The Ashes of Worlds - Kevin J. Anderson [121]
“But they will not catch me.” Zan’nh flashed a hard smile at his half-sister. “We will have the Mage-Imperator back before they get there.”
“Stardrives are ready, Adar,” said the helmsman.
“Activate them.” On the screen he watched the ravenous flaming ellipsoids closing the gap. Tal O’nh had made an immeasurable sacrifice, not just of his life but of the heart of Ildira. Zan’nh refused to let it be in vain.
The warliners leaped ahead, leaving the fireballs behind with a terribly scarred planet.
* * *
85
General Kurt Lanyan
He wasn’t surprised that Admiral Willis and her rebel ships would simply run, but Lanyan was shocked that his own gunners couldn’t shoot down the Jupiter in the first volley of weapons fire. A target as big as a Juggernaut, flying right in front of them! The Thunder Child should have made swift work of it.
He wondered if the systems were sluggish — some flaw in the robot repairs, perhaps? Or maybe the rebels had upgraded Admiral Willis’s ships more than just scouring off the EDF logo and painting a new sign on the hull plates. On the other hand, he could blame the botched job on new recruits, insufficient training, and even a dash of blind bad luck. And on Conrad Brindle.
Of all the people he knew in the EDF, Brindle was one of the most dedicated and unshakeable. But at the crucial moment, he had intentionally placed his Manta in the line of fire, blocking shots that should have decapitated the rebel Confederation force. And it could not have been an accident.
“Brindle, damn you — keep shooting! That’s an order. Admiral Willis is a mutineer. This is our chance to destroy them along with the Klikiss.”
The other man’s answer was calm and cool. “I will not fire on them, sir. Our enemy is the Klikiss. In this battle, Admiral Willis is our ally.”
Lanyan pounded his fist on the Thunder Child’s command console as Willis and her Confederation battle group beat a hasty and indignant retreat. The General attempted to pursue, but most of the jazer blasts went wild. His weapons officers must be either unskilled or insufficiently motivated.
“General, this is insanity!” Once again, Brindle’s Manta crossed in front of the lead cruiser, blocking Lanyan’s clear line of fire and buying the rebel ships just enough time to get away. A jazer burst scorched the Manta’s lower hull. On the comm, Brindle’s face was filled with disgust. “General, cease fire immediately, or I will relieve you of command on the grounds that you are unfit to lead.”
The soldiers on the Thunder Child’s bridge deck were clearly uneasy.
Before Lanyan could respond, the supposedly neutralized Klikiss vessels began to open fire again, and this time his ships were the only targets in the vicinity. “What the hell?”
Even after the total devastation down below, which should have killed the Klikiss hive mind ten times over, the giant swarmships had begun to move again. Apparently, they’d been stunned, but now the component craft buzzed around, seeking new targets. He had underestimated how swiftly the remaining components could coalesce into new alien conglomerate ships.
Below, on the bubbling, seared landscape, craters opened up to reveal access holes to incredibly deep tunnels. Another wave of component craft emerged from undamaged hive complexes far underground.
His gunners independently retargeted their weapons and began to shoot at the Klikiss that closed in on them. An explosion rocked the Thunder Child, sending it reeling off course. The scattered alien vessels had now managed to reconstitute two complete swarmships, each of which molded its geometry into a gigantic cannon-barrel weapon. A crackling bolt spewed out of the nearest cluster and vaporized another of Lanyan’s Mantas. More than a thousand crewmen dead in an instant, one more EDF capital ship obliterated.
This wasn’t good. Not at all.
An announcement came across the command channel, a priority signal that preempted all other transmissions.