Free Dawn by Yoshiki Tanaka Page B

attacking each group separately will make easy prey of all three fleets.”
    “Not necessarily. The Fourth Fleet won’t go down without a good fight. If they can keep holding out …”
    “I just told you it was hopeless, but—”
    “Commodore Yang, reality is made up of more than just cold-blooded calculation. The enemy commander is Count von Lohengramm. He’s young and inexperienced. But Vice Admiral Pastolle is a seasoned warrior forged in countless battles. Compared to that—”
    “Commander, he’s inexperienced as you say, but his tactical planning—”
    “Enough, Commodore.” The vice admiral cut him off, displeased. He couldn’t hold back his disgust for this young staff officer who just wouldn’t give him the answer he wanted.
    The vice admiral motioned for Yang to sit back down and turned his head back toward the screen.
    III
    Four hours had passed since the start of battle. By this point, the Fourth Fleet of the Alliance Navy could hardly be called a fleet at all. There was no tidy, well-organized battle formation. No unified chain of command. It was nothing more than scattered pockets of desperate resistance: isolated, cut off, single ships in every quarter waging a losing battle.
    The flagship Leonidas was now a colossal hunk of metal wandering in the void. Within, there was nothing left that lived. The body of Commander Pastolle had been sucked out into the vacuum by the air-pressure differential in the instant that concentrated enemy fire had opened up a large crack in the bridge’s hull. What condition his corpse was in and where in space it was drifting, nobody knew.
    Meanwhile, Reinhard knew by this point that he had just secured a complete victory. The report came in from Merkatz by way of his comm screen.
    “Organized resistance has ended. From this point forward we’re to switch over to mop-up operations, but …”
    “No need.”
    “Sir?” Merkatz’s narrow eyes narrowed further.
    “The battle’s only one-third finished. You can leave the remnants be—we need to save our strength for the next battle. Further instructions will follow. Until then, get our formations reorganized.”
    “As you wish—Your Excellency.”
    With a solemn bow of his head, Merkatz’s image vanished from the comm screen.
    Reinhard looked back at his redheaded chief adjutant.
    “Even he’s changed his attitude just a little.”
    “Yes, he must have little choice.”
    This is a great first-round victory, Kircheis thought. Even the admiralty will have to admit Reinhard’s tactical plan worked well. The soldiers will take heart, and the enemy will be stunned when they see their unbeatable formation destroyed.
    “Which fleet do you think we should attack next, Kircheis? The one to starboard or to port?”
    “It’s possible to circle around to the aft of either, but surely you’ve made up your mind already?
    “Pretty much.”
    “Their Sixth Fleet, positioned to starboard, must have the weaker force strength, correct?”
    “Exactly.” A satisfied smile appeared around the mouth of the young, blond-haired commander.
    “The enemy may be expecting that. That’s the one slight concern that I have, but …”
    Reinhard shook his head. “There’s no danger of that. If they do guess what we’re doing, they won’t continue with a battle plan that uses divided forces. They’ll try to rendezvous as early as they possibly can. After all, together they still outnumber us vastly. That they aren’t doing so is proof they don’t understand our fleet’s intent. We’ll circle around to the Sixth Fleet’s aft starboard flank and attack them there. How many hours will we need?”
    “Less than four.”
    “Look at you, you’d worked it out already.” Reinhard smiled again. When he smiled, his face was like a boy’s. But what wiped that smile from his face in a heartbeat was the realization that several sets of eyes were looking intently his way. Reinhard would not show his smile easily to anyone but