The Lost Fleet: Beyond the Frontier: Invincible

  Ace Books by Jack Campbell

  THE LOST FLEET: DAUNTLESS

  THE LOST FLEET: FEARLESS

  THE LOST FLEET: COURAGEOUS

  THE LOST FLEET: VALIANT

  THE LOST FLEET: RELENTLESS

  THE LOST FLEET: VICTORIOUS

  THE LOST FLEET: BEYOND THE FRONTIER: DREADNAUGHT

  THE LOST FLEET: BEYOND THE FRONTIER: INVINCIBLE

  THE LOST FLEET

  BEYOND THE FRONTIER

  Invincible

  JACK CAMPBELL

  THE BERKLEY PUBLISHING GROUP

  Published by the Penguin Group

  Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

  375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA

  Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario M4P 2Y3, Canada (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.) • Penguin Books Ltd., 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England • Penguin Group Ireland, 25 St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd.) • Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty. Ltd.) • Penguin Books India Pvt. Ltd., 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi—110 017, India • Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, Auckland 0632, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd.) • Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty.) Ltd., 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa

  Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

  This is an original publication of The Berkley Publishing Group.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

  THE LOST FLEET: BEYOND THE FRONTIER: INVINCIBLE

  Copyright © 2012 by John G. Hemry.

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

  ACE and the “A” design are trademarks of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

  FIRST EDITION: May 2012

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Campbell, Jack.

  Invincible / Jack Campbell.—First edition.

  pages cm.—(The lost fleet. Beyond the frontier)

  ISBN 978-1-101-58078-3

  1. Space ships—Fiction. 2. Space warfare—Fiction. I. Title.

  PS3553.A4637I58 2012

  813'.54—dc23

  2011053446

  To Lieutenant Colonel Robert W. Lamont, USMC (ret.), who wanted to see the Marines assault a fort; Commander Christopher J. Lagemann, USN (ret.), who really would have made a darn good admiral; and Captain Michael A. Durnan, USN (ret.), who (with varying degrees of success over the years) has tried to keep all of the rest of us out of trouble.

  For S., as always.

  Contents

  THE FIRST FLEET OF THE ALLIANCE

  ONE

  TWO

  THREE

  FOUR

  FIVE

  SIX

  SEVEN

  EIGHT

  NINE

  TEN

  ELEVEN

  TWELVE

  THIRTEEN

  FOURTEEN

  FIFTEEN

  SIXTEEN

  SEVENTEEN

  EIGHTEEN

  NINETEEN

  AUTHOR’S NOTE

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  I remain indebted to my agent, Joshua Bilmes, for his ever-inspired suggestions and assistance, and to my editor, Anne Sowards, for her support and editing. I’ve been well looked after by Katherine Sherbo and Brady McReynolds at the Berkley Publishing Group as well. Thanks also to Catherine Asaro, Robert Chase, J. G. (Huck) Huckenpohler, Simcha Kuritzky, Michael LaViolette, Aly Parsons, Bud Sparhawk, and Constance A. Warner for their suggestions, comments, and recommendations. Thanks also to Charles Petit and to “the remoras” (a.k.a. Alex and Daniel) for an important suggestion regarding the most essential achievement of human technology.

  THE FIRST FLEET OF THE ALLIANCE

  ADMIRAL JOHN GEARY, COMMANDING

  SECOND BATTLESHIP DIVISION

  Gallant

  Indomitable

  Glorious

  Magnificent

  THIRD BATTLESHIP DIVISION

  Dreadnaught

  Orion

  Dependable

  Conqueror

  FOURTH BATTLESHIP DIVISION

  Warspite

  Vengeance

  Revenge

  Guardian

  FIFTH BATTLESHIP DIVISION

  Fearless

  Resolution

  Redoubtable

  SEVENTH BATTLESHIP DIVISION

  Colossus

  Encroach

  Amazon

  Spartan

  EIGHTH BATTLESHIP DIVISION

  Relentless

  Reprisal

  Superb

  Splendid

  FIRST BATTLE CRUISER DIVISION

  Inspire

  Formidable

  Brilliant

  Implacable

  SECOND BATTLE CRUISER DIVISION

  Leviathan

  Dragon

  Steadfast

  Valiant

  FOURTH BATTLE CRUISER DIVISION

  Dauntless (flagship)

