Spacers: Fleet Action by Scott Bartlett

Author:Scott Bartlett [Bartlett, Scott]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Mirth Publishing
Published: 2022-03-29T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

Aboard the Shtriga

Gossamer System, Modal Pique Region

Earth Year 2292

“Not two weeks ago, Penta Syndicate set a record for the most damaging single attack ever launched in the history of the Dawn Cluster,” Volkov told his crews over the fleetwide. “But that glory was quickly taken from them. Ascendant Horizon’s dreadnought used its main weapon to dwarf Penta’s moment, launching an even more devastating attack against the Coalition of so-called Giants. For a moment, Penta had a hope of winning historic infamy for themselves. But that was snatched from them grasping claws, wasn’t it? And it will only get worse for them from here.

“Because despite that Red Legion was the recipient of that most devastating attack, we have rallied in just eleven days, and now are prepared to launch our counterattack. Eleven days, my friends. Think on that for a moment. We are a new alliance, just at the beginning of exploiting the vast resources we now have at our disposal. If we can recover this quickly, at this early stage, imagine where we might be months from now. Or a year from now.”

He smiled triumphantly into the camera. “If the Dawn Cluster has not yet begun to quake at the advent of Red Legion…it will. For we are the storm on the horizon, my friends. And we will shake this star cluster in its firmament.”

He tapped the comm panel, ending his broadcast, and refocusing immediately on the tactical display his holoscreen showed him. Ivanov had been right that he should have waited for their reinforcements to attack Penta in its capital system. He couldn’t have known about the super-ship—no one had known—but Penta was a powerful alliance, and Volkov had attacked them in their capital system. Just thinking the words made him burn with shame.

I will not be so sloppy again. I will not.

Well, now they did have their reinforcements, including ships with a brand new module—Hans Mittelman’s innovation, he was told. That module could easily make the difference in the coming battle. Which almost quelled the anger he felt toward Mittelman today.

Almost.

Volkov had been right about Gutman—the hacker who’d offered Red Legion his services. It turned out he hadn’t been bluffing about his prowess, and apparently he hadn’t taken kindly to Mittelman spurning him. After Red Legion had rejected his services, he’d gone straight to the enemy, Penta Syndicate, to offer them those services instead.

Penta had wisely accepted. And the result was that internal Red Legion communications were now plastered across the instant comm network for all the Cluster to peruse at their leisure.

Some were in-depth conversations between Volkov and Mittelman about their designs to take the Cluster back from CoG. A noble enough aim, perhaps—except for the fact that it demonstrated that Red Legion wanted to conquer the star cluster every bit as much as Simon Moll did.

Other leaks detailed Mittelman’s heavy involvement in defeating Penta Syndicate so resoundingly, during the final battle around the Meatgrinder in Unknown Regard system. They showed that it had been Mittelman

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