CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

“WATCH OUT, HERACLES,” Steph hissed under his breath, sweating in the air-conditioned environment, his muscles twitching as he sat stiffly in his seat. “They’re trying to box us. Split to port. I’ll go starboard, on three.”

Upon reflection, Stephen supposed that piloting a pig the size of a small island wasn’t all bad. With the stick controls and NICS interface, tactical flying was almost as much fun as a fighter, and you didn’t go up like a matchstick if the enemy put a laser on you for a couple of seconds.

He pulled to starboard as the three count went off in his head, calling out over his shoulder as he did.

“Milla, darlin’, watch for a target lock in thirty seconds.”

“I will not miss,” Milla Chans said determinedly from the weapons and tactical station behind him to the right.

“I know you won’t,” he said, noting that the alien bogey was turning to follow the Heracles. “Coming back around on him . . . get ready . . .”

“I have him,” Milla answered. “Target has been locked.”

“Fire at will,” Admiral Gracen ordered.

The command was hardly needed. Milla’s hand was already moving as it was given. The forward laser mounts pulsed in response, lancing out to tear into the Drasin as it dropped into attack position on the Heracles. The six linked beams burned hotter than the corona of a star as they slashed into the Drasin ship, frequencies sweeping across the spectrum automatically until they hit the best absorption frequency.

The Odyssey’s lasers could cut through a Drasin’s armored hull in a few seconds of optimal burn, but the Odysseus packed weapons a thousand times more powerful. When the frequency hit the optimal point on the spectrum, they dumped enough power into the enemy ship to power a small city for a decade.

The Drasin ship simply ceased to exist.

“Splash one. Good shooting, Milla,” Steph said, grinning.

“We have thirty-two more on our screens, Commander,” Gracen said tightly. “Let’s save the congratulations for later, shall we?”

“Yes ma’am,” Steph said, eyes flicking over his displays before he looked out over the panorama that showed deep space all around the occupants of the bridge. “Heracles, Odysseus is coming around. Stay with me, Cardsharp.”

“Roger, Stephanos. Heracles standing by to warp space.”

The Odysseus and Heracles came about in a tight sweeping curve, holding so close that their warp fields interacted. Both ships shuddered in response to the gravity waves each put out. They stayed glued together through the turbulence, however, as the two former fighter pilots adjusted for a new attack vector and started to come back on the center group of their convoy, where several of the Drasin had managed to sneak in close enough to be a threat.