Read "Slave Planet" by Laurence M. Janifer online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
After the first rush of battle, matters began to quiet a little. Against tremendous odds, and in a few brief hours, the armaments of Fruyling's World had managed to beat off the Confederation fleets, and these had withdrawn to reform and to prepare for a new phase of the engagement.
In the far-off days before the age of Confederation, war had, perhaps, been an affair of grinding, constant attack and defense. No one could say for sure: many records were gone, much had been destroyed. But now there was waiting, preparation, linked batteries of armaments and calculators for prediction -- and then the brief rush and flurry of battle, followed by the immense waiting once more.