Return of the Emperor by Allan Cole & Chris Bunch

Author:Allan Cole & Chris Bunch [Cole, Allan & Bunch, Chris]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Mystery & Detective, General
ISBN: 9781434436030
Google: pRH0AAAAQBAJ
Amazon: 1434436039
Publisher: Wildside Press
Published: 2011-10-04T00:00:00+00:00

Sten shut the chatter of battle commands out of his mind and focused on the bridge's main battle screen. He was attacking in a crescent formation. He would dearly have loved to have several hundred more units--the halfmoon was very thin. Necessarily so--Sten, hoping the Imperials would be stupid enough to think he was planning an envelopment, wanted the tips of the crescent spread beyond the Imperial defense dome's area. The Imperial mushroom was looking a little ragged. Part of its cap was shifting toward the attackers. But a segment appeared not to have gotten the word and was restabilizing into normal convoy formation. At the rear of the stem, the cruisers were deploying fairly efficiently, the base swinging up to cover the transports. "Com! Are we linked?" Sten asked. "All ships receiving." "Sten to all ships. Standby on Long-lance launch--as ordered." "Waiting... waiting... all ships ready, sir." "Countermeasures," he said to another officer. "What're they doing?" "Their detectors have us... two... six launches made. Five ineffective... one acquired." "Kilgour. Talk to me." "Range closin't... seven seconds... three... mark!" "All ships. Launch!" Missiles spat from the Bhor fleet--but not at the same time. Sten had ordered a ripple fire from the rearmost ships forward. As the missiles cleared the forwardmost Bhor ships, weapons officers armed and aimed the ship-killers. There were not that many missiles launched--at least for a major battle--but all were meant to arrive on target at the same moment. "Alex. I want that wedge between the heavies exploited. First section... individual control... acquire and launch when ready. "Countermeasures! What're they doing?" "B' Kholoric... not much!" "Report, dammit!" The Bhor tried his best to assume the role of an efficient, toneless Imperial officer. "Minor launches... most directed at incoming missiles. Correction. I have a mass launch. Central control is on overload." On-screen, there were sparkles between the two closing fleets: operator-guided antiship missiles, Kali II's, most likely. They would be taken out--or they would hit. That was not part of what Sten should be thinking about. He turned off the "but what if we're one of the unlucky ones" part of his mind and looked beyond the sparkles. He grinned suddenly and made a comment frowned on in Basic Admiral School. "Kilgour! You owe me a stregg! The bastard's by-the-book!" Gregor was, indeed. There were many possible responses to an envelopment. The best response would have been for Gregor to break the dome into a spearhead or even line formation and attack the center of Sten's fleet, break through the crescent--which was no more than two ships deep--circle, and destroy Sten's fleet in detail. But that would have meant leaving his transports unguarded except by the cruiser force. No doubt this Imperial admiral had read of Cannae. But there was a big difference: Sten was not Hannibal, nor did he have any heavy infantry to slam the horns of the crescent shut and trap the attacker. Instead, the admiral was putting his fleet on-line. It was counterenvelopment evidently, such as the Turks should have used at Lepanto.

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