“Captain, I’ll have you
shot
for . . .”
“Impact in three!”
Misrem twisted, eyes on the screens as the brilliant pulses of energy filled her displays.
“Navarch, they use
antimatter
!” yelled Aymes from the comm link.
She barely had time to remember the briefing on the original anomaly and how it had fought the Drasin before the incoming pulses spiraled erratically and slammed into her squadron with a fury unmatched by anything else in the universe.
Where the pulses struck, the armor they encountered didn’t simply fail but actively turned into explosive material that tore huge gaping holes out of the sides of ships. Misrem’s own ship bucked so hard under her that she was thrown to the deck, something that practically
never
happened to anyone. Under most circumstances, if your vessel moved enough to counter the effect of gravity stabilization, you were going to be paste on the deck—not merely lose your balance.
She struggled to her feet. “Report!”
“We’re losing atmosphere across fifteen decks, Navarch! Sealing affected areas,” the damage-control officer reported.
“Lock that ship in and return fire,” she roared.
A glance at the display showed the vessel no longer hiding as it turned away and began forming a warp singularity. The damnable thing looked positively cocky in gleaming white, screaming to the universe its defiance.
I’ll make you eat that defiance.
She spat through gritted teeth as she held on to her seat against the continuing shudders of pain from her ship.
“As you command, Navarch . . .”
Beams lanced out even as another set of warning sounds filled the air.
“Weapon sign, Navarch . . . Brace! Brace! Brace!”
She grabbed for her station, but this time the impacts were barely felt as slight shudders through the deck. “What was that?”
“Physical strikes, Navarch. Hull breaches on four more decks, easily containable. We have laser strikes on ship three, Division Two . . . minor damage evident.”
“Minor damage,” she muttered. “Track and destroy that ship! Dispatch Division Two to finish it.”
“As you command!”
This is getting messy.
The enemy had brought reinforcements, and they had effective stealth.
Her eyes widened and she muttered a vile epithet. “Scanners! All ships, look for any other hidden vessels!”
►►►
AEV
Odysseus
► “They’re pouring on the power, Captain. Looking hard!”
Eric snorted. “After the
Hood
just dropped that bomb in their faces, I’m not surprised.”
That particular maneuver wasn’t exactly to plan, but he didn’t blame Ian for thinking outside the box. The original plan wasn’t going to be nearly as effective as they’d intended, not if singularity cores were reducing t-cannon effectiveness.
The
Odysseus
was feeding telemetry to its smaller sister ships, but other than the
Hood
, the flagship had no return feed from the Rogues, as that would potentially reveal their existence and location to any particularly savvy opponent.
“Prepare to fire,” Eric ordered. “Sweep the range between the targets and the
Hood
. Try to cover their withdrawal.”
“Aye Captain,” Milla confirmed. “Laser telemetry updating. Firing in twenty seconds.”
Eric nodded, almost tempted to hurry her along, but the telemetry update was important. They didn’t have IFF locations on three Rogues out there, and while those ships
should
be clear of the beam lanes, it was better to wait a few extra seconds to give them time to maneuver than to accidentally smoke one of the squadron’s own.
“Increase speed to flank,” he said. “Signal the others that we’re taking this fight up close.”
►►►
► The
Odysseus
surged ahead of her two fellows for an instant before they matched her speed, and then the trio plummeted faster through the void toward the bandit formation. Ahead, the light from the
Hood
caught up to them, showing the Rogue Class destroyer as it shifted to gleaming white armor and began to pull away from the fight.
The
Hood
’s reserves of pulse torpedoes were now gone, but it was clear that Captain Shepherd wasn’t entirely willing to give up the fight, because its t-cannons were swiveling onto target.
Faint tachyon surges puffed and vanished as the
Hood
fired into the ether, her space warp firming up as she began to accelerate.
Beams lanced out from the Imperial squadron, cutting through the space the
Hood
had just vacated as beams from the
Odysseus
cut back across the void and burned into hull matter, ejecting tons of vaporized material into the black as the fighting stepped up to a new level.
If the big ship sometimes seemed to flinch away from the blasts of its own accord, it was put down to mere jet thrusting from the explosive reaction.
►►►
IBC
Shion Thon
, Flagship, Third Reconnaissance Squadron
► Misrem seethed as new damage reports flooded her central command. Beams from the large battle cruisers were cutting deep into the armor of the ships under her command.
They’ve had this fight entirely too much in their favor to this point.
She continued to grit her teeth, eyes on the plot as the enemy cruisers entered into the optimal engagement range.
“All ships,” Misrem called, “reverse thrust, all available power! Weapons free! Fire at will! Launch parasites!”
There was no sensation of movement as the ships began decelerating at maximum thrust, the gravity shift taking care of any inertia that might otherwise have splattered them across the decks. Still, Misrem was well aware that she was straining the drive systems immensely.
Lasers cut through space as her squadron opened fire with no restrictions and the combat parasites detached.
The
Shion
shuddered again as another laser burned through the armor and opened up three decks to vacuum, but she ignored it. The outer decks were nonvital areas and few, if any, crewmen were there now aside from damage-control personnel. They could burn through all that outer armor and vent thousands of tons of atmosphere to the deep void without significantly crippling her ships.
A yell went out from someone across the bridge. She didn’t know who and didn’t care as she spotted the cause. A beam from the squadron had reached out and sliced the enemy destroyer damn near in half, its reflective armor be damned.
“Good! Do that again!” she shouted. “And keep scanning for others!”
Beams were crossing one another as the three battle cruisers hammered toward them, the exchange of fire growing more accurate and intense with each passing instant. Enemy fire was still opening up the hulls of her ships to space, but it was no longer a one-sided exchange.
