The planetoid belts in the Caldos system enjoyed some exploitation by enterprising individuals who took the risk of migrating into independent systems without the technological base to exploit them themselves. On one of the larger asteroids within the inner belt, a Florian prospector had set up a tiny mining colony, composed of his immediate family and a few friends. They mined nearby rocks and transported the fruit of their efforts to whichever of the three powers offered the best price. Among their equipment was counted an advanced sensor array which they've used to great effect, ferreting out information from passing asteroids, greatly aiding their ability to find precious metals. It also had some other applications.
"Hey, pa! Come look! There's a battle going on!" shouted the miner's firstborn son.
"Pirates?"
"Don't think so," he pointed to the wallscreen. "There's like three forces here!"
"Hoo boy. That's the Mycians there, those I think are Imperial, and that there's..." said the father, coming into the living room of their hab module. "...Pagaton March Navy? What the hell's that?"
"Never heard of it, pa."
"What are you two shouting about?" asked the miner's wife, coming in, drying a plate.
"Honey, better call in the boys and girls home. They don't want to miss this, and they want to be somewhere they can get to the ship right quick. There's a major space battle going on in around Caldos!"
"Oh, dear," she put the plate away and went to use the comm.
"Set it on active," the miner said. "Let's see who brought what, exactly."
Lightspeed sensors were limited by the delay, but they did their job admirably well, helped somewhat by the fact that all the ships were still running transponders.
The Mycian Empire fielded its entire space force, which included only non-starships. Their Powers That Be had decided that the advantages of more firepower and speed outweighed the disadvantages of not being able to travel the stars – their primary enemies were located right there on the planet, and also fielded space navies. They had nine ships, six 100 dton designs, three 200 dton designs – all substantially outdated and outperformed by even the smallest modern starships, but each had at least one laser, and most had two – and of course, their flagship 'Mycia's Pride', a 300 dton discount Corsair. The miners were quite familiar with all of them, due to their many repeated trips to the planet and back – their mining ship could give any of them a run for their money, probably, if they invested in something more powerful than a discount pulse laser to deter opportunists.
"Those Imperials, I bet they're from Dostoevsky, pa," said the son.
"What makes you think that?"
"That one's the Black Swan, pa," he pointed to one of the blips. "That's what the flagship of the Imperial picket there is called. The traders said so."
"You could be onto something, son."
The rest of the Imperial ships were quite unknown to them. They were just arriving in the system, but by the time the spectators got to enumerating them, their staggered arrival over the course of twenty minutes was over. There were eleven of them, led by the 3000 dton cruiser – well into the category of small capital ships – the 'Black Swan', supported primarily by the 1200 dton 'Poseidon', the 1000 dton 'Unity II' and the 800 dton 'Cyclops'. In addition, they had seven ships between 300 and 600 dtons acting as screens.
"That's gotta be the entire picket," whistled one of the miner's friends, having just arrived at the habitation module. "Whoever's it that they're fighting is in a world of hurt. That force coulda taken the whole main by themselves, if they wanted to."
"Not if they didn't want to piss off the Aslan and us," said the miner, thumping himself in his Florian chest.
"Wonder who's it they're fighting."
"Bet ya they're pirates. Maybe Vargr?"
The force identifying itself as the Pagaton March Navy was significantly smaller, in terms of size, from either of the other parties to the encounter. However, while the others were scattered in an envelopment maneuver – as the Mycians were, with their flagship only beginning to accelerate towards the fighting, now that the Imperial fleet entered the system – or having just arrived, disorganized, the Pagatonians had the advantage of already having achieved combat formation. Their commander apparently decided for mutually overlapping point-defense over increased firepower of a flatter arrangement. The 2000 dton 'Pagaton' was in the center of a sphere of its screens – which displaced between 300 and 700 tons. According to active sensors, they also had something like large shuttles or 100 dton combat boats which weren't running transponders.
"Anyone ever heard of this 'Pagaton March'?" asked the miner's friend.
"Nope," said the son. His father shook his head.
"Well, I sort of wonder on whose side they are on."
"I think they're allied with the Mycians!"
"Why do you think that, boy?"
"I've been looking at them when they arrived. The Mycians didn't think them a threat, like at all, they just continued doing what they were doing before."
"What are they doing?" asked the miner's wife. "They look like they're all over the place without rhyme or reason."
"They're chasing this li'l bugger here," the son indicated a 100 dton blip named the 'Luxantus'. "Must be some sorta bootlegger or something. They're mighty intent on catching him."
"Hey, they changed transponder," noted the miner's friend.
"'Imminent Misjump'?" read out the wife. "Who the hell names their ship like that?"
ooo
"This is the Imperial Scoutship 'Imminent Misjump' calling the 'Black Swan', please respond!" Kaarin barely managed to remove undue excitement from his voice. "We are pursued by the Mycian space force, requesting immediate assistance!"
The ship was shaken by a laser hit.
"Damage report!"
"Fuel tank hit, sir!" reported Sai. "Minor leak detected. Sealing off internal chambers."
Kaarin got back to piloting.
"'Imminent Misjump', this is the Imperial Cruiser 'Black Swan'," replied someone, probably a communications officer on board of the vessel. "Your request for aid is received and we are en-route to assist. ETA is 15 minutes until we can provide joint point-defense."
The Imperial fleet was only partially formed, but started moving at two gravities, letting ships with faster engines catch up on the way.
The turret hummed deeply in discharge. "Yosef, get me confirmation if I hit that nearest defense boat," Arthur demanded.
"They've slowed their acceleration, I think you did!"
"Excellent, will continue hounding that one. What're the Pagatonians doing, anyway?"
ooo
"This is Commodore Hayes of the Imperial Expeditionary Force to Dostoevsky, to the Captain of the starship 'Pagaton' and associated fleet," began the gaunt man, calmly, without a spare visible emotion. "Per out mutual assistance charter with the Imperial Interstellar Scout Service, in addition to our oaths to protect citizens of the Third Imperium, wherever they may be found, we are coming to assist the IISS 'Imminent Misjump', effectively immediately. You are warned that any hostile action towards this task force, or the named starship may constitute an act of war against His Imperial Highness, Emperor Strephon Aella."
Lord Admiral Peter listened to the end, then mentally pressed the record button.
