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What the hell did the Soldier compies have against the Hansa? What sort of vendetta? He remembered that young girl Orli Covitz who insisted that Klikiss robots and Soldier compies had wiped out the defenseless colony on Corribus. At the time, her story had seemed impossible, but he no longer doubted the kid.

A message came over the Goliath's intercom. "Deck 7 is cleared, sir."

"Excellent. Have you found any survivors?"

"None whatsoever."

"I didn't expect to. What's the inventory of destroyed compies so far?"

"Four more decks to survey, sir. Approximately forty Soldier compies are unaccounted for, but we don't know exactly how many were blown out the launching bay in the decompression."

"Be conservative, and be very thorough."

Ensign Childress's team had removed the human bodies and wrecked compies from the bridge. The constant chatter of technicians was a low drone, but he sensed the excitement as they replaced the covers on the main operational nodes. Hunched together, the techs ran diagnostic routines. Multicolored lights winked on across the vital bridge stations, including the command chair.

"General, we're pleased to present you with this Juggernaut." One of the techs grinned. "All systems restored, major hull breaches repaired. Ready to take it out for a spin, sir?"

Lanyan sighed with relief. "Engines? Shields? Weapons?"

"Much of it's jury-rigged, but we're confident this ship will do what you need her to do."

Lanyan settled into the command chair. Now things were looking up. He received updates from two commando teams in the process of recapturing a pair of Manta cruisers. A third team was encountering fierce resistance and hadn't made it beyond the entry chamber of the nearest Thunderhead.

At last, one team reported taking the bridge of a hijacked Manta. "Everything's mangled over here, sir. We can hold the high ground and start clearing out compies, but we need some help, maybe even replacement modules, before we can get this ship moving again."

"All in good time," Lanyan said. "Now that we've got control, we'll save the tedious part for phase two."

A woman at the Goliath's sensor station looked up in surprise. "General, detecting a large group of blips. Inbound ships, I believe."

"Our reinforcements from the Moon base got here early. I didn't expect them for another hour or two."

"No, sir--these ships are coming from outside the solar system."

"Outside? Everyone alert! Have they identified themselves?"

"They're broadcasting a standard EDF transponder signal, a recognizable IFF pattern." Each ship in the Earth Defense Forces was equipped with an "identify friend/foe" signal that would peg them as the good guys in a space brawl and presumably prevent them from being shot at by their own comrades.

"Let's be cautiously optimistic. Maybe somebody else got away. Can you determine who it is?"

The sensor technician's brow furrowed with concentration. "Analyzing the signatures now. A Juggernaut . . . at least ten Mantas, two Thunderheads, numerous support ships." Then she brightened. "I think it's part of the Grid 3 battle group, sir. I have an image coming from Admiral Wu-Lin."

Lanyan nodded to himself. Wu-Lin was a competent, hard-edged, yet quiet man who never hesitated. He always preferred to make swift decisions and face the consequences if they turned out to be wrong rather than falter and lose an opportunity. "Put him on. About time we had some good news."

The image of a lean, steel-haired Asian man stared straight ahead into the screen. His voice sounded very clipped and formal. "This is the commander of the Grid 3 battle group. Our Soldier compies turned on us and attacked my crewmen, but we responded swiftly. We lost quite a few ships, but as you can see we prevented a complete takeover."

"Excellent work, Admiral!" Since no green priest had been assigned to Wu-Lin's ships, the Grid 3 commander would not yet be aware of the scope of the insurrection.

As Wu-Lin continued, his expression did not change. He seemed