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  If they left orbit, the faster Qin ships would chase them down, one by one, and execute them. If they stayed, eventually they’d be picked off.

  Admiral Moss ran up. She fell into step alongside Kane. Her face was stained with soot, her eyes red, but her mouth was set hard. “Hiro wants to bust out.”

  “Negative!” Kane wasn’t going to leave his son. Not again. “Stall him. Not until after I talk to Gavin.”

  They jogged into the ground comms station. A colonel waved at the pair. “Here!”

  Kane put the comms headset on and took a deep breath. “Gavin?”

  “Dad!” Gavin’s voice was far off, tinny; it crackled and hissed with static.

  “Interference, sir,” a tech said.

  Kane’s heart soared. Just hearing those words was enough. “You need to get into orbit. A wing of Furys will escort you up.”

  “No, we can regain control of the orbitals,” Gavin called. “Rob knows how.”

  Kane licked his lips. With the orbitals, they had a chance. They could even the odds. He covered the mic. “Get Hiro, tell him to hold!”

  Admiral Moss stepped away to another console.

  The other commanders were listening on the loudspeakers. Already orders were going out.

  “We’re going to the Qin command node. Once we’re in, Jack Cook can sync up the program and we’ll regain control.”

  Kane didn’t want to lose his son. Not again. But every bit of him was proud. Proud of them both. “Can you do it?”

  “Trust us.”

  “Gavin, good God, be careful. I…I thought I lost you.” Tears rolled down Kane’s smoke-stained cheeks. “Can I talk to Robert?”

  The static turned into a roar and dropped away again.

  Kane spoke into the mic. “Robert? Is that you?”

  “Father.” The voice was distant.

  Kane sobbed once. “I’ve been trying for years to find you. We thought…we thought the Qin killed all of you as hostages. If I’d known, my God, if I’d only known. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. Is Claire alive?”

  “We’ll meet soon enough, Father. Trust us. Gavin and I can do this. Just hold the Qin fleet, strike hard, and buy us some time.”

  Kane wiped his face. “We will, we will. Robert, my son, be safe. I…I love you.”

  The static rippled up again and then fell away into a hiss.

  “I love you too.”

  The comms officer signaled that the transmission was done.

  Kane leaned back and took a breath. Then he realized he didn’t know anything about Claire.

  Admiral Moss rested a hand on Kane’s shoulder. “Hiro can hold a bit longer, but not much.”

  Kane stood and looked out at those around him. Every eye in the room was upon him. “Tell Admiral Hayabusa, tell General Amit, tell every damned soldier there is. Now is the moment we stand, now is the moment we prove just who the hell we are. It’s time to make the bastards pay.”

  Cheers rose up as the orders went out.

  CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

  Deciding that he would fight finally set Gavin at ease. He rode in the Qin assault dropship with his eyes closed. It wasn’t sleep that came, but a quiet time of mental preparation. It was how he prepared himself. Just sitting and waiting for the inevitable was too tough.

  He remembered the words of one of his COs. Ain’t no use worrying about some you can’t do nothing about. It seemed so simple back then. Go in. Drop down. Take the objective. Move to the next.

  Suddenly it wasn’t easy anymore. He had a brother to think of now, and a sister, somewhere. Though he guessed that she wouldn’t be as happy to see him as Rob was. But most of all was the weight on his shoulders. The fleet above and the armies below depended on him.

  If the fleet fell, then the armies would be forced to surrender. A mass surrender of all the forces would cripple the TU for ten years at least. If the Qin struck immediately, it might cripple them forever.

  He’d already seen what surrender meant to some: execution. In this long fight, he realized they’d treated the Qin as equals, to be treated as combatants. This changed it all.

  “Twenty minutes,” Victor said.

  Gavin opened his eyes.

  The Coalition soldier stared right at him. Gavin stared right back. It wasn’t a look of hostility. More like two lions circling.

  Cross slid the action on the sniper rifle and peered into the chamber. He inspected the shell, a stubby-nosed explosive penetrator, and then seated it again. Then once more he took it apart.

