A cheer went round the Arikara s bridge. Meredith felt like joining in.
Admiral, another blackhawk is leaving orbit, Lieutenant Rhoecus said.
Meredith cursed, he really couldnt spare another voidhawk. A quick check on the tactical display revealed little information, the blackhawk was on the other side of Lalonde from the squadron. Which is the nearest voidhawk?
The Acacia , Admiral.
Can they hit it with combat wasps?
They have a launch window, but estimate only a thirty per cent chance of success.
Tell them to launch, but remain in orbit.
Aye, aye, sir.
Bellah reports survivors from the Haria have been detected, Admiral, Commander Kroeber said. Theyre matching velocities.
Good. Hinnels, has there been any reaction from the Juliffe cloud bands?
Nothing specific, sir. But theyve been growing wider at a constant rate, the area theyre covering has increased by one and a half per cent since we arrived. It adds up to a respectable volume.
Another combat-wasp battle raged high above Lalondes terminator as the drones from the Granth encountered defences fired by their prey. Then the blackhawk vanished down a wormhole interstice. Three seconds later Granth followed.
Damn, Meredith muttered.
But the Ilex was having better luck. Its combat-wasp salvo had forced the blackhawk it was chasing to flee back down towards the planet.
The Admiral requested a channel to the Gemal . We shall be boarding you first, Smith. Any resistance and the marines will shoot to kill, understood?
Yes, Admiral, Terrance Smith replied.
Have you received any updates from the teams you landed?
Not yet. I expect most of them were sequestrated, he added gloomily.
Tough. I want you to broadcast a message that their mission is over. We will pick up any survivors if at all possible. But none of them is to attempt to penetrate under the cloud, no hunting of enemy bases. This is now a Confederation Navy problem. I dont want the invaders antagonized unduly. Not while my squadron is so close to that bloody cloud, he finished silently. It was the sheer quantity of power involved again. Frightening. And the berserk way the hijacked ships were behaving didnt help.
Im not sure I can guarantee that, Admiral, Smith said.
Why not?
I issued the team leaders with kiloton nukes. It would give them a fall-back in case the starships were unable to provide strike power. I was worried the captains might balk at bombarding a planetary surface.
If it hadnt been for the fierce gee force Meredith would have put his head in his hands. Smith, if you get out of this with your life, it wont be on my account.
Well, fuck you! Terrance Smith yelled. You Saldana bastard, why do you think I had to hire these people in the first place? Its because Lalonde is too poor to rate decent navy protection. Where were you when the invaders landed? You would never have come to help us put down that first insurrection, because it didnt affect your precious financial interests. Money, thats what you shits respect. What the hell would you know about ordinary people suffering? You were born with a silver spoon in your mouth thats so big its sticking out through your arse. The only reason youre here now is because youre frightened the invasion might spread to worlds you own, that it might hit your credit balance. Im doing what I can for my people.
And that includes nuking them, does it? Meredith asked. Hed been subject to anti-Saldana bigotry for so long now the insults never even registered. Theyre sequestrated, you cretin, they dont even know theyre your people any more. This invasion isnt going to be beaten by brute force. Now, you will broadcast that message, make the mercenary teams turn back.
The tactical display sounded an alarm. A broad fan of curving purple vector lines were rising high over Wyman, Lalondes small arctic continent. Someone behind the planet had launched a salvo of fifty-five combat wasps.
My God, Meredith muttered. Lowie, what are they aimed at?
Unclear, Admiral. There is no single target, its a rogue salvo. But from the vectors Id say they were seeking to engage anything in the thousand-kilometre orbit ... Bloody hell.
A second salvo, of equal size, was curving round the south pole.
Jesus, thats a neat pincer movement, Joshua said. At some ridiculous private level he was delighted he didnt need any intervention from his neural nanonics to remain calm. He felt his mind function with that same cool reserve which had manifested itself back in the Ruin Ring when Neeves and Sipika appeared.
This is me, what I am: a starship captain.
The Lady Mac s three fusion drives came on almost without conscious thought. Stand by for combat gees, he warned.
How many? Sarha asked nervously.
How high is up?
Other starships were getting under way, retracting their thermo-dump panels. Three of them launched combat wasps in a defensive cluster formation.
Remain in orbit, Smith ordered over the command net. The navy squadron will provide us with protective cover from the salvo.
Like bollocks they will, Joshua said. The squadron was still four minutes from orbital injection. A sensor scan revealed blackhawks and voidhawks alike racing up for a higher altitude; the slower Adamist starships were following, with three exceptions, Gemal one of them.
The gee force in Lady Mac s bridge passed five gees. Ashly groaned in dismay. My bones cant take this.
Youre younger than me, Warlow countered.
Im more human, too.
Wimp.
Castrated mechanoid.
Sarha suddenly noticed the trajectory Joshua had loaded into the flight computer. Joshua! Where the hell are you taking us?
Lady Mac was rising above the equatorial plane at seven gees, decreasing altitude at the same time.
Were going under them.
This trajectory is going to graze the atmosphere!
He watched more of the mercenary starships launching combat wasps. I know. It had been an instinctive manoeuvre, opposing every tactic program in the flight computers memory core; they all said altitude was the key in orbital combat situations, giving you more room to manoeuvre, more flexibility. Everyone else in the little mercenary fleet was clinging to that doctrine, escaping from Lalonde with fusion drives operating way out on the limit. Dad was always telling me about this one, he said in what he hoped was a confident manner. He always used it in a scrape. Lady Mac s still about, isnt she?
Your bloody father isnt! Sarha had to datavise, she couldnt expel enough air from her lungs to talk. The acceleration had reached nine gees. She hadnt known even Lady Mac could produce that kind of drive level. Every internal membrane supplement had turned rock hard. An arterial implant at the base of her neck was injecting oxygen into her bloodstream, making sure her brain didnt starve. She couldnt ever remember having to use it before. Joshua Calvert, we are not a bloody combat wasp!
Look, its very simple, he explained, trying to sort out the logic in his own mind. As usual, rationality was trailing well behind impetuosity. Combat wasps are designed for deep-space operations. They cant operate in the atmosphere.
We are designed for deep-space operations!
Yes, but were spherical.
Sarha couldnt snarl, she would have dislocated her jaw bone; but she managed to grate her teeth together.