Lost Fleet Endeavour Chapter 24
"Immediate: come port 120 degrees, up 100," Grisholm ordered. Endeavour heaved about and thrust onto a new heading, pushing her course into an arc that would bring her into contact with the Sagittary Spears. Grisholm glared at the oncoming enemy, who were racing to meet him with equal wroth. The cumbersome formation resembled a charging bull, intemperate and belligerent. Grisholm could imagine Athena's face, filled with blind hatred and self-righteous indignation. The Alliance had laid waste the Covenant's base, destroying their invasion force in its crib, surely she must be incandescent with fury. Grisholm was counting on it.
All around the remaining ships duelled. Tiny Destroyers flitting about lumbering Covenant formations. Adder and Kite harassed the dregs of the Taurus Chariots, while Kestrel and Hornet swooped about the Scorpius Claws, always out of range but ready to strike the moment an opening became apparent. Wasp danced with the few Leonid Lancers left, drawing them on while the light Cruiser Rebound picked off a Corvette with a single Hell-lance shot. Mace was struggling to keep up, drive units fitting as the damaged Heavy Cruiser limped along in a painful lurch.
Grisholm put them from his mind as he focused on the Sagittary Spears. Athena's personal flotilla was intact and closing. He intended to ram Endeavour straight through the middle of the formation, trusting shields and armour to hold. A Battleship could take that kind of punishment, no Megacruiser could claim the same. Tear out the heart of the Covenant fleet, and kill Athena, and the First Blood of Terra would fall apart. He'd seen it enough times, without their senior commanders the Covies could not operate, they couldn't even think for themselves.
"Aspect change," the sensor-officer called in a worried tone.
"They're turning to run?!" Connors blinked.
"Negative, I think... I think they're dodging!"
"What?!" Grisholm yelled in surprise.
In the viewer the Sagittary Spears were twisting about and thrusting downwards. They kept their formation but dove out of the way, avoiding a headlong charge. They'd never done that before, too enmeshed with their predictable doctrines, but Athena wasn't willing to oblige anymore. Fired by hate her emotions overcame a lifetime of dogma, fury sparking a fit of creativity the Covenant had long sought to eradicate. She innovated, for the first time in her life she tried the unthinkable and attempted an Alliance-style jink.
Before Grisholm could redirect his course Endeavour shot past, weapons discharging at nothing. The Sagittary Spears avoided the Battleship's awesome firepower, then spun in space and began to arc for an intercept. It was sloppy and unlovely, the crews never having simulated such a manoeuvre, but they obeyed Athena's screeched orders, too fearful to disobey. Their formation lost its perfect cohesion as vessels drifted out of true, but they stuck together as they sought to reengage.
Grisholm bellowed furiously, "Immediate: come starboard 150 degrees, down 050!"
"What's happening?!" Sakai gulped as Endeavour laboured about.
"Athena's picked now of all times to get creative," Grisholm growled.
"Feck," Connors hissed, "Couldn't she have stayed stupid for another hour?!"
"We'll get her either way," Grisholm hissed, "This ends now."
Endeavour's hull groaned as the Battleship sought to overcome inertia, burning through fuel cells at a terrifying rate. Two arcing lines in space were traced as both combatants tried to reengage, seeking a final confrontation. It would take long minutes to play out, and while they circled the battle raged. The Covenant had been wounded grievously but all like injured beasts were lashing out in their anguish. Adder dashed across the sterns of the Leonid Lancers, putting a Hell-lance shot into a Megacruiser's drive unit, she paid for her daring. A missile struck her amidships and tore her guts out, leaving a hollowed-out shell of a Destroyer to spit escape pods into the void. Mace took a Hell-lance shot to the bow, punching through shields to remake her face into an unlovely aspect. Kite neatly dodged a charge of the lopsided Taurus Chariots, only to stray into range of the Scorpius Claws. Three Hell-lance shots neatly dissected the craft, exposing every compartment to space simultaneously. The crew died choking as the air was ripped from their lungs, leaving no survivors.
