The Starwolves (4 page)

Velmeran had somewhat impressed himself with his decisiveness, daring to
lead a pack of students against a fleet. But there was really no choice as he
saw it. He had two clear duties when the Methryn came under attack: to protect
his carrier against her enemies, in spite of the fact that Valthyrra could take
care of herself, and to protect the reputation of the Starwolves. Fear was the
most effective weapon his kind possessed; the Union lived in fear of the black
carriers and would more often run than fight. But that reputation had to be
carefully maintained. The Star-wolves had to answer every challenge and win
every battle, pay back every hurt twice over, and they could never afford the
luxury of a judicious retreat.

The two groups closed quickly, for starflight reduced planetary distances to
small jumps. The packs split to circle around to either side and strike from
opposite directions. The Unioners had to drop sublight to fight. They could not
defend themselves effectively in starflight, and they certainly could not
attack. They would drop to low sublight speeds, increasing their enemy's
advantage but at least allowing their own fighters to attack and give their
cannons a chance to track the quick wolf ships.

Without warning the fleet went sublight, braking hard, and the packs cut in
sharply to strike from either side. The two carriers had already opened their
immense bays and were expelling fighters at a furious pace. The three
battleships and eight destroyers moved to the outside, prepared to distract
their attackers with their own cannons. Stingships made ready their own
attacks, while tenders and escorts could do little else but try to look small.

Their skill and innate sense of timing was such that the two packs struck
the fleet from opposite sides at exactly the same moment. Now their advantage
became most apparent. They could easily withstand the stresses of quick turns and
accelerations hundreds of times as great as ordinary humans could endure, so
that they could dodge in and out among the larger ships faster than the
defenders, or even their automatic systems, could track.

Velmeran went first for the stingships, the greatest threat, in his opinion,
to his students. These powerful little ships were all engine, faster even than
fighters and possessing a pair of cannons with the range and power of the main
battery of a destroyer. Most of his pilots were impressed with the larger
targets, and were busy ripping up the big cannons on the battleships and
destroyers. Baressa had sent her more experienced pilots after the fighters,
even shooting into the bays to prevent the rest from launching. Keth and Treg
had gone after the smaller gunships.

Velmeran had cut in at the rear of the fleet and was making his way up its
scattered length, seeking out and removing the more subtle threats. Wolf ships
were moving in and out too fast for him to identify most by the pitch of their
engines, although he did see that Tregloran had disabled a destroyer and was
following it to its end. Velmeran would have liked to have seen what the
younger pilot did with his target, but in the next instant he had to jump to
avoid flying headlong into the forward battery of a battleship. He barely had
time to fire twice into her bridge before he shot past, well aware that bolts
from her cannons were passing him within meters. That served as a quick lesson
in failing to pay attention; he could end up the first casualty for worrying
about his students.

By the time that he had turned back, he saw that he had done better with the
battleship than he anticipated. While his bolts had missed her main computers,
they had still destroyed the bridge. The immense ship was flying blind, her
engines flaring and completely out of control. Her automatic systems continued
to fight, but slower than normal, and she was firing at anything that moved.
Tenders that had been moving to assist her were forced to retreat quickly when
her cannons destroyed two of them.

Velmeran fell in with two others who were going after her drives. They took
out four of her six main drives and were setting up for another run only to
shear away suddenly. The ship's damaged computers had kept her generators
running at full, still trying to feed engines that were no longer in operation.
Major circuits overloaded and burned out and a series of explosions began to
rip apart the aft of the giant warship. A moment later her generators exploded
with force enough to vaporize the entire ship, as well as the tenders and
escorts still trying to get clear. Only the wolf ships had been quick enough to
escape.

The remainder of the fleet was quick to react. All of the larger ships
suddenly paused, their engines stilled, as they pivoted thirty-five degrees
from their previous course. Then they refired their engines and shot off in
this new direction. That move caught more than half of the Starwolves by
surprise and they suddenly found themselves left behind, separated from the
fleet but surrounded by Union fighters and stingships.

But it came too late. Only the stingships had the power and speed to be
effective, but just two of those ships remained. The Union fighters were too
slow and too lightly shielded, their guns too weak. The Starwolves turned to
pursue the fleeing warships, destroying everything in their path. The fighters
were left behind instantly but the stingships accelerated quickly, hoping
to keep the wolf ships in range long enough for a few shots. But two of the
black fighters had held back, and now fell in behind the stingships. The
hunters became the hunted, and the chase did not last long.

Free of its own fighters, the Union fleet now ran at several times its
former speed, its ships spacing out to twist and evade. Time was beginning to
work to the Starwolves' advantage. All of the Union ships had suffered some damage,
their stingships were gone, and their fighters were left behind. But the
Starwolves' numbers were still intact, their ships were undamaged, and their
pilots were still fairly fresh. Moreover, they were expecting the support of
eight more packs at any moment.

One of the two remaining battleships suddenly faltered and began to
fall behind, having lost its main computer control. Velmeran held back to
watch, for the ship was not heavily damaged and could have been restarted. But
her crew had had enough. Launches and transports began to leave her after a
long moment, and even a few escape modules popped out of their tiny bays. That
left a nearly intact battleship to drift, which the Starwolves could recover at
their convenience.

Velmeran accelerated quickly after the remainder of the fleet, with Keth and
Steena close behind him. Keth had been hard pressed to keep up this pace. But
he had disabled that last battleship, if more by chance than actual skill. Now
he felt young and quick again, encouraged by his success. He moved rapidly
through the fleet, firing into the tail of a destroyer as he bore down on the
remaining battleship. He was coming up close behind one of the carriers,
but he ignored her as he sighted on his real target. The destroyer he had just
strafed exploded and he glanced back, wondering if he had been responsible for
that.

