Brink of Destruction by Peter Nealen

Author:Peter Nealen [Nealen, Peter]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: anonymous
Published: 2024-11-02T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 26

The dim, desolate surface of Eredin IV was eerily familiar, and even more eerily quiet. Bannon crouched near one of the strange, fungus-like trees while Abbott got Second Squad spread out into a security posture.

That was second nature to the phalanx by now. Hern was higher up behind Bannon with Third Squad, while Summ had First Squad nearly a mile away, on overwatch.

The fact was that Bannon was slightly disturbed by the quiet—and by how quickly and easily they’d gotten back into the Eredin system. There had been no sign of the ghost ships on the way in from the wormhole emergence point. No hostile presence registered around the planet, though querulous transmissions had already been sent toward the task group from the Eredinese chyotsu, wondering what the Corvanites’ intentions were.

The Eredinese were advanced enough that their heritage was obvious, but they still wouldn’t stand much of a chance if the Council of Corvan turned its whole attention to the Eredin system.

Of course, Bannon wondered if that would happen, given what he’d seen and heard at the Council.

Now, however, his phalanx was back on the ground, not far from where they had extracted the Columbian Sentinel team. The sun, wan as it was, wouldn’t be up for another couple of hours, so the landscape was visible only in the ghostly enhanced colors in his visor.

Against any other foe, Bannon would have been confident that they could evade detection in the darkness. Against this enemy… after Thuraban, he wasn’t sure about that. They had taken every precaution to minimize their signals and stay hidden in the jungle, and the ghost ship aliens had found them anyway.

That the ghost ships had not shown themselves did nothing to increase his confidence. They had been here, and in force. Their absence, and the apparent ignorance of the Eredinese chyotsu—which he still didn’t think he believed—was only making him more suspicious.

Abbott took a knee next to him, glancing over his shoulder. They were in hardsuits for this mission, more for the insulation than anything else. Eredin IV was habitable, but cold.

“They’re keeping to themselves.” Abbott kept his voice low and even, but the suspicion was clear.

Bannon followed his squad sergeant’s gaze toward where the Columbian Sentinels crouched in the rocks nearby. Their security posture was perfect, and he had to admit that he was impressed. Corvanite opinions of the Columbians varied, but Columbia and Corvan Prime were far enough apart that they rarely interacted, leading to a great deal of rumor and politically driven suspicion. The Columbian form of government was, in shape at least, similar to the Zolarian, and so the Corvanites tended to view them somewhat askance. And yet from what he’d seen so far, Bannon wasn’t sure that comparison was entirely justified. The Zolarian and Columbian cultures were radically different.

He couldn’t get around the fact that the Columbians hadn’t told them everything about what they’d found on Eredin IV, though.

Would you have told them everything, were your roles reversed? He doubted it.

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