Past the Redline

Throttle Fifty-Eight

When Abatrath had said that they would outnumber the Federation corvettes tenfold, he was correct. Exactly correct. The fleet of ships forming up around Diana’s own Hercules was exactly seventeen ships strong.

With the Foxtail and that strangely talented yovar fighter, The Romantic Ionosphere, on the way back from chasing after Bolgian space-fights, they had exactly twenty ships.

The Hercules and Abatrath’s ship were both corvettes by size and tonnage, the rest ran the gamut from heavy fighter to armed racing ship. Their formation, if it could be called that, tried to take advantage of the two larger ships.

Diana spent the time waiting for them to form up on the comms with the captain of the Rising Sun of Comcompan. It took some convincing, but the captain was a very mercantile sort, and Diana eventually swayed him into divulging information about his ship’s original shields. The current ones were aftermarket, and apparently better than what a genuine Federation frigate would have.

Diana positioned the Hercules on the far ‘left’ of the group, and Abatrath placed his ship on the far ‘right’. The rest of the ships formed a rough and rather uneven sphere between them.

“They’re nearly here,” Diana said as she watched Zil Rossi approaching. The yovar was right behind her. “Alright, I think we can start our initial acceleration. At this rate, we’ll be intercepting the rock with only minutes to spare before the Federation fleet slips past it.”

Her theory, that the Federation would loop around to protect the asteroids, hadn’t been proven yet. The Federation did start to turn, but they were still a good ten minutes from the first asteroid. The Bolgians ships sent over would be arriving within firing range in five.

Things were going to heat up very soon, and Diana was all for it.

“Sending out telemetry,” Abatrath said. “We’ll go as quickly as our slowest member can manage.”

Diana resisted the urge to shoot ahead. There would be a time and place for that, but for the best effect, she had to push things at exactly the right time. Anything else was just poor showmanship.

The group didn’t mask their intentions at all. Every ship flew straight towards the asteroid, with only the slightest curve to their flight to both take into account the planet’s gravity and the future position of the rock. Anyone with the ability to spot them (and they were definitely not being quiet) and a rudimentary understanding of orbital paths would be able to pin-point exactly where their impromptu flotilla was heading.

What they were planning on doing once they reached the asteroid was another matter entirely.

“Mistress, the Boglians have detached a group on a similar heading as your own. Slower acceleration. Their trajectory would bring them here.” A white line painted itself across the plotter, from the Bolgian fleet to a point out in empty space where the asteroid would eventually be.

“They’re planning for us to make a runner?” Diana asked.

“It seems like it, Mistress.”

Diana was tempted to give the admiral a call and tell him off, but a sudden flash had her pausing. The Federation would see the Bolgians moving there too, and that would tell them that the Bolgians didn’t trust her group.

If the Bolgians weren’t sure what she’d do, then the Federation wouldn’t know any better.

That was her main trick at the moment for confusing her opponents. If she didn’t know what she was going to do next, then there was no way the enemy would either.

The group continued to accelerate, and for a few moments, it was rather uneventful. Abatrath was going back and forth with a couple of other ships, setting up a smaller internal communications relay that would use short-range tight-beams to prevent anyone else from listening in.

Diana let ChaOS sort out the details while she inspected the Federation fleet. The closer they came to the fleet the more information they could make out. Especially now that the ships had lit up their drives and were manoeuvring instead of merely letting themselves coast through space.

Their painted hulls made visible identification difficult. Diana wondered how much the Federation spent on stealth-capable coatings every year if they could afford to cover a whole fleet as well as a yet uncounted number of asteroids.

It couldn’t be too expensive, but she hadn’t noticed any civilian ships with similar paint on them. Not that civilian vessels needed that kind of advantage. Unless those same civilians were flying through heavily-contested areas or pirate-infested space, there was probably more of an advantage to being loud and visible than the opposite.

Diana shook her head and refocused. “Got any more details on those ships?” she asked.

