A series of immense detonations turned half of the feeds into an intense white. The sensor arrays attenuated in a moment, allowing Lanson to see the incendiary fires spreading across the superheavy’s topside armour.

  “Which is our primary target, Captain?” asked Matlock.

  “Target the lifter,” said Lanson at once. “If we can knock it out quickly, we might be able to outrun the Tagha’an. Or maybe we can execute another ILT.”

  He hauled the control bars hard to portside. The New Beginning accelerated, as Lanson sought to keep the superheavy between his warship and the Tagha’an.

  “Yes, sir. Targeting the lifter,” said Matlock.

  “Captain, I would strongly recommend against another instant transit,” said Abrams. He sounded worried as hell. “We’ve got some new instabilities on one of the engine modules – they’re more extensive than last time and I don’t know if they’ll settle.”

  “Keep me informed,” said Lanson through clenched teeth. He had plenty to juggle, and he didn’t want to be thinking about a possible runaway reaction on his warship’s propulsion.

  He snapped his attention back to the feeds. Only a few seconds had passed since the incendiary detonations, but already their plasma fires had spread to engulf almost the entirety of the lifter’s topsides, while spilling down its flanks in curtains of flame.

  “Starboard and topside Zavon clusters one to three, targeted and fired,” said Matlock. “We do not have a firing angle for the particle beam.”

  “Missile launch detected from the enemy superheavy,” said Lieutenant Perry.

  As Perry spoke the words, Lanson spotted the Tagha’an rising into sight over the lifter’s topsides, its immense front and rear Thak cannons already turning towards the New Beginning.

  With reactions he didn’t know he possessed, Lanson commanded his warship to maximum acceleration, on a heading that would take it directly below the superheavy. From his periphery, he spotted the New Beginning’s warheads exploding high up on the lifter’s flanks.

  “Their missiles overshot, Captain,” said Perry. “And the enemy crew have disabled the guidance systems on that wave of Zavons. I guess they didn’t want to risk having their own missiles come back and hit the wrong target.”

  The crew of the lifter were beginning to get their act together, and the huge vessel’s Kraal repeaters opened up. Dozens upon dozens of the guns targeted the New Beginning, unleashing a torrent of slugs into its armour. Lanson wasn’t too concerned about the damage to the plating, but it was more than possible the repeaters would take out some of his warship’s Zavons as they exited their launch clusters.

  “Where’s that Tagha’an?” he asked, his eyes scouring the feeds.

  The answer came a split-second later when the Sagh’eld heavy cruiser dropped into sight from the lifter’s portside flank. Lanson had anticipated correctly and he banked the New Beginning sharply away, intending to obtain cover behind the superheavy’s starboard flank.

  By now, the lifter’s acceleration had taken its velocity beyond two hundred kilometres per second and it was already demanding every ounce of Lanson’s concentration to keep pace with the huge vessel, at the same time as keeping out of the Tagha’an’s firing line.

  Unfortunately for Lanson, if he was going to emerge alive from this encounter, he was going to have to do more than just keep his warship out of sight. In order to keep the New Beginning’s loaded missile clusters on target, he’d need to roll the warship after each launch. And then there was the particle beam, which had only a narrow firing arc from the nose.

  Lanson had always prided himself on being a dogfighter – in a Carbine class, it was the only way to survive. He was quickly learning that outthinking and outmanoeuvring an opponent became exponentially more difficult as the size of the warship and its maximum velocity increased.

  Determined that he wouldn’t fail, Lanson rotated the New Beginning about its vertical axis, at the same time as he hugged the superheavy’s starboard flank. He hoped the proximity – at only a few hundred metres – would be such that the enemy vessel’s Zavons wouldn’t have time to arm after they exited their launch clusters.

  The enemy crew evidently understood Lanson’s tactics and the superheavy banked away, trailing incendiary flames as it sought to put some additional distance between the two warships. All the while, Kraal repeater projectiles smashed into the New Beginning’s armour.

  I’ve bitten off way more than I can chew, thought Lanson.

  His mind desperately hunted a way out, but the only option he could think of was to run.

