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  On the main holostage, Pretorius watched the Scorpio turn. Corvettes from the Scepter’s group moved into position. Pretorius sent a message to the commanders of the two small but powerful gunships.

  “Corvette Commanders. Take position above the Scorpio’s upper hull. Ready all weapons and target the Skalidion swarm. Fire on my command.”

  Captain Pretorius was the senior officer of the more powerful vessel. It was protocol that he would conduct the battle, and neither Corvette commander questioned Pretorius’s order. Pretorius watched as the two corvettes slipped smoothly into position, aligning themselves over the Scorpio and presenting their port-side hail cannon to the oncoming Skalidion.

  Pretorius watched the range finder on the main holostage. The range of the Skalidion fighter’s green fire weapon was well-known to the fleet. It was not as great as the hail cannon. Pretorius intended to utterly destroy the Skalidion swarm before they had a chance to bring any weapons into range.

  “Fire.” Pretorius clenched his fist as he watched the first salvo leap forward from the Scorpio and the two corvettes. Huge swathes of space were filled with the high-density hail racing away toward the Skalidion fighters. The hail slammed into the swarm. Tiny fragments punched through the Skalidion fighter craft, their green energy weapons and drive systems erupting in fierce green explosions that lit up the stellar void, the light flickering over the hull of the Scorpio.

  With the second salvo launched from the Scorpio and her support corvettes, the Skalidion scattered. They moved in jerky motions, cutting this way and that as they attempted to evade the kinetic hail. Another dozen Skalidion fighters were snatched from the void in burning green balls of incandescent fire. Pretorius leaned forward in his chair as half the Skalidion fighters moved in even closer. The high-energy lasers on the Scorpio lanced out across black space. The beams lit up momentarily, each connecting with a Skalidion fighter and vaporizing it instantly.

  The Skalidion swarm swept down, attempting to drop below the fire coming from the Scorpio and the corvettes above her upper hull. Pretorius saw the maneuver. He set the Scorpio’s orientation, sending instructions to the flight console to rotate the Scorpio about its long axis.

  Watching on the main holostage, Pretorius saw the Scorpio twist slowly, keeping its port-side batteries trained on the flight of Skalidions as they tried to dip below the lower hull. Another salvo of kinetic hail roared away, aimed ahead of the Skalidions as they dropped lower in an attempt to flank the Scorpio. The kinetic hail slammed into the swarm.

  With only a dozen Skalidion fighters still advancing, Pretorius knew he had won, but now his ship was in range of the green fire. The Skalidion turned and headed directly for the Scorpio.

  “Corvettes move to flank the Skalidion swarm and finish them. Scorpio hull stability field transfer maximum shielding to the port-side hull.”

  Pretorius watched as the remaining Skalidion fighters fired their weapons. The corvettes moved away from their position above the Scorpio. As the green fire slammed into the Scorpio’s hull stability field, the corvettes’ hail cannon rounds slammed into the Skalidion fighters. A final ripple of green fire across the Scorpio brought an end to the skirmish.

  “Corvettes, set your heading back to the fleet and return at best speed. Looks like we’ve got them all. Good work, Commanders. Scorpio out.”

  With the corvettes leaving the Scorpio behind, the huge destroyer adjusted its course. Pretorius checked the extreme range of his sensor field. A large signal was detected travelling at forty-five degrees to his position—heading towards the fleet’s extreme port flank was a vast swarm of Skalidion fighters. At this range, they were far too indistinct to calculate numbers, but this swarm was clearly much, much bigger than the swarm he had just dispatched.

  Opening a channel to the Scepter, Pretorius set an intercept course. Group Captain Tanaka appeared on the main holostage.

  “I have detected a larger Skalidion swarm, Group Captain,” Pretorius said. “Sending you position, heading, and speed now. It looks like it’s attempting to get onto the fleet’s port flank.”

  “We have a civilian transport falling out of formation and moving away to our port side. It looks like the Skalidion are moving in on that ship. Take the Scorpio and protect the transport. Tanaka out.”

