Even my own novel Drayton’s Discoveries, coming out this year in December, offers a new planet, with the gathering of diverse species and a space battle that the geekiest nerd will love.  Be on the lookout.

Here is a short snippet of a ship vs ship chase scene.

They both remained quiet for a moment until she noted the direction of the single flyer, the Icarus.  He was headed for the back side of the planet.  A duo patrol was pacing along that side.

“Major, he is going after our pair.”

“Record message, immediately.”

“Aye-aye.  Recording open.”

“Lieutenant Gerald, get the hell out of there.  We fielded the Icarus inbound for under six minutes.  Get to the translation grid.  That’s an order. Send, now.”  His tense voice commanded as she hit the relay.

She also hit the ship-to-planet alarm.  Now everyone would be aware.  Major Cross shifted his reach to tap the grid visually.  He blew it up to note the translation grid in full relief.  The two smaller fighters were heading toward it, their electronic Ident clear.  Their speed paced as the tracker blip angled down to a projected intercept.  Dremit touched the screen to get the distance reading, point to point.  The larger Icarus would easily overtake the fighters if they didn’t…then he saw it.  He retouched the distance.  “Mark 23-second countdown, mark now.”

“Twenty-three seconds, and counting, sir,” Asissa set a counter.  The smaller fighter increased velocity, accelerating and he saw the Icarus trying to adjust the angle to enter a firing path.

“Twenty-two seconds—twenty-one seconds—twenty seconds,” an electronic voice began to speak calmly from the nav system.

 “I calculate at twelve seconds Gerelds team will be out of range, sir.”  Asissa tapped rapidly on an embedded calculator to the right of the Nav board.  

“But a fire solution may be activated before then.  Can you give me the time separation for a pulse gun spread, perhaps three rounds?  It’s going to be so close.  Salas al dom, salas al dom,” he mumbled under his breath the Alteric Prushion mantra for capturing luck.

“Seventeen seconds—sixteen seconds—fifteen…”

“They fired sir.  The Icarus actually fired,” Alissa’s voice held disbelief.  “I show three round pulses at five, three, and one-second intervals.  No…wait, there’s a fourth.  Shouldn’t we do something, sir?  He can’t just fire on our ship,” her hands clutched the Nav board edges tightly.

Major Cross shook his head.  “Let’s deal with this one issue at a time, Lieutenant.  Translation will probably absorb some of that heat.  I’m sending the translator crew some warning.  Only seconds but if that last shot gets caught when Lt Gerald translates, the transfer deck will be a hotbed.”

Thirteen seconds—“

 Alissa watched the pulse fire moving closer to the two fighters on her screen.  The Icarus continued to pursue but took a crazy final turn directly toward the planet and hit the atmosphere, entering only to disappear into the Ionic storms.  Alissa tried to recover the signal, but it was instantly broken. 

Her predictions though, for the pulse fire velocity was right on the money.  Gerald’s two fighters maneuvered quickly and at five seconds the first pulse missed, with the range too short.  The second pulse also missed by a much lesser margin, its explosive force veering the two jets slightly.  They quickly entered the translation field and disappeared off the radar, but the third pulse translated with them.  A fourth lone pulse overshot and exploded passed the translation area.  

“Zero seconds till impact.”  The autovoice ended the count in the following quiet.

Major Cross had a hard glint in his eyes, his lips flattened with anger.  “That crazy Trabid.  Plot a heading for direct intercept, Lieutenant.  Take us in on his heading.  If he lands, we can arrest him for war crimes.

“I’ve marked his entry at 31°34’23 north, 51°21’27 west.  He is approximately 17 minutes from the crater’s edge by air.  Do you think he is going to make that flight?  Even if we fly mock 7, we won’t hit the crater before him.”  

“If his pilot is good and his craft was enforced with the thicker outer alloy to take the hits, he might just make it through the storms.”  Dremit dropped his eyes from the entry point marked on his screen.  He stood still tapping on his tablet for a moment.  His eyes focused in on a blinking notify comm from Captain Hopper. He tapped to read it.  His shoulders relaxed as his eyes scanned the message. 

“You’re right, Alissa.  We do not have enough speed or close enough range to stop him.  But I know someone who does.  Get us back to translation.  Let’s get some active comm and see what kind of damage that idiot did.”  His ship immediately altered course and turned toward Atax.  From his distant visual, he zoomed in on the translation area where, from the outside, nothing seemed out of place.  Still, he knew that third pulse entered along with his two fighters.  His imagination explored all sorts of scenarios that happened below ground.  At a minimum, the flight deck is going to be one hell of a place to be right now.

In the end, the most important factor is to let your passion guide you, and whether you traverse the distant galaxies of science fiction or the enchanted realms of fantasy, remember that both genres offer boundless opportunities to ignite your imagination and share your unique storytelling voice with the world.