Read Online The Dying Light by Sean Williams, Shane Dix - Free Book Online
Authors: Sean Williams, Shane Dix
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there.”
“Impossible, Morgan. Not that I am underestimating your abilities; there is simply too little time to—”
Lances of energy flashed on the main screen; static momentarily scrambled the picture.
“They’re firing on our drones!” announced Haid.
“Take reciprocal action,” Roche ordered. Barely had she finished when Cane began destroying the Armada’s own base line probes. Specks of light flashed in the space between the three ships, their brightness negligible against the fiercely burning point-source dominating the view.
“They’re tightening shields,” said Haid.
Roche’s thoughts went into overdrive. Tightening shields was a standard tactic in close space warfare. Any moment now, the attack would begin in earnest: the three Armada ships against the Ana Vereine. Numbers were against them, but that didn’t mean that they would necessarily be overcome. Apart from the Ana Vereine’s technological superiority, it also possessed a number of armed scutters and shuttles in its docking bays; she could order the Box to launch these smaller craft to assist in the battle, and have Kajic employ the camouflage to make them harder to target. With so many diffuse targets to aim for, the outcome the Armada expected was far from certain. Still, the Ana Vereine was bound to incur some damage.
And if it prevailed, what then? They would be unable to return to the Commonwealth for certain after destroying three Armada ships while on a supposedly peaceful mission, and the matter of Palasian System would still be unresolved. If the Box was right, then it had offered her a way to avoid the battle and to reach her goal—both with one decisive move.
She had seen more death in the handful of weeks since meeting Adoni Cane than she had in twelve years of active service for COE Intelligence. The thought of still more on her conscience made the decision easier than she expected.
At that very moment, the Golden Dawn opened fire.
“Incoming!” Haid’s shout echoed through the bridge, closely followed by a juddering wrench as a full volley of flicker-bombs impacted upon the ship’s aft hypershields. Cane’s fingers played the weapons board like a virtuoso as Kajic swung the ship to bear on its primary antagonist. As the exchange intensified, violent discharges painted the space between the two ships with fiery colors of death.
“Box!” Roche called out over the sounds of battle: the shouts, the explosions, the roaring of engines. “Whatever you’ve got planned, do it fast!”
“Thank you, Morgan.” The AI’s reply was more gracious than Roche had expected, considering the moral victory it had won. To Haid and Cane the Box said: “Maintain a covering fire across the ship on the upper left of your screens. On my command, prepare to release proximity mines to prevent them from following.”
Haid frowned at the screen. The ship the Box had indicated was the one that had been hiding behind the point-source; even now, the white-hot object filled most of that segment of the screen. “Where the hell—?”
“Do it, Ameidio,” Roche ordered, even though she felt less than certain herself.
“I have surrendered control of the slow-jump drive to the Box,” said Kajic via her implants, “and I will obey its orders until you tell me otherwise.”
Roche nodded dumbly, wondering what the Box wanted with the drive, and why it wanted sole control over the systems. So close to the point-source, massless or not, even the smallest slow-jump had to be risky.
“Prepare for acceleration,” announced the Box. “Maximum reactive power in fifteen seconds!”
As though the commander of the Golden Dawn had sensed Roche’s change of plan, the Armada ships drew closer in a sudden rush, two of them overlapping shields and forming a solid wall of defense. The third sent bolt after bolt of energy hurtling toward the Ana Vereine —an assault designed to weaken E-shields prior to the arrival of a second wave of A-P fire and
“Impossible, Morgan. Not that I am underestimating your abilities; there is simply too little time to—”
Lances of energy flashed on the main screen; static momentarily scrambled the picture.
“They’re firing on our drones!” announced Haid.
“Take reciprocal action,” Roche ordered. Barely had she finished when Cane began destroying the Armada’s own base line probes. Specks of light flashed in the space between the three ships, their brightness negligible against the fiercely burning point-source dominating the view.
“They’re tightening shields,” said Haid.
Roche’s thoughts went into overdrive. Tightening shields was a standard tactic in close space warfare. Any moment now, the attack would begin in earnest: the three Armada ships against the Ana Vereine. Numbers were against them, but that didn’t mean that they would necessarily be overcome. Apart from the Ana Vereine’s technological superiority, it also possessed a number of armed scutters and shuttles in its docking bays; she could order the Box to launch these smaller craft to assist in the battle, and have Kajic employ the camouflage to make them harder to target. With so many diffuse targets to aim for, the outcome the Armada expected was far from certain. Still, the Ana Vereine was bound to incur some damage.
And if it prevailed, what then? They would be unable to return to the Commonwealth for certain after destroying three Armada ships while on a supposedly peaceful mission, and the matter of Palasian System would still be unresolved. If the Box was right, then it had offered her a way to avoid the battle and to reach her goal—both with one decisive move.
She had seen more death in the handful of weeks since meeting Adoni Cane than she had in twelve years of active service for COE Intelligence. The thought of still more on her conscience made the decision easier than she expected.
At that very moment, the Golden Dawn opened fire.
“Incoming!” Haid’s shout echoed through the bridge, closely followed by a juddering wrench as a full volley of flicker-bombs impacted upon the ship’s aft hypershields. Cane’s fingers played the weapons board like a virtuoso as Kajic swung the ship to bear on its primary antagonist. As the exchange intensified, violent discharges painted the space between the two ships with fiery colors of death.
“Box!” Roche called out over the sounds of battle: the shouts, the explosions, the roaring of engines. “Whatever you’ve got planned, do it fast!”
“Thank you, Morgan.” The AI’s reply was more gracious than Roche had expected, considering the moral victory it had won. To Haid and Cane the Box said: “Maintain a covering fire across the ship on the upper left of your screens. On my command, prepare to release proximity mines to prevent them from following.”
Haid frowned at the screen. The ship the Box had indicated was the one that had been hiding behind the point-source; even now, the white-hot object filled most of that segment of the screen. “Where the hell—?”
“Do it, Ameidio,” Roche ordered, even though she felt less than certain herself.
“I have surrendered control of the slow-jump drive to the Box,” said Kajic via her implants, “and I will obey its orders until you tell me otherwise.”
Roche nodded dumbly, wondering what the Box wanted with the drive, and why it wanted sole control over the systems. So close to the point-source, massless or not, even the smallest slow-jump had to be risky.
“Prepare for acceleration,” announced the Box. “Maximum reactive power in fifteen seconds!”
As though the commander of the Golden Dawn had sensed Roche’s change of plan, the Armada ships drew closer in a sudden rush, two of them overlapping shields and forming a solid wall of defense. The third sent bolt after bolt of energy hurtling toward the Ana Vereine —an assault designed to weaken E-shields prior to the arrival of a second wave of A-P fire and
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