  Pretorius stood from his command chair and tugged his cuffs.

  “Set an intercept course for that swarm. We can intercept them before they reach that civilian transport if we engage at maximum drive.” Pretorius sent the ship-wide communication, his voice echoing over the command deck as well as over every communication node throughout the ship. “This is the captain. All hands remain at your combat stations. Prepare to engage the enemy again. We are moving to engage another, larger Skalidion swarm and defend a civilian transport. Prepare for combat maneuvering. All weapons stand by for action. Pretorius out.”

  Looking at the main holostage, Pretorius studied the formation of the three signals. Orientated in a line away from Pretorius was the image of the Scorpio pointing towards the center of the holostage. Away to the port was the massed Skalidion swarm racing on a direct heading towards the civilian transport. The civilian transport lay across the holoimage, its starboard side pointing towards Pretorius. It was moving away at its maximum speed. This civilian transport was not a floundering craft. Possibly the captain had panicked and was attempting to flee, or there was some other reason why it was trying to leave the fleet.

  As the Skalidion swarm closed in, the Scorpio’s sensor grid was able to pick out individual signals.

  “Assume for a moment,” Pretorius called to his sensor officer, “that the Skalidion signal is made up of Skalidion fighters, configurations we’re familiar with, how many fighters are in that swarm?”

  The sensor officer studied his console and ran the analysis according to Pretorius’s instructions. He looked up at the captain, his face white.

  “How many?” Pretorius said.

  But the officer did not need to answer. Pretorius could tell by his reaction that it was a very large swarm indeed. And then, as the Scorpio moved in closer, heading across space to put itself between the Skalidion swarm and the civilian transport, the sensor network was able to resolve the image and present the data on the holostage.

  Pretorius fell back in his chair as the number ‘one thousand’ appeared on the holoimage above the signal on the holostage.

  “Time to intercept?” Pretorius asked.

  The holostage processed the captain’s question and projected their course, speed, and time to intercept on the holostage—a bright orange light line indicating the Scorpio’s course and a green box where the Scorpio would intercept the Skalidion swarm. Five minutes to intercept.

  Pretorius tugged his cuffs. “All stations report status.” Pretorius climbed down from his command chair and walked to the holostage.

  As all combat and support stations throughout the Scorpio responded with their status reports, Pretorius zoomed in on the civilian ship. He needed to get a signal to that ship if he was to save them. They needed to return to the fleet immediately.

  “Communications officer,” Pretorius said, leaning on the side of the holostage, “put me through to that civilian transport’s command deck as soon as we are in range.”

  Sitting in the command chair of the civilian transport, Beretta tapped the armrest console. He was surrounded by his henchmen, but he still needed to do everything himself. These men were good at bending a bar manager’s arm to get a tribute payment, and they were pretty good at cracking heads whenever Beretta told them to, but as far as crewing a starship, they were about as much use as a burnt-out power pack.

  “There must be some kind of transport ship, a shuttle craft, even an escape pod, krav it. There must be something I can use.”

  Searching through the civilian transport’s stores was hopeless. Even though the civilians were starving and supplies of every kind were low, the store manifest was still far too long for Beretta to scroll throug
h manually.

  And then he found a supply vessel currently grounded due to a faulty outer hatch. Beretta punched the air.

  “Yes,” he said triumphantly. “I won’t need an atmosphere on that ship. I just need the drive systems to work.”

  Beretta bypassed a few safety protocols and authorized the launch. He could do it all from his command chair. He powered up the supply ship and opened the cargo bay doors. Beretta watched the surveillance feed on his armrest holostage. The cargo ship was ready to fly.

  All he needed was to wait for the right moment.

  “Civilian transport, this is Captain Pretorius of the Fleet Destroyer Scorpio. Skalidion swarm inbound. You are in danger. Set your heading to return to the fleet. The Scorpio will attempt to engage the Skalidion so you may escape. Civilian transport, respond please.”

