“Antimissile defenses engaged,” Weapons said.
“Winnowers One through Four, launch,” Jedao said. “Tactical Two and Tactical Three, formation Swanweave.” This would afford the winnowers some additional protection. It was all very well that Kujen’s new and improved design operated remotely, but they wouldn’t do him a whit of good if the enemy blew them up first. The longer the winnowers remained operational, the longer he could use them as a threat to lever the enemy into doing what he wanted them to.
“Sir,” Talaw said in a remarkably calm voice, “there are enough of General Inesser’s swarms to engage us from multiple vectors simultaneously.”
“I had noticed that, yes,” Jedao said. For the moment, the winnowers were causing Protectorate forces to keep their distance. He imagined that any stealthed forces were holding back out of a fear of engaging some sort of dead man’s switch. He thought well of Inesser for refusing to waste her soldiers’ lives taking the winnowers down head-on. Sooner or later, however, her missiles would get through, and he’d lose his leverage.
The first exchange of missiles sparked in the distance. He couldn’t see them on visuals, but the scan subdisplay told him what was going on clearly enough. Swanweave was holding, at least for the moment.
“Swarms One through Six closing on us,” Scan said. This time she had better control of her voice. It wasn’t that she had grown calmer. She’d stopped expecting to survive.
I will get us through this, Jedao promised her silently, although he knew better than to say it aloud.
“Swarm Two has come in range of the shear cannon,” Weapons said.
“Hold that thought,” Jedao said. “General Jedao to Commander Nihara Keru.”
She responded promptly. “Listening, sir.”
“In a moment I’m going to set off the threshold winnowers,” Jedao said. He ignored the way his crew stiffened. Sorry, it’s better this way. “They are going to be pointed not toward the enemy but at Tactical Groups Two through Six, which I’m detaching, and which you are going to be in charge of.”
Nihara paled. “I am Kel, sir,” she said, lifting her chin.
“Oh, stop that,” Jedao snapped, although it wasn’t fair to blame her for drawing the obvious conclusion. “What you’re going to do is hold position just out of winnower range. Don’t fuck this up, because I like you”—Dhanneth stirred slightly at that, oh fox and hound, was he saying anything right today?—“and I would hate to have to recite your name at the next pyre ceremony.”
“All right,” Nihara said, quirking an eyebrow at him, “I’m still listening.”
“I’m going to swan off with Tactical One doing hair-raising things. Don’t worry about me. We’ll be fine.” That was as close as he could come to saying Trust me. “You’re going to take the rest of the swarm and continue to hold position just out of winnower range. If Inesser’s swarms start to close in on you, start moving into range.”
“I see,” Nihara said after a moment. “You’re going to bluff them into thinking you’re going to spike their calendar by, forgive my bluntness, feeding your own swarm to the winnowers.”
“Precisely.” At the same time, he messaged to Kujen, Trust me. It will be easier to secure the swarm’s cooperation if they think they have an out. A dangerous game, but he just needed to buy enough time—
“I don’t understand you sometimes,” Nihara said, “but orders are orders.”
“Splendid.”
“Commander Nihara Keru out.”
The hostility in the command center was now tinged with bafflement. Don’t get too comfortable, Jedao thought. The difficult part is yet to come. He wondered where Hemiola was hiding, and hoped that the fact that everyone was occupied with the battle meant that it was safe. Unfortunately, he couldn’t check on Hemiola without drawing attention to its presence on the Revenant.
After telling Tactical Groups Two through Six to stay behind under Nihara’s command, Jedao turned to Talaw and Tactical One. “When we activate those winnowers,” he said, “we’re going to sprint straight for Terebeg 4 and into the atmosphere. Get ready for some turbulence.”
“That’s going to get rough,” Talaw said. “We can endure short stints of atmospheric flight, but we’re not designed for fancy aerial stunts.”
“It’ll keep Engineering from getting bored,” Jedao said, thinking it was just as well that he didn’t plan on surviving this battle, because Engineering was going to join the long line of people ready to parade his head on a stick afterward. “Still, I take your point.” He messaged Engineering and told them to prepare for a jaunt in the atmosphere.
Meanwhile, Inesser’s eight swarms had understood the bluff. They decelerated until they were maintaining position relative to the winnowers—and to the detached swarm under Nihara. Somewhere in a bunker, Inesser would be having a frantic conversation about how to disarm the winnowers before Jedao ordered mass suicide.
The frantic conversation didn’t last long, if so. Within two minutes, Communications said, “General Inesser is broadcasting a bulletin to our people, General Jedao. Do you—?”
“No,” Jedao said with regret. Under better circumstances he wouldn’t have minded lingering to listen to whatever her speech was. He bet she gave better speeches than he did. “She’ll be trying to convince Commander Nihara to defect to her. I have faith in the commander’s steadfastness.”
Communications subsided.
Now the essential part. “Communications, did you ever dig up additional maps?”
“Sir.” Communications forwarded them to his terminal.
Jedao glanced them over. “They like those underground bunkers, don’t they?” He spent several minutes marking up targets according to the formation patterns that Hemiola had shown him. “Get me Colonel Muyyed.”
Muyyed didn’t waste any time answering. “General Jedao.” Her eyes shone.
“Yes,” Jedao said gravely, “I have something for you and the infantry.” He passed the maps to her. “Take the following locations with your companies. Drop zones are at your discretion. We’ll do what we can to provide fire support from topside, but I can’t make guarantees. This depends on you.” In more ways than you know.
Muyyed examined the maps. “If the intel is correct, everyone’s holed up in the bunkers. I don’t anticipate much person-to-person resistance if we can touch ground. It’s getting groundside through the artillery that will be the hard part.”
“Leave that to me, Colonel.”
“In that case, we’re ready, sir.”
So trusting. “I’ll let you know when you can begin the drops,” Jedao said. “Thank you, Colonel.”
“Sir,” Weapons said, “Winnower Three is damaged. Railgun projectile got through.”
“Then I’d better stop wasting time,” Jedao said. He leaned back and tapped the arm of his chair. “Tactical One. We are going to be diving into Terebeg 4 and heading straight for the capital. General Inesser isn’t the only one who can use a planet for cover.” She might also be reluctant to fire on her own seat of power; that remained to be seen. If he rattled her too much, she might do it anyway.
“The capital’s antimissile defenses are active,” Scan said. “They also have exotic shielding.”
“If you’re going to turn the winnowers on them, now’s the time,” Weapons added.