The Void War (Empire Rising Book 1) Read Free Page B

here, even if we are at war. We can’t help Resolution so we’re going to have to think only of ourselves, as hard as that is. Getting this information back to the Admiralty could be more important than all the ships in our little convoy. Given how far into the system’s mass shadow we are I don’t think they’re going to let us get to use our jump drive, I do have a few ideas though.”
     
    Cromwell leaned in closer to his Commander to hear him outline his plan.
     
    *
     
     
    Aboard the Yang Wei, Zu was struggling to contain his anticipation. Both of the British warships were coming right for him. It would allow him to quickly dispatch them before the freighters and the other frigate could make their escape. “Hold fire until we enter optimal missile range,” he commanded.
     
    Zu knew the British had a slight advantage in missile range but he was gambling they would not want to fire the first shot. There was no way his opponents could know what their fleet was doing out here and as there had been no declaration of war there was no reason for the British ships to risk a diplomatic incident by opening fire first. That said, it was obvious the two British combat ships knew their business. They were putting themselves right between his two cruisers and the freighters they had been escorting.
     
    Speaking to his bridge crew Zu began to bark out orders. “Contact the Chao Yung , I want them to prepare to fire on my mark. Spread the missiles between both ships.”
                 
    Zu watched the range gradually drop. “Prepare to fire….Fire, missiles away.”
     
    As shouted the command to fire, Zu found himself sitting at the edge of his command chair. It would take over five minutes for the gunners to reload the missile tubes but he hoped that their first salvo would be enough to obliterate the British ships. With both pairs of ships accelerating towards each other it would only take another fifteen minutes for them to enter plasma cannon range. He smiled, he knew both British vessels would be space dust before then.
     
    “Impact in sixty seconds,” his weapons officer announced. “They still haven’t opened fire.”
     
    Dismissing his concern Zu leaned closer to the holo-display. At forty seconds out both British ships began to fire off counter missiles.
     
    Zu frowned. The frigate was putting out more than twice the amount of counter missiles intelligence said its class could. His twenty-two missiles had been reduced to ten. Then, in disbelief, Zu watched as the missiles entered the range of the close point defense batteries and all but one of his missiles disappeared off the gravimetric sensor screen before they reached their targets. The final missile detonated close to the British light cruiser but its gravimetric signal continued on strong.
     
    After a string of Chinese curse words Zu brought up the imagery of the battle. The two pairs of ships were so close now that he could almost watch the British counter missiles fire in real time. When the missiles were twenty seconds out, space around the both British ships lit up as they fired off their point defense plasma cannons. Zu’s frown deepened. Along with the bursts from the plasma cannons there were other explosions. They looked like, like, flak explosions he had seen from 20 th century war films. Quickly Zu zoomed in on the frigate and let out a final curse. The frigate only had a single missile tube down its flank. Instead of the customary second one it had two large railguns mounted fore and aft.
     
    “A flak ship,” he shouted. “That frigate is a dedicated flak ship! They are firing some kind of exploding shell! Order the next salvo to be targeted on the frigate and fire immediately.” Flak ships hadn’t been used in hundreds of years of warfare, not since wet navies had duked it out with airplanes back on Earth. It had been deemed that space was just too big and the velocities involved just too great for exploding flak rounds