accelerating at three gees rather than one.
“Five will get you fifty the lead ships are Yi’s,” Jack whispered softly to Kris.
“No bet,” Kris said, eyeing the rough readouts. The probe through the jump point had a very thin bandwidth. She could tell where the reactors were. She could make out the difference between the huge reactors that powered an alien warship and the smaller power plants of the human frigates. Beyond that, not so much.
For the ships in her fleet, Kris’s battle boards showed full status. For the ships in the other system, Kris could only guess which frigates were which. Rear Admiral Bethea had fought with Kris before. Kris trusted her.
Vice Admiral Yi was a totally different can of worms.
Assuming Vice Admiral Yi had his task force out front, he seemed way too eager to match his ships with their 22-inch lasers and special armor against the aliens. Rear Admiral Bethea’s sixteen ships had armor that only last year had been considered top-of-the-line. Her 20-inch lasers had been the same, but now fell forty thousand kilometers short of the longer-ranging 22-inchers.
Kris ground her teeth as a dish of thirty massive alien warships charged Yi. As they came in range, he killed half,but the others soon closed the distance and were slashing at his ships with more lasers than any ship had a right to own. The alien lasers had a shorter reach than the humans’, but they had plenty of them.
Yi’s warships would be glowing like stars as their unique armor caught the lasers, slowed them down, distributed them along the hull, then radiated them back into space.
“I think the fribbing stuff just might work,” Admiral Furzah purred. Nelly’s translator could handle most of what she said. Some things Nelly just didn’t bother converting.
For a moment, Kris held her breath. More alien ships blew away into gas.
Then one, two, three Earth ships exploded in rapid succession.
The alien dish was gone, but so were three Earth ships.
Four more dishes of alien warships were coming up quickly.
“Flip ship, you damn bastard,” Kris snapped through gritted teeth.
Yi couldn’t have heard her, but the logic of her position was unarguable.
The survivors of the two Earth squadrons flipped ship and decelerated until Admiral Bethea came up even with them. Now they formed a square of squadrons.
Now they took the aliens under fire at long range and blew them away while the aliens’ lasers could do them no harm.
Gradually, the Earth squadrons cooled. Maybe Vice Admiral Yi would live long enough for her to give him the first major dressing-down of her short Navy career.
Taking a deep breath, Kris took her seat at the foot of the table, the place that gave her the best view of the screens. On them, the alien dishes began to wilt as they took hits they could not reply to. A few ships put on extra gees, trying to close the distance.
They died.
A few of the speedsters, likely armed with atomics, shot out.
They were vaporized.
Someone decided they’d had enough. The dishes began to fall back.
“Well, it seems that the first phase of our battle is over,” Kris said. “Anyone want to guess what the alien Enlightened One will do next?”
Kris’s eyes polled those around the table. The only consensus was a shrug.
3
In the target system, the situation continued to develop with the momentum of molasses in January. Now, all but a handful of alien warships had interposed themselves between their mother ship and the attacking human frigates.
Four dishes of thirty huge warships engaged each of the four squadrons of six to eight frigates. It was a running gunfight, with the frigates gunning for a change and aliens running.
Lately, the aliens had taken to installing rock armor on their ships. These seemed to have it even thicker. Still, most of their armor was at the bow, and they were running. Their huge rockets and reactors could not be armored.
So the aliens tried variations on the retreat theme. A
“Five will get you fifty the lead ships are Yi’s,” Jack whispered softly to Kris.
“No bet,” Kris said, eyeing the rough readouts. The probe through the jump point had a very thin bandwidth. She could tell where the reactors were. She could make out the difference between the huge reactors that powered an alien warship and the smaller power plants of the human frigates. Beyond that, not so much.
For the ships in her fleet, Kris’s battle boards showed full status. For the ships in the other system, Kris could only guess which frigates were which. Rear Admiral Bethea had fought with Kris before. Kris trusted her.
Vice Admiral Yi was a totally different can of worms.
Assuming Vice Admiral Yi had his task force out front, he seemed way too eager to match his ships with their 22-inch lasers and special armor against the aliens. Rear Admiral Bethea’s sixteen ships had armor that only last year had been considered top-of-the-line. Her 20-inch lasers had been the same, but now fell forty thousand kilometers short of the longer-ranging 22-inchers.
Kris ground her teeth as a dish of thirty massive alien warships charged Yi. As they came in range, he killed half,but the others soon closed the distance and were slashing at his ships with more lasers than any ship had a right to own. The alien lasers had a shorter reach than the humans’, but they had plenty of them.
Yi’s warships would be glowing like stars as their unique armor caught the lasers, slowed them down, distributed them along the hull, then radiated them back into space.
“I think the fribbing stuff just might work,” Admiral Furzah purred. Nelly’s translator could handle most of what she said. Some things Nelly just didn’t bother converting.
For a moment, Kris held her breath. More alien ships blew away into gas.
Then one, two, three Earth ships exploded in rapid succession.
The alien dish was gone, but so were three Earth ships.
Four more dishes of alien warships were coming up quickly.
“Flip ship, you damn bastard,” Kris snapped through gritted teeth.
Yi couldn’t have heard her, but the logic of her position was unarguable.
The survivors of the two Earth squadrons flipped ship and decelerated until Admiral Bethea came up even with them. Now they formed a square of squadrons.
Now they took the aliens under fire at long range and blew them away while the aliens’ lasers could do them no harm.
Gradually, the Earth squadrons cooled. Maybe Vice Admiral Yi would live long enough for her to give him the first major dressing-down of her short Navy career.
Taking a deep breath, Kris took her seat at the foot of the table, the place that gave her the best view of the screens. On them, the alien dishes began to wilt as they took hits they could not reply to. A few ships put on extra gees, trying to close the distance.
They died.
A few of the speedsters, likely armed with atomics, shot out.
They were vaporized.
Someone decided they’d had enough. The dishes began to fall back.
“Well, it seems that the first phase of our battle is over,” Kris said. “Anyone want to guess what the alien Enlightened One will do next?”
Kris’s eyes polled those around the table. The only consensus was a shrug.
3
In the target system, the situation continued to develop with the momentum of molasses in January. Now, all but a handful of alien warships had interposed themselves between their mother ship and the attacking human frigates.
Four dishes of thirty huge warships engaged each of the four squadrons of six to eight frigates. It was a running gunfight, with the frigates gunning for a change and aliens running.
Lately, the aliens had taken to installing rock armor on their ships. These seemed to have it even thicker. Still, most of their armor was at the bow, and they were running. Their huge rockets and reactors could not be armored.
So the aliens tried variations on the retreat theme. A
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