Final Flight (Battlegroup Z Book 6) by Daniel Gibbs

Author:Daniel Gibbs [Gibbs, Daniel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-01-12T16:00:00+00:00

19

Few things left Banu Tehrani speechless anymore. A forty-year-old frigate destroying a League heavy cruiser was one of them. She stared at the tactical plot, mouth hanging open as the icon for the Rand remained gone. Half of her expected it to flash back into being, nothing more than a sensor glitch.

Raucous cheers rocked the bridge.

“As you were! Maintain proper bridge protocol!” the master chief yelled above the din.

The tumult died down, leaving an atmosphere unlike anything Tehrani had ever felt. If the Ernest Evans can fight that well, by Allah, so can we. “TAO, status of Sierra Four?”

Bryan turned his head around. “Unknown, ma’am. She was taking a great deal of fire, but the last I saw of her trail was into the asteroid belt. It’s got enough ring material in there to make it nearly impossible to track a smaller vessel like that.”

Tehrani nodded. “I don’t think that’s the last we’ll be seeing of the Evans.”

“Leaguers have paused to dress their battle line.” Wright pointed at the plot. “Not that it does us much good.”

“Every minute counts, XO.” Tehrani tried to force a smile but wasn’t sure if she’d succeeded. “Saurez said help’s on the way. I’m going to hold him to that.”

The troop transports moved away from the battle, and each kilometer made them that much harder to destroy.

“Yeah, if we’re still in after three hours,” Wright muttered.

“Conn, TAO. Aspect change, enemy escorts. They’re moving again, ma’am. Directly at us. Best range, ten thousand kilometers.”

“What about Master One?”

“Holding position, ma’am.”

“Maybe the Evans rattled their cages a bit,” Wright said. “Who knows. I’ll take it.”

“They’ll close in soon enough.”

Tehrani’s gaze went back to the plot. The other escort carriers and their respective battlegroups were charging as hard as possible into position, but even they were twenty minutes away, except for the CSV Gambier Bay, which was even closer than the Greengold to the League flotilla.

“XO, see if you can get a tactical net established between our escorts and the Bay’s battlegroup. We’ll do better to coordinate our firepower here.”

“On it, skipper.”

Seconds seemed to stretch into eternity as the League formation, with its overwhelming advantage in firepower and numbers, closed in. Tehrani ran different scenarios through her head, looking for anything she could use to their advantage. “That maneuvering trick the Evans used was inspired.”

Wright snapped his head around. “Skipper, please don’t tell me you’re thinking about trying it with us.”

Her XO had a point. The Greengold was a far larger vessel and would most likely shear apart if she went to relativistic speeds. “I was briefly. Got any ideas?”

“If we could take out enough of their escorts, a hole should open for our bombers to take a run at the Leaguer’s battleships. Remember, they don’t have anywhere near the point defense we do.”

“How could I forget?” Tehrani replied dryly. “TAO, firing point procedures, forward neutron beams, Master Twenty-Two. Designate it as the primary target for our battlegroup.” The Cobra-class destroyer was the closest contact and would be within

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