Read Online Accord of Honor by Kevin O. McLaughlin - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Kevin O. McLaughlin
Tags: Science-Fiction, Space Opera, Military, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Hard Science Fiction, Space Fleet, Space Marine, Colonization
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The launchers were built to kick the missiles away from the central axis of the ship, so that the thrust of missiles firing from opposite sides equalized and had less effect on the course of the ship.
I could feel the chatter of the rear guns firing on a couple of missiles that got too close to us from their first volley. They hadn’t fired another round yet, which implied we had at least a little bit of range on them. The entire pack had banked around now, tracking in toward the Defender. The ship that had veered toward the station was still on that course, but Defender would be able to sweep into the path and obstruct any missiles it launched.
And there it was. All six ships firing, and it looked like all the missiles were trained at Defender again. Another six rounds per ship. A minute later, another. Same rate of fire we had. “Weapons,” I called out over our intercom, “Firing solution two. Three volleys per ship. Target the cluster of five ships on our flank. Fire at will, continuous fire!” That would overheat the tubes fast. We’d see how long Defender could maintain a maximum rate of fire.
The plot was getting confused, missiles tracking all over. Our own shots were proceeding at a good pace. Those first shots would be impacting shortly, but it seemed to take forever. Distances were so great between our ship and the enemy that the time delays involved made the whole thing feel unreal. Lags of minutes were going to be the norm between launch and impacts. We’d fired off all three volleys at the first ship and were loading to fire at the second, and the enemy had returned fire with seventy two missiles of its own. In all, one hundred twenty missiles were flying at various targets, and the plot was very busy. It was going to get hard to track all the missiles shortly. Of course, in another minute or two, the first ones would be hitting their targets.
I still had two more cards to play. “Helm, EM screens up.” We had strengthened the electro-magnetic screen most ships carried to deflect small bits of debris. Even the stronger version wouldn’t stop a direct hit, but they’d stop fragments and shrapnel from any nukes they sent our way, and in theory protect our electronics from EM waves off the nukes.
Now for the coup de grace. I smiled, teeth tight together, and called to the weapons station. The cluster of five ships had flown right through the arc those powered down warheads we had launched were traveling. And now, it was time to spring that trap. We bounced a signal off the colony radio tower, and on my command thirty two powered down SABOT missiles went live almost on top of the enemy. Thirty two warheads locked onto two targets, sixteen missiles to a ship. And now I got to see their defense.
I watched as a few shots wandered off course, confused by the number of nearby targets or with drives which didn’t reactivate properly. Two went after the wrong ships. Another two simply spiraled off into space. The enemy ships did have some sort of defensive fire, but to my eye it looked like it was more of a general gun, not a dedicated anti missile system. They were certainly nowhere near as effective as I’d expect from our own defenses. But there were five ships firing at those missiles, and that level of fire was bound to attrit a few.
The two that had wandered off to attack the wrong ship were destroyed. That left twenty eight missiles. I watched as blip after blip on my screen vanished from radar as their guns blasted apart the missiles. Then they were streaking the last short distance to the ships, and the SABOT rounds hit the enemy hulls.
Only four rounds penetrated the first ship, shedding their outer layer on the hull. A rod of depleted uranium was the core of each SABOT round, accelerated to a terrible speed. They smashed through the outer hull, then generally blasting through anything in their path to the other side of the ship. Scan showed those holes venting atmosphere, but the ship stayed
I could feel the chatter of the rear guns firing on a couple of missiles that got too close to us from their first volley. They hadn’t fired another round yet, which implied we had at least a little bit of range on them. The entire pack had banked around now, tracking in toward the Defender. The ship that had veered toward the station was still on that course, but Defender would be able to sweep into the path and obstruct any missiles it launched.
And there it was. All six ships firing, and it looked like all the missiles were trained at Defender again. Another six rounds per ship. A minute later, another. Same rate of fire we had. “Weapons,” I called out over our intercom, “Firing solution two. Three volleys per ship. Target the cluster of five ships on our flank. Fire at will, continuous fire!” That would overheat the tubes fast. We’d see how long Defender could maintain a maximum rate of fire.
The plot was getting confused, missiles tracking all over. Our own shots were proceeding at a good pace. Those first shots would be impacting shortly, but it seemed to take forever. Distances were so great between our ship and the enemy that the time delays involved made the whole thing feel unreal. Lags of minutes were going to be the norm between launch and impacts. We’d fired off all three volleys at the first ship and were loading to fire at the second, and the enemy had returned fire with seventy two missiles of its own. In all, one hundred twenty missiles were flying at various targets, and the plot was very busy. It was going to get hard to track all the missiles shortly. Of course, in another minute or two, the first ones would be hitting their targets.
I still had two more cards to play. “Helm, EM screens up.” We had strengthened the electro-magnetic screen most ships carried to deflect small bits of debris. Even the stronger version wouldn’t stop a direct hit, but they’d stop fragments and shrapnel from any nukes they sent our way, and in theory protect our electronics from EM waves off the nukes.
Now for the coup de grace. I smiled, teeth tight together, and called to the weapons station. The cluster of five ships had flown right through the arc those powered down warheads we had launched were traveling. And now, it was time to spring that trap. We bounced a signal off the colony radio tower, and on my command thirty two powered down SABOT missiles went live almost on top of the enemy. Thirty two warheads locked onto two targets, sixteen missiles to a ship. And now I got to see their defense.
I watched as a few shots wandered off course, confused by the number of nearby targets or with drives which didn’t reactivate properly. Two went after the wrong ships. Another two simply spiraled off into space. The enemy ships did have some sort of defensive fire, but to my eye it looked like it was more of a general gun, not a dedicated anti missile system. They were certainly nowhere near as effective as I’d expect from our own defenses. But there were five ships firing at those missiles, and that level of fire was bound to attrit a few.
The two that had wandered off to attack the wrong ship were destroyed. That left twenty eight missiles. I watched as blip after blip on my screen vanished from radar as their guns blasted apart the missiles. Then they were streaking the last short distance to the ships, and the SABOT rounds hit the enemy hulls.
Only four rounds penetrated the first ship, shedding their outer layer on the hull. A rod of depleted uranium was the core of each SABOT round, accelerated to a terrible speed. They smashed through the outer hull, then generally blasting through anything in their path to the other side of the ship. Scan showed those holes venting atmosphere, but the ship stayed
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