Hidden Empire - Kevin J. Anderson [234]
"This is our first direct mission against the enemy, more important than any other action the EDF has taken. This is not just a brushfire conflict with a rebellious colony or a punitive strike against a few unruly Roamer pirates preying upon innocent colonists—"
On the bridge of her Thunderhead, Tasia glowered at hearing the reminder of Rand Sorengaard. "Shizz, thanks a lot, sir," she muttered, quietly enough that no one would hear her. With his dismissive comment, Stromo had just weakened her ability to command.
"This mission has direct consequences for the future of the Terran Hanseatic League, and for all of humanity," the Admiral continued.
Tasia's bridge crew made rowdy catcalls. "Let's go kick some hydrogue butt!"
"Only one way to deal with a bully—kick him in the balls!" Tasia recognized the voice of Patrick Fitzpatrick, who had demonstrated his own willingness to bully, until she had shown him the error of his attitude. He had not received a promotion and remained assigned to her Thunderhead's bridge crew.
Tasia just wished they would get on with it and launch already, but Stromo droned on. "This will not be a direct offensive strike, since we do not know the location of our enemy. We must, however, stand up to the hydrogue ultimatum. We will take the ekti we need by main force."
The fleet finally departed from the swarming construction yards in the asteroid belt and chased after the enormous ball of Jupiter. It was a striped sphere of clouds; gray and tan and yellow bands girdled the planet with enormous hurricanes. Had hydrogues always lurked here, throughout the millennia of human history, even before Galileo had first looked through his crude telescope?
Four massive Hansa ekti harvesters had been put into service, assembled from cannibalized components in the asteroid construction yards. The gigantic facilities moved under their own power, escorted by the EDF battlegroup.
On the Thunderhead's bridge, Tasia could not help smiling at the primitive Hansa-design skymines. Roamers had made the harvester systems much more sophisticated, streamlined, and efficient. While these jerry-rigged factories might serve the purpose, after learning the questionable skill of the local ekti miners, she understood how her people had managed to keep a corner on the market.
But without EDF protection against the hydrogues, the Roamers were effectively cut off from their livelihood. Eventually, given the inefficiency of their own facilities, the Hansa might contract with Roamers, providing enough military support to guard their skymines. But being put over a barrel made Tasia deeply uneasy, and it would force an uncomfortable partnership with the Big Goose, which the Roamers had avoided for their entire existence.
The cross-orbit journey was brief. The Juggernaut Goliath, three Manta cruisers, and a cluster of Thunderheads shepherded the ekti harvesters down into the Jovian atmosphere. Tasia was impressed with the beauty of Jupiter's fingerpainted cloud bands, but she had seen many other planets, had stood on the observation deck of the Blue Sky Mine with Ross.
Now she was spoiling for a fight, for direct payback against the hydrogues. If the deep-core aliens dared to show up, Tasia hoped to get in the first shot.
A resounding cheer went through her crew as the ekti harvesters began to skim along the clouds, sucking up a huge volume of hydrogen and processing it through their ekti reactors.
The slow facilities would have to remain on-station at the gas giant for weeks before they produced enough of the rare allotrope to make a worthwhile cargo. But simply by putting the operations in place the EDF had scored a psychological victory for humanity. They had proved they would take the stardrive fuel, in spite of alien threats. They had called the hydrogues' bluff. They had stood up to the enemy, thumbed their noses at them.
Tasia's crew was joking, making bets, sounding even more enthusiastic than they had before