"Great Helmsmanship!" Brim exclaimed. "He dodged it!"
"After the bastard!" Onrad bellowed in frustration. "We're s'posed to kilt Leaguers, Brim, not admire 'em."
"Right!" Brim said, sending full military power to the gravs. He put the helm over hard and followed the Leaguers out across the 'Wyckean Void toward Effer'wyck. "Beyazh! Ready tubes three and four," he yelled.
"Ready, Wilf," the Fluvannian said tensely as two more icons blended from red to green.
Now, he had to gain enough on the Leaguer ship for Beyazh to make an angle shot, Torpedoes were notoriously inaccurate and short of range when fired directly into a graviton exhaust. Fortunately, in spite of the HSTS's limited performance below LightSpeed, GA 87s were even more limited. Named Zachtwagers, or "precision shooters" by developers at Gantheisser, GA 87s were awkward-looking, angular starships that mounted three enormous forward-firing 483-mmi single-shot disruptors as main armament and a pair of movable 30-mmi disruptors firing aft. The ships were used mostly for ground attack. Sent in prototype form to Fluvanna for evaluation during the League's pre-war attempt to capture the important little dominion, the GA 87 found little opposition from the poorly equipped local forces (except the rare Starfuries of the IVG, when they invariably suffered disastrously). As a result, the type's performance was seriously overrated and few changes were made to the design before they were placed into mass production. Even during the early wartime campaigns, GA 87s proved able to blast their way through brief campaigns against Korbu, Gannat, and A'zurn with relative ease. This furthered their reputation to an extent far in excess of actual abilities. However, against high-performance starships like Starfuries and Defiants, GA 87s quickly showed themselves to be slow and poorly armed, proving easy targets for the powerful killer ships currently operating with the Imperial Fleet's Defense Command.
Only moments after Brim and his improbable crew gave chase, the Leaguers opened up with their rear-firing 30-mmi. DR81 disruptors. Onrad quickly joined in with ranging shots from the HSTS's big 225-mmi, disrupter. But when the Hyperscreens cleared, the Leaguers were surrounded by the glowing halo of Gandom's v effect and heading for HyperSpace with all the thrust their Drive crystals could provide.
"We've got 'em now," Brim said, keying open the Drive exhaust. At the same time, he switched main-bus power to the little ship's Drive crystal. With a deep rumble that vibrated every component of the HSTS's stout little hull, the crystal came alive and the starscape outside began wobbling and shimmering as normal photon light blended to an angry red kaleidoscope dial brought space itself to a wilderness of shifting, multicolored sparks, the Daya-Peraf transition. Brim shut off the laboring gravity generator—it wouldn't be needed until they had returned to HypoLight speeds—and watched while the Hyperscreen panels synchronized with the Drive. Then, vision cleared ahead, returning to the full majesty of galactic space—and the Zachtwager now trailed by a whirling green wake, its Hyperspace shock wave bleeding off mass and negative time in accordance with the complex system of Travis Physics that ruled flight above LightSpeed. As he had planned, he was now on a parallel path with the Leaguers, offset about six points to port.
After glancing aft to check his own Drive plume, the Carescrian trimmed ship for maximum velocity and sent more power to the crystal. They were soon overtaking the Leaguers at a much higher rate of change, and the GA 87 began laying down a deadly barrage of energy from its rear-firing disrupters. Onrad put a stop to the latter with a quick barrage of disrupter fire that must have resulted in considerable damage despite the extreme range.
"How's that for a worthless figurehead?" Onrad crowed.
"A xaxt of a shot!" Beyazh said, his voice filled with awe. "Those zukeeds are a long way off."
"See, Wilf?" Aram quipped. "I always said Emperors must be worth something," eliciting a howl of mock protest from Onrad.
"I'll never question you again," Brim chuckled grimly, then ground his teeth. Ahead, the peripheral stars of Effer'wyck were already beginning to define themselves as brighter entities against the general glow of the galactic center. He turned in his seat to face Beyazh. "Oodam," he said, "let's finish the Leaguer off quickly and head back. We're getting a long way from Avalon."
"Less than a cycle from now, and counting," Beyazh assured him.
Brim nodded and returned to his controls. Each click passed like a Standard Year of trouble, and at a velocity of nearly 26M LightSpeed, they were penetrating enemy-controlled space at an alarming rate. If the Leaguers had anything at all like BKAEW—and he was certain they did—alarms would soon be going of all along the Effer'wyckean frontier, "They're in range...." Beyazh said tensely. "Hold 'er steady."
The fleeing Gantheisser was now a quarter-on silhouette, little more than six c'lenyts distant.
"Steady...."
Brim was so intent on his controls that when the tubes actually fired, he nearly started out of his Helmsman's console. Especially when Beyazh had excitedly keyed the torpedoes before he yelled...
"Fire!"
"Thanks a thraggling bunch, Mr. Ambassador," Onrad grumped shakily.
"Yeah," Aram added. "You kind of got the drill backward, didn't you?"
"Sorry," Beyazh whispered sheepishly. "But look," he exclaimed, pointing through the forward Hyperscreens, "in spite of my poor procedure, I have indeed scored another hit!"
The fleeing Gantheisser was suddenly enshrouded by a scintillating halo of purplish light with a bright red core than grew rapidly, changing shape and color until like a gigantic puffball, it caved in on itself and collapsed to a few sparkling shards.
And before the last remnant of the Leaguer ship winked out among the stars, Brim had reversed course and was heading back toward Avalon with the Drive crystal still at top speed.
"Scratch one more Gantheisser!" Onrad said happily. "Now this is a xaxt of a lot better than playing target, wouldn't you say, gentlemen?"
"Damn straight!" Beyazh exclaimed.
"Brim," Onrad ordered. "We'll enjoy a bit of the most Logish Meem I can find in the palace when we get this little bucket of bolts back to Avalon! Damned if I haven't dreamed of somehow getting into this war...."
"Oh, Gorksroar!" Brim whispered between his teeth.
"Gorksroar?" Onrad demanded. "What Gorksroar?"
At that moment, the proximity alarm went off again.
"That Gorksroar," Brim replied grimly, pointing up and aft where two big GH 262-Es were driving in at high speed for a kill in such close formation their "wings" overlapped port to starboard. The yellow tips of their chevron-shaped starships marked them as a couple of veteran warriors for certain.
"Voot's vermin-filled beard," Onrad growled. "I should have thraggling known...."
"Beyazh," Brim yelled, hauling in the little ship's helm. "Get that last torpedo ready. NOW!"
Moments later, the last torpedo icon changed to green. "Now," Brim warned, holding up his hand, "we're not going to fire this one. Instead, we're going to jettison it."
"Jettison?" Beyazh exclaimed. "An armed torpedo?"
"Yeah," Brim said through clenched teeth; the Leaguers were catching up fast, "but set the fuse for proximity—at about five hundred irals."
"A space mine!" the Fluvannian whispered. "Of course."
"If they'll just hold off firing a few more clicks," Brim grunted, his eyes glued to the aft view display. The bastards had to be just where he wanted them. "Ready..." he warned. A whir behind the aft bulkhead told him that the number five torpedo-loading hatch was open. The Leaguers were nearly on top of him—doubtlessly arguing about who would get to fire first. He darned not wait another moment....
"Let 'er go!" he bellowed, then shoved the thrust dampers into military overload and cranked the little starship around in the tightest turn he could manage without bending the hull....