The task force had the power for that, but generating tachyons was fiddly work at best, so for the moment there was no way to maintain full real-time scans of the area—and even if they could, that would just provide his enemy with the same advantage.

“Fire out,” Milla called again. “Reloading.”

“Check fire,” Eric ordered. “Ensign Sams, paint the targets.”

“Check fire, aye,” Milla confirmed.

“Pulse out,” Sams answered. “Return . . . on screen.”

Eric looked up at the main display and instantly frowned. “Confirm scans.”

Sams bent closer to his station, frowning. “Pulse out. Return . . . scans confirmed, Captain.”

Eric shook his head. Something was very wrong.

“Lieutenant Chans,” he said softly, “confirm target priorities, please.”

“Aye Captain,” she said, sounding almost as perplexed as he was. “We fired five full barrages, spread across all lead elements of the enemy formation.”

“Then why am I seeing only one ship down . . . three others damaged, maybe?”

“Unknown, Captain. The cannons were on target, I am certain.”

Eric leaned back unhappily.

The transition cannons were finicky things, he knew. Ideally, they were the ultimate trump card. The ability to materialize a nuclear device within your enemy’s hull from light-minutes away, instantly no less, should be unbeatable. However, they’d just fired five full barrages from three Heroics and barely dented the enemy numbers.

Something had clearly gone wrong with the system.

“Systems check?” He looked over.

“All clear. Boudicca and Bellerophon confirm, all systems green,” Milla stated.

If it’s not on our side, then it’s on theirs . . . Eric thought about how one could defeat the transition cannons, something he had already proven to the brass back home could be done. Then he instantly grimaced. “Damn it.”

“Sir?” Miram asked.

“We never tested the system against a Heroic directly,” he said. “We should have.”

“Sir, why?”

“The singularity cores, Commander.” He shook his head. “The Drasin use a different power system, so the issue never showed up with them, but we’re trying to transition those shells right beside a rather intense gravity well. They’re not reforming, is my guess.”

Miram paled. “Sir . . . without the t-cannons . . .”

“We’re outnumbered, and one of our key trump cards isn’t quite the powerhouse we thought it was.” Eric exhaled deeply. “I know.”

►►►

IBC Shion Thon, Flagship, Third Reconnaissance Squadron

► “You will tell me just what in the abyss hit my squadron, and you will tell me now!” Misrem was very nearly in a fury, held in check only by the fact that they were facing combat and only a fool lost her temper before a real fight.

“We don’t know, My Lady. Something detonated within the hulls of the stricken vessels,” the analyst said shakily. “Scan data shows that the source of the explosions were most likely simple atomic devices. Small ones, but . . . inside a hull . . .”