the Servant.
But as soon as he saw the green and yellow beams of his stingers reach out, there came a single red beam that hit directly on the front ring of his stinger tubes.
“Stingers destroyed by heavy sky light beam!” called the Stinger Servant. “Half our front stingers are gone. Shifting aim with the other half of the ring.”
But even as he saw a green beam from one of his stinger tubes hit one of the smaller flying nests, a second red beam reached down from the Soft Skin nest and hit the lower portion of his front ring of stinger tubes.
“All front tubes now dead!” scent cast the Stinger Servant in a mix of signal and death pheromones that carried a hint of anxiety.
Seven breathed forth a strong mix of aggregation, territorial and trail pheromones. “Servant for all chambers, share my Hunter scent with all Swarmers everywhere on our nest! We fight! We are Swarmers! We can bite with many mandibles! The loss of a few does not prevent the death of the Soft Skin!”
His loud expulsion of pheromones filled the air of the Flight Chamber and was carried to all chambers of his nest by way of the pheromone signalers that existed in every chamber of his nest. There were twenty six-groups of Swarmers in the nest. Whether Servants, Fighters, Fighter Leaders, Workers or Worker Leaders, all would sense and feel his determination. They would survive this attack by a single Soft Skin nest. Even better, they would soon have Soft Skin captives to play with, before affixing larvae to them to feed the next generation of Swarmers. He was the Hunter. It was up to him to find the flight path that led to victory.
“Flight Servant! Swing our nest to bring about our middle ring and rear ring to fire on the large nest!” he said in a rush of signal pheromones. “Stinger Servant, fire all your sky light and sky bolt tubes at just the large nest! Surely we can bite deep!”
“Swinging to attack!” she scent cast.
“Biting deep!” declared the young male in charge of stingers.
Seven watched as green beams and yellow lightning reached out to the oncoming Soft Skin nest. Which had begun to spin even as its head stinger fired another red beam at his nest. The dance of life and death had begun.
♦ ♦ ♦
Jacob watched the front wallscreen’s vidcast from the Bridge of the Philippine Sea . The left side of his screen showed a sensor track of all neutrino emitting spaceships flying near the comet hideout of the wasp ship. The middle showed Joy and Aelwen as they sat in the center of their Bridge. And the right side showed a true space image of the black space between the Sea and the wasp ship, with the three Darts showing as bright silver triangles with orange flame flaring from the tail of each craft. Watching with him was Daisy in her XO seat, while Richard’s seat was occupied by the Marine pilot for the Dart that remained on the Lepanto . The young man, an Anglo from Philadelphia, wore his white Marine dress uniform. His shoulders showed the rank of master sergeant. It didn’t matter to Jacob. What mattered were the next few minutes as the two big ships fought with lightspeed beams as the Darts maneuvered to attack position.
“Captain, the wasp ship is free of the comet,” called Rosemary from Tactical. “It’s firing lasers and lightning bolts!”
He saw that. He noted how Joy’s own proton laser beam happened nearly at the same instant as the incoming beams from the front end of the wasp ship, which was now curving upward according to the true space image. Clearly the wasp ship was trying to get above the Sea , which was now spinning to reduce the impact of incoming beams. A second proton beam finished the destruction of the wasp ship’s front ring of laser tubes. But its middle ring now took up the attack, firing four green laser beams and four yellow lightning bolts at the Sea . From what he could see of the true space image of the Sea , as seen from one of the Darts, there was no punch
But as soon as he saw the green and yellow beams of his stingers reach out, there came a single red beam that hit directly on the front ring of his stinger tubes.
“Stingers destroyed by heavy sky light beam!” called the Stinger Servant. “Half our front stingers are gone. Shifting aim with the other half of the ring.”
But even as he saw a green beam from one of his stinger tubes hit one of the smaller flying nests, a second red beam reached down from the Soft Skin nest and hit the lower portion of his front ring of stinger tubes.
“All front tubes now dead!” scent cast the Stinger Servant in a mix of signal and death pheromones that carried a hint of anxiety.
Seven breathed forth a strong mix of aggregation, territorial and trail pheromones. “Servant for all chambers, share my Hunter scent with all Swarmers everywhere on our nest! We fight! We are Swarmers! We can bite with many mandibles! The loss of a few does not prevent the death of the Soft Skin!”
His loud expulsion of pheromones filled the air of the Flight Chamber and was carried to all chambers of his nest by way of the pheromone signalers that existed in every chamber of his nest. There were twenty six-groups of Swarmers in the nest. Whether Servants, Fighters, Fighter Leaders, Workers or Worker Leaders, all would sense and feel his determination. They would survive this attack by a single Soft Skin nest. Even better, they would soon have Soft Skin captives to play with, before affixing larvae to them to feed the next generation of Swarmers. He was the Hunter. It was up to him to find the flight path that led to victory.
“Flight Servant! Swing our nest to bring about our middle ring and rear ring to fire on the large nest!” he said in a rush of signal pheromones. “Stinger Servant, fire all your sky light and sky bolt tubes at just the large nest! Surely we can bite deep!”
“Swinging to attack!” she scent cast.
“Biting deep!” declared the young male in charge of stingers.
Seven watched as green beams and yellow lightning reached out to the oncoming Soft Skin nest. Which had begun to spin even as its head stinger fired another red beam at his nest. The dance of life and death had begun.
♦ ♦ ♦
Jacob watched the front wallscreen’s vidcast from the Bridge of the Philippine Sea . The left side of his screen showed a sensor track of all neutrino emitting spaceships flying near the comet hideout of the wasp ship. The middle showed Joy and Aelwen as they sat in the center of their Bridge. And the right side showed a true space image of the black space between the Sea and the wasp ship, with the three Darts showing as bright silver triangles with orange flame flaring from the tail of each craft. Watching with him was Daisy in her XO seat, while Richard’s seat was occupied by the Marine pilot for the Dart that remained on the Lepanto . The young man, an Anglo from Philadelphia, wore his white Marine dress uniform. His shoulders showed the rank of master sergeant. It didn’t matter to Jacob. What mattered were the next few minutes as the two big ships fought with lightspeed beams as the Darts maneuvered to attack position.
“Captain, the wasp ship is free of the comet,” called Rosemary from Tactical. “It’s firing lasers and lightning bolts!”
He saw that. He noted how Joy’s own proton laser beam happened nearly at the same instant as the incoming beams from the front end of the wasp ship, which was now curving upward according to the true space image. Clearly the wasp ship was trying to get above the Sea , which was now spinning to reduce the impact of incoming beams. A second proton beam finished the destruction of the wasp ship’s front ring of laser tubes. But its middle ring now took up the attack, firing four green laser beams and four yellow lightning bolts at the Sea . From what he could see of the true space image of the Sea , as seen from one of the Darts, there was no punch
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