The Scavenger's fleet had arrived.
And from the very first moment, I didn't like what was happening.
"Larrin," I was in the control chair compartment of the Ares, ready at any moment to recline the backrest and establish mental contact with the ship. "Is that what I think it is?"
"If you're thinking that instead of ten starships, only seven arrived, you're absolutely right," the girl's voice on the bridge was barely concealing irritation. "Two Hives, five cruisers. Missing..."
"No Super Hive, one Hive, and one cruiser," I said through clenched teeth. "Styx sent his puppets here."
My fingers touched the gelatinous tactile interface of the control chair. Somewhere in the echoes of my consciousness, the Ares informed me that a subspace link with the Hippaforalkus had been activated.
"Ihaar, why didn't we notice we were missing three targets? You were watching on the long-range sensors!"
"I'm not Ascended!" the senior engineer's voice sounded bewildered and irritated. "The sensors on these ships aren't like the ones on Atlantis. We could have been off in accuracy. They came out of the jump through one hyperspace window. That means they used a compact formation movement tactic. The others must have emerged from hyperspace earlier. We couldn't have detected that until they came into realspace!"
"What I'm more interested in is the location of the missing ships!"
"I don't know that! They're definitely not in nearby space!"
They weren't at the planet where the Scavenger had gathered his fleet either. So where had that clever bastard disappeared to?
Though... I have an idea!
On the slightly distorted rhomboid monitor in front of me, a two-dimensional map of the star system we were in was displayed.
Dead planet, on whose orbit a damaged Hive Ship, marked by a green marker, is located. Two Nomad ships — the \`Endurance\` and the \`Swift\` — hiding behind its port side, were now outside the range of the enemy scanners.
Unlike the similar technology of the Ancients, Wraith scanners can only detect a target that is directly in front of them. And if you hide something else behind an object that is impossible to miss, close enough to the first object, there is a good chance the second object won't be registered by their scanners.
That was the game we were playing, knowing we wouldn't have time to bring reinforcements to the decoy ship in time. At least until the enemy's Darts started tearing it apart.
The allied Hive Ship was positioned with its port side facing the dead planet. I wasn't looking out the porthole now, but I could clearly see before my eyes the massive astronomical body, its atmosphere covered in gray clouds. From a distance, they lose their true hue just as effectively as the dead ocean of this world loses its moisture, containing a large amount of impurities and pollutants, under the star's rays.
It was precisely the water cycle in this nature that led to the destruction of the latter.
And to the right of the Hive Ship under Alabaster's control, there were now two... five cruisers, moving in the vanguard and on the flanks relative to the two Hive Ships. The latter traditionally emerged from hyperspace in the lead and rearmost positions, allowing the cruisers to take the first hit in case of an ambush.
The layout before the battle.
Something insistently touched my consciousness. Reaching for that feeling, I realized Alabaster had contacted the \`Ares\`.
"The whole fleet didn't arrive," she reported. "My Darts are in position, but they're launching theirs too. They're deploying them from the Hive Ships, from the cruisers... no fighters detected..."
I could see that too via the \`Ares\`'s sensors.
"… They used an old, long-unused hyperspace flight technique called a 'column,'" the queen continued, while I noticed the enemy fleet's reformation. The Hive Ships chose to go "right" of the planet's orbit, continuing to launch Darts. And their count was rapidly approaching a hundred. Not five hundred, as had been stipulated, but still not few. "The lead Hive Ship opened a hyperspace window wide enough for the cruisers to follow. The rearmost Hive Ship ensured the stability of that window during the flight."
My index finger pressed into the silicone-like implant of the tactile interface.
"Did they explain the Scavenger's absence?"
"A message was sent from the rearmost Hive Ship demanding I lay adrift and prepare for a prize crew," the queen reported. "No direct negotiations, just a message."
"One hundred and fifty Darts!" Larrin reported. "Mikhail, they're getting ready to outflank our Hive Ship! Another couple of minutes and the Nomad ships will be exposed!"
"A larger ship is spotted among the Darts," Ihaar added.
"That's the shuttle with the prize crew," the queen reported. "We must engage! The situation is getting worse."
