The Battle of Gan-De: Part 1 by unknow

Author:unknow
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Serial Box Publishing
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

• • •

Asala knew the moment Niko hacked the platforms. It could be no one else. She and the other pilots had barely survived the drones' assault. Now the drones scattered in response to the sudden activation of the platforms' lasers. She couldn't see it except in glimpses, couldn't appreciate the immense distances involved, but the night was crisscrossed with fire.

The drones that she and the other Ghalan pilots had so painfully lured closer to the platforms were rendered into molten slag. She didn't have further opportunity to admire the spectacle unfolding before her. “Commander Asala to all units,” she said. “Get the fuck out of here. Get clear of the lasers!”

She veered below the platforms, closer to the planet. Asala put in another call, this time to Uzochi. She'd received word of Uzochi's maneuvers earlier from Station Control, could see the ship on her scanner. But why was there only one? Hadn't Uzochi spoken of a fleet? Had the others been shot down already?

Uzochi answered almost immediately.“What an excellent trick,” Uzochi said. “It's going to be a wild ride.” Her face flickered in and out, in and out, like a tree-haunt in one of the old Hypatian stories. Tree-haunts were tricksters, neither wholly benevolent nor malicious. The comparison seemed apt; Asala remembered the stunt Uzochi had pulled with the gravity bomb.

“What happened to the rest of the fleet?” Asala demanded.

“Change in plans,” Uzochi said. “It's just this one ship. The wormholes will save Camp Ghala, never fear.” There was a strange hesitation before “wormholes.”

Asala started to ask for details, but was interrupted by an incoming piece of shrapnel that almost clipped her ship. At these velocities, even a small particle could destroy a ship that had any faults in its shielding. Given the amount of debris that ringed Gan-De, her surviving fleet now faced an entirely new threat.

“I'll talk to you later,” Asala said hurriedly. “May the sky hold you safe.”

“And you too, Commander,” Uzochi said with the brilliant smile that had dazzled so many viewers way back when. With that, she cut the connection; her afterimage lingered even as Asala wrenched her attention back to the heart-stopping necessity of flight.

Asala had been afraid that the conflagration in the skies would make it difficult for Uzochi's ship to reach Camp Ghala, even if the orbital platforms were targeting the enemy's drones—for now. But the Gandesians had other ships in orbit, and she flinched when their lasers inexplicably winked out, giving the Ghalans a further respite. Had she imagined it?

A light began blinking amber on her panel: someone wanted to talk to her. Asala toggled the channel open. “Yes?”

“This is Camp Ghala Control,” a tremulous voice came from the other end. “We have—we have a call from General Cynwrig. She offers cease-fire while she—she wants to talk to you.”

As much as Asala wanted to tell the general to eat glow, she owed it to Uzochi—to Soraya and Niko and everyone on Camp Ghala—to hear Cynwrig out. Even if the odds that Cynwrig was going to surrender were low.

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