Free B00BKLL1XI EBOK by Greg Fish Page A

showed the Rexx armada in all its might. Translucent lines tracked its motion and Ace, sitting on the very edge of his chair waited until the bulk of the Rexx ships would cross a red curve superimposed on the destroyer’s outside view. Even though the Rexx traveled at relativistic speeds, they seemed to be crawling, inching to that magical line. As they got closer and closer, bridge computers started to make quiet pings every few seconds that became faster and faster as the Rexx got closer and closer.
    Finally, the Rexx crossed the line and the quiet pings which were being produced several times a second now, became a solid tone. The destroyers had a lock on the Rexx fleet. Ace punched a button on his armrest. A translucent holographic screen with complex graphs shot out of the chair and froze on Ace’s right hand side.
    “All ships fire at will, fire at will” he commanded.
    “We’re locked on target, firing now,” came anonymous replies.
    In an instant, the destroyers opened all of their weapon bays and fired a barrage of red lasers, shifting energy pulses which resembled tiny stars and powerful missiles which left corkscrew trails of red hot plasma in their wake. Several IGFs shot by in wild curves, locked on to the massive Rexx flagships.
    As the first volley hit the Rexx fleet, their blue shields lit up and almost instantly failed. From above, it looked like the forward units of the Rexx hit a wall and the rest of the fleet was plowing into what was left of the first wave in slow motion. Sudden bursts of multicolored light that erased hundreds of ships from existence confirmed that the IGFs found their targets and went off.
    On the bridge of his ship, Ace looked at this scene without a hint of emotion. As the first volley did its job of halting the Rexx’s advance, he’d have to act quickly to maintain his advantage. The aliens might’ve had a much bigger fleet but he had much faster, more nimble, and more powerful ships.
    “Release fighters, fire, and disperse,” he ordered.
    The destroyers did exactly as he commanded, unleashing a small swarm of fighters which added to the second devastating volley with their powerful laser bursts. While the destroyers and fighters were still just out of the Rexx’s range, the Nation had to impart maximum damage. Even a few hits from the heavily armed fighters might play a crucial role in destroying an enemy ship when the fight was really under way.
    As the second volley smashed Rexx ships to bits, the destroyers and the fighters dispersed, assuming a loose crescent formation. Like an anaconda, the Nation’s fleet would now wrap itself around Rexx’s thinned out pods and slowly, methodically tear through every one of them with any weapon they could.
    By Dot’s command, the destroyers launched their bombers; sleek and elongated ships that had triangular wings with a downward curve, designed to bend and flex in atmospheric flight. About three times as large as the fighters, they were armed with powerful guided missiles which split into countless explosive shards, damaging virtually every ship in the vicinity of the target. Each direct hit produced a cloud of lethal shrapnel that stressed Rexx shields and pierced exposed enemy hulls. The tight clusters of Rexx fighters and gun ships were reeling from the horrific splash damage the bombers imparted in the blink of an eye, darting from target to target.
    The Rexx fought back just as viciously, sending out a shower of blue lasers which lit up the shields of almost every destroyer, fighter and bomber the Nation threw at them. In just a few minutes, some of the shields began to fail. The Rexx started destroying fighters that in a final act of spite and defiance rammed themselves at full speed into Rexx flagships, paralyzing them and even destroying those which already took heavy damage from bombers and destroyers.
    Bombers were also succumbing to the Rexx lasers. In their death throes, they detonated into innumerable pieces of