Here is the second snippet of The Star Engine, coming July 12, 2024. Be sure to preorder from Amazon. https://amzn.to/3V9blRc

Sidewinder watched as the human fleet launched their fighter craft and their ship drives went hot, the ships shifting position to form a defensive perimeter from his ships coming in above the ecliptic plane.  He would have preferred to catch them unawares with the sneak attack, but he didn’t regret the loss of surprise.  Some part of him relished in the chance to fight an enemy on more even terms.

Fixer was right, he thought to himself, we are no longer Balor… we are hybrids.  His parent species would not have felt enjoyment at the thought of a challenge, they would not have felt any real emotions at all.  They were a hive mind, made up of individuals who existed for the collective whole, with no more personality or emotion than a terrestrial ant.

Still, it didn’t change his goal here.  The humans could not be allowed to hold the Star Engine.  They must be defeated and eradicated.  Every one of them would have to be hunted down… and while Sidewinder didn’t view that task with pleasure, he at least felt relief that the force readied itself to face him instead of fleeing.  Best to get it all done with.

Sidewinder sent a message to his ships, Prepare to repel fighters and missiles.

***

The enemy ships tightened their formation and their drives, shields, and weapon systems all went live.  Admiral Collae’s dark eyes studied those emissions, particularly those of the ship’s weapon systems.  These enemy ships didn’t seem to mount missile systems.  The reports he had seen described immensely powerful gamma ray emitters, powerful by any standard, but at wavelengths where they bypassed defense screens.  The magnetically contained plasma that formed the defense screens could be adjusted for a variety of threats, but Admiral Collae’s engineers had been unable to find a solution for particles at that highest end of the spectrum.

They seemed to use the same emitters for their point defense weapons, splitting the beams a dozen or more times to engage missiles.  At close range, that left them the options of firing at enemies or defending themselves from missiles and fighters.  That would be an advantage to Admiral Collae’s forces.  Also, the weapons were slow to fire, which meant they could be over-saturated.  “Engagement Pattern Delta,” he said.  “Order the first launch… now.”

The first ten squadrons launched two hundred and sixty fission warhead missiles, followed a moment later by a staggered launch from the next ten squadrons, and then the next ten squadrons.  Half of his fighter force launched their missiles, across a set of purposely staggered firing parameters.  In all, over a thousand missiles headed towards those seventeen ships, their flight times staggered across forty seconds.

Admiral Collae watched those salvoes go out, even as his gaze went to the transports of Force Manticore.  They had just reached position and he noted that the captains of all three vessels had positioned them exactly where ordered.  Excellent.

***

A staggered launch, Sidewinder thought to himself.  He approved of the tactic… but he wasn’t his deceased predecessor, Hunter.  He sent the order out to the force without hesitation, his mind making the calculations for the inbound missiles, the ship’s systems tied into his mind directly through psionic link.

He could sense those missiles on their way in, a skill that he had practiced and rehearsed.  He would not allow the clever humans to hit him with unseen missiles.  That had been how Hunter had died, a failure who had lost far too many resources in his death.  Sidewinder’s mind reached out, amplified and augmented by the minds of his ship’s crews, and he sensed every one of the inbound missiles, directing his ships to stagger their fire across the entire inbound wave in an interlinked sequence designed to let their weapons recharge in time to engage again and again.

It wasn’t perfect.  Just because he could sense a missile’s location didn’t mean he could predict where it would be when his light-speed weapons engaged.  Yet it was far more effective than any merely human engagement and of the thousand missiles, less than ten penetrated the defenses to detonate against his ship’s shields.

***

“Negative on the battle damage assessment, sir,” Captain Thompson reported.

“Unfortunate,” Admiral Collae grunted.  Yet that was why he had held back half of his fighters missiles and all of his shipboard missiles.  He watched as the four hundred fighters began docking to rearm… but he didn’t think they’d make it in time.  The enemy ships came in too fast, their drives far faster than they had any right to be.  I’m tired of being at a disadvantage in technology.  That was their entire purpose of being here: to gain the advantage.  Yet Spencer Penwaithe’s manipulations and Marius Giovanni’s planning and efforts had yet to produce any tactical advantages.

“Go to engagement pattern Bravo-Bravo-Three,” Admiral Collae said.  “Hold missile fire until I give the order, all vessels, engage with energy batteries as your designated targets enter your engagement envelope.”

His formation shifted.  Deep in the bowels of the converted Chxor dreadnought, he was insulated from much of it, but he could sense the tension in his people even so.  This was an enemy they had faced before.  This alien threat was behind attacks that had already annihilated dozens of colony worlds… and most of his crews were drawn from the survivors of those colonies.

The eagerness in his people’s actions and voices as they readied themselves gave him a sense of satisfaction.  They didn’t fear this enemy.  They were eager to fight and eager to stand against them.

The enemy force flashed into the engagement area and their powerful batteries fired, lancing out and smashing through defense screens, armor, and hull as if it were non-existent.  Their attack lanced down, driving towards the heart of Admiral Collae’s fleet.  Destroyers and frigates vanished under that powerful weapons fire… yet they didn’t die alone.  His converted Hellbore and Four-class cruisers engaged with their powerful energy weapons as the ships closed into range, their immense spinal mounts firing, blasting into enemy ships again and again.  Enemy shields flared and died, enemy ships erupted into brief-lived stars.

Admiral Collae’s command ship shuddered under several impacts, and then the enemy ships were almost within his formation.  “Fire,” he snapped.

Fifteen hundred missiles lanced out.  The enemy had clearly saved some of their main weapons for the purpose of engaging those missiles, but they weren’t enough, not at such close range.  Dozens, hundreds of missiles erupted in the enemy formation and while the small, swift vessels dodged ten missiles for every one that hit, that still meant that many ships were hit by over a dozen missiles each.

The enemy formation vanished, eradicated in the span of a few heartbeats, yet Admiral Collae’s gaze went to sensor display, drawn by a shout from his sensors section.

“Admiral, enemy ships detected along Axis Golf!”  That was on the other side of the Star Engine, and his ships and those of Commodore Caras were out of position, especially with how close those ships were.  The only ships between the planet and this oncoming fleet were the three freighters of Force Manticore.

***