“Transmission coming in, ma’am,” Ellison said. “All channels—I think it may be from the enemy fleet.”

“Put it through,” Celesta tensed up.

“Warning was given. Now you will burn with them.”

“End transmission, Captain,” Ellison said. “No repeat … just that.”

“That sounded—”

“Enlightening, actually,” Celesta cut off Commander Barrett. “We now can be almost certain this has to do with our recent association with the Ushin.”

“Does that help us in the immediate situation, ma’am?” Barrett asked.

“It does now,” Celesta said crisply. “We’re the pointy end of the spear everyone … we do not make policy nor are we paid to consider the philosophical ramifications of armed conflict. Tactical, remove the safeties from the Shrikes and prepare all forward tubes to fire, full spread, and stand by on close-range weapons.”

“Shall I charge the capacitor banks for the auto-mag, ma’am?” Adler asked.

“Yes,” Celesta said after a moment of thought. “And have the magazine loaded with high-explosive penetrator rounds.”

“Aye, ma’am.”

Accari had taken the liberty of putting a series of countdown timers on the main display; one had just gone to red, showing that they were within ten minutes of being able to launch their standoff weapons. Another was blue, letting her know she was still over forty minutes from what would be considered the “engagement area” based on the number of ships involved and the capability of the Icarus to maneuver within that area of space. It was a deceptive term since an engagement area could still cover half a million kilometers, but with the RDS that was now a much smaller pocket to fight within than it was with the plasma engines. She could now order the ship to decelerate or come about very quickly as opposed to a flyby that required them to target and fire at speed and within a brief window.

“Active sensors,” Celesta said calmly. “All targeting and ranging radars active, point defense lidar and radar as well.”

“Aye aye, ma’am, all active sensors now online,” Adler said. “We shouldn’t have too long before we get returns.”

Sure enough, their range had closed so much that within the next five minutes the threat board began to populate with targets and friendlies, or “friendly,” since the Amsterdam was the only Terran ship in the vicinity.

“Coms, let the Amsterdam know we’re inbound and will be launching our first salvo at the trailing Darshik units coming down from the remains of the Bespitd munitions depot,” Celesta ordered. “Ask Captain Everett if he has any other requests of us on this first pass.”

“Aye, ma’am,” Ellison said and pulled his headset back up.

“Active target tracks confirmed, ma’am!” Adler reported a bit too loudly for Celesta’s taste. “Shrikes are locked on and ready. We have eight missiles ready to fly, how do you want them deployed?”