"Weapons primed and ready, sir," Tactical reported. "WEPS reactor is at full output, mag-cannon banks are charged, and missile hatches are open."

"Helm, all ahead emergency. Let's try to give her a chance to get into open space," Asher said, again hoping his voice sounded more optimistic than he felt. The reality was the Jericho was virtually surrounded. The Alliance ships were spread out ahead, behind, and on either side of them and were already running at full burn. Their relative velocity meant any maneuver Asher might try to make would already be too little, too late.

"All engines ahead emergency, aye!"

The bridge lights flickered a few times as the drive and tactical systems taxed the ship’s powerplant to its limit. The Jericho had six fusion reactors in her main powerplant and two smaller, auxiliary reactors in the WEPS system just to make sure her guns weren't starved for power during heavy maneuvering.

Asher watched the engine output on the main display as it reached one hundred percent, and then began climbing past that. With the safety locks disengaged for emergency acceleration, the engines would take as much power as the reactors could supply and run wide open until they came apart. At one hundred and thirteen percent, the deck vibrated harshly, and the lights actually dimmed a bit before the power multiplexors settled it all back out. The big ship was running as hard as she could…but it wouldn't be enough.

"Ships ahead and angling in, pinching off on our escape vector," Tactical reported. "Ships off both flanks are redeploying to make sure we don't try moving above or below the ecliptic. The two ships aft are running hard but falling behind."

"Tactical, targeting solutions on all ships," Asher said. "Tell fire control I want to do as much damage in as little time possible. Let's fight out of this hole like a trapped badger, and maybe we'll make it out of this."

"Fire Control and CIC are working tracks now, sir."

"Put the tracks up on the main display as they come up from fire control," Asher said.

His crew was made up of hardened pros, and even though most of them had guessed there was no escaping the mess they found themselves in, they did their jobs without showing fear or crumbling. The targeting tracks started appearing on the screen, lancing out from the Jericho and intercepting individual targets or terminating where the computers thought the target might be. The lines were all color coded according to target threat level and probability of scoring a killing shot, all calculated and updated over one hundred thousand times a second by the tac computers.

The next three hours were tense as the Jericho gave it all she had, and the outmatched enemy ships worked just as hard to maximize their advantage. Asher let himself the luxury of a sliver of hope, thinking maybe the Alliance commanders weren't so confident in their stand-off weapons and would try to close the gap, a strategy that favored the faster Fed ship.