The Lost Fleet: Beyond the Frontier: Guardian (13 page)

Smythe pursed his lips. “Admiral, the fight wasn’t that close—” He hesitated, a light of understanding dawning in his eyes, then nodded. “But the gate still might have sustained damage. Damage we can’t see, except up close. Catastrophic damage. It would be . . . so unfortunate for this star system if the gate were to collapse.”

“Yes, Captain Smythe, it would be. Will you see to it?”

“I will, Admiral. Perhaps some of the debris from
Orion
will prove to have impacted on some of the gate tethers. That would be ironic, wouldn’t it?”

“Yes, Captain Smythe. Ironic. I’m going to slow the fleet to give your engineers time to do a thorough job.”

“Oh, we will do a thorough job, Admiral. Have no fear of that.” Smythe’s grin as he saluted bared his teeth but held no humor.

Rione’s image was still visible, showing no reaction to Geary’s orders. “Admiral,” she said when he closed the call to Smythe, “we should contact the Syndic authorities in this star system, both to formally report our presence and to register a formal protest over the attack on us.”

He kept his gaze focused on nothing as he pondered a reply. “I take it accusing them of complicity in murder wouldn’t accomplish anything.”

“No. If you don’t think you can speak to them without spitting blood in their faces, and believe me I would sympathize if that is the case, I can send the message on behalf of the Alliance government.”

Geary looked over at Rione’s image. “I would be grateful if you would. I don’t know what I might say to those . . . individuals, given the way I feel right now.”

“I understand, Admiral.” Rione closed her eyes briefly before opening them to gaze at him. “Part of being a politician is being able to speak in a civil fashion to people whom you really want to strangle with their own intestines.”

“Thank you, Madam Emissary.”

“And may I also extend my official condolences at the loss the fleet suffered this day.” Rione’s voice almost cracked on the last few words. She hurriedly broke the connection before he could comment on it.

Geary touched his comm controls with a carefully gentle gesture, fearing that if he lost control, he would pound the controls into uselessness. “All units in the First Fleet. Immediate execute, re-form in Formation Delta and reduce velocity to point zero two light.” Smythe’s engineers would need time to do their work.

The bridge of
Dauntless
was very quiet.

“Commander Shen,” Desjani said in a dull voice, “has a daughter in the fleet. I’ll let her know what happened.”

“I’m . . . sorry, Tanya. I know Shen was your friend.”

“I’ve lost a lot of friends, Admiral.” Desjani bent her head, breathing deeply. “You saw what he did, right?”

“Yes. That last-moment maneuver. I don’t know how, but he figured out what he needed to do to swing
Orion
into the path of the suicide attackers aiming at
Titan
,
Typhoon
, and
Mistral
.”

“Instinct, Admiral. He was one hell of a good ship driver.” Desjani took another deep breath. “Better than me. So, the hypernet gate here was damaged?”

“I think there’s a very high probability that it was too badly damaged to save.”

“What a shame.” One more slow breath, then Tanya straightened, her expression smoothing out. “Lieutenant Yuon.”

“Yes, Captain.”

“
Dauntless
took out one of those couriers. Well done. Notify the weapons crews that I will be coming to personally congratulate them.”

“Yes, Captain.”

As Desjani began to rise from her seat, Geary gestured for her attention. “Is there anything I can do?”

“There are lots of things you need to do, Admiral,” she said. “You’ve got a fleet to take care of. And I’ve got a ship to look after.”

“True. I’ll talk to you later, Tanya.”

She sketched a salute, then headed off the bridge.

Geary turned back to his display, watching his ships re-form into one large grouping, while shuttles winged their ways from two of the auxiliaries toward the hypernet gate.

The one thing he wished he could do right now was order ships to search for survivors from
Orion
. But that would be a meaningless order and a hopeless task. The dead could not be forgotten, but he had to focus his attention on the living.

As Geary’s hand moved to send further orders, he paused, looking at his display.
Invincible
was still struggling to get into position, huge and unwieldy.

Invincible.
None of the attacking ships had gone after
Invincible
.

