Free The Catherine Kimbridge Chronicles #4, Retribution by Andrew Beery

spectacular light show, as a radiant blue-white beam suddenly seemed to span the gap between the two ships. This was followed milliseconds later by kinetic rounds fired at a sizeable fraction of the speed of light from the Yorktow n ’ s powerful rail-guns.
    Ben smiled. This was always a disturbing sight, as the six-legged D'lralu engineer had massive canines. He reported the initial result of their opening volley.
    “ Admiral, their shields attempted to engage. They flickered for all of half a second and then crumbled. As expected, their long range comm-array is toast. Kinetic rounds just hit their aft sectio n … engines are offline for the foreseeable future. Additional explosions are occurring near their flight bay . ”
    “ Must be something prone to going bang onboard that ship , ” Chief Wroblewski commented dryly, as he worked his fire control board.
    “ Very good, Ben , ” Cat said .“ Chief, switch targeting to their weapons systems . ”
    Ken leaned forward to check a readout .“ Admiral, they seem to be bringing a secondary shield array online . ”
    “ Talk to me, Ken , ” Cat said.
    “ I t’ s not something we have seen before. It might be related to their inter-dimensional jump systems. The bottom line is that their weapons remain hot and protected . ”
    As if to emphasize his point, the bridge of the Yorktown shook, as the shi p’ s shields attempted to dissipate a sudden barrage of energy. Cat grabbed her armrest to steady herself.
    “ That was a seventy kilo kinetic round fired at .1 C from their rear-facing rail gun. Our shields are holding, but i t’ s going to get bumpy if we do n’ t find a way to take out those rail guns , ” Ben said.
    “ Locate their shield emitters and engage with continuous fire from the plasma beams. My guess is we can overload their emitters before our systems overheat . ”
    “ Rigging for continuous fire , ” Wroblewski confirmed.
    “ The Tidepool is launching fighters , ” Ken announced.
    “ ETA on the fighters ? ”
    “ Seven minutes, Admiral. I’ m showing jump points forming for four more inbound ships . ”
    “ That was faster than we expected , ” Ben mumbled.
    “ Zigg y … send a message to Admiral Faragon. Let him know we might need those reinforcements sooner rather than later . ”
    “ Aye, Admiral , ” he acknowledged.
    Cat hit the ship-wide comm button on her command chair .“ This is the captain. Flight dec k … I need all your birds in the air yesterday. We have incoming fighters. Intercept and destroy. Damage control teams brace for imminent action. Engineering, our shields are about to take a pounding. Top priorit y … keep them online. Kimbridge, ou t ”
    Chapter Eigh t – Data Mining...
    “ The Bluewater and Broken Claw are backing off ! ” Ken yelled over the battle klaxon, which had chosen that moment to sound yet again.
    “ Cal! Kill that alarm, and this time disable it , ” Cat barked at the shi p’ s AI .“ Mr. Wroblewski, focus fire on the Tidepool , if you please ! ”
    The battle for orbital superiority had been going on for the better part of four hours. Earlier, the Redcla w ’ s secondary shields had collapsed within moments of Cat giving the order to concentrate fire. Unfortunately, the Yorktown had been unable to capitalize on the collapsed shields.
    As soon as the Redcla w ’ s shields had fallen, a lucky hit from the Modos shi p’ s rail-guns had temporarily overloaded a shield emitter on the Yorktown . Normally, adjacent emitters would have taken up the slack, but at precisely the same moment a twenty megaton nuclear EMP device exploded near the weaken shield. The resulting electro-magnetic pulse briefly scrambled nearby systems, and a ten foot piece of hull was compromised. Three levels on the Yorktown suffered explosive decompression. Twenty-seven crewmen were exposed to hard vacuum, and would have died had their medical nanites not kicked in to induce a type of medical stasis. As it was, they were