Blood of the Cosmos (33 page)

His warships encircled the trapped trader, and he commanded them to focus their weapons on the same point. All of them fired at exactly the same instant.

The energy burst was sufficient to vaporize the ship, even powerful enough to cause minor pinpoints of nuclear fusion among the denser materials collapsing from the implosion. The boron-laced conduit tubes disappeared as easily as the human flesh did. The entire ship vanished in a flash, and even the energy outburst dissipated quickly into blackness.

The robot warships hung there, and Exxos waited, wondering what the Shana Rei intended next. Would they want the robots to go on the rampage again, as they had done at the Hiltos shrine? That incident had been satisfyingly destructive, but he had lost another twenty black robots—a far more significant loss to him than what they had inflicted on the Ildiran Empire. As the war went on, the black robots could not survive such attrition.

Perhaps that was what the Shana Rei intended.

Exxos needed to find another solution.

The shadow cloud reappeared in space, pulsing around them. One of the inkblots appeared on the bridge of the remanifested warship, and the silence hung heavy for a long moment. Nevertheless, Exxos got the impression that the shadows were pleased. Even with centuries of analysis, he would never understand Shana Rei modes of thought.

If the robots could find a way to annihilate the creatures of darkness, however, it wouldn't matter. Or, if the Shana Rei and the black robots destroyed human and Ildiran civilization, that too would be a good enough victory.

The shadow cloud engulfed the robot warships again, and folded them back out of the cosmos.

 

CHAPTER

51

GENERAL NALANI KEAH

General Keah was spoiling for a fight. The CDF fleet was the largest since the end of the Elemental War, and it was growing every month as shipyards produced powerful vessels in response to the Shana Rei.

At the Lunar Orbital Complex, the once-arrogant Dr. Jocko Krieger had devoted his full abilities to producing a significant arsenal of traditional sun bombs—with appropriate safety interlocks this time. He also insisted that he understood his mistake that had caused the previous disaster at the fabrication facility, and he intended to submit modified designs for new, higher-output sun bombs. Keah would believe that when she saw it.

Meanwhile, batteries of laser cannons were being tested and installed in all Juggernauts and Mantas, while the crews trained overtime. She made sure every one of her Grid Admirals got hands-on experience, even the reluctant ones.

Keah was sick and tired of being taken by surprise and even more sick and tired of getting her ass kicked. Yeah, she was spoiling for a stand-up clash like the one at Plumas, although she hoped for a better outcome this time. If she did her job, along with the trainers, tacticians, shipyards, and weapons manufacturers—not to mention the soldiers themselves—the next outcome would be a helluva lot different.

The CDF could never have enough practice. Instead of just sitting on her thumbs and letting her crew watch the chronometers day after day, she decided to give them something to keep them on their toes.

The
Kutuzov
was Keah's primary office these days. Oh, she went back to CDF headquarters or the LOC and inspected the preparations, and she headed to Theroc for regular briefings with King Peter and Queen Estarra, but the Juggernaut was her true home. She could always use her green priest Nadd to send an instant message to Theroc, if it became necessary.

For these exercises, the
Kutuzov
led fifteen refurbished Manta cruisers and another Juggernaut, the
Okrun
, commanded by Admiral Haroun. Along with Admirals Harvard and Handies, Haroun was one of the “Three H's,” Grid Admirals promoted after the end of the Elemental War; they were clearly rusty, having served for two decades during peaceful reconstruction. She doubted they would have that luxury from now on, and right now she wanted to see Admiral Haroun in action.

Keah guided the training group straight up out of the ecliptic, all the way to the diffuse Oort Cloud. On an astronomical chart, the tiny specks of cometary fragments looked like a blizzard at the barest fringe of the sun's gravity. The dark and dormant comets were a potential navigational obstacle, but the objects were so spread out, the risk was minimal. Besides, General Keah needed elbow room for all their war-game exercises.

“The
Okrun
is in position, General,” Admiral Haroun transmitted from the bridge of his Juggernaut. “Ready to proceed on schedule.”

