Read Online The Battle of the Void (The Ember War Saga Book 6) by Richard Fox - Free Book Online Page A

them back as long as you can. Save a broadside for the rings as soon as we’re in range.”
    “Aye-aye, Skipper,” his tactical officer said from her pod. “The big guns never tire.”
    Parris opened a channel to his wing commander. “Raven, you’ve got to pick up the strays that get through the bombardment. Keep them off us as long as you can.”
    “Awful lot of drones heading right for us. Sure hope this ain’t a one-way trip,” Raven said.
    “Stop hoping and get ready to start shooting.” Parris pressed a button and prepared to address every ship under his command.
    “This is Gallipoli actual. We’ve got a fight on our hands. Our mission is to knock a chunk off those rings and get back to the fleet. Make ’em pay, Gallipoli out.”
    The rail gun batteries fired, the first ventral battery a split second after the other two, rocking the ship from side to side. Flashes from the other ships’ rail batteries burst like lightning deep within a thundercloud.
    The first quadrium shells erupted against the line of approaching drones. Pale blue jagged tendrils of electricity arced through the leading drones, burning some out of existence and knocking thousands more off-line. Flechette rounds followed a split second behind the q-shells. They broke into spikes two meters long and ripped through the disabled drones, impaling several drones before being robbed of their killing momentum.
    The bombardment hit the attacking drones like a series of shotgun blasts, blowing hunks out of the giant mass.
    The needle broke apart, forming into a giant cloud of drones.
    “Guns, adjust cannon fire, wide dispersion across the entire front,” Parris said. “Conn, how long until we’re in range of the rings?”
    “Five minutes at current velocity and heading, Skipper,” the ensign at the conn said.
    “Combination!” Commander Hudson called out. “Xaros are forming into…looks like one hundred drone constructs, disintegration cannons visible.”
    Parris called up the spotter’s feed on his screen. The frigate-sized constructs gathered into a dozen tendrils and accelerated toward the Gallipoli like grasping fingers, single drones darting ahead of the larger ships.
    “Flechettes won’t have much of an effect on these larger ships,” the gunnery officer said.
    “Load lance shells. Take out the leading constructs.” Parris glanced at the time plot to the firing point. The Xaros would reach him before that—he was certain of it.
    His ship’s rail cannons kept firing, launching another salvo every forty seconds. The capacitors blinked with warning. The rate of fire pushed the ship’s systems to the limits and rested on the knife’s edge of permanently damaging the battery core.
    Just the way they’d trained.
    “Targets engaged!” Raven said. “Got almost fifty drones coming from—” the transmission filled with static and the sound of a gauss cannon rattling the wing commander’s cockpit “—way too many. I’m down three Eagles and—” It cut off in a hiss of static.
    The icon for Raven’s Eagle flashed amber. Damaged.
    “Constructs entering range, enemy cannons readying to fire,” Hudson said.
    “Conn! Evasive maneuvers!”
    The ensign flipped a plastic cover off a series of four yellow buttons and pressed one. Thrusters bolted to the dorsal frame, all with their own independent power systems, flared to life and pressed the Gallipoli down.
    The recoil from the sudden acceleration slammed Parris against his restraints. Scarlet lances of energy snapped over the ship’s bow. The thrusters cut out and Parris settled back into his seat.
    “Conn?” he asked.
    “We can still make the firing point, and I think I lost a filling,” the ensign said.
    “Sir, the Cabo took several direct hits. I’m not getting anything from her or the crew,” Hudson said.
    A coherent beam of energy struck the ship’s starboard side. It cut across the aegis plating like a surgeon’s laser, gyrating the ship beneath Parris. The