A gun is only as scary as the man holding the trigger, but an orbital cannon makes everyone on the planet drop to their knees.The giant display screen in the center of the underground vault flickered with blue light as Vance locked the comms channel onto the flagship's main bridge frequency. Smoke from the collapsed vault doorway still hung thick in the warm air, but the hum of the mountain rail-cannon echoed deep through the concrete walls."Channel is open, Young Master," Vance said, wiping dust off his glasses. "Every monitor on their bridge can see our targeting locks right now."Leo Walker stepped up to the open optical pickup, his silver eye glowing bright in the dim vault. "Envoy Vane. Look at your bridge instruments."A high-definition projection flared to life in the air above the terminal console. Envoy Vane appeared on the screen, her immaculate white suit slightly wrinkled, her sharp face pale as she looked off-camera at her own flash

When a mountain decides to speak, even the heavens hold their breath to listen. The peak of Mount Titan exploded in a flash of brilliant purple light that turned the dark morning sky into bright mid-day. A single, solid tungsten slug launched from the hundred-foot double rails with a sound that shattered every glass window across thirty miles of open terrain. The kinetic beam tore through the atmosphere, leaving a blinding blue streak of superheated air behind it. Seconds later, five miles above the clouds, the projectile hit the cartel flagship straight in its central thruster array. A massive yellow fireball expanded in high orbit, visible to every person standing in Sector Four. The heavy trade vessel rocked violently, its main engines instantly vaporized into a cloud of drifting silver debris. Smoke trailed from the ship's stern as its power grid died completely, leaving the flagship floating helpless against the black