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Chapters (30)
  1. Title Page
  2. Copyright Page
  3. CONTENTS
  4. PROLOGUE
  5. CHAPTER 1
  6. CHAPTER 2
  7. CHAPTER 3
  8. CHAPTER 4
  9. CHAPTER 5
  10. CHAPTER 6
  11. CHAPTER 7
  12. CHAPTER 8
  13. CHAPTER 9
  14. CHAPTER 10
  15. CHAPTER 11
  16. CHAPTER 12
  17. CHAPTER 13
  18. CHAPTER 14
  19. CHAPTER 15
  20. CHAPTER 16
  21. CHAPTER 17
  22. CHAPTER 18
  23. CHAPTER 19
  24. CHAPTER 20
  25. CHAPTER 21
  26. CHAPTER 22
  27. CHAPTER 23
  28. CHAPTER 24
  29. CHAPTER 25
  30. ABOUT THE AUTHOR

That wasn’t much, Steph knew well. He figured he had about the same, probably a little less, and he wondered if surrendering to the enemy would’ve been a better plan than taking their chances out on an alien moon. Surrender wasn’t in his nature, however. He’d seen too many people come back from POW camps in the war and had no illusions of what his fellow man could do to him. He therefore had no desire to see what aliens could do.

“Steph?” Milla called to him.

“What?” He turned back to her, finding her looking at the bottoms of her feet one at a time.

“I do not think the suit will hold for six hours.” She pointed to where her boots were smoking.

“Crap,” Steph growled, checking his own boots.

The ground was hot enough that it was starting to affect the composites they were wearing. He cast a glance around, looking for an alternative, but frankly, there weren’t many to pick from. Finally, he spotted a smooth plateau some distance off and pointed that way.

“Come on, let’s move.”

CHAPTER 13

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CHAPTER 13

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AEV Odysseus

► The Odysseus was running at flank speed, putting off turnaround as long as it could as it plunged toward the gas giant. Eric was almost physically having to prevent himself from pacing the command deck, something he’d never had to worry about when he’d had a fighter strapped to his back. But making the crew nervous wouldn’t do anyone any good, especially not Steph or Milla.

The alien ship was burning on a turnaround of its own, but Eric wasn’t sure the opposing crew had their hearts in it. Their acceleration seemed lower than it should have been, and he realized it was possible that the enemy vessel had taken a bit more damage than he thought in the passing engagement.

It made little sense for the attackers to put off the fight if they were actually intent on a second engagement. The only thing Eric could come up with was that they were running repairs and wanted the extra time.

Certainly, the Odysseus itself could do with a few extra days, or weeks, and a good shipyard.

The enemy lasers had every inch the power he’d come to expect from Priminae-level beams, but they also clearly shared the same weakness the Priminae weapons had had until they’d traded tech with Earth. Overwhelming power, but single-frequency beams. Easy enough to adapt to and rarely perfectly suited to any given target. The Odysseus could maximize power efficiency by focusing its own beams on a narrow band that would be absorbed by the target.

That made its lasers hundreds of times more effective.

Unfortunately, the little pocket destroyers didn’t use the same beam frequencies as the mother ship, so the Odysseus had been mauled in the passing engagement as well.