"This is Lord Admiral Peter the First, of the flagship 'Pagaton', to Commodore Hayes of the 'Black Swan'," he said deliberately, "if that is truly who you are. You may be enlightened to learn that the crew of the starship 'Imminent Misjump' has perpetrated acts of murder, piracy and smuggling within the territorial space of the Mycian Empire. Given that they did so under a false transponder also lends some doubt towards their real identity. My fleet and I are moving in to assist our allies, the Mycians, in apprehension of criminal individuals, so that they may stand trial before a court of law, for their misdeeds. Additionally, I would like to point out that this is Caldos, and in particular Mycian space, not Dostoevsky, not the Imperium, and not even an Imperial client state. You have no authority here, especially not over murderers fleeing justice. Any hostile action against my fleet, or that of the Mycian Empire, will be met with disproportionate retribution."
He sent the message. He had to wait only a few minutes for the reply.
"Lord Admiral, as a citizen of the Imperium yourself, you are commanded to stand down, reverse course and leave the system," said Hayes. "You have ten minutes to comply."
The warlord sighed.
"Commodore, as a citizen of the Imperium, and ducal scion, in addition to being a full admiral, I outrank you. Any action against me may constitute treason. Proceed at your own risk."
There was no verbal reply.
"Attention all ships," he sent to his fleet, via short range laser comm. "Focus beam fire on ships as indicated by fleet fire control. Save at least thirty percent of your beam and sandcaster capacity on point defense. Concentrate all missile launches on the 'Black Swan'. Good luck, gentlemen."
ooo
High Admiral Shurt sweated as if she were on the carpet before her own Emperor – so much her make-up was starting to smear.
"Turn down the damn heating!" she ordered her engineer. "Why is it so damn hot in here?!"
Her engineer knew not to get into a quarrel, and in short order, the bridge was as cool as the breath of death.
Their allies have dutifully transmitted logs of their communiques with the Imperial task force. She didn't expect the outcome. Who exactly would dare to stand up to the Third Imperium, especially when its navy which was right under your nose just happened to outnumber, outdisplace and outgun you? Apparently, the person the Emperor has chosen to ally with. From one perspective, this was the best ally they could have, if he would accept calls to arms against any foe, no matter how powerful. On the other hand, they didn't yet issue any calls to arms! She forwarded her brief assessment to the Emperor and the Chancellor, but they had yet to reply when this – this madman openly defied the Imperial and dared them to attack him. The damn scoutship wasn't worth it! Ten scoutships weren't worth it!
"Ma'am? Any changes changes to our orders?" asked the XO.
She muttered and waffled for a full minute before replying: "No. Keep our heading. Try to avoid fire from the Imperials."
"As you wish, ma'am."
ooo
The three forces closed in towards one point – the present location of the 'Imminent Misjump'. Commodore Hayes studied the situation on his holo-plot.
"Extreme beam range in thirty seconds, sir," mentioned his XO.
"Prepare for a volley. All forward-capable turrets, target the 'Pagaton'. Spread out smart missile launches across the hostile fleet at will," he commanded.
"Aye, sir."
ooo
"Look at all those missile launches, pa!" the young man enthusiastically pointed at the swarm of fast-moving new contacts on their screen. "There must be a thousand of them!"
The two fleets have begun jamming each other, which degraded the signal somewhat, but jammers were to a large extend directional, mostly interfering with the opposing force's ability to acquire sensor locks. Neutral bystanders orthogonal to the plane where the shooting was going on were affected much less, and could still watch with perfectly adequate resolution.
"Lemme see that remote control," one of his dad's employees took the device from his hand. "Let's see, select everything moving faster than six gee, group by approximate vector, presto! Tentative count is at nine hundred, you can read there," he pointed to the corner of the screen. "That's a whole lotta firepower. Your boat's all fueled up, boss? Just in case."
"'Course. If this show threatens to migrate out here, we're leaving on a moment's notice. Jumping like a kilometer away, it'll take a week and things will have probably settled down by then," said the miner.
"Can you put on some music? It's awfully dull to just watch a bunch of dots and numbers!" complained his wife.
"Fine, fine. Classical Florian or Imperial Pop?"
ooo
Both the Imperial and the Pagatonian forces decided for somewhat different plans of action, to deal with their adversaries. In accordance to sound Imperial strategy, Commodore Hayes' force concentrated beam fire on the 'Pagaton', taking adequate means to protect themselves against return fire, especially against their own flagship. In contrast, the warlord's fleet opted to knock out the 'Cyclops' by massed fire from everything but the flagship. Their first exchange was almost simultaneous, happening when they first reached a mutual distance which permitted one to use beam lasers effectively.
With their point-defense focused on protecting the 'Black Swan', in anticipation that the enemy would utilize the same tactic, the 'Cyclops'' defenses were swamped and the ship crippled, sensors damaged beyond repair, its maneuver drives disabled and leaking fuel dangerously fast.
Whereas the 'Pagaton'...
ooo
"The 'Cyclops' is down, sir! Emergency power only, secondary sensors enabled, no thrust!" the damage control officer reported to the Commodore via comm.
"Poor choice of first target," said Hayes plainly. "What's the status of the enemy flagship?"
"It's... untouched, sir!"
"What? How?" the Commodore blinked. "How is that possible?"
"Sir!" spoke up one of the sensors officers. "The 'Pagaton' vanished from our sensor locks when targeted by our volley!"
Commodore Hayes' face did not twist in a fierce snarl, like someone else's in his shoes might have. He just wasn't inclined to react that way, instead reaching for the fleet-broadcast switch.
"Attention all vessels. The enemy flagship is equipped with a black globe generator. Massed fire will be ineffective. Fire at will, according to fleet random seed."
ooo
"Admiral! They've noticed how we evaded their fire. Incoming fire is dispersed and staggered."
The impacts could hardly be felt on the overprotected 'Pagaton'. Damage control crews had the situation well under control – barely any work at all, in fact.
"I didn't expect any less of them. We are fighting the Imperial navy, after all, with all that implies. Screen crew, flicker the globe at fifty percent. Meson gunners, target the 'Black Swan'. Screen Captains, allocate a turret to the 'Black Swan' also, other turrets according to your own judgment. Missiles fire at will."
The Lord Admiral watched as the capacitors for his three meson bays announced readiness one by one, charging up from partial pre-loading. Shortly, they were ready to emit.
