Dinner With Family by Hiroyuki Morioka (best novels for teenagers TXT) 📕

her command (connected via information link) were experiencing the same brain illusion. And she knew that thanks to the information link, those gunners were receiving the movements of her baton. If she used it to point at a specific point in space, they’d understand what she was drawing their attention to.

The closest of the three ships within range of her frocragh was gaining distance, in the process of changing course. The farthest was coming their way, but was still out of firing range. Due to microgravity, EM cannon fire had theoretically infinite range, but it would be too easy to dodge at this distance. The third ship, meanwhile, came to face them after a slight course correction, and was now firing its mock EM cannons with abandon.

Atosryua thrust her command baton at it. “All ships, attack.”

But as soon as the words came out of her mouth, they were hit with bad news.

“The Cancaubh reported down, ma’am.”

“The Srumcaubh reported heavily damaged, EM cannons unable to fire.”

With just a single attack! Atosryua clicked her tongue.

Warships freshly emerging from a portal had a distinct weakness — despite rushing through at all speed, their velocity in relation to the portal started off at zero upon reaching the other side. For a small while after transitioning to 3-space, the ships were virtually stopped in place — lambs for the slaughter.

Maybe this is because I haven’t shaken my assault ship habits, reflected Atosryua. A shot from a single assault ship anti-proton cannon wasn’t that damaging, but a raid ship’s EM cannon was lethal. It might’ve been a better idea to pass through the portal in single-ship bubbles. If we’d done so, that would have spread out the damage.

But she’d save the analysis for later. She had a situation to claw her way out of.

The two ships they’d lost had begun attacking even before she issued the command. The brunt of five ships’ worth of EM cannons concentrated on the enemy.

“Enemy ship reported down.”

Their next prey was the ship in the process of correcting course. The powerful, roaring propulsion engines kept pushing Atosryua’s ships to greater speeds. Three ships charged at the flank of the new target.

The enemy ship at the rear was also speeding up, but it wouldn’t be able to close into firing range before they could finish its friend off. Pelted by mock shells, the ship “exploded.”

This time around, the damage to the Blue Team was nil. At first, the enemy had gotten the drop on them, but after they’d regained their footing, it was now all about defeating each ship one by one.

“All ships, reverse course,” said Atosryua, pointing with her command baton. Their next target was the last of the initial three ships, which was still hot on their trail from behind.

But it wasn’t just one ship remaining. There had to be two more somewhere. Sure enough, one of those two appeared, hurtling their way. Now it was three-on-two.

The fact that the enemy was scattered apart gave Atosryua’s team the advantage. Despite the newcomer’s arrival, she planned on chasing after the other enemy ship to the last. The three Blue Team vessels turned their bows and revved their engines to max thrust. Since this was in the direction opposite their inertia, they slowed down.

Their target also stopped accelerating.

Planning to buy time until the newcomer reaches firing range, I see, mused Atosryua, the gears in her head spinning on overdrive. At this rate, forget about getting picked off one-by-one — we’ll have a pincer attack on our hands. And the other remaining ship being around is ominous.

“Where’s the other one!?” Atosryua asked the Roïcasariac (Deputy Staff Officer). “Widen your frocragh range and search.”

“Roger that.”

Oh well. We can’t pick them off one-by-one, but there’s always next time. She swung her command baton once again. “Turn towards that direction, keeping thrusters at max.”

The Blue Team shifted direction away from the Hyde Portal. The Red Team gave chase, while the four ships that had been deemed “destroyed” were left to drift near the Portal.

Atosryua noticed something smaller than a raid ship was in a place far removed from the zone of the mock battle. The conveyance ship of the Flicaubh, most likely.

By the time Atosryua ordered another about-face, the opposing ships had already marshaled and dressed ranks. Now neither side had an advantage. The propulsion engines of the three Blue Team ships were still at full throttle, yet the battlefield pulled away from the Hyde Portal at a snail’s pace.

Then, a raid ship began to emerge from the Portal, leaving her taken aback. “Whose is it!?” she asked.

The answer didn’t come instantaneously, since they were already more than a light-second away from the Portal.

“It’s the Flicaubh,” reported the Deputy Staff Officer.

“Quick, the information link,” she said, before realizing it was impossible at this distance. “Scratch that. Open the comms. Give me Ship Commander Sobash.”

Before long, Sobash’s hologram was standing on the bridge. He didn’t wait to be asked questions before speaking, in consideration of the time lag. “Our damage is minor. One of the laser cannons is down, but our navigation and EM cannons are totally unimpaired.”

“I’m glad,” nodded Atosryua. “Now, you know what to do. Go kick Roiryua in the back.”

Two seconds later, and Sobash saluted. “Roger that. Please shoot without worrying about us.”

“We will.”

Sobash waited for the hologram to cut out before saying: “All ships, reverse course. Keep engines at full throttle. We’re going for the pincer.”

Now what will Roiryua do? Sobash folded his arms. And where is he hiding that last raid ship? Surely at this stage of the game he can’t go without it?

“There it is,” reported the Deputy Officer. “327.55, distance: 7.11 light-seconds.”

Why so far away? Atosryua was dumbfounded. “Where is it going?”

“It seems to be in inertial navigation. It must have been ‘destroyed,’ ma’am.”

“When did it get attacked? You know what, never mind.” If it was that far away, it might as well have been in the next galaxy over for all the impact it would