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.“What you think is best, my duke, my protector,” she pressed her lips to his cheek, her gentle breath caressing his frozen skin, “I love you,” then pulled away, her gaze drawn back to the projection.Trent found a familiar warmth flowing through his veins, like he’d just taken a shot of aged whiskey, but it cooled as the starship rocked violently, a purple beam appearing from the largest red highlighted starship, a super-capital, to slam into a similarly large blue highlighted super-capital.with the name ABF Alutia flashing beneath.“ESS generation to maximum,” a voice boomed from the bridge, “I don’t care if you have to drain every last electron from the NSD core! Just make sure it holds, Reckie!”“Aye, aye, sir.It will hold, I bet a round a ale on it!” a squeaky voice responded, with just as much exuberance.“You’re on, Reckie! But keep the shenanigans to a minimum.I still remember last time, and I refuse to take responsibility and explain to Bo’Luk why a vat of ale ended up inside the NSD core!” A round of laughter rippled across the bridge, the tension easing as the purple beam faded and they were still, thankfully, in one piece.“Leave it to Knight Captain Mortoc, just hope they don’t get too comfy,” a fleet officer, seated in the closest of the twenty PDU stations that lined each side of the CID, muttered just loud enough for those around her to hear.But no one responded.Each and every fleet officer locked in constant conversation while skillfully manipulating the varying projections hovering before them.Trent turned his attention to Knight Captain Quinn and Vice-Commander Daiyu, who sat adjacent three junior officers of the TSB on the right side of the CID.Trent noticed that Knight Captain Quinn's display, unlike the other fleet officers displays, showed a similar projection as the CID, but of a much smaller sector of space, zooming in on a tightly packed formation of starships, in a phalanx formation.“So those are starships,” he whispered, it being the first time he’d been provided a clear view of the space faring craft used by the NHA.They looked nothing like the flashy starships that science-fiction movies and games were so found of using.If anything, they looked plain, almost utilitarian, a design for mass production like the Ford Model T’s of old, not aesthetics.Trent could discern three varying sizes on Quinn’s display, each sharing the same cuboid shape, like a three-dimensional rectangle, with what looked like varying sized rods protruding through a cloudy haze that covered a hull painted blue and white.At the rear were four bunches of tightly packed cylinders, or tubes, that emanated a bluish-white glow, which Trent figured were used for propulsion.Similar cylinders ran down all four edges, every few meters, occasionally rotating outside the haze, a blue glow appearing within; a type of maneuvering thruster, he realized.The flat nose of each starship was tapered at the top with massive, arrow tipped spikes, circling an upside-down cone that spun wildly in the center.As he watched, a brightly glowing, purplish substance, with a consistency of lava, started flowing from the arrow tips.It began pooling about the center cone, forming into a swirling vortex that shined brighter and brighter, Trent thinking a star about to be born.Then, before he could look away, the vortex erupted forth, like a volcano exploding violently, swirling across space at incredible speeds.It took only a moment to reach its target, smashing into the haze that surrounded the enemy super-capital.The haze bent in, then, as if it had a mind of its own, began thickening around where the star had struck, appearing to solidify, straining desperately against the swirling mass of death that tried to burn through.The display flashed, forcing Trent to cover his eyes, barely returning his view in time to witness the star cut a hole clean through the very heart of the starship before vanishing into the darkness of space beyond, leaving only a trail of atmosphere in its wake.Seeming to sense the wounded prey, hundreds of green laser bolts erupted from the egg shaped tips of some of the rods that protruded through the friendly starships haze covered hulls.They pummeled the super-capital relentlessly, small explosions of air and debris erupting from the now unprotected starship.But as quickly as the holes appeared, they would close, like the starship itself was alive, able heal its wounds at an incredible rate.Then, Trent thought he heard a groan pass from the enemy behemoth a moment before it split apart, massive explosions breaking it into pieces.From the rear of the starship, whose demise was certain, appeared a swirling ball of pure white that if not for the display dimming, would have blinded the viewer.But before he could even blink, a darkness beyond any he’d ever beheld enveloped the ball of pure light, drawing all into its very core, including the starship itself, that looked to implode in an instant.Then, the darkness vanished, the only trace of the starship’s existence an eerie ripple that seemed to flow across space like a wave.Sasha gasped, pulling him close, wrapping her arms tightly around his.“That was a super-capital and.and the neutron star drive was pierced.The safety system must have activated.20,000 people just lost their lives,” she told, like this was all a dream.“It’s all my fa-,”“What do you mean by neutron star drive and safety system?” Trent interrupted, thinking to redirect Sasha’s thinking before she started to weigh the deaths on herself [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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