  Daring

  Victorious

  Intemperate

  FIFTH BATTLE CRUISER DIVISION

  Adroit

  SIXTH BATTLE CRUISER DIVISION

  Illustrious

  Incredible

  Invincible

  FIFTH ASSAULT TRANSPORT DIVISION

  Tsunami

  Typhoon

  Mistral

  Haboob

  FIRST AUXILIARIES DIVISION

  Titan

  Tanuki

  Kupua

  Domovoi

  SECOND AUXILIARIES DIVISION

  Witch

  Jinn

  Alchemist

  Cyclops

  THIRTY-ONE HEAVY CRUISERS IN SIX DIVISIONS

  First Heavy Cruiser Division

  Third Heavy Cruiser Division

  Fourth Heavy Cruiser Division

  Fifth Heavy Cruiser Division

  Eighth Heavy Cruiser Division

  Tenth Heavy Cruiser Division

  FIFTY-FIVE LIGHT CRUISERS IN TEN SQUADRONS

  First Light Cruiser Squadron

  Second Light Cruiser Squadron

  Third Light Cruiser Squadron

  Fifth Light Cruiser Squadron

  Sixth Light Cruiser Squadron

  Eighth Light Cruiser Squadron

  Ninth Light Cruiser Squadron

  Tenth Light Cruiser Squadron

  Eleventh Light Cruiser Squadron

  Fourteenth Light Cruiser Squadron

  ONE HUNDRED SIXTY DESTROYERS IN EIGHTEEN SQUADRONS

  First Destroyer Squadron

  Second Destroyer Squadron

  Third Destroyer Squadron

  Fourth Destroyer Squadron

  Sixth Destroyer Squadron

  Seventh Destroyer Squadron

  Ninth Destroyer Squadron

  Tenth Destroyer Squadron

  Twelfth Destroyer Squadron

  Fourteenth Destroyer Squadron

  Sixteenth De
stroyer Squadron

  Seventeenth Destroyer Squadron

  Twentieth Destroyer Squadron

  Twenty-first Destroyer Squadron

  Twenty-third Destroyer Squadron

  Twenty-seventh Destroyer Squadron

  Twenty-eighth Destroyer Squadron

  Thirty-second Destroyer Squadron

  FIRST FLEET MARINE FORCE

  Major General Carabali, commanding

  3,000 Marines on assault transports and divided into detachments on battle cruisers and battleships

  ONE

  “WHEN you find yourself going through hell, keep going.”

  Admiral John Geary didn’t shift his gaze from the display, which showed his fleet in chaos as it tried to re-form in the wake of an attack by whatever creatures lived in this star system. “Did you just make that up?”

  “No,” Captain Tanya Desjani replied. “Some ancient philosopher said it. My father likes to quote him.”

  Geary nodded, only half of his attention on her words. Desjani’s meaning was clear enough, if you defined hell in terms of a fleet far from human-controlled space on a mission to determine the strength and size of a newly discovered intelligent alien species, a fleet that had fought its way out this far only to face another alien species, which seemed even more hostile than the first. Or maybe hell could be defined as getting into a damaged survival pod as your stricken cruiser counted down the last moments before it self-destructed, to be frozen into survival sleep and lost for a century, only to be eventually found with death imminent and revived to discover that in your long absence and apparent death, you had been elevated to the status of legend. For an instant, Geary’s mind flashed back to those moments, recalling how it had felt to learn that everyone he had once known was dead, that the war that had started as he froze into sleep was still going a century later, and that the people who had awakened him expected the great Black Jack Geary to save them from what seemed certain defeat.

  He had managed to save them then though he saw no connection between the legend of Black Jack and who he actually was. He had managed to win the war with the Syndicate Worlds. And now he had to manage somehow to save this fleet from this trap in an alien-controlled star system very distant from any human help.

  But he had done none of that alone. Without the support of this fleet, and of people like Tanya Desjani, he could have done nothing. And those who hadn’t died in battle were still with this fleet, still with him.

  “Your concern is noted, Captain,” Geary said, banishing thoughts of the past to concentrate on the present. “We won’t hang around here any longer than we have to.” The fleet wasn’t at rest right now in any event. They had been accelerating outward as the aliens tried to overtake them, and now that the immediate threats had been destroyed, many ships had altered trajectories and velocities, but both the fleet and the wreckage of the alien attackers were still racing away from the massive alien fortress guarding the jump point at which the human fleet had arrived. Orbiting the distant star and slaved to the jump point, the fortress was almost large enough to qualify as an artificial minor planet.

  A squadron of destroyers tore past beneath and to one side of Dauntless, close enough to the battle cruiser to trigger collision warning alarms. Desjani’s jaw tightened. “Tell those tin cans to keep their distance,” she ordered her communications watch. “Admiral, request permission to assist you in getting this fleet back into order.”

  Well aware that his fleet more closely resembled a swarm of agitated insects than any kind of military force, Geary gave her a sour look. “The maneuvering systems have already produced solutions. It’s taking a while to untangle everything and avoid wreckage.” Fortunately, the great majority of that wreckage came from the alien attackers. There wasn’t anything left of the destroyer Zaghnal, though, which had only taken one hit. The warheads on the alien ships were so large they had blown the destroyer into little pieces. Invincible had also taken at least one direct hit, inflicting massive damage on the lightly armored battle cruiser. That was the worst news, fortunately. Orion had been struck twice by the blasts from near misses while knocking out two alien craft on final approaches against Titan and Tanuki, but though battered, Orion was still reporting combat-ready status. Numerous other warships had suffered lesser degrees of damage from near misses, even the vacuum of space no protection against explosions that massive and that close. “We got off very easy,” Geary marveled. “Did you see what Orion did during the last part of the fighting?”