"Fire."
ooo
The crew of the 'Black Swan' had precisely no warning what was about to happen to them. While the Imperium did have meson technology, its enemies with one exception largely did not, and the expense meant that remote pickets generally didn't get them and doubly so didn't have meson screens. The 'Black Swan' itself was an older design, with centuries of service, and a few upgrades too few to keep it competitive against bleeding edge Zhodani technology – which it wasn't intended to fight. The best thing it could boast were its six particle bays, and its spinal fusion bay. It had a couple of fusion screens, but no meson screens. For picket duty in the forgotten end of nowhere – even a fairly prestigious nowhere – this was more than sufficient. For getting hit with multiple meson beams, amidst of also being targeted by a diverse array of other beam weapons coming from screen vessels, and also having to shoot down missiles which just happened to be reaching their destination, it was poorly equipped.
However, there is a lot of ruin in a capital ship. Decompression alarms blared throughout the 'Swan'. Fuel leaked through a dozen holes. Volatile equipment caught fire. Crewmen were irradiated. But the ship held.
"Dispatching damage control crews to decks four, six and nine," said Hayes' XO. The bridge was, so far, untouched.
"What's the status of their flagship?"
"They're flickering their screen, sir!"
"That would mean they cannot fire their mesons when their screen is active all the time," the Commodore reasoned. "All ships, target the 'Pagaton' whenever you detect it is flickering its globe generator. Return to firing at will when you detect it putting up an impenetrable barrier!"
ooo
The pressure on the 'Pagaton' increased. Lasers, particle beams and even a stray missile came through – but none of those things really got through the even the relatively thin armour the way the mesons targeting the Imperial flagship did.
"We're getting hit all over, Admiral!" yelled his chief engineer from the aft. "We're going to be outpaced by the damage if this keeps up!"
"You need not keep up indefinitely. Do what you can," the warlord answered. If anyone looked at him just then, they might have seen a somewhat manic grin. The crew was used to that, and tolerated his thrill for battle – chiefly, because he had a tendency to win those fights. "Continue hammering the enemy flagship."
ooo
From the perspective of the miners watching on their planetoid, the battle was much less dramatic. Florian popular music, all of it thoroughly listened to repeatedly in the months spent by the small company there, played in the background.
The most tech-savvy member of the team adjusted the scale. "Here, look. The Imperials have three ships crippled now. They're not going to get back into the fight, I think."
"When did you pick up all this stuff about naval warfare?" asked the miner.
"I was drafted into the Florian Navy, don't you know?" the man shrugged. "Anyway – and look here. The Pagatonians have two ships down, one looks completely out."
"Who's winning?" asked the miner's son.
"Can't tell, really. Too early."
"What are the Mycians doing?"
"Who cares?" replied the ex-navyman. "They're very small fish in this engagement."
ooo
Imma Shurt, also known as the High Admiral of the Mycian Space Forces, cared. She cared even more when, after she gave the order to join their new allies against the Imperials, the Imperials dedicated the frigate 'Niveneh' to fend off the attacks of her force. This resulted in, very shortly, the complete annihilation of all but three of her ships, one of which was her flagship. The two surviving boats broke off from the fight – and the Imperial frigate henceforth ignored them, as they ignored the ship she was on, given that it was still quite a ways away from where the fight was taking place.
"Can't we decelerate any faster?" she asked the pilot.
"You're gonna have to talk to the engineer, ma'am, this is high as the scale goes," replied he.
"Engineering! Get us more deceleration!"
"Aye, ma'am," said the engineer. A minute of disabling safeties later, everyone on board was hit with more gravities than their bodies had room for.
Nobody complained.
ooo
The two forces hammered each other relentlessly, and largely ignored the 'Imminent Misjump', even though it was formally the reason for this whole debacle. After the Mycians made the mistake of shooting at Imperial vessels, they have been effortlessly demolished by one of the Imperial fleet's screens. Yosef provided for some morale improvement by praying into the open comm, and nobody really minded. If appeal to the supernatural was going to keep them from being fired upon by the Pagatonians, Kaarin and the others were more than willing to beg for intercession.
"...Amen."
"Who's winning, Yosef?" demanded Kaarin, decelerating. They were outside of the system's hundred-diameter limit, and could jump at any time... provided nobody noticed their jump drive powering up and shooting them to death for their trouble. "Do we need to make a hasty exit yet?"
"Hard to say. Both forces have lost significant amounts of their smaller ships. The Imperials have four ships in fighting condition. The Pagatonians have two."
"Sounds like we won't have to jump out after all," speculated Arthur.
"Don't jinx-" began Kaarin but was interrupted by Yosef.
"The 'Black Swan' just broke apart!"
"You jinxed it!"
ooo
"All hands, seek lifepods or pressurized fragments! I repeat, all hands, seek lifepods or pressurized fragments!" Commodore Hayes broadcast by radio, since the hardlines have been effectively severed. The reinforced bridge, along with about a third of the ship, floated freely, drifting away from seven other large fragments and innumerable smaller pieces. His order wasn't as brief as 'abandon ship', but there was little need of it, if one happened to inhabit a part which still held atmosphere. "How much power do we have, XO?"
"Enough to last a day or so, if we conserve it. There is only one surviving energy cell in our, well, piece, sir."
"I don't suppose we have enough energy to fire anything we've got left?"
It was a giant shame, which burned silently in the Commodore's mind. His ship – gone. While one could weld the pieces back together, it was probably much more efficient to just assembled a new one. A new one he was unlikely to ever get, now. Not only has he gone against standing orders, he had lost his flagship to a flotilla smaller than his own. He was never going to live this down, and he'd be lucky if he got sent into early retirement. Idly, he wondered if Natasha survived over on the ammunition deck.
"No, sir. Well, we could, once, but then we'd be out like a lamp, sir. We still have open radio broadcast capability, but the encrypted fleetcomm is down with the computer."
"Very well, then, focus on finding survivors and guiding them to safety." He turned on the broadcast again, getting out an electronic pass generator. "Captain Zee, this is Commodore Hayes. You are hereby in command, given the destruction of the 'Black Swan'. One-time code, seven-five-nine-nine-five-zero. Confirm!"
"Confirmed, Admiral! I am in command," came back soon enough.
