“We might be of some assistance to you, sir,” Commander Harcourt said. “At the very least we might give some of Kingsblade’s escorts something to shoot at besides our flagship.”

“I’m counting on them taking shots at me, Dominic,” Hunter replied. “Annora was right. You saw their fighters. They just turned around and set a course for home the moment we disengaged. Those two fleets were set up to defend against fighter strikes, not direct engagement. This is an eventuality they simply aren’t programmed to handle. If the fighters are automated, then so are the ships. Based on our last action, we’ve got a better than average chance of a mission kill on their flagship, and that will both put an abrupt stop to the chase and put us on offense for a change.”

“With all due respect, sir, it’s a risk.”

“Acknowledged, Commander. Let’s not make it any bigger a risk than it needs to be. We got all our fighters and gunships back with only minor damage and no casualties. Now I want their automation system to panic and take their best shots at me first. While they are, you and the rest of the squadron will be taking out her escorts’ drives. If we do this right, I might even get a chance to use my secret weapon. We’ll meet in the middle. Hunter out.”

The Argent Captain rose from his command chair and stood at the edge of the pilot’s station, hands on the helm.

“Alright, Yolanda. Let’s get this fight started. Give me a fifteen degree roll to port and stand by to bank into gun range. Tactical! Line them up in battery order!”

“Acknowledged, Skipper! Main batteries charged for projectile strike! Standing by!”

The ominous image of the battleship Kingsblade occupied the center of Argent’s main display, gradually growing larger as the range closed. She floated in space with an elegance equal only to her absolutely massive weaponry and armor constructs. By her bearing, it was clear the mighty starship was well aware of her approaching opponent, automated or not.

A moment later, intense beams of destructive energy lashed out from her dorsal energy batteries and crossed thousands of miles of space in fractions of a second. Each widened to fill Argent’s screens before Hunter’s ship lurched and shuddered with the impacts.

“Direct hits on our forward battle screens! Defenses holding!” the tactical officer exclaimed.

“Range to target!” Hunter shouted.

“Six thousand miles off our starboard point!”

“Now, Yolanda! Hard-a-larboard!”

Lieutenant McInerney pulled the helm manual controls back. The deck rolled. Argent banked deeply into her port turn and brought her own main battery to bear on her defiant counterpart. Rail casters one and three swiveled on their mounts and lined up their tracks.

“I have a bearings match and waveform lock on her primary power structure!”

“That’s your target, gunner!”

Kingsblade fired again. Two more main battery blasts crashed into Argent’s starboard and dorsal shields, but this was no mere cruiser taking the big battleship’s gunfire. The Citadel-class capital ship under Hunter’s command absorbed the war shots in all their fury and held her course.

“Railshot One!”

Argent’s enormous primary rail caster glowed to life with a yellow-white lightning-like brightness before tens of millions of volts of electrical energy brought a magnetic field into existence around the 100-ton deuterium slug at its base. A blast of superheated plasma shook the entire upper half of the ship as the slug pierced space at a considerable fraction of light speed.

Bright lines of plasma energy marked the course of the Argent’s railshot directly into the Kingsblade’s dorsal shields. The impact explosion lit up the inside of Argent’s bridge and even managed to pull the huge enemy vessel slightly off course. Kingsblade responded with another full power blast that slammed into Argent’s bow. Battle screens glowed and arced with wild and unrestrained electromagnetic energy.

“Railshot Three!”

Argent’s number three rail caster fired with equal severity. The slug pulverized the navigational magnetic emitters on the crown of the Kingsblade’s forward hull, which only seemed to anger the larger vessel. It fired again, and again, and yet again. Argent’s battle screens held, but the rumbling of the unstable energy waves as they reverberated around the hull sounded like thunder rolling across a desert horizon.

This was what battleships were built for. One hard punch after another. First from one, then from the other. Kingsblade’s energy batteries landed body blow after body blow. Argent’s railguns smashed and thudded. Battle screens glowed and crackled. Powered armor plates absorbed and dissipated. The two heavyweights slugged one another over and over again.

Then, like a small child rushing to the aid of its parent, the escort frigate DSS Minstrel rocketed across the ostensible no-man’s land between the two behemoths. Lieutenant Islington had never been known for her bashful approach to combat, and this engagement was likely to be no different. Her badger-like miniature starship managed to unleash a phalanx of two dozen hypervelocity shipkiller missiles directly into the teeth of an opponent that could blow her command into spare parts with one well-aimed shot.

The missiles punctured Kingsblade’s magnetic interference envelope and slashed through her drive field, intent on defeating her forward shields and exposing the huge ship’s armor to the heavier fire of Minstrel’s fleet-mates. The heavy battleship’s point defense exploded into action. Seventeen of Minstrel’s birds were ripped and blasted into debris in the first pass. Three more tried to evade and yanked themselves off course, colliding with each other before impact. Four hit Kingsblade’s forward battle screens hard enough to cause a violently synchronized plasma detonation across her starboard leading edge.

“Nice shooting Dennis! Now give me aft energy batteries to maximum and fire as she bears!” Islington’s voice encouraged her spirited crew. “Port roll eighty degrees and veer us off, helm! All ahead full!”

Minstrel banked away from Kingsblade at the precise moment the larger ship’s point defense was about to acquire lock. Energy bolts ripped into space where the little ship was supposed to be, but wasn’t. A moment later, Minstrel’s aft energy batteries cut and tore at Kingsblade’s starboard hard points in a barrage that resembled a small dog ferociously attacking a longhorn bull’s hoof. Then she dodged, rolled starboard and spun away into space.

A cheer went up on Argent’s bridge and similar celebrations sounded across the command net. Jayce Hunter leaned back in her chair with a hand over her eyes and an entirely non-regulation grin on her face.

“Hire the bloody pirate skipper flying that ship before they get away!” Commander Teller shouted. Aboard the Constellation, Commander Flynn put two fingers to his mouth and whistled another cheer while his bridge crew pumped their fists and shouted. It was a spectacular display of aggressive fleet tactics put on by the “baby” of the Perseus squadron and the Hunter crews couldn’t get enough.

“New contact! Designate Lucifer Four Four bearing two one zero mark one three. On intercept course and closing! Estimated time to range twenty seconds!”

“Sabrina, I want those escorts fully occupied,” Jayce ordered. “Absolutely nothing gets through to engage Argent, clear?”

“Clear, ma’am. Interdiction pattern on the board. Standing by.” Lieutenant Mallory adjusted the controls at her command station and watched the main display intently.

“Helm, new course one two mark seven. All ahead flank. Tactical, main batteries to full power. Go active on the lead vessel at ten thousand miles and start the clock. Mark!” Jayce snapped her shock harness closed as her own flagship veered out of formation and led Spruance and Revenge on their own attack run.