The Reckoning: War of the Ancients Trilogy Book 3 by Alex Kings

Author:Alex Kings [Kings, Alex]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-03-07T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 39: A Dead Ancient

Hanson was able to call the Indomitable to pick them up and escort the swarming Petaur fleet back to Tethya. En route they met up with the Black Cat and the Dauntless, and Hanson returned to read Lanik's report and write one of his own.

“What gave you the idea of throwing chaff in front of the Ancient projectile?” he asked Lanik.

“Those projectiles are powerful enough to tear through a ship and keep going,” explained Lanik. “But you never see that happen. They destroy a ship, then stop. My theory is that they're unstable. When they hit matter, they tend to dissipate.”

Hanson nodded. “Well, it certainly worked.”

When they arrived at Tethya a day later, Chang called a meeting immediately.

They met in the irregular, canal-floored room as they had before. Hanson brought his entire team. A few Tethyans floated in the water, some senior SIS ghouls looked on silently, and Chang waited with his arms behind his back.

“We've got a lot of ground to cover,” he said, “so let's get started immediately. First up, the Albascene aren't happy.”

“They weren't happy before,” Hanson offered.

“The Albascene ambassador called us a few hours ago and asked if I'd authorised this. I quite honestly told him I hadn't.” Chang sighed. “Suffice to say, there was a heated exchange, and he said that the only reason he didn't declare war on us was because we'd already lost Earth.”

Srak, slumped in the corner with his tail in one of the canals, said, “The fact that the Tethyans have your back might also have something to do with it.”

“Regardless,” said Chang. “We haven't exactly managed to bring them over to our side, have we?”

“No, sir,” said Hanson. “But we've the liberated the Petaurs, and I consider that a worthy goal by itself.”

Chang nodded. “So now we have 60 million Petaurs to deal with.”

“We are working on growing a new segment of the city to provide them with accommodation,” said one of the Tethyans.

“And I hate to say it,” continued Chang, “but as we discussed last time, we need allies. Are the Petaurs useful allies? They have between them three jump-capable ships, and only one of those has significant weapons capability.”

“Admiral, you should not underestimate us,” murmured Yilva. “Between us, we have significant technical expertise.”

Chang looked at her for a moment, before turning back to Hanson. “You've also managed to pick up a Glaber?”

“Yes, sir,” said Hanson.

“Can he be trusted?”

“I believe so. He had several opportunities to betray us and chose not to. Normally, warrior Glaber have a fanatical loyalty to their hive. Uruth has no hive. He's intelligent, independent, and – though I never expected to say the word when talking about a Glaber – decent. Besides which, I still hope we can get some of the Glaber hives on our side.”

“Very well,” said Chang. “I trust your judgement on this, James. Don't let me down.”

“I won't, sir.”

Chang glanced at his tablet. “Next order of business. Yilva? Have you made any progress on your idea?”

Yilva perked up.

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