Kat listened to the familiar sounds of her main guns firing, ignoring the flickering of the lights as the guns greedily drew every watt Invictus’s reactor could feed them. She had considered different stratagems, trickery and deceit to lure her enemy into making a mistake. But she’d developed too much respect for this Confederation captain to assume he’d fall for any ploy she might attempt. She realized this was a struggle between two veterans, too strong warriors. It seemed counterintuitive, but she realized there was nothing for two such capable commanders to do now but close to point blank range and blast away at each other. The hardness of their armored hulls, the toughness of their crews, the industry of their engineers and damage control teams…those would be the deciding factors here.

“Scanners report two hits, Commander.” A few seconds passed. “A third hit!”

“Very well, Optiomagis…all stations continue maximum rate of fire.” Kat was grateful for the early hits—the enemy hadn’t even opened fire yet— but she knew the range was still long, that her beams were hitting with less than fifteen percent of the power they would have at fifty thousand kilometers.

Fifty thousand klicks. Where this battle will be decided…

*   *   *

“We’ve got wounded backed up out into the corridors, Ty. The aid stations are overloaded too. We’re taking a hell of a pounding. I sure hope you know what you’re doing up there.”

“Just keep it together down there, Stu. You worry about your job, and I’ll worry about mine.” Barron felt a flash of anger at his friend’s choice of words. He knew Dauntless’s chief surgeon hadn’t meant anything by his comments, save for his doctor’s hatred of anything that tended to tear up men and women and leave them wrecked and bleeding.

Barron hated thinking of his people going through that too, but he understood well enough, this was war. He didn’t like it any more than Weldon, but he’d been raised his whole life to serve a warrior’s posting.

“How are you holding it together, Ty? You’re just a man, remember…whoever your grandfather was. You keep taking those stims and pushing yourself, you’ll drop dead right on the bridge.”

“I’ll keep that in mind, Stu, but there’s not much alternative now. I’ve…” His eyes caught Darrow’s hand, waving to him. “Gotta go, Stu. Do your best down there.”

He cut the line and looked over at the communications officer.

“Secondaries will be in range in thirty seconds, sir.”

“All batteries open fire as soon as we’re within the envelope. Fire at will, maximum intensity.”

“Yes, sir…max…”