New Contract (Perimeter Defense Book #3) (10 page)

Despite the gravity compensators, I could feel that I was being pressed down into my chair. The starship accelerated fervently toward the Alien-controlled Hnelle station. Katerina couldn't stay on her feet, falling with a squeal and crawling quickly over to her seat to buckle in.

"Three, two, one. WARP!!!"

One-Eyed Python
made it out just fine. We were at twelve miles from the
Behemoth
and six from the
Sledgehammers
. Our boost thrusters immediately hummed into action, giving the cruiser extra acceleration. Staying still near those battleship cannons was begging to die.

"Both
Sledgehammers
have been switched all the way off," reported the young lieutenant in charge of active jamming.

"Very nice," I smiled.

The nearest Alien cruiser was hard to see due to the mass of combat drones now swarming it. On the tactical screen, I saw the shields of the
Sledgehammer
restore back up to maximum a few times, but then they finally went down to nothing and stayed there. Four seconds later, five at most, the Alien ship was no more. One thousand six hundred enhanced drones from the
Curses
, each of which could do as much damage as a frigate, started darting off to their next target.

"The
Behemoth
's energy shield is down!" the tactics officer told me with no small amount of surprise in his voice.

Our forty energy neutralizers sucked all the power out of the
Behemoth
in twenty seconds. The enemy didn't have enough energy left to keep up their shields up. Now the defenseless giant had to be taken down.

"Attention! The
Meteors
are pouncing!" Admiral Mike ton Akad pointed to a group of thirty Alien frigates and a few destroyers that were rushing to help their catastrophe-stricken ships.

It's not clear what the Aliens were hoping to achieve with the attack. We had already mowed down eighty frigates without a single loss, so we would definitely be able to take down another thirty. If the
Queen
wanted to chase us off, she'd have sent a much more serious force, but no other Alien ships came in our direction.

"This is your fleet commander speaking! All ships remain in place. Let's get the second
Sledgehammer
. If anyone leaves the battlefield now, I'll shoot them myself! Electros and
Flycatchers
, get ready to intercept the small Alien ships. Keep a close eye on the other enemy ships to make sure none of them start coming for us. And destroy the
Sledgehammer
wreckage next to our ships. There's no reason to give the enemy the coordinates to our fleet."

Just then, a flash of light erupted! We’d just lost a ship. One of the battleship's rounds found its mark.

"Do not reduce speed. Orbit the battleship! Well... step on it harder... We've got the second
Sledgehammer
! All drones to the
Behemoth
.
Thrushes
, get to work on it with the cannons. No, stand down! Call off the drones. Send them out for the
Meteors
.
Warhawks
, stand by! Head off to intercept the frigates. I remind you: two webs per enemy.
Warhawk-4
, where are you going to without order?! Tamara Vuzhek, get back here! I need you alive. Yes, go with everyone else. Electros, it's up to you now. Our priority is to turn off the
Hermits
. All the rest, head for the frigates."

"Reinforcements in system!" The tactics officer's scream forced me to shudder.

At four hundred miles from our fleet, a large number of starships appeared. On the tactical map, they were colored gray for a few seconds, but then they were automatically determined to be allies by the friend-foe system.

"Alright! It's the Perimeter Sector Eight Fleet!" exclaimed the captain with surprise in his voice. "There's almost six hundred ships! They've shown up in the very center of the Alien armada!"

I gave an impotent groan. Ugh. What an idiot you are, Sivir ton Mesfelle! I already knew that he wasn't the most capable fleet commander out there, but just handing your ships to the Aliens like that... I could've strangled him with my bare hands. In the heat of the moment, I lost my self-restraint. The sentence that ripped out of me, I suspect, rang a bit too true, as even Corwin ton Mesfelle-Ugar gave a respectful whistle, and Katerina reminded me that we were still broadcasting live to the whole Empire.

"My apologies, cousin, but I think we’d all be better off, if Duke Avalle royl Anjer had been better acquainted with the proper use of contraceptives. Because of Viscount Sivir ton Mesfelle's idiocy, the Perimeter Sector Eight Fleet is going to be completely wiped out. Eleven battleships, and thirty heavy assault cruisers! The Viscount seems to have dragged a heavy fleet from the whole Sector out here just to die! Communications officer, I need a line opened to their channel now! I might be able to save some of them yet!"

"The enemy
Meteors
are refusing combat. They are turning around and retreating!" Admiral Mike ton Akad's voice reminded me that the Unatari Fleet was still in battle.

A horde of fast-moving red dots on the screen went rushing off into the big cloud of newly-arrived green ones. The enemy frigates did not, in fact, engage with my ships, preferring to attack the new enemy on the battlefield. It became clear that the thirty frigates had just been feigning an attack and were not coming for another one-sided slaughter.

"Do not give chase! All Unatari ships, focus on the
Behemoth
! Communications officers, get me on the Sector Eight Fleet's channel."

"My Prince, of course this is none of my business," Corwin nodded to the window, beyond which a large section of our view was being obscured by the
Behemoth
, "but isn't that gonna explode? Our whole fleet will be killed here and now if the battleship's antimatter undergoes an annihilation reaction."

I considered it. There was a kernel of rationality in the captain's words. The old scar on my face, which I’d received in just such a
Behemoth
explosion, started to itch immediately.

"It will not explode," said my bodyguard, Popori de Cacha, revealing himself. "A group of Chameleons studied the Alien battleship's systems the first time we captured one. The automatic gravity compensation in the warhead storage units is independent of the battleship's main systems. If you don't purposely turn off that exact power circuit, or break the hermetic seal on the hangars, there is no danger. But, to make completely sure, you’d better concentrate fire on the forward parts of the
Behemoth
. That’s where the reactor is, as well as the thruster control systems. There’s nothing connected to the dangerous antimatter."

