In his torpedo launcher, (scroll down) Three Stars, Vodan has four crewfolk. All five Ythrians need space to spread their wings. Launched from her cruiser, Three Stars detects and moves to intercept a Terran Meteor.
Rochefort, who has already disposed of an Ythrian craft identified by an image of a wheel with petals as spokes, now sees a craft emblazoned with three golden stars.
A torpedo passes Three Stars, then turns, but one of Vodan's gunners destroys it. After an exchange of fire, the Meteor is holed, loses air and water and stops accelerating. Vodan calls the Meteor and Rochefort surrenders but, before the two surviving Terrans can cross to Three Stars, that ship is destroyed by friendly fire as Avalon strikes the Terran fleet.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Very realistic! And more than once, in stories by Anderson, Stirling, Pournelle, etc., I've seen seen soldiers/navy personnel cursing their own artillery/air forces when "friendly fire" killed some of their own people.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: in WW2, British and American casualties from friendly fire ranged from 5% to 15% in most battles.
As my father -- originally a gunner -- used to say, "Artillery is approximate".
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
With the best will in the world accuracy is always going to come with a margin of error.
Ad astra! Sean
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