mass suicide. That'swhy I broke off the siege and pulled all units away from Coar; the factthat they're coming back around to meet us will suggest something likethat."
"Are they going to join up?"
"No; I want them on this side of the sun but behind us. I have a use forthem later that depends on their staying hidden. Incidentally, I'mdesignating them Group Three.
"In a few hours we're going to turn hard, this side of the sun, andintercept Teyr. I want to evacuate our forces from the moon, then decoywhatever the enemy has there into space where we can get at them. That'stheir last fleet capable of a sortie, and with that gone we can combineour whole strength and go around to Coar. She'll probably give upimmediately, on the spot."
* * * * *
Jezef thought it over. "Will they be foolish enough to leave the moon?As long as they're safely grounded there, they constitute afleet-in-being and demand attention."
"We'll give them a reason to move, then ambush them. Right now we've alot of reorganizing to do, and I want you to get it started. We'resplitting this Force into Groups One and Two. Here's what I want."
* * * * *
They cut drives and drifted in free fall while supplies were transferredbetween ships, then Tulan held an inspection and found crews andequipment proudly shipshape. Despite the proliferating rumors, moralewas excellent.
A few hours later the realignment began. Space was full of thedisc-shapes; thin, delicate-looking Lights with their projectingexternal gear, and thicker, smoothly armored Mediums and Heavies. He hadtwenty-three of the latter in Group One, with twice as many Mediums anda swarm of smaller craft.
Group Two, composed of the supply ships and a small escort, was alreadyformed and diverging away. That was a vital part of his plan. From adistance they'd look to telescope or radar like a full combat fleet.
He was almost ready to swerve toward the third planet and its moon, butfirst he had a speech to make. It was time to squash all the rumors anddoubts with a dramatic fighting announcement.
He checked his appearance, stepped before the scanner, and nodded toCommunications to turn it on. "All hands," he said, then waited forattention.
The small monitor screens showed a motley sampling of intent faces. Hepermitted himself a tight smile. "You know I have orders to surrenderthe Fleet." He paused for effect. "Those are the orders of the Councilof Four, and to disobey the Council would be unthinkable.
"Yet it is also unthinkable that a single ship of the Fleet shouldsurrender under any circumstances, at any time; therefore I am facedwith a dilemma in which tradition must be broken.
"The Council of Four has lost courage, and so, perhaps, have many of thepeople of Sennech. We have ways of knowing that the people of Coar, farmore than our own, clamor at their government for any sort of peace.
"Coar's fleets are smashed and the remnants have fled from space.
"Clearly, courage has all but vanished from the Solar System; yet thereis one place where courage has not wavered. That place is in the Fleetof Sennech.
"At this moment we are the only strength left in the Solar System. Wedominate the System!
"Would we have history record that the Fleet won its fight gloriously,then cravenly shrank back from the very brink of victory?
"We left Sennech fully armed, though our orders were directly opposite.I need not tell you that I have made the decision any man of the Fleetwould make.
"This is our final campaign. Within a short time we shall orbit Coarherself and force her surrender. That is all."
There was a moment so quiet that the hum of the circuits grew loud, thenthe monitors shook with a mighty cheer.
Later, alone, Jezef congratulated him amusedly. "They are certainly withyou a hundred percent now, if there was any doubt before. Yet there wasone argument you didn't even hint at; the strongest argument of all."
"What was that?"
"Why, you're offering them a chance at life and freedom, where theymight be going to imprisonment or execution."
That irritated Tulan. "I'm sure you're not so cynical about Fleetloyalty and tradition as you pretend," he said stiffly. "I wouldn'taffront the men by using that kind of an argument."
Jezef grinned more widely. "Did it even occur to you to use it?"
Tulan flushed. "No," he admitted.
* * * * *
Teyr and her moon Luhin, both in quarter-phase from here, moved steadilyapart in the viewers.