Oh, that's not the word for it, not at all...
The five cruisers, having rapidly rushed forward upon emerging from hyperspace, had now turned around and were heading back in an almost perfect column. But not to cover their Hive Ships, but to trap ours between themselves and the larger Wraith ships, which were supported by the Darts.
You didn't need to be a genius of space tactics to understand the obvious: the cruisers had gone ahead to use their scanners to check if anyone was hiding on the "side" of the planet, from where an unknown force could rapidly invade the potential battlefield.
Having confirmed this, they were now preparing to cut the Hive Ship off from the planet. And if necessary, these two groups of starships could put the allied ship in a crossfire and destroy it in an instant.
Thank you, First Wraiths, for not thinking to give your spaceships portholes. Otherwise, the Nomad starships would have been discovered already.
"Ten seconds until the shuttle arrives," Alabaster's voice held impatience. "One minute until our Darts make contact with their fighters. Mikhail...!"
"Open the hangar for the shuttle and send Saya there," I ordered. Well, the plan went to hell. I think everyone understood that. "Saya."
"Commander."
"Objective: kill the Wraith soldiers on the shuttle, capture the shuttle, and take prisoner any Wraith commanders that are on board."
I suspect that if there is one, it'll be just a single person.
"Order understood, beginning execution," the cyborg clipped.
"What are you planning?" suspicious notes sounded in Alabaster's voice. "Do you really think someone important will be on that ship?"
"We'll see," I said. "Trebal, engage. Jump to the Hive Ships. Make them focus on you."
"Acknowledged," the Dorandan's voice became incredibly dry.
"Asan, Katana — you start as soon as our Hive Ship fires. Cruisers and Darts respectively."
"Acknowledged," Asan replied.
"Ready already," Captain Labrea assured.
"Alabaster," I called the queen right after giving brief instructions to Alvar and Kirik.
"Shuttle on board, hangar sealed, your cyborg and ten of my soldiers are already on their way," she reported.
"Splendid," I leaned back in the control chair, establishing a mental link with the \`Ares\`. "Attack."
* * *
At the very moment the reflections of bluish energy charges from the allied Hive Ship appeared in the porthole of the \`Endurance\`'s bridge, Asan was already admiring his starship as it emerged from under the belly of the Wraith ship.
"I'll handle the Darts," Katana told him, breaking into the enemy fighter formation. A battle was already raging there between the small Wraith-design ships. With the exception that thirty-two machines in that mess of small blips were glowing green on the monitors.
Thirty-one machines.
Thirty.
Twenty-eight...
The \`Endurance\`, demonstrating the power of its maneuvering thrusters, strengthened by Ancient alloys, pouring out energy from its new reactor, rushed towards the second cruiser in the Wraith column.
The enemy's lead starship, clearly not expecting an attack from the direction of a Hive Ship, absorbed a good dozen white-blue energy charges into its hull. Inferior in size to the first one, the cruiser took hits to its port side from bow to stern, including the wing-like port sponson.
In the flashes of fire, small pieces of plating tore off from the hull, air gushed from the breaches, carrying even more organic material into the vacuum. And smoke.
The decompression of the outer compartments allowed the flames to sustain themselves with the constantly incoming atmosphere from the ship's depths. But this only lasted a few moments until the cruiser managed to seal the breached compartments with bulkheads.
Having started the exchange of fire, the damaged cruiser accelerated, trying to get behind the forward-moving allied Hive Ship. The latter was not happy with this turn of events, and therefore maintained a rapid fire from all gun emplacements that could still target the already-damaged Wraith ship.
But rapid, as Asan now knew, did not mean destructive enough. The higher the rate of fire of large Wraith ships, the less energy is put into each shot.
The allied Hive Ship managed to land another half a dozen shots into the stern contours of the lead cruiser before it moved out of the firing zone. At moments like this, one wanted to lament the fact that organic Wraith starships didn't have gun turrets.
In that case, Alabaster could have continued what she started.
But no, the damaged cruiser, leaving behind millions of assorted damages, was already starting to get behind the Hive Ship. Its intentions were simple — to damage the stern section of the starship. Preferably, to destroy the hyperdrive among the first things.