Had the ships ordered to strike at
Invincible
been destroyed far enough short of their target that their tracks didn’t point to that target?

Or had the attackers been ordered not to strike
Invincible
?

Because the Syndics wanted that ship. He knew they did.

Which could mean—

“Tanya! Captain Desjani!”

She heard him just before the bridge hatch closed. It reopened almost instantly, and she was back beside him almost as fast. “What?”

“I think you’d better stay up here.” He hit a comm control. “Admiral Lagemann, do not relax alert status on
Invincible
.” Another control. “All units in First Fleet, remain at full combat alert.”

Desjani was in her seat, staring at her display. “What do you see?”

“It’s what I didn’t see.”

“You think they have other things planned? Another attack about to go down?”

“I think it’s a certainty. They made us come to this star system so those courier ships could hit us, but even under the most optimistic scenario for the Syndics, those suicide attacks couldn’t have stopped us.”

“But what can they be planning to do when there’s nothing else—?”

“Admiral Geary!” the comm watch yelled at the same moment alarms burst from the combat systems. “
Invincible
reports she is under attack!”

“The other shoe just dropped,” Geary snapped, as a virtual window appeared next to him.

“We have intruders aboard,” Admiral Lagemann said quickly yet calmly. Lagemann’s face was in shadow. The entire area of
Invincible
that he was in was darkened, with only stray lights from displays providing light. “They cut what looked like the main comm line out, but that was a decoy.”

“You had a decoy comm line, too?” Geary asked, tapping controls to bring up a display showing the Marines aboard
Invincible
as well as a direct line to General Carabali.

“Of course.” Despite his light words, Lagemann sounded worried. “The indications of the boarding party are still scattered and weak. They must all be in stealth armor, which means Syndic special forces. We know they’re on board, but not how many and not exactly where. We’re trying to find out more without revealing the real location of the area we occupy inside
Invincible
.”

“You and Major Dietz certainly called things right. What about your sentries at the air lock? Did you lose them?”

“No,” Lagemann said with a half smile. “They weren’t there. We pulled them back inside with the rest of us when those suicide attackers came at us. Maybe that was part of the Syndic boarding plan, but as far as I’m concerned, it’s just as well. We might have lost a squad of Marines before we knew we were facing a boarding party in stealth gear. As it is, the Marines with me are fully alert and armoring up.”

Geary paused in his reply, glancing at Desjani.

Desjani had uttered an obscene term that he hadn’t realized she knew, and now continued speaking with white-hot rage. “A diversion! Those damned suicide ships were a diversion! While we were dealing with them, stealthed shuttles were able to intercept
Invincible
and put their assault force aboard!”

“Yes,
Orion
died because of a diversion.” That should have made Geary’s own anger flare hotter, but instead he had gone bitter cold inside. “The shuttles the Syndic boarding party used must still be near
Invincible
.” There was a maneuver to deal with that, a preplanned operation he only had to order into action. “Search and Destroy Pattern Sigma.” He hit his comm control. “All light cruisers and destroyers in First Fleet, immediate execute Search and Destroy Pattern Sigma. Reference point for search is
Invincible
. Search targets are Syndic stealth shuttles. Engage and destroy any detected.”

“Search and Destroy Pattern Sigma?” Desjani checked her database. “I’ve never actually done one of those. How old is that pattern?”

“More than a century,” Geary said. “But it’s in the maneuvering systems of every ship in this fleet. All they have to do is punch it in, and the fleet’s automated maneuvering systems will get the right ships moving to the right places based on how many ships the formation has for the mission.”

“That’s a lot,” Desjani said, smiling unpleasantly as she watched her display.

Every destroyer and every light cruiser in the First Fleet, roughly two hundred warships, was swinging into a tight, overlapping search pattern focused on the region of space near
Invincible
and the track she had taken through space. Stealthed shuttles, especially if they were not maneuvering at all, could be incredibly hard to spot. But with hundreds of ships searching, all of their sensor readings being combined and compared automatically by fleet combat systems, even the best stealth technology would find it hard to avoid revealing the sort of anomalies that combat systems would pounce on.

