He couldn’t decide if he was going to put her up for a commendation, given the sheer miraculous nature of some of the maneuvers she was executing, or have her charged with blatant recklessness. All he knew was that he wasn’t going to distract her with either option until the fighting was done, and as long as she still paid attention to his orders, the computers could go burn for all he cared.

“Captain, the Song-Jiang has engaged with transition cannons,” his communications officer said. “We’re being advised to stay clear of several fire lanes. Torpedoes inbound!”

“Send those to Lieutenant Commander Samuels!” he said, paling. “Mark no-fly zones on her MFD!”

“Roger that!”

Alexander checked the pilot’s multifunction display on his own repeater display as the new data appeared and highlighted several areas that the Boudicca would most certainly want to avoid in the coming moments. Luckily, they were all extremely thick with enemy activity, naturally, and he was fairly certain that Samuels wasn’t going to be tempted to get into another close quarters fight like that one anytime soon.

“Damage report,” he asked, leaning over to his first officer.

“We’re streaming atmosphere from practically every deck,” the commander said in clipped tones. “Without the Priminae generators, we’d have been dead a dozen times over by now.”

“I can see that,” Alexander replied. “Unfortunately, it appears clear that the enemy also has similar technology, and they still have us outnumbered. This is turning into a good old-fashioned Russian boxing match. It will come down to who bleeds out first, and while we may be cutting deeper, they’re cutting more. Try to get as many of those leaks plugged as possible. We need the power for lasers right now more than we need air.”

“We’ve got teams working on it, sir. We need time without being shot at to get it done though.”

“I will forward your request to the enemy, Commander.”

►►►

IBC Piar Cohn

► Aymes had almost no words for the sheer level of fighting that had erupted around him and his ship. The Cohn hadn’t escaped the carnage unscathed either. Though bleeding atmosphere from a dozen deep burns in its hull, the ship had managed to evade the initial barrage of charged antimatter. That maneuver had put the Cohn on the edge of the fighting.

He was now quite certain these were the same species who had been encountered at the Drasin megastructure. The smaller frigates made that clear. They were much closer in configuration and capabilities to the ship that had been scanned there.

That still demanded the answer of where, exactly, they had come from. They were certainly not Oathers either in technical skill or fighting prowess. He’d have been tempted to compare them to Imperials in their fighting, but Imperial crews weren’t remotely as insane as these people.

Most Imperial crews.