  “It’s calibrated,” Captain Lopez said to Cross.

  Cross nodded without taking his eyes off the assembly. “Never trust another man’s rifle, sir.”

  Gavin nudged Lopez. “He’s the best, you know.”

  Lopez raised an eyebrow. He looked over at Victor. “Victor, what can we expect?”

  “Initially it should be clear. My teams are sweeping the docks.”

  “And if it’s not?” Gavin said.

  Victor sniffed and wiped his nose. “It will be. The facility is small. Not many know of it. It’s doubtful your crude intelligence could have ever found it.”

  Gavin caught the insult and decided not to hurl it back. “And then?”

  “Submersible. It’s a modified dropship with a close-tolerance energy shield.”

  Lopez shook his hand. “They’ve gotta know we’re coming.”

  Victor frowned and looked over his shoulder at Rob.

  Rob spoke over the comms system. “They think that the kill team is bringing you in.”

  “How many do we go in with?” Lopez said.

  “What we have here and a few more. The submersible isn’t very large,” Victor said.

  “Ten minutes,” Rob called.

  “So what do I do?” Jack said. He sat forward and tucked a borrowed tablet into his jacket.

  “Stay out of the way,” Victor said.

  Gavin pointed at Cross. “You stick to him like glue.”

  Cross slapped the action one last time. He slowly unscrewed the barrel extension, with his eyes on Victor the whole time. At the very last thread, he snapped off the steel and tucked it into his vest.

  “Got a problem, boy?” Victor said to Cross.

  “Enough,” Gavin said. “We’re on the same team here.”

  Victor pulled out his own weapon and set it on his lap. “Let my teams do the sweep. All you need to do is access the Qin core. At that point, we can decrypt your key and we’ll have control of all the orbital defenses.”

  Gavin slid his pistol out from his jacket.

  “You shouldn’t have a weapon. If you or him”—Victor nodded at Jack—”get shot, then all of this goes to piss.”

  Jack started to talk, but Gavin cut him off. “There’s no way I’m going in there without a weapon.”

  “Here,” Rob called. He stuck out his Coalition pistol butt first. “Victor, he gets mine. He’s earned it.”

  Victor grabbed the pistol and hefted it in his hand. He frowned and was reluctant to hand it over. “Your shitty little pistol won’t punch through any armor, anyhow. This will.”

  Gavin took it and handed his pistol to Jack. He turned the weapon over in his hands. It felt damn near like every other pistol a human could design except the barrel was stockier. He fumbled with the action and checked that a round was seated.

  “I hate this shit,” Jack said. He gesticulated with the pistol as he spoke. “Go here, do this, holy shit, they’re shooting at me. When this is done, I fucking resign.”

  Victor slapped the pistol away. “Secure that weapon before you get hurt.”

  Jack pointed a finger at Victor and then snapped it away. He tucked the weapon into his jacket and crossed his arms without another word.

  “Here we go!” Rob yelled.

  The dropship suddenly decelerated and swooped to one side. Out of the narrow windows flashed a small complex, half a kilometer from the ocean. It was a simple-looking concrete pad with sea-stained buildings around it. A few of the
buildings burned brightly.

  They set down on the edge of the concrete pad.

  Gavin exited and helped Cross and Jack down onto the pad. The air smelled of the sea with a tint of smoke mixed in. An orange glow hung in the drifting fog above them as the fires burned.

  Three soldiers ran up to Victor and saluted. Victor turned and pointed back to the dropship.

  A moment later, Rob dropped onto the concrete and rushed out to meet the soldiers. He wore a wide grin. “Good to see you sir!”

  One of the larger soldiers grasped his arm tight. “You too, sir. Been too long.”

  Gavin came up and stood beside Rob. He sized up the Coalition soldiers and decided it definitely wasn’t amateur hour.

  “Brutus,” Rob said. “This is my brother, Gavin.”

  “Pleasure,” Brutus replied. He turned away and walked with Victor and the others toward one of the buildings that wasn’t burning.

  Rob beckoned for Gavin and the others to follow. “He’s a good soldier. You gotta remember, they’ve been training to fight this war for a long time. Old habits die hard.”

