Stardust by Edward W. Robertson

Author:Edward W. Robertson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Sci-Fi & Fantasy
Published: 2017-12-09T00:00:00+00:00

15

Admiral Vance had one advantage over the typical encounter: he knew from the very beginning that he and his pilots had no chance to survive. Detached from any notions of caution or reserve, Earth's warriors fought heedlessly, slinging whirlwinds of missiles, diving straight toward the Lurkers as they launched every drone and emptied every magazine they had.

In the face of this ferocity, the Lurkers fired back with lasers, but it was as if the humans' bravery had earned them the favor of some long-dormant god. Their ships often shrugged off the first laser blast and sometimes a second before succumbing to a third or a wave of missiles. Ambushed, outnumbered, and outgunned, it seemed as though Vance would have been lucky to collect five kills before the end. Instead, his people got nearly twenty.

Then the shooting was done, and the last of the explosions faded, and the camera drones watched in silent automation as the Lurkers withdrew once more into the murk of their stealth.

There was a lot of chatter over the Belters' comms. Rada forwarded Vance's footage to Toman. Once it was sent, she altered her course to fly by the wreckage of the stations of Obold and Athena, which were only slightly off from her current bearing.

She told herself she wanted to see the ruins of the habitats on the off chance they'd provide her some new insight into how to fight back, but her subconscious couldn't manage to—or even bother to—conceal the real reason: everyone was about to die, and she felt compelled to witness large-scale mortality up close with her own eyes.

In preparation for the arrival of Toman's fleet, Winters had been keeping a speed and heading close to hers. He requested permission to rendezvous and come aboard. After ensuring she'd pass by Obold before they converged, Rada granted it.

She had a good head of steam going and soon had Obold up on her screen. It had once been orange-shaped, right down to its pebbled skin, but the asteroid had been cracked and cratered by the Lurkers' assault. In vacuum, there was nothing for warm matter to pass its energy to besides stray atoms passing by, and the rock still held a slight bit of residual heat, either from the days-old missile strikes or the dying embers of the habitat.

The bio scans turned up nothing, of course. She hadn't even expected to see an intact dead body, let alone a live one, and was thus surprised when the camera she'd set to hunt for them beeped.

The picture resolved on eight bodies floating around an icy lump twenty feet across. None of the people were suited. One was curled into a ball, but the others hung there with their arms and legs dangling like they'd drowned. She panned across the lump of matter, then swung back, dread spiking up her spine. A face stared at her from the ice, its mouth hanging open. The entire lump was a wad of bodies stuck together by their own frozen skin.

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