Their sudden shift in movement bought them a few seconds lead on their enemy, mostly due to the scant light-speed delays between the Odysseus and her foes, but it was enough to drag the fight out just a little longer.

The lasers of the big ship continued to lance out, bringing her kill total to just under twenty since the fight had begun, and everyone could hear the almost subaudible background whine of the laser systems causing sympathetic vibrations through the hull. It was a teeth-gritting sound, but under the circumstances Eric personally found it rather soothing.

“They’re regrouping, sir,” Winger told him. “Coming around, this time in greater numbers.”

That was the true teeth-gritting element of the current situation, the fact that the enemy had unlimited reinforcements . . . effectively . . . and he, well, didn’t.

“New signal! Captain, it’s the Big E!”

Eric twisted, eyes falling on the gleaming light reflecting off the armor of the Enterprise now that the ship had dispensed with stealth mode. They were coming in fast and hard, and it was clear that Captain Carrow wasn’t in any mood to play around.

“Watch for torpedoes!” Eric ordered Steph, as well as Winger. “The E is packing!”

Of course, just because he didn’t have unlimited reinforcements . . . well, it didn’t mean that he didn’t have some.

“Stand by to launch fighters,” Carrow ordered, coming to his feet. “Status on torpedoes?”

“Charged and ready, Captain.”

“Targeting solution locked in, sir!”

“Fire!”

The Enterprise launched its little payload of the hellish weapons on a widespread scattershot. It was slightly risky, but Carrow trusted Weston to know what to watch for, and they needed to tear these bastards up as much as they could.

“Pulse torpedoes away!”

Carrow nodded. “Put Alpha into space.”

“Alpha Flight launching, Captain.”

The Enterprise’s first flight, loaded with ship killers, was indeed already streaming from the decks. He knew that if there were air to conduct the sound, their twin power plants would be screaming as they raced away.

“I want Bravo moving as soon as Alpha clears those decks,” Carrow ordered. “I want everything we’ve got in this fight! Nothing held back!”

“Aye aye, sir. Bravo is already being taxied to launch positions.”

Carrow would hope it was enough, but he knew deep down that it wasn’t. Of course, the goal wasn’t to win. The goal was to make the enemy quote Pyrrhus when it was all over.

We’ll undo you lot yet, he thought savagely. Just you wait and see.

It was clearly quality versus quantity, Commander William Briggs noted as he led from the vanguard position of his squadron.

It’s too bad that quantity has a quality all its own, he thought wryly, completing the quote in his head as he focused on the job of picking out the targets his squadron was about to service.