burn

fire, protected only by point defense.
“We’ve got a good target setup, Sir.”
Admiral Jansen looked up aboard the light cruiser Abraham, flagship of the Masadan Navy, as his chief of staff spoke.
“Range?”
“Coming down on three million kilometers.”
Jansen nodded. His missiles were slower than Thunder of God’s. Their drives would burn out in less than a minute, and their maximum acceleration was barely thirty thousand gravities, but his fleet’s closing speed was over 27,000 KPS. His missiles would take seventy-eight seconds to reach their targets from that initial velocity; Orbit Four’s missiles would take a minute and a half to reach him. Only a twelve-second difference—but unlike asteroids, his ships