Halo_ Ghosts of Onyx - Eric S. Nylund [100]
"Release weapons interlink safety locks," Voro ordered, and raised his hand.
He prayed for the soul of Ship Master Qunu, who had revealed for them a new enemy.
Penetrated by a dozen beams, the ventral decks of the Far Sight Lost exploded. The
ship rolled over like a great beast in its death throes. The weapons cut through the aft section. The plasma core breached, and three plumes of blue fire erupted from the hull— heating the aft quarter of the vessel red-, yellow-, and then white-hot—before the vessel detonated.
The crystalline geometry of the alien formations rippled and their shields flared.
"Now!" Voro commanded. "All laser and projectors fire."
All ships under his command launched a barrage, and the deep night of space lit with
crisscrossing lines of illumination. Hundreds of lasers painted the weakened alien shields and made them sputter with static. Ten microseconds later, energy-projector
capacitors discharged and blasts of holy white radiation impacted the formations, overloaded the distressed shields, and scattered their coherence.
Stripped of their protection, the tiny drone ships erupted into streams of superheated particles. Their central eyes blazed white-hot as if their fury alone could protect them.
Explosions chained through the octahedral assembly.
Lasers and projectors shut down and the space plunged again into dankness.
Voro blinked.
Within the holographic display the thousands of alien ships were scattered, most now cooling blobs of metal, tumbling disconnected rods and spheres. Those that had survived moved sluggishly as they attempted to realign for another attack.
"Eighty-three percent of the vessels destroyed," Y'gar said.
Over fleetwide COM Voro said, "All ships break and attack. Annihilate the survivors with plasma charges before they regroup."
The fleet accelerated to attack speed, burning all before them. The smaller alien craft were defenseless before this onslaught.
Ship Master Qunu had been a hero. He had demonstrated for them all that the old ways of devout placation had no place in this new Age. The Sangeili would forge their own way, with their own blood, if need be.
"Contact the Absolution," Voro told Y'gar. "Have them make ready for a Slipspace transition in atmosphere. They will scout the northern polar region where these drones came from and determine if there are high-value targets our sensors have overlooked."
"Absolution hailed, sir," Y'gar replied. "Orders relayed." He paused listening, then said,
"The Absolution is yours to command, Fleet Master."
Voro nodded, indicating they go.
The space surrounding the sleek destroyer shimmered as their Slipspace capacitors
discharged.
"Something on the planet surface, sir," Y'gar said, and he bent closer, concentrating. "Energy anomaly in the northern polar region."
He waved his hand over his controls and the central viewer split, half filling with a view of the planet's ice caps, zooming closer to reveal a wind-whipped landscape of snow dunes. A kilometer off the ground, the air shimmered in the exact same pattern as the Absolution's Slipspace transition matrix.
"That should not be happening," Uruo remarked, and took a step closer to the image, intrigued. "A Slipspace matrix only appears upon a ship's exit. The Absolution has yet to transition."
"Hail the Absolution," Voro said. "Abort the jump."
Y'gar shook his head. "Slipspace matrix interfering with our signal, sir."
"Move to intercept," Voro ordered.
The Incorruptible tilted and accelerated toward the destroyer as it edged toward its
Slipspace field. The view in the holographic display shifted. Above the north pole three new octahedral
formations of alien ships materialized in the glow of the Slipstream exit field.
"They can jump?" Voro whispered.
That made no sense. If they had such a capacity then why hadn't they jumped into
combat with the Far Sight