Eyes of Tomorrow (Duchy of Terra Book 9) by Glynn Stewart (best e book reader TXT) 📕

Star shields maneuvered to get out in front of the hives, protecting the under-armed carriers from the incoming fire with their own shields and hulls. For all of their mass and protection, they were facing blasts of star stuff easily the same size of the light capital ships.

Wendira ships died by the dozens.

“Hyperfold-cannon range,” !Pana reported. “All ships engaging.”

It was a blur now. No living mind could keep track of what happened over the following few seconds, but the targeting priorities were already programmed into the systems. Tens of thousands of hyperfold cannons worked over the biggest bioforms first, the blasts of energy skipping the intervening space to hammer into armored hide and internal flesh alike.

Plasma now flashed both ways, and proton beams added their coherent particles to the chaos, but the hyperfold cannons were the true close-range ship killer of the three fleets—and the Infinite bioforms were uniquely vulnerable to internal damage that bypassed their defenses.

The silence, when it came, was as sudden as an axe falling.

“All targets destroyed,” !Pana reported.

“Stand down all beams and launchers,” Tan!Shallegh ordered. “Stand by for maneuvering orders from the Laians. They’ll probably want us somewhere specific.”

The silence seemed to stretch into eternity, but the Fleet Lord was already turning to other officers.

“Etri, I want a report of our losses and damaged units within a twentieth-cycle,” he ordered the operations officer. “Leezor”—he turned to the Anbrai logistics officer, also on Storm Sentinel—“I want an assessment of every ship’s munitions status by then. We’ll coordinate with our fleet train to replenish our HSMs as quickly as the waves allow.”

They shouldn’t be facing another fight soon, but they were still learning how this enemy thought and fought.

“Casimir, get your team digging into everything that just happened,” he ordered Morgan. “Link up with the Laians; they’ll be interfacing with their civilians and getting reports on what happened during the occupation.

“For eleven cycles, the Infinite controlled this system. I want to know what the locals saw in them.”

Chapter Thirty-Four

Rin entered Tan!Shallegh’s office hesitantly.

“You called me, Fleet Lord?”

“Take a seat, Doctor,” Tan!Shallegh ordered, gesturing Rin to a chair on the same side of the desk as him. “I have a conference with Ronoxosh, Oxtashah and Tidirok in a few moments, and I would like to get your perspective.”

“I’m…not sure what perspective I can provide, my lord,” Rin admitted, but he took the seat anyway. When the First Fleet Lord asked you for a favor, you gave it. It was hard to avoid.

“Like Captain Casimir, you have an understanding of this enemy that I think still eludes most of us,” Tan!Shallegh told him. “You know their ancient enemy better than anyone else alive, except perhaps some Mesharom.

“Your knowledge is useful…but mostly, it gives me an excuse to include you in the meeting,” the Fleet Lord said with a red flush of amusement. “I find your perspective, as neither a fleet officer nor a diplomat, surprisingly valuable.”

“I am at your disposal until the Empress or the Institute give me new instructions,” Rin admitted. “If you want me to sit silently in high-level meetings, I shall.”

An incoming message icon lit up on the Fleet Lord’s operating system, and further commentary was cut off by Tan!Shallegh tapping the icon, linking both of them into a conference.

There were more people in the virtual conference room that unfolded around them than Tan!Shallegh had suggested, but given Rin’s own presence, he wasn’t entirely surprised. The holographic illusion filled the Fleet Lord’s office, giving the impression that ten sentients from five different species were sitting in a single space around Tan!Shallegh’s desk.

The fifth species was a surprise. Rin tended to forget that both the Republic and the Grand Hive had secondary races, as they were both even more dominated by their founding species than the A!Tol Imperium was. But the figure standing behind Voice Tidirok resembled nothing so much as a two-meter-tall stalk of broccoli, with waving green prehensile fronds acting as both hair and hands—a Shondra, one of the few non-Laian races of the Republic.

Oxtashah was alone, but Ronoxosh was accompanied by two smaller but heavier-chitined Warrior-caste officers., bringing the total to ten.

“I must thank all of you,” Tidirok began before anyone could say a word. “We recognize the losses incurred by your forces retaking a Republic system and liberating Republic citizens, and we can offer only our gratitude.

“The Infinite did less damage here than we feared, but that may not have lasted. Millions live thanks to your truth and honor. Thank you.”

“What do we know of the Infinite occupation so far?” Tan!Shallegh asked.

“Not much,” Tidirok admitted. He gestured with a pincer to the Shondra behind him. “Akata is the civilian intermediary for my fleet. They have been interacting with the civilians and learning what we can.”

“Not much so far,” Akata’s translated voice admitted. “It will take time to recover sensor records and carry out interviews across an entire star system.”

“For now, the refueling infrastructure is intact enough for us to begin replenishing the fleets,” the Voice told them all. “The First Defense Fleet will be dependent on our fleet train for other needs, though. The depots here were thoroughly looted and destroyed.”

Rin had seen images of the many-tentacled small bioforms used for that work. He doubted they’d left anything they weren’t trying to extract intact in one piece.

“All of this is secondary,” Ronoxosh said, the first thing any of the Wendira had said since the meeting has begun. “Secondary to the treachery the Laians inflicted upon my people.”

“Treachery?” Tidirok demanded.

Rin was…surprised by how unsurprised he felt. One battle as allies, and the Wendira and Laians were already having troubles.

“One hundred and eleven thousand, two hundred and sixty-eight starfighters destroyed,” one of Ronoxosh’s unnamed Warrior companions listed off. “Six star hives lost. Twenty-seven star shields and sixty-three lesser escorts wrecked.

“Versus total losses for the Laian and A!Tol fleets of less than sixteen ships,” the Warrior concluded. “The numbers alone lay bare your plot, Voice.