  “What’s happening with our engines, Lieutenant Abrams?” he asked.

  “We’ve still got output spikes on the same propulsion module, Captain. I thought for a moment they were going to spread to the adjacent modules, but so far it hasn’t happened.”

  “Will they settle?”

  “Gut feel doesn’t want to guess higher than a fifty-fifty, sir. I’m looking to see if there’s any way I can influence the situation, but I’m having to directly access the backend Sagh’eld control systems and—”

  “Keep at it, Lieutenant,” said Lanson. He didn’t have the spare attention to engage with the technical discussion. “I trust you to come up with something.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  As he talked, Lanson did his best to keep the New Beginning close to the superheavy. Luckily, the enemy vessel wasn’t designed for combat, and it was far less manoeuvrable than the destroyer. Regardless, Lanson was finding it tough to keep within the lifter’s minimum launch range.

  Of course, that also meant Commander Matlock was unable to launch the New Beginning’s own missiles, and he was struggling to bring the superheavy into the particle beam’s firing arc.

  “We haven’t inflicted nearly enough damage on the lifter to slow it down,” said Matlock. “Maybe you could position us for another incendiary drop, Captain.”

  Once again, the Tagha’an emerged into sight, this time from beneath the lifter. Lanson responded at once by piloting the New Beginning over the superheavy’s topsides. From here, he had a good view of the damage wrought by the first incendiary strike. The lifter’s armour was glowing a dull red, and towards the vessel’s portside flank the plating was peppered with Zavon craters. Lanson had seen enough of combat to know that the superheavy had suffered moderate, but not nearly fatal, damage.

  “It looks as if the target vessel lost its missile launch clusters in the area of our Zavon strikes, Captain,” said Lieutenant Turner. “You might be able to gain enough distance to fire another salvo into that same area, without risk of return fire.”

  No sooner had Turner spoken, than the Tagha’an cruiser appeared once more. At the same time, the superheavy banked away from the New Beginning.

  “Starboard Zavon clusters one to three, targeted and fired,” said Matlock, as the range increased.

  “Missile launch detected from the enemy lifter,” said Perry.

  In desperation, Lanson banked hard towards the superheavy. A dozen or so warheads exploded against the lifter, and in turn, the New Beginning suffered a handful of Zavon strikes against its facing starboard flank.

  The brightness of the feeds made Lanson narrow his eyes. A proximity warning flashed up on his console and then the New Beginning collided with the superheavy. Although the life support cushioned the interior, Lanson still felt the thud through the alloys of the walls around him.

  “Damage report!” he yelled.

  “We’ve got to do something, Captain,” said Matlock.

  Lanson felt on the verge of being overwhelmed. A glance at his control panel told him that the unwanted reaction on one of the propulsion modules hadn’t gone away, making another instant transit risky as hell – assuming an ILT would even activate.

  On top of that, the superheavy lifter was nowhere near to breaking up and its crew were clearly watching for another incendiary drop. Meanwhile, the Tagha’an – which had so far been circumspect, was becoming progressively harder to evade. Soon, Lanson suspected, the crew of the heavy would find the opening they needed, and a couple of Thak cannon impacts would likely be enough to wreck the New Beginning.

  Then, Lanson’s eye was drawn to something on the tactical which had been there all along. The lead shuttle, which had risen from the surface of Scalos only a few minutes earlier, was now stationary, about fifty thousand kilometres from where the engagement was taking place.

  A sudden thought made Lanson think that if the transport – along with all the others – were important to the Sagh’eld, maybe he could take advantage of the fact.

  “Commander Matlock,” he said. “Target that nearest shuttle with two Zavons from our underside launchers and fire.”

  “Yes, sir. Missiles targeted and fired.”

  As the two Zavons streaked away, shielded from the superheavy’s Kraal guns by the New Beginning’s hull, Lanson gave his full attention once more to the engagement.

  SEVEN

  The enemy’s reaction to the attack on the shuttle was immediate. Within five seconds of the Zavon launch, the Tagha’an reappeared in the New Beginning’s sensor arc. The heavy cruiser had broken away from the lifter and it was under maximum acceleration, heading straight after the missiles.

