Of Fire and Night - Kevin J. Anderson [214]
"Doesn't look like Admiral Eolus anymore," Lanyan said, not surprised. "Now you've got another target. Go!"
Officers raced to their stations, and jazers and fraks pummeled the turncoat Juggernaut, damaging its engines, ripping holes through its hull. Admiral Willis's ships also swept in and opened fire. At Lanyan's signal, more grouped EDF ships pounded the flagship that had belonged to Admiral Tabeguache.
Flying erratic patterns to evade the counterattack, the hijacked ships continued to swoop in among the EDF defenders. As the Goliath wrought plenty of mayhem, one more robot-controlled Juggernaut hurtled toward them, unleashing a barrage of projectiles. Lanyan saw the vessel coming and shouted for evasive action. The Goliath pivoted on its axis, but the compy-controlled vessel struck home. Two of Lanyan's main engines exploded. A jazer lance slashed through the starboard hull, splitting open seven decks.
"Put everything into the weapons and shoot at that damned Juggernaut--everything we've got left!"
A flurry of slammers hit the underbelly of the robot attacker with enough force to send the hijacked ship reeling off course.
"Jazer banks are almost drained, but I've got one engine online, enough to maneuver us out of here," Kosevic said. "We've got to retreat, General. We're a sitting duck."
"We've still got a few weapons, Mr. Kosevic, and I intend to keep causing damage until my last breath. Figure out which grids these vessels came from, contact the Mars base, and get me someone who can provide their guillotine protocol codes. We'll pull the plug one way or another."
He turned and snapped at a frozen weapons officer. "You! Did I tell you to stop firing?" The startled crewman scrambled with his targeting systems and launched the rest of his fracture-pulse explosives.
Even though the ship's intercom was damaged and his signal could go to only a handful of the surviving crew, Lanyan said, "Let me be perfectly clear: If we surrender here, then we surrender Earth--and that's not going to happen today."
125
CHAIRMAN BASIL WENCESLAS
Even inside the Hansa's war room with the doors guarded and the walls reinforced, Basil did not feel safe. If the hydrogues got past General Lanyan's defenders, they would come straight to the Palace District. A single hydrogue barrage could obliterate this building.
Basil sat at the main observation table while tactical experts and ground-based EDF officers clamored for updates, studied real-time reports, and tried to stay one step ahead of the battle occurring in space. He hid his clenched hands under the table. "It's not as if this was a surprise! We had plenty of time to prepare for this. Humanity failed itself."
Even paler than usual, Deputy Cain flitted from station to station like a grim ghost. "There was nothing else we could have done, Mr. Chairman."
"We should have known!" Basil raised his voice. "Every living human being in the Terran Hanseatic League was aware of the threat--so why didn't they give me their best work? Now it's their own damned fault. They knew what was at stake. I was trying to lead them, but my plans can't succeed without a little cooperation. Why do people keep letting me down? One"--he raised his fist from under the table and pounded it down--"after another"--he pounded again--"after another!"
Tactical experts enlarged the images on their screens, trying to keep track of the myriad moving vessels. "Three complete EDF battle groups have just arrived at Earth. But they're shooting at General Lanyan's vessels."
"Of course they're shooting--it's the battleships stolen by the damned compies! The Klikiss robots must have had an alliance with the hydrogues all along."
Cain locked his hands behind his back. "We can't determine exactly what is happening, Mr. Chairman. At first it seemed as if the Ildirans had betrayed us, but then they launched against the warglobes. From these energy signatures"--he pointed to