  Pretorius waited for a moment, but somehow, he knew he would not receive a response. If the civilian captain on that ship had gone this far and this fast, it was not by accident. But still, Pretorius’s duty was clear. There were thousands of civilians on that ship who would become the victims of the Skalidion unless the Scorpio engaged.

  A barely audible signal from the civilian transport crackled to life from the communication console. Pretorius walked over and stood next to the communications officer.

  It was a voice he had not expected to hear.

  “Scorpio. This is Major Forge. The civilian transport has been hijacked by the pirate Lou Beretta. We are attempting to regain control of the vessel. If you have any means of sending a Marine boarding party to reinforce my group, then do so with all speed. Captain Pretorius, it’s good to see you.”

  Jack Forge listened closely for the reply from the Scorpio. Sam and Special Agent Kitt sat on either side of him.

  “Captain Pretorius won’t leave you without trying to assist,” Sam said.

  “I can order him to send Marine reinforcements,” Kitt said.

  The reply from Pretorius came through. Jack kept the volume low, since the horde outside the supply room door became more agitated when they heard noise.

  “Major Forge, this is Pretorius. Not surprised to discover you are on that ship. But I have to disappoint you, can’t send reinforcements. I am about to engage a thousand-strong Skalidion fighter swarm. I’ll stop them if I can, I’ll be able to slow them for sure, but if the people on that civilian transport have any hope of surviving, you will have to get them back to the fleet. Good luck, son.”

  “Let me talk to him,” Kitt said.

  “The captain would help us if he could,” Jack said. “He’s got a job to do. And so have we. We need to take the command deck.”

  Watching the range finder on the holostage, Pretorius could see he was seconds away from engaging the Skalidion swarm. He walked back to his command chair and sat down, accessing his tactical interface on the command chair’s armrest.

  “All gun batteries, weapons free. Weapons free. Fire at will. Full power to the laser emitters. Direct all hull stability field power to the port-side flank. Pretorius out.”

  The Scorpio continued on its heading, cutting directly across the face of the Skalidion swarm with less than half an astro unit between the swarm and the civilian transport.

  The Scorpio’s weapons lit up in a flickering, dazzling display. The upper and lower laser assemblies discharged their first beams simultaneously. The second beams, half a second later, were all coordinated within a nanosecond of each other. As the third and fourth beams struck out from each assembly, the drift crept in until by the thirteenth beam, fired within the first five seconds of the battle, the drift between the fastest and slowest laser assembly was almost half a second. With every beam, a Skalidion fighter was vaporized. The laser assemblies’ beams flickered over the surface of the Scorpio, lighting up her hull as it shimmered under the intense hull stability field focused on that flank.

  The hail cannon blasted out gouts of kinetic hail in a single massive broadside. The hail raced forward, scattering high-density shots across the front of the swarm. Hail fragments collided with Skalidion fighters, smashing into them and sending them tumbling off course, spinning and spewing green fire from their weapons assembly and drive systems. The front of the swarm was alight with exploding fighters torn apart by kinetic hail and vaporized by the high-powered laser beams that flickered like perfectly straight bolts of lightning across dark space.

  Pretorius rocked in his command chair as the first fire from the Skalidion swarm slammed home. The green fire rippled over the hull stability field, angled to deflect the ordnance harmlessly into space. Pretorius checked the status of all his weapons. All laser assemblies and port-side cannons were functioning to a high degree of efficiency.

  He knew he could only maintain the fire for so long, though. Soon the port-side hail batteries would slow from thermal load, and the human crew that served the guns would tire. To maintain this intensity, Pretorius would need to spread the load for his hail cannons across the ship.

  The Skalidion fighter swarm took terrible damage, and their number was reduced by twenty percent in the first few seconds, but now the green fire was raining down. The collision with the stability field interfered with targeting systems. The ship was shunted off course fraction by fraction, and that also affected targeting. Now the losses in the Skalidion swarm were slowing.