  Gavin nodded. He understood, and he was sure that when it was all settled, some hard questions would be asked of the two sides. Especially of the humans who’d eagerly sided with the Qin.

  Rob led them into the building. They marched down a narrow ramp and passed through three concentric sets of doors.

  “How’d you secure this?” Cross said. He pointed at the walls. “Not much of a fight inside.”

  “Because my troops were already inside. All we had to do was keep the loyalists out.”

  “We need to hurry, sir,” Brutus said. “We’ve got about an hour.”

  They passed into a wide chamber with a cargo elevator set in the center. Rob walked to the center and waved everyone onto the platform. The moment they were loaded, it dropped down slowly. It halted at an even smaller chamber with an airlock on one wall.

  Brutus walked over and cracked it open. On the other side was a submersible dropship. A pilot waved them in with a salute to Rob. “Sir! Good to see you again.”

  They all crammed into the tight space. The hatch was sealed, and they broke free from the airlock. The hull groaned just as a high-pitched whine rang out. A hissing crackle announced that the shield was active.

  Rob stood and put his hands on the tops of two seats. He looked back. “Gavin, Jack, you stick with Cross and Lopez. We’ll sweep ahead and call you in once it’s clear.”

  “So that’s it? Rather, uh, anticlimactic, don’t you think?” Jack said.

  “What, would you rather be the one shooting?” Gavin said.

  Jack gave out a nervous laugh. No one else in the submersible laughed along.

  “Brutus, you’ll take us in.”

  Brutus holstered his weapon and dropped his face mask. Victor leaned over and attached a rank tab onto his chest. In large block letters it said DAVOS.

  Rob looked proudly down the line. “They’ll never know what hit ‘em.”

  A deep groan rippled through the hull of submersible. The sound droned away as if a drum was tightening. Then it was silent again.

  Jack stopped typing and stared straight ahead, waiting for it start again. Perspiration rolled down his face. His hands were clammy and wet. Even his stomach was balled up tight. He closed his eyes tight and tried to remember more orbital physics.

  “What are you doing?” Victor said. “Let me see.”

  Jack snapped the data pad to his chest. “Do I ask to see your gun while you’re shooting someone?”

  Brutus turned and reached out his hand. He looked extra intimidating with his face mask down.

  “What, you trade your neck in for that suit? I said no. I have to rewrite every line of code. Your goons took my original data pad back when we were captured. Now I’m running out of time!”

  Jack hurriedly slapped the data pad back down and hammered on the screen with his fingers. He stopped and wiped a few drops of sweat off the surface.

  Rob looked at Brutus and shook his head. “Let him finish.”

  “Thank you!” Jack gave a forced smile and kept pecking away.

  What he’d done to lock the encryption was crude, but he’d rather not do it on the fly. This time, he had a few minutes to prepare and make sure he had everything covered.

  “One kilometer,” the pilot called.

  Jack felt someone watching him and looked slowly up from the screen.

  Cross studied him with his dark eyes.

  “Get ready,” Rob said. He crouched next to the hatch.

  Jack looked back down and kept hammering the display. Calculations and equations ran through his mind. Orbitals. Gravity plots. Acceleration tables. So much to do from scratch. He was running out of time. When he looked back up, he locked eyes with Cross.

  For the first time since they’d met, he saw Cross smile.

  ####

  Hiro paused a moment and closed his eyes. What he was about to order was madness. The only way it could work was if the orbital defenses were operational. Without that fire screen, his entire fleet would be shredded in just an hour.

  Not beaten. Not lost. But completely and totally annihilated.

  Do I trust him? Do I trust him that much? Hiro thought he did. He’d served a long time with Kane, but what he wanted was an assault right over the Qin missile batteries. The simulation ran the numbers for him. The Qin launched sixteen of those massive missiles every minute. At the end of an hour, if they all struck home, he’d lose the bulk of his fleet.

  “If they all strike home…” Hiro snapped his eyes open. “Get me every carrier! Recall every Fury! Halt every bit of ground support!”