“All Mantas in battle formation,” said First Officer Mercer Wingo, standing close on Keah's own bridge.

“All right, sound battle stations.” She smiled. “Present the new combat scenario in two minutes.”

“
Two minutes
, General?” squawked the weapons officer, Mr. Patton, over the comm. “But our scheduled exercises aren't due for two more hours. We need time to prepare.”

On the screen, Haroun's eyes widened. “My crew will require at least an hour to get to their stations and have all our equipment spun up.”

Keah frowned. “Then you're all dead. Do you think the bugbots are going to give us a preprinted announcement with an RSVP before they attack next?”

Wingo rose to his feet, gave her a sharp grin. “Two minutes is more time than we need, General. The attack is commencing—now!” He activated the simulation, and the viewscreens on the fifteen Mantas, the
Okrun
, and the
Kutuzov
filled with a flurry of angular black-hulled ships, massive engines, and weapons. Lots of weapons.

“Shields up!” yelled the tac officer.

At her station, the comm chief shouted, “General, a lot of our Manta captains are demanding—”

“Tell them to stop demanding and
shoot
. I'm not the enemy—get the damn bugbots!”

The
Okrun
swung up and out of bugbot targeting range, a little sluggish but enough to save their lives. The Mantas pulled together into a defensive formation. Simulated robot ships swarmed in, more than they had encountered during the Plumas engagement. But the point of a training exercise was to flex muscles, not to be conservative.

“Jazer banks are fully charged, General,” Patton announced.

“Then let's try those first if you're ready, Mr. Patton. And let's hope the rest of our group follows suit.”

As the robot ships soared in, jacketed spun-lasers played across the starry field like spotlights, gutting the nearest robot battleship. The black hull was torn open, and smoke and fumes spilled everywhere. The enemy ship twirled recklessly off the edge of the screen—but since the damned bugbots didn't use life support and could tolerate accelerations that would have pulped a human being, the wounded ship wasn't necessarily out of the fight.

“Next time blow it up all the way,” she advised.

“I'm trying, General.”

The Mantas began opening fire, and Admiral Haroun brought the
Okrun
back into the fray.

“Railgun launchers next,” Keah said, interested to see what would happen. “They should be more powerful now, with the upgrades we just installed. Let's flatten a few clankers.”

On the screen image, well out of range, a swirling black nebula held three enormous Shana Rei hex ships. Even though the shadows could wreak incomprehensible damage during each engagement, the CDF experts couldn't even create a viable simulation, because the collapsing entropy fields defied all predictive capabilities.

The black robots could be smashed, though, and she knew exactly how to wipe them out.

After the initial confusion, her Manta cruisers got into the spirit of the simulation and started pummeling the targets in earnest. All the viewscreens across the connected battle group shared the same simulation. When the Manta captains joined together in triads, closing in on several robot ships and blasting them to pieces before moving on to another, their strategy proved quite effective.

When one Manta took too many enemy hits, it spun out of control and lost its shields. The explosion displayed on all their screens blinded them; worse, it made the General frown. “You've been vaporized, Captain,” she announced. “Withdraw from the vicinity. I hope being killed teaches you to be more careful next time. I can't afford to lose ships.”

“Yes, General,” said the glum captain. The space battle continued to rage around them, and the
Okrun
slid in to take the place of the “destroyed” Manta.

Just to satisfy herself, Keah transferred one subset of weapons controls to herself and proceeded to cause some damage.

The CDF railgun launchers had always been powerful weapons. Each dense depleted-uranium projectile was accelerated to relativistic speeds, and when it struck a target, the dissipation energy of impact was equivalent to a nuclear explosion. The new CDF had increased the diameters of the hyperlaunched projectiles by a full centimeter and added five hundred grams to the mass, with the result that the impact energy had three more kilotons of effective yield.

When she fired two of those projectiles at a robot warship that cruised past, the explosion looked like a beautiful bouquet of flowers.

