Breach of duty, p.19
Breach of Duty, page 19
"We just need to hold them until reinforcements jump in," Lamar said. Without waiting for further comment from Blyne, he added, "Keep the drive on standby, though. Jumping out is our backup."
"Aye aye, sir," Blyne replied.
Lamar turned his attention to Lisiewicz, the lieutenant at the helm. "Navigation, let's show these League-lovers what the CDF can do. Commence offensive maneuvers. TAO, firing point procedures on Master One. Civilian deflectors'll give way before ours do."
As he expected, he was answered with a pair of diligent "Aye aye, sirs." He smiled with approval at his junior officers.
With the Dante's engines at combat power, the transport became a deadlier opponent. She had the maneuverability to keep up with the Shadow Wolf when pushing herself, and the Dante used that to full effect. Henry watched her twists and turns and noted their purpose. Aside from evading the Wolf's plasma cannons, the Dante was trying to present her sides to the Wolf so all four of her mag-cannon mounts could fire as one in a broadside. It was the one possibility the Dante had at overcoming the Shadow Wolf's shields in a reasonable amount of time.
It was starting to affect them. The navigation officer of the Dante was CDF-trained and it showed. Cera had a capable adversary who took advantage of her aggressive maneuvering, shifting the Dante's orientation and heading to get the enemy TAO the shots he needed. The Shadow Wolf's shuddering increased as more mag-cannon shells connected with their shields.
"Sassenach," cursed Cera. "Good pilot over there."
"You could've been CDF yourself," Henry reminded her. "You can do this."
The ship shuddered lightly again. Now Cera was varying up her maneuvers, trying to stay close and force the mag-cannon mounts to track more while the plasma cannons fired when able.
"They should be able to break away," Tia said with a thoughtful frown on her face. "They're not. They must be waiting for something."
"Reinforcements." Henry scowled. He'd imagined they were on a timer, of course. But given how far they were from the front, the prospect of friendly ships coming quickly enough that the Dante's skipper could rely on them hadn't seemed likely.
They'd have to adjust, and that meant taking an action he would have preferred not to do.
A plan was already crystallizing in Henry's mind as his finger pressed down on the ship's intercom key. "Pieter, I'm sorry, but we're going to need the fusion drive briefly."
"As long as you know what you're risking, Captain," the engineer replied. Henry thought he sounded a little sullen.
"I do. And I need one other thing—" He began to explain, his stomach twisting as he did.
The dance between the Dante and the Shadow Wolf continued to the increasing frustration of Major Lamar. When another good shot was lost, Lamar finally let loose with his temper. "Lisiewicz, I refuse to believe that rundown scow has a better pilot than a vessel of the CDF. I demand better from you, Lieutenant!"
Blyne visibly blanched with disapproval at Lamar's behavior. Lisiewicz didn't have the luxury of reacting with anything but a "Yes sir, sorry sir," and Blyne watched her body tense as she redoubled her efforts.
Not that it did her much good as the Shadow Wolf's engines shifted in intensity. The four ports along her aft surged with power and her delta-v went straight up and beyond the Dante's capabilities.
"What in God's name?" Blyne stared in shock.
"A fusion drive? On that thing? I heard the report, but—" Lamar shook his head. Now he wasn't so sure how this would go down. With that much extra thrust, the Shadow Wolf could out-maneuver him, focus fire on a point, and batter down his deflectors.
"Should we jump, sir?" Blyne asked.
Lamar considered it. The more he did, the more he bristled. Given the history, this was like Henry spitting in the face of the whole CDF. Flaunting the same technology he tried to deny them through sabotage? To hell with him! "Negative, XO. Navigation, keep Master One in arc. TAO, firing point procedures on our port missile cell, coordinate firing pattern with the mag-cannons. I want them caught!"
Tense minutes passed as the Shadow Wolf executed repeated attack runs, darting in and out like her namesake animal slashing at the legs of a larger beast. The Dante's deflectors were slowly succumbing to the battering. Lamar waited patiently. "Navigation, change heading to zero-one-four mark positive zero-seven-eight, now!" he called out. "Rotate thirty degrees port!"
