“Like hell I will.”
Regers nodded to Vincent. Vincent jammed the muzzle of his E1 in Jennings’ mouth. Dragging knuckles across his peach-fuzz head, he brought his head in close. “Listen up, Jennings. It’s better for your health.”
Jennings fumed, licking at his bloody lip. Regers turned to Deakes. “We’ve got full power, Deakes, a fast new ship, and plenty of firepower and booze aboard. I won’t kid you, we’re going to have a lot of trouble out there. Feel it in my bones. Bugs to the left of us, bugs to the right of us. The main objective is to get in and out as fast as possible.”
Deakes blew out air from his cheeks. “Whatever you say, boss. You know my feeling on the subject.”
“Attaboy, Deakes! Always loyal. Let’s shape up, bitches! We’re not going to waste time quibbling or shedding tears. We’ve got a hell of a lot of bug gunk to wade through and vengeance to wreak! Jennings! You got something to say? Guess not. With a mouth full of bleeding teeth you’d better save your wind. Of all these bastards here, you’re the slowest learner I’ve ever seen.” He shook his head in smiling wonder. “You’ll learn, Jiminy, if I’m not your Uncle Regers.”
Grendel came out of light drive a safe distance away from the bug fleet poised ready for battle. “I’ve a feeling the most interesting gambits’ll be down on Xares—from there we’ll find our quarry when those locusts start landing cargo vessels on the surface. Ramra, keep ship intercept open for human transmissions. Our Yul boy’s probably going to be squawking on the blower to NOA before long.”
“Right, boss.” Ramra nudged Jennings aside from the nav panel. “Move over, Jiminy. You’re hogging the console.”
Regers laughed as Jennings slurred his words through a sore mouth.
Deakes pointed to the rose-tinged planet below on the holo screen. “From the sound of our friend Dez’s hare-brained scheme, I bet they plan on planting those mechnos down there somewhere in the cities. The dragonflies hate their habitat being disturbed. When they see trouble, they’ll take action.”
Regers shrugged and muttered under his breath. “Like a few moths in fancy armor are going to take on a whole bug fleet. I’ll believe it when I see it, Deakes.”
“You said Dez mentioned NOA’s pegged our boy flying a mantis ship?”
“Yeah, which means we’ll follow the bug swarm down to planetside and listen in.”
“We still got the squids to worry about,” Deakes cautioned. He made a sweeping gesture at the holo view crammed with clusters of hostiles. “Look at those fucking Orbs. Thousands of them. While the bugs kill each other, the squids’ll plug a bomb on everyone’s ass. Nuke us all, squeeze the bejeesus out of us.”
Jennings just shook his head in disgust. “You guys are bloody clueless.”
“Got something to say, fuckface?” growled Vincent, sidling closer, rattling his rifle. “Why not offer it up fair and square, instead of pitching insults?”
“Enough, you SOBs,” said Regers. “Concentrate on getting this vessel down to planetside without alerting the enemy. Look, the bugs are on the fly.” All eyes turned to the holo view. Thousands of aphid fighters spiraled down toward the planet with mantis scouts and raiders, a swarm of swarms.
Ramra frowned. “Why aren’t the squids following?”
“Backup? Dunno.” Regers grunted. “No chance NOA’s going to make any difference against that horde with a few mechnos.”
“Don’t underestimate them, Regers,” said Jennings through a mouth of swollen gums.
“Ain’t my war,” said Regers. “I could give two shits.”
But a part of Regers felt hollow at such words. Damnedest thing.
Am I starting to go soft or something?
* * *
The Mentera fleet spiraled toward Pandara continent’s most affluent major city, Kibalsh. Yul pawed with frustration at the controls still locked on autopilot. He looked over at Cloye and the innumerable red blips spread over the tactical holo map. He had no clue of the fate of Miko amidst that horde. He’d lost contact with the former NAVO lieutenant back on Quenrix. Fenli’s groans became palpable through the com. The man gnashed at his ill choice in coming back to this hellhole. As luck would have it, his controls were locked on target below as well. The fluke of his nav ever being free again looked unlikely.
Cloye grazed Yul a meaningful stare. A savage glint pooled in her eyes, her slender fingers moving over the touchpads, itching to peg off bugs. Hresh was as white as a ghost. His jaw half swung wide, as if he were ready to puke. Perhaps the man foresaw his own doom in the steep descent of the Mentera ship, the canted angle of the stars, a dive to the human planet below...a doom coming up fast.
“Let’s make it good, folks,” said Yul. “These may be our last moments.”
The bug fleet, rapidly descending, was just minutes away from the atmosphere. Yul saw the flashes of ship fire and advance warnings of ship battles far out in space.
“NOA, finally!” cried Yul. “They attack the Orbs. Took their sweet time.”
Hresh hustled to the nav, his white face suddenly suffused with hope. “About 1500 of them!” He worked the locust scanners. “They’re taking on the Zikri forces. Small numbers by any comparison, but better than nothing.” His thin shoulders quivered. “Not faring too well.”
Yul stared at the wide holoscreen to see submarine NOA hulls flaring to dangerous levels as Zikri blasted their shields and flanked them. Some Zikri Orbs blipped out, blown to ashes by return fire, but not nearly enough.
“Can’t worry about it, Hresh. We’ve got our own battles ahead. The allies’re going ahead with the
