Then the Alliance missiles found their mark.

The Jericho was a true battleship, armored heavily and with point defense systems that would rival that of some orbital platforms. At first, a sliver of hope wormed its way into Jackson's awareness as the point defense lasers started cooking off inbound missiles as fast as they were coming. Ten, seventeen, then twenty-two missiles blown up well outside of their effective range. But there were just too many.

For a point defense laser to knock down a missile it usually had to stay trained on the target for almost a full three seconds before it delivered enough energy to destroy or disable it. That was still acceptable until you found yourself the sole target of over a hundred actively guided missiles.

After the first slipped through the defensive screens, it started a cascade effect. The nuke-tipped missile slammed into the Jericho near the lower port drive pod, blasting it open and disabling it. The battleship wobbled slightly as the remaining three RDS engines compensated for the loss of a quadrant. In that time, two more missiles hit home on the starboard flank. The armor held, and the ship was still flying, but now the point defense on that side was compromised.

Four more missiles hit in quick succession along the starboard flank before the armor buckled, and she vented atmosphere into space. After that, it was difficult to keep track of what was happening because nuclear explosions were happening with such frequency they washed the sensors out. After what seemed like an eternity, the explosions stopped and, against all odds, the Jericho was still flying.

At least what was left of her.

The prow was gone, exposing open decks to space. Huge rents in the armor showed fires burning and incredible amounts of structural damage. Two of the RDS pods were completely blown off the ship but, apparently, one was still producing some output because the ship was still under power and maneuvering.

They watched in stunned silence as the stricken battleship, with her last defiant gasp, opened up on the closest alliance ship with her main laser batteries. The Jericho poured on the power, boiling away hull armor and cooking off munitions in the enemy ship before the battleship's powerplant failed completely. One of the fusion reactors must have breached, and the result was a catastrophic explosion in engineering that ripped the aft section completely free.

"Is it over?" someone asked quietly.

"There are still eleven more missiles inbound," the tactical officer said. "Four minutes to target. They were launched later than the others."

They all stood and watched helplessly as a fresh wave of missiles tore into the defenseless sections of what had once been the pride of the Federation fleet. The missiles penetrated deep this time, as they were designed to do, and when they detonated there was very little of the forward or aft section left of the mighty TFS Jericho.

"How many enemy ships remaining?" Jackson asked.

"Five remain undamaged and are flying clear of the engagement," OPS reported. "Seven other appear to be critically damaged and are either ballistic or maneuvering under severely reduced engine power."