“Aye, aye, sir.”

Captain Tianne of the warship Cerekus watched the duel as it played out on her screens, not quite able to believe the one-sided reports that had been sent to her from the ground. If they were to be believed, this “ally” of Admiral Tanner’s was a giant—on the battlefield, at least.

However, on her sensors, it looked more like a gnat.

Its power curve was practically flat; the generation levels were so low that she had seen freighters that could out-power it. Its weapons were barely detectable on the Cerekus’s energy traps—at least the ones it had used since her arrival.

It has to be some kind of trick, she thought in confusion. Stealth systems, perhaps, masking their energy signatures…something…

Her own ship was now hurtling toward the battle at best speed, which was impressive enough, but the war was being fought over eight rotations away, which was going to take some time to cross, even with the Cerekus’s drive.

This meant that the admiral’s allies were simply going to have to survive on their own for a while longer.

The heterodyne-generated laser from the Odyssey’s main array—adjusted and fine-tuned by its operating crews to the best absorption frequency of the enemy’s armor characteristics—took a little less than ten seconds to cross the gap when the order to fire was given.

It found, upon arrival, a target that was still busy pouring radiation several hundred times its own meager amount back along its own course toward the Odyssey and bathed it in fire as it returned the favor.

A few seconds of exchange later, the alien warship began to bubble as nearly 100 percent of the Odyssey’s energy was absorbed into its hull material and turned into magma.

Within ten seconds, the ship suddenly folded in on itself as the energy carved out a hole along its beam, striking the power core and turning its own reactor into a nuke.

“Got him!” Waters grinned darkly as the enemy went critical on his screens, and at almost the same moment, the warning lights went dead.

“Status of our forward armor?”

“Badly ablated, sir,” Waters said, after checking it. “We’re intact, but I wouldn’t want to take too much more, not on those plates.”

“Understood,” Weston replied. “Prepare to bring us about, Mr. Daniels. We have to bring our pulse tubes to bear on the chasers.”

“Aye, sir, on your order.”

“Captain!” Susan Lamont’s head snapped up. “Report from the Electronic Warfare Department—we have fighters inbound!”

“They must have launched as a precaution,” Weston growled. “I would have.”

He considered it, then thumbed open a channel. “Archangels…scramble.”

Tianne stared at her screens in disbelief, unwilling or unable to quite grasp what she had seen. The Drasin ship had the advantage—all of the advantages. It had the more powerful weapons, armor that could defeat lasers that were intensely more powerful than those of the unknown vessel. It was faster, with a greater acceleration curve. It had been the superior vessel, the more powerful warship.