'Compensate, plus fifty to the starboard primary, plus twenty to the secondary. he ordered the helm, feeling the Oceanid coming back on course.
No sooner was his ship brought back under control than the two vessels were right on top of each other, and as the alien cruiser passed to starboard, Lucian roared, 'Open fire! All port batteries!
The range was not so great, and the angle, nowhere near as good as the broadside on the first alien nonetheless, the volley was a good one. The mighty cannon spat death across the void, macro-shells crossing the gulf between the two vessels in seconds. The alien vessel had been preparing a fourth shot when the Oceanid's broadside hit, its forward batteries caught in the process of turning to track and acquire their target.
Half of the broadside merely glanced, or missed the target entirely, but the other half struck home. The alien vessel's shields were smashed asunder, barely registering on Lucian's read-outs. The macro-shells impacted at an apparently weak point between two of the modules slung under the ship's spine, dislodging a protruding section of superstructure, which crashed into the forward of the modules. As Lucian watched, the module exploded violently, secondary explosions blossoming forwards to engulf the lower portion of the vessel's prow. At the last, the three remaining modules ejected, spinning off into space as the crippled vessel disengaged, evidently seeking to put as much space between itself and the Oceanid as possible, in as short a time as it could.
Lucian laughed out loud for the joy of it all, scarcely able to believe that he had seen off a second alien vessel in one day.
'Who was it once said you never feel more alive than when someone's just shot at you and missed? he asked no one in particular, revelling in the familiar feeling of victory. He looked to the holograph for the next target.
'Sir' called the helmsman. 'Shall I adjust?
'What? Lucian asked, looking to the holograph in search of whatever Raldi was talking about. 'I see nothing. What is it?
'Forty-five high to port, sir, inbound.
Lucian saw that the area of space to which Raldi referred was invisible to the augurs and black on the holograph, and would remain so until the augur arrays were repaired, following the damage done to them in the flight from Mundus Chasmata. He surged to his feet and crossed to the viewing port, immediately seeing what his helmsman was talking about.
'Damn. he said.
A fleet of capital ships, all Imperial in design, was closing in on the Oceanid's position. Lucian immediately saw from their heading that they were far from friendly. In fact, he knew immediately who they belonged to.
'Gerrit! The communications array burst into angry, hissing life. 'Gerrit, this is Imperial Commander Culpepper Luneberg. I order you to kill your engines and surrender now. Do so and I shall show you mercy.
'Keep your mercy. growled Lucian, turning to the servitor at station three. 'Comms, open a channel to Korvane, wherever he is, right now.
He sat once more, his mind racing with the possibilities. He had faced tough odds when it was just the alien vessels he had to fight through, to link up with the Rosetta, but now he faced Luneberg's fleet too, things looked decidedly grim. Yet still, he would not abandon his son.
'Helm, best speed for the Rosetta, by the fastest route, if you will. Lucian ordered.
'Through the-? Helmsman Raldi started to reply. 'Centre of Luneberg's fleet, yes, if that is the fastest route. Lucian interjected. 'Shields to full, main drives to full, all secondary systems to stand by.
Once again, servitors worked their consoles while the few men in the deck crew hurried to ensure that Lucian's orders were enacted. In times such as these, it was evident that the servitors were more efficient in the prosecution of their tasks, yet he still mourned for an age when the Oceanid was crewed by men and women of courage and soul.
Lucian watched the read-outs and dials as they reported the Oceanid's main drives building to full power. The shields too were drawing as much power as their mighty generatoria could provide, the myriad of non-critical systems across the vessel powering down for the duration. Lucian hoped they would have the opportunity to power up again.
He studied the nature and deployment of Luneberg's vessels. Although still some distance away, he judged that they were not large ships, most about the size of an escort. Two, however, were of greater mass, Lucian estimating them equivalent to light cruiser scale. Ordinarily, the Oceanid, being equivalent to a heavy cruiser would have little trouble seeing them off, but in her current condition, and with the aliens in the fight too, he was not quite so confident. Nevertheless, he had set himself on this course of action, and he would see it through.
Studying the positions of Luneberg's ships, Lucian saw that they must be under the Imperial Commander's personal command, for they were deployed in such a way as to follow behind the lead cruiser, providing a dense escort, yet ill-prepared to provide one another with any effective fire support. He grinned, seeing in Luneberg's deployment a means of gaining some, much needed, advantage.
'Helm, set your intersect at plus nine, seventeen to port.
Helmsman Raldi hesitated as he calculated the course, and then replied, 'Right through the middle of them, sir?
Lucian saw the hint of a grin touch Raldi's lips as he turned to confirm the order, replying, 'Aye helm, right through the middle. We'll scatter them to the solar winds'
Lucian leant back in his command throne, gripping the arms as he felt the Oceanid's drives reach the peak of their potential output. A glance at the data-screens around the throne and suspended from the ceiling above him told Lucian that his ship would pass through Luneberg's fleet at exactly the point he intended. Furthermore, the manoeuvre would carry them through to link up with the Rosetta, all going well.
Lucian counted down the distance between the Oceanid and Luneberg's fleet, his gaze fixed on the point in space less than half a kilometre to port of the vessel that he judged to be Luneberg's flagship. Trim point two five to port, Mister Raldi' he ordered, reducing the distance at which the two ships would pass to an absurd two hundred and fifty metres. Closer even than old Jeliko strafing the traitor grand cruiser at the Battle of Van Goethe's Rapidity, he guessed, although his ancestor did end his career by ramming an ork ship, so maybe he wouldn't beat his record quite yet.
After a minute, he noted how the vessels of Luneberg's fleet reacted to his bearing straight at them. At first, the smaller escorts began to move away, but then returned to their previous headings. If only we could listen in on Luneberg's command channel, Lucian thought. No doubt, the Imperial Commander was turning the ether blue with his orders to his escorts to protect his flagship from the Oceanid's mad course.
The range reduced still further, and in no time at all the Oceanid was bearing in on Luneberg's fleet. The enemy vessels fully within visual range, Lucian saw that the smaller vessels were, as he had estimated, escorts. They were of a class he had only rarely seen, being more common amongst system and subsector reserve fleets of the southern reaches. They were old by any accounting, and ill-suited to even the smallest of fleet actions. They were better suited to convoy duties, where they would art as a reasonable deterrent to opportunistic raiders, who would be unlikely to risk even a single salvo from their prow torpedoes.
Speaking of torpedoes, Lucian knew that only the Rosetta carried such a weapon, the arsenals of the other two rogue trader vessels having years ago exhausted the last of their stocks and their replacement unlikely in the current situation. A single torpedo might cost as much as a light cruiser, and so Lucian had placed his son under the strictest instructions only to fire their last one under his direct orders. It had become something of an irony that the most valuable heirloom his son possessed was a weapon he dared not use.