Horizon Storms - Kevin J. Anderson [209]
Behind the scaly man came explosions and humming crackles. Overhead, a giant sphere drifted across the sky, and a few moments later five others came after it. Gouts of freezing icewaves flowed out. Colony buildings crackled and shattered. The reptilian kithman shouted, “Why have the hydrogues come here? Send assistance as soon as—” Abruptly the transmission cut off.
Zan’nh stiffened. The skin on his back crawled. “We won’t be going to Ildira. How close are we to Hrel-oro?”
“We can arrive in an hour, Adar. We are the closest warliners.”
“Accelerate as soon as you have the course plotted. Maximum speed.” Regardless of what had happened to Pery’h, the hydrogues were attacking an Ildiran splinter colony. This was his job, his element—exactly what Adar Kori’nh had trained him for, and Zan’nh did not intend to leave any blot on the memory of his mentor. “We will face the hydrogues. Let us show them what the Solar Navy is capable of.”
The maniple leaped across space, ready for the clash. He put his soldiers through preparatory drills at their stations. “We must be ready for what we find on Hrel-oro. Every weapon, every ship, every fighter. We have very little time.”
He turned about in the command nucleus and spoke to his crew. “On my tactical screen, upload all details of that colony. I want to know the terrain, history, and background. What is it the hydrogues might want there?” He ordered all seven of his septars, as well as Qul Fan’nh, commander of the full maniple, to review the material and provide suggestions if possible. Zan’nh scrutinized every available fact, absorbing the information.
Hrel-oro was a very dry and warm planet, much like one of the long-abandoned Klikiss worlds. It had no tall trees—barely any large vegetation at all—but the bleak landscape was full of desirable minerals and metals. Over a thousand years ago, the Mage-Imperator had instructed scalies to establish an efficient industrial colony there. Although many Ildiran breeds lived on Hrel-oro, the primary population belonged to the scaly kith. Scalies operated the mines dug through rusty-walled canyons and managed mineral-processing industries. They built solar-power stations out in the open desert and installed wind turbines where the canyons narrowed and the breezes whipped to a frenzy during the storm season.
Now, as the warliners raced to the site of the battle, Zan’nh reviewed reports about all previous hydrogue attacks on both human and Ildiran worlds. Some prior assaults had been retaliations against skyminers who trespassed on gas giants—a motive that was understandable enough. Other strikes on Corvus Landing, Boone’s Crossing, Hyrillka, and uninhabited Dularix strongly suggested that the hydrogues meant to eradicate the worldforest or all giant trees. Their grudge appeared to be ancient, and inexplicable.
Hrel-oro did not fit either pattern. It was as if the hydrogues were simply attacking out of spite. Attacking Ildirans.
The warliners raced toward the dry planet, arriving even faster than expected. Their weapons systems were already active. Scans showed a great deal of smoke and thermal emissions from the sites of known settlements.
“We’ve detected warglobes still in the area, Adar.”
“Full speed. I grant each septar autonomy to enter combat in whatever way you deem most effective. Hit them before they even know we’re here.”
The Ildiran battleships plummeted through the atmosphere with solar-power fins retracted to streamline the vessels. So far, few weapons had proved effective against the warglobes, but Zan’nh meant to pummel the enemy with everything he had…
By the time the rescue warliners slammed into the hydrogues, the aliens had nearly finished their total destruction of Hrel-oro. The spiked diamond spheres cruised through the canyons, leveling wind turbines and collapsing the entrances to mineshafts. Black smoke rose into the air, and white frost crackled across the broken terrain in rivers of ice.
Forty-nine