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Get me a view of the enemy on the main hololith. True-pict, enhanced data vision!’ Athagey commanded.
The main pit glowed with the light of awakening scoptic plates, then the air turned into a miniature representation of the battlesphere, jewel-sharp images of ships crowded with data-tags.
‘First Lieutenant Diomed,’ said Athagey, snapping out the words like gunfire. ‘How are our big guns?’
‘Groupmistress, Lux Eterna reports nova cannon online and ready to fire. Exeunt Malus reports nova cannon ready to fire. Requesting targeting data.’
‘Convey the following. Centre formation, four-hundred-mile spacing. Targets of will.’
‘Conveyed.’ She waited. ‘Accepted.’
‘Lux Eterna to fire nova cannon now.’
The order was passed on. On the tactolith, the tags appended to the Mars-class cruiser flashed. A streak of light shot from its bow, brilliant white on the display. The graviometric impellers of a nova cannon accelerated a plasma shell to a significant fraction of the speed of light, and it outpaced the torpedo swarms in the blink of an eye. The shell exploded to a fuse timed to the smallest fraction of a second. Nova cannons were devastating, but at that speed, even a small error could result in a shot far off target.
‘Report!’ Athagey commanded. ‘Time to visual confirmation.’
‘Fleet light distance, two minutes,’ Lieutenant Basu replied.
...
	‘Lux Eterna reports four point five minutes to reload.

Throne of Light