Far Horizons (Stellar Heritage Book 3) by Bob Mauldin

Author:Bob Mauldin [Mauldin, Bob]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Blade of Truth Publishing Company
Published: 2020-04-02T22:00:00+00:00

The meeting was a subdued one. It was also not open to the public, considering that it was held on Vesta. It had become common practice for the Alliance to hand out press releases on a regular basis from the very beginning of their open-embassy policy. Now, with so many affected, apparently because of a lack of vigilance by the Alliance, countries from all around the Pacific Rim, even those with only minor damage, wanted answers. And scapegoats. Preferably rich ones. Simon was determined that the Alliance not be the scapegoat.

He looked out at the faces before him, just like so many times before, only this time the faces were of ships’ captains, base commanders, embassy heads, and several dozen other people closely tied to the Alliance who’d come to Vesta for this one reason. There was Baron von Schlenker, all the way from Earth, and with him were several people he’d come to know as representing their governments in semi-official capacities. To see them there now was a bit of a shock but nothing he couldn’t handle. He let his eyes meet each one of this group, recognizing but not acknowledging Brandon Galway. Three ships had been in orbit, and the baron must have leaned on one of the captains pretty hard to get this group out there so quickly.

Also not normal for a meeting like this were several Shiravan faces in a small group off to one side.

One other abnormality was the camera, red light showing in record mode. “I want to thank each of you for being here at this most auspicious of times,” he began. “The recorded version will be sent out immediately, but you who happen to be here at this time deserve to hear two bits of news. First comes the good news. Shasta Group, consisting of a wolf pack, two Shiravan escorts, and two cloaked battlecruisers, ambushed eleven Korvil destroyers in the third system they entered at a loss of only five Mambas. The surprise was that complete. But on their return to bring the news, Shasta Group happened upon a ten-ship destroyer convoy inbound for Earth. The bad news is that even though this enemy convoy was completely destroyed, it was at a cost of forty-five pilots, the entire crew of the Vengeance, and several dozen from two other damaged ships.”

Simon let the muttering go on for a few minutes before continuing. “I know. We all have friends among those lost. That’s just how it is with a group as small and tightly knit as ours.” He stood silently for a few seconds and then said, “Grieve for your friends. Take what time you need to do so, but if possible, make it fast, I’m sorry to say. Then turn that grief outward toward the enemy that has caused so much loss here and on Earth. Our losses are in the hundreds, but our world has lost millions. There are so many volunteers clogging the system down below that we’re actually turning people away after taking a number they can be reached at.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.