  “Looks like they don’t want us to incinerate their precious cargo,” said Lanson.

  “The Tagha’an has all of its Kraal guns aimed at our missiles, Captain, but its Thak turrets are turning our way,” said Perry.

  “Captain – we lost three of our Kraal turrets to that missile attack, and there’s damage to our starboard and underside plating,” said Massey, giving the damage report Lanson had asked for a short time ago. “There’s no breach into the propulsion modules, but if we suffer another Zavon strike in the same place, we might not be so lucky.”

  “Acknowledged.”

  Lanson was already piloting the New Beginning back towards the topsides of the superheavy lifter, where his vessel would be outside the Tagha’an’s sensor arc. The lifter’s pilot made several rapid changes of course, hoping to prevent Lanson from entering cover, but the huge spaceship was far less agile than a Vachal destroyer. Consequently, the efforts of the enemy were in vain, and Lanson positioned the New Beginning over the top of the lifter, directly above the still-glowing craters made by the earlier Zavon attack.

  “The incendiaries took out most of the Kraal guns up here, Captain,” said Turner. “I can see four missile clusters which might still be operational, but we might be able to launch our own Zavons straight down, without the enemy being able to obtain a weapons lock.”

  “Fire the loaded underside clusters, Commander Matlock,” said Lanson.

  “Yes, sir. Underside clusters one to three, targeted and fired. Two missiles from cluster one have already been launched towards the shuttle. Our velocities are too high to make an incendiary drop viable.”

  All sixteen of the Zavons detonated on the damaged section of the superheavy. Plasma fountained and the lifter’s armour plating was torn into jagged fingers of metal which seemed to reach out towards the New Beginning.

  As the light from the blasts faded, Lanson surveyed the outcome of the attack. His heart fell when he saw that the deep craters hadn’t penetrated to the lifter’s main bay.

  “That superheavy must be as thickly armoured as an Ex’Kaminar,” said Lanson, wondering if this was too tough a nut for the New Beginning to crack.

  Suddenly, the lifter banked again, first one way and then the other. Lanson adjusted rapidly to follow, but, when his opponent dropped suddenly away towards the planet, he was a fraction slow.

  “Missiles launched from the superheavy,” said Perry.

  “Starboard clusters one to three: targeted and fired,” said Matlock a moment later.

  Several missiles from the two waves were pulverised by Kraal guns, but both the New Beginning and the superheavy were struck several times. Lanson cursed at the way this battle was going. He had little choice other than to risk an ILT, or to keep going.

  With the lifter’s facing missile clusters mid-reload, Lanson took advantage of his own vessel’s superior manoeuvrability, by rolling it around its longitudinal axis, so that its topside and portside clusters would become available.

  At the same time as he executed the roll, Lanson piloted the warship out from the cover of the superheavy, intending to obtain a visual update on the Tagha’an and the Sagh’eld shuttle.

  Lieutenant Turner obtained an almost immediate sensor lock and, to Lanson’s surprise, the Tagha’an was now almost twenty-five thousand kilometres from the superheavy, and travelling at its maximum velocity of six hundred kilometres per second. Most significantly, the heavy cruiser was precisely positioned between the New Beginning and the shuttle.

  “They really don’t want us to destroy that transport,” said Lanson.

  “And we’ve got no chance of doing it with our missiles from this distance, Captain,” said Turner.

  “Which leaves us with the Kraal guns and the particle beam, neither of which will be effective with that heavy cruiser in the way.” Lanson turned towards Matlock. “Give the superheavy another salvo, Commander.”

  “Yes, sir. Topside and portside clusters one to three, targeted and fired,” said Matlock.

  Although the lifter’s Kraal defences punched almost half of the Zavon wave into pieces, twenty-one missiles made it through the countermeasures, and detonated against the superheavy’s topsides and starboard midsection. The huge spaceship banked again, hoping to throw off its pursuer, but Lanson stayed close.