The maneuver was executed without question. Lamar felt a surge of pleasure as it gave all four of his mag-cannons an open shot on the enemy ship as it finished an attack run. Even as the purple of the plasma cannons flared against the Dante's straining deflectors, the mag-cannons got into position. They fired, sending shells at a high velocity into the rear of the enemy ship. The deflectors caught the shot, but he could imagine they strained in the process.
But more happened. The four engines on the back of the ship went dark. Several running lights failed as well. Lamar watched with pleasure as the Shadow Wolf began a turn on maneuvering thrusters only. "Any sign of a graviton field?" he asked.
"No, sir," replied the TAO, Lieutenant Jackson. "They're not decelerating."
"Looks like deflector feedback took out their drives," Blyne said.
Elation filled Lamar. He knew a ship like that couldn't handle sustained abuse from combat, and he'd been proven right. Now he had his shot. "Navigation, bring us in, and TAO, I want all weapons on their side. Bring those deflectors down!" He turned to Blyne. "XO, get the boarding teams ready. Get Walters and his people in place to storm that ship the moment we've got them crippled."
"Aye aye, sir." Blyne went into action.
Lamar watched with satisfaction as the Dante came about and presented her side. With all four of his mag-cannons on a target that couldn't conduct combat maneuvers, the deflectors they were facing wouldn't last long at all. He'd have Henry in chains and the praise of General Erhart. I'll be a Colonel in a few years. Lieutenant Colonel by the end of the year! But even better, it'd deal a blow to the damn League and the traitors they had working for them. A reminder the Coalition couldn't be stopped.
"Firing," Jackson said. On the screen, the mag-cannons started firing at the Shadow Wolf, which suddenly whipped around, her maneuvering engines at full power, to present her bow to the Dante. Lamar was confused for the moment at seeing Henry turn his ship like that, wondering where he got the power for it, while his eyes settled on the lupine head that was the Shadow Wolf's bridge module.
Then he noticed the movement below, as the hump down the ship's belly between her six holds seemed to open up at the front, presenting a large open circle.
Not a circle, he realized. A cannon barrel.
Even as Lamar forced the word "Evasive!" into his throat, blue-white light erupted from the barrel on the Shadow Wolf's belly. The light grew in size and intensity until it filled the screen, which crackled and went out.
The Dante seemed to have been seized by God Himself. Lamar was rocked against his seat harness while the deck jolted. Power on the bridge died out for a moment before emergency lighting came on. "Damage report!" he screamed.
"Direct hit on the engineering section," Blyne called out.
"The deflectors—!"
"Couldn't stop it, sir," Jackson said. "They hit us with a neutron cannon, sir."
Lamar felt his throat go dry. A damned neutron cannon? How the hell did Henry power a weapon like that on his scow? It took a moment for the realization to hit him: the fusion drive he had aboard would do it, providing both the raw power and the neutron byproduct to form the beam.
With power out, Lamar flipped the intercom key. "Engineering, we've lost power up here. What's our status?"
Seconds passed. No response came.
"Engineering, do you copy?" There was still no response.
"Sir." Blyne paled. "Sir, internal sensors show a direct hit on the main engineering spaces. All reactors not responding. No life signs either."
Lamar felt like his heart would stop. Rage warred with grief at the loss of his engineering chief, Lieutenant al-Assad, and the engineering crew of his ship. Over a dozen of his people must've died when the beam hit. "Casualties?" he croaked.
"Still being accounted for, sir," Blyne said, his voice heavy. Both knew that many of the dead wouldn't be found, as the neutron cannon would have left nothing. "We're getting a few transponders from outside the ship. At least six crewmembers are in space, sir. Two transponders confirm no vac suit."
Lamar clenched his fists. Hot tears came to his face. Violent spacing was one of the worst ways to die.
"Sir." The warrant officer at comms spoke up, his voice accented with Brazilian Portuguese. "Hail from the enemy ship."
Lamar grit his teeth together. "Put them on."
