Kathryn McCormac's eyes are "chrysocolla." (p. 430)
"'The next planet inward, Dido they call it, past quadrature but far enough from conjunction that there'd be no ambiguity about our aiming for it.'" (p. 434)
Asieneuve falls free around Dido. A barbarian ship, not responding to radio, rushes to rendezvous:
lean shape;
needle nose;
rakish fins;
heavy, hull-integrated armament;
designed to traverse atmosphere.
Flandry orders, "'White flare,'" and "'"Pax" broadcast.'" (ibid.)
The barbarian, a mercenary working for McCormac, fires energy beams and missiles. Asieneuve responds with blaster cannon, countermissiles and larger missiles. There are nuclear detonations. Electromagnetic screens withstand ions but not heat, X-rays, energy beams or torpedoes. Negrav forces slow torps but interceptors must stop them. Despite its advantages of higher speed and altitude, the barbarian is penetrated and damaged and whirls away on a cometary path, blackened and melted.
Beams penetrate Asieneuve. Blast from three nearby explosions shatters machines and kills men. See here. Her engines dead, Asieneuve falls toward Dido.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
One thing I surprised you did not comment on was this bit from Chapter VII of THE REBEL WORLDS: "But it was not possible for the Terran to escape scot free. Tactical experts reckoned the life of a destroyer in this kind of fight as less than three minutes." That is, experts had estimated how long various kinds of warships could last in combat against opposing ships of similar sizes, armament, weapons, etc.
Superdreadnoughts, by contrast, were not really supposed to fight enemy ships. They were made so large and powerful to enable fleet commanders and their staffs to think and plan with little risk of coming under attack themselves.
Ad astra! Sean
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