“She has no forward armament!” Lydia cried out.

Gideon looked at Ranger as she sped toward the enemy warship. The entire superstructure forward of her bridge was glowing red-hot from the dual assault of enemy fire and the brunt of Guidon ’s final death rattle.

“What is she doing?” Lydia asked.

“The only thing she can do. She’s going to ram the bastards.”

“He thinks the base is still intact. Can we call her off?”

“She’s doomed anyway. She’s hurt too badly,” Gideon said as he watched the terrible race far above him. Suicidal ventures were quickly becoming the norm of his civilization.

Lydia reached for the radio transmit button on her wrist and started calling frantically. The enemy saucer, apparently seeing the threat coming its way, had started to rise back into a higher orbit, blasting at the heavily damaged Ranger with her now retargeted lasers. Gideon looked down at the diminutive blonde, who had started crying as she failed to raise Ranger. The major reached out and pulled Lydia’s arm down. She struggled and fought with him, finally collapsing against his chest, shaking, giving in to the hopelessness of the situation. Gideon’s eyes went from the charging Ranger to the big blue planet below them. He shook his head and held Lydia closer just as Ranger slammed itself bow-on into the enemy saucer. The resulting explosion from the fuel and munitions of both vessels sent out debris in a deadly arc that smashed into the lunar surface, causing ten thousand small eruptions in the siltlike dust of the dead moon.

The final battle for his home world ended silently, with less than ten minutes from beginning to end. Over six thousand men and women had vanished in a final insanity-driven burst of mayhem.