  The Fleet Air Commander stomped over with a frown on his face. “Admiral?”

  Admiral Hiro Hayabusa made his hands dance on the orbital display and slid ships from one place to the next. A light-blue smoke twisted through the air and gave it an eerie hue. “Send this out now!”

  The Fleet Air Commander frowned even more, and then his eyes lit up. “Yes, sir!”

  ####

  Jakob Whistler sprinted through the airlock after the rescue team. In the lull of battle, he’d finally been picked up by a rescue shuttle and delivered to the carrier Midway. Even before they’d arrived, his orders were to get to the flight deck.

  “Commander!” an ensign yelled as she ran down the hall toward him. The ensign had one arm in a bandage; dried blood speckled one ear. “We’ve got a Fury coming together for you. Are you in condition to pilot it, sir?”

  “I haven’t flown one in eight years. I’m not certified. You get the deck officer to sign off, and I will,” Jakob said. He was out of breath and slowed his pace.

  “Fine, sir, I will.”

  Jakob stopped and looked at the young woman. “You’re the deck officer?”

  She grabbed him by the elbow and pulled him along. “We took a helluva hit on the port flight deck. I, uh, I’ve got the flight deck.”

  They rushed onto what was left of the starboard deck, and Jakob swore. The vacuum doors on one exit were being welded shut. Wrecked Furys and torn dropships littered the deck. Maintenance crews swarmed over all of them. Then he picked it out: they were cannibalizing the fighters to try and make good ones.

  “You need to hurry, sir!” the ensign yelled. She pointed to a fighter at the end.

  If he hadn’t known better, he’d have thought it was already blown up. One entire side was shredded open. Shrapnel pocked it from front to back. The maintenance crews were finishing up installing a cockpit module.

  “That?” Jakob cried out. He ran up and leaped onto one of the stubby wings. He saw a dozen things that should’ve blacklisted it from flight.

  A tech sergeant crawled out of the cockpit and handed him a helmet. “She’ll pull hard right. Engine is at 40 percent efficiency. The cannons should fire. You’ve got a full load. You’re bingo on missiles. Ya ain’t gonna need ‘em, though, Commander.”

  “What do you mean I’m not going to
need them?”

  The ensign cupped her hands and yelled over the noise. “Get in now and launch!”

  Jakob stared at her incredulously. “I don’t even have a mission!”

  “Shoot the goddamn missiles coming up from the planet! Now get in that ship and get off my damned flight deck!”

  Jakob had never been talked to by an ensign like that. But, as he knew, this was her deck. “Yes, ma’am!”

  He slid himself into the cockpit, plunked the helmet on, and noticed the bloodstains on the walls of the cockpit. The maintenance mechanic slid the hatch shut and kicked it to finally seal.

  A dozen mechanics pushed the Fury onto the launch track.

  Jakob waited for clearance as he normally would. The ensign stomped out before him and pointed toward the exit.

  “See ya,” Jakob said and hammered the throttle.

  The Fury bucked up, twisted a bit, skidded on the floor, and made the most horrible launch ever.

  Jakob tipped down and pointed the nose just below the Midway. His battlescape display showed thousands of Terran Union craft all hunched up near destroyers, frigates, cruisers, and carriers. The vectors showed what he guessed: the big ships were headed toward the Qin lines.

  “This is Admiral Hayabusa. All of you have survived the worst battle the Terran Union has ever fought. Now I need you to do it again. We are going to attack the Qin fleet. In a few minutes, they will begin firing missiles from submerged launchers. Instead of screening the fleet, I need all of you to hunt those missiles. For every missile you stop, you’ll save one of our starships. We’re counting on you. Admiral Hayabusa out.”

  Jakob licked his lips. He knew if no one was screening the fleet, then the Qin interceptors could get in close. The only way the big ships could survive was by staying close, popping flak, and screening each other. But then the big Qin cruisers could hammer them up close… “This is…uh”—he leaned to the side and checked the display—“Silver Four. I need a wingman.”

  “I gotcha, big boy,” a woman’s voice called. Her call tag of Blue Six appeared on his screen.