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“Response teams and drones report multiple hull breaches!” Urle shouted.  “But we’ve lost no vital systems!”

“Two PDCs and three lasers disabled,” Jaya said, her voice clipped but still calm.  “They were targeting the main body of the ship, going for a disabling strike, but they did not have the numbers or penetration to cause major damage.”

“Casualties are coming in,” Y spoke, his voice remote.  “Twelve DOA, seventeen more wounded.”

Brooks heard it all, but his eyes were fixed on Ks’Kull’s flagship, looming ever closer.

“Fire anti-ship missiles at everything except his flagship,” he ordered.  “Target PDCs and lasers on their weapon systems and drives, send all combat drones to go for targets of opportunity – ours outclass theirs and we’ll shred them if we’re aggressive.  I want as many of them out of the fight as possible.  Full launch, as soon as you’re ready.”

His eyes narrowed.  “And set our course through his flagship.”

Ji-min Bin looked back at him, hesitant.  But she saw the look on his face, and then gave a clipped nod.

“Course plotted, Captain.”

“Missiles away, PDCs and laser locked,,” Jaya said.  “Firing for effect!”

The pulsing beams lashed out, striking at the speed of light into the Hev ships, leaving scorches across the hulls, piercing through the covers of missile launchers – with explosive results.

The sides of two Hev cruisers blossomed into balls of fire that spread across their hull – until they began to break apart.

From the crew cockpits below came a cheering, and while he knew it meant that many lives had just ended, he could feel nothing at the moment for those dead.

“Their missiles were armed!” Cenz said.  “Why in the stars would they-“

“We’re too close for their stand-off range, so they had manually armed them,” Brooks said.  “Keep targetting them!”

“Ks’Kull’s realized our course,” Urle said quickly.  “He’s starting an emergency jump procedure – we estimate thirty-seven seconds until his entry.”

“He feared I’d come for him after he failed to kill me,” Brooks said.  “Place our gravitational pull between us and his ship.  I want to slow him down.”

“You want to keep him trapped so we can ram him?” Cenz asked.

“Yes,” Brooks replied simply.

“We can’t counter the strength of a full-on jump field-“

“But we can slow him down.”

“It’s done,” Ji-min Bin said.  “Having some effect.  If we keep this up . . . We’ll hit him just before he jumps.”

“Then keep it up,” Brooks ordered.  The ship loomed larger, and he brought up the time to impact.  Twenty-five seconds.  Only two seconds shy of his predicted jump.

Their missiles streaked out in another volley, striking other Hev ships.  Lasers and panicked return fire came, but uncoordinated, merely scorching parts of their hull.  Where it struck the adamantine cratonic rock, it did not even leave a mark.

“Fifteen seconds!” Bin yelled.  Like all of them, Brooks felt like his head was ringing, felt the pressure.  Two ships colliding, at this speed, would spell doom for them both – not even cratonic rock would resist the energies of objects so massive, at these velocities.

He watched the numbers counting down, saw the increase of defensive fire, even more panicked, from Ks’Kull.  The ships around them began to veer away, not wanting to be close to the debris that such a collision would create.

Ji-min Bin was watching him, sweat on her brow.  He knew she was ready to drop their field the instant he ordered it.

Five seconds.

“Stop,” he said simply.

Bin hit the button, and the gravity field that was restraining Ks’Kull’s ship and pulling the Craton inexorably closer disappeared.

In a flash, Ks’Kull’s ship was gone.  With three seconds left on the clock.

Urle slumped back in his seat.

“Ks’Kull’s ship has successfully made a jump – I don’t know if he even had a destination in mind, I cannot plot his path from his entry angle . . .”

“Anywhere but here,” Jaya said.  Even she looked shaken.

“We’re not out of this yet,” Brooks said.  “They’re leaderless but not beaten.  Roll the ship, bring to bear the coilguns.  Target their comm ship!”

“Aye!”

The ship began to rotate, and their view swung.  Lasers were still striking out at them from the nearest Hev ships, but fewer and fewer, as bracketing fire from the Craton’s PDCs and missile strikes tore into the fragile weapons systems.

“Launching third wave!” Jaya cried.  More missile went out, hammering the larger cruisers, that could do little to return fire at this close range – afraid to open their missile ports, with their bow coilguns still pointed ahead.

They were a wolf among sheep.

“Coilguns locked – firing!”

The ship shuddered, and he saw the coilgun rounds fire out, highlighted on their screen as white streaks.

The Hev communications ship was pierced through her stern as she tried to turn away.  The shots tore through the ship and came out the bow, explosions bursting from all along her length.

“Good hit!” Jaya said.  “At least three reactors punctured – if she doesn’t shut down she’s going to rip herself apart.”

“Even if she does they will,” Urle said soberly.  “We broke her spine.”

Brooks could see it, and they all watched; the ship, a multi-kilometer battleship in its own right, began to break apart.  It was impossible to tell the escape pods from the debris, and Brooks knew that even those that got to such pods in time were unlikely to be rescuable.  Those not destroyed by other debris would be surrounded by it – and help would not be able to risk getting near.

It was sobering, but he hadn’t wanted or started this conflict.

“Charge for another attack – find any ship that seems like it might be in command and target.”

“Target found!” Jaya said.  “Rolling . . . locking . . . firing.”

The ship shuddered again, and the shot ripped through another battleship – this one had been trying to turn to face them, and the ship only pierced diagonally from her port to her starboard.

Objects darted away from the ship, though, veering towards them.  Too large to be missiles . . .

“Boarding pods en route!” Urle said.  “Counting fifty- no, ninety – fisc, they’re all launching, Captain.”

It was their only move left, he knew.  To board the Craton, and either seize her in a bloody fight, or destroy her – or even just keep her busy long enough for the Hev to regroup.

“Target with all defensive weaponry – but keep finding targets for the coilguns, and try to knock out as many as you can!” he ordered.  “If any line up – take the shot, we need to wreck as many ships as we can, while we can.”

They couldn’t let the pods through – the Hev numbers here would let them pour troops aboard until they were swamped.  But likewise, they could not let the Hev fleet reorganize.  For they were too numerous, and if they got even a modicum of order back-

They wouldn’t stand a chance.

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