“Not nearly as bad as it could have been,” Graham said, blowing out a breath through his lips. “That plasma lance hit the RDS pod, something that’s made of six-inch-thick alloy hull plating. I think when the field generators blew they incorrectly assumed they’d hit something vital and shut their weapon down. Had the pod not been there it’s feasible they would have cored this ship all the way to the reactor room with that thing. We’d have never known what hit us.”

“They fired when we went to active sensors,” Barrett said. “They were sitting back there for who knows how long until they knew they’d been spotted. All in all, I’d say we’re lucky to be talking about this.”

“It would appear so,” Graham nodded. “Good thing the captain is fast on her feet. I don’t think we could have taken another hit from that thing at close range. Oddly enough, the older ships are made of hull material so thick they could probably stand up to it for a bit, but these Starwolf-class hulls are just so damn thin. They shed off the heat better but once the ablative shielding is gone, that’s it.”

“You’re not the first one to say that,” Barrett smiled as he recalled his former CO’s disdain for the class of ship named after him. “How are your people?”

“They’ll be fine,” Graham said. “Being treated for exposure so they’re out for a few days, but nobody dead or missing. Come along this way and I’ll show you the worst of it.”

Barrett had seen battle damage on the last two ships he’d served aboard, both lost during humanity’s battle with the Phage, so it wasn’t the scope of the damage that surprised him, more the precision. The Phage had also used directed plasma weapons, but they lobbed it out in a burst that expended its energy over a wider area. A ship like the Icarus, specifically designed for that conflict, had heat-resistant ablative shielding over the outer hull that would absorb and dissipate most of that spent thermal energy.

The Darshik used the superheated gas in a much different way. Apparently they could use a type of electromagnetic focusing apparatus, not dissimilar to what their own main engine nozzles used to direct plasma, and channel the burst down a “tunnel” so that it was focused when it struck the target. Commander Graham showed him the readings they’d taken that proved the existence of the focusing fields and it explained the “energy lance” others had reported seeing when in close combat with Darshik ships.