The Cerekus could absorb far more damage than could the Carlache, the previous fleet’s flagship vessel.

“Sweet Jesus,” Waters whispered in awe. “She’s bleeding air, Captain.”

“Bad?”

“Bad,” Waters nodded. “But she’s still firing.”

“Status on the alien warships?”

“One of them is going down, sir. The other seems to be moving to evasive action.”

“What’s the status of our weapons?”

“Laser array is fully charged. We have a twenty percent load of HVMs, and three tubes are now charged, Captain,” Waters replied instantly. “Our PD weapons are, of course, fully charged and ready.”

“Thank you, Mr. Waters,” Weston said.

Their own laser array, while obviously more versatile than that of either their enemies or their possible allies, was woefully underpowered compared to either. This, along with other concerns, such as their targeting systems, meant that the laser was only useful for relatively close engagement ranges.

The alien warships were already at the limit of that range, and by going to evasive maneuvers, the healthy warship had effectively taken the laser out of consideration.

The HVMs were out for similar reasons as well, because the recorded data from previous attacks made it clear that a 20 percent load wasn’t going to cut it.

Similarly, three pulse torpedoes weren’t likely to take out one of those things, unless they got lucky.

Weston flinched as the radiation warning alarms all went off again, and slammed his fist down on the armrest.

“Time to get lucky!”

“Captain?”

“Helm, roll the ship. Bring our weapons back to bear on the maneuvering warship,” he ordered. “Mr. Waters…Give me a firing solution on that son of a bitch.”

“Aye, aye, Captain.”

“Holy Mary, Mother of God,” Stephanos whispered as he watched the battle through the enhanced HUD of the Archangels.

The computer was taking data from all across the network, including the Odyssey itself, drawing in the paths of the invisible beams based off their corona leakage, and what it was drawing was a lethal fence trapping the Odyssey between a battle of two giants.

“Can you see that shit?” Paladin asked in awe. “They’re tossing around more power than a city could use in a year!”

“A lot more,” another pilot put in. “Each beam is off the scale…I’m trying to recalibrate, but I’m betting that we’re way over the tera-watt range here.”

“Jesus,” Racer muttered. “Anyone else starting to feel like we’re playing out of our league?”

“I might,” Stephanos said dryly. “If we hadn’t been kicking ass and taking names ever since this shit started.”

“You have a point,” Racer conceded. “But just think of what happens if these bozos get their shit together.”

“I’d rather not,” Cardsharp Samuels muttered, her voice low as her HUD lit up with another computer-generated rendering of the crisscross beams.

“Lord! The Odyssey!”

The pilots of the Archangels, trapped on the outside of a battle, far beyond their tools and weapons, watched as the Odyssey tipped its nose up once more, swinging back around to bring her formidable forward weapons back into play.