cruisers, light cruisers, and many of the destroyers angling down as they coalesced into a new formation, while the battleships, heavy cruisers, auxiliaries, damaged warships, and the rest of the destroyers closed up on each other and bent their track upward.
Geary felt like he’d swallowed grapeshot as his display pulsed with alerts reporting heavy damage or destruction of Alliance warships. A bright symbol in the wake of the Alliance fleet marked the spreading debris field that was all that was left of Exemplar , his last scout battleship. Smaller than battleships, bigger than cruisers, the scout battleships must have made sense to somebody but had suffered from the compromises in their design. Like her sister ships destroyed in previous engagements, Exemplar had been large enough to draw extra enemy fire but too small to withstand it.
None of the Alliance battleships were out of commission, but the Syndics had concentrated their fire on Resolution and Redoubtable as the Alliance battleships engaged them, and both of those battleships had taken major damage forward. Resolution , having also suffered propulsion damage, was trying to keep up with the fleet but sliding backward relative to the other warships.
In the wake of the fleet, the battle cruiser Incredible drifted, having suffered even more damage as she protected the auxiliaries. She still had some weapons operational, but otherwise was a sitting duck, her crew doubtless praying that the battle would remain clear of Incredible until they could get some propulsion units back online.
Heavy cruisers Tortoise , Breech , Kurtani , and Tarian were knocked out, with nothing left of the first two but pieces of wreckage. Light cruisers Kissaki , Crest , and Trunnion were gone, and destroyers Barb , Yatagan , Lunge , Arabas , and Kururi had been destroyed.
There was simply no time to review all the lesser damage inflicted during the first firing pass.
Where the formations had clashed, swarms of escape pods filled space, Alliance survivors of destroyed ships intermingled with Syndics who had abandoned their own disabled craft.
Worst of all, with a second volley of missiles fired just as the forces passed through each other, the Syndics had finally scored serious hits on one of the ships Geary could least afford to lose. “ Goblin has lost all propulsion units,” the operations watch reported. “Serious damage aft from two or three missile hits. Estimated time to regain partial propulsion is at least one hour.”
Geary watched the auxiliary’s track through space as, unable to alter its course or accelerate, the stricken Goblin followed the path of the wreckage and derelicts from the engagement, curving away from the rest of the Alliance warships. Running out Goblin ’s path and comparing it to the movements of the Syndics produced a simple and unpleasant result. “ Goblin doesn’t have a chance. Can anyone confirm for me that the most probable estimated time to the Syndics hitting Goblin is twenty-five minutes?”
“Confirmed, sir,” the operations watch responded immediately. “I have twenty-four minutes on my estimate.”
Way, way short of the hour Goblin needed to get moving again, and in any event the lumbering auxiliary couldn’t have escaped even if half of her propulsion units miraculously popped back online at this moment. Nor could the Alliance fleet get back and around in time to try to prevent a Syndic firing pass on Goblin . Geary sighed and tapped his controls. “ Goblin , this is Captain Geary. Recommend you begin abandoning ship immediately and set power core for overload in about twenty minutes.” He planned to win this battle, but the outcome remained in doubt, and he couldn’t risk the Syndics’ capturing Goblin intact.
Goblin ’s answer came half a minute later. “Sir, we’re trying to load what fuel cells are left on board onto our heavy-lift shuttles. We might be able to get them out. Our repair crews are trying to get one of the
Geary felt like he’d swallowed grapeshot as his display pulsed with alerts reporting heavy damage or destruction of Alliance warships. A bright symbol in the wake of the Alliance fleet marked the spreading debris field that was all that was left of Exemplar , his last scout battleship. Smaller than battleships, bigger than cruisers, the scout battleships must have made sense to somebody but had suffered from the compromises in their design. Like her sister ships destroyed in previous engagements, Exemplar had been large enough to draw extra enemy fire but too small to withstand it.
None of the Alliance battleships were out of commission, but the Syndics had concentrated their fire on Resolution and Redoubtable as the Alliance battleships engaged them, and both of those battleships had taken major damage forward. Resolution , having also suffered propulsion damage, was trying to keep up with the fleet but sliding backward relative to the other warships.
In the wake of the fleet, the battle cruiser Incredible drifted, having suffered even more damage as she protected the auxiliaries. She still had some weapons operational, but otherwise was a sitting duck, her crew doubtless praying that the battle would remain clear of Incredible until they could get some propulsion units back online.
Heavy cruisers Tortoise , Breech , Kurtani , and Tarian were knocked out, with nothing left of the first two but pieces of wreckage. Light cruisers Kissaki , Crest , and Trunnion were gone, and destroyers Barb , Yatagan , Lunge , Arabas , and Kururi had been destroyed.
There was simply no time to review all the lesser damage inflicted during the first firing pass.
Where the formations had clashed, swarms of escape pods filled space, Alliance survivors of destroyed ships intermingled with Syndics who had abandoned their own disabled craft.
Worst of all, with a second volley of missiles fired just as the forces passed through each other, the Syndics had finally scored serious hits on one of the ships Geary could least afford to lose. “ Goblin has lost all propulsion units,” the operations watch reported. “Serious damage aft from two or three missile hits. Estimated time to regain partial propulsion is at least one hour.”
Geary watched the auxiliary’s track through space as, unable to alter its course or accelerate, the stricken Goblin followed the path of the wreckage and derelicts from the engagement, curving away from the rest of the Alliance warships. Running out Goblin ’s path and comparing it to the movements of the Syndics produced a simple and unpleasant result. “ Goblin doesn’t have a chance. Can anyone confirm for me that the most probable estimated time to the Syndics hitting Goblin is twenty-five minutes?”
“Confirmed, sir,” the operations watch responded immediately. “I have twenty-four minutes on my estimate.”
Way, way short of the hour Goblin needed to get moving again, and in any event the lumbering auxiliary couldn’t have escaped even if half of her propulsion units miraculously popped back online at this moment. Nor could the Alliance fleet get back and around in time to try to prevent a Syndic firing pass on Goblin . Geary sighed and tapped his controls. “ Goblin , this is Captain Geary. Recommend you begin abandoning ship immediately and set power core for overload in about twenty minutes.” He planned to win this battle, but the outcome remained in doubt, and he couldn’t risk the Syndics’ capturing Goblin intact.
Goblin ’s answer came half a minute later. “Sir, we’re trying to load what fuel cells are left on board onto our heavy-lift shuttles. We might be able to get them out. Our repair crews are trying to get one of the
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