light around itself. Jordo thumbed comms to the junks and UNS Duer. "Lancer 1-1 calls bogie, bogie. Duer , you have an unknown craft on your port side closing out of the sun. Best range estimate is now under 15,000Ks from your position."
The UN destroyer responded. "Lancer 1-1, this is UNS Duer and we have zero bogies on LiDAR, radar or IR. You run a syscheck on that Bitzer's array?"
"Lancer 1-1, this is Pardue in Greenstone . My EWO had something, but now, he can’t see squa-" Pardue broke off in mid-sentence and as the Lancers ripped past the location of the last known contact, Jordo knew why.
At only a kilometer’s distance, it looked like a pale, blackish silver ghost made only of the searing light from Algol that it couldn’t lens around itself. It was gone again even before the Lancers shot past, but before it slipped back into the starry black, it launched four warheads.
" Vampire! Vampire!" Jordo called out on comms. "Four enemy warheads 15,000 Ks out to port and… headed for Tipperary ! Bearing 182 mark 12."
The junks and the destroyer were a lot closer, but it had shot at the breaching ship. The alien warheads accelerated and left faint trails pointing to Tipperary where she hung, not far from the muddy yellow, second planet, where the Squidies had waited in ambush the first time.
" Tipperary , this is Lancer 1-1." He had no idea if they could hear him or even if there was anyone alive on that darkened and fragile hull, but he told any potential survivors the only thing he imagined they’d want to know about right now. "The Lancers will handle those alien warheads for you. Sit tight."
*****
Tig tracked the four alien bombs and zoomed in on them with his visor. They rolled on their spiky thrusters as they streaked towards the breaching ship. Whatever had loosed them had done it close enough to Audacity that Tig had a detailed view of their casings from the rear. The alien warheads were almost as big as the alien fighters. They’d been packed with maneuvering thrusters like a fighter, too. Once you engaged them, they put on a hell of a set of evasive combat maneuvers. He’d seen a few of them come in at Hardway , corkscrewing around the shells from the turrets.
" The Lancers will get ‘em," Rampone said, poking the porthole with his finger like the line of alien torpedoes crawling across it were bugs and he was squishing them. All of the redsuits pressed to the portholes. Wrigley stayed glued to his console and Phipps was too busy checking his systems one more time to watch someone else’s action.
" Those Squidy warheads are goin’ pretty fast," Wrigley said. "They got a lead and a jump on the Lancers. "They might not catch ‘em before the bombs hit Tipperary ."
" You're stuffed full of it," is what Rampone said to that.
Parker went to the data, of course. "At max acceleration, the Lancers F-151s will put Squidy’s flying bombs in cannon range in…" Parker gestured in front of her helmet, trying to get an estimate based on observed speed of the alien warheads. She knew how to work the slimmed down version of the OMNI NAV system built into a standard Staas exosuit pretty well. Tig knew she had the answer when she stopped gesturing. She opened her mouth to speak, but Raleigh cut her off.
" Stifle it, Cherry. Don’t you spoil our pool. We start the clock in 30 seconds and my fifty Ameros say the Lancers take the Squidy bombs in 30 to 35 seconds after that. "
" I got 35 to 40." Wambach was in.
So was Posjic. "25 to 30."
"With that lead? Squidy bombs fly over 1060 KSS. And they got a head start. The shells won’t catch up until at least 50 seconds."
" So what’s your claim?"
" 45-50. Money, money, money." Komora was superstitious.
" 50-55," Rampone said. "And it’ll be a long-range kill."
" Anyone else? And…..mark," Raleigh said. "The clock’s ticking."
The alien warheads barreled ahead as if they thought they’d make it.
Tig could
The UN destroyer responded. "Lancer 1-1, this is UNS Duer and we have zero bogies on LiDAR, radar or IR. You run a syscheck on that Bitzer's array?"
"Lancer 1-1, this is Pardue in Greenstone . My EWO had something, but now, he can’t see squa-" Pardue broke off in mid-sentence and as the Lancers ripped past the location of the last known contact, Jordo knew why.
At only a kilometer’s distance, it looked like a pale, blackish silver ghost made only of the searing light from Algol that it couldn’t lens around itself. It was gone again even before the Lancers shot past, but before it slipped back into the starry black, it launched four warheads.
" Vampire! Vampire!" Jordo called out on comms. "Four enemy warheads 15,000 Ks out to port and… headed for Tipperary ! Bearing 182 mark 12."
The junks and the destroyer were a lot closer, but it had shot at the breaching ship. The alien warheads accelerated and left faint trails pointing to Tipperary where she hung, not far from the muddy yellow, second planet, where the Squidies had waited in ambush the first time.
" Tipperary , this is Lancer 1-1." He had no idea if they could hear him or even if there was anyone alive on that darkened and fragile hull, but he told any potential survivors the only thing he imagined they’d want to know about right now. "The Lancers will handle those alien warheads for you. Sit tight."
*****
Tig tracked the four alien bombs and zoomed in on them with his visor. They rolled on their spiky thrusters as they streaked towards the breaching ship. Whatever had loosed them had done it close enough to Audacity that Tig had a detailed view of their casings from the rear. The alien warheads were almost as big as the alien fighters. They’d been packed with maneuvering thrusters like a fighter, too. Once you engaged them, they put on a hell of a set of evasive combat maneuvers. He’d seen a few of them come in at Hardway , corkscrewing around the shells from the turrets.
" The Lancers will get ‘em," Rampone said, poking the porthole with his finger like the line of alien torpedoes crawling across it were bugs and he was squishing them. All of the redsuits pressed to the portholes. Wrigley stayed glued to his console and Phipps was too busy checking his systems one more time to watch someone else’s action.
" Those Squidy warheads are goin’ pretty fast," Wrigley said. "They got a lead and a jump on the Lancers. "They might not catch ‘em before the bombs hit Tipperary ."
" You're stuffed full of it," is what Rampone said to that.
Parker went to the data, of course. "At max acceleration, the Lancers F-151s will put Squidy’s flying bombs in cannon range in…" Parker gestured in front of her helmet, trying to get an estimate based on observed speed of the alien warheads. She knew how to work the slimmed down version of the OMNI NAV system built into a standard Staas exosuit pretty well. Tig knew she had the answer when she stopped gesturing. She opened her mouth to speak, but Raleigh cut her off.
" Stifle it, Cherry. Don’t you spoil our pool. We start the clock in 30 seconds and my fifty Ameros say the Lancers take the Squidy bombs in 30 to 35 seconds after that. "
" I got 35 to 40." Wambach was in.
So was Posjic. "25 to 30."
"With that lead? Squidy bombs fly over 1060 KSS. And they got a head start. The shells won’t catch up until at least 50 seconds."
" So what’s your claim?"
" 45-50. Money, money, money." Komora was superstitious.
" 50-55," Rampone said. "And it’ll be a long-range kill."
" Anyone else? And…..mark," Raleigh said. "The clock’s ticking."
The alien warheads barreled ahead as if they thought they’d make it.
Tig could
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