"We're suffering losses," Sakai warned.
"Nothing we can do about that," Grisholm lamented.
"Can't we break off now?" Sakai protested.
"Not yet, we can't turn our backs while Athena is still out there. Until she dies the Covenant won't quit."
Connors interrupted, "If she's trying to copy us, she'll jink before contact."
Grisholm knew it was true. A head-to-head charge with a Battleship was suicide, a lesson the First Blood of Terra finally learned. Athena must attempt to dodge, jinking aside just enough to avoid Endeavour's salvo, while racking the Battleship's flanks. He examined the tactical holo, recalling a Megacruiser's thrust-to-mass profile. If he was Athena he would change course right... here... but to the port or starboard, high or low, he had one chance to guess correctly.
"At time one-zero-zero come starboard 010 degrees, up 010. Weapon's officers assume the enemy will jink along our starboard flank high," Grisholm commanded. Endeavour's crew set their weapons and waited for the moment of contact, everything rested on the next moments, only his guess proved wrong. The Sagittary Spears tore past Endeavour's port flank, hammering the Battleship's shields with everything they had, while her shots flailed at nothing. Grisholm was nearly thrown from his chair as the whole bridge rolled hard, internal gravity tilting out of true while panicked cries battered his ears, "Spot failure to port shields! Weapons are down along the port flank; I say again we have no power to portside weapons. Drive unit four is dead. Grapeshot launchers across the prow are not responding. I have no missile control. Hell-lance battery three is... it's completely gone!"
Grisholm cut through the dismay, "Damage control teams to the port side! Immediate: come starboard 100 degrees, up 100!"
"What just happened?!" Sakai wailed.
"Athena got lucky," Grisholm growled.
"Can we break off?!"
"No chance, not with a drive unit down," Grisholm hissed, "She can pick apart at will."
In the tactical holo Endeavour struggled to turn. The damaged Battleship's agility was already poor and now with a drive unit off-line she was reduced to a wallowing pig. The Sagittary Spears were not so encumbered, already pulling about in a wide curve that would bring them into contact again. They had the edge in agility and acceleration, they could hit Endeavour wherever and however they wanted. Surely Athena would target the port flank again, the Battleship was ravaged along that side, a terrible weakness no foe could miss.
"Incoming transmission," the comm-officer blurted.
"She wants to gloat," Connors hissed.
"Let her," Grisholm acceded, "Put her up and trace the origin point of that signal, I want to know what ship she's on."
Athena's image came up, furious in countenance and brimming with rage. Her medals were dishevelled and hanging askew, her hair was frayed and the crest had lost its sharp edge but her face was the greatest sign of her ire: ruddy with the flush of anger and her eyes were rabid with hate as she decried, "I, Median Senior Command Supervising Authority and Controller Athena Ravisorestes, do spit upon the loathsome oaf Grisholm! A fiend from the blackest hells and author of atrocity! You have heedlessly trampled upon the flower of the First Blood of Terra and befouled the purity of Atlantis with your licentious lust. If I must die then I shall pass contended, so long as you are dead. Conscience and grace to the profoundest pit! I dare damnation: to this point I stand, that all the worlds I give to negligence. Let come what comes, only I be revenged!"
Connors grimaced, "I think she means it."
"She's determined to take you down, no matter the cost," Sakai agreed.
"I know that, what I'm trying to figure out is where her next attack will come from," Grisholm deflected.
"She'll go for the port side," Connors warned.
"Yeah, but how... I need... wait, what's she doing..."
In the tactical holo the Sagittary Spears were twisting upwards, angling off track. Grisholm puzzled why, then he saw the reason: Mace, the limping Heavy Cruiser was diving to intercept. Commander Modise had seen Endeavour's plight and moved to intervene, trying to use her battered ship to drive off the Covenant. It wouldn't work, it couldn't, but Modise pressed the attack regardless. A do-or-die charge into the jaws of hell. Mace dove into the heart of the Sagittary Spears and her weapons caught a Megacruiser with a torrent of firepower, ripping deep wounds into the hull and turning the craft into a drifting hulk. Unfortunately the return salvo obliterated the Heavy Cruiser, reducing her to a cloud of floating wreckage, not even an escape pod left to mark Modise's passing.
