Stand Into Danger: Empire Rising Book 0 by D. J. Holmes Page A

looked at him. “The Russians can still escape with their Behemoths intact. If they can repair them there’s nothing to stop them coming back. The French fleet has been decimated.
     
    “Communications, get in contact with all the surviving British ships,” Somerville ordered. “We need to find out who is operational. Then get in contact with Admiral Villeneuve and see if he has any orders for us.
     
    “Lieutenant Jensen, I want you to review the sensor feed. See if you can get an estimate on the damage those Behemoths actually took. We need to have a rough idea how much of a fight they will be able to put up once we come after them.”
     
    As everyone began to throw themselves into their responsibilities, Somerville had nothing to do but wait and watch. Already the Russians were beginning to stir themselves. The surviving smaller ships were separating into four groups and moving towards each of the Behemoths to provide a protective shield. Then each of the monster ships began to boost away from the colony and towards the shift passage back to Cartier. They had clearly had enough.
     
    Villeneuve hadn’t though, for as soon as the Russians altered course the communications officer was alerted to another message from the flagship, “new signal sir, General Pursuit.”
     
    “Very well Lieutenant, send our acknowledgement. What is the status of our ships?” Somerville asked.
     
    “The medium cruiser Respite is still battle worthy and we have another three light cruisers and eight destroyers from the British fleet reporting ready for action.”
     
    “Ok, open a COM channel with all their Captains. I guess I’m in charge now. We will have to mourn Admiral Jamison later.”
     
    “Channel open sir,” the communications officer reported.
     
    “Captains and Commanders, our work isn’t over quite yet. I want to form two hunting packs. The light cruiser Agincourt and the four destroyers Illustrious , Mars , Triumph and Rapid , will join Achilles , the rest of you are to form a flotilla with Respite . We’ll each take a Behemoth and see if we can prevent them from escaping. If you can close to plasma range target their engines. We don’t have to destroy them, just prevent them leaving. Somerville out,” he said as he closed the channel.
     
    Switching his focus back to the Russian ships he picked the two slowest Behemoths and sent of a message to Villeneuve saying he was going after them. Once he got permission he sent the orders on to the rest of the British ships and they took off in pursuit. The remaining French and American ships were soon following them.
     
    As both fleets had flown right by each other it took over four hours for Achilles decelerate, turn and catch her target. By this stage the Russian Behemoths were strung out in a long line. They would have been safer sticking together for mutual support but that would have let the coalition fleet attack them all. The furthest Behemoth was already nearing New France’s mass shadow and would soon be able to jump into shift space and safety. Villeneuve was roaring after it with his medium cruiser’s top speed but Somerville wasn’t sure he would catch it.
     
    That was not his concern now. Achilles was about to enter missile range of her target. Somerville had used his flotilla’s better acceleration to get ahead of the badly damaged Behemoth. Now she was decelerating to bring it into range. When he nodded to the tactical officer ten missiles shot out of Achilles’ largely intact port missile tubes. The light cruiser Agincourt and the four destroyers added another twenty two.
     
    In reply the damaged Russian ships could only fire thirty and when they reached the British ships all but two were destroyed by the point defenses. Agincourt got lucky and managed to jink out of the way of one of the missiles that got a lock on her. The destroyer Mars wasn’t so lucky and took a proximity hit that vaporized the small warship. 
     
    The British missiles had