Firewall by David Mack

Author:David Mack
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pocket Books/Star Trek
Published: 2024-02-27T00:00:00+00:00

Fenris Ranger Corsair Mjolnir

There was too much motion for Harper to track at once. A full squadron of prowlers, a fleet of nearly a dozen enemy warships, and three Ranger corsairs were all maneuvering for advantage. Mjolnir and its companion corsairs, Gungnir and Ancile, formed a blockade to defend Alta’s capital from an enemy barrage. The prowlers circled the enemy ships at high speed like an angry swarm, peppering them with particle-beam fire while the enemy ships rolled, yawed, and broke away on erratic headings, clearly bereft of direction from their command ship.

Then Kohgish’s fleet struck back with broad sprays of disruptor pulses meant to engulf the prowlers. Harper had to change tactics, fast. “Tactical! Increase the prowlers’ speed ten percent and switch to attack pattern Echo Wide.”

Kayd’s longtime partner Lucan Sagasta looked up from his combat station, which was next to Harper’s. “Kee? Echo uses precision maneuvers at three-quarter impulse. Push ’em that hard and Kohgish might figure out what we’re doing.”

“Then don’t give him time to think.” Harper turned away and raised his voice: “Tactical! All corsairs: Target the enemy frigate Eris! Full broadsides, three salvos. Fire!”

The entire ship thundered and quaked as its main guns unleashed hell. On the main screen, Eris’s shields flickered and dimpled beneath one brutal barrage after another.

Harper checked his chrono. Sixty seconds since Kohgish’s ultimatum. Only another sixty seconds until the warlord would make good on his next genocidal threat.

I just have to keep him busy and off-balance.

Sagasta silenced a shrill alert on his console. “Enemy fleet splitting up, flanking us.”

“Comms! Give the signal to abandon the blockade. Helm, come about, bearing one-one-seven mark nine, thirty degrees starboard yaw, half impulse! Tactical, shields double-front!”

A Ranger monitoring the sensors called out, “Torpedoes inbound!”

“Launch countermeasures! Helm, all ahead full!”

Sagasta winced as he declared, “Brace for impact!”

Deafening booms resounded inside Mjolnir and rocked its spaceframe, hurling half the command crew across the deck and into bulkheads, consoles, and one another. The overhead lights and the viewscreens all went dark for half a second, and the consoles dimmed until the rumbling in the ship’s hull abated.

“Shields holding,” Sagasta said. “But another hit like that could cripple us.”

“Understood.” Harper pulled himself up, using his console for support. “Tactical! Prowlers to full speed, active defense, attack pattern Victor!”

The Ranger executed the order as he confirmed it: “Active defense, attack pattern Victor, aye.” Looking up from his console he added, “Prowlers engaging enemy fleet.”

“On-screen.”

It was beautiful sight, one of the loveliest Harper had ever seen: two dozen prowlers dodging and banking through flurries of pulsed disruptor fire at breakneck speeds, slashing fiery wounds in the enemy ships’ hulls with elegant sweeping blasts from their particle cannons, and then spiraling away in seemingly random directions before regrouping and attacking again from a completely different vector. On the prowlers’ next pass, one of Kohgish’s ships broke in half and exploded, destroying another of the warlord’s vessels as collateral damage.

Harper couldn’t help but smile. I love when a plan comes together.

He stole a glance at the chrono.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.