Group One's screen of light craft probed ahead, jamming enemy radar, anddiscovering occasional roboscouts which were promptly vaporized. Farbehind, Group Two showed as a small luminescence. It would never bevisible to Luhin as anything else, and then only when Tulan was ready.
They reversed drives, matched speeds neatly, and went into forced orbitaround Luhin. On the flagship's first pass over the beleaguered oval ofground held by Sennech's forces--unsupported and unreinforced since thehome planet's defection--Tulan sent a message squirting down. "Tulancommanding. Is Admiral Galu commanding there? Report situation."
The next time around a long reply came up to them. "This is Captain Rhucommanding. Galu killed. Twenty percent personnel losses. Six Lightsdestroyed; moderate damage to several Mediums and one Heavy. Groundlines under heavy pressure. Ships' crews involved in fighting atperimeter. Food critical, other supplies low. Several thousand wounded.Combat data follows." There was a good assessment of the struggle, withsome enemy positions that were known.
The Fleet Force that had escorted nearly one hundred thousand groundtroops included five Heavies and other craft in proportion, besides thetransports and supply ships. Alone, they'd been pinned down by superiorenemy ground forces and by a sizable fleet holed up all around thesatellite. With Tulan's support they could be taken off.
Tulan composed orders. "Withdraw ships' crews from lines and prepare tolift. Get wounded aboard transports and prepare to evacuate troops. Setup fire control network to direct our ground support."
The tedious job of shrinking the perimeter, a short stretch at a time,began, harassed by the quickly adapting enemy.
During the first twenty hours the hostile fire was all from groundprojectors, the enemy ships not risking detection by joining in. By thattime one section of the front had pulled back to where several ships,sheltered in a crater, would have to lift.
Lines of men and equipment converged on the ships and jammed aboard. Theactual lift was preceded by a diversion a few miles away, whichsucceeded in pulling considerable enemy fire. The ships got off inunison, slanting back across friendly territory and drawing only lightmissiles which the defenses handled easily.
* * * * *
Then, suddenly, a salvo of heavy stuff came crashing in, too unexpectedand too well planned to stop. One of the lifting ships, a transport,vanished in a great flash.
Tulan yelled into his communicator. "Plot! Where did that come from?"
"I'm sorting, sir. Here! A roboscout got a straight five-second plotbefore they downed it!"
"Intelligence!" Tulan snapped. "Get the co-ordinates and bring mephotos!"
There were already pictures of the area where the salvo must haveoriginated, and one of them showed a cave-like opening in a craterwall. "That's it!" Tulan jabbed a pencil at it. "You could hide a dozenships in there. Let's get a strike organized!"
* * * * *
The strike group included four Heavies besides the flagship, with twelveMediums and twenty Lights. They slanted down in a jerky evasive coursewhile pictures flashed on screens to be compared with the actualterrain.
Ground fire, chemically propelled missiles, erupted ahead of them andthe small craft went to work intercepting it. They were down to ahundred miles, then fifty, streaking along the jagged surface so closethey seemed to scrape it. This was point-blank range; as the computersraced with the chaos of fire and counter-fire, human senses could onlyregister a few impressions--the bruising
jerks, the shudder ofconcussions, white streaks of rocket-trails, gushers of dirt from thesurface, winking flashes of mid-air interception.
Then the Heavies were on target. The flagship jumped as the massivesalvo leaped away--not chemical missiles, but huge space torpedoespropelled by Pulsor units like the ships' drives, directing their ownflocks of smaller defensive missiles by an intricate network ofcontrols. The small stuff, augmented by fire from the lighter ships,formed momentarily a visible tube down which the big stuff streakeduntouched.
The whole crater seemed to burst upward, reaching out angry fingers ofshattered rock as they ripped by, rocking and bucking with the blasts.Tulan's viewer swivelled aft to hold the scene. Secondary blasts wentoff like strings of giant firecrackers. Great