"Thank you, Tesla." The brain signed off.
"We've got a tentative location on that concentration camp," Vince relayed up to Lisa, "but it's still not dead certain. It's obvious that they're not in the camp Lron mentioned, because that's been torn down. But we're ninety percent sure we've got the new one spotted."
"We'll go in with a wide deployment of the attack forces," she decided. "I want everything we've got in the air."
"All set," he answered.
"Then, begin launch operations."
The composite ship began seeding the sky with air-combat elements. The VTs and the Logans went first; then the Skulls dropped and deployed, beginning a slow approach toward Tracialle, skimming the ground. Max and Miriya got the Skulls in proper array. Down almost at the surface, Jonathan Wolff's tankers made their drop and took up least-conspicuous routes, minimizing the chances of being spotted and riding low on their surface-effect cushions.
Farther along, the flagship moving even slower, Lisa ordered the dropping of the scouting force. Fighters on Tiresian airbikes, one-passenger Gerudan flitters and Perytonian skycars, and even Veidt and Sarna in their bubble-topped Haydonite flier-shaped like a Robotech ice-cream cone-dispersed. They took up an immediate search formation, preparing to move closer to the city in order to pinpoint the location of the Karbarran children.
Rick and the others heard the roar, were ready for it. With a wash of sand and superheated air, the shuttle set down at the foot of the cliffs. The star Yirrbisst was just rising, bringing daylight to Karbarra's barren landscape.
Rick and the others dashed aboard while the ship was still hovering, the engines barely lowering in pitch. "Move it! Move it!" Rick was yelling, even before they reached their seats.
Rem complied, the shuttle leaping away only a yard or two above the flat desert. Rick had started for the copilot's seat, to take over, when he saw with some shock that it wasn't there. Rem had neglected to mention that particular piece of damage. Rick knew Rem was a pretty fair pilot; he would just have to trust the youngster to handle the mission, because there was no time to land and change places. Rick buckled into an acceleration seat and hung on.
Rem cut the shuttle in the direction of the concentration camp as Lron had spotted it on the map. They saw no Invid patrols; Rem said that Invid occupation forces had pulled back most of their mecha in anticipation of Tesla's arrival, to render military honors.
Rick checked the screens and could see, far to the west, the approach of the Farrago. The Skulls and the Wolff Pack could reach the objective faster than the shuttle; Rick just hoped they hurried.
"Patch me through to Captain Hunter," he told Gnea, who was sitting at the commo officer's station, but she shook her head.
"Can't, sir. We had some system burnout when we applied power to lift off. No commo with the flagship at all."
We're on our own, Rick realized. What else was new? He hoped the timetable didn't change, because if it did, he was living his last few moments then and there.
"No!" Tesla wailed. "I refuse! Put me back in irons; torture me! I will not go down that gangway to be roasted like an insect!"
Lisa Hunter showed him a control unit. "If you do as I tell you, you'll be all right; if you don't, your head's going bye-bye, snail-face."
She tried to sound as ruthless as she could, but she doubted she could actually do it in cold blood. It was against the REF rules of war, and went against what she believed in. On the other hand, she was counting on Tesla to evaluate things in terms of what he would do if the situation were reversed.
A minute or so later the Farrago drifted at a near-hover through the opening in the Tracialle city dome. It settled down on an acres-wide landing area near the heart of the capital, amid the blunt, functional buildings typical of Karbarran architecture.
The city stood on a mesa surrounded by chasms thousands of feet deep; the glassy hemisphere over it and the upper portion of the city itself rested on an immense cylinder reinforced by hydraulic shock absorbers something like a cross between an insect's leg and a flying buttress. It reminded her of a titanic mushroom sprouting limbs.
The ship's forward ramp opened and Tesla stepped out. Arrayed below him in rank upon rank were the biped Inorganics-Scrim and Crann and Odeon. Few Hellcats were present; they were difficult to control among dense populations. Other troops were keeping the crowds of curious but silent Karbarrans back beyond the far periphery of the landing site.
"Hail, Tesla!" cried the local commander, in his eerie, artificial voice. "And welcome to the Regent's loyal and contented dominion of Karbarra!" That brought an angry rumbling from the crowd, but no outbursts.
Tesla, trembling a little, replied over a loudspeaker, "A-and hail to the stalwart Invid garrison!
To add to our glory, I bring you captives lately taken in my…my momentous clash with the Sentinels!"
At that, cargo ramps extended from the various independent modules that made up the flagship, including the GMU. The Destroids marched down them, mostly single file or at most two abreast, due to their size.
"Prisoners of war!" Tesla was haranguing. "New slaves to fight for the honor and increase of our Regent!"
The garrison commander hesitated, surprised, conversing with the Living Computer for a moment before saying, "Well done. To serve the Regent is the only reason for living."
The first of the Destroids had reached the landing-zone surface, and began forming up in single ranks. Still more emerged from the flagship. "But, perhaps these examples will suffice for now," the commander added.
"They are all completely under my sway," Tesla vouched, voice cracking a bit, as he edged toward the hatch.
"That may be," the commander replied, "but such creatures are lower life-forms, wild animals, unpredictable." He turned to his Inorganics. "Deactivate those mecha and remove their occupants from them!"
As the first ranks of Inorganics moved at once to obey, Tesla turned and dove headlong through the hatch. Lisa, watching from the bridge, thought Dammit! She had hoped all the Destroids could emerge and get to more advantageous positions before the crunch came.
"Fire at will!" she yelled.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
The 'Gaia' model was by then so thoroughly entombed, we had to blow the dust off it and study up in a hurry once we met the Gerudans. The theory of a planetary ecology as, in essence, a single interactive metaorganism? Too absurd to accept, right?
You wouldn't last long in the Great Beyond, Citizen.
Jack Baker, Upwardly Mobile
Living well isn't the best revenge. General T.R. Edwards thought, lounging in his luxurious chair. Revenge is the best revenge!
But better yet to have both: comfort, and the blood of an enemy flowing.
And surely the blood of his enemies was flowing even now. Despite the spottiness of interstellar communications, the Farrago had gotten through a message that the Sentinels had suffered casualties in one battle and were now launching themselves against an Invid stronghold in another. There were those on the Plenipotentiary Council who had talked vaguely of sending reinforcements, but Edwards had managed to nip that one right away.
Now he gazed out over Tiresia with vast satisfaction. For the most part, the city had been cleared of rubble, its unsalvageable debris and structures removed, and was quickly being rebuilt. Not much of a miracle, really, given Robotechnology. And REF Base Tirol was well on its way to completion; in fact, Edwards was looking down from his office on the top floor of the headquarters building.