The Lost Fleet – Dauntless by Jack Campbell

Author:Jack Campbell [Campbell, Jack]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: sf_space

SIX

“CAPTAIN Desjani, I’m afraid I have to agree with your estimate.” Geary totaled up the ships that had so far been seen exiting the jump point. A swarm of HuKs led the way, with multiple squadrons of heavy cruisers right behind. Since the Alliance fleet was looking straight back at the jump exit, the leading Syndic ships tended to obscure those behind them, but several squadrons of battle cruisers and battleships had been confirmed bringing up the rear. “There’s a lot of junk blocking the view of the jump exit.”

Desjani grinned. “You ordered mines placed at the exit, sir.”

Oh, yeah. Geary took another look. “How many did we get?”

“They swept the mines with HuKs and light cruisers, sir. The hard way. We estimate they lost or suffered severe damage to about fifteen ships. The debris fields we can see correlate to the destruction of most of those.”

Coming out of jump space and running right into a minefield. They probably never knew what hit them. “Do you think what we can see is everything?”

Desjani gave him a look that implied she thought Geary wanted more enemies to fight, then studied her display. “There could be a follow-on wave. But if this is it, we can take this force.”

Geary noted that Desjani’s voice seemed torn between excitement and worry at the prospect. All of her training called for charging into action, but the last time the Alliance fleet had faced a major Syndic force, it had gotten its butt kicked hard.

“We could,” Geary stated with a confidence he didn’t really feel. After watching his fleet make a mishmash of the engagement with minor Syndic forces, he wasn’t looking forward to a much bigger battle anytime soon. But he knew he had to outwardly express confidence in the fleet. If word got around (and it surely would) that he’d even implied the fleet lacked the ability to win, it could cripple the fleet’s chances before the next shot was even fired. “But we’d have to turn back to engage them. I don’t see any reason to do that.” He tried to make it sound like the pursuing Syndic forces weren’t worth the trouble. “I hadn’t planned on any more battles in this system.”

Apparently, he succeeded to some extent. Desjani and the watch-standers on the Dauntless’s bridge all nodded knowingly.

Geary fiddled with his controls, trying to make the display calculate the chances of the Syndics catching up with the Alliance force. “Have I got this right?” he muttered to Desjani.

She looked over, then after a moment nodded again. “Yes. We’re only about four light-hours from the jump exit now. Forty hours of transit time if we stay at.1 light speed, but even if we had to slow for some reason, we’ve got a very big lead. We’ll be at the jump point to Kaliban well before they can catch up to us and delay us further.” Desjani grinned. “Some of the fleet captains questioned why we didn’t take more time to loot this system.

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