Marco stood on the bridge next to Jolo with a stoic face, all of them staring at the large vid screen. The entire ravine was a nasty red, roiling mess, smoking orange lava creeping outward onto either side of the ravine like a river flooding. Just then a chunk of hot, orange rock shot up with a loud BOOM and nearly caught the rear of the gunboat. The other captains checked in and reported similar conditions.
Katy looked at Jolo. By then Barth had come to the bridge also. Jolo knew the end was near.
He got on the comm to the Nymeria and Kubata. “New plan: Save as many as you can hold and get out.”
There was pandemonium in Jaxxon. People fought each other to scramble on top of the smattering of low-slung Duval houses and buildings. One building in the center of town was covered with people, more trying to make it to the top, some falling down on to the hot earth then scrambling up again. Some not so fortunate lay burning on the ground, smoking.
Computer, Jolo thought. How many adult humans can a Federation gunboat hold with a crew of 18?
472, based on an average weight of 85 kilograms per human.
Jolo swallowed hard when he stared down at the mass of people below his ship. The gunship was meant to carry heavy ion cannons, heavy armor, extra fuel cells. She was no transport. Katy lowered the Vassily and dropped the rear hatch. Jolo sent two marines down to lock the doors to the main areas of the ship so the refugees couldn’t flood the bridge and engineering.
Katy had a hard time getting the rear hatch close enough without crushing anyone because the mob had surged towards the ship, not away from it. In the end she just got the edge of the hatch as close to the building as she could and people started jumping in. Once the main surge calmed down, she set the tail down on the top and more kept pouring in. That’s when Jolo realized there were more people than they thought. He hadn’t made it to the third building and Katy was already having a hard time maneuvering the gunboat because the ship wasn’t designed to carry that much weight. And there were people still inside the buildings as well they hadn’t considered.
Finally, Jolo told Katy to gain altitude. Several hundred remained. Jolo stared down at the mass on the top of a big house all reaching up to the gunboat. He spotted a woman holding a baby in the middle of it all. Jolo was numb and there was nothing left to do.
“Take us up and out,” said Jolo. He watched on the screen as the gunboat gained altitude and he couldn’t make out the woman any more, but there was still movement on most of the rooftops. People were going to die. He stood next to Katy as she slowly brought the Fed boat up, and just before she started the burn into orbit, Barth jumped out of his chair and started hollering. “They came!” he yelled.
Suddenly the sky was full of ships: big ones, small ones, medium sized ones, all with Fed markings.
“Captain, you got some help coming,” said Koba on the comm, still in orbit above Duval.
Two giant Defenders appeared on their screens, one within visual range and one on the other side of the planet. Admiral Filcher came on the comm. “Captain, Vargas, what can we do to help?” he said.
“Have your defenders and gunboats take out every tower with a heat sig under 400 degrees,” said Jolo. “Send transports to Jaxxon and all surrounding communities and get everyone off this rock.”
“Roger that, Captain. Fed Transport ship Carthage is full burn to Jaxxon. Molokai is heading to the other side, and any other ships capable of carrying more than ten people are searching for survivors.
And then all hell broke loose. The fleet spread out and Filcher’s big Defender Persephony took down a tower a second with concentrated blasts from her ion cannons, all three fixed on the same point. The big ship didn’t slow down. There were another eight gunboats, three frigates, a dozen wasps assigned to the Persephony, and several patrol ships, all pounding away at the BG towers. Jolo wished George was here because there was no way to tell if they were making progress.
But soon Jolo realized he wouldn’t need George to tell him the numbers. Everyone could see for themselves. Even after an hour of tower busting by the best guns the Fed had to offer, Duval was burning. The transports had lifted everyone out of the populated areas and were in orbit with the Argossy, and the warships had continued the assault. But staring down onto the surface told them all they needed to know. The ground was smoking and hot, the lower elevation areas covered in lava. The rivers were gone, replaced by steam rising into the air, the sky above still blue and clear. And the Fed ships were hard pressed to find any more cool towers.
Jolo got on the comm to Filcher, “Are we done?”
“We can’t find any more towers to blow. Rendezvous with the fleet.” Jolo watched as all of the blue dots started to pop off the screen. But he did not give Katy the order to make the burn.
“Take us North again,” said Jolo. Katy didn’t argue. She brought the Fed boat around and headed over the lava flow that used to be Marco’s, past the mountain chain and the steaming lake,