If only I’d had time to implement that search pattern as a defensive measure before the Syndics got aboard
Invincible
,
Geary thought bitterly.
But that was the whole point of the suicide attack, to keep us too busy and too distracted to even think about other threats.

“They’re at the decoy main engineering control,” Admiral Lagemann announced. “Lamarr sensors on the main hatch report they are being spoofed. And . . . the Persian Donkey there has ceased emitting.”

One decoy dead. Geary fought down an absurd sense of sorrow at the “death” of the faithful and deceitful little Marine Donkey. “What about the decoy bridge?”

Major Dietz’s image had also appeared near Geary. Dietz was in full combat armor. “The Syndic boarding party should have coordinated to hit both targets at the same time, but probably ran into delays because of the unknown deck plans of this ship. There go the Lamarr sensors at the decoy bridge. Decoy bridge has been hit. That Donkey is dead, too.”

“We’ve got everything running on minimum power in this area,” Lagemann said. “We’re all in our suits, so we shut down life support and everything not necessary to communicate and keep track of the action. The boarders will have a hard time finding us, and if they do, they’ll find Marines here ready for them.”

“Admiral Lagemann,” Geary said, “those Syndic soldiers can’t be given the run of
Invincible
.”

“They won’t be,” Major Dietz said. “I’m leaving one company to guard this area, reinforced by the sailors.” He managed not to sound sarcastic at the idea of armed sailors being effective reinforcement for Marines. “I’m taking the other company out in squads to go after the decoy compartments the Syndics captured. If they brought nukes on board, it’s a near certainty they would have left those nukes under guard in the two decoy compartments. We can’t hunt people in stealth suits, not with this amount of space to cover and so few Marines, but we can make life difficult for whatever guard force they left in those compartments and hopefully gain possession of the nukes.”

“Have you confirmed the presence of Syndic nukes?” Geary asked.

“No, Admiral. That remains an estimate of what the enemy probably intends. I strongly recommend that we operate upon the assumption that the Syndic boarding party does have at least one nuke with them.”

“Your estimates have proven to be extremely good, Major Dietz. I approve your recommendation. Admiral Lagemann, General Carabali, we will operate on the basis of the Syndics’ having nukes inside
Invincible
.”

General Carabali’s circuit had come to life and now she nodded in response to Geary’s words. “We’ll operate on that basis, Admiral. Request permission to land reinforcements aboard
Invincible
.”

“How many are you planning on and how quickly?” Geary asked.

“Everybody on
Tsunami
,” she replied. “Almost eight hundred Marines. As soon as
Tsunami
can come close alongside
Invincible
. I want to bring
Typhoon
close to
Invincible
in case the Marines aboard her are needed, too.”

“Permission granted. Get those Marines onto
Invincible
fast.”

“Understood, Admiral. We’re going in.”

Geary turned back to Major Dietz. “Did you copy that? You have a lot of friends on the way.”

“Yes, sir.” Dietz studied some of the dim displays near him. “Another Lamarr sensor in one of the passageways just went off. They’re looking for us. I’ll take my grunts out and make the finding a little easier for them. Two squads will head for the decoy engineering control and two more for the decoy bridge compartment. As our counterattack goes in, it will also distract the Syndics from realizing we have a lot more Marines boarding this ship.” He began to move away, then halted with a puzzled expression. “Firing? Admiral, we’ve got sensors reporting weapons being fired in an area where there’s nothing of ours.”

“Shooting at shadows?” Admiral Lagemann suggested.

“Shadows? These have to be Syndic special forces. Maybe even those security-force fanatics I fought once. Vipers. They’re very tough and very well trained. They wouldn’t shoot at shadows . . .” Dietz’s expression changed. “Standard tactics in stealth suits is to operate singly, or in groups of two or three at the most. Even if they’ve got a battalion aboard us, they would only converge into larger groups at an objective. More likely they’re at company strength at the most.”

“So?”

“The ghosts, Admiral! Those Syndics are wandering around in the dark alone or in pairs in areas of this ship we only go into at squad strength! One of them just snapped and started shooting at nothing!”