Free New Contract (Perimeter Defense Book #3) by Michael Atamanov Page A

his seat, the captain donned a brightly colored helmet with a microphone and began giving orders:
    "Ten minutes to warp tunnel exit. Ladies and gentlemen, let's get cracking! Take your seats. Systems check. Communications, setup a common fleet channel as soon as we enter the Hnelle system. Tactics, wait for the Crown Prince's orders."
    Corwin ton Mesfelle-Ugar turned back toward me and smiled with two rows of ideally even white teeth:
    "Crown Prince, this is my first time going into such an uneven battle. They have fifteen ships to every one of ours, and their firepower surpasses ours by two hundred to one. What I’m most surprised by, though, is that I am not feeling even an ounce of fear or doubt in the outcome! And the rest of the guys say the very same – they're in a place of surprising calm and absolute faith in your Highness's abilities."
    "I appreciate your faith in me, Corwin! But as for the ship ratios, I think it'll all be a bit easier than that. Thirty seconds before our fleet comes out of the warp tunnel, two divisions of Surprises should be bombing the Alien armada. We dug our most powerful bombs out of the Unatari Fleet arsenal just for the occasion: eight thermonuclear warheads at fifty megatons a piece, plus another twelve tenners. So, there won't be many Alien small ships around on the battle field. I'm thinking the Meteors , at least, should be totally obliterated. Alien frigates are the only ships in their fleet capable of overtaking us in pursuit. That means, if the Aliens don't have any Meteors , we'll basically be uncatchable."
    "Awesome. But don't let the stealth bombers take them all down. Leave some enemies for us," he joked, his worried expression fading into a satisfied smile.
    I decided not to reply, as not to upset my new family member. Calculations we made back in the Aysar Cluster showed that the large Alien ships would survive, so the Queen , Mammoths and Behemoths would absolutely be there to meet us. But as for the Alien cruisers, destroyers and frigates, there shouldn't be many left.
    I called the tactics officer, and set about explaining to him what I wanted to see on the tactical map: a grid centered on the Hnelle station, and markers for all types of ships with an overlaid number showing distance from One-Eyed Python . I also wanted groups of starships to be circled with different colors. Finally, I told him not to depict any trash, like debris or abandoned drones.
    "One minute to warp exit," reported our navigator.
    All the officers began taking their places. I put my hand on the control console, closed my eyes and tried to calm myself down.
    "Ten seconds to warp exit. Five, four, three, two, one, we're here! Haay-ooooo!" Corwin screamed happily.
    I didn't tell him, but his happiness was a bit misplaced. The screens were still dark, and I needed to get my bearings immediately. The light cruiser gave a slight shake, then the happiness flew off the captain's face, its place taken by incomprehension.
    "Thrusters desynchronized. Energy shields have fallen to fourteen percent. I have no idea what's going on."
    "Where's the tactical grid, you assholes?!" I shouted to the tactics officer, but he could only shrug his shoulders and punch buttons cluelessly on his nonworking console.
    "We're experiencing some technical difficulties. Some of our external equipment has failed," reported a technician over the loud speaker. "It looks like we need new antennas. It'll be three or four minutes of repair."
    Fortunately, messages started pouring in from other fleet ships, so, even blind, I had a general picture, and was starting to more or less understand the situation.
    "We came out of warp one thousand miles from the Queen ! Severe background radiation detected!"
    "This is Thrush-15 . We were caught in the blast. Our forward shields have fallen by a third."
    " Warhawk-11 , our light-sensitive equipment has been damaged! LIDAR isn't working."
    "This is Curse-4 . I confirm damage taken. Our shields have