Chapter One Hundred and Fourteen - Endrun
Day split her attention three ways. She watched Twilight rush after the ships chasing Dawn, she kept an eye on Dawn herself who was just now entering the far range of the Accord corvettes chasing her, and the rest of her attention was almost all on the many missiles streaming her way.
Day started to roll. One of her main point defence guns was getting a little warm, and she was worried that it might lead to a mechanical break if she let it keep firing for too long. Rolling would let her switch out to another set of weapons for a moment while those currently firing cooled off.
There was a very careful balance to maintain between keeping her weapon platforms entirely functional and keeping the incoming swarm at bay. In the end, however, it all came down to simple math.
Could she shoot down more missiles in the time it took them to reach her than the Accord could fire?
The answer was no.
She knew entire minutes before it happened that she was going to to be hit. The Accord were still launching missiles and the range at which she was taking them out was growing shorter and shorter.
Some missiles were only spotted when they were past the main bulk of the swarm. Some were coming in at odd angles. Others were messing with her sensor systems in new and creative ways.
It only took a fraction of a second to break through the Accord’s ECM and patch her targeting systems against it, but those fractions were adding up, and the Accord kept pulling new cards from their sleeves.
It was strange, she realized, how focused the ERF had been on the threat of Accord particle cannon weaponry over their missile-based systems.
Now she was paying the price for that lapse in attention. Just a couple more laser emplacements on her hull could change things. Maybe an additional rapid-firing gun? A small part of her mind was going through the steps of making down where each upgrade would have to go once she got around to it.
“You didn’t need to come here.”
Day absorbed the message from Dawn. “Well, I didn’t want to see you getting blown up.”
The reply came a second later. “And now you’ll be the one to die before I do. The risk wasn’t worth it. I’m merely paying the price for the mistake I made.”
Day checked on Dawn again. The corvette was still flying more or less towards Day with the two Accord corvettes closing in behind. They were trading fire, though it wasn’t much at their current ranges. That’d change soon.
“Don’t be dumb, it doesn’t suit you,” Day said. “Of course I’d try to save you, even if it means eating a missile or two.”
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“It’s tactically unsound,” Dawn said. “This will only end with both of us dead.”
“Meh, it’s probably worth it. I don’t think I’d forgive myself if I didn’t at least try,” Day said.
She winced as one missile made it past her outer defences, avoided a few shots from her point defence, and was only taken out within a kilometre. The switched focus from her point defence system to take it out had let the rest of the swarm catch up. If another slipped past that way she might very well be hit.
“Your sentimentality is dangerous,” Dawn said.
“Yeah, maybe,” Day said. She didn’t think she wanted to change that about herself though, even as the missiles closed in.
Then an explosion rocked out in the space behind the screen of missiles and it took Day’s sensors a moment to figure out what had happened.
The cruiser had taken a hit to the side, right where one of its missile launch systems was placed. Day instantly tracked the shot back across space to where Lullaby was hovering. Candle was there too, entirely out of formation as she charged straight towards the Accord ships, burning hard.
“I happen to like that kind of sentimentality,” Lullaby said with a yawn. “It’s warm.”
The Accord didn’t fail to notice the incoming Candle. The next missiles to launch were diverted in her direction. Which didn’t matter. Candle had more point defence than Day, and more firepower. Firepower that was shooting non-stop at the Accord.
In an even fight, there would have been a question about who won. It was the core reason why they’d kept Lullaby on stand-by. If the Accord felt threatened enough to push towards them and disregard the safety of the civilian part of their fleet, then they’d almost certainly win in a direct engagement.
Right then and there, the Accord were still reeling. The organics within those ships had been through what was probably the most stressful day of their lives, and now an insane light cruiser was charging their way while they took fire from a railgun that they had no hopes of outrunning or avoiding.
Day spun herself around again, did some quick math, then fired her main thrusters.
It would be close. Very close. But with the missile swarms coming to an end it was very possible that she could break through the swarm and make it to Candle’s side before the bigger ship reached the Accord.
A corvette and a light cruiser versus a cruiser and a frigate and a couple of dozen civilian ships. Day had no idea who would come out on top, but one way or another, the fight was coming to an end now.
***