The alien starfighters didn't bother to do more than fire a handful of shots at the human starfighters as they roared past them, concentrating instead on Ark Royal.  Ted watched, feeling a moment of relief as four alien starfighters vanished from the display, picked off by his ships, then braced himself as they came into engagement range.  This was where they’d torn the more advanced carriers apart ... a handful of them fell to the carrier’s point defence, but the remainder kept boring in.  He watched, mentally praying desperately to a god he wasn't sure he believed in, as the alien weapons flared to life ... and slammed into the carrier’s armour.

“No major damage,” Anderson reported.  The Chief Engineer sounded as relieved as Ted felt.  “I say again, no major damage.”

“Continue firing,” Ted ordered, as Delta wing chased the alien starfighters over the carrier’s hull.  “Drive them away from us.”

He glanced down at the reports, sighing in relief.  Ark Royal’s armour could take the alien blasts ... but it wouldn't stop the alien starfighters from disarming and blinding the carrier by picking off her weapons and sensors.  One by one, the alien craft fell back towards their own carriers, clearly rethinking their task.  Behind them, Gamma wing gave chase while Delta wing remained with Ark Royal.

“Lock mass drivers on target,” he ordered.  The alien carriers were coming into effective range, although – unlike powered missiles – the mass drivers were nothing more than ballistic weapons.  “Prepare to fire.”

What, he asked himself absently, would a mass driver do to a modern carrier?  Assuming a direct hit, it would rip the carrier apart from end to end.  It made him wonder if there had been a quiet agreement among the various interstellar powers to ban mass drivers from starships, even though they were effective weapons.  If there was, it wouldn't last much longer, not if the theories were correct.  The aliens were about to be kissed.

“Weapons locked on target,” Farley reported.  “Ready to fire.”

Ted smiled.  “Fire,” he ordered.

Projectiles launched from mass drivers couldn't alter course, allowing them to be evaded fairly easily if the target saw them coming.  But they made up for that by being immensely destructive if they did hit, as well as fast enough to give the targets relatively little warning of their arrival.  The aliens clearly didn't see them coming in time; one carrier was smashed amidships by a projectile, while another, clearly badly damaged, limped out of formation and started to retreat.

“Two direct hits,” Farley said.  On the display, the first alien carrier disintegrated in a series of tearing explosions.  “The mass driver is reloading.”

“Fire as soon as possible,” Ted ordered.  The mass driver took too long to reload, another problem that would have to be solved before the end of the war.  “Target an untouched alien ship.”