Scaevola's Triumph (Gaius Claudius Scaevola trilogy Book 3) (63 page)

"They appear to have chosen a remarkably poor deployment for what is about to happen," Gaius noted dryly.

"Yes, but they've chosen a remarkably good deployment for what you were supposed to do," Marcellus noted equally dryly. "In the normal course of events, with our sensors sweeping all space and concentrating on distant moons, we'd probably never see them until they started firing. We only saw them on this line because the Commodore noted the massive exhaust residues going in that direction."

How the enemy had come to know the plan was something that could be pursued later. While he could still see nothing, the precise enemy deployment could be displayed, and he ordered it. When the display came to life, there were the enemy, in nine lines of squadrons essentially on one curved surface, still apparently oblivious to what was about to happen. He would form nine groups to approach in a formation that was on an angle of about thirty degrees to the line of the enemy ships. At contact, the outer part of the enemy formation would be fired on from the outside, above and below, and as the Ulsian battle groups closed, a wall of fire would run along the enemy. He smiled to himself as he remembered his old general. This was not a square but a cube in which the gas giant closed one line of escape, his ships closed off the rear and the side away from the gas giant, while two other groups covered the "top" and "bottom" faces. They could only use the remaining escape route by exposing their motors, and that would lead to destruction. He gave the orders, and watched in fascination as the distances closed.

"It appears that they have finally detected us," Marcellus noted.

"How do you know that?" Gaius asked.

"They are beginning to fire up motors."

"I can't see any exhausts," Gaius frowned.

"Neither, for that matter, can the
Actium,
" Marcellus said, "but if you look carefully towards the southern hemisphere of the gas giant, you can see some simply enormous aurora. They would be rather pretty if we had time to watch them."

"And they come from?"

"The first stream of charged particles," Marcellus said, "but it won't do them any good. First contact from the advanced flight now."

Gaius stared in fascination as he saw on his plot the small number of Ulsian ships tear along the back of the enemy line, stabbing the great whales with spits of fire that looked little better than sparks. But sparks tearing into finely balanced motors caused the most spectacular of explosions, and ship after ship disintegrated, before the Ulsian flight finally tore through their lines and disappeared into the distance, to commence a turning manoeuvre. Gaius sent a signal to cancel that turn, and instead the flight was to progress forward to help find any remaining enemy. Meanwhile the enemy before him were powering up to deal with this new pest. Despite the appearance of ships on this particular approach, there seemed to be no appreciation that this was also the approach of a main battle fleet, one flight of which had got a little ahead of itself through enthusiasm. Well, Gaius grinned to himself, if they thought that first flight was trouble, they were in for a real shock in a minute or so.

The main part of his fleet then began to close. The first part of his formation had engaged, and a far more spectacular series of explosions began. The lines of ships tore along the line of the enemy, and as a battle group passed the line, they turned towards the gas giant, thus closing out the only escape route for the inner ships of the enemy fleet. The walls of energy, pulse cannon and mines were devastating. The overall scene became almost blinding, as beams of energy tore into enemy motor sections, each time causing an almost immediate total destruction of the target. If the motors survived, large pieces of ship were torn away, and control of the ships were made difficult, then more so as hundreds of tonnes of white hot metal from other exploding ships poured over them. For the less fortunate, the energy of motors disintegrating tore through them, vaporising the ship, and its crew. It was almost too easy. The Ulsian computers sent showers of small energy bursts as if directing spray from a hose, and it was almost as if each drop was sufficient. The enemy had insufficient time to turn, and if a ship tried it exposed its flank to the walls of fire, which usually lead to the ships themselves being torn apart.

Within less than a minute, all his ships were through the enemy formation, except for a group deployed to follow behind and deal with any sections of enemy that somehow had survived. The immediate reports brought to Gaius persuaded him that this battle was already won. The enemy ships were in such close formation that as ships self-destructed through their motor sources exploding, any enemy undamaged immediately flew into a wall of destruction. Over eighty per cent of this enemy fleet had already received near critical damage. The only undamaged ships were a small group from the front of the line who had seen what was happening, and they had fled in the direction of the other battle.

