The Bertha didn’t waste any time once the target was marked. Shifting its field of fire, it fired a sharpened tungsten round toward the enemy cruiser’s engine and reactor core. The dead metal projectile had a better chance of disabling the target without provoking a large explosion and destroying the QV hitchhikers, but nothing was guaranteed. The QV were strongly encouraged to disengage, but either they were too badly damaged or too deeply attached to make a quick getaway.

The Tindrel planetoid was rapidly approaching for a third time. They had adjusted their course into more of a diagonal strafe of the entire line. The Admiral signalled that rather than maintaining their unstoppable momentum, they would be attempting a ‘crash stop’. After attempting to ram through as many high value targets as possible, they’d bring the full weight of their conventional weaponry to bear on the enemy ships.

By way of an opening salvo, the enormous asteroid launched hundreds of torpedoes. They divided up to target some of the smallest and most vulnerable ships, with the aim of drawing fire from supporting battleships that will in turn weaken their own defenses.

[hr]
“It's an interesting lead…the previous inhabitants of Outremer built an entire city around the Cradle. Their structures suggest they actually had very similar physiology to the Morgrawalai, now I think about it…” Freyr trailed off, before eventually looking to Marae.

“There must be some kind of pattern - what could we be missing?”