► Navarch Plotu found herself intrigued by the new contact that was closing in on them confidently. Oh, the previous target they’d eliminated had certainly been courageous enough, but its tactics had plainly been intended to draw them out and away from the local planet. If not for that, she had no doubt that they would have tried to avoid contact.

Such was a natural and, more importantly, sane state of mind for an outnumbered vessel.

This new contact, however intense its gravity signature was, seemed all too eager for an engagement. That concerned her deeply, but she’d seen enough in her career to put her trust in her squadron, even over the unknown.

The imagery was still coming together, but in another few moments she’d have her first view of this new foe. From there she would be able to properly analyze the situation.

“Active scanner pulse,” her scanner tech called.

Or I will be able to see them right now.

“Signature separation, Captain—it’s three ships!”

Misrem leaned forward, lips pressing together as she smiled thinly and watched the image on the displays turn from one intense gravity signature to three still quite-powerful ships spreading out slowly from one another.

Oh, very impressive. Timing was perfect, and the flying skill . . . She took a moment to admire the precision involved, both on the part of the pilots and the drive crews that had to keep those ships from interacting negatively with one another.

“Pity,” she said aloud, shaking her head.

“Excuse me, ma’am?” her second asked, glancing over.

“I just said that it is a pity,” she repeated. “All that marvelous precision in timing and maneuvering, and what did it really gain them? There are still only three ships, and they are about to run dead into Third Recon. ‘Dead’ being the operative word, yes?”

“Yes, My Lady.”

She was still smiling right up to the point that explosions rocked three of her vessels, crippling two outright and sending a third entirely into the next universe in the blink of an eye. Alarms—most of which she didn’t even recognize—screamed across every deck of her ship.

Misrem was in a state of disbelief.

“What the abyss was that?” she swore, right before issuing orders without fully understanding what was happening. “Evasion pattern, execute!”

►►►

AEV Odysseus

► “Fire out,” Milla said from her station.

“Repeat,” Eric said sharply.

The Odysseus and her sister ships went to continuous fire with the transition cannons, sending barrage after barrage of nuclear devices instantly downrange. The FTL nature of the transition cannons made them a terrifying first-strike weapon, but it also meant that Eric couldn’t see the precise results of each shot without again painting the system with FTL scanners.