Aymes still couldn’t believe that the navarch had ordered her ships into a toe-to-toe match with the enemy, though he understood the tactic and it was starting to work in her favor. The numbers Third Recon brought to the fight would certainly have won the day against the three battle cruisers they’d originally tracked, and he rather believed that even the four destroyers and their antimatter weapons would not be quite enough to turn the tides, but the cost . . . by the endless abyss, the cost!

“Track the navarch’s ship,” he ordered his scanner tech. “Are they intact?”

“Streaming air, Captain, but no signs of breaking up. No drive power, however.”

Aymes grimaced. The last thing he wanted to do was bring his ship anywhere near a stricken ship that might have an unstable core, but he wasn’t certain he had much choice. “Give me a least-time intercept course.”

“As you order, Captain.”

If his subordinate’s tone was a little shaky, Aymes was inclined to ignore it. He wasn’t entirely confident his own was all that steady either.

►►►

AEV Odysseus

► It was hard to tell who was winning, Eric decided as he looked across the black field of battle and stared at the long list of transponders calling for help in the darkness. The enemy was tenacious, doggedly holding to the fight with courage enough for anyone, but he was in no particular mood to be impressed.

He was still angry. He could feel the emotions deep down in his gut, and Eric was now certain that he blamed the Empire. That anger would have worried him—would worry him later, he had little doubt—but for now he was inclined to let it bubble under the surface, where it was effectively keeping him from becoming sick at the destruction surrounding him.

Pulse torpedoes had effectively cleaned up whatever parasite ships the barrage of transition-cannon fire had missed and torn a few more of the cruisers to gutted hulks in the process. That lifted some of the weight off the Odysseus and the Bell, but they were still making their way through the backside of one of the heaviest bits of fighting he’d ever seen.

Even the Drasin hadn’t been like this, not even when they’d come in by the hundreds at the tail end of the invasion.

“We’re breaking through, Captain,” Miram told him.

Eric nodded.

The two forces had flung themselves at one another at relativistic speeds. Even decelerating massively just before contact hadn’t slowed them nearly enough to come to a stop relative to one another. The passing engagement was about to be over, and there would be a brief time to calculate their next option before they were again committed.

“I need damage reports for every ship we’ve still got,” he said. “Continue deceleration at maximum rates, and bring our guns around to maintain fire.”

“Aye Captain.”

►►►