The Lost Stars Imperfect Sword by Jack Campbell

Author:Jack Campbell
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Group US
Published: 2014-10-07T00:00:00+00:00

THE freighters were heading off in all directions, doing what freighters always did, seeking individual safety, even though under most circumstances the only way to stay safe was to stay together where friendly warships could protect them.

But these weren’t normal circumstances.

The Syndicate battleship had veered slightly off the vector that would have brought its flotilla to the inhabited planet. It was now heading for one of the fleeing freighters. Battleships were slow and cumbersome for warships, which meant they were vastly faster and more agile than freighters. Freighters were designed for economy, to haul large cargos across long distances by the most efficient means. Warships were designed to catch and destroy other ships as quickly and effectively as possible. All of the inefficiencies of their design, the extra crews, the extra propulsion, the weapons, combined to produce a platform that could easily annihilate efficient spacecraft.

Kommodor Marphissa glowered at her display as if her displeasure could somehow change the laws governing acceleration and momentum and mass. “He can’t get away.”

“No,” Kapitan Diaz agreed. “The freighter’s only chance would be if we caused the Syndicate flotilla to divert its path.”

“Can we offer it bait? Do you think CEO Boucher would take bait? A cruiser with its main propulsion out?”

“Hua saw that at Midway,” Diaz pointed out. “Manticore was truly disabled in that fight, and we still got away from her. She’s not going to abandon destroying that freighter to chase us. She’s going to destroy that freighter, then probably veer port to hit this second one, then swing from there—”

“I can see the path,” Marphissa snapped. Only those freighters fleeing all out for the jump point for Kiribati had any chance of escaping, and even a single, small Syndicate warship waiting at Kiribati would catch them there.

Diaz looked away. “Your orders, Kommodor?”

Instead of answering him directly, Marphissa hit her comm controls. “Sentry, Sentinel, Scout, Defender, remain above the ground forces providing what support you can, but take any necessary evasive action to avoid enemy warships. Your priority—” This was so hard to say, so hard to get the words out past something in her throat that wanted to block them. “Your priority is to avoid enemy attacks. If you must abandon support positions above the ground forces to do so, then take that action.” The small Hunter-Killers would not stand a chance against Haris’s cruisers or the Syndicate flotilla, and Scout had already taken damage from an heroic but reckless dive into the atmosphere to support the ground forces.

“Kommodor,” Sentry protested. “If we abandon the ground forces—”

“If you are destroyed, you will not be able to support anyone. Do not hold your ground support positions if that will result in your destruction by enemy warships.” She wanted to spit once she had said those words. Anything to get the awful taste of them out of her mouth.

“We understand, Kommodor. We will comply.” The answer came reluctantly. Sentry did not sound any happier than Marphissa did, but they could not argue the ugly logic that drove the order.

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