Trace reports were showing strikes on the enemy battle cruisers now, though their armor was significantly more capable than that of the smaller destroyer. Misrem was certain her squadron could open them up to vacuum sure as the void was cold.
“Make for the lead cruiser,” she said harshly as another shudder shook the deck under her feet. “Let’s make this personal.”
►►►
AEV
Odysseus
► “The
Hood
is out of the fight!” Sams said. “They’re cut in half and drifting, Captain. Distress calls coming in now.”
“They’ll have to hold on,” Eric growled. “We’ve got problems of our own. Steph, it looks like the Imperials want to turn this into an old-fashioned furball. Oblige them.”
“Aye aye, boss man! Engineering, I’m going to need fast adjustment from you on the fly. We’re about to tangle with an enemy cruiser, up close and personal.”
“Roger, Commander,” the chief’s voice came back. “We’re ready. Manual controls to your station.”
“Roger, Chief. I have the conn,” Steph said as he brought up the augmented reality display over his primary readouts. “You ever see a ship this size do this?”
He pushed the engine power to full, swapping to reverse drives on the fly, then rolled the
Odysseus
to port as a laser swept in from starboard. The big ship responded on cue, twisting under the beam as the
Bellerophon
and
Boudicca
peeled away in opposite directions. A glancing beam reflected off the
Odysseus
’ armor, burning away half a meter before Steph hit thrusters and dropped the ship more fully.
The
Odysseus
retrothrusted suddenly, surprising Steph because he didn’t remember issuing the command. Almost at the same instant, he noted the beam they’d just ducked slash through the space they had been about to occupy and shrugged it off. If wouldn’t be the first time he’d done something without actually thinking about it, and far from the first time he’d done something he couldn’t remember.
Usually a lot of drinking is involved with the second option though,
Steph thought just a little ruefully as he kept himself focused and resolved to check the command log after the fight. Anything odd had to be checked out, after all, even if it was a good thing.
Sometimes especially if it’s a good thing.
“How close do you want this, boss?” Steph asked without looking away from his viewer.
“Why don’t we let
them
decide, Stephanos?” Eric asked with a feral tone.
“Right you are, boss.”
On their displays, they could see the lead element of the enemy formation breaking away, heading directly for them. Steph matched course, more or less, while still evading the incoming laser fire as best he could.
They could really only see the beams after they’d passed, but since the enemy ships were sweeping lasers across the battlefield rather than firing in pulses, the augmented reality systems could detect and overlay beam vectors on heads-up displays with little trouble. The
Odysseus
twisted and turned in space, reacting more like a small fighter than any multigigaton warship had any right to. The maneuvering systems of the big ship were entirely gravity based, so Steph had no trouble making the
Odysseus
dance.
“Captain,” Sams interjected, gripping his console with white knuckles, “we’re on an interception course.”
“I know that, Ensign.”
“No Captain, we’re—Captain, we’re going to
collide
with them!”
Eric grinned. “Only if they’ve got more balls than I give them credit for.”
“I ain’t flinching—that’s for damn sure,” Steph said from his enclosed station.
Stricken, vaguely sick looks were exchanged around the command deck, but only Miram had the courage—or temerity—to say anything.
“I feel this is probably why you shouldn’t give helm control of a warship to a
fighter
pilot,” she muttered under her breath, but didn’t quite manage to pitch her voice low enough to keep it from traveling.
The laughter started behind him. Eric didn’t know who giggled first, but it proved infectious as high-tension laughter often did. Soon around two-thirds of the bridge crew were laughing, with Steph grinning like a loon as he continued on his current course.
Eric waited for the laughter to die down before he added his two cents.
“They probably shouldn’t have put one in the captain’s chair either, then.”
He really hoped that the crew could see through their tears as he casually opened a screen on his multifunction display, dipped into the communications control, and issued an override order as he opened a hailing line to the enemy.
I wonder what they’ll think of this?
►►►
IBC
Shion Thon
, Flagship, Third Reconnaissance Squadron
► Misrem blinked as she eyed the course telemetry that was playing out across the feeds, not quite believing what she was seeing.
“I believe, Navarch,” her second spoke softly, “that they have accepted your challenge.”
“These people are
not
Oathers,” Misrem said, shaking her head firmly. “Where did they
come
from?”
“Respectfully, My Lady,” her second said, “at this moment, let us be more concerned with where they are
going
.”
He had a point. The collision course was a clear challenge, but it was also a very large threat. If the two ships passed too closely, such proximity might destabilize their drives, which would leave both of them out of the fight—at best. At worst . . . she couldn’t think of many worse ways to die than being swallowed eternally into a singularity drive as gravity slowly tore you apart.
“Course change, My Lady?”
“Hold course,” she ordered, leaning in.
The fighting around them faded into the background for Misrem as she glared at the screens, watching the lead enemy cruiser head straight for them. The vessel was decelerating easily as powerfully as her own ships were, which would prolong the engagement, but if her calculations were correct, they still wouldn’t be able to come to a stop relative to one another.
Now, she was no longer sure she
wanted
to.
“As you command, My Lady.” The helm officer’s voice was fearful, but he didn’t disobey.
►►►
AEV
Bellerophon
► Captain Roberts refrained from commenting on the insane maneuvers of his former captain, instead choosing to focus on the enemy element that was still closing on the now-crippled and drifting
Hood
.
“Cut them down,” he ordered.
The
Bell
’s lasers lanced out, burning into the lead ship in the element. The Heroic Class cruiser held steady on target long enough to get a return for hyperspectral analysis to start computing the optimum frequency with which to strike. The
Bell
’s computers soon adjusted the laser frequency and tripled beam strength.