The first thing Alexander tried was jumping to the outskirts of the system and blasting an omnidirectional radio broadcast.

  Without knowing exactly where the satellites were, it was a shot in the dark to determine when the satellites might receive the radio signals. Honestly, they were more likely to pick up the jump signature before any radio communication. Either way, it would be hours before anyone detected them.

  They jumped around the system a few more times to increase the likelihood that they would get spotted sooner, then they waited.

  Alexander didn’t expect to get a response from the satellites. They weren’t equipped with radio transmitters.

  What he wasn’t expecting was what finally appeared.

  Defiance’s tactical screen lit up a few hours after they settled in to wait. Then it started to populate with enemy contacts. The Shican fleet was far enough away that it could have been there for hours, and they wouldn’t have realized it.

  “What are the Shican doing this deep inside Union space?” Alexander asked in concern. “I thought you said they were mostly contained on the border.”

  “They were, a month ago,” Rush replied absently as he looked at the tactical view thoughtfully. “I think we should take a closer look.”

  “A closer look? Are you mad? There are at least twenty Shican vessels.”

  “Not mad, just curious. Aren’t you curious as to why those ships appeared near the gas giant where we entered the system, and are heading in that direction?” Rush asked in return.

  Alexander cursed quietly. They must be checking on the subspace disturbance Defiance caused when they arrived. If he knew the disposition of friendly ships in the area, or if he wasn’t in Union space, he would have jumped away as a precaution. He was here, however, and he couldn’t simply let a fleet of enemy vessels roam around unchecked. Not when he might be able to slow them down or stop them.

  “Fine,” he admitted. “We’ll go see what they are up to.”

  Alexander added the jump coordinates that would keep them out of the planet’s gravity well and keep their aft section pointed away from the Shican fleet. The drive spooled up, and in moments, they were floating only a couple of light minutes away from the enemy.

  The Shican were clearly intent on finding the source of the disturbance. The updated sensor readings showed they had continued to dive into the massive planet’s gravitational pull without hesitation. That seemed like a poor decision given the fact that the system was deep inside Union space. At least he hoped that was still true.

  Small windows popped up on the holo showing crystal clear images of the enemy fleet. Something that would have been impossible without an advanced optics package and powerful software. He had both. The optics came from the fiberoptics that covered the entire outer hull, much like how he had been able to see from his old body. He didn’t have a computer program specifically designed to collect the data, but he had three AIs, which were infinitely better.

  “Oh, thank you, Four,” Rush smiled at his sibling.

  The prim woman gave a slight tilt of acknowledgement with her head in response.

  Alexander studied the images. “Is it just me, or do those ships look different?”

  “They are older models,” Serina responded quietly.

  “So they are,” Rush said. “That means they are most likely outriders.”

  “Outriders?” That was the first time Alexander had heard that term used in conjunction with the Shican.

  “Lower caste families or outcast clans trying to make a name for themselves. It’s a common tactic when the Shican invade, but it usually doesn’t happen until the armada has subdued any fleet resistance. This group has a Shican battleship, even if it is an older design, so I assume they are a disgraced upper-class family.”

  Rush had given him quite a bit of information on the Shican way of life, and it still astonished him that the species hadn’t wiped itself out.

  “Do you think we can take them?” Alexander inquired as he studied the other ships.

  The images were clear enough that he could zoom in and see the hull texture on each ship. He couldn’t be entirely sure, but it appeared that only the battleship had a defensive field. It didn’t have plasma cannons either, which was a bonus, but there were quite a few Shican destroyers in the enemy fleet, along with two carriers and a ship that he couldn’t place.

  “In a direct confrontation, probably not,” Rush responded, crushing Alexander’s hope. “Then again, who says we have to fight them head-on?”

  Alexander was no stranger to desperate tactics, but without missiles, he was severely limited on what he could do with Defiance. Maybe he should have modified the ship’s design more so he could have installed a centrally mounted FE Cannon. Then again, if he had, it would have taken far longer to make the changes to the bio-manufacturing process. It was the same reason he hadn’t gone with a smaller, faster-to-build ship. He just didn’t have a deep enough grasp on the technology to make wholesale changes on that level, so he used what his previous self had left him and made only some small tweaks.

  The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

  He couldn’t change the past, so he focused on the issue in front of him. “Before I start coming up with a plan. What type of ship is that?” he pointed to the smaller vessel in the fleet.

  “It appears to be a sensor ship of some type. I assume that is how they found our emergence point. They are lightly armed vessels, and the Shican normally keep them with the main armada for that reason. This one must be owned directly by the disgraced family for it to be out here.”

  That was less than ideal. A dedicated sensor ship could probably detect Defiance. He would have to take it out first if his burgeoning plan had any chance of working.

  Before he started along that path, another thought occurred to him. “Just how many outcast clans and disgraced families will be in the Shican armada?”

