Free Onslaught (Rise of the Empire Book 6) by Ivan Kal Page A

destructive beam for five seconds before needing to cool off.
    The dreadnought’s weapons swiveled and targeted the Ra’a’zani ship; a single beam of dark green energy struck the Ra’a’zani ship, impacting its shimmering field. The shimmering field tech was an amazing discovery, a field that dissipated any energy hitting it. It was a tech that the Empire had stolen and improved on. The current Ra’a’zani field tech was now leagues behind that of the Empire.
    The field held for barely two seconds before collapsing, allowing the green energy beam to strike the ship’s hull. The beam burned away into the hull, arcs of crackling energy jumping out of the impact point to scorch and damage the surrounding areas. In one second, the beam had already done significant damage. Then, just before the beam shut off, another took its place, burning into the hull for another three seconds before yet another took its place, allowing for constant damage to the Ra’a’zani ship and enough cooldown time for the proton beams.
    The Ra’a’zani ship tried to roll, tried to bring to bear an area where their shimmering field still worked, but they were too slow. The beam blew through their drives, leaving them without maneuvering. But even with that, the massive ship was still a threat, still firing its weapons at the Empire’s ships.
    “Their drives are down, Force Leader,” Andros’s subordinate reported.
    “Lock k-turrets one and three, one shot each,” Andros ordered.
    While the Empire had downgraded the number of their kinetic weapons on their ships, they had not removed them from their arsenal. In fact, they had upgraded them significantly with the help of the knowledge they had received from the sphere.
    Two kinetic slabs of ri-steel exploded from the Risen’s turrets, traveling not at a scant fraction of the speed of light, but at one third. White streaks of light slammed into the unmoving Ra’a’zani ship, ignoring their shimmering fields completely. Two shots blew the largest class of ship that Ra’a’zani fielded to pieces.
    “Nice shooting, Weapons Master,” Andros said. “Keep up the missile fire on the enemy’s smaller ships. Let’s see if we can find some more of their class 4 ships to destroy.”
    ***
    Johanna watched as the Ra’a’zani ships and their defense platforms exploded under the fire from her ships. The Ra’a’zani field defense tech was no match for the firepower of her fleet. Their missiles were slower and weaker than her own, and the combined point defense of her fleet didn’t allow a single one of the Ra’a’zani missiles to pass through—and even if they had, Johanna was certain that the energy shields on her ships would’ve held.
    The Ra’a’zani were trying to disable her fleet’s missiles using their defense, the same they had used in her last battle with them. But now the Empire knew what it was, and their missiles were shielded against it. It was ingenious, really. The Ra’a’zani system locked on to the frequencies that the missiles oscillated at. Everything in the universe had a unique frequency—everything vibrated. By sending a vibration on the same frequency as the missile through sub-space, the Ra’a’zani were able to produce a reaction and the missiles exploded. But now her missiles were shielded, their frequencies almost impossible to lock on to, their defense useless.
    A few of their class 3 and 4 ships braved the missile fire and closed the range, firing their main weapons. Bolts of white-green energy flew towards her drone ships. The crew remotely controlling them tried to evade but were unable to move the 760-meter-long drones in time. Three bolts of energy struck one drone’s shields, briefly making the shields visible in the area of impact. The Ra’a’zani weapon was something that they hadn’t been able to identify until they’d gained access to the sphere and its knowledge. The weapon utilized what the People had called Xa-nan, named so after the