  “That heavy cruiser has effectively sacrificed a primary asset in order to protect the shuttle,” said Lanson.

  “Or maybe the Tagha’an’s crew reckon we lack the firepower to destroy the lifter,” said Matlock. “That last missile wave still didn’t penetrate the enemy armour.”

  “Either way, they’re desperate not to lose that shuttle, Commander,” said Lanson. “And that means we have to do everything we can to take it out.”

  With a wrench on the controls, he broke the New Beginning away from the superheavy. The destroyer’s Galos-modified propulsion roared, and the velocity gauge raced upwards. In moments, the gap between the two vessels was hundreds of kilometres.

  “Commander Matlock, as soon as you obtain a particle beam lock on the shuttle, turn it into wreckage.”

  “Yes, sir. We’ll have to be wary of the Tagha’an’s Thak guns.”

  “I haven’t forgotten about them,” said Lanson.

  “Zavon launch detected from the superheavy, Captain,” said Perry.

  Lanson’s eyes went to the velocity gauge. Already the New Beginning was past five hundred kilometres per second, and that meant the enemy missiles wouldn’t be able to keep up. A Thak gun was another matter entirely, and the velocity of those projectiles was far beyond the capability of the New Beginning to outrun. The best tactic would be to stay at long range and enact random changes of direction, in the hope that the Tagha’an wouldn’t be able to land a shot on target.

  The New Beginning’s velocity gauge climbed to eight hundred kilometres per second and went no further. Far behind, the superheavy continued along its previous course, as its crew sought to increase the distance between their vessel and the destroyer. Soon, Lanson guessed, they’d head behind Scalos and wait for the Tagha’an to defeat the New Beginning.

  “Sensor lock on the enemy heavy cruiser, sir,” said Perry. “They are fifty-five thousand klicks from our position. There’s no sign of the shuttle.”

  “It must be sticking close to the Tagha’an,” said Lanson, mentally cursing that the enemy were now using his most recent tactics against him.

  “The Tagha’an has discharged its forward Thak guns,” said Perry.

  Lanson sent the New Beginning onto a violent change of course. The travel time of a Thak slug across this distance was somewhere between two and three seconds and that didn’t give much time to avoid the impact. A particle beam had an even shorter travel time duration, but as long as Lanson stayed beyond the enemy’s fifty-thousand-kilometre range, he knew he’d be safe from such an attack. Fortunately, the New Beginning’s own particle beam had been boosted by the Galos module and now had a targeting range in excess of a hundred thousand kilometres.

  “The enemy’s rear Thak turret has fired,” said Perry.

  Once again, Lanson banked the New Beginning, producing a grumble from its engines. Neither the first nor the second Thak discharge struck the destroyer, and since the guns had a reload time of twenty seconds, that gave Lanson some breathing room.

  “Gorlan launch detected from the Tagha’an,” said Turner. “Zavon launch detected from the Tagha’an. We are also being targeted by Kraal guns from both the heavy cruiser and the lifter.”

  Using the time available between Thak discharges, Lanson piloted the New Beginning on a straight-line course that he hoped would reveal the Sagh’eld transport. To his immense frustration, the heavy cruiser remained stationary and simply rotated to keep its portside flank aimed towards Lanson’s warship.

  “There’s no way we’re going to obtain a particle beam lock on the transport,” said Lanson in disgust. “Not unless the enemy pilots screw up badly.”

  “I don’t think that’s going to happen, Captain,” said Matlock.

  Cursing under his breath, Lanson tried to figure out a way to escape this deadlock. A whispering voice suggested that a man with greater experience and a more finely-honed intuition would have taken a particle beam shot at the shuttle while it was initially exposed. Lanson couldn’t allow the self-doubts to take hold. A chance had been missed, and now he had to think of a new way to achieve victory.

  A thought jumped into his head, and his eyes followed that thought to the propulsion output gauge. The reaction spikes hadn’t gone away, but they were lesser than before.

  “Maybe it’s time to cut and run, Captain,” said Matlock. “We might get another shot at that transport later.”

  “I’m asking myself if it’s time to double down, Commander,” said Lanson.