I hurried to send this information to the fleet.

"My Prince, I've got the line open! Button three," one of the communications officers reported, and I switched to channel three.

My ears were instantly stabbed with shouts of despair and mostly senseless yammering. The Sector Eight Fleet captains were reporting to their commander on warp disruptors and stasis webs placed on their ships. Some had their energy shields shot through, and others had already been downed by the Aliens. But, due to the overwhelming mass of messages piled on top of one another, there was complete chaos on the channel, and it was impossible to figure out what was going on. Trying to get the situation under control, I spoke loudly and clearly:

"Complete radio silence! Sector Eight Fleet, attention! This is Crown Prince Georg royl Inoky speaking! Do not reduce your speed. Continue your trajectory toward the Hnelle station! Stand by for warp coordinates. Whoever has the ability, immediately warp out! I repeat, warp out to the coordinates we send, if at all possible!"

"Georg, keep your nose out of my business! This fleet is not yours to command!" I recognized Viscount Sivir ton Mesfelle's voice. He sounded annoyed. "I order my ships to stay and fight!"

"Shut your mouth, idiot! You've already lost half your fleet in the one minute you’ve been here, and have yet to realize it! I order anyone left alive to jump to the coordinates provided. My ships will try to protect you. Immediately after warp exit, get to action and attack the
Behemoth
we have under web here!"

The Perimeter Sector Eight Fleet Commander was still trying to give commands in his inscrutable way. For example, he ordered his ships to attack one of the
Mammoths
, but it was too late. No one was listening to the Viscount by then. Green dots were joining my ships on the tactical map one after the other. Unfortunately, it was primarily small ships that were able to escape. All of the Sector Eight Fleet's big guns were already completely held down by the Aliens. A few seconds later, the only ships left in the center of the ball of Aliens were a few warp-disrupted, motionless battleships and around fifty heavy and light cruisers. They had just minutes left to live, if not seconds. More and more Alien starships were pouring into the battle zone and immediately beginning the effort to destroy the human ships.

"This is
Master of Tesse
speaking. I have fifty warp disruptors on me. My energy shields are going down quick. Requesting permission to evacuate crew." I recognized Oorast Pohl's voice with astonishment.

"Old friend, hold out for thirty seconds!" I shouted to my former associate. "All ships that were not able to leave, I order you to cover sensitive equipment and be prepared to warp out immediately after the bombs go off!
Surprises
, drop your bombs right on top of the Sector Eight ships!"

"My Prince, this is
Surprise-1
. Requesting your Highness’s permission to make this attack alone. It's too dicey to risk so many ships. There's no suitable point for a timely warp out. There's also a lot of moving debris. The chance of failure is too high to risk everyone."

"You have my permission! Just go fast before they all die! All ships, stand by!"

I pressed my nose right up against the screen. The seconds ticked by. The number of green markers inside the red ball was falling fast. But then, a new green marker flickered in, and a bomb came out of it. But why wasn’t the frigate leaving?!

"Well, that's it. I'm under a warp disruptor." There was neither fear nor resignation in the voice of the
Surprise-1'
s captain. She was just stating a fact. "Forgive me, frie..."

The end of the sentence was cut off by a bright spark. The thermonuclear warhead exploded in the very center of the crowd, right next to the Sector Eight Fleet's battleships. Another second later, fifteen green markers, which was everyone left alive, moved over to my ships.

"
Surprise-1
did not survive the explosion." Popori de Cacha's horror-laden voice rang out above my ear. My bodyguard was looking at the screen, and was even falling out of camouflage in shock. "The greatest warrior my kind has ever known is no more... I dreamt of fighting for her in the next tournament on Sss... This celebrated representative of the Ravaash race paid with her life to save tens of thousands of people. I hope, Crown Prince, that your race will never forget that deed," Popori de Cacha trained both of his mobile eyes on me, expecting an answer.

"A menace to the Aliens. She has thousands of enemy ships on her account. The most valuable soldier in my fleet. I swear that I will do everything in my power to make sure the memory of the captain of
Surprise-1
will live through the ages! You have my word as an Imperial Crown Prince!"

Standing change. Chameleon race opinion of you has improved.

Chameleon race opinion of you: +33 (respect)

Standing change. Empire Military faction opinion of you has improved.

Present Empire Military faction opinion of you: +23 (trusting)

Popori de Cacha and I stayed silent for some time before Corwin ton Ugar sidled in with a message:

"Commander, the nearest
Behemoth
has been shot to pieces! It really didn't explode"

I just waved it off. One battleship more or less made no difference. The Aliens wouldn’t feel it. In comparison with the loss of
Surprise-1
, this was totally irrelevant. Nevertheless, it was not at all the time for despondency. A great number of red markers were approaching the cloud of green spots on the tactical map. I took the microphone:

"Attention, all ships! Gather your drones, and get out to a faraway spot.
Ghost-3
, send coordinates over the fleet channel. We all need a breather to take stock of losses and get ourselves back together."

* * *

"
Ghost-2
, keep up observation of the enemy. Other ships, don't just stand around. Begin acceleration toward Unatari."

To my surprise, a small cohort of the Perimeter Sector Eight Fleet ships started moving along with mine.
Orange Majesty
remained motionless, as did the majority of their ships, but around twenty followed my order. Katerina and I exchanged glances.