Bringing up his storm shield, he stepped to the right as fire filled the tube and the projectile sped from its housing. The missile hit his shield close to the top, the detonation strong enough to break the arm of a lesser fighter. Even with his enhanced strength, Nem­etus couldn’t stop the shield tipping back, slamming into the grille of his helm mask. The blow staggered him, fogging his vision as blue blurs flowed into view from behind him, his battle-brothers advancing into a welter of enemy fire.

It was hard to follow what Praxa­medes was saying whilst trying to keep abreast of what was happening aboard the target vessel. Aeschelus’ second-in-command talked about plasma flows and surveyor readings, but the captain was not sure there was anything coherent; at the same time the boarding force had breached into the enemy strategium and from the overlapping vox-traffic it seemed Nem­etus might be wounded or dead.

‘Stop!’ Aeschelus held up a hand to interrupt Praxa­medes. He complied immediately while the captain switched to the command channel on the vox. ‘Assault command, this is company command. Respond and report.’

The vox hissed for several heartbeats, each passing second raising Aeschelus’ concern.

‘This is assault command. Enemy are well-prepared in the strategium.’ Nem­etus seemed out of breath. ‘Engagement complicated by need to preserve environment. Confident of success.’

The link cut off and Aeschelus knew better than to distract the lieutenant any further. He turned his gaze back to his other subordinate.

‘It occurs to me that you are telling your story backwards, Prax,’ said the captain, letting calm resonate from every syllable. It was not like Praxa­medes to be so flustered. ‘I trust your observations and calculations are correct. I do not need the theory. Just report the practical conclusions.’

The lieutenant nodded, took a moment and then directed the captain’s attention to a display among the augur consoles. It showed a time-frozen picture of the engagement with the enemy ships, their courses and exchanges marked out with lines and sigils, nearly five minutes of conflict captured in a single image.

‘The entire engagement has been constructed as a lure, brother-captain,’ explained Praxa­medes. ‘If you recall, we found the enemy battle group thanks to a strange lensing effect of their energy signature. We thought it might have been debris from an earlier battle but did not question it further. I believe it was a deliberate signal. During our approach there was ample opportunity for the enemy to take one of two other courses of action. They could have withdrawn earlier into the stellar debris or they could have closed formation and engaged us directly.’

‘The speed of our response took them unawares?’