Graham couldn’t hazard a guess as to the maximum effective range of such a weapon, but he said it would likely be just over what the cruiser was sitting at when they struck. Barrett tended to agree with the chief engineer. They’d have wanted to be within the performance envelope of the weapon, but just enough to give them a safety margin. Too close and they would risk detection by the passive sensor array. The fact they were able to sneak up so close was alarming in and of itself.

“Punched right through her like a knife through butter.” Barrett whistled as he ran a gloved hand over the exposed edge of one of the hull breaches.

“And that’s just where indirect streams broke loose from containment upon impacting the RDS pod,” Graham said over the radio. The pair were in soft maintenance EVA suits since the compartments that had been breached hadn’t been repaired yet and were still exposed to vacuum. “It’s a weapon that is easily defeated with distance, but if it hits us directly—” The engineer trailed off, not needing to further explain the danger. If the Icarus was hit again at close range with the plasma lance she couldn’t survive.

“Thank you for taking the time to show me yourself, Commander,” Barrett said. “I’ll need to get back to the bridge and give the captain my report. Your people did a hell of a job.”

“Thanks, XO.” Graham waved him back towards the temporary airlock his crews had welded into the hatchway. “Let’s hope that’s the only close run-in we have with their cruisers.”

Chapter 18

“First wave impacting the Darshik lines,” Adler reported. The bridge was tensely silent as they waited for the results of the first volley.

“OPS, take over monitoring the incoming Shrikes,” Celesta ordered. “Tactical, concentrate on our immediate area.”

“Aye, ma’am.”

“Two of our drones were taken out by Shrikes,” Accari reported. “The others are tracking to the enemy formation. Initial returns from the other drones indicate we’re destroying a lot of ships, ma’am. Still no response from the Darshik formations.”

“So we used two very expensive Shrikes to take out two horrifically expensive Jacobsons. Fantastic,” Barrett quipped. “This is a strange way to fight a battle.”

“This was always how our fleet was designed to fight,” Celesta said with a humorless smile. “The missile cruisers would array themselves out of range from the defending force and lob in missiles, trying to break down the defenses before moving the carriers and destroyers in to subdue the planet. The defenders would then use missiles to try and hit our missiles. It was a doctrine that lasted hundreds of years. Since we never had a war, we never had to adapt.”

“Until the Phage,” Barrett nodded.

“Until the Phage,” Celesta agreed.