Scattered Suns - Kevin J. Anderson [159]
Just like on so many Roamer skymines...
She turned to her Listener compy. “EA, remember when we went to Golgen? You and I sneaked away from the water mines, so we could visit Ross after he got the Blue Sky Mine up and running.”
EA paused. “Yes, that description was in your diary files, Tasia Tamblyn. You admired your brother Ross very much.”
“Right. And the drogues killed him. That’s why we’re here.” Since EA was merely recalling a data summary and not an actual memory, Tasia let the conversation drop and kept the rest of her thoughts to herself. After this mission she would get her command back...supposedly. Then she would show the Eddies what this war was really about.
Tasia knew the Soldier compies had no need for a pep talk, but she felt a desire to give one. So she contacted the other dunsel commanders just before they engaged their stardrives. There was just enough time for her to give them a bit of encouragement and fire them up for the impending battle.
“I’ve taken a lot of flack from the EDF because I grew up among the Roamer clans. Do you have any idea how many Roamer skymines the drogues wiped out? My brother was one of their first victims. I joined the EDF to fight back. Because I’m both a Roamer and an EDF officer, I’ve got a bigger axe to grind than anyone I know.”
She crossed her arms over her chest. “My other brother Jess joined the fight by sending a couple dozen comets flying like nuclear bombs into Golgen. We don’t know how many hydrogues he destroyed, but I’m guessing it was quite a few. Today I plan to continue that family tradition. How about you? Are you ready to wipe out some hydrogues?”
The five token commanders responded with enthusiastic acknowledgments. If Tasia expected any grumbling about her heritage, she got nothing. The dunsels only offered support, and she decided they must be good soldiers after all, no matter what black marks might be on their service records.
She smiled. “We have at our command some of the best weapons in the human arsenal. We are the only ones entrusted with this responsibility. Now, the drogues already got their butts kicked at Qronha 3 once, and I’m surprised they had the balls to show up there again. But they came back for more, so let’s go give them more.”
Giving the order to engage the stardrive, she looked around the rammer’s bridge at the Soldier compies that stood ready to do their duty. They worked the controls, activated the powerful engines, and lurched the battering-ram vessels across the gulf of space.
Chapter 78—MAGE-IMPERATOR JORA’H
The battle between hydrogues and faeros on Durris-B ended eight days after the Ildirans first noticed the stellar conflict. The besieged yellow star flickered, struggled...and finally collapsed into a dark sun, its nuclear fires extinguished.
Never in more than ten millennia of recorded Ildiran history had such an epochal event occurred. Only two stars remained of the Durris trinary, a white star and a red dwarf now orbiting a black stellar cinder. The people in Mijistra stared into the sky, terrified.
“Osira’h will depart immediately,” Mage-Imperator Jora’h commanded. All across the Empire, the thism was singing with danger. Like distinct fires erupting in a sweeping forest, bright and painful outbursts of panic clamored for his attention.
Seeing the blot in the sky from the windows of the Prism Palace, he pushed aside all hesitation, all uncertainty about his youngest daughter and her special abilities. Osira’h had to open a direct line of communication with the hydrogues before they annihilated the Ildiran Empire. No one else was capable of it, now that the Klikiss robots had betrayed them.
On his orders late the previous day, Yazra’h had loaded the pressure vessel aboard one of seven warliners. They were ready to take Osira’h to her destination. Shortly thereafter, Tal O’nh had announced that his cohort of battleships was also prepared and awaited the Mage-Imperator for their departure to Hyrillka. Everything was happening at once. At last.
Carrying an assortment of weapons and accompanied