“A few, though they are rather scant. It seems that the armament is designed to favour the fleet’s purpose. We’ve picked up mostly railguns, with a few smaller laser arrays. Also, note the following:”

ChaOS tossed a scan of one of the Federation ships up, one of the frigates hugging close to the cruisers that made up the backbone of the fleet. The ship was angular and black, not entirely dissimilar to the other Federation ships she’d seen so far, but definitely a variation on the traditional model.

If she had to guess, the main structure of the vessel and its insides were entirely the same as a standard Federation ship. There would be less retraining of the crew that way, and they could switch out broken parts without having to make anything custom.

The differences, then, were mostly aesthetic. Or so she imagined. In this case, aesthetics lent the ship a greater potential for stealth. “What am I looking for?” she asked.

“The ship is designed with a significant increase in venting structures,” ChaOS said. “Here, and here.” Some parts of the vessel were highlighted in red. “I imagine that the exterior plating, which is somewhat larger than the standard, is equipped with greater heat-conductivity to hide the ship’s signature during stealth operations. That, of course, requires better heat-sinks.”

“Makes sense. I bet those are some of the more important pieces they’ve switched out. Anything else that’s been changed from the standard model?”

“This one has fewer armaments. The calibre of the railguns are, at a guess, larger, but there are fewer guns overall. The communication suite seems to be an entirely different system, and the shields array, while in the same locations, also seems unique. I’m noticing a forty-percent increase in efficiency from the shields, at least when it comes to electromagnetic discharges along the surface. I am doubtful that the increased efficiency will have that great an impact on shield strength, and it might play into your plan.”

“Oh,” Diana cooed. It was nice when the enemy played along.

“One more thing, and this is more concerning. Notice these.”

ChaOS highlighted a trail of pixels at the back of the ship. Diana blinked, then the image zoomed in and revealed a long trail of boxes following in the wake of the ship. They hung on from a long cord connecting to the frigate. “I imagine that’s not good news?”

“I suspect that they’re torpedo launchers, mistress. I count nearly six hundred across the fleet.”

“Which is a lot more than what a fleet that size could fire on its own, I imagine.”

“Unless the fleet was specced entirely for missile-boat duty, then you’d be correct, Mistress. I think the Federation are planning on swarming the Bolgian fleet before any engagement can begin.”

Diana nodded. The Federation was outnumbered and outgunned, so they were pulling every trick they could to level the playing field, like forcing the Bolgians to peel off smaller ships to take care of the asteroids, diverting the fleet around with the racers, and pushing the Bolgians out into a dispersed formation to make it easier to pick them out.

“Think we can do anything about those?” Diana asked.

“Realistically, no,” ChaOS said.

Daina blinked. “And unrealistically?”

“They are outside of the ship’s shields and therefore vulnerable.”

“They’re not stupid enough that hitting one would set them all off.” Diana said.

“That is unlikely. Anyone sensible would ensure that the warheads are entirely inert until impact. Anything else would be irresponsible and reckless.”

“I do love both of those things,” Diana said. “But fine. Make it a secondary priority when we get closer. We might be able to snipe some of the launchers in passing. Or… I can’t imagine they’re fired based on a signal instead of being connected directly to the ship.”

“Also unlikely. The tether is more than large enough to accommodate the rudimentary wiring you would need for that,” ChaOS explained.

Diana looked ahead. They were getting closer to the asteroid. For that matter, so was the Federation fleet. They had turned their flight just enough that the fleet and the first Bolgian ships sent out to intercept the first asteroid were coming within close range of each other.

Or close range as measured in empty space.

Diana watched, more curious than anything, as the Bolgian frigate launched a whole suite of missiles, not at the Federation, but at the asteroid behind, guarded by a pair of corvettes.

In response, the fleet’s cruisers all fired a broadside at the frigate.

The railgun rounds connected. The ship, predictably, couldn’t withstand that kind of firepower.

A few of the missiles it had launched were swatted aside by the corvettes defending the rock, but more struck it a minute later and ripped the stone apart.

Then the corvettes simply left to rejoin the fleet, adding two more little ships to its number while the Bolgians lost one.