Wolfhound by Kindal Debenham

Author:Kindal Debenham [Debenham, Kindal]
Language: deu
Format: epub
Amazon: B00E0ODKVI
Published: 2011-12-07T00:00:00+00:00

Forty minutes after the disappearance of the probe, an entire pirate fleet riftjumped into the system.

Though he had been expecting it, Jacob still blinked in surprise at the size of the enemy fleet. Fifteen contacts, grouped into five separate trios formed a rough sphere around where the Wolfhound’s course would have carried them. The formation was slightly sloppy, and it would have been easy to strike at one part in an attempt to escape, but with such an overwhelming numerical advantage the pirates could afford a little sloppiness.

Unfortunately for them, Jacob and the rest of the crew of the Wolfhound were watching the show from nearly a day away, floating above the wreckage of the abandoned asteroid mine. It had been only a moment’s conflict to argue Navaja into performing the short-range riftjump, and the Capistan had only needed ten minutes to charge. Now they were completely out of range. Jacob chuckled to himself when he imagined the pirates’ reaction, having found their prey had slipped the trap.

Al-shira, however, did not share in his good humor. “What are you laughing about, Ensign? We may have avoided them for now, but they can still riftjump to catch up to us. We still need a lot more time before we are able to riftjump out of the system.”

Jacob nodded good-naturedly. “True. We need about twenty five more minutes in fact.” He gestured to the counter he had set up underneath the projection of the surrounding space. “The thing of it is, we’ve gained quite a bit of advantage for not much work. First of all, we make it so that they have to perform a second riftjump to get to us. That gives us another ten minutes' breathing room. Probably fifteen since jumping in is going to make it hard to charge their Capistans quickly.”

She continued to give him a defiant stare. “So we get a little closer to safety before we die. What do you think that accomplishes, Ensign?”

The biting emphasis on his rank was starting to wear its way through his good mood. “Second, we now have a wall to put our back to. They can’t surround us as easily, so they’ll have to change formation.” Pointing to the projection, Jacob continued before she could respond. “Third, Ensign Al-shira, we get a good look at what is coming after us.” There was, of course, a fourth reason to face the pirates near the mine, but Jacob did not want to get into that discussion at the moment. He turned to look at Singh, who was looking at him with eyebrows raised. “Ensign Singh, what are we looking at?”

The Sensor ensign’s voice seemed much firmer this time, though he still hesitated a bit before he answered. “Most of them seem to be corvettes, while a lot the rest are frigates.”

As Singh spoke, blips representing the pirate craft flashed for a moment to indicate the contacts he was referring to. By Jacob’s count, there were at least four combat frigates and eight corvettes, which meant no matter what he did, the Wolfhound would lose a straight fight.

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