The enemy wasn't about to let its prey out of its claws, relying on numerical superiority. Even three against seven is a very bad situation for a lone Hive Ship and two Nomad starships.
Meanwhile, the \`Endurance\` was coming face-to-face with the second cruiser.
It was already exchanging energy blows with the allied Hive Ship. And the latter was receiving a large number of hits from the greater number of smaller Wraith starships.
Each cruiser charge was two, maybe even three times smaller than the projectile fired by the Hive Ship. However, there were more of them, and they flew out much more often than the latter could afford.
If comparing this to a fistfight, the cruisers were literally showering the giant heavyweight with numerous weak punches, while each hit from his hand broke a large enough area of plating on their fragile hulls. Not to mention the internal destruction.
"On attack course, Commander!" the navigator reported.
"All weapons — fire!" Asan ordered. "Target the damaged sections of the second cruiser."
The allied Hive Ship was accelerating, practically finishing its exchange of fire with the second cruiser. The number of impacts raining down on it literally left no living spot on the outer plating.
But, where a starship built of metal and driven by mechanisms, deprived of shields, would have long been torn to pieces, the Hive Ship managed to maintain its integrity. At least the overall integrity.
The crimson bursts from the \`Endurance\`'s guns made their feasible contribution to the battle and the total annihilation of the enemy cruiser's internal compartments. Converging on opposing courses, both starships used the maximum number of guns available to them in such a situation. However, the cruiser had fewer forward guns.
The Lantians had given their allies the plans for the Wraith cruiser and Hive Ship. Yes, with a note that there could be differences — as it turned out, different groups of Wraiths can have completely different "factory settings" for their ships.
The commonality was only preserved in key areas. And the location of the guns and various kinds of sensors in this case completely matched the schematic the Nomads had received from Atlantis.
Unlike Wraith starships, the \`Endurance\` could fire both powerfully and quickly at the same time. Thanks to the new reactor, it also gained more cruising speed, not to mention enhanced protection.
And so Captain Asan's ship held the enemy's fire on its forward shield quite decently. And at the same time, it fairly accurately slammed, charge after charge, into the breaches created by the Hive Ship's hits.
"Ye-e-e-e-es!" the artillery officer screamed in delight when he saw that the next series of direct hits into a breach located at the site of a Wraith cruiser's hangar had led to an internal detonation.
A little closer to the middle of the hull, the plating of the organic starship bulged from the inside. As if it were being squeezed out by increased internal pressure.
With a firework of debris and a brief flash of flame, the armor of the Wraith ship exploded, throwing many small, deformed, and charred pieces of hardened flesh into orbit. The starship instantly lost the ability to maneuver, beginning to fall over to its starboard side.
"We got it!" A hubbub of people inspired by the victory briefly rose in the \`Endurance\`'s bridge.
Thanks to the super-strong, yet thin material that had been installed in the updated frames and struts, the long-since welded-shut with metal observation slit of the central porthole was once again justifying its purpose. The Wraith cruiser was being inexorably dragged towards the surface of the dead planet. Its two pairs of nozzles, spaced across the rear of the ship, were no longer glowing as intensely as before. On the contrary, they were periodically dying out, indicating problems with the starship's main power plant.
"Give him a good one!" Asan ordered. "Let him crash in full view of the others!"
"Aye, Captain!" the artillery officer replied with a smile on his face and gladly began to carry out the assigned task.
At that same moment, the \`Endurance\` jerked forward. No, the ship stayed in place — the shields absorbed the energy of the enemy shot. But a second followed it, then a third.
"Evasive maneuver!" Something exploded behind the captain, showering the crew members with numerous sparks. It seemed to be the screen for the auxiliary control. "How did they get around us?"
"They didn't get around us, Commander!" the first officer was brief but informative. "The first cruiser stopped firing at the allied Hive Ship's stern and switched its attention to us. Rear shields at seventy percent and falling!"
"They hit hard," Asan assessed. "We're looping back and pulling back to the first cruiser. The maneuver should end with us above and behind it, with the maximum number of guns aimed at the enemy! Increase reactor output! Feed the surplus to the main engines!"
