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Cortana maneuvered the massivePillar of Autumn like it was a sporting yacht; she nimbly dodgedtumbling rocks, used them to screen Covenant plasma and pulse laser bolts.
But thePillar of Autumn would emerge from the asteroid field in twenty seconds.
“Firing solution online, sir,” Lieutenant Hikowa said. “MAC gun hot and missile safety interlocksremoved. Ready to launch.”
“Fire missiles at will, Lieutenant.”
Rapid-fire thumps echoed though thePillar of Autumn ’s hull and a swarm of Archer missiles spedtoward the incoming carrier.
“MAC gun is hot,” Hikowa said. “Booster capacitors ready. Firing in eight seconds, sir.”
“I must make one small adjustment to your trajectory, Lieutenant,” Cortana said. “Covenant single shipsare concentrating their attacks on our underside. Captain? With your permission?”
“Granted,” Keyes said.
“Firing solution recalculated,” Cortana said. “Hang on.”
Cortana fired thrusters and thePillar of Autumn rotated belly up—brought the majority of her 50mmcannons to bear on the Covenant Seraph fighters underneath her.
Overlapping fields of fire wore down their shields—punctured their armored hulls with a thousandrounds, tore through the pilots with a hail of projectiles, and peppered their reactors. Nine puffs of firedropped behind thePillar of Autumn and vanished into the darkness.
“Enemy single ships destroyed,” Cortana said. “Approaching firing position.”
“Cortana, give me a countdown. Lieutenant Hikowa, fire on my mark.” Captain Keyes said.
“Ready to fire, aye,” Lieutenant Hikowa said.
Cortana nodded; her trim figure projected in miniature inside the bridge holotank. As she nodded, a timedisplay appeared, the numbers counting down rapidly.
Keyes gripped the edge of the command chair, his eyes glued to the countdown. Three seconds, two,one . . . “Mark.”
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“Firing!” Hikowa answered.
A triple flash of lightning saturated the forward view screen and bled in from the viewport; three white-hot projectiles crossed the black distance between thePillar of Autumn and the Covenant carrier.
Along the side of the carrier, motes of light collected as they rebuilt the charges of their plasma weapons.
Archer missiles were pinpoints of exhaust in the distance; the carrier’s pulse lasers fired and melted athird of the incoming missiles.
ThePillar of Autumn rolled to starboard and dove.
Captain Keyes floated in free fall for a heartbeat, then landed awkwardly on the deck. The crenellatedsurface of an asteroid appeared on their port camera—meters away—then vanished.
Captain Keyes was grateful that he never had time to initialize thePillar of Autumn ’s AI. Cortanaperformed superbly.
The trio of blazing MAC rounds struck the carrier. The shield flashed once, twice. The third round gotthrough—gutting the ship from stem to stern.
The carrier spun sideways. Her shields stuttered once, trying to reestablish a protective screen. Ahundred Archer missiles struck, cratered the hull, blossomed into fire and sparks and smoldering metal.