“First volley impacts targets in … five hours, seventeen minutes,” Adler said and put the clock up on the main display so that Celesta could see it without having to ask. She nodded her approval to her tactical officer before returning her attention to the Link updates. The Icarus and the Midlands were showing as the only ships in the system. She didn’t know if the Prowler was still hiding out near the perimeter but she did know that she’d lost two ships, one apparently captured by the enemy. This was a whole new fresh hell from the previous alien that had appeared on their doorstep and had just decided to kill as many of them as it could.

“I’ll be interested to see what the intel folks have to say about the sensor feeds after this,” Barrett said quietly. “Another alien species coming into the Xi’an System and kicking us around … and this time it looks like they’re abducting ships just for good measure.”

“It at least solves the mystery about how they brought the Ares here.” Celesta swallowed hard, trying to keep the bile down at the thought of all the spacers she’d just lost. It was inexcusable. She’d flown them right into a trap, so confident was she that it was just a bizarre ploy by the AU. If she had followed the protocols that she had helped develop, sat back near the jump point and let the Jacobson drones make the initial incursion she might have avoided one of the worst mistakes by a Fleet officer since the beginnings of the Phage War.

She would certainly be relieved of command, but that was the least of her worries. There was a new enemy now. Someone who could prove to be worse than the Phage and, to make matters more complicated, their motivations were even more mysterious than the simple eradication tactics of the previous invaders. Where did they take the Leighton? Was the crew still alive? How would she even begin to try and track them down? Her ruminations were interrupted by a startled, sharp inhale from her tactical officer.

“Two enemy ships are now accelerating away from their formation,” Adler reported. “Shrikes are compensating, impact on leading targets now in three hours and decreasing.”

For the next three hours they watched in horrified fascination as two of the enemy ships quickly closed the range. She could see from the high-power radar returns that the ships had an ungainly, blocky appearance and were roughly symmetrical. The sensors on the Icarus could not determine the enemy’s method of subluminal propulsion other than it produced a slightly lower thermal signature than their own plasma thrust drives. She checked their velocity and position, quickly running the numbers in her head.

“Helm, engines to zero thrust,” she said after a moment. “OPS, deploy the warp drive. Nav, stand by to execute a snap jump on my command.”