The dead image on the bridge changed to show Henry's face again. His expression was stone cold, as if all he had no emotions at all. "Dante, you're crippled and helpless. Hand over the prisoners. There's no need for this fight to continue." A little emotion seeped into Henry's voice as he added, "Nobody else needs to die."
The grief in Lamar's heart turned to fury. "Murderer," he spat. "Traitor! You'd murder your own, for what, Henry? How much is the League paying you?" Before a response could come, he drew in a breath and turned to Blyne. "Alert all hands, prepare for boarding!"
Blyne nodded.
Lamar wasn't finished with Henry, though. With rage filling every word with venom, he spoke again. "I can't stop you from leaving, traitor, but I won't let you get your friends out of my cells. I'll fight to the death first, and I'll see them dead before you get to them!"
23
Tia and Piper both stared intently at Henry, who in turn was staring at the enraged visage of Major Lamar. He fought to keep his expression neutral. He couldn't let Lamar see the pain he felt or the man might use it to draw this out.
Henry wanted very much to give that suffering release. He was heartsick at having just killed so many good people. He was angry Lamar, or really Erhart, had pushed the situation this far.
Am I being jealous? The thought crossed his mind. Lamar was being the proper CDF officer, defiant to the last against superior odds. Just as Henry himself had once been, before the night he gave up.
Thinking of that night made him remember what Erhart told him. Henry passed it on, hoping it might work. "Sometimes, Major, you can't win the battle. All you can do is cut your losses and live to fight another day."
Lamar snarled at him on the screen. "Like hell I'll let you win."
"This isn't about your pride," Henry snapped. "You have an obligation to your crew, Major, and it includes not getting them killed to protect one man's agenda."
"You'd like that, wouldn't you?" Lamar accused. "It'll make your employers happy to know they can intimidate us into freeing their agents. Well, I'll never surrender them. I won't be a party to letting treason prosper!"
"Dammit, man, those aren't traitors!" Henry's face turned blood red as he spoke. "Erhart's got his own agenda, Major, and you're playing into it. You're betraying everything your uniform stands for!"
"Says the traitor." Lamar motioned to someone offscreen and disappeared.
"Well, that went well," Piper said. "He's kinda nuts, isn't he?"
"Half the CDF seems to be," Tia muttered. "He knows we can make scrap out of his ship, right?"
"He knows and doesn't care." Henry said with his head lowered and hands covering his face. "God's on his side."
"Really, I'd think the hole we just blew through his ship would indicate otherwise."
Henry ignored Tia's remark. He also tried to ignore the sick twisting in his gut, but he wasn't so successful there. He'd just killed over a dozen CDF crew, and it made him feel like he'd puke his own heart onto the deck. Sixteen years after the service humiliated him, and yet he still felt guilty over all of this.
And guiltier still for what he knew he had to do.
Tia filled the silence. "We can't stay here forever. Either we call this off or we board."
The intercom keyed on. "Hey, Jim," Felix's voice said over it, speaking from the turret he was manning. "I figure you're still thinking this over, but I should point out that a ship like that's probably got another fifty crew, easy. If they're ready for us, I don't think we can pull off a boarding action. Even with our borrowed hardware and Yanik's heirloom, we won't be fighting through all of them."
"Thanks, Felix, I've got it handled," Henry replied into the intercom before cutting it. He felt heartsick at realizing what the best next step was. "Cera, re-align the bow," he said softly. "Put the cannon onto the bridge of the Dante."
Cera nodded. She did so and, without saying anything, made the sign of the Cross.
"It's like being asked to commit murder," Piper confessed. After all, she was being asked to pull the trigger, and not on an enemy threatening their lives but a beaten foe.
"I know, and if you want, I'll hit the firing key," Henry said even as the ship lined up for the shot. One blast and the bridge of the Dante would be gone. On a vessel that small, it wouldn't leave much of a command structure, and might encourage the surviving crew to surrender rather than die needlessly.
Piper swallowed. "I…" She looked at the pain on Henry's face and paled with shame. He could see she knew he'd do it for her, take the blood onto his hands, and that he'd want to rip his heart out even more.
Henry removed his harness and stood. Piper did nothing as he leaned over her to reach for the firing key that would trigger the neutron cannon.
