“The Nikardun are here,” Thrawn said quietly.
“I’m not picking up any non-Lioaoin ships,” Dalvu said.
“Then they’re on the surface, or aboard Lioaoin ships,” Thrawn said. “But the regime would certainly attempt to excuse their actions at Primea if they weren’t afraid of reprisals from their allies.”
Samakro thought back to what Thrawn had said about the Nikardun sacrificing the Lioaoi to keep themselves and the Vaks out of the Chiss target zone. “So the Nikardun just let them walk to the slaughter?” he asked. “Doesn’t say much about their value to the Nikardun.”
“More likely it indicates the even greater value General Yiv places in the Vak Combine,” Thrawn said. “I see we have four ships approaching.”
Samakro looked at Dalvu’s profile, caught the sour look on her face. Thrawn had called the exact number of the Lioaoin response, and for some reason his casual show of competence annoyed her. “Confirmed, Senior Captain,” she said reluctantly.
Thrawn touched a switch on his command chair. “Admiral, I believe our opponents are on their way.”
“I concur, Senior Captain,” Ar’alani’s voice came back. “Ready to deploy probe.”
“Springhawk stands ready,” Thrawn confirmed. “Deploy at will.”
Samakro craned his neck to look out the viewport at the Vigilant, running in the near distance off the Springhawk’s portside bow. There was a flicker of thruster fire, and the probe shot away from the larger ship. “Probe away,” he confirmed to Thrawn.
“Acknowledged.”
Samakro watched as the object accelerated toward the four Lioaoin ships, which had now positioned themselves in a vertical diamond formation. This whole scenario was, at least on the surface, exactly the same trick Thrawn had used at Rapacc to set up the Springhawk’s capture of that Nikardun patrol ship. The probe—really just one of the Vigilant’s shuttles—was playing decoy, giving the Lioaoi something to focus on while the real threat lay elsewhere.
At least, that was what Thrawn and Ar’alani hoped they would see. The question now was how much of the Rapacc incident the Nikardun had shared with their allies.
And, even more important, if they’d also shared whatever countermeasures they’d come up with for any future uses of the gambit.
Apparently, the answer to both was yes. “Probe is faltering,” Dalvu announced. “Vigilant seems to be losing control.”
“Comm interference increasing,” Samakro confirmed, peering at the comm displays. “Lioaoi are trying to jam Vigilant’s control signal. To jam and override.”
Samakro looked at the tactical. The probe’s original vector had been toward the ventral ship in the Lioaoin formation. Now it was wavering back and forth as the Vigilant and the Lioaoi fought for control.
The Lioaoi won. With a final skittering surge, the probe settled down on a new vector, one that would take it harmlessly through the center of the Lioaoin formation and from there to disappear into the empty light-years of the Chaos. “At least we know now that they can learn,” Samakro commented.
“Indeed,” Thrawn agreed. “And as you see, Mid Captain, that can be a good or a bad thing.”
“Yes, sir,” Samakro said. The probe was nearly to the Lioaoin ships, moving steadily now under the control of its new masters. It entered the open space in the center of the formation—
“Fire,” Thrawn said.
At their current distance, Samakro knew, certainly against warships equipped with electrostatic barriers, a spectrum laser attack would be not just futile but laughable. But the warships weren’t Thrawn’s target. Instead, the Springhawk’s lasers flashed a burst of energy into the small, unprotected shuttle.
And as the hull shattered, the four breaching missiles that had been packed aboard shot outward, one toward each of the Lioaoin warships.
The Lioaoi saw the attack coming, of course, and even at so close a range they had enough time to respond. But with a friendly ship directly behind each incoming missile, none of the warships could launch the level of countermeasures necessary to fully neutralize the attack. A few laser shots tentatively lanced out, and one of the missiles was caught and disintegrated. But the blast merely released the warhead’s acid globs, leaving the deadly fluid to continue onward toward its target. A second later, as the warships tried in vain to move out of harm’s way, the missiles struck.
The actual physical damage was probably minimal. Even the incredibly strong acid that breachers were loaded with could penetrate only so deep into a warship’s hull, and the lateral spread of a single missile’s worth was only so great. Electronics, sensors, and weapons systems would be damaged, but that damage would be fairly localized.
But the psychological effect more than made up for it. All four Lioaoin ships lurched violently, breaking formation. A second later the moment of instinctive panic seemed to subside, and the captains began systematically rotating away from the Chiss ships, trying to turn their new points of vulnerability out of the reach of enemy lasers.
They had each managed about a forty-degree turn when the Vigilant’s lasers flashed out.
And the second shuttle—the dark, silent, cold, all-but-undetectable second shuttle that had been towed invisibly behind the first—shattered and sent its own cargo of breacher missiles into the reeling Lioaoin warships.
“Lioaoin Regime, I’m still waiting for that explanation,” Ar’alani’s voice came over the speaker. “Perhaps you should start with an apology, and we’ll go from there.”
“Lioaoin ships falling back,” Dalvu reported. “Two other ships rising from defense orbit.”
“Admiral?” Thrawn asked.
“Apparently, they’re not yet ready to concede,” Ar’alani said, her voice icy. “Fine. We’re here to deliver a message. Let’s deliver it.”
“Acknowledged,” Thrawn said. “Springhawk: Prepare for battle.”
* * *
—
There was a soft double-thump from somewhere nearby. Che’ri, sitting in her chair pretending to draw, gave a violent jerk. “What was that?” she whispered.
“It’s okay,” Thalias said from the couch facing Che’ri’s chair, where she’d been pretending to read. “Probably just some stray shrapnel from a missile our lasers destroyed.”
“What about the acid?” Che’ri asked, peering at the upper corner of the suite.
“There isn’t any,” Thalias said, sternly ordering her own heart to calm down. “We’re the only ones who use breacher missiles with acid. Everyone else uses explosives. Once our lasers destroy or detonate them, there’s nothing that keeps coming toward us.” There was another set of thumps, six of them this time. “Except maybe a few small leftover pieces of the missile,” she amended.