  “I imagine as many as could attend. In past invasions, the majority of the armada was composed of such groups. Their armada may have two thousand vessels, but only five hundred might be from the Emperor’s retinue. Normally, they don’t allow those families to run amok until the main enemy forces are dealt with, but it seems like whoever is currently in command wasn’t able to restrain them.”

  Alexander knew Grand Commander Thesska was supposed to be in charge of the armada, but he left to chase the Collective. That was good news for the Union and the STO. If the enemy were without a competent commander, they would have to move quickly to capitalize on that weakness.

  He laid out his plan to the others.

  ***

  “Has the sensor ship located the anomaly’s origin?” Commander Murral mewled.

  He despised combat, unlike most of his brethren, and his disdain for it only further inflamed their disdain for him. He didn’t care; he was a trueborn. He would be treated with reverence, no matter his shortcomings. He also didn’t care about hiding his feelings for such barbaric activities. If this opportunity brought them back into the graces of the emperor, he would do what needed to be done. Technically, he would let Sub-Commander Hessari do what needed to be done.

  Murral knew he wasn’t fit for command, so he found someone who was. The sub-commander should be commanding his own vessel, but he was too old for that, so Murral had given the aged warrior a second chance.

  “They are still analyzing the data,” Hessari replied.

  Murral did his best to hide his discomfort as his subordinate spoke. The man’s jagged scar along his short muzzle made for a grisly sight as it exposed a titanium fang, which was only further emphasized when the man talked.

  His sub-commander could have gotten corrective surgery to replace the tooth and eliminate the puckered scar, but he hadn’t. Murral assumed he kept it as a form of intimidation.

  Murral flinched as the bridge lights turned red and alarms blared. He wanted to know what was going on, but Hessari had rushed off, his low-level bionics carrying him faster than Murral would ever be able to run. One of the drawbacks to being a trueborn, he was forbidden from receiving cybernetics.

  He was fine with that. The thought of someone carving him up to replace his body parts was not something he wished to experience, even under an anesthetic.

  Murral picked up snippets of conversation as his sub-commander ordered the fleet into a defensive position. Something had struck the sensor ship, carving it nearly in half. He shivered at the thought, glad he was aboard the toughest ship his family could afford to build.

  Had he been more cognizant of the implications of such an attack, he might have been more worried.

  ***

  Defiance’s lasers powered down, their emitters almost overheated to provide the concentrated output, doubling their range to two light seconds. Most of the energy was lost, but concentrating all of the beams on the same area of the enemy vessel was enough to overwhelm its weak armor, even from that distance. He wouldn’t be able to do that again without burning out the emitters, but he had accomplished his goal. The enemy sensor ship was out of commission, and now it was time to move on to the next step in his plan.

  The Shican battleship was going to be a hard target to take down, especially now that the enemy was aware something was out here hunting them, but he wasn’t planning on taking it down right away.

  Alexander maneuvered Defiance onto a new heading. He was trapped within the planet’s gravity well now, so that was going to make things more difficult, but he just needed one clear shot at the enemy command ship’s engines. If he could disable them, the rest would be forced to play defense instead of trying to chase him or escape the gravity well and jump away.

  He was honestly surprised they weren’t trying to chase him already, given their aggressive nature. Even without their sensor ships, the Shican should have had the capacity to see what direction the laser fire had come from.

  Alexander chose not to question the unexpected gift as he changed course. He would need to sweep around the planet. The enemy might not be chasing him, but they were smart enough to orient in his direction to prevent him from targeting their weaker rear armor.

  He listened to Rush’s whistling tune as the ship came around the planet. The enemy was still facing his old location, but a few ships were blocking a shot to the battleship’s rear. He would need to get within their combat range before he had a clear shot.

  “This part could get a bit rough,” he called out to alert the others.

  Their approach didn’t go unnoticed, even with the optical camouflage being controlled by Thirteen. They were within half a light-second when the enemy started firing lasers in their direction.

  More than a few impacted the hull, but a quick glance at the damage report showed everything was still green. The energized armor really was doing its job.

  The enemy command ship was turning to protect its rear, but it was too slow to react.

  The Defiance endured dozens of impacts as it closed the distance to within a quarter of a light second to get a shot at the battleship’s thrusters. The ten powerful beams flashed out, completely bypassing the Shican defensive field to slice into their exposed engine cones.

  Most of the shots hit, but one clipped the enemy battleship near the back, causing the armor to burst out, filling the space with laser-deflecting chaff.

  Alexander cursed the miss because that meant the Shican battleship still had one working engine. It would slow them down, but they could pull out of the planet’s gravity well given time, and then jump.

  Now that they knew what his target was, he could already see the enemy’s formation tightening to protect the larger vessel.

  It looked like it was time to improvise.

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