The big kinetic kill weapons launched, sending shivers even through the bulk of the Enterprise. Their CM fields kicked in shortly after, and they lanced away, having more in common with a laser than a missile. The volley struck true, two HVMs slamming into each of the lead ships in a shocking display of force.

It wasn’t the clean kill of the Odysseus’ lasers, but the debris that survived the impact ceased acceleration and flew on with no hand guiding the tiller.

“More ships are filling the gap, sir.”

“I see them,” Carrow said. “Have Bravo Flight come in from the port, flank them, and take them out.”

“Aye sir.”

The only time Carrow had seen anything like this was in the last dark days of drone warfare before the U.S., China, and other nations got together to outlaw the damned things.

He’d only been a kid at the time, just enlisted and assigned to a destroyer. Stationed off Taiwan, they’d been tasked with defending the island against the aggression of the mainland. The drones had started in the dark, barely showing up on radar, effectively invisible . . . loaded with enough explosives to take out a building.

And there had been hundreds of them.

Carrow shook the memory away, forcing his mind back to the present. These weren’t Chinese drones, they weren’t American, or Indian, or any other weapon of a sane world, or an insane one. They were abominations. They were things that should not exist, should never exist.

He’d never in his life known anything that absolutely had to be destroyed. Gray was where he lived his existence, no purity of good or evil had ever existed in Carrow’s world.

He knew better.

Right until he came face-to-face with the Drasin.

“Go to rapid fire on all HVM banks,” Carrow ordered. “Tear them apart!”

“Captain,” Gracen spoke softly from behind him, “we should call in reinforcements.”

“They’ll never get here in time, Admiral,” Eric whispered in return. “You know that.”

“I know,” she nodded. “But they can finish what we’ve started. These things can’t be left to rebuild. You know what they can do.”

Eric nodded, looking down for a moment.

She was right. He knew it, but calling out the other ships was effectively calling them to their own slaughter. They had to kill every last one of the alien things, or it was for nothing, yet he knew that even all of the remaining ships had no chance of that.

If they stayed on Earth, however, eventually they would face hundreds . . . thousands . . . more.

“Susan,” Eric looked up.

“Yes sir?”

“Signal the other . . . Heroics,” he said, tasting the word for a moment. “Tell them our status, inform them . . .”

He sighed, taking a breath. “Inform them that we are requesting reinforcements.”

To finish what we’ve begun.

He didn’t say it, but he knew Jason Roberts well enough. The man would understand.

“Aye sir. By FTL?”

“Yes.”