Stand Into Danger: Empire Rising Book 0 by D. J. Holmes

as they too fired. Then, seemingly out on nowhere explosions filled Achilles viewing screen as plasma bolts tore through the coalition fleet.
     
    Two struck Achilles , one amidships and one on her repaired nose section. Both punched their way through the valstronium armor and ate into the interior of the ship. The concussive force threw everyone around and Somerville saw at least one of his bridge officers smashed into a command console. The sudden loss of acceleration as energy flow to the engines was disrupted caused everyone to be thrown about again. In dismay, Somerville opened a COM channel to call for a medic as he could see at least two of his officers bent over in their harnesses apparently lifeless.
     
    Not waiting for anyone else to give him a damage report he accessed the data himself. Already the causality count was at ten and at least three sections hadn’t even begun to report in. The sensors in the forward part of the ship were indicating that the entire forward missile tube had been blown away by one of the plasma bolts that had hit his ship. The other one had impacted the starboard amidships. It had ripped its way along the starboard missile tubes, taking out at least three of them, probably with most of their crew. With a curse, Somerville realized that would be another thirty causalities to the list once someone got down there to survey the damage.
     
    Opening a channel to the engine room Somerville called out, “Chief, are you there?”
     
    It took the Chief Engineer almost thirty seconds to make his way to a COM station. When he did Somerville wasn’t surprised to see a nasty gash on his head pouring blood down his face. “I’m here Captain. And thankfully so is my ship. Though she is a little bit worse for wear at the moment. What can I do for you?”
     
    “We need to get the engines back online as soon as possible. This fight isn’t over yet.”
     
    “Aye Captain, we’re working on it now. Give us another couple of minutes and we should be able to get you least thirty percent thrust,” the Chief informed him.
     
    “That will have to be good enough for now but I want as much power as you can give me as soon as possible.” Without waiting for a reply he switched the COM channel off. He needed to see what was going on with the rest of the fleet.
     
    When he brought up the visual feed he was shocked by the devastation that had been wrought. Two of the three French medium cruisers were gone, along with Vice Admiral Jamison’s Custodian . Two of the American medium cruisers were also severely damaged. Looking at the smaller ships Somerville could also see that numerous destroyers and frigates were missing. Amazingly though, Villeneuve’s flagship looked unscratched. Looking back at the cluster of British ships it suddenly hit him that he was the senior British commander left. His promotion to commodore meant command of the fleet fell on him in the event of Jamison’s death. Quickly, he scanned the area more closely, looking for an escape pod. Maybe Jamison was still out there. There was no sign of any of the pods. The plasma cannon bolts had done their work too quickly. No one had escaped the destruction they had wrought. Reluctantly, Somerville accepted the inevitable. He was now responsible for not just his own ship but all the British ships in the system.
     
    As he widened the view of the sensors he saw that the Russians had fared much worse. Almost all of their light cruisers were gone and all but a handful of their destroyers and frigates had taken at least one plasma bolt. On the smaller ships even one hit did terrible damage and the Russian fleet looked like a battered collection of ships awaiting the scrap yard. Crucially though, four of their Behemoths remained. One must have been destroyed outright, but the rest, though clearly damaged, still looked functional.
     
    “The battle is not over,” Somerville announced to the bridge. Those who were not attending the wounded