Chapter 11

"Caps in the corner Silas?"

Rowan nodded – accepting the person to person talk with no recriminations.

McCock went on.

"I didn't expect the paper to stay in house; I wanted it to get out with plausible deniability for you. She's going to get people killed unnecessarily.

She's got a wild hair up her arse.

There is no way you can expect a 'lighty' with enough spare power to mount a big bore energy weapon to take on a big boy. I don't think a destroyer could do it – not enough spare power. You rip the one thing that keeps light classes somewhat safe, the need not to have to close with the big boys – not to have to get into knife range. A single large bore energy mount will probably only damage a big boy, even though you'll blow a 'lighty' out of space you've still got to get in undetected. Any hyper capable ship no matter how good the EW is going to be detected even by an enemy lighty and it'll open the range and use missiles to keep that beast away. The losses will mount up and it ain't going to be cost effective. However I think if you could mount such a weapon on say small craft you've got a better chance of getting in undetected and swarm the big boy – a couple of squadrons of mobile energy mounts. Shove then out of something like a general cargo freighter – all that lovely space in those holds becoming hangers for pinnaces or whatever but the sticking point is that we don't have a power source available for small craft to mount a BB graser/laser turret. Satan's canines, you'd be better off strapping a missile nest to a pinnace with EW – at least the missiles carry their own power with them.