Hidden Empire - Kevin J. Anderson [244]
Incomprehensible screams of panic filled the comm channels. Tasia contacted her surviving Remoras, recalling all squadrons. "Lieutenant Brindle! Bring whatever survivors you can, but get your butt back here."
Salvaged lifepods continued to pour into the Thunderhead's docking bays. If Tasia didn't get her ship out of there before long, they could all be destroyed in one blast by the hydrogues. Even so, she could not let the Goliath flounder.
She issued a call to the other Thunderheads, hoping that their platcoms would listen to common sense. "All weapons platforms! We need to fall back and defend the Goliath." She changed to a different channel. "Admiral Stromo, sir, I recommend that you withdraw your battleship while the engines still function. We will cover your retreat."
Four Thunderheads, still looking puny in relation to the diamond-hulled warglobes, clustered around the wounded Juggernaut. Another Manta disengaged to assist in defending the flagship.
Checking her weapons status, Tasia saw that three-quarters of her kinetic projectiles had already been expended, and her jazer banks were drained to 10 percent of nominal energy reserves. "Keep firing! No sense saving anything for a rainy day."
The surviving weapons platforms and cruisers bombarded the warglobes as they closed in on the Goliath. Two of them appeared sluggish and damaged, but the other nine remained just as deadly. The warglobes could easily pursue them all the way to Earth, but Tasia hoped the deep-core aliens would break off as soon as the EDF fleet retreated.
Tasia didn't think Admiral Stromo knew who had contacted him and issued the unauthorized but sensible order to withdraw, but the Juggernaut's engines fired up, using their remaining propulsion power to withdraw from Jupiter and into space.
"We have rounded up most of the lifepods, Platcom," said her tactical subcommander, scanning screens to see how many of the Remoras had returned.
"Then prepare to get us out of here," Tasia said. She turned, her brows furrowed with concern. "Has Lieutenant Brindle reported back in?"
"No, sir," said the subcommander. Tasia ran to the comm station herself, opening up a direct ship-to-ship channel. "Brindle, where the hell are you?"
"Coming!" His voice sounded cheerful but with a ragged edge. "I had some business to take care of first."
Below them in the clouds, two hydrogue warglobes broke away to continue their systematic attack on the remaining cloud-harvesters, destroying even the debris.
"All right, dammit. You've made your point," Tasia growled at the aliens.
The Goliath pulled farther away, and the surviving Thunderheads and Mantas clustered around the damaged Juggernaut, collectively retreating from Jupiter. As they fled toward the orbits of the innermost moons, she saw Robb Brindle and his last four Remoras struggling upward from the fringe of atmosphere, heading toward them. With a combined tractor beam, the small ships hauled a large spherical tank, dragging it up and away from the hydrogue cordon.
"What the hell are you doing, Brindle?" she transmitted.
"We salvaged the ekti storage tank from one of the cloud-harvesters!" he said. "Couldn't just let it go to waste."
She dispatched other Remoras to assist him, ushering Brindle and his ships into the Thunderhead landing bay. Later, in private, she would upbraid him for his foolishness. A full skymine cargo tank contained only enough stardrive fuel to service the EDF for a week. Not worth risking anyone's life for.
Disastrously beaten, the Earth Defense Forces fell back from Jupiter. As they pulled out to the orbit of the innermost moons, still accelerating toward open space, the damaged ships maintained watch on the huge planet. The rusty clouds now looked bloodstained.
The numerous warglobes hovered among the sky wreckage, still threatening. Stromo ordered all possible speed, and Tasia stared at the alien warships, still visible in the Thunderhead's long-range scans. The aliens waited,