He turned back to his intended prey, only to see that the carrier had turned
abruptly across his path. He was streaking down the length of her hull on a
course that would cause him to strike her just forward of her bays, in the crew
section just behind the bridge. Already it was too late to turn away. Just
ahead he saw a large airlock with double doors nearly as wide as his own ship.
This was one of the main crew ports; a wide corridor would run right through
the width of the ship, emerging on an identical lock on the opposite side. If
he kept up his speed, and his shields held, he could poke a hole right through
this carrier.

Keth threw full power to his engines and dove straight toward those double
doors. His fighter struck with a jarring impact, crashing through both outer
and inner lock doors. For an instant longer the shields continued to hold,
forcing a path for the fighter by crushing back the walls and ceiling of the
corridor. But the stress was too great, and the shields suddenly failed
explosively. The wings and fins of the fighter were ripped off in that same
instant, but its main body was thrown forward to slide down the length of the
corridor. The walls continued to press on it, breaking its momentum, grinding
slowly to a stop that left it firmly wedged in the passage.

Keth released his tight grip on the controls and sat back, breathing
heavily. He would have made it if his engines had not failed, for the
doors of the second airlock were only five meters from the nose of his ship. If
he could restart his generator, he could shoot out those doors and use his
engines to squeeze on through. He removed his helmet and the upper straps of
his seat so that he could bend over the screen and small keyboard on his
on-board computer, ordering a systems check.

The screen began with a four-way schematic of the fighter, then began to
subtract from those sketches to allow for missing parts. The computer
considered the extent of the damage and announced its verdict: failure: all
main systems. But he had expected that, and began to work his way past all the
safeties and lock-outs and tried to restart the generator. There was no
response except that the computer investigated the damage again, thinking
about it a long time before it reached a conclusion: generator inoperative:
failure all main systems. To prove its point, it quickly sketched out the
schematic for the generator and main power channels. Keth knew enough about the
mechanics to see that this ship was better off scrap.

That left him one last chance. He quickly locked down his helmet and powered
up his suit, then released the canopy. He could still abandon his ship, jump
overboard out of the lock just ahead, and call for someone to pick him up. But
the canopy rose only a short distance before it jammed against the ceiling
overhead. Ordinarily he would have been able to rip that canopy from its
hinges, but not while he was trapped within the confined cockpit. His genetically
bred strength was defeated by poor leverage.

"Meran, can you hear me?" he asked over com, rather
apologetically. "I seem to be in considerable trouble."

Velmeran heard, and instantly knew that something was wrong. He moved free
of the battle to pace the fleet a short distance out. "I hear you, Keth.
What is it?"

"I seem to be stuck inside one of the carriers," he explained.
"She turned in front of me. I tried to punch a hole through a main
corridor. But I did not quite make it, and now my generator is wrecked. I was
hoping that you would be able to disable this ship."

"We will do what we can," Velmeran assured him. "Which
ship?"

"I am in the lead carrier."

"I hear you. Baressa?"

"I am on it," Baressa responded immediately.

"Right. Valthyrra, where are those other packs?"

"I cannot get enough pilots to their ships to launch a pack from either
bay," Valthyrra responded. "The first two should be leaving in the
next two minutes. Can you hold out another five or so?"

"No! You had better bring yourself in, so that you can deliver them to
the scene. And charge your cannons."

"Coming!" Valthyrra replied, and she did not sound at all unhappy.

By that time Velmeran, Baressa and a third ship were moving up on the lead
carrier, intent upon clipping all six of her main drive engines. An instant
later it seemed that every Union ship in the fleet was firing at them, so that
they were forced to break off their attack and move away. That was when
Velmeran realized just how much trouble they were in. The Union fleet had
captured a live Starwolf. Whatever else they had come to do was quickly
forgotten; their only goal now was to protect that carrier long enough for her
to escape.

And they were quick to seize their chance. The lead carrier suddenly broke
free of the fleet, so abruptly that she left her escorts and tenders behind.
She reversed course almost a full half-turn and began to accelerate rapidly
back into the system, building swiftly to light speed. Three wolf fighters
broke from the fleet to chase her, but they were only just beginning to close
when she went into starflight.

"She just jumped!" Velmeran warned. "Valthyrra, put a drone
on that ship."

"On it!" Valthyrra promised. One of her smaller forward bays
began to open. A small machine shot through the bay doors as soon as they
opened enough to allow it to pass. The drone paused a moment as it oriented on
its target, then disappeared into starflight with a blinding flash of its
tiny engine.

The drone was a fail-safe, for Velmeran did not intend for that carrier to
escape. The giant ship continued to accelerate into higher starflight
speeds, faster than he had thought Union ships could run. But she was mostly
bays, and those were empty. Nor was she retreating back to the main base, a
move that would not have kept her safe. She was running out of system.

"Velmeran, she is casting something loose!" Baressa warned.

She had been in a position to see the small bay door swing out. The three
fighters scattered, and a moment later a launch was ejected from its small bay.
Without acceleration dampers to drain off the energy of its tremendous
speed, the little ship was vaporized almost the instant it left the carrier, and
it radiated the energy of its acceleration in a tremendous destructive flash.
But the trick had failed, for the three fighters were back on the warship's
tail immediately.

Velmeran was moving in for a shot at her star drive when he again sensed the
droning of many drives at low starflight speeds. He paused a moment, realizing
that the Union base had launched another fleet nearly the size of the first,
moving quickly to reenforce the remains of the first. It was a trick to make
him let go of that carrier, a trick he could not refuse. He could not leave two
packs to fight that without their pack leaders.