Horizon Storms - Kevin J. Anderson [210]
Zan’nh clenched the support rail again, knowing that the hydrogues had the power to massacre his maniple. As Pery’h had been slaughtered.
Concentrated energy beams and kinetic projectiles continued bombarding the warglobes. The hydrogues struck back. Blue energy lanced out, ripping blackened troughs along the plated sides of the warliners.
A burst of lightning took one warliner’s primary engine sets offline, and the ship could not fight against Hrel-oro’s gravity. Zan’nh watched on his screens as the battleship commander wrestled with his failing systems, striving to correct the descent angle. Ahead, the flat desert landscape offered a clear field for an emergency landing. The warliner careened out of control, finally crashing, scraping, and slewing across the plain. Most of the crew would survive—if the hydrogues didn’t come back and obliterate the wounded vessel.
“Maintain your attack. Do not slacken.” Remembering Kori’nh’s words, he let no doubt creep into his voice. He had to be stronger than anyone else. He had trained his tals, quls, and septars in every way possible. They would do their best. They would not dream of failing him, any more than he would ever have failed the old Adar.
But the hydrogues seemed to be invincible.
Three enemy warglobes converged upon another Ildiran battle vessel. The diamond spheres began to play powerful energy discharges across the armor, cracking holes through the warliner’s thick hull. The captain shouted for assistance across the communications system.
Zan’nh ordered his warliners to defend their doomed comrades, but the hydrogue energy weapon proved overpowering. The trapped warliner split open, venting fuel and atmosphere, erupting as its internal systems were breached. Shrapnel flew in all directions. Parts of the hull broke off, and two of the saillike solar fins fluttered free over the desert like giant alloy kites.
The Adar reeled as he sensed the deaths of so many loyal crewmembers. These soldiers were under his command. He was responsible for these battleships, and within a few minutes he had already lost two great warliners. He searched his mind for an alternative, some other way to fight. But so far no strategy had proved effective against the diamond-hulled ships, except for the suicide tactic Kori’nh had used. Zan’nh would not resort to that—not yet.
Though perhaps he should…
The hydrogues had not come to Hrel-oro to fight the Solar Navy. They had their own incomprehensible purposes. By now they were finished with their assault on the splinter colony.
Though the Ildiran battleships continued to harry them, the six spiked warglobes did one last halfhearted run on the structures below, blasting away all remnants of the Ildiran settlement. Then the six unscathed enemy spheres simply rose through the smoke-stained skies and departed at a leisurely pace.
Shouts of fear and anger, damage assessments, and casualty reports filled the communication channels. Zan’nh stared first at the images of destruction below, then at the departing warglobes.
“Adar, should I order the maniple to pursue?” demanded Qul Fan’nh, his face drawn and grim. “The hydrogues are getting away. Do we go after them?”
“No. It would be ineffective and dangerous.” Zan’nh expanded the image of the burning wreckage. The death of each soldier already pained him like a crystal knife thrust into his side. How had Adar Kori’nh dealt with it? “Our primary responsibility is to offer aid to our people down there, if any of them survive. I’ll not let any more Ildirans die because we were anxious to keep fighting a hopeless battle.” Victory against the hydrogues was obviously not possible here. Therefore, his priority must be to save Ildiran lives.
“All