"We'll do it, Commander!"
The engines of the \`Endurance\` roared from the amount of energy being poured into them. The deck trembled under the crew's feet, rivets and some equipment that had long since left their mounting places rattled from the strain on the entire structure.
The starship traced a closed loop in the conditional vertical plane, after which, seconds later, part of the first cruiser's hull could be seen through the bridge portholes, and then its engines.
"Fire at the main engines!" Asan shouted.
Like his men, he was experiencing incredible excitement at that moment.
For the first time in many years, the Nomads, who avoided battles with enemy starships unless absolutely necessary, were one step away from finishing off the second Wraith ship! And in a single battle!
Short crimson beams began to tear the flesh of the Wraith cruiser's stern with their energy teeth.
The Wraith cruiser.
The first things to be hit were what the Nomads called "tail keels." Two elongated monolithic processes extending from the rear part of the enemy ship, whose purpose was not fully understood, began to char from the very first hits. Resembling simultaneously thrown-out hands clenched into fists, they simply began to crumble into pieces under the blows of the laser cannons.
The Wraith cruiser stopped firing at the allied Hive Ship, which it had obviously switched to at the very moment the \`Endurance\` was performing the loop maneuver. Its main engines intensified their glow as it began to maneuver towards the other Wraith cruisers.
The other three, having reorganized into a line-abreast formation, began to converge on the \`Endurance\` and the allied Hive Ship, continuously bombarding both starships.
"Cooling system breach on the fifth gun!"
The ship shuddered from the impact, and one of the upper monitors broke free from its mount. Crashing onto the deck, it showered the Nomads with a hail of shrapnel. But no one cared about that now.
"Hydraulic drive is out!"
The \`Endurance\` took another hit, but it stubbornly continued to pursue its prey. Bearing the enemy's blows with honor, the ship had latched onto the cruiser's tail like a Wraith onto a human. And it intended to see it through to the end.
Asan distanced himself from everything happening around him.
Every now and then he glanced at the tactical monitor, watching the allied Hive Ship showering volleys from one side or the other at the same organic space vessels.
From another salvo of the Hive Ship, the fleeing cruiser seemed to stumble when a pair of its starboard sublight engines detonated. The area seemed to evaporate, opening a deep wound on the body of the already damaged starship.
But no one was going to feel sorry for the Wraiths.
Asan ordered maneuvering to begin. And the very next second, his starship began to dart from side to side, practically evading the bursts from the Wraith's energy cannons.
And it fired, fired, fired...
The golden rule of space combat: you cannot make an absolutely impenetrable ship. Yes, shape and air resistance don't matter in a vacuum, but mass... Mass cannot be ignored.
The greater the mass of the ship, the more energy is required to accelerate it. And even more to make it maneuver so that it doesn't become a target.
But that is exactly what the fleeing starship had become. Its strong plating was damaged, and now the gunners of the \`Endurance\` only had to hit the breaches as quickly and as often as possible.
And thereby reach the tender insides of the ship and damage as much as possible there. Preferably, destroy the reactor and cause a detonation.
Because it, judging by the charred stern and destroyed location of the hyperdrive, wasn't in a hurry to start.
Even though regeneration in Wraith starships replaces the lack of shields, they couldn't heal all the damage instantly. But even less could they resist the merciless crimson flames.
This time, it wasn't the main reactor that exploded on the enemy ship.
A chain of internal explosions ran down both sides of the cruiser. They weren't as impressive as the one that had disabled the Nomads' previous victim.
But the result was no worse.
The ship was literally torn into several large parts. The Nomad starship nearly flew straight into one of them.
But thanks to the actions of an experienced navigator, everything went as it should.
The \`Endurance\` emerged from behind the enemy cruisers again, banking into a turn.
At that same second, two Darts zipped past the ship. On the tactical screen, they were marked in green.
Both small ships had stopped bombarding the hyperdrive compartment of their chosen target. And there was no need for such foolishness — the Darts had masterfully accomplished their assigned task. Now no cruiser could leave this star system.
And no matter how hard they tried, only death awaited them everywhere.
But it was creeping up on the humans too.