Yul’s ship banked to safety. He breathed a sigh of relief. “What the hell was that?”
Cloye whistled. “Our flyboy, if it was anybody. I’ll be damned!”
Yul grunted into the com, “Thanks, Fenli.”
“Don’t mention it. You saved my ass earlier, Yul, but you owe me one.”
“Thought you’d abandoned us for greener pastures.”
“Started to get lonesome.”
“Yeah, I bet.”
Yul grinned. These were desperate times with small victories. Hardly enough to win the day. But their bombing that slaver and giving the people a chance at escape had at least made a difference. A few ships against many. Fenli had saved them by nuking that ship. It appeared the enemy aphid hadn’t radioed out in time to alert central command. Without NOA support, the invaders would quickly steamroll the planet. At least Hresh had managed to get the universal translator operational. According to reports streaming over the translator, the aliens had neutralized all major capital cities of the continent. Yul didn’t doubt the other wing forces sent to Quenrix’s distant continents had achieved any less appalling devastation and slavery.
Yul’s heart sank at the sight of the number of blue and grey slavers rising with their bloated bellies full of humans up into the clouds from the ashes of the city. There must have been a hundred or more of them en route to some secret bug colony.
Orders crackled over the com, “A job well done, lightfighters! Prepare to move out.”
Lightfighters and mantis craft lifted their noses to join the Zikri fleet in orbit around Quenrix. The grim, toneless robotic voice echoed in everyone’s brain:
“Assemble your squads. Prepare for the next jump, to Xares.”
Yul opened a channel to NOA before the ships hyperdrived out.
“NOA, Quenrix is lost,” he rasped. “The next target is Xares. Xares, I repeat! Out.” He cut the channel as a flood of light swept by the viewports and myriads upon myriads of ships disappeared down the light highways.
Chapter 20
Dez had more troubles on his mind than Regers’ manipulations. NOA had contacted him personally and requested a private audience. A certain colonel, Grescon, a tawny-haired officious man, had papers requesting disclosure of all top-secret R & D files and company technology. After taking an invasive tour of primary R & D lab #1 and grilling his senior scientists with questions, Grescon, short on manners and invested with a pair of piercing hawk eyes, faced Dez. Dez indulged the man, but remained no pushover. “Under what authority can you request classified information?”
“Under NOA’s new intel directive. Unless you want to have a time bomb up your ass, you’d better comply, Hadley, and don’t hold anything back.”
Dez scrutinized the hard, angry face in front of him. He gazed afar for some moments. “Very well, follow me.”
In a secret command booth off a simulation room, the two watched a holoscreen offering a bird’s eye view of a giant test arena. There, a great grey and black-speckled moth flitted about before a rectangular mechnobot. The latter was man-sized, floating impassively in its path. On cue from the technicians, the test mechno glided through the air, smashed the alien moth hard against the titanium wall.
Grescon frowned and recoiled. “Well, that looks like the end of your specimen,” he said in a critical voice. “Anything else to show me, Hadley? Why’re you wasting my time? Bio-weaponry? These are not military grade items.”
Dez pointed. “Watch. And the name’s Yadley.”
Grescon turned his head. The moth, or rather the alien menace hatched from a plant pod on a faraway planet, miraculously revived. Rather than being sandwiched between hard metal and wall, it sent the mechno surging backward with a sudden burst of strength and hovered in the air before its adversary. Its eerie hummingbird wings worked a mile a minute. How it did so was infathomable to the eye, at least Grescon’s as it sped out once again at incomprehensible speed and knocked the mechno tumbling to the floor. To say Grescon was impressed was an understatement. “What—How in hell did it do that?”
“That, colonel, is alien tech.”
While Grescon pulled at his chin, Dez went on, “You ready to talk now? What’s all this bullshit of demanding to see top-secret material? Imagine one of those lethal insects inside a protected armor and owned by your little old self.”
The colonel’s jaw dropped. A wet tongue passed over his upper lip. “Why didn’t the moth finish the mechno while it had a chance?”
“It protected its habitat.” Dez shrugged. “That’s all it needed. Maybe it sees the hulk as a mechanism to use to its advantage, a type of protective shell.”
“You were out there on Remus, Yadley. How much damage can these things do, or sustain? Better yet, how many bio-weapons like the one you’re describing can you provide?”
“Four—five at the most…”
Grescon scowled, tugged at his nose. “That’s not nearly enough.”
“We’re preparing more as we speak. You talked to my chief engineers, saw the work they are putting in at the machine shop. Dimensions, specifications, the like, so you know they produce quality merchandise…and that I’m not exaggerating.”
The colonel nodded with animation. “That was before I saw a demonstration with a live specimen. We’re putting everything we have into this operation, Yadley. Ships, manpower, drones, lightfighters, intelligence, the whole kit and caboodle, any other ideas are welcome. All plans are welcome. You, a senior scientist at a top-grade military research firm, can help us. If the human-colonized planets are to survive this alien invasion, we have to put in an all-out effort.” He grunted. “There’ll be huge kickbacks for you.”
“I know, Colonel. It’s just that the last models are purely experimental. Results can’t be guaranteed. There are still small glitches that might hamper—”
“Bullshit! Our intel indicates this
