The Armageddon Inheritance

Damn! Their micro-jump had brought them into their own range, and they were enveloping the formation, forcing it to disperse its fire against them. Herdan rocked as the first anti-matter salvo burst against her shield, and Adrie

Tharno rubbed his crest thoughtfully as the greater thunder struck back at the nest-killers. Battle Comp had surprised him with that move, but it was an excellent one. The enemy must deal with the flotillas on his flanks, which bought time for the Nest Protector to escape this damnable trap—and for the more massive formations inside the trap to draw into range of the enemy.

It was possible, he thought. They might escape yet, if his lead nestlings could pound the enemy hard enough, cost him enough ships…

“Damn!” Colin grunted. “Look what those bastards are doing!”

Dahak Two swayed as a salvo of missiles exploded thunderously against her shield, and yellow damage report bands flashed about several of the ma

“I have observed it,” Dahak replied. “A masterful move.”

“Spare me the accolades,” Colin grated, face hard as his thoughts raced. “All right. Dahak, we’re going to have to leave you on your own.”

“Understood,” Dahak said calmly. “Good hunting, Sire.”

“Thanks. And … watch yourself.”

“I shall endeavor to.”

“Maneuvering, go supralight and put our ma

Tarhish! Tharno’s eyes widened as a twelve of the enemy vanished in a space-tearing wrench of gravity stress. For just an instant he hoped they were fleeing, but even as he thought it, he knew they were not.

Nor were they. They reappeared as suddenly as they had vanished, and now they were behind him. He noted the dispersion which had crept into their formation—apparently they dared not drop sublight in close proximity to one another—but they were infernally fast even sublight. They raced forward, and their missiles reached out ahead of them.

Adrie

Fire crawled on Herdan’s shield, and damage reports mounted. More Achuultani died, and Tamman’s Royal Birhat crowded up on her flank. They blew a hole through the enemy, bulldozing them aside in a bow wave of wreckage.

There! There was the enemy flagship! They’d—

Proximity alarms screamed. Jesus! The rest of the Guard had overshot the bounds of Laocoon’s trap, and the bastards from out front were hypering back to emerge between Herdan and her consorts!

Emperor Herdan quivered as close-range fire gouged at her shield from all directions. Her own energy weapons smashed back, but the Achuultani had gotten their disrupters into range at last, and thousands of beams lashed out at her.

“Warning,” Herdan’s voice said calmly. “Local shield failure in Quadrants Alpha and Theta.” The ship lurched indescribably. “Heavy damage,” the teen-aged soprano said. “Shield failing. Combat capability seventy percent.”

Adrie

But she was almost there. Another forty seconds—

“Warning, warning,” Comp Cent said. “Shield failure imminent.” Six anti-matter warheads went off as one inside Herdan’s wavering shield, ripping hundred-kilometer craters in her battle steel hull, and she heaved like a mad thing.

“Shield failure,” Herdan observed. “Combat capability forty-one percent.”

Adrie

She cried out, cringing, as a mammoth explosion seared Herdan’s flank and threw her bodily sideways. Tamman! That had been Birhat’s core tap!

There was nothing left of her consort, and little more of Emperor Herdan.

“Destruction imminent,” Comp Cent said. “Combat capability three percent.”

There was no time to grieve; barely time enough to taste the bitter gall of having come so close.

“Maneuvering! Get us the hell out of here!” Lady Adrie

Great Lord Tharno drew a breath of relief as the nest-killer vanished. He had thought he saw death, but the Furnace had taken the nest-killers, instead. Yet not before they slew both of his remaining deputies, Tarhish curse them!

They were tough, these nest-killers, but they could be killed. Yet so could Nest Protector, and he could not retreat with those demons behind him.

“Tamman…” Colin whispered.

Tamman couldn’t be dead. But he was. And Herdan was gone—alive, but barely—and the flagship was ru

He spared a precious moment to glance at Jiltanith. Tears cascaded down her face, yet her voice was calm, her commands crisp, as she fought her ship. Two leapt and shuddered, but her weapons had swept the space immediately about her clear, and her consorts were coming. The Achuultani burned like a prairie fire, but not quickly enough. Adrie

He gritted his teeth as Two took three hits inside her shield in quick succession. Jesus, these bastards were good!

The Achuultani formation was a flattened ovoid within the volume of Laocoon Two, its ends thick with dying starships. A column of fire gnawed into either end as his ships and Dahak’s unma

Empress Elantha blew apart in a shroud of flame, and Colin fought his own tears. The enemy was paying usuriously for every ship he killed, but it was a price he could afford.

Great Lord Tharno checked his tactical read-out once more. It was hard for even Battle Comp to keep track of a slaughter like this, but it seemed to Tharno they were wi

Unless the nest-killers broke off, the Furnace would take them all. He looked back into his vision plate, awed by the glaring arms of Furnace Fire reaching out to embrace Protector and nest-killer alike.

It was silent in Command One. Vibration shook and jarred as warheads struck at his battle steel body, and he felt pain. Not from his damage, but from the deaths of friends.

They had staked everything on stopping the Achuultani here because he could not flee, and they could not fight his ships without him. But he was down to seven units, and the enemy flagship remained. He computed the comparative loss rates once more. Even assuming he himself was not destroyed before the last of his subordinate units, there would be over forty thousand Achuultani left when the last Imperial vessel died.