Relentless (The Lost Fleet, Book 5) by Jack Campbell

Author:Jack Campbell [Campbell, Jack]
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Science fiction, General, Fiction, Fiction - Science Fiction, Space Opera, American Science Fiction And Fantasy, Science Fiction - Space Opera, Science Fiction And Fantasy, Imaginary wars and battles, Science Fiction - Military, Space ships, Prisoners of war, Geary; John (Fictitious character)
ISBN: 9780441017089
Publisher: Ace
Published: 2009-04-27T19:30:00+00:00

TIME for another fleet conference. He didn’t hate them nearly as much as he used to, but was still acutely aware that some of the officers among those whose images were shown around the virtual table were actively plotting against him and ships of the fleet itself. Most of the commanding officers of the fleet’s ships seemed cheerful though, after the latest victory and knowing how close they were to home. Unfortunately, it was also time to break the bad news. “I’ve asked Lieutenant Iger from intelligence to be present so he can brief everyone on something he and I have already discussed.” Waving toward Iger, Geary sat down. Since he already knew the content of Iger’s briefing, he spent the time watching the reactions to the news.

Cheerfulness faded into disbelief, followed by a general sense of anger. Captain Armus put the feelings into words. “How could our intelligence be so wrong?”

Geary answered. “As Lieutenant Iger explained, this reserve flotilla has been kept so far from Alliance space that there were no indicators of its existence that we could detect.”

“Why?” Daring ’s commanding officer asked. “That’s a lot of ships, and I know the Syndics could have used them at different times in the past. Why leave them sitting on the border of Syndic space farthest from the Alliance?”

“We can only speculate as to the reasons,” Geary replied. Strictly speaking, he was being truthful. Everything known about the aliens on that side of Syndic space was speculation. “But they did do it, and now it seems they’ve brought that flotilla here.”

“Where are they?” Dragon ’s commanding officer questioned Iger.

“We believe they’re somewhere within a jump or two of Heradao.”

Geary pulled up the star display for the region. “When we arrived in Heradao, Captain Desjani and I wondered why the Syndic flotilla here had left a clear path open for Kalixa. It may well be that the reserve flotilla was waiting for us at Kalixa. If we’d gone that way, the Syndic flotilla here would have followed and we would have been trapped between two powerful enemy forces.”

“Typical Syndic trick,” Captain Badaya complained. “How long will they wait at Kalixa to see if we show up?”

Desjani pointed to the display. “A Syndic HuK stationed at the jump point to Kalixa jumped that way after we’d defeated the flotilla here. There’s another near that jump point that’s waiting to see which we way we go, and, of course, there are two HuKs hanging around the jump point for Padronis.”

Badaya studied the display, then nodded. “Atalia. They’ll know when we jump for Padronis, they’ll know we can’t reach Kalixa from Padronis, so they’ll head for Atalia and try to stop us there since they know we have to go that way.”

“That’s a very good estimate,” Geary agreed. “It’s what Lieutenant Iger and I came up with, too.”

“We seem to be glossing over some major failures,” Captain Kila said in a mild tone at odds with her words. “Somebody just misplaced a Syndic flotilla

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