The Ascendant Stars - Michael Cobley [154]
Ash, however, was already back on his feet and working at one of the consoles while the comms officer fitted him with a onesided headset.
‘Attention all crew – we have been fired on by units of the Hegemony armada. From here on it is going to be a rough ride so stay at your posts, maintain body security, and be ready. Stormlions advance!’
As the battle cry echoed along the corridors, Greg got to his feet and went over to join Ash.
‘What the hell was that?’ he said.
Ash gave him a sardonic look. ‘Might have been something that you said, Mr Cameron … ’
‘Hey, I’m good but I don’t think I’m that good.’
The Tygran shrugged. ‘Well, whatever the reason, they launched their attack with precision.’ He pointed up at a schematic of the defending vessels near Darien with a larger X-shaped formation approaching. ‘Ninety-eight capital ships, including twenty maulers, each mounting at least a dozen heavy beam projectors and pulse cannon. It was their combined punch that nearly ended the show before it began. Our auto-system brought up the shields just in time but others weren’t so lucky – the Vox Humana have lost three ships already and right now if it weren’t for the coordinated shields of the Imisil and Ngassa’s heavy cruisers, half our fleet would be glowing wreckage.’
‘A sneak attack,’ Greg said, glancing up at the tactical overview. A hundred ships – and that’s just a twentieth of what they’ve got. ‘So how long can we hold out?’
‘You should be more optimistic, Mr Cameron,’ Ash said. ‘After all, we do have a secret weapon.’
‘We do?’
‘Most certainly – ah, speaking of which.’
On the left-hand screen, a frame expanded to show the head and shoulders of K’ang Lo, the commander of the Pyrean rockhab, the Retributor.
‘Shih Ash,’ K’ang Lo said. ‘My news is good – the dragon is ready to breathe. My engineers now require only a clear line of sight.’
‘Excellent, Duizhang! I am about to create it for you.’
K’ang Lo’s image shrank a little off to one side while another appeared in its place. It was Vice-Admiral Ngassa.
‘Lieutenant, where’s this counterstrike of yours?’ Ngassa said. ‘Maintaining these shields is draining our cells at an unsustainable rate.’
‘It’s ready now, Vice-Admiral. If you pull your vessels back from a channel along these coordinates then wait for the shield signal … ’
‘I have the coordinates now, Lieutenant. This shouldn’t take long.’
‘The Pyreans have a weapon?’ Greg murmured as Ngassa’s picture shrank into a corner. ‘What does it do?’
‘Something they got from the Roug,’ Ash said. ‘I just hope it’s enough to take out some of those maulers. Otherwise we’ve got real problems … ’
Moments later Vice-Admiral Ngassa confirmed that the manoeuvres were complete, as did the Imisil commander. Ash then informed K’ang Lo, who smiled.
‘My engineers have monitored the progress and we have already acquired our target. The dragon is ready.’
The Earthsphere vice-admiral nodded gravely. ‘Shield will open along that channel in ten … nine … eight … ’
The other screens still showed the Hegemony formation, the spread-out X of vessels with the mauler ships clustered around the centre. They were firing off massive bursts of energy and energised particles which were hammering against the interlocked shields of the defending fleet. Then the vice-admiral’s countdown reached one … and for a heartbeat there was nothing, an instant of hollow dread, a millisecond of panic …
Then the dragon roared.
A pillar of force and energy leaped along that channel cleared through the loose formation of vessels and stabbed out towards the oncoming Hegemony ships. It was almost too bright to watch but the visual systems quickly filtered and enhanced. Greg stared open-mouthed as that ferocious torrent smashed into the Hegemony vessels, scything through hulls like laser drills through paper, cutting them apart,