"Now let's save our people, those we can."
ooo
The Lord Admiral's Vargr gunners howled so loudly that he could hear them through five bulkheads. They had reason to – the enemy flagship was down.
"Save celebrations for later, our job is not nearly done yet, men," Peter the First – soon to be the Conqueror again – chastised them.
It was true. The enemy has been reduced to only three ships that were able to fight back, the rest of them either crippled – or in the case of the 'Black Swan' completely broken apart – but among them was the third-biggest, the thousand-ton pocket cruiser. In addition, it wasn't as if his own ship hadn't taken a substantial beating. The damage control crews worked as fast as they could, and were exceptionally well trained, but there were limits to the miracles they could conjure, especially when the spare parts started to become scarce. Through freak chance, the black globe generator had been disabled – they expected to get it back online eventually, but it was down for the count. If it had failed any sooner, they might have been the flagship to fall apart into so much space debris.
His force wasn't much of a fleet now, composed of his severely damaged flagship, and the three-hundred dton microcruiser 'Savage'. The rest were effectively knocked out of the fight, though luckily, none were destroyed beyond repair. The Mycians would no doubt help with their refurbishment – an unwelcome, but necessary setback, planned the warlord, as the battle largely continued without him. He'd survived dozens of ship-to-ship combat scenarios, against a myriad foes, and his gut was telling him that the odds were on his side now. The Imperials just didn't have the firepower to cut through his remaining defenses, and he definitely had the means to destroy the rest of them.
"Close distance," he ordered. "'Savage', this means you too. We're going in for the kill. Comms, inform the Mycians that we'll be expecting their marines to help out with the Imperial survivors."
"Yes, sir!"
ooo
"That's it, we're out of here!" decided Kaarin prudently. "Engi, fire up the Jump drive, I've already cleared the calcs with the computer."
"Yes, sir!"
Now, it was just a small wait until they were safe. The battle was probably lost – the 'Pagaton' apparently had much more capacity to absorb damage than the remaining Imperial ships. Hopefully, they could figure out something while their enemies were busy with repairing the ships that were crippled – it could take weeks to months, but there were facilities on Caldos, especially if the Mycians aided by the warlord seize the other two major starports on the planet.
"Diverting power now," announced Sai Marte, throwing a switch.
Kaarin braced himself for jump entry. Yosef silently prayed the prayer before the journey. Arthur relaxed in the turret.
Nothing happened.
"Something is wrong! The computer can't stabilize the jump bubble, sir!" reported the Petty Officer. "We can't jump!"
This was very odd, and distressed Kaarin. "What's wrong, exactly? Is it a system malfunction?"
"Um, no, sir, it doesn't look like it. It looks like a... jump damping field of some sort."
"Figure out what's causing it and shut it down."
"Yes, sir!"
Sai Marte left engineering and took over from Yosef at the sensor station. Kaarin meanwhile watched the fight on his display – he didn't have much control over what he saw, being away from the proper terminal, but he could spectate in accordance to current settings. What he saw wasn't good.
ooo
The 'Savage' fell apart entirely under the last volley. It was just the 'Pagaton' and the last two remaining Imperial ships until a meson hit on the smaller of the survivors robbed them of their main computer core. Then it was just the Lord Admiral versus the Captain of that thousand-tonner, and the warlord had the advantage there. It was still a very close thing, though, and even his carefully tuned, cybernetically managed organism felt the rush of emotion, the wild tension of high stakes combat – like his battle against the aliens in Zhodani space, like his fighting retreat against the Ancient battlestation at Grille, like crushing victory against the Belgardians at Eleson. This was what he lived for, these moments where the ones that he wouldn't trade away for any amount of time doing other things.
He very definitely did not think of the damage they'd received so far, keeping it at the back of his mind, something to remember when more pressing matters didn't, well, press. They've lost one ship, two boats, and four other vessels were dead in space for various reasons – destroyed sensor clusters, catastrophic fuel leaks preventing power generation, bridge hits and knocked out maneuver drives. What really hurt, however, was the lost crew. Owing to the late 'Black Swan's' fusion gun, they've received more radiation than they could shake a stick at, and the nuclear missiles that got through didn't help any either. The 'Pagaton' was running on a skeleton crew – only a few of gunners were still in shape to perform their duties, the ship's targeting software picking up the slack for the unmanned but functioning turrets.
The 'Unity II' hit them, they hit back. The Lord Admiral's last two engineers frantically ran to and fro, trying to contain the increasing destruction inflicted upon the flagship. Half of their available low berths were filled with corpses and corpses-to-be, the medical team itself succumbing to radiation exposure and putting themselves on ice before they expired. The pace of destruction slowed somewhat, with the amount of functioning – and capably aimed – weapons decreased in an unsteady downward progression.
It was a wondrous fight, truly fitting to add to his growing list of memorable encounters.
Peter grinned manically, upon his throne, lost in achieving glory.
ooo
"It's the 'Pagaton', sir," diagnosed Sai Marte. "It's emitting some kind of jumpspace distortion field. We won't be able to jump while we're nearby, because it destabilizes the jump bubble."
"Can we risk it? Jump even with unstable bubbles?"
"Surrendering and begging for mercy sounds like a plan likelier to achieve extended survival," noted Arthur.
"Sir, we can't even attempt it where we are. We need to get away much farther to be able to enter jumpspace, so that entry will be possible while being very dangerous."
Kaarin cursed. "I bet it's one of their damn Ancient artifacts."
"Seems likely," agreed Yosef.
"Okay, as it stands, they're going to hammer that poor cruiser into oblivion, and then probably us," Kaarin enumerated the current situation's aspects.
"Unless we surrender," shrugged Arthur. Kaarin ignored him.
"We can't jump, because they're emitting this distortion. How far did you say the field extended?" he looked at Sai Marte.
"I can only estimate, sir. Two hundred thousand kilometers is an educated guess."
"Crap. We'd take hours to go that distance. And the fight will not last as long, the way things are going."
"What can we do, Captain?" Yosef asked.
Kaarin thought, then punched his open hand. "We help. We fight the 'Pagaton', make sure it does not, in fact, win."
"I should remind you that we only have one laser turret, and two lasers in that. Plus, Sai can vet my ballpark estimate that we can survive approximately one solid hit from that flagship."
