Fallout (Expeditionary Force Book 13) by Craig Alanson

Author:Craig Alanson [Alanson, Craig]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: UNKNOWN
Published: 2021-12-06T16:00:00+00:00

It was a good thing we brought in Smythe. First, it told me something about him, that he was not shocked to learn I had lied, and that the whole wormhole crashing thing was a bluff. Or, he was shocked, and his British reserve didn’t let him show it.

“Smythe, I am sorry I didn’t read you into this before. It wasn’t anything personal.”

“You had to make a judgment call, Sir,” he said stiffly. “And you did.”

“Good. It’s-”

“It was the wrong call,” he added. “But it was yours to make.”

“I won’t, uh, do it again.” It sounded as lame to me as it did to them. They knew what I really meant was ‘unless I think it is necessary’.

I suck.

Anyway, it was good that Smythe joined us, he did offer a different perspective. A better idea. His suggestion was that we pretend to temporarily crash a network in Maxohlx territory, after the Navy struck sites in Bosphuraq territory. Send a signal that we knew who was really responsible for the attack against Earth, and that the rotten kitties were not getting away with it. Punish the Bosphuraq yes, but retaliate the same way they hit us; with conventional weapons. That would send a couple signals. That we knew they had been forced into the attack by their asshole patrons, and that we did not consider the Bosphuraq to be much of a long-term threat. Sending that signal would hurt the prestige of the birdbrains within their coalition, and weaken the coalition overall. So, bonus.

With a change of focus from the Bosphuraq to their patrons, we had to go back to Square One and select a target wormhole network, with the same criteria. Candidate networks needed to have a small number of active wormholes, and be in important territory so the shut down would hurt the kitties enough to scare them. Because we were now talking about acting against a senior species, we had other considerations. Like, the wormholes had to be easy in, easy out for us, limiting the possibility of Valkyrie being detected and trapped. Also, because the self-image of the arrogant Maxohlx was so fragile, we couldn’t hurt them so badly that they felt their existence was threatened.

What a bunch of assholes. They acted like the toughest species in the galaxy, but we had to worry about their wittle pussycat feelings. Damn, I freakin’ hate them.

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