The human military had enough experience fighting the Klikiss robots that she was confident
these
simulations were accurate, although the bugbot ships were larger and more powerful than what they had used in the past. As Keah fought now, she brought her own experiences to bear as well. Adrenaline rushed through her, accompanied by a cold sweat of memory.…

She had been a young officer during the final engagement at Earth when treacherous black robot forces had turned on the EDF, triggering insidious sabotage aboard the rebuilt battleships. As Klikiss swarmships surrounded Earth, the humans had made their last stand.

Nalani Keah had been a junior officer on the bridge of a Manta cruiser. When the internal sabotage explosions began to take down the ships, the vulnerable EDF vessels spun out of control. Keah's own captain had been killed in the blast, half of the bridge crew injured. But young Lieutenant Keah knew what she had to do, and her fast thinking cut off a black robot attack. She saved several other ships, all of which turned and fought, barely salvaging survival—if not outright victory—from the horrific situation.

Many of the details were a blur to her now. She had watched the footage from bridge cameras and studied the tactical records, so she knew exactly what she had done by instinct. She didn't remember knowing what to do, yet she had done it, automatically. Sometimes she amazed herself.

Afterward, her superiors recognized her actions. General Conrad Brindle had promoted her, put her career on a fast track. That one day set her life on an entirely different course. In a way, she could credit the black robots' treachery for her advancement in the CDF.

Now, she showed her appreciation to the bugbots by launching an all-out broadside against their ships, and she was quite pleased to watch the destruction she caused. “Now we're talking!”

So far, she had lost three of her fifteen Mantas in the simulation. The
Kutuzov
had suffered a certain amount of damage, but nothing too worrisome. Admiral Haroun seemed to be handling himself well enough, to her relief. The CDF had wiped out half of the bugbot attack ships in the engagement, but the remaining enemy vessels clustered in an ominous and unexpected formation.

Keah raised her eyebrows. The simulation must have dug deep to find this alternative. Normally, bugbots fought like startled cockroaches rushing in all directions, uncoordinated and uncooperative. This unified force, though, could be strong enough to cause serious problems, maybe even destroy a Juggernaut.

On the other hand, a monolithic force like that was a much easier target. The
Okrun
and the remaining Mantas launched jazers and railgun projectiles, peppering the unified robots, damaging black hulls. But unless the weapons hit a vital engine system, even the shredded robot ships could keep fighting.

General Keah realized how to turn the threatening configuration into a tactical advantage. She smiled. “Here's an idea. Launch one of our sun bombs—dead center.”

On the comm screen from the weapons center, Mr. Patton blinked, then grinned. “As you command, General.”

The simulated pinwheel tumbled out straight toward the cluster of bugbots. It sprayed bright light as its core activated, building energy levels up to a critical cascade. The sun bomb didn't look like much in comparison to the whirlwind of CDF projectiles and jazer beams, but when the device detonated in the center of the robot ships, they were all engulfed in a flare of disintegrating light and heat.

The expanding shock wave swallowed all the ships in the vicinity, including the
Okrun
. She would apologize to Admiral Haroun later. The simulation computers reacted by shutting down many systems, sending up damage scores that the blast would have inflicted on the surviving Mantas, whose shields had already been depleted. When the nova light faded, every single bugbot ship was gone.

Perfect.

General Keah declared an end to the exercises. “Anybody left alive on the surviving ships will receive bonus pay and rotating hours of R and R. The rest of you, just be glad you aren't really dead.”

The soldiers cheered, and the “destroyed” cruisers accepted their losses with good grace.

“Admiral Haroun … not bad,” she said. “Better luck next time.”

He did not look shaken by his demise. “Thank you, General.”

Keah kept looking at the now-quiet simulation screen. Even though the bugbots had been wiped out, the hex ships and the ominous shadow cloud still hung there in the background. If the Shana Rei had actually participated in this attack, the victory would not have been so straightforward. The General clenched her jaw, hating that she knew so little about this incredible enemy.