"S diskywatch has them on scanners, Commodore!" Magda jerked awake in her command chair as her chief scanner rating's voice burned into her dozing ears.

"Coming up from data base now, sir.

Flagship's deft-nitely a Goeben. She's Invincible, sir, and she's the only heavy! The other cruisers are strength nines--light cruisers!

They're... Ajax and Sendal, sir!" Thank God! They had a chance, but their losses were still going to be awful. She turned to Howard.

"Enemy force launching missiles," her fire control officer said suddenly. So there it was. They didn't even want to negotiate.

"Stand by point defense," Magda said coolly.

"I'argets?" "Tracks look like Skywatch, sir." "Very well. Laeaity, our own missiles on Invincible." "Aye, aye, sir.

"Open fire!" ('intsu quivered as her external ordnance let fly, and Magda's plot was suddenly speckled with flecks of light as Atlanta nd Skywatch flushed their external racks at the oncoming cruiser, as well. She felt her lips thin over her teeth. Even command point defense was going to have trouble with that lot, and she wondered if the loyalist commander knew Skywatch had taken delivery of antimatter warheads just before the mutinies? If he didn't, he'd be finding out shortly.

But incoming missiles were sleeting in at Skywatch, and there were a lot of them. Point defense crews aboard the cruisers and fortress tracked the incoming fire while battle comp sorted out the clean misses from the salvo, but there weren't many; orbital forts weren't very elusive targets.

Then the small laser clusters trained onto the probable hits. Counter missiles zipped out, and for seconds space was wracked with brilliant flares of detonating warheads.

"Hits on Invincible!" Gunnery screamed.

"One... three @u.. firstye of them, sir!

She's streaming air!" But Skywatch's blip was pulsing, too, as missiles slipped through to impact on the big fort's powerful shields. Magda gripped her lower lip between her teeth, waiting as the brilliant dot flickered and flashed. Then the report came in. con'Efght hits on Skywatch, sir--all standard nukes. Took out most of her shields, but she's still in business!" "Good!" Magda ignored the informality of the elated report. "Captain Howard, Jintsu and Atlanta will engage Invincible at close range.

Captain Malenkov will come with us. The remainder will engage targets of opportunity among the enemy formation." "Aye, aye, sir!" The rebels lurched into motion. Only Malenkov's three big freighters could even 'hope to stay with a warship... the others were much too slow, and Magda had no choice but to turn the engagement into one huge melee and hope.

The two forces closed to energy weapon range, and the TFN loyalists were taken aback by the rebels" reckless courage. Those lumbering freighters were sitting ducks @u. dis"b they were so goddamn big! They soaked p force beams and betweenlasers as thev bumbled into range for their own light armaments, and" what they lacked in datalink they made up in determination and sheer volume of fire.

Commodore Hunter realized Admiral Waldeck had made a serious error in assuming they would face only local yokels@u There had to be Fleet regulars or reservists over there! Well, the hell with standing orders] His own orders went out: break through and get free, then stand off with missiles where his datalink would do him the most good.

Commodore Hunter cursed as the first ship dropped out of his net. They were stripping away his coordination, and ff his outnumbered units had to fight as individuals among that many enemies, they wouldn't stand a chance! But be didn't have much choice, because two light cruisers were lunging straight for him.

He watched in something very like awe as the rebel ships soaked up the fire from his own lights, homing on his wounded flagship. He saw hits going home all over them

@u.. both of them were streaming atmosphere.., and still they came on. One suddenly staggered and yawed aside as she took a direct hit on a drive pod, but she hauled back on course and kept coming.

He barked an order, and Invincible tried to turn away, but her crippled drive faltered. He looked back into his plot and swallowed as Sendai blew in half and the rebel cruisers closed to half a light-second, energy weapons aflame.

"Abandon ship!" he screamed--comb he was too late. ('intsu's hetlasers zeroed in on his command deck with uncanny accuracy, and a burst of finely-focused X rays tore him and his staff apart.

The battle collapsed into a mad, whirling ball of snap- g

ing ships. Atlanta exploded in a massive fireball, followed y Ajax. The surviving loyalists began a limping withdrawal, and a dozen gutted freighters drifted helplessly in their wake, glowing from the hits they'd taken... but there was a dead destroyer to keep them company.

Skywateh streamed air through a dozen huge rents, but her energy weapons were still in action--comsome of them--- and her mis-sties pursued the two retreating destroyers.

"Break off the engagement, Gaptain Howard," Magda Petrovna said wearily. He looked at her in surprise. Jirtsu was hard hit, but half her weapons were still-in action. "If we chase them and we're dead unlucky, we might catch them, Gaptain. Just us. We're the only ship that could." Howard's face ('x with understanding. "Yes, sir," he said.

"And send a message down to the planet," Magda said, looking at her battle plot.

Better than half her "fleet" had been destroyed in the short, savage action, and all the rest were damaged. "Fell them we won--I think." "And you mean to tell me," Admiral Waldeek said icily, "that a handful of armed freighters shot an entire light battlegroup to hell?" The white-heed lieutenant commander across his desk stared straight ahead. Spots of color burned on his cheeks, but his voice was controlled.

"Not precisely, sir. There were also two Fleet cruisers and a class three fort, ff you'll remember. With antimatter warheads." Waldeck flushed with furv. His lips worked, and the commander thought he'd gggne too far. But the admiral gradually regained control.

"All right, Commander, the point is well taken," he said coldly. "But the fact remains that in the first engagement against rebel forces, we lost virtually an entire flotilla. Your ship will be out of action for months, and I doubt Cougar will ever fight again." "Yes, sir." "We were supposed to teach them a lesson!" "Yes, sir." "Well, by God, we will teach them one!" Waldeck punched up a eom link to his flag captain. "Captain M'tana, the task force will move out in one hour. We're going to Novaya Rodina!" "Yes, sir." l?And you, Commander," Waldeek returned his attention to the unfortunate in front of his desk, "are going to come along and see what three battle-cruisers do to your precious rebels!" His "Well, Pieter Petrovieh, that's that." Magda raised her glass of vodka in a tired toast. "After all the repairs we can make out of local resources, the "Novava Rodina Fleet" consists of one crippled light cruiser, on crippled OWP, and four crippled freighters.

"Maybe, mavbe not. You can't run your life on Russian melancholy and the second sight, Pietr Petrovich, and we know what would have happened if we hadn't fought.

Still, I'I1 be surprised if we have time to do much of anything else before the next TFN force arrives, and this time it'll be a battlegroup worth the name." She shrugged, but her voice was softer when she went on. "We did our best, my Pieter. Maybe we should have surrendered ff they'd given us a chance, but they just opened fire." "I know." He swiveled his chair to look out the window at the bright spring morning. "Well," he said heavily, "ff they come back in force, we have no option but to surrender. Agreed?" "Agreed," she sighed. "Those are good people up there, Pieter. I don't want to see them die uselessly." "All right. Will you see to the communication arrangements, Magda?" "I already did," she said with a tired smile.