Gaius immediately ordered Marcellus to divide this fleet into two unequal parts. Sufficient was to be left to deal with what could be seen of the enemy fleet that was still viable, while he would lead the rest to help Klendor.

As they travelled at near maximum acceleration, Gaius could see that a battle was already in place. Small tiny bursts of energy could be seen, little dots no bigger than the stars, but for a few moments, brighter.

Gradually the dots became discernible as objects. Although it seemed wrong, because it could be critical for them to arrive as quickly as possible, it was also imperative that when they did arrive they could be there long enough for their presence to be critical to the outcome. He ordered the ships apply maximum deceleration for a brief period then to turn, then to close almost ballistically and cloaked.

As the number of brighter dots increased, Gaius requested a diagram of the battle. The enemy here clearly outnumbered Klendor, and Gaius realized that his late analysis was correct: the enemy had not split his forces equally, and the bulk of them were in this zone. At least the worst outcome should not occur for Vipsania, and Gerenthe would have a victory, albeit a meaningless one. Yet by cleaning out half the space, he would claim half the victory! Gaius quickly pulled himself together. They had hardly won here yet.

Because of numerical superiority, the battle was going against Klendor, and Klendor's fleet had subdivided into small squadrons that were engaged in a sequence of dogfights scattered throughout a large volume of space. Klendor's problem was that numerical inferiority meant that he could only force about half the enemy into these dogfights. The remainder were regrouping, obviously intending to form fresh squadrons to concentrate firepower at key points.

The regrouped enemy split and began to divide the battle into two unequal portions. The major part kept Klendor's forces from doing anything about the remainder. This smaller section of the enemy began to wheel into two squadrons of Klendor's forces. Now the numerical advantage at that point would be so great that the Ulsians there would be wiped out at little cost. A strangely effective example of the dictum of concentrating power at a decisive point. Then, when that battle was won, those ships could then concentrate on a further section and, in time must prevail. Yet, in a strange way, this superior tactic could now be turned upon the enemy. Gaius ordered his ships to fire up their motors, and took them on an intercept course for this regrouped wing.

With all weapons firing, the stream of ships tore into the enemy formation. The first attack was well coordinated, and some element of surprise was obtained. Ship after ship of the enemy had huge portions torn from them from the effects of the pulse cannon, and where ships were tightly grouped, ships central to the group were targeted for the dephasing weapons. Ship after ship disintegrated into jets of energy, frequently these same jets tearing into neighbouring ships.

Gaius' ships were soon through the enemy formation, and as they moved out into space to turn they deployed cloaked seek and destroy mines. As expected, a number of the enemy turned to deal with this new pest, and when Gaius finally began to accelerate back towards the battle, dozens of further flashes occurred in the mined zone. Worse, as the enemy ships became more damaged, they had to slow, and thus became further targets for the mines.

Gaius smiled as he ordered his ships to follow. The enemy plan was a good one, so why not follow it? He would now divide the battle into two unequal parts, clean out the minor part, then move onto the rest.

They drove into the battle and wheeled, and found five Ulsian squadrons being mauled by eleven of the M'starn. Eleven squadrons, however, was no match for a major battle group, even if by now it was a rather damaged battle group, which now progressed from dog-fight to dog-fight, each time presenting the locally outnumbered enemy with little chance. Before long, this section was cleared, and they could devote their attention to the last major battle, this time with numerical superiority across the entire battlefield. This battle was effectively won, even if the enemy had yet to acknowledge it.

As they entered this last battle, chaos ensued. All possibility of surprise was lost, and now all depended on the pre-arranged tactical decisions. The Ulsian ships formed groups of four, and when these could pick on groups of enemy ships, they flew at them in coordinated formation, with coordinated fire. When something attacked them, they peeled in different directions, using all three dimensions. If the enemy followed one, the others would turn and attack the attackers; if the enemy split and followed all of them, the Ulsians would continue turning then they would begin to regroup, each one attacking an enemy chasing a different Ulsian ship. The fact that they had worked out tactics that the opposition had not seen meant that the enemy had to work out responses on the spot. Some did find a means of evading, but too many of the enemy did not, and before long, the attrition of the enemy swung the battle towards the Ulsians.