"I didn't mean fighting – conventionally," said Kaarin, grinning fiercely. "They're ignoring us, right? Yosef, you said they only have titanium steel armour? Well, then, I have a plan."
ooo
Captain Zee was severely unhappy with the present circumstances. Although he had just been promoted to de-facto commodore, the force he commanded was also promptly whittled down to just his ship. He had no reason, and no time, to be happy about commanding the battle – the battle he was also losing. It was just a matter of time. They had no thrust and restoring gravity control was way to the back of the priority list, right after getting missing turrets back online, patching up the minor fuel leak and making damn sure nothing happened to the rapidly dwindling missile stores while they were still on board. Still, with dignity worthy of his office in the Imperial navy, Zee dutifully managed the conflict, trying to inflict maximum damage to the upstart Pagatonians before presumably sharing the fate of the Commodore's ship.
"Sir!" his sensors officer spoke over internal radio. Due to a hull perforation that also included parts of the bridge, they had no atmosphere, making auditory communication difficult without hugging the floor.
"What is it? Spit it out!"
"It's the Scout, sir!"
"The 'Misjump'? What about them?"
"They're accelerating at six gees towards the 'Pagaton', sir!"
Zee understood the officer's confusion. "Weren't they outside of the jump limit? Why didn't they jump out?"
"I don't know, sir!"
"Well, if they want to provide us a momentary respite by eating a laser beam or three instead of us, that's alright with-"
Zee was interrupted by their ship being hit by a meson beam. Fortunately, it wasn't a bridge hit, otherwise he and all his five officers would be dead as dead can be. Unfortunately, the lights flickered.
"Damage report!"
"Power plant hit!"
"Damn it! Damage control teams, drop whatever you're doing, fix the plant! We need that power!" Zee commanded, getting back to the fight proper, and forgetting all about the 'Imminent Misjump'.
ooo
"You – are – crazy – you – know – that?" Arthur said through gritted teeth. The three gees acceleration directly forward pushed him into the seat and apparently wanted to separate his teeth from their natural place fitted amongst the gums.
"It's – not – crazy... if it – works!" objected Kaarin. He had the helm controls in a death grip. His will was strong and focused. His cause was right and just. His ship was small as they went, but in this context, it was very, very large.
"Our Father. Who are in Heaven. Blessed be. Thy name," could be heard from the next seat over.
Sai Marte sat quietly and bore the heavy acceleration without complaint, although shaking, prepared to cut the gravities at a moment's notice from Kaarin.
ooo
"Admiral," the Aslan replacement of his sensors officer – who had take one rad too many and had to go lie down in ice – addressed him, breaking him out of his futuro-nostalgic fugue. "The small ship, it is coming this way, very fast."
"Oh? The 'Imminent Misjump'? Ignore them," said the Lord Admiral. "They don't pose a threat – at least as long as they don't start firing at us. If they do, I'll consider assigning them a turret so they never bother anyone above their league again. They're probably seeking refuge on the planet," he eyeballed their course, "given that they must have realized nobody gets to jump out without my permission."
"Yes, sir."
The battle was going better now. The 'Pagaton' had the edge in amount of functioning guns, and judging from the readings, that last volley hit something important on the 'Unity II'. Soon, perhaps, it would become eponymous, unless there were more than a couple of major fragments, thought the Lord Admiral and smiled to himself.
ooo
If asked, a holovid connoisseur with armchair naval tactics hobbies might reply that there is nothing such as a 'ramming speed', but his answer would actually be wrong. This might have been true for civilizations without antigravity control, but it definitely wasn't true for interstellar society founded on such technologies as jump and maneuver drives. The major problem with ramming was that it would tend to destroy one's own ship or aircraft even if it succeeded – in fact, this was assumed to be the definition of success. With the advent of being able to control and compensate for gravity inside of a starship, other possibilities became reality.
The 'Imminent Misjump' sped along a shortest-route course towards the very occupied 'Pagaton', but when it reached a distance from which dodging began to be improbable and headed rapidly towards 'impossible', it decelerated rapidly, maneuvering to keep itself on target – the side of the enemy flagship's aft, directly where one of their cargo bay doors happened to be – and seconds before impact, put all available gravity control towards compensating the incoming blow. The computer executed a pre-programmed laser volley directly ahead.
Kaarin blacked out.
ooo
From the perspective of the Lord Admiral, things weren't happening quite as fast as for everyone else. He noticed his error ten seconds before he felt it become a serious problem somewhere deep in his ship. The next two seconds were spent analyzing potential interpretations of what he was seeing through his direct neural interface to the ship's sensor suites. Decision was reached in another second. A part of him wondered idly why the proximity alert wasn't blaring long before – hidden battle damage, perhaps? - wasting a fourth second.
"Helm, flip the ship!" he yelled at the pilot. To his credit, the helmsman was quick on the draw and the ship began rotating a full second before impact.
Unfortunately, it wasn't enough, and an enormous clang reverberated across the hull, temporarily deafening everyone on the bridge.
Lord Admiral Peter the First did not curse. That would have been so undignified.
"Damage control team! Status report on that kamikaze attack!" he demanded.
"Damage control team is down, sir!" his comms officer replied. "The marine squad is down too, sir!" she pre-empted his next demand. "It seems like they hit hangar bay two, and got stuck somewhere in the in the internal bulkheads."
The warlord frowned deeply. The computer was of limited utility here, as many of the cameras installed in the public spaces were down, due to battle damage. Since so many of his crew were down also, it posed a rather difficult problem to merely find out just what kind of damage the insane Scout has managed to cause before dying in this suicidal gesture.
"I'll deal with this myself," he said, standing up. "Continue the attack. I remain reachable by comm."
There came a small chorus of "Yes, sir!"s and he sprinted out the newly opened reinforced door.
ooo
Kaarin came to. Curiously, he didn't feel the extreme pain he had anticipated. Instead, it was a dull throb, somewhere in the background. He had vision – in one eye only, the artificial one. Mere flesh had proved temporarily unequal to the task of withstanding so much gravitational forces. Looking around, he found Yosef and Sai still out cold in their seats – at least, he hoped they were merely out cold, as he rushed to unstrap himself from the seat.
Luckily, both of them lived, judging by the fact that they still breathed. Kaarin slapped each a low dosage of combat drug, from the ship's first aid kit, into their suits' medical injector intakes, and proceeded to check on Arthur. Power still worked, and the iris valve opened for him. The Imperial agent turned out to be already awake and staggering out of the computer room.
