Eyes of Tomorrow (Duchy of Terra Book 9) by Glynn Stewart

Author:Glynn Stewart [Stewart, Glynn]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Publisher: Faolan's Pen Publishing
Published: 2021-04-26T16:00:00+00:00

“Missile range in thirty seconds,” !Pana announced calmly. “All defensive drones are deployed.” She paused. “Are we clear of incoming singularity fire?”

“We should be,” Morgan replied. “My team has numbers on the missiles on the remaining ships. We’re estimating the Cat-Threes at an average of a thousand launchers and the Cat-Fours at five thousand. Total is four hundred thousand launchers on the Cat-Fours.

“Our scans and opticals suggest these guys carried the biggest chunk of their launchers.”

The four Category Fives had carried almost a quarter-million launchers between them, with the remaining three hundred and fifty thousand launchers spreading over nine hundred Category Threes and Twos.

“Bucklers and shields will hold,” Tan!Shallegh said calmly. “They have neither. This should be…short.”

“We can hope,” Morgan agreed. Her consoles were already running through the range estimates on a Category Four’s plasma bursts, and she didn’t like what she saw.

“Shotilik, confirm these numbers,” she ordered.

The missile launches started. Both Swarm Bravo and the combined fleets fired simultaneously—and Morgan’s team’s analysis appeared to be perfect. Exact numbers were impossible, but roughly four hundred thousand missiles were heading toward them.

And the combined fleet sent a million missiles back. She had never seen firepower deployed on that scale before, and she’d been present for the Battle of Arjtal, where the Imperium had fielded its largest Grand Fleet prior to the one she was aboard now.

“Orders to the fleets,” Tan!Shallegh said suddenly, clearly in coordination with the other two fleet commanders. “We will advance to maximum hyperfold-cannon range while sustaining full-rate missile fire.”

Morgan swallowed and checked her console.

“I have the same numbers, Captain,” her Rekiki subordinate told her. “So does Ito. The Cat-Fours’ plasma bursts will sustain integrity to twenty light-seconds.”

Six million kilometers. A million kilometers longer than the range of the hyperfold cannons carried by the allied fleet—and while the hyperfold cannons’ shots were instantaneous and hence more accurate, the combined fleets were a very large target.

“Fleet Lord, we estimate that many of the larger units can engage us from beyond our hyperfold-cannon range,” she told Tan!Shallegh. “We’ve been revising the numbers based on everything we’ve seen today.”

“Understood,” the Fleet Lord said levelly. “!Pana, Grand Fleet ships will increase evasive maneuvers. Etri, make sure our allies know.”

The incoming missiles were melting away under the fire of the defensive drones, but the range was already dropping. Morgan was about to ask why they didn’t change the plan—but the vectors gave her the answer.

It was already too late to adjust velocities. It would take six seconds to reverse the fleets’ courses…and those six seconds would take them to the edge of six million kilometers, where Swarm Bravo’s velocity advantage would bring them into range within moments anyway.

They’d run the numbers too late.

Morgan watched as the two forces hurtled together and plasma fire began to blink on the screens exactly as her team had predicted. The Category Threes were firing as well, but their plasma bursts lost containment before reaching the fleet.

The bigger bioforms’ weapons didn’t—and the organization of the combined fleet meant that their fire almost inevitably ended up focused on only one component of the allied force.

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