"She's gone," Connors lamented.
"She didn't die in vain," Grisholm started, "Look at the vectors, look!"
"I don't see anything," Sakai puzzled.
Grisholm ignored that, "Immediate: come starboard 045 degrees, up 0!"
Connors nearly leapt out of his seat, "That puts the Covies right off our port flank!"
"Exactly!" Grisholm grinned.
Endeavour curved about, turning her damaged side towards the Sagittary Spears, presenting her wounds to the enemy. Athena was already readjusting, arcing into intercept. The wounded Battleship was nearly dead in the vacuum, her lost drive unit spluttering and her weapons slagged along one side. A fine kill, a worthy prize that Athena ached to claim. Fury blinded her to all else, her rage all-consuming and her intent unwavering. She would pierce the heart of the Alliance and end their rampage across her space, but though she had adopted Alliance styles, she had not yet appreciated all the nuances of their tactics.
"At time zero-four-five, rotate along X-axis, 180 degrees. Weapon officers target the guide ship!" Grisholm commanded. The Covenant charged headlong at Endeavour but thrusters fired along her length, spinning the Battleship over her forward axis. The ravaged port side rose up and away, as the starboard side rolled under and came up, presenting a wall of intact weaponry towards the closing foe. Both sides fired simultaneously: grapeshot, Hell-lances and missiles crossing the void as the moment of contact came and went. Endeavour's armour deformed as impacts walked along her length, adding to the terrible damage she had suffered, but her return salvo laid waste to the Sagittary Spears. Eight Megacruisers ceased to exist, erased from being forevermore. Athena's command ship was blown into a billion pieces by multiple impacts, her life ended before she'd even begun to process Grisholm's actions. The Senior Paramount of the Covenant was no more, leaving them leaderless and broken.
The cries rang, "Spot failures, impacts on all decks. Mounting damage in all sections! We've lost the Hell-lances completely. No response below deck fourteen. Fire in compartment nine, sealing emergency bulkheads!"
"Hold it together, Endeavour can endure anything," Grisholm snarled, "Where are the enemy?"
"Moving off in a straight line," Connors reported, "No alteration in heading."
"Are they launching escape pods?!"
"No... wait... Yes! All vessels are ejecting pods, not just the Sagittary Spears, all the Covenant crews are abandoning ship. They're giving up!"
It was too much; the Covenant crews had never seen such losses. Their finest fleets were destroyed, their largest base had been demolished and their noblest commander was slain. Never had they imagined such a calamity and their fighting spirit shattered. From the meanest rating to the Paramounts they ran, an undignified scramble on every ship to reach escape pods and flee. The Alliance held the field of victory, few in number but proud. Endeavour, Rebound, Kestrel, Wasp and Hornet, the lucky few who would live to tell the tale.
"We won?" Sakai gasped.
"It's over, the Covenant threat is eliminated," Grisholm wheezed as he sagged in his seat.
"For today," Connors sighed, "We still have to reach Avalon and hope no more garrisons stand in our way, I'm terrified at how low our fuel cell reserve has fallen."
"A problem for tomorrow," Grisholm shrugged.
"I need to sleep for a week," Sakai groaned.
Grisholm pulled himself upright in his chair, "We're not done quite yet. Comms: signal Hornet, Wasp and Kestrel to start retrieving Alliance escape pods, I don't want any officer left behind. Rebound is to swing nearer Atlantis and collect any Marine shuttles that made it out. Endeavour must scuttle any of our ships that weren't completely destroyed, we can't let Covenant engineers examine our technology. Rub the sleep from your eyes, we've got a lot of work left to do before we can drop our guard."