Secession: TF106
Henry
considered what the captain of the Vigilant
had to say, she had only told him something he had already concluded for
himself but he still had one last move to play before he conceded. “As an
alternative Captain Colbert you could recognize that the orders issued to you
are the ones that are invalid and illegal and stand down. We would then proceed
to Ezekiel and seek to persuade the authorities there to also obey Alliance law
and carry out the arrest of those individuals accused of sedition and treason.
That is the only reasonable option to defuse this crisis.”
*****
Gina
choked down the desire to say something like, good one. It wouldn’t fit with the seriousness of the moment, “No,
Captain I’m sorry but I and the men and women serving under me have made our
choice. We will not let you pass. I would deeply regret having to fire on you
and your brave crews but I will do so if you attempt to jump to Ezekiel.”
*****
Henry
settled back in his seat. Well that’s that, he was sure everyone from
Admiral Suarez upwards would want a piece of him, but it couldn’t be any
clearer for the record and the inevitable board of inquiry that Taskforce 106
had been faced with no choice but to withdraw in the face of a superior hostile
force. He was about to advise Captain Colbert of his decision, and that its
consequences would entirely rest on her and those who had issued her orders,
when he suddenly had the decision wrenched from his hands.
It was
hard to blame Henry Moses for not noticing that Pale Horse and Bloody Sword
had failed to maintain their position behind the screen of warships. His focus
and that of every officer in Taskforce 106 was on the threat from the ERG. That
the two transports were running parallel with their escorts instead of being
tucked safely behind them was a trivial problem, or it was until Pale Horse’s targeting system began to
track one of Force Alpha’s fast destroyers.
That
triggered a chain of action and reaction that moved too fast for any rational
thought to overtake it. The ERG Light Cruiser Crossbow locked on to Pale
Horse in near automatic response. Seeing one of the ships they were
supposed to protect being locked up Mombasa
targeted the Crossbow, the
battlecruiser Valiant targeted Mombasa, and at that point somebody, or
possibly several somebodies given the conflicting data that was retrieved
later, fired.
The
shields on the light cruiser Crossbow shimmered
and flickered for an instant before snapping back into rock solid stability as
it was hit by Mombasa. Even as they
were stabilizing Crossbow fired its
entire primary armament right into Pale
Horse. The transports shields didn’t flicker; they shattered and half the
rounds dumped their energy straight into the hull, almost breaking the
transport in half, with air, fragments of molten metal and bodies billowing out
into the vacuum.
Before
Mombasa could launch another broadside Valiant
intervened. Mombasa’s shield stopped
the incoming rounds in a blaze of luminescence, but it was the last
contribution they would make as the generating nodes overloaded and burned out
leaving the ship practically naked to the next attack.
After
that space was filled with weapons fire and the ships of Taskforce 106 found
themselves on the receiving end of practically all of it.
--------------
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