Part 17 (1/2)
”Position?” Rendova snapped
”They'll reach the warp point in six minutes,” Houston said flatly
The force TF 51 had been pursuing had turned It eeping back, and already its first SBMs crossed with Murakuht bitterly, but that was her only reainst so s, but they'd beat Waldeck's battle-line to scrap in the process, and then that second force would sweep up the pieces
But only if I let them! she told herself fiercely, and looked up at Waldeck's com screen
”Ready, Demosthenes?”
”Yes, Sir” The burly Corporate Worlder rim smile ”I sure hope this works”
”It'll work - I just don't knoell” Murakuainst guilt and despair while her flashi+ng brain rechecked her desperate plan for flaws She found none - but, then, the situation was too grim for complicated maneuvers
”Very well, De us about”
The ene back to succor its wounded co he had done yet He was faster than the Fleet He should have run for it, drawn out of range, tried to maneuver his way around the defenders, instead
His new course was headed directly for the warp point, as if he thought he could blast his way through the waiting superdreadnoughts and battlecruisers, but he rong Coulf between the Fleet's separated battle-lines, and the second component slowed It wouldto stay between the enemy and his only way home, and wait until its fellows drove hiathered his battered strikegroups astern of the carriers He didn't know exactly what Ad his pilots into that much firepower turned his belly to lead, but he knew she had no choice, and his earlier thoughts about expendability jeered at hiot even a single division of superdreadnoughts out of the trap, the exchange would be completely hile which wasn't much comfort for the human and Ophiuchi pilots about to sacrifice thes swept past the warp point and slowed They ca systehters, and he sed He sat tense and still, waiting for the order, and a corner of his brain noted the courier drones flashi+ng past hi Anaasa!” Anaasa looked up at his com officer's shout ”The drones!” the officer said sharply, and Anaasa bared his fangs
”Go!” Olivera's cohters streaked straight down the Bugs' throat Every one of those pilots knew - didn't think; knew - he or she was going to die But they were dooency gate, for if they had to die, at least they could kill a few rayed as Malachi took then liether, and he bared his teeth - then jerked in surprise, despite the crushi+ng power of the drive, at Carl Hathaway's shriek of delight
”Beautiful! Oh, beautiful!” the tac officer screao!”
One moment, the second Arachnid force had the situation completely under control; the next, an insane explosion of violence ripped into it as TF 53 - the Orion task force the Bugs had never seen, never suspected had been held back - flashed through the warp point into its rear No one in the galaxy was better at fighter ops than the KON, and Fang Anaasa's deck crews set a new all-Navy record for launch speeds Two hundred and ten fresh fighters charged straight up the Bugs' blind spots as their ed up TF 52's, and they weren't alone, for the SBMHAWKs Murakuma hadn't used in her initial bombardment came with them There'd been no need to use them to kill a mere fifty cruisers; now seventy fresh pods belched hters screa their FRAMs
It was thesuperdreadnoughts were blown apart in sixty shrieking seconds, and eighteen battlecruisers ith theed,brutal losses from the survivors' point defense to strafe with their onboard lasers Less than forty seconds later, Anson Olivera's fighters ca their own losses but slas' throats
The twin strike couldn't kill them all, but it hurt the them had fallen too far astern of TF 51 to help them Demosthenes Waldeck's battle-line flashed past TF 52's wounded carriers, and Rendova's shi+ps reefed around in the hairpin turns of inertia-canceling drives to follow in their wake But it was up to the heavies to clear the way, and Waldeck and Vanessa Murakuh superdreadnoughts were so hters
It was insane, a violation of every manual ever written and the only path to salvation Every one of Anaasa's carriers and battlecruisers ithin the Bug's weapons envelope; if TF 51 didn't close, they would be annihilated, despite the shocking dah before the Bugs pursuing her could overhaul The enemy knew it, too, and detached his faster cruisers in a desperate bid to assist their fellows on the warp point But the cruisers had to get past TF 52, and Rendova launched her surviving escorts into the match that kept them off Waldeck's back at a price
Yet furious as that fight was, it was a sideshow, and Murakus Launchers went to sprint- standard missiles and the heavier, farfire smashed back, and Cobra heaved as fists of flame hauns, heatlasers, and Ophiuchi particle beaht hundred kiloe alar battlecruiser rammed a Terran battleshi+p head-on, two more battleshi+ps vanished insshi+p heave, heard the screa axe that was once a bulkhead And then so exploded into the side of her own coony too terrible to endure
The last Bug superdreadnought blew up under the fire of three Terran superdreadnoughts and sixty fighters, and TF 51's survivors turned at bay They faced the reed carrier hters which had actually launched, two hundred and six escaped aboard Anaasa's carriers and the only three unhurt Terran CVs, and then the rearguard retreated to Sarasota, still shts, seven battleshi+ps, fourteen battlecruisers, eleven carriers, five heavy cruisers, and eighteen light cruisers remained behind forever
”M-Marcus?” Vanessa Murakunize her own hoarse whisper, but Marcus LeBlanc bent over her instantly She lay under crisp sheets, staring up at a pastel overhead, and she could feel nothing from the waist down
”Hi,” LeBlanc said softly
”T-Tian?” she whispered, and he flinched Then he shook his head gently, and she turned away in agony Her tears blotted the pillow, but LeBlanc's gentle fingers cupped her chin, ot them out, Vanessa,” he said quietly
”But how reen eyes dark, bottomless wells of pain, and he blinked his own eyes as tears stung
”More than anyone else could have,” he said Her mouth twisted, and he bent lower over her ”daht, they suckered you Well, they suckered me, Waldeck, Teller, Anaasa - even Tian! No one could have seen that cootten us out of it Don't you dare think otherwise, or or-”
”Or what?” She expected it to coe bitterness, but to her astonish
”Or as soon as you're out of that bed, Sir, I'll put you overshi+t out of you!” he told her fiercely, and a soft ghost of a laugh gurgled in her throat Her eyes softened, and she raised an arravity could account for to touch the side of his face
”Oh, Marcus,” she whispered ”I should have listened to you, love”
”Why? You thought I was arguing just because I orried about you and I was,” he adht her hand as it started to fall, cradling it against his cheek ”I guess s frown on people who love each other in the saently
”Maybe But you were still right”
”It's e it But it's your job to win battles, not take counsel of your fears Or mine” He smiled and stroked red hair back from her forehead
”How bad is it?” she asked after aat her lower body with her free hand, and he sain
”It looks terrible,” he said frankly, ”but the doctors are delighted with theain within six or seven weeks You'll have to take it easy for quite a while, but you're going to be fine, Vanessa Really”
”Well, at least I'll have time to 'take it easy,'” she said with a trace of bitterness, and he raised an eyebrow ”Co to relieve e way of describing a battle in which you kicked the bad guys' ass, Admiral Murakus lost a hundred and thirty-nine shi+ps That's a better than two-to-one ratio in hulls, and the tonnage balance was even more decisive Sky Marshal Avra to be even more pleased when she hears what happened yesterday”
”Yesterday?” Murakus tried to bounce Sarasota I guess they figured they'd hurt us badly enough to ht up reinforcements But Demosthenes and Leroy - and, Lord, hoish you'd seen that pair working together! - got reorganized with Anaasa and put Leonidas Two into operation exactly as you'd planned it They lost every cruiser and the first twenty-five SDs that tried to follow” His eyes blazed, and he stroked more hair from her forehead ”They broke off, Vanessa! You finally stopped the bastards so cold they knew they were licked!”
”You lowed, and LeBlanc shook his head
”Worinned wickedly ”- that's why I'ain, softly, and then he bent still closer and kissed her