Homeworld (Odyssey One) (40 page)

“Do you have the frequency?”

“Do you really need to ask?” she mumbled before speaking up. “Sent to Tactical.”

“Armor program coded, Captain,” Waters said.

“Then by all means, engage the program,” Eric said with a small smile before he turned to look at Roberts. “I’m starting to feel superfluous here, almost like they don’t need us anymore.”

“Speak for yourself, Captain,” Roberts replied, tilting his screen so Eric could see the nigh endless stream of reports coming in from all over the ship that he had to filter through to keep things running smoothly.

Eric suppressed the urge to flip his executive officer off and sighed. “I suppose it’s just me then.”

“Sign of a good captain,” Roberts said with a hint of amusement. “Ship runs without him.”

“Bandit Three is re-aligning, Captain.”

“Turn us into the fire, Lieutenant Commander,” Eric told Daniels. “And Lieutenant Waters, warm up the main array.”

“Aye, aye, Captain.”

The
Odyssey
keeled slowly about, bringing her nose to nose with the oncoming Drasin cruiser, her forward laser array glowing slightly as the energy built up. The two ships poured on the power, accelerating toward one another as they opened fire.

Two beams of energy crossed one another in space, one literally thousands of times more powerful than the other, and struck their respective targets almost simultaneously. The immensely powerful beam of the Drasin’s main laser splashed off the adapted armor of the
Odyssey
, reflected harmlessly out
into space while ablating a layer a few microns thick from her hull.

The
Odyssey
’s laser didn’t even warm up the hull it touched, but instead reflected energy back in the direction from which it came. The computers and sensors on the human ship carefully noted the frequency of reflected light and adjusted the multi-frequency laser to best absorption based on the composition of the Drasin hull.

Only
then
did it crank up the wattage.

The low temperature targeting and analysis laser was replaced by a multi-terawatt beam specifically adjusted to the armor it was targeting. Four square meters of the Drasin cruiser vaporized in an instant, and then the
Odyssey
’s laser hit full power.

On the bridge of the Confederate warship, Eric couldn’t help but feel a certain ruthless elation as he watched the violent sublimation of the enemy ship. The laser, while not as powerful as the ones packed into the Drasin ships, was tuned specifically to destroy what it was aimed at and it showed. Hull material, armor, everything was turned instantly to gaseous plasma without stopping at the liquid phase in between.

The result was a violent and explosive destruction of the target as the ship’s own matter was turned against it by the superheating effect of the tuned laser.

In seconds the firefight was over, even as the
Odyssey
’s systems finally came back fully online from their dormant stealth state.

“Fighter screen inbound, Captain!”

Eric’s eyes flicked away from the remnants of the Drasin ship to the new red icons on the ship’s screens.
Must be orphan fighters from the other ships. That would normally make them more
dangerous, but Drasin don’t seem to give a damn about survival anyway, so it’s par for the course.

“Go active, all starboard point defense stations,” he ordered. “Bring us about to course oh-oh-niner, even, flank speed.”

“Aye, sir. Zero-zero-niner, even to the system plane. Ahead flank.”

“Should we alert and launch the Archangels, sir?” Roberts asked quietly.

“No,” Eric said. “We can handle these with point defense fire as long as we’re not distracted by any more cruisers. We’ll need the Angels soon enough.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Point defense engaging.”

The first of the fighters, likely on a suicide charge, Eric figured, entered into the extreme range for the point defense lasers and phalanx guns. He couldn’t hear the roar of the weapons but knew that it would be impressive in an atmosphere where sound could travel a little more effectively than the rarified vacuum of space. On the screens, red icons began to blink out of existence one by one as the weapons tracked and eliminated them.

With the
Odyssey
able to maneuver to keep the enemy fighters at range, it wasn’t a fight. It was a massacre.

Imperial Destroyer
Demigod

There was one thing more frustrating than anything else in space, particularly when it came to combat, at least in Ivanth’s opinion. That thing was the utterly slow rate at which light traveled. Photons took so long to cross the distances a space
traveler had to deal with that it could be enough to drive a man who normally processed light as the fastest thing in the universe to madness.

On the screens he was watching the enemy ship simply annihilate another four of the drone ships, destroying them with an ease that sent shivers down his spine.

Unreal. Destroyers of the Empire would have difficulty defeating the drone ships four on one. Why have we never found even a whisper of these people before? They cannot have come from nowhere. Someone must have more information on them.

He was still pondering that impossibility when Ivanth was distracted by a distressed call from behind him. He looked over his shoulder, irritated.

“What is wrong?” he snarled, turning fully around.

“It’s the drone ships, Commander! They’re refusing orders!”

“What?” Ivanth snapped, striding quickly to the station. “You must have done something wrong.”

“No, Commander, I swear. I’ve followed every protocol,” the clearly panicking man stammered out. “The drones began behaving oddly a short while ago. Now they’re completely disregarding all signals from us.”

“This is impossible,” Ivanth gritted out. “I’ve reviewed the instinct locks myself. They’re unbreakable.”

The man, likely showing wisdom beyond his years, remained silent at that proclamation.

Ivanth, however, wasn’t paying attention even if he had chosen to speak. Instead the Commander pushed the younger technician out of his place and furiously worked his way through the systems.

“This doesn’t make any sense. Nothing is working,” he growled, eyes flickering to the display that was still working
properly, the one that showed the locations of the drone ships. “At least they’re not coming toward us or the
Immortal.
”

“Y-yes, Commander.”

Ivanth ignored the stammering man, focusing on the task. The only good thing about the entire situation was that the drones were clearly heading right where he was going to order them to go anyway. The fact that they were doing so
without
orders however was even more frightening than anything that the enemy ship had accomplished.

“Contact the
Immortal
,” Ivanth gritted out as he straightened from the station. “Order them to fall back. And we’d best do so as well. We don’t want those things turning on us.”

“Yes, Commander.”

That was an order that he had no doubt would be obeyed with alacrity and enthusiasm. No one in the empire, least of all those tasked with controlling the infernal beasts, wanted to be anywhere near one that wasn’t fully
tamed
.

Ivanth cast one final look at the system they’d been monitoring, scowling at the brightly shining vessel currently swatting the drone fighters left by one of the doomed ships. He doubted that it would stand long against the remnants of his drone fleet. There were still almost thirty ships.

Four on one was one thing. Thirty to one?

Something far, far different.

I would have preferred a somewhat more artistic attack method, but there is something to be said for brute force. We’ll pull back and attempt to regain control of the damned things when the battle is over.

PRIMINAE WARSHIP
POSDAN

“TRANS-LIGHT SIGNALS ahead, Captain. They’re strong.”

Kian eyed the screens, attention focused on the indicated station. The report was certainly not exaggerating things. Whoever was in charge there had apparently tossed the concept of subtlety and stealth right out the force field and into deep space.

There were numerous high-profile, high-power signals diving straight into the Terran system.

Oh, maker. They’re on a swarm.

They’d not seen this tactic since the re-emergence of the Drasin in recent times, but the old myths spoke of it clearly enough. Enough of the Drasin ships in one place, coupled with a particularly hated target, and they would swarm like killer insects onto their prey.

Something about the Terran system had set them off, but by the same token she had to wonder just what so many of the damned things were doing out here anyway?

“Captain, I believe I’m picking up quieter trans-light signals moving
away
from the system.”

Kian hissed, eyes shifting. “Show me.”

“Just echoes, Captain. Look here….”

Kian eyed the screens and saw what was being reported, but it was quite clear that they were indeed just echoes.

Possibly a ship, or even two, but possibly not.

She cast her eyes back to the system and hesitated for a second before shaking it off.