Protectors of Earth by Felix R. Savage

Author:Felix R. Savage [Savage, Felix R.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: space dragons science fiction space opera
Publisher: Knights Hill Publishing
Published: 2018-03-25T22:00:00+00:00

8

The Offense ship looming in the sunlight is a Pulverizer class fast cruiser. The same type of ship as the one that nearly killed us near the asteroid Beachy Head. The one Tancred ate.

The 44th Mechanized Horse are encamped at the edge of the field—that is, the impact zone—at four o’clock to us, in a mess of tents and horseboxes and catering wagons. They are wandering around in the morning sun, brushing their teeth and sipping coffee. I can see the steam rising from their cups. More people stand around the Pulverizer, directing the earth-movers. They seem to be taking it very slowly and carefully, but not because they fear the Pulverizer. It has been trashed by its fall through Earth’s atmosphere, and is obviously not capable of pulverizing anything anymore.

And yet the very sight of the thing liquefies my guts. Mentally, I’m back in deep space, floating helplessly as that thing frowns over us like a fat man selecting from a tray of canapés. Tancred will save us. No, he won’t, because I left Tancred on Ceres. My heart races and my palms sweat inside my gloves, and it’s a good thing we are already kneeling on the ground because otherwise I would have had to sit down.

Patrick makes just the tiniest sound, not a normal sound, a soft low moan.

Then he gets hold of himself. Pulls me down lower behind a fan of branches that should be horizontal and are now vertical. “The big thump,” he says.

“What?”

“The guys in the club. They mentioned a big thump. Said that’s why they’re here.”

“Oh. Yeah.”

“Clearly, the big thump was caused by an Offense ship crash-landing in Belgium.”

“We’re still in the Netherlands.”

“Fine, the Netherlands.” He’s tense as a loaded gun, peering between the branches. “This never happens!”

“That’s what we thought about Offense attacks on Ceres, too,” I mumble. I want to get away from here and go back to Brussels and hide in the cruciferous vegetable fields. I suddenly remember those traces of ringwoodite. “Maybe … the Offense was looking for the same egg we’re after?”

Patrick gives me a pitying glance. “So they crashed their ship and killed themselves?”

He’s right, of course. Offense ships are not built to land anywhere with significant gravity and / or an atmosphere. They usually sally forth from their horrible arkships, whack a few of our assets, and then go straight back home. They have attacked Earth and the Moon in the past, but now we have orbital defense platforms out the wazoo, known as the Constellations, so they don’t do that anymore. “Maybe the Constellations shot it down,” I say.

“Yeah, I guess that’s a possibility. But why would it have been in range of the Constellations in the first place?”

I suddenly remember something else. “Could it be the same one that attacked the Bohemond? We were pretty close to Earth when that happened.”

“A survey ship kiling a Pulverizer? Does not happen, Scatter.”

“Well, something stopped it from killing us. Maybe one of our patrol ships got it.”

“I guess.

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