The Iron Dice (Breach of Faith Book 7) by Daniel Gibbs & Gary T. Stevens

Author:Daniel Gibbs & Gary T. Stevens [Gibbs, Daniel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-12-12T16:00:00+00:00

21

As the seconds passed and they continued to survive the Jalm’tar attack, Piper appreciated more and more the skill Stepan showed at the helm. He may be a borderline misanthrope, but he’s damn good at this. Every maneuver was precisely calculated, as if it were a chess match and not a deadly combat between spacecraft.

“Port deflector’s turnin’ orange,” Vidia warned.

“And it looks like those missiles recognize that,” Markson added. “They’ve altered trajectories. Looks like they’re trying to ensure a hit to port.”

Stepan grunted a hurried “Acknowledged” without moving his head. He twisted the ship with the maneuvering drives and altered their course, putting their weakened port deflector away from the incoming missiles. The missiles corkscrewed and turned in response. As they drew closer, Stepan made a quick lateral shift with all of the starboard maneuvering drives. Their point-defense batteries filled the space between them and the missiles. Two blew up from impacts, and the others made sharp maneuvers to evade, throwing off their intercept courses. Stepan sent the Venture Star into a turning downward spin, allowing the point defenses to continue engaging the missiles until the last one finally went up.

The Jalm’tar were closer, their xaser fire becoming particularly heavy as they sought to “box in” the Venture Star. Stepan turned the ship on a new course and started another corkscrew maneuver with the lateral thrusters, turning and spinning the ship about to evade the incoming fire. It said something about their foes that even with his rapid maneuvering and the power of the Venture Star’s fusion drive, some of the xaser shots hit home.

“Deflectors still orange an’ yellow,” Vidia reported.

“Miss Lopez, maybe we should go on offense,” Markson suggested. “We’re packing this neutron cannon after all. We’ve got the punch.”

“They’re too close,” Piper replied. “While we hit one, the other two would get better firing angles on us.”

“At this rate, they will anyway unless we can jump out.”

“Still too soon,” Stepan protested. “Might be worth risk to attack.”

Piper considered the advice. I wish Captain Henry were here flashed through her head, a sentiment she couldn’t avoid. He would make the call easily and in a way that would work. But I can’t. I don’t see how we can maneuver to hit them without giving the others a better shot at us. We’re too far from help to risk heavy damage. No, we need to buy time. That means keeping our distance. “No.” She tried to sound firm but didn’t think it worked. Her stomach continued its steady twist that made her feel like puking. “Stepan, keep evading. We’ll shoot if one of them gets isolated enough, but we’re not exposing ourselves to create a shot.”

“Right. Maintaining evasive maneuvers.”

To her surprise, Stepan’s voice held no hint of reproach.

I hope I made the right call. She glanced toward Vidia. His display of their deflector status showed the starboard deflector shift to a deeper orange. They’d taken another hit. Please, God, let that have been the right call!

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