Milla unconsciously tugged on her seat’s restraints, assuring herself that they were strapped and taut, though in all truth they probably wouldn’t do much good. There was a relatively narrow window during which restraints were both useful and nonlethal, and she knew that without the CM generators operating to reduce the effective mass, and thus the inertia of the shuttle and its occupants, being crushed under acceleration was a real possibility.

So when Steph told her that things were about to become “fun,” Milla just really wished that his definition of fun were not so removed from her own.

►►►

PC Parasite Five

► “Bracket them and fire. Try to disable them, if you can,” Penae ordered. “Still, I would rather have them falling through the atmosphere in shards than exiting in one piece.”

“On your orders, Subaltern!”

The parasite frigate shook as its missiles were ejected out into the atmosphere of the gas giant, lancing on ahead of them. The shock waves of missiles crashing through their own sonic bubble rocked the vessel again. Penae watched as cloud trails condensed in the weapons’ wake, pressure waves sucking water from the air.

Six, ten, twenty—enough missiles rocketed away to bracket the enemy craft twice over, but he wasn’t certain it would be enough.

The pilot was clearly skilled and certainly reckless, a bad combination to face off against. Not a great combination to have on your own side either, in all honesty.

He and the crew of the frigate watched as the condensation trails from the missiles lanced out, arcing upward toward the target vessel. As the first three tracked in on the enemy, a burst of explosive energy caused Penae to flinch away and, for a split second, wonder if the craft had been struck ahead of his projections.

The screens equalized quickly, however, and he saw that a series of explosive bursts had been launched from the craft. Then he realized what he was seeing.

“Countermeasures.” He nodded before speaking up. “Are they effective?”

“Not appreciably, Subaltern,” his weapons officer answered. “We’ve lost some resolution on the lead missile, but the swarm is effectively immune.”

That was unsurprising, but he had wanted to be certain. The missiles they had fired worked in conjunction with one another, feeding each other data and sharing information as much as possible. The lead missile would be the most susceptible to countermeasures, but the overall swarm would quickly compensate.

The missiles blew through the countermeasures, only the first one detonating prematurely as its scanners were fooled into thinking the target was closer than it was.

It was a decent try, Penae thought idly as he watched the remaining missiles home in.