The chaos seemed to go on and on and on. Marcellus methodically informed him of the progress of the battle, and of the damage being done to each side. If Marcellus was correct, the battle was going their way, and quite convincingly, although their ships were receiving very significant damage and losses. Several times the
Actium
juddered, and Marcellus informed him of the damage, and also informed him that there was nothing much they could do about it right then. This battle lasted for almost half an hour, but all the time it was turning increasingly in favour of the Ulsians, until finally the damage to the enemy was becoming so great that there were multiple Ulsian ships on each target. Eventually the enemy commander recognized the inevitability of defeat, and offered a surrender. The Ulsian victory about the inner gas giant was complete.

It was, however, not without cost. Most of the ships had some damage, twenty-five per cent were totally destroyed, and another fifteen per cent had only marginal capacity for survival, and zero capacity for fighting.

* * *

After properly assessing that the enemy had indeed surrendered, and the situation was under control, Gaius ordered the ships with at least 80% operational functionality to regroup. They must set off immediately and offer whatever help they could to Gerenthe.

"That shouldn't be difficult," Marcellus said tonelessly. "Gerenthe hasn't moved."

Gaius stared in disbelief, but it was true. Gerenthe had sent half his force forward, in two minifleets, to engage the enemy. According to the plan the first fleet would engage, then begin to retreat, while the second fleet offered firepower, then the two fleets would alternatively fall back or protect. Once the enemy were drawn out, Gerenthe would engage from the flank, and destroy them. Whether this was a good idea was debatable, but when Gerenthe failed to provide the second half of the plan, the leading ships had real problems. That included Vipsania.

Gaius grated out his order. Those ships that could would follow. He had never been so angry in his life, nor so full of despair. He would get his hands on Gerenthe, and Gerenthe would pay. Ulsian niceties would go out the window. It was about time they saw a slow crucifixion!

The motors were engaged, then the curse of space travel became apparent. It would take over a day to get there, even if they did not decelerate. When Gaius questioned Marcellus, he was told that the ships maximum acceleration was only twenty-eight per cent design. In answer to his next question, Marcellus informed him that this was the maximum acceleration available unless he wanted the hull to fly to bits. No, not even a little bit more. In any other circumstances, the
Actium
would not even accelerate within five per cent of design.

A strange despair came over Gaius. The sensors had detected clear signs of battle, Vipsania was clearly outnumbered, and appeared to be fighting according to a plan that was almost designed to sacrifice her. And poor Vipsania did not have the military experience to know when to retreat, or for that matter, how to manage a fighting retreat. Nor, it appeared, did Gerenthe's Admiral

Eventually it was time to reverse the thrusters. There was no point arriving at a third light speed. As he decelerated, he knew the enemy would see him, but even with this least-time flight, the chances were that he would be too late. For several hours, with maximum deceleration, he could detect nothing. Then he closed down the motors. He was still flying too fast, but he had to know what was happening.

Nothing was happening. Then he received a message from a small number of Ulsian ships. The battle was over, and the enemy had fled once they saw Gaius' fleet approaching.

The battle itself had been a disaster. Someone in the fleet must have been in league with the enemy, for the enemy was prepared, and almost seemed to know what was planned. The Ulsians had fought bravely, and had begun to organize the retreat when an Ulsian ship reported severe damage. Vipsania had ordered the
Livia
to pick up survivors, but it seemed all she picked up were traitorous Ulsians. The
Livia
itself had sent some indication of what had happened next. The Admiral had ordered full retreat, and then had ordered a brave counterattack to help Vipsania, but it was too late, and his group of squadrons was destroyed. Then communications were halted.