"That you, Kaarin?"
"Of course it's me, who else would it be?"
"I can't see yet. Only red and black," Arthur indicated thin rivulets of blood running down his face. "Can you see?"
"Yeah, my cyber-eye works even if my real one doesn't. Power's on, did we make it inside? Stupid question, let me see that computer," Kaarin pushed past him and operated the badly mistreated terminal. "We're in! Either that, or all our sensor clusters got fried, indicating static metal reflections in every direction or nothing. Yosef, Engi!"
"Captain?" groaned out Yosef. Sai was unstrapping him from the acceleration harness of his chair.
"Sir?"
"Glad you're still up. Can you see yet?"
"I can sort of see, sir. Not very well. It's getting better."
"As blind as a bat – that's a Terran flying creature..."
"Never heard of it. We have power!" he repeated, as Yosef was freed and helped up. "Now let's proceed with the plan. Engi, ready the script. Yosef and Arthur, regain sight, on the double. I'll scout the outside."
Kaarin overrode the airlock's normal procedures, since there was no air aboard, and exited without having to wait half a minute for it to cycle. Fortuitously, the ship's personnel entrance did not lead directly to a bulkhead or the reactor core of a fission plant. Rather, an open space – judging by the cranes with and without cargo hanging from them, a couple of air rafts, and various containers scattered around by the violence of their entry, they were in the cargo hold. It might have once been pressurized, but it wasn't now – they probably weren't even the direct cause of it with their cutting up the large door and widening of the fissure by driving an armoured starship through it. There was gravity there, but not air.
There were occasional shocks, doubtless due to the incoming fire from the Imperial starship it was dueling with.
"It's clear!" he announced over short range comm. "There's nobody here but I don't know how long that situation will last. What's the situation?"
"Remember to thank your doctors on Dostoevsky, Captain," said Yosef. "We're still barely functional. All those artificial organs must be making the difference."
"We can see now, Captain, after a fashion," said Arthur. "We're coming out now."
"Sir, I've found the design documents for this class of freighter," Sai Marte said. "It's a Corpus Mk. 4 Mid-Size Freighter."
"Where's the main engineering section?"
"That way, sir," she pointed to a staircase at the other end of the bay.
"Let's go!"
They didn't get very far before they were intercepted – by a vacc-suited figure that appeared at the top of the stairs, having just exited a door next to its apex. Said person of indeterminate sex or exact species, given the distance and the bulkiness of a common vacc suit, appeared to shout something at them – it might have been something to the effect of "you there, halt!", but given the lack of air, the only vibrations that could reach them had to travel through the hull, obscuring the sound – and went for their sidearm.
Kaarin responded by opening fire with his laser pistol, not slowing his stride, even as the sentinel fell.
"Faster, faster!"
He passed the body in the decompressing suit, followed somewhat more slowly by Arthur, Sai Marte and Yosef. Luck was with him – the door opened to his prodding of the electronic lock beside it, even as Arthur was already frisking Kaarin's victim for a passkey and taking their snub pistol.
They were met with the overview of the main engineering section of the 'Pagaton'. While on the designs that Sai found, it was symmetrical, in practice, it got shuffled around and extensively modified by its current user. One of the massive fusion power plants was replaced with a much smaller one of odd architecture. There were also other large devices of known and unknown purpose, seemingly placed wherevere there was enough room for them, without any regard to aesthetics. One of the larger structures was visibly scorched, and leaking some sort of vapor, but absent air, couldn't burn.
Kaarin pointed his favored weapon at the sole inhabitant of the place, a mousy-looking human who put their hands in the air upon noticing that the ones entering were not his friends. The Scout Captain advanced upon him and seized the front of his suit with his left hand.
"Which one of these gizmos impedes jump travel?!" he demanded.
"The jumpspace suppressor?" asked the engineer, in surprise.
"Which one!? No stalling!"
"That one!" he pointed, being convinced by the muzzle of Kaarin's pistol being pressed into the front of his helmet's visor.
"Sai, verify this!" he ordered. "Arthur, keep an eye on him! Yosef, keep an eye on the door!"
The Petty Officer went over to the indicated contraption. It looked sort of like a jump drive, but was smaller, and its main coil wasn't shielded. Its entire make was obviously non-human – or rather, non-human in the manner that a There was a computer terminal mounted near it, and cables ran between them, suggesting that it was how one controlled it.
"Verified, sir. The label on the terminal says 'jumpspace suppressor'."
"Good. Can you disable it?" Without asking, he took a satchel from Arthur's shoulder and placed it between the base of the terminal and the inhibitor.
"Um, no, sir. Need a password."
"Arthur, extract password from our friend over there."
The Imperial agent did not require much convincing before the captured engineer revealed the passcode to shut down the alien artifact. While Sai Marte handled disabling it, he implemented the backup plan they had for the eventuality that disabling were not a possibility. He didn't know, and didn't care in this particular circumstance, where Arthur got the detonator and bricks of commercial explosive which he didn't notify him about, in defiance of every common sense shipboard rule – he was glad the paranoid Imperial did. He set the timer for one minute.
"Everybody out!" he yelled when he saw that the device visibly powered down, its lights going out. "Engi, where are the escape pods?!"
"I'm not quite sure, sir. They're optional and not standard for every ship this class."
Kaarin's first reflex was to interrogate the prisoner for the location of said ship feature, only to find that the captured engineer was lying unconscious on the floor. Arthur was holstering a hold-out stunner. That opportunity went out of the airlock fast, and the Scout inwardly cursed both himself for not asking beforehand, and Arthur for being too happy with removing inconveniences. There would be time for recriminations later – if they survived.
"Where do we look first?!" Kaarin turned to Sai again.
Sai Marte explained the most likely locations of the putative lifeboats as they hurried through the door.
"There's no time to waste. We split up, keep in radio contact," decided Kaarin. "Yosef, check the next hold over there. Arthur and Engi – cross the axis, check the cargo bays on the other side. Arthur bow, Engi aft. I'll check the maintenance area here."
