Page 60 of Rogue Starfighter

“I have no idea.”

That scared me more. Vesh started the recorder. The passive array captured the ship, the scaffold, the cargo traffic, and every energy signature it could reach.

“Bigger than Arturri,” he said. “Mobile. Heavily armed. If those drive rings function at the projected output, it could break a planetary defense grid on its own.”

“Can it destroy a planet?”

“I don't know.”

“That is reassuring.”

“It was not intended to be.”

He marked sections of the hull. “There. Shield generators. At least twenty. And those openings along the central spine are launch bays.”

“For Scythes?”

“Hundreds of them. Perhaps more.”

I looked at Xandrax beyond the shipyard. Queen Raya was supposed to be defeated. Instead, someone had given her the resources to build a mobile war platform the size of a freaking planet. This was like the Death Star from Star Wars, only worse because it was real.

“The unknown freighters,” I said. “That’s what they were feeding.”

“Most likely.”

“Can we figure out where they are coming from?”

“Not from here. Intelligence may be able to trace the engine signatures.”

“If we get it home.”

“When.”

I glanced at him. “Was that optimism?”

“An order.”

“Not how optimism works.”

The threat alarm flashed. One short pulse. Then another. Vesh cut the optics and brought up the tactical display. A Scythe interceptor had entered the debris ring on a low patrol route. Its active sensor sweep moved across the moon’s surface toward us.

“Did it see us?” I asked.

“Not yet.”

The sweep touched the Wraith. The display turned red.

“Now it has,” he said.

The interceptor changed course. A narrow transmission beam appeared on the tactical display, aimed toward Xandrax.

“It’s reporting us.”

Vesh activated the damaged jammer. “I can corrupt the signal while it remains behind the moon.”

“How long?”

“Twenty-six seconds before our jammer burns out. Less if it climbs above the horizon.”