  “I didn’t catch that,” Desjani admitted. “I was busy watching Dreadnaught almost ram my ship.”

  “I’ll have another talk with my grandniece when time permits.” Jane Geary had been reliably steady and dependable, not flashy or prone to high-risk actions. Had been. Now she was flinging her battleship Dreadnaught around as if Dreadnaught were a battle cruiser. Wishing that new problems didn’t develop as fast as he dealt with old problems, Geary called Commander Shen of Orion.

  Shen’s expression never varied all that much, so Geary wasn’t surprised to see Shen looking ill-tempered. “How is your ship doing, Captain?” Geary asked. He could call up the information about damage to individual ships on the fleet net as quickly as the damage was assessed and entered, and usually he did so since that was fast and simple. But sometimes he needed information from the people on the scene, information that always contained important impressions and details that couldn’t be found in the automated reporting.

  “Orion can still fight.” Shen seemed ready for Geary to challenge that assertion. “Seventy-one casualties; of those, thirty dead and the rest injured, five seriously. Two of those may have to be transferred to one of the assault transports for treatment. Orion’s sick bay can handle the rest. Main propulsion unit one is off-line, but repairable. Most of the damage is on the port forward upper quarter. Armor breach, compartment damage ranging from total to minor. We’re sealing that area off pending major repair actions. All weapons and sensors in that area are nonoperational, reducing Orion’s combat capability by twenty percent for the long term. Numerous systems elsewhere in the ship require repair because of shock transmitted through the hull and structure, but we can handle that.”

  Coming from Orion, such an optimistic assertion was unprecedented in Geary’s experience. “I saw Orion save Tanuki and Titan. Those ships probably wouldn’t have survived a hit from something that could inflict that much damage on a battleship. You and your crew acted in the finest traditions of the service and have greatly honored your ancestors.”

  “That’s what battleships are supposed to do,” Shen replied in a gruff voice. “We bail out the battle cruisers when they get into trouble and can’t handle things. Please tell Captain Desjani I said that.”

  “Are you sure you wouldn’t rather tell her yourself?”

  “No, sir.”

  “She’s right here.”

  “Then she already heard it, sir.” Shen paused. “Hell of a mess there. I thought we’d lose a lot more ships than we did. Interesting tactics. Is that all, Admiral?”

  “No. Keep me informed about the status of your wounded. I can get Tsunami over to you if you need her medical assistance. And we need that propulsion unit online again as quickly as possible. If we tangle with the inhabitants of this star system again, Orion will need full propulsion capability. Captain Smythe will be sending Kupua over to assist in getting that propulsion unit working again.”

  “Thank you, Admiral,” Shen said.

  “Thank you, Captain.” Geary ended the conversation, then looked at Desjani. “You didn’t seem bothered by disparaging comments from a battleship captain.”

  “He earned the right to one comment during that fight,” Desjani replied. “Besides, he saved my butt once when we were both serving on the Pavis. And he told you how much you’d impressed him, so I’ll give him a pass this time on his otherwise-amateurish opinions.”

  “He told me I’d impressed him?” Geary asked.

  “Absolutely. In his
own way.”

  Geary shook his head, looking at the damage being displayed on Invincible. “Luck had as much to do with it as anything I did.”

  “Wrong,” Desjani said. “Sir. Look at the combat systems evaluation of the engagement. When our formation scattered, the enemy required from ten to twenty seconds to alter courses and seek out new targets. We weren’t lucky. The last-minute disintegration of our formation confused the aliens, just as you intended. Those seconds of hesitation gave us enough time to evade and blow away the enemies who hadn’t already been destroyed. The ships that took advantage of that avoided getting hit, except for poor Zaghnal. She must have just had bad luck.”

  “And Invincible . . .” He ordered the combat systems to replay the moments before Invincible got hit. The order went out to scatter, maneuvering independently to confuse the attackers. All around Invincible, warships altered trajectories, but the battle cruiser didn’t change either direction or velocity as seconds crawled by. Five seconds. Ten seconds. At fourteen seconds, Invincible’s thrusters started firing but hadn’t been able to change the warship’s vector before an alien missile ship slammed into contact and detonated. “He froze up. Captain Vente froze up instead of immediately taking action.”

  “And you’re surprised?” Desjani murmured.

  “Assuming he’s still alive, Vente has had his last command in this fleet,” Geary replied, hearing the savage edge to his voice. Why didn’t I relieve him earlier? Why didn’t I find a reason? Now who knows how many of Invincible’s crew are dead because Vente wasn’t qualified for his command, and I had good reason to believe he wasn’t qualified but didn’t act in time. It’s my fault as much as Vente’s, damn it.

  “It’s not your fault,” Desjani said.

  He stared at her. “How did you—?”

  “I know you. Listen. Headquarters assigned him to command of Invincible. You had suspicions he wasn’t qualified, but you can’t relieve a commanding officer purely on suspicions. Otherwise, you might have taken Shen off Orion before this. You need cause to relieve a commanding officer. It’s been that way for a long, long time, and for good reason.” Desjani watched him. “Understand?”