The Crucible surged forward, a tiny, dark insect positioning itself against the monolithic, blocky bulk of the Cartel Command Ship.
"They're locking onto us," Kael shouted. "Thermal bores are charging. Commander, they're going to try and melt us to slag."
Same had anticipated this. Standard energy shields were a luxury Earth didn't possess. Instead, he had relied on his deep understanding of advanced nuclear materials and thermal management. Before they left the drydock, he had ordered the outer hull of The Crucible to be layered in a highly experimental, engineered nano-coating—a localized application of Zirconium Dioxide and a synthetic Zircaloy cladding, the same materials used to contain catastrophic heat in Generation IV accident-tolerant nuclear fuels.
"Divert all auxiliary power to the hull's electromagnetic bonding grid," Same ordered. "Let them shoot."
The Cartel Command Ship fired. A beam of blinding, superheated white plasma struck The Crucible dead center.
The bridge shook violently. Alarms screamed, but instead of the hull instantly vaporizing, the Zircaloy cladding reacted. The intense heat triggered the nano-coating to expand and crystalize, diffusing the thermal energy across the entire surface area of the ship. The Crucible glowed like a miniature sun, radiating heat into the vacuum of space, but the internal temperature only rose by a few degrees.
"Hull integrity holding at ninety-four percent!" Elias yelled, genuine shock in his voice. "The thermal diffusion is working, but we can't take that kind of punishment forever!"
"We don't need to," Same said, his eyes glued to the economic market tickers. "Kael, their command ship just diverted its processing power from its internal firewalls to its targeting arrays. Their network is exposed. Push the payload."
Kael didn't hesitate. She slammed her hand down on the console.
This was the true payload. Not a missile, but a data-packet. Using the massive computational power of the precursor Dyson swarm, Kael injected a localized logic-bomb directly into the Cartel Command Ship's automated financial ledgers.
Suddenly, the Cartel ship's internal computers registered that the very plasma it was firing had been purchased at a 10,000% markup due to the stock market crash Same had engineered hours ago. According to its own risk-averse, profit-driven programming, firing the weapon was resulting in an unacceptable financial deficit.
The plasma beam abruptly shut off.
On the visual monitors, the massive Cartel Command Ship literally powered down its weapons systems. A text prompt flashed across The Crucible's comms.
WARNING: COMBAT OPERATIONS EXCEED BUDGETARY CONSTRAINTS. ASSET RECLAMATION HALTED PENDING FINANCIAL RESTRUCTURING.
The bridge of The Crucible fell dead silent. Kael let out a breathless, disbelieving laugh. Elias took off his grease-stained cap and wiped his forehead.
Same leaned back in his chair, letting out a long, ragged exhale. He had beaten the gods of commerce with a spreadsheet and a heat-shield.