They scattered, each their own direction. Yosef went by the upper balcony over the cargo bay, while Sai Marte entered a nearby door. The Imperial agent sprinted towards another one some distance away, in the opposite direction Kaarin himself was going. He got perhaps ten paces before he heard a blood-curdling scream in his radio. Turning around, he saw a marine – no, not necessarily a marine, just someone in the unmistakable cut of Imperial combat armour – removing a sword from Arthur's chest.
"You have been a dire inconvenience, I must say," he heard on the open channel. "Not only have you managed to catch me off my guard, you obviously did something in engineering – I suspect it has to do with my jumpspace suppressor-" There was an explosion, felt through the bulkheads, from the direction of the engineering section. "-yes, there goes the suppression field. I must say, that annoys me a lot more than you might think. You have no idea what kind of effort I had to put to recover that device, and restore it to operation."
"You're the warlord, aren't you?" Kaarin asked, turning to face the enemy. There were perhaps twenty meters between them. Arthur's limp body fell to the floor, sliding off the downturned sword. His suit's self-sealing capability was overwhelmed and air escaped the hole silently.
"I am more than some 'warlord'," said he. "I am the Lord Admiral, Peter the First, of Mora, then of Pagaton. Soon, I would be 'of Sindal', as well – despite your interference."
"You won't get away with this. If we can't stop you, someone else will. The Imperium won't like you killing their people!"
Kaarin couldn't quite see his face, but he couldn't imagine him not smiling smugly right then. "The Imperium is vast, as you should know, Scout, and the Emperor is far away. When I am done dealing with this little situation, including the necessary repairs, I think I will conquer the rest of these little raider-states, and resurrect the old Sindalian Empire. I may not have a claim to the title, but there is something to be said of de facto ownership of the territory. It will be years, perhaps upwards of a decade before the Emperor or one of his dukes do anything – being out in the badlands has its advantages. The Aslan and the Florians, I can deal with."
"Why are you telling me this?" Kaarin asked. Neither had moved since becoming aware of each other.
"Because I was hoping you would reciprocate in a certain matter that I remain curious. Namely, what was the purpose of this stunt? Initially, I had guessed that it was a misguided attempt at destroying my ship. But then, you destroy a certain artifact of mine that doesn't benefit you. Everyone involved is within the jump limit, and either short on fuel or lacking jump engines, so denying the opportunity to jump affords you absolutely nothing. Why destroy my suppressor?"
It was Kaarin's turn to smile smugly. "You'd like to know, wouldn't you? Well, here's my answer."
Lifting his laser pistol, he shot the warlord, aiming for the center of mass. Not that he expected much effect – he could get lucky, but combat armour was rated against even man-portable plasma guns – but he would potentially force the bastard to dodge, or take cover, lest he present himself as an overly good target for pot-shots.
Kaarin didn't expect the warlord to parry the beam with his sword, reflecting the beam into the ceiling above.
He stood there, mouth-agape.
"My turn!" he heard on the radio, breaking the spell of unbelieving shock. With unbelievable speed, the sword-wielding Admiral crossed the distance between them, transitioning into a flying kick. By the time Kaarin attempted to dodge, he was already being sent flying. With gravity functional aboard, he landed on his back and skidded along the floor to impact forcefully against some crates. While briefly stunned, whatever damage the kick inflicted, it wasn't severe.
Kaarin jumped to his feet, firing off several beams at the incoming warlord. These, he did not deflect with improbable parrying powers, letting them simply be absorbed by the heat-distributing layers of his suit. Advancing fast – but just slow enough for Kaarin to empty his battery – he couldn't have looked more utterly confident.
"Are you done yet?"
He was faster than Kaarin, catching up to the back-pedalling Scout without effort. Kaarin dropped the pistol, letting it hang off its power cord, and drew his utility knife. He could hear the warlord's scornful laughter through the deck, never mind the radio.
"En garde!" said Kaarin's enemy. While Kaarin did not understand the words, he did understand their meaning, and raised his blade as he circled. The Lord Admiral, with one swift motion, decapitated the knife at the hilt, the blade lifting gently from the part that remained in Kaarin's grip, and fall to the floor.
"Demon!" the Scout said, suddenly feeling his years.
"I've been called that!" the warlord said, grabbed Kaarin by the front of his vacc suit and hurled him bodily across the cargo bay into a free-standing container. By the time the ill-fated projectile was standing up, he got grabbed by his opponent by the leg. "Consider this a lesson in manners. You should always be courteous to nobility, and very definitely reciprocate when they do you a kindness!"
Using Kaarin as some sort of man-sized rag doll, he proceeded to smash the poor Scout into the container, into the floor, and into the floor again, twirling and twisting to add momentum. There was a lot that Kaarin's new replacement organs helped with, like getting back into it after being subjected to trauma and being able to see despite horrible accelerations, but there were limits on how much they could take as well. After half a dozen times of being smashed into the ground by a man who could apparently fire a PGMP standing up, he was ready to call it quits.
"Now, are you perhaps more ready to divulge what you hoped to accomplish here?" the warlord said, almost friendly, holding him upside down by his increasingly painful leg. Kaarin's head spun, and he wanted to vomit. He groaned out an answer. "I'm sorry, what was that? I'm afraid I don't speak pained grunt."
"Screw... you..."
The Lord Admiral spun on his feet, working up a decent velocity, and hurled Kaarin into the nearest support column. Kaarin didn't get up this time his head spun and his vision was filled with things he didn't know were part of the whole augmentation deal – overstress warnings from his artificial organs were displayed in text form in his field of view. Forgetting that he expended his ammo already, he feebly took hold of the laser pistol and attempted to shoot his antagonist who approached at a leisurely pace, interrupted slightly only by the ship's tremors when getting hit by incoming fire.
"I'm not really fond of this, you know, torture," he said. "Still, there is a time and place for everything. Are you ready yet to tell me what you so desperately want to keep hidden?"
Kaarin tried to say something into the microphone, but it came out as a wheezing gargle.
"What's that? It better not be insolence again. If it is, I may have to turn you over to one of Aslan crew members. Did you know that their dewclaw has some amazing properties when used as a means of inflicting pain, rather than outright injury and death?"
"You... forget..."
"I forget? Forget what, my friend?" the warlord cocked his head at Kaarin, leaning in from a meter's distance.
"I have... friends... too..."
