jump between them. Even at the wall though, it still took a lot of energy to translate, more than any other Terran fighter had ever been able to generate before.
“Surfacing in three…two…one…” Johanson counted off.
Jack watched the energy crackling down his Avenger’s nose and shut his eyes.
“Now!” Johanson ordered.
Jack saw a flash of blinding light behind his lids, and when his eyes opened the stars glinted in a black sky. He scanned the battle all around him, taking everything in. Earth lay below them just over a light-second away, America in full view. A map display showed the moon and her forts on the far side of Earth, too far away to be of much use here. He squinted and the view zoomed in to show him a squadron of Chinese warships moving in over the Pacific. Fort Honolulu fired towards them, warning them away from the Hawaiian Orbitals. So far, only the Shang seemed willing to fight inside the Lunar Orbit and Jack really hoped the Chinese didn’t decide to join in now.
He turned to scan the main battle and had just enough time to recognize what he was seeing. Missiles from Earth, the Moon, and various Western Alliance Forts streamed into the battle, but when a missile’s flight time was measured in seconds it was real easy for point defense batteries firing from each Shang ship to kill it. The ground and low-orbit light or gravity-based weapons were quiet, too far away to hit anything if they fired. The Shang now surrounded the American and the Peloran squadrons still protecting Fort Wichita, pouring energy and short-range missile fire into their targets. They’d brought in more reinforcements while the Cowboys moved to this location, and the wreckage of starships floated all around the battlefield, some falling deeper into the gravity well. This was going to be another rough day for the planet if those didn’t get pulled back up.
Directly ahead of the Cowboys, the Peloran squadron fought for its life, a Shang cruiser between them. Jack squinted and saw the light sheer around the Shang ship showing that its deflection grid was at full power. Nearly all of it was aimed at the Peloran squadron. He saw laser batteries shooting down missiles and fighters between the two forces, and a Peloran destroyer belched fire and fell out of formation.
“Fire!” Johanson snapped and the universe turned inside out.
Jack had been told that, to all intents and purposes, a gravitic cannon grabbed the laws of gravity by the neck with both hands and throttled them. About all the physics he could remember was something about hundreds of gravities of gravitic sheer compressed into a five centimeter “beam.” It was a decidedly unpleasant experience when two such “beams” passed within meters of the cockpit on either side and made the human inner ear think that “down” was to both sides simultaneously. The eggheads said there were no permanent side effects. Jack doubted them. The Peloran placed their grav cannons outside their ships after all, very far away from any fragile biological crewmembers. There had to be a reason for that.
There were twelve Avengers in Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 112, and each of them carried two grav cannons. The Shang cruiser had the vast majority of its deflection grid aimed at the Peloran ships, with very little power dedicated to the direction the Cowboys came from. Twenty-four cannons ripped through the deflection grid like it was tissue paper and drove deep into the ship’s structure. A moment later, forty-eight lasers began to fire, pulsing from one target to the next, running from nose to stern, destroying every external sensor, weapon, or engine port they could detect.
In the end, the laser fire wasn’t needed. One of the grav cannons breached the missile magazine for the forward missile bays. The missiles were in safety shut down mode, not yet sent to the bays for firing, but when the gravitic beam slashed through
“Surfacing in three…two…one…” Johanson counted off.
Jack watched the energy crackling down his Avenger’s nose and shut his eyes.
“Now!” Johanson ordered.
Jack saw a flash of blinding light behind his lids, and when his eyes opened the stars glinted in a black sky. He scanned the battle all around him, taking everything in. Earth lay below them just over a light-second away, America in full view. A map display showed the moon and her forts on the far side of Earth, too far away to be of much use here. He squinted and the view zoomed in to show him a squadron of Chinese warships moving in over the Pacific. Fort Honolulu fired towards them, warning them away from the Hawaiian Orbitals. So far, only the Shang seemed willing to fight inside the Lunar Orbit and Jack really hoped the Chinese didn’t decide to join in now.
He turned to scan the main battle and had just enough time to recognize what he was seeing. Missiles from Earth, the Moon, and various Western Alliance Forts streamed into the battle, but when a missile’s flight time was measured in seconds it was real easy for point defense batteries firing from each Shang ship to kill it. The ground and low-orbit light or gravity-based weapons were quiet, too far away to hit anything if they fired. The Shang now surrounded the American and the Peloran squadrons still protecting Fort Wichita, pouring energy and short-range missile fire into their targets. They’d brought in more reinforcements while the Cowboys moved to this location, and the wreckage of starships floated all around the battlefield, some falling deeper into the gravity well. This was going to be another rough day for the planet if those didn’t get pulled back up.
Directly ahead of the Cowboys, the Peloran squadron fought for its life, a Shang cruiser between them. Jack squinted and saw the light sheer around the Shang ship showing that its deflection grid was at full power. Nearly all of it was aimed at the Peloran squadron. He saw laser batteries shooting down missiles and fighters between the two forces, and a Peloran destroyer belched fire and fell out of formation.
“Fire!” Johanson snapped and the universe turned inside out.
Jack had been told that, to all intents and purposes, a gravitic cannon grabbed the laws of gravity by the neck with both hands and throttled them. About all the physics he could remember was something about hundreds of gravities of gravitic sheer compressed into a five centimeter “beam.” It was a decidedly unpleasant experience when two such “beams” passed within meters of the cockpit on either side and made the human inner ear think that “down” was to both sides simultaneously. The eggheads said there were no permanent side effects. Jack doubted them. The Peloran placed their grav cannons outside their ships after all, very far away from any fragile biological crewmembers. There had to be a reason for that.
There were twelve Avengers in Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 112, and each of them carried two grav cannons. The Shang cruiser had the vast majority of its deflection grid aimed at the Peloran ships, with very little power dedicated to the direction the Cowboys came from. Twenty-four cannons ripped through the deflection grid like it was tissue paper and drove deep into the ship’s structure. A moment later, forty-eight lasers began to fire, pulsing from one target to the next, running from nose to stern, destroying every external sensor, weapon, or engine port they could detect.
In the end, the laser fire wasn’t needed. One of the grav cannons breached the missile magazine for the forward missile bays. The missiles were in safety shut down mode, not yet sent to the bays for firing, but when the gravitic beam slashed through
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