(In the original Stellaris, weapons charged extremely slowly, which made battles difficult to describe, so this novel sped them up. Much of the space combat tactics was also fictional.)
A major battle was raging in one of the Zirick Cooperative's star systems.
Naval guns fired in unison, purple and green energy beams flashing again and again. They traced brilliant streaks across the vast cosmic battlefield, becoming its most dazzling colors.
Explosive and kinetic weapons roared as they hurled their ammunition. Both fleets formed battle arrays and exchanged long-range fire across an asteroid belt.
Almost every second, dozens of blinding energy beams streaked through the darkness and struck the opposing ships' energy shields.
Human auditory organs could not hear such sounds, but the unusual anatomy of other species allowed them to detect various energy fluctuations-a different sort of "hearing."
The Zirick were naturally sensitive to vibrations and electromagnetic waves. To them, space combat and exchanges of naval gunfire were incredibly noisy. There were not only the alarms inside their ships, but also the sounds of laser beams striking energy shields and the vibrations caused by explosive or kinetic weapons hitting their hulls.
The tremendous, almost incessant noise made them deeply uncomfortable, so the Zirick always wanted to end battles quickly.
Their fleets were highly agile, darting this way and that, and their maneuverability and speed often allowed them to defeat larger forces.
This time, however, things were completely different.
Across an asteroid belt millions of kilometers long, XT-489's fleet formed a vertical, inward-curving spherical surface. The Corvettes along its perimeter raced back and forth without hesitation, guarding against the Zirick Cooperative's repeated flanking attacks.
Large numbers of Torpedo Ships occupied the center of the formation, screening the five Destroyers at its very heart. The Destroyers carried Point-Defense Systems capable of intercepting