But her plot showed their projected vector, and she swore silently. It was going to take them out of Truitt’s envelope—not without giving him the chance to batter them with missiles, but staying well out of his energy range—and that meant a lot of them were going to get away. Only three battleships, two destroyers, and six heavy cruisers had actually been destroyed so far, and she gritted her teeth at the thought of letting all those cripples get away. But the only Manticoran ships which could possibly overtake them and keep them from escaping were her LACs, and they were out of missiles. Which meant graser-range attacks on targets which were individually enormously more powerful than her ships were. And which also meant turning the wing’s bows dangerously close to its enemies as it pursued.

And they’re learning, she thought grimly as two LAC icons flashed crimson on her plot. One broke off, limping away from the battle while the data codes of severe damage blinked beside it; the other simply vanished. They know we’re out here, and they’re not running scared or shocked anymore, so if we do follow them up, it’s going to get ugly. Uglier, that is, she corrected herself grimly, for she’d already lost four ships—five with the latest casualty.

She didn’t have to do it. Not to save the system. And what had already happened was a brilliant vindication of Operation Anzio. But that wasn’t the point, was it?

“The LACs are pursuing, Citizen Captain,” Diamato reported.

“The superdreadnoughts?”

“They’re turning to cut the angle on us as well as they can, but they’re not going to be able to overtake, Ma’am. I make their closest approach something over a million and a half klicks—well outside effective energy range, anyway. Whoever that is out-system of us could, but she’s not trying to.” He actually managed a death’s head grin. “I don’t think I would, either, if I had her missile range,” he added.

“Understood,” Hall grunted. She glanced at the damage report sidebar scrolling down her plot and winced. A third of the surviving battleships had been hammered into wrecks. And despite what Diamato had said, two of them, at least, weren’t going to make it clear after all. They’d taken too much impeller damage to stay away from the Manty capital ships, yet the task force had no choice but to leave them behind and save as many other units as it could.

I hope to hell the other attacks are doing better than we are, she thought bitterly.

“Citizen Captain, I have a com request from Citizen Rear Admiral Porter. He wants to speak to the Citizen Admiral,” the com officer said quietly.

He would, Hall thought, watching the missiles fly. And I have to give him command… which I wouldn’t mind at all—at least I could also let him have the responsibility!—except that he doesn’t have a clue what to do with it.

She darted a look at Addison.

“Citizen Commissioner?” She couldn’t ask him for what she really wanted, not in so many words. But he recognized her expression and drew a deep breath. He looked back at her for several seconds, then spoke to the com officer without even glancing in the young woman’s direction.