’m afraid not,” he said, not willing to
sugarcoat it. “Their team was able to confirm the rumor, the
Alliance has indeed fallen. And is no longer a deterrence to any
Rotham ships that seek to cross the DMZ and enter Imperial
space.”

That’s the worst news Calvin could have
possibly sent, thought Kalila. “Was there a battle?” she asked.
Hoping that the Alliance at least bloodied the Republic’s nose for
every inch of space they gave up.

“Mister Cross reported that there was some
debris, evidence of a small battle,” said Adiger. “However Rotham
losses appeared to be minimal. And many of the Alliance ships that
survived were not firing on the Rotham ships present around Tybur.
Cross believes the Republic and whatever is left of the Alliance
might be cooperating.”

I stand corrected
, thought Kalila.
The news does get worse
.

“Calvin urges us not to engage the Assembly’s
fleet. He thinks a Rotham invasion is imminent and we will need to
rally all Imperial ships against the common enemy.”

She looked at Adiger with regret in her
eyes.

He nodded. Understanding her remorse. “We
could try to sue for peace,” he said, trying to reassure her.
“Perhaps broker a temporary alliance with the Steward, for the
greater good of the Empire.”

“Perhaps,” said Kalila, thinking that two
broken fleets, even if they could be made to cooperate, might not
be enough. “Did Calvin say anything else?”

“Just that he and his team are going into
Rotham space to learn what they can about the Republic’s forces.
They’ll see what they can and then report back to us soon.”

At least there’s that
, Kalila
supposed.
Though precious little good it would do to have exact
information on the movements of an enemy that couldn’t be stopped
anyway
.

“That was the extent of the message,” said
Adiger. “My apologies for interrupting, I know you asked not to be
disturbed, but I thought you should know.” He bowed, then turned to
leave.

“Captain,” said Kalila, stopping him in his
tracks. He turned back around and faced her.

“You may remain,” she said, barely able to
utter the words.

He nodded. And, clearly sensing that
something was wrong, that she didn’t want to be alone right now,
Adiger took up a position dutifully at her side.

After a minute or two of silence, Kalila
asked, “what are we going to do about all this?”

“We’ll find a way. Somehow.” He said the
words confidently, like he believed them. The gave her a small
measure of hope and she was grateful to know that, even though
everything looked dire, at least she didn’t have to face the future
alone. No matter how dark it promised to be.

***

Summers entered the brig deck and was happy
to see that Nimoux was wearing fresh new clothes. “Please lower the
forcefield,” Summers commanded the special forces soldier who was
standing guard.

“Aye, Commander,” the soldier replied with a
salute and a moment later the forcefield snapped off.

Nimoux got to his feet and looked at her
curiously, no doubt wondering whether or not this meant she’d
decided to trust him. As a matter of fact, she had.