"No, I don't. I'm fully aware than your friends are loose somewhere in the ship, but I've already dispatched-"
He didn't get to finish his sentence, because a multi-ton steel container, previously hanging harmlessly from a crane above them, hurtled down and pressed him to the floor. It was all his augmented reflexes could do to start moving a split second before the impact, so that his head and one of his arms stuck out from under it. His monomolecular-edged blade clattered to a halt a couple of meters away.
"Kaarin! Are you alright!" his suit's internal speaker said with Yosef's voice – he smiled in the direction of the old priest, up in the rafters, next to the crane controls. He came down to help Kaarin up, by which time the manhandled Scout was totteringly standing up, gripping the monosword.
Kaarin advanced on the Lord Admiral, blade raised. The warlord looked up feebly, his helmet's visor stained with blood.
"Go... on..." whispered the radio in his ears. "Do... it... if you... have... the guts..."
"Kaarin," Yosef said.
"What?"
"Don't."
"Why not? He's responsible for the deaths of innumerable people! He's laid waste to entire planets, murdered millions, probably! He killed Arthur!"
"That doesn't give you the authority to judge him," objected Yosef. "Have you not slain your fellow men also?"
"That was different!"
"Remember! You joined the Assembly! If you kill him now, it will be murder – regardless, but especially now! He's defenseless!"
Kaarin looked at the older man, locking gazes with him. Gradually, the homicidal feeling left him. He let go of the sword, allowing it to embed itself upright in the metal tile underneath.
"I didn't want to become like him, anyway," he said.
"Besides, the rumours of my death are a little exaggerated," Arthur said, taking both by surprise. He wasn't standing up – he lay where he fell. "Bastard got my spine, though. Can't feel my legs. Help a guy out, you two?"
The both of them lifted up the paralyzed agent.
"Sir!" Sai reported in. "I've found the life boats, sir! They're between the cargo bays here, take the corridor to the left, then turn right!"
"We're on our way, Engi!"
ooo
The fast drug took its effect, reassuring the Lord Admiral that his suit, although crushed, was still somewhat functional if the automated injector worked. Internal diagnostics were down, which alone said volumes about the state of his body. Only a couple of seconds passed, according to his subjective reckoning, before the reinforcements he called – composed of a gunner and one of his bridge officers – arrived, but he knew that to be an illusion. The clock in the corner of his vision sped by, minutes going by at the rate of seconds, the second a blur of eighty-eights. In the state he was in, there wasn't much he could do but try to think fast. Communication with the rescue team, as they worked diligently to gently lift the container of lanthanum, was effectively impossible. They were reasonably competent, however, so he could busy himself with other matters.
The accursed Scout never did say why they wanted to disable the suppressor. As far as he knew, there were no ships in the volume of space outside the jump limit and within the effect of the artifact. He was very sure of that. Eliminating that from the realm of possible solutions left the two hostile fleets. Most of the ships were pounded enough that jumping would be suicide even a safe distance away from the planet, and most of those were blind or incapable of substantial movement, which left two functional jump drives – the one on his ship, and the one on the soon-to-be destroyed 'Unity II'.
He did not wish to jump away, since he was winning.
The Imperial ship could not likely jump away, because they would be destroyed before they even got close to the jump limit again.
ooo
"Everybody sitting tight?" Kaarin asked his motley crew as the escape pod's interior pressurized.
"Indeed," said Arthur, little feebly. Whatever implants the service gave him seemed to make all the difference between life and death. Even skewered and with his spinal cord severed in the chest region, he survived decompression, and seemed to be stable.
"Debatably," said Yosef. He somewhat better than Arthur did, but that was largely because he did not have a close encounter with a monosword. The highly concentrated dose of high stakes adventure had really worn down the old man, now crashing from an adrenalin high.
"Yes, sir," said the ever-reliable Sai Marte. If she ever showed substantial human emotion, these circumstances did not evoke any. She held a dataslate and a handheld communicator as she set in the acceleration couch.
"Ready to set it off?"
"Yes, sir. Pings work."
"How much time do we need to clear the ship?"
"If this is an Imperial-standard escape pod, then we'll need two minutes, and ten seconds, given the approximated size of the field, sir."
"On the count of three, then, set it to whatever time we need, with as thin a margin you can live with," Kaarin held his hand above the ejection button. "One... two... three!"
He slammed down the button just as the Petty Officer ran the remote script.
The acceleration hit them hard – but not as hard as they ran themselves during their entry – and they were off the 'Pagaton'
ooo
Time was racing fast, but the warlord thought fast too. Augmented well past the possible cerebral performance a normal human being could achieve, he continued deductions as the container was lifted off him and the rescue team recovered his mangled body. Luckily, pain was optional, a mere echo of the grand annoyance it normally was. He could heal, with time and a large helping of self-regenerating augments, but that would take exactly that – time.
If it were not anyone outside the jump limit, and it wasn't the Imperials, or his fleet, then who could it be? The Mycians did not have any jump capability that he knew of, and neither did their petty rivals planetside. What did that leave?
The Lord Admiral connected the dots. The answer was clear as crystal, now that the impossible options have been eliminated. With a thought, he injected himself with the fast antidote. It took mercilessly long to take effect.
"The ship! The scoutship!" he croaked out when he was back on the same temporal level as his subordinates now hauling him past the Type S embedded in the hull.
"Uh, sir? What?" asked the Vargr on his left.
"The jump drive! It's going to-"
The Lord Admiral did not get a chance to finish, when the strangest sensation came over him, direct exposure to a jumpspace bubble being formed around them. Then it was over.
ooo
"Look pa! That's a jump!"
"What? Inside the gravwell? Impossible!"
"He's right! Look! The last Pagatonian ship vanished!"
"Huh. The Imperials win, I guess," said the miner, getting up. "Right, show's over, crisis over. Let's get back to work."
ooo
The 'Pagaton' did not quite 'disappear'. From Kaarin's perspective, even limited by the crappy basic sensor suite the escape pod had, the rear third of the ship blazed up with a blue sheen, then discorporated, shattering the big converted freighter. Since their engineering section was on the aft, the remaining two-thirds lost all power and maneuverability. The 'Unity II' smashed it some more for good measure, but when they noticed that return fire was not forthcoming, they stopped. There was no point!
"We've won!" Kaarin shouted. "We've actually won!"
"I guess we did, friend," croaked out Arthur.
"God be praised!" Yosef intoned.
Sai Marte just smiled and got back to work on her datapad.