Formation flying

"Fuck!"

Having fallen into an ambush that should have been obvious on the surface, River forgot all about fighting, above all else, she needed to escape. With Jessica knocked out from the high amount of G's she and River were subjected to when the Wyrm was pulled out of hyper cruise, River found herself alone in dealing with the issues for the time being. Immediately dumping countermeasures in all directions, River slammed on the throttle as she rerouted the Wyrm's power to propulsion before lighting the afterburner to barely avoid a hail of kinetic projectiles. Hearing smaller projectiles or fragments from proximity detonating rounds hitting the Wyrm's armour plating, River glanced at the damage report as she realised what was going on.

"... These fuckers are trying to take me alive."

"That's the first rat, proceed with immobilising it."

"Sir yes sir, Weps are tracking and already engaging."

Aboard his command ship, Inquisitor Joa put both of his feet up on the control panel in front of him, dressed in an inquisitor's uniform that was buttoned down way too far, the only proper thing about Joa's state of dress was the sword he carried next to him at all times.

"Sir, this 'rat' appears to be the same vessel that Inquisitor Lua encountered. I suggest not trying to take it alive and instead destroying it before anything adverse happens."

Normally, an Inquisitor's staff officer correcting their superior officer's orders were treated as blasphemy, but Joa was far from the normal kind of inquisitor, so he encouraged his officers to speak their mind.

"Oh~ So it's the one Lua had issues with, In that case, we have to capture it."

Whether Joa wanted to listen to their suggestions was another matter entirely.

"Sir, proceeding with capture efforts. Reconfiguring firing patterns and reorganising our formation."

"Good, but be careful not to tighten the net too much, we don't want to break them, at least not yet."

"Urg…"

"Jessica! Come on, come to it! I really need your help here!"

"What… Is?"

"Come on get a grip! We fell into a trap!"

Busy with just staying alive as the Wyrm continuously accumulated damage from shrapnel, River didn't have any attention to spare even as she could hear Jessica was starting to wake up. Without any sort of cover, and no hope of defeating an entire Eden detachment things were starting to look a little bleak, but River and Jessica had one thing going for them.

"They're looking down on us! Get on weapons and teach them a lesson, we need a way out!"

"Right, I'm on it!"

Regaining her bearings, Jessica hurriedly activated the weapon and sensor systems to get a bearing on things.

"They're all around us! While the flagship seems to be dead ahead, medium vessels are all around us, keeping a distance of about 15 kilometres!"

"So that's why they're using proximity ammunition, they're properly programmed to detonate before they reach allies… We can use that to our advantage."

With the enemy all around and keeping a constant distance, they would constantly need to adjust and account for whatever River did, that meant she could, in theory, either outrun the formation entirely or failing that at least keep half of the formation busy burning just as hard as she was.

"Hang on, try to not pass out this time!"

"I'll try my best!"

Putting a pause to defensive movements for a moment, River oriented the Wyrm towards what she assumed was the hostile flagship and put everything into burning hard for it as Jessica took over point defence and weapon duty.

"Here they come, bring in the rear and maintain distance."

Having already expected a half-decent rat to make this move, Inquisitor Joa had already instructed and trained his crew on how to deal with it.

But practice and simulation had a way of subsidy differentiating itself from reality.

"Sir! Their rate of acceleration is reaching the limits of what we can handle with just the reaction control system! We either need to break formation or adjust, lowering the overall rate of fire!"

As their rat accelerated faster than should be possible, the ships in front of it started having issues matching its rate of acceleration, meaning they were in danger of breaking formation or even falling within the range of other ships to the rear.

"Then have the affected ships switch vector and lower fire rate, they need to maintain position more than anything else."

"Sir!"

"What now!?"

"Friendly fire reports are increasing! We haven't seen anything serious yet but that's only a matter of time at this point!"

With the relative speed increasing all across the board, some of the ships in Inquisitor Joa's formation were having a hard time setting the correct fuses for the shells they were firing, while the ships in the rear of the formation chasing after the rat had plenty of opportunities to fire at it, their shells were self-destructing before they came anywhere near. At the other end of the formation, the problems were the reverse, while some of the ships in front of the rat had to reorient and use their primary thrusters to follow the rate of acceleration, thus not allowing them to be shot because the rat was in their blind spot obscured by their thrusters, others ahead in the formation were underestimating the rate of acceleration as they shot after the rat and their shells ended up not self-destructing in time, instead hitting the ships chasing behind.

"Fuck, the rat will not be able to keep it up like this, so order the ships in the front of the formation to size fire, they won't be able to jump inside from inside our formation so we just need to wait them out!"

(Losing a vessel in the front of the formation would be problematic, with that kind of cover they can try to break out and I would have to kill them instead… Can't have that)

"Sir, yes Sir!"

"It's working, they're hitting their own forces so they've stopped shooting as much! Just a little bit more and we're out of it!"

While River could only achieve a higher rate of acceleration than the Eden battleships by disabling the G limiter and risking blacking out, the effort was still working as the formerly round formation now looked more like a tear stretching out ever further under the threat of breaking.

"They aren't shooting nearly as much at us anymore, and it seems like most of the shells detonate before even getting close! Just a little more!"

"Ri…ght."

Not used to nor able to pull the amount of G's as River, Jessica wasn't able to keep up as well as River was, the only reason she hadn't passed out yet was that she was waiting for her chance.

Although this couldn't be more different, sitting with the controls in her hands waiting for just the right opportunity felt like the hunting trips she had taken with her family when she was just a little kid, her heart was pounding just as hard as back then.

"Targets…. Lock…ed."

