The Lost Fleet: Beyond the Frontier: Leviathan by Jack Campbell Page A

realization. “Because,” he went on, “I wouldn’t do that, throwing heavy cruisers against battle cruisers in a head-on fight. I’d order a feint, and a diversion. Something to fool my opponent into doing what I want, which in this case would obviously be to throw those dark ships off a direct vector toward Ambaru.”
    “Even if you fool the dark ships,” Desjani cautioned, “that won’t fool their fire-control systems or prevent them targeting any heavy cruisers that close to firing range.”
    “Hopefully, I’ve got a solution to that as well. You know how our fire-control systems are programmed. They prioritize targets based on threat and on the highest hit probability.” He touched his comm controls. “Commander Rosen, this is Admiral Geary. Your orders are to try to stop those dark ships. Get in close enough to hammer them. Try to knock out their main propulsion or maneuvering systems. My estimate is that they will not attempt to evade a firing run by you but will hold their vectors, assuming that you are conducting a feint. Set up your formations and attacks so that two leading heavy cruisers in each of your formations will clearly represent the highest hit probabilities for the fire-control systems on the dark ships and have those two heavy cruisers do last-second evasive maneuvers to throw off enemy targeting on them. I’m trusting your skill in this, Commander, as well as the skill of each cruiser commander. Geary, out.”
    “You’re trusting in the finesse and subtlety of Sel Rosen,” Desjani grumbled. “Good luck with that.”
    “She’s not going to do exactly what I would do,” Geary replied. “That may be our best hope of stopping those dark ships before they can hit Ambaru.”
    Five light-minutes separated the battleship screen from the heavy cruisers. The dark battle cruisers had maintained point two light speed, so it would take twenty-five minutes for them to reach the heavycruisers. If the heavy cruisers accelerated to contact, that time would shrink, but Geary knew that Commander Rosen would be smart enough to instead bring her warships in at the battle cruisers from high angles in order to keep down the relative speed of the engagement.
    The sixteen Alliance heavy cruisers were formed into two boxes, each composed of eight warships arranged in two columns, with each ship a little higher than the one ahead of it so that the formations stepped upward from front to back. One heavy cruiser formation was above and to one side of the projected track of the dark ships, while the second formation was below and to the other side. It was a classic positioning, which would allow the heavy cruisers to react effectively even if the dark ships made some major course changes to try to evade the Alliance defenders.
    “She’s taking into account the maneuverability of the dark ships,” Geary noted approvingly.
    “Let’s hope she’s taking into account their firepower,” Desjani said. “We’re still closing, but too slowly. We’ll be within two light-minutes of the dark ships when Rosen’s heavy cruisers hit them.”
    “Still nothing from Ambaru or any of the fixed defenses?”
    “Nothing, sir,” Lieutenant Yuon replied.
    “If the dark ships continue down their current vectors,” Lieutenant Castries added, “we will still be thirty light-seconds distant from them and twenty minutes’ travel time from intercept when they reach Ambaru Station.”
    Thirty light-seconds didn’t sound like much, unless you knew that a single light-second was the equal of three hundred thousand kilometers of distance. Nine million kilometers, the equivalent of thirty light-seconds, was hopelessly distant in terms of trying to defend Ambaru.
    “Once they’ve hit Ambaru,” Castries continued, her voice professionally unemotional, “the dark ships might choose to alter vector toward the nearest jump point.”
    “In which case, we will have zero chance of catching them beforethey reach that jump point,”