Homeworld (Odyssey One) (44 page)

It would be a largely pointless exercise, she was well aware. Against that many ships, even with the
Odyssey
and the other ship they could detect approaching its position, there was nothing her two vessels could do to swing the odds. It would be a closer fight than the Drasin could possibly expect, but in the end she had little doubt that the Terran system would fall.

I hope that intelligence was wrong when they said that the Terrans only had a single system under their control.

If it wasn’t, she was about to witness a true genocide.

“Captain! Multiple trans-light signals originating within the system!”

IMPERIAL WARSHIP
DEMIGOD

IVANTH GLARED AT his screens, knowing damned well that his ire was as impotent as it was hot. Somehow they’d lost control of their drones (the fact that said drones chose to attack the target he’d have been sending them against was entirely beside the point), and with that he had a serious black mark hovering over his head.

The drone ships were mostly second- and third-generation, which made them valuable. He’d been entrusted with a significant portion of their real combat capacity, despite the sheer numbers available at the Hive, and now he’d lost
control
of them.

Lost control!

The one thing that was anathema to anyone who’d ever seen the blighted things in action, and that was the thing that happened to him. The Prohuer would have his command, if Ivanth was lucky. Quite possibly his life if he wasn’t.

For the moment, however, what burned so badly was the fact that all he could do was sit back and watch the events and hope that he might somehow be able to regain control when it was over.

Or, worse, hope that these people are able to destroy enough of the Drasin that the
Demigod
and
Immortal
will be able to finish off our
own
drones!

The arrogance of the ship that broadcast that insane challenge, however, was almost enough to find him laughing despite the lousy situation in which he found himself. That they believed they could deter or, even more ludicrously, back up their challenge was just hilarious.

A few surprising successes, and this is how they react? Fools.

“Commander! Trans-light signals from the system!”

“Can you decode?”

“I believe that they are transmitting. I think it’s a crude detection system.”

Ivanth scowled. More confusing actions by the inhabitants of the system. The drone ships weren’t hiding in the slightest, nor were they even making rudimentary attempts at evasion. There was no real point to tracking them in trans-light at the moment, not until they were at least within range of some sort of meaningful engagement.

He was beginning to believe that these people were truly as inexperienced as they seemed. Their actions and technology just didn’t match well with the results they had garnered, however, and he was finding it very difficult to believe that anyone could be this crude and obtuse intentionally.

N.A.C.S.
ODYSSEY

“WE HAVE A real-time lock on the inbound ships, Captain,” Winger reported calmly from where she was staring intently at her displays. “All ships are still on their predicted course.”

“That makes things easier,” Eric said softly. “Waters?”

“Locked in. Barely had to alter the program, Captain.”

“Then, by all means, Lieutenant…” Eric said with a hint of a feral smile, “fire as she bears.”

“Aye, aye, Captain!” Waters smile didn’t have a hint of the feral—it was pure, straight-on animalistic. “Firing!”

Their guns swiveled on massive turrets as they tracked their targets, barely visible puffs of particulate exploding from their bores as they opened fire. It was a far cry from guns blazing, but at the range they were shooting, no one would see a muzzle flash anyway.

The
Odyssey
started firing fifteen light-minutes away.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

THE TRANSITION CANNONS were actually more properly called “transitional tachyon waveguides,” but neither that nor the actual technical name (which was eight very long and obscure words) caught on after some anonymous person coined the term “t-cannon.” People were funny that way.