Having closed to within 5 kilometres of the front of the formation, River was now clearly able to see the hostile ships due to their drive plumes and hostile fire had all but sized as the front of the Eden formation was busy opening up the distance and the rear didn't want to miscalculate the self-destruct range of their shells and accidentally hit one of their own ships in the thrusters.

"Just… A… Little… More!"

"Sir! Hostile contact is still increasing their rate of acceleration! If they gain any more on us they'll cross the minimum effective range of our subspace disrupter and be able to escape into hyperspace!"

By now it had become pretty clear what the rat was trying to do, and worse yet Inquisitor Joa didn't really have any effective way of stopping them.

(Well, shit.)

At least not one he liked.

"Contact the rear formation and prepare to open up a hole up front, we'll harpoon this rat and pick up the pieces after."

While Inquisitor Joa did want to take the scout alive, he still realised that if he had any chance of failing that he should go with the safer option.

"Sir, sending fleet-wide communication, preparing to target and disable primary target with railguns, friendly vessels are advised to open up and clear the path of fragments at the last possible second, starting synchronisation of fleet group subsystems through witchspace, FTL comm system online and sustained load. Ready to fire on your command!"

(While regrettable, at least it didn't turn out the same as Lua's absolute fiasco.)

"On my command…"

"Here it comes!"

"Y…eah."

Although Jessica still felt like she had a grasp on things, perhaps the medium-term effects were starting to show, as she could hear her long-dead grandfather speaking to her clear as day.

"Remember Jessica, just being able to shoot straight and spot targets won't make you a great marksman… No, to really differentiate yourself from the masses you need the calm of a hunter."

"Calm?"

"Yes, my dear granddaughter, the calm of a hunter. A truly great hunter doesn't miss just because they're able to spot their target or shoot straight, a great marksman with the calm of a hunter will know when to shoot, aiming for the moment when prey is in between strides, has a lapse in awareness or is otherwise disadvantaged… Hunting isn't fair, and war even less so, nevertheless, it is our family's responsibility to hunt with cold and cruel efficiency to strike down opponents of the clan as efficiently as possible, which requires a calm mind, free of turmoil."

Thinking back on things Jessica didn't really understand what her grandfather meant at that time, but now in the heat of battle, she thought she was at least able to grasp parts of it.

"W…ait… Ca…lm."

Silently awaiting the go order, Jessica felt like she was starting to grasp what this 'calm' was.

That or she was just about to pass out from G lock.

"NOW!"

On River's long-awaited command, she completely cut power to the Wyrm's main thrusters, then using the Wyrm's manoeuvring thrusters River spun the Wyrm around on a dime 180 degrees before rekindling the thrusters at max burn.

With the immediate reversal of not only acceleration vector but also a rapid change in speed, the Wyrm went from barely catching up with those ahead in the Eden formation, to charging out the other side before any of the larger Eden ships could correct.

Of course, that wasn't all River and Jessica were doing, being put through so much trouble they made sure to repay that favour a thousandfold on the way out.

"TAKE THIS!"

As the Wyrm rapidly approached the rear of the Eden formation now heading in the opposed formation, Jessica shouted with all the air left in her lungs as released a focused hail of railgun darts and kinetic energy missiles, like Mike had done before she focused the numerous projectiles into thin streams that would hit multiple critical weak points on the Eden destroyers multiple times over, degrading the armour until it failed in a split second.

With the sudden difference in travel adding only to the KEM's and railgun dart's velocity along with the element of surprise, none of Jessica's targets saw the attack coming.

Cutting like a hot knife through butter, the kinetic penetrators on the missiles and the tips of the railgun darts alike hit vital systems on their way through the Eden destroyers, as they encountered particularly trough armour plating or low angles they shattered, sending shards of heated metal throughout their targets as if a claymore mine filled with glass shards had detonated.

"We're going!"

"Punch it!"

Just barely clearing the Eden enclosure formation, River punched the Wyrm directly into a hyperspace jump out of the system. As the Wyrm entered FTL travel, the rate of acceleration quickly normalised, returning to 1 G and finally letting blood return all the way to Jessica's brain.

".... Fuuuuuuuuck that."

Collapsing limply into her chair, Jessica made no attempt to get up and stretch, she only meekly removed her helmet after repressuring the Wyrm's cockpit and letting it fall to the ground without any care.

"... I agree… We're also going to be late on our return by about an hour, so Mike is going to worry."

(Of course, that's where she goes immediately…)

Breathing another deep sigh for a different reason, Jessica didn't feel like commenting out loud.

"Damage report."

Back at the Eden ambush formation, Inquisitor Joa wasn't exactly pleased the rat he netted had managed to escape.

Then again, he had half expected them to try something like it.

"Sir! 5 destroyers have been crippled and 2 outright destroyed, it was wise to have them operate unmanned."

As the staff officer mentioned, Inquisitor Joa had made sure that most of the ships trailing behind were unmanned, he had achieved this by rotating most of his unmanned destroyers to the rear as soon as the rat started accelerating wildly. The reason Joa had unmanned crafts in his formation in the first place had to do with his fondness for his staff, while Lua or most of the other inquisitors wouldn't think twice about sending their subordinates to die, Joa figured wasting trained personnel like that was a waste and thus personally requested of his god that his battlegroup be made up of at least 20% unmanned craft.

"Yeah I figured there was at least a chance they would try something like that, but more importantly how are the data looking?"

"Sir, shield wave analysis, behavioural analysis and drive signature have all been completed, furthermore gravitational wave analysis from the jump point has identified the relevant signatures. Although we didn't manage to capture this rat, it barely makes any difference."