StarFight 1: Battlestar Read Online Free PDF

of each pod the proton lasers were up and aiming sideways, ready to cover any side-approaching enemy with their red beams. The proton range was the same as the lasers. On the spine and belly of the ship were the railgun launchers and the plasma batteries. They were equally powered and ready to defend the ship against enemies that got too close. The railgun mounts were aimed sideways, like the proton lasers, and fully covered the flanks of the Lepanto . The plasma batteries covered the top and bottom angles out to 400 klicks, which made them useful for taking out kinetic Smart Rocks, if the enemy possessed such. She looked at the ship’s nose, the area directly above the Bridge on the ship’s outer hull. The emitter node for the antimatter cannon showed Green Operational, and the particle accelerator tube that circled the body of the ship had accumulated a reservoir of negative antimatter sufficient for four shots. While the range of the black antimatter beam was just 4,000 kilometers, anything touched by the magnetically focused antimatter became instant energy. Similar to the yellow plasma balls shot by the plasma batteries. Finally, she confirmed the six armories at the rear of the ship and the four hangars at the ship’s front were in fighting trim, ready to feed thermonuke missiles to the rear missile launch silos, Smart Rocks to the railguns, plasma canisters to the batteries, and laser artillery, rifles and pistols to the twenty person Marine boarding team. Which should already be at Silo Eight, ready to enter their Assault Darts if ordered to board an enemy ship. Finally, she noted the personnel count. There were 321 lives aboard the Lepanto , each one as vital to the ship as she and her friends.
    Which made her wonder again at Jacob’s order. Carlos was a programmer on Navigation Deck, Lori a biologist on Science Deck and Quincy a laser gunner’s mate assigned to the front laser node on Weapons Deck’s right outrigger pod. Which left out only Kenji. Course the man was a line cook in the Mess Hall, an important talent but not something they needed for a space battle. Would there be a battle? Or would some Lieutenant Commander on another ship or LC Bannerjee on Lepanto show up and order the battle group to leave the system? Retreat in the face of the loss of their captains, XOs and other ensigns did not sit well with her. They had to know more about these wasp-like aliens. Who were they? Where did they come from? Why were they in orbit above the system’s outermost planet? Had they attacked the commanders of her fleet? If so, why? But answering such questions required a common language. A feat yet to be achieved. Maybe Lieutenant Branstead on Science Deck could figure out an algorithm that would—
    “O’Hara,” called Jacob from behind her. “What is the status of the Cloud Skimmer? How close is it to the meeting site?”
    “The skimmer is twelve minutes out from the meeting site,” O’Hara said, her Irish accent very pronounced. “It is now over the ocean that separates the meeting site landmass from the continent below us.”
    “What do our spysats say about the twelve alien ships?” Jacob asked.
    Daisy looked ahead at the woman who had mentored her on space battle tactics. She liked Rosemary O’Hara. The woman reminded her of her mother. Who now worked on Pluto at the Wide Field Infrared Observatory on that small world. Her father, who’d divorced her Mom when Daisy was just nine, lived on Taiwan and worked at some kind of Chinese tech company. He had never sent her a birthday present, nor had he attended her graduation from the Stellar Academy. Her Mom had shown up. Which made her love the hard-working scientist even more than she already did. Thanks to her Mom, she had taken flying lessons at age 12, soloed at 13 and earned her jet pilot license at 16. That background, and help from the Illinois senator her Mom knew, had gained her admission to the academy. She had seen Jacob in some classes