“There’s a black market for everything, I guess, Skipper.”
The two vessels took another firing pass at the carrier, purple beams lashing their shields along with oblong directed-energy charges.
Tehrani waited for Master One to get closer. “TAO, firing point procedures, forward neutron beams, Master One.”
“Firing solutions set, ma’am.”
Closer. Closer. That’s it. “Match bearings, shoot, forward neutron beams.”
The neutron emitters on the bow of the Greengold glowed, and two lances of blue erupted from them. Moving at the speed of light, they connected with the enemy vessel's shields, which held and shimmered, radiating energy into the void.
“Conn, TAO. Master One deflector cohesion weakening on fore and starboard quarters.”
A full-power blast should’ve pierced their shields and blown half that ship’s hull off. Tehrani frowned. “TAO, conduct a deep scan of Master One. I specifically want to know how strong their power source is.”
“Aye, aye, ma’am.”
The incoming corvettes, which had reversed their course, were in the process of another high-speed firing pass. As the enemy ships reentered weapons range, the Marcus Luttrell came alongside the Greengold. She’d finally caught up to the carrier and fully charged her weapons.
“Communications, direct Sierra Two to join us in an alpha strike on Master One,” Tehrani said as she took note of the escorting destroyer’s position. “TAO, firing point procedures, forward neutron beams, Master One.”
“Firing solutions set, ma’am.”
“Acknowledgment received from the Marcus Luttrell, ma’am,” Singh replied.
“Match bearings, shoot, forward neutron beams.”
As Tehrani uttered the words, another wave of formed mesons slammed into the Greengold’s weakened shields. On the tactical display she was monitoring, their forward deflector strength dropped under five percent. Simultaneously, the Marcus Luttrell opened up with everything it had—neutron beams, magnetic-cannon rounds, and Starbolt anti-ship missiles. The carrier added its energy weapons to the fray, and between the two vessels, they battered the enemy corvette.
“Conn, TAO. Master One deflectors have failed. She’s taking armor hits, ma’am,” Bryan said with a glance backward.
The corvette maintained course and speed, barreling toward the Zvika Greengold. Tehrani started to question whether its crew was planning to ram them before a bright spear of blue energy erupted from the enemy vessel’s bow and punched through the Greengold’s nonexistent energy barrier. The impact was enough to throw everyone on the bridge around in their harnesses, and a few unlucky enlisted personnel not strapped into their seats went flying to the deck.
“Damage report, XO,” Tehrani barked.
“Localized armor failure on the bow. Neutron beam emitters offline.” Wright turned to her. “That was a destroyer-strength neutron beam, ma’am.”
Another volley of mag-cannon fire and more anti-ship missiles lashed out from the Marcus Luttrell, and finally, the enemy corvette broke off. Tehrani felt her face grow warm as she mentally worked the problem. Something felt very wrong about what they were up against.
“Four Maulers just hit the flight line, ma’am. They’re ready to launch on your order,” Wright interjected. “A few Javelins might even up the odds out there.”
“Do it,” Tehrani replied.
“Conn, TAO. We’re close enough to extend our shields around Sierra One, ma’am.”
“Navigation, present our starboard quarter to the enemy. TAO, lower the forward shield and conduct an emergency recharge.”
“Aye, aye, ma’am,” Mitzner replied. As she spoke, the carrier began to shift position, and changing star positions were visible through the windows at the front of the bridge.
“XO, get me an estimate immediately of how long it will take to get the civilian vessel ready to jump.”
“Aye, aye, ma’am.”
Even though they were up against pirates who, by their very nature, lacked logistical support and fought solely for easy cargo to sell to the highest bidder, Tehrani couldn’t help but feel outmatched. They outgun us, and the esprit de corps displayed rivals the CDF’s. She hoped the bombers would tilt the scale of combat in their direction for good.
5
Heat-seeking missiles of an unknown model flashed by Justin’s fighter, narrowly taking the flares he’d deployed that burned brighter than the surface of a star. Too close. The battle was chaotic, with the surprisingly nimble pirate fighters—closer to heavy fighters because of their size—buzzing around the battle space.
“I’m not getting recognition in my tactical computer for any of the enemy craft,” Feldstein said, her voice crackling over the commlink. “But specific subsystems are human-built.”
“We’ll have time for intelligence analysis later,” Justin said through gritted teeth as the g-forces got to him in a high-speed, high-energy turn. “Now let’s focus on survival.”
All around him, Alpha element traded fire with hostile fighters and attempted to cover the Boars of Beta element as they made an attack run on Master One.
One of the enemy craft swung through Justin’s forward arc, and he picked it out as his next target. He flipped the stores selector to a LIDAR-tracking Vulture missile and enabled linked launch. The moment the lock-on tone sounded, he squeezed the button for launch. “Alpha One, fox three.”
The warheads dropped from the Sabre’s weapons bay and raced toward the enemy, a plume of fire from its engines visible for several seconds. Justin’s target made no attempt to evade. The LIDAR tracker smacked into the hostile craft’s shields, exploding in a bright-orange ball of flame.
To Justin’s surprise, the shield power indicator only dropped twenty percent. Some of them have upgraded deflectors too. “Alpha One to Alpha element. A few of these bandits have super-juiced shields. Be careful.”
“Alpha Three to Alpha One. File that under no shit, Sherlock, sir,” Mateus replied. She sounded harried rather than her usual calm, cool, and collected self.
Enough of this. Justin whipped his Sabre back toward the bandit he’d been pursuing and toggled his missile selector to Eagle heat seekers while simultaneously changing it to launch two warheads. Blessed with a favorable intercept vector, he squeezed the launch button. “Alpha One, fox two.”
The enemy deployed a few dozen flares before it kicked on its afterburner. Intense glare from the brightly burning decoys momentarily caused Justin to become disoriented before his helmet automatically adjusted its light filter. Unexpectedly, the hostile contact reversed course and accelerated sharply. What the hell? Purple energy weapons flashed