  Pretorius saw the drop in efficiency from his forward port-side hail cannon. It only dropped a fraction behind the best operating cannon, but that drop was just the first, and soon all hail cannon batteries on the port side would show a similar reduction.

  Pretorius set the Scorpio to roll.

  The Scorpio rotated about its long axis to bring its starboard hail cannons into the fight. The crews there were fresh and anxious to get into the fight, the cannons primed and ready for action. Pretorius watched the image of the Scorpio as its upper hull appeared to move so it was on the bottom of the image pointing towards the base of the holostage.

  The hull stability field intensity was set to an even spread across the entire Scorpio before it could be refocused on the starboard flank. With the field intensity reduced momentarily, the Skalidion green fire burst onto the hull composite.

  Collision alarms sounded across the command deck. Pretorius called for it to be silenced immediately. He’d known green fire would strike the outer hull when he performed the maneuver, but the hull would hold. The composite evaporated away as the green fire struck, dissipating the heat load into space. And then the hull stability field was flicked to full intensity on the starboard flank.

  The starboard cannons blasted out a broadside that slammed into the heart of the Skalidion swarm.

  Pretorius checked the status of the swarm on the holostage, but over six hundred of the Skalidion fighters remained. At least the fighters were focusing their attacks on the Scorpio. She was taking a beating, but she could take it.

  The signal from the civilian transport was called out by the sensor officer. Pretorius looked away from the battle momentarily to see what craft was leaving the transport. It appeared to be a cargo ship. It was slow, unarmed, and extremely vulnerable. A single blast of green fire would tear the hull apart.

  And the ship was racing directly toward the battle.

  “Send a signal to that ship and tell it to break off and return to the fleet.” Pretorius returned his attention to the battle with the swarm.

  The Skalidions were attempting to wrap around the Scorpio and engage its flanks. Pretorius had hoped the Skalidions would make a mistake just like this. If he could split this force and spread the swarm, he could send out his small squadron of Blades with tac boat support. While the Skalidion swarm remained a single cohesive unit, Pretorius would not risk sending his Blades to engage them. Even with tac boat support, they would be hopelessly outnumbered. Not even the Blades would survive such an attack.

  As he sent the standby signal to his hangar deck for tac boat and Blade pilots to man their ships, Pretorius noticed the cargo ship from the civilia
n transport still racing toward the battle.

  Pretorius looked at the craft with a bemused expression. Was this some kind of suicide run? Was this Jack Forge attempting to win the battle all by himself? No, Jack Forge was brave, but he was not recklessly suicidal. Something else was going on here. The cargo ship raced into the thick of the battle and past the Scorpio on its port flank, keeping the Scorpio between it and the Skalidion swarm. It skimmed over the Scorpio’s port-side hull.

  Pretorius had a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. This was danger. He tugged his cuffs and barked out an order.

  “Port-side hail cannon, target that cargo ship and fire. Blast it out of my sky.”

  But Pretorius was too late. The cargo ship raced past the port-side hull and came alongside the Scorpio’s drive assembly.

  The bright flash that appeared in space where the cargo transport had once been ballooned in a nanosecond and slammed into the Scorpio’s rear. The Scorpio twisted and bucked as the smaller vessel’s main reactor detonated following an anti-matter containment collapse. The Scorpio’s port-side drive assembly spluttered and flared, kicking the Scorpio like a wild animal through space.

  “Shut down main drive assembly,” Pretorius said. He brought his fist down hard on his command chair’s armrest. “Repair and maintenance crews to the drive room! Get me my drive systems back online!”

  Pretorius looked at the image on the holostage. The Skalidions were swarming all over the Scorpio, and the civilian transport was racing deeper into the stellar void and further from the fleet.

  Pretorius reset the hull stability field intensity to cover the entire outer hull and sent a message to all gun crews.

  “Maintain the fire. Maintain fire intensity. We are dead in the void, and those Skalidions are looking to finish us off for good. Only one of us will be standing at the end of this fight. Let’s make sure it’s the Scorpio. Maintain the fire. Captain out.”