would include heavier ships that should be able to penetrate deeper before down-transiting. They’d finish the job of clearing the way into the system, and the third and fourth waves, consisting of big cruisers and battleships, would down-transit inside Borreggan nearspace and start heavy bombardment of the system’s defenses.
The two destroyers leading the first wave down-transited as planned, but to their surprise they detected no activity at the point of first engagement, though they did detect a coalition force of eight cruisers and six destroyers about one light-year farther in. They uplinked the unconventional positions of the coalition warships, and with first engagement apparently already clear, the commodore of the first wave decided to drive right through first engagement and down-transit just short of the waiting coalition forces.
It was just beyond first engagement that the silent and unseen hunter-killers hit them, slamming torpedoes at their transition wakes as fast as they could launch them. In the first seconds of the engagement eight of the attacking ships, including four of the cruisers, took direct hits and blossomed into thermonuclear fireballs. The entire wave down-transited in a confused mess, right in the midst of the nearly invisible, but deadly, hunter-killers, who took advantage of the chaos. They had the advantage that once the shooting started, the incandescent flares of nearby warheads masked their already shielded emission signatures. In the next few minutes they completely destroyed six more enemy warships and heavily damaged seven.
As the mauled remnants of the first wave retreated, desperately trying to signal the following three waves that first engagement had been a rout, the line of coalition cruisers one light-year away up-transited at maximum drive heading straight for the incoming Syndonese. The hunter-killers rigged for silent running and disappeared from everyone’s screens.
Roacka and Darmczek’s plan had been to completely take out the first wave, then have the line of coalition warships move forward and be waiting at first engagement when the second wave came in, expecting the area to be clear. But the remaining ships of the first wave apparently got their signals through, and five hours later the second wave down-transited early and unscathed, just out of range of first engagement where the coalition warships waited.
To the commodore of the second wave, who was clearly still unaware of the hunter-killers, it must have appeared that he had the advantage of numbers. But after the mauling the first wave had taken he moved cautiously. There then commenced a running battle between the coalition ships and the combined forces of the second wave and the remnants of the first. It turned into an unconventional free-for-all in which most of the lessons of the war colleges were of little use, and each captain had to make up his own tactics on the run. Nadama’s and Goutain’s ships tried to stall until the third wave could arrive, though the conventional coalition ships found it rather easy to lure them within range of the undetected hunter-killers, all lying in wait as the battle raged about them.
The coalition lost four ships to conventional isolation and englobement tactics, and Nadama lost three. The hunter-killers didn’t take just any target, but waited until they could target one of the larger ships. In that way, they managed to torpedo eight big enemy warships before one of Nadama’s captains caught on and took out one of the hunter-killers. Then everyone disengaged, and since the hunter-killers were defenseless, and therefore useless without the element of surprise, Roacka withdrew them completely. It was at that point that Charlie and his twelve warships down-transited into Borreggan nearspace.
A fucking war! What incredible luck, Thraka thought as he nodded at the guard stationed outside Delilah’s apartments. The entire station was in a state of absolute chaos. Anyone with any means of getting out-system was doing so, and many of those who couldn’t, and who didn’t have a vested interest in the station’s defense, had taken to the public corridors, driven by the classic madness of fear and panic. Thraka could get away with almost anything now.
He’d had to seriously up his bribe to the tramp freighter he’d hired. Her captain wanted to pull out immediately, but Dieter had given him the wherewithal to provide an enticing sum to a greedy man who was used to taking chances. The usual arrangement: half now, half when the fellow delivered Delilah safely to Thraka’s employer.
The guard took a casual glance beneath the linen towel on the small tray that Thraka carried. It contained refreshments, exactly the