Supreme Leader of Anstractor: A Sci-Fantasy Space Adventure (The New Phase Book 3) by Greg Dragon

front of the bridge took on a transparent effect that made it look as if the officers were standing and sitting in space. This disconcerting effect was one of the secrets that the Rendron held, and it allowed the warship a better insight into what was going on around it.
    Connie hardened her features as the ugly, organic-looking hull of the Huythen loomed close. They were moving towards it now, the bow of the Rendron facing what could be considered its belly, and from what she was seeing, the Geralos were either allowing them to get in close or priming their weapons to unleash something nasty. She glanced over at Rend, who was still calmly observing the ship, and she moved to say something but bit her tongue at the last minute.
    “Trace the hull for fifteen minutes and deploy our fighters immediately,” Rend commanded.
    A Meluvian man slid his hand up on a screen and placed an icon into another before touching a few numbers while indicating points on a diagram of the enemy ship. The Rendron shook and a long, bright, yellow light shot out from somewhere below them and began to move across the bottom of the Huythen . This was a trace laser, a weapon that would split anything if there was no shield to protect it.
    The laser shot a prism of colors off the ship’s shields when it touched it, and it gave the Huythen the look of glass as it repelled the deadly light. As soon as the laser touched, the Geralos began to fire kinetic missile shots back at them. The Geralos had learned ages ago that the Alliance’s shield technology was built specifically for light weapons. Kinetic payload always made short work of Vestalian cruisers, and since Rendron was one of the original motherships built by human hands, it would be vulnerable to nuclear missile strikes.
    “Evasive maneuvers, take us away from those missile bays, Miss Dawn. Eject our trash, launch our disabled cargo! I want the space around this beast dotted with so much debris that the Geralos have nothing to aim those bombs at,” Rend commanded.
    “Dawn!” Connie screamed, and Phimanila shot her annoyed glance. “How many missiles do you estimate are on that ship?” she asked.
    Phimanila looked at a slender man pouring over one of the screens and he looked back at her after feeling her eyes. He seemed to have been gone out of their reality mentally and it was taking a few long seconds for the questions and situation to register inside of his head.
    “Colin, that is your area. Answer the XO!” Phimanila screamed at him, and he spun around to face Connie and stammered out, “O-over two-two hundred missiles if we’re lucky, ma-ma’am!”
    Connie gave him a nod and then looked over at Phimanila distastefully. “The next time I ask YOU a question, Lieutenant, you answer me. Do you understand?” she asked. Phimanila replied affirmatively and gave her a salute so hard that it almost looked as if she were trying to punch the life out of her own chest.
    Trash, old ships, cargo, whatever was unnecessary on the Rendron was ejected, and the missiles began to find them instead of the shields to expel their payload onto. While this was going on, the pilots drifted the big ship around to the port side of the Huythen , where more junk was deployed to distract the missiles of the Geralos ship.
    After two hours of this the Geralos gave up on the missiles and switched to lasers, mincing up the debris like tissue paper before a roaring fire. Lights of white, yellow, and cyan crisscrossed between the ships as they tried to wear each other’s shields down. Then Rend looked over to Constance ITO and made a motion with his hand that emulated the flight pattern of a ship.
    Multiple vessels exploded from the side of the ship like confetti, and simultaneously the Rendron ejected its own fleet of fighters to combat them. Several of these fighters were shot immediately but the rest flew like aces, and a blossoming of lasers erupted from the numerous dog fights. The hull became translucent,