The Ashes of Worlds - Kevin J. Anderson [63]
“This is damned disappointing. I really would have preferred to fight the Klikiss today,” Tasia transmitted to Robb as the ships swooped after the attacking EDF vessels. Robb was obviously uneasy at the prospect of blasting his former comrades in the EDF, so she added, “We didn’t ask for this, Brindle. They came gunning for us.”
The rings of Osquivel had turned into a shooting gallery. With a sickening feeling Tasia remembered an earlier battle here, when all the EDF ships had joined in a massive assault against the hydrogues. That battle had been an utter disaster for the forces of humanity.
Tasia and Robb added their two ships to the flurry of harassing fire, trying to deflect the EDF march against the most heavily populated facilities. As she had promised her crew, they all had plenty of targets to choose from.
With a precise shot, Tasia took out a quad bank of jazer cannons mounted on the Goliath’s bow. Before she could pat herself on the back, though, three Mantas began to concentrate their fire on her ship. The shields barely withstood the barrage, and she had to do some fancy flying to get out of range.
When her starboard engine was damaged, Tasia knew they were in deep trouble. Robb gallantly tried to come to her rescue, drawing fire, but he, too, spun out of control, leaking gases from a ruptured tank.
Then, rising from the planet’s tenuous limb came another group of giant battleships — a Juggernaut and ten Mantas, all sporting fresh Confederation insignia on their hulls, outnumbering and outgunning General Lanyan.
“Sorry we’re late to the party.” Admiral Willis’s jazers fired a widespread pattern long before they came into range, purely to show off. “Wasn’t Rhejak enough humiliation for you, General Lanyan? Ready for more so soon?”
Robb said, “What took you so long, Admiral? We’ve been busy for an hour!”
“Exactly how fast do you think I can disengage eleven ships from spacedock?”
“Roamers could have done it faster,” Tasia said aloud to her grinning crew, but did not broadcast the comment.
Admiral Willis raised her voice over the command channel. “General Lanyan, how about we use the same surrender terms you proposed a few minutes ago? I assume you considered them to be fair and reasonable.”
Her battle group raced in to join the Roamer defenders, all of whom redoubled their attacks. Her Juggernaut matched the General’s, and the rest of the outnumbered EDF ships were unable to recover from their surprise.
After a moment of tense standoff, Lanyan’s ships all turned about and exited from the Osquivel system in an embarrassing retreat. He didn’t even bother to transmit a response.
* * *
44
Sullivan Gold
After being released from the Ildiran Empire, Sullivan Gold had hoped for a quiet retirement with his family on Earth. He had run a Hansa cloud harvester, survived a massive attack by hydrogue warglobes, rescued Ildiran skyminers, and endured a lengthy and unfair detention in Mijistra before finally going home. He deserved a little bit of time to himself.
But Chairman Wenceslas had other ideas.
Sullivan had been with Lydia and the extended family for two weeks. Wanting to live in peace for a change, he had made no announcement of his homecoming, asked for no media attention. Nor had he made a point of reporting to the Chairman. That turned out to be a mistake.
A group of paramilitary troops dressed in unfamiliar uniforms pounded on the door of his city townhouse. A cinnamon-haired female officer stood with four burly, well-armed men. She would have been pretty, Sullivan thought, if the hard edges of her features had been sanded smooth. The woman compared his face to an image projected on a palmscreen. “Are you Sullivan Gold?”
“Yes . . . yes, I am. May I ask what this is about?”
“We have orders to search your home in order to determine your whereabouts and your activities.”
“Well, my whereabouts are right here. And I haven’t really been taking part in any activities. Just relaxing.