"Message incoming," Tia said, moments before he could fire. "Audio only."
Henry pulled his hand back. "Put them on."
She did so. "Dante, you're live."
"Fine," Lamar's now familiar voice hissed. "Take your traitor friends and leave my crew alone. It doesn't matter anyway. We're winning the war, Henry, and you're on the wrong side. We'll get you all in the end."
"You'll be doing us a favor when you win the war, Lamar, whether you believe me or not," Henry replied. "We're pulling up alongside. Send them over the ship-to-ship tube once we're latched on."
"Acknowledged."
"Channel's cut," Tia said. She frowned. "That was too easy. I think they might rush us."
"They'd be stupid t' try," Cera said. "We can cut th' tube on our end, let 'em eat vacuum. Then th' Captain'll just neutron beam their whole ship."
Henry returned to his seat and keyed the intercom. "Felix, Yanik, get to the starboard lock and prepare for a ship-to-ship transfer. Have everything hot and ready. I have a feeling they might try something."
"Roger that," Felix replied.
When the combat alarms screamed, Snow and the others could only wait in confusion and fear for the outcome of the situation. The League's trying to raid this deep in Coalition space? It sounded ludicrous, but the League was desperate enough to try, Snow imagined.
Her fear spiked when the entire ship rattled viciously under their feet. As the power went out, sending them into darkness, Mueller and Xu exchanged worried looks. "The ship just took a direct hit," Mueller said. "A bad one."
"What in God's name is going on out there?" Xu shouted.
"Keep your voices down!" was the reply from the guards.
Time seemed to stretch on from there. Emergency lighting was quick to come back on, and the air didn't go stale, reassuring them that the life support systems were still functioning. Renner's face went white as well, while Xu and Mueller were the most concerned. Xu looked to her and asked, "You didn't serve in the fleet, did you, Snow?"
"I was given college deferment and admitted to law school," Snow said. "They put me straight into JAG."
"Which is why you're not as scared as you should be," Renner said. "This is bad, real bad, Congresswoman. The ship's been hulled."
"Who could be firing at them?" Mueller wondered.
"Shut up in there!" Walters' voice screamed from outside.
Snow was tempted to defy him, but there was little point save spite, and she was better off not going that route. With the others, she waited quietly to see what developed.
Conversation came from outside. Walters was on comms, and his voice raised in protest until he finally finished with an "Aye aye, sir." A few moments later, the door slid open and Walters entered with three guards. Snow and the others watched with concern that became surprise as their shackles were released from their chairs. "Get up," Walters barked.
"Where are you taking us?" Renner asked.
Walters refused to answer. He grabbed Snow by the arm and forced her to her feet. "Start moving!"
Snow felt a rising fear that Erhart was about to have them disposed of, but she was helpless to act on that. Walters roughly pushed her to the door, forcing her through. "To your right!"
She followed that direction. The lights in the corridor were not the same. Other than that, there didn't seem to be any sign of danger or damage to the ship. What's going on? she wondered, her heart pounding in increasing terror at the thought that the CDF might actually be plotting their murders. No, the CDF wouldn't. Even Erhart couldn't twist them that far…
The others stepped up to be behind her. She heard Mueller's accented voice whisper, "Someone's blown a hole through the engineering section. The ship's crippled."
"How can you tell?" she asked.
"The way the power went out, for one," he answered. "Also, the way the ship shook, the creak in the hull. Anyone who's ever served on a ship that's been hulled knows the signs."
Snow nodded. Now I don't regret staying in JAG so much.
"Who could've done that?" Xu asked, his voice slightly louder.
Walters shouted, "Quiet!"
Snow swallowed. A new nightmare scenario dawned before her. The Peace Union was gaining increasing support from the admission of moderate parties to its ranks, but there was still the old radical wing under Senator Rhodes. If things were escalating severely, could they have taken the step of turning to violence? Was this part of such a campaign? If it were true, it would jeopardize not just the entire Union, but the Coalition itself. There were worlds that would respond to the outright suppression of the Union by withdrawing from the Coalition.
