“No hardware failures from the impacts,” said Deneuve.

  Grisham knew he was cutting it fine. The destroyer would certainly have received warning from the compound that an HF warship was in the vicinity and the enemy vessel would surely be on its way.

  “Waiting on scrambler reload,” said Deneuve.

  Holding the spaceship upside down, Grisham banked it in the tightest of curves over the lake. The shore and the compound were five kilometres east and he hoped the Kijol ground forces weren’t watching closely enough to figure out what he was doing.

  “Scramblers ready.”

  “Deploy.”

  “Scramblers deployed.”

  Eight more of the cannisters were hurled into the lake, creating darker patches among the algae.

  “One reported hardware failure,” said Deneuve. “Fifteen scramblers active.”

  Grisham wanted a third deployment, but it was a risk too far. He rolled the Marauder again so that its underside was facing the lake.

  “Let’s start a party at the compound,” he said.

  Hauling back on the controls, Grisham brought the Marauder to a standstill directly over the CES compound at a thousand-metre altitude.

  “Something stirred them up, sir,” said Bishop.

  “That’s what happens when you aim Gatlers at ground troops,” said Lieutenant Adler.

  “I think there’s more to it,” said Grisham.

  He wanted to focus on the underside feeds, but the destroyer was out there somewhere, so he was required to divide his attention. Certainly, the Kijol soldiers looked more than agitated. They were organized into squads and sprinting through the streets.

  “That alien Sergeant Maxwell found,” said Deneuve.

  “Maybe,” said Grisham.

  Not all of the Kijol were distracted, and a ground-launched rocket aimed at the Marauder streaked upwards from somewhere near the shuttle pad.

  “Let it come,” said Grisham.

  The rocket exploded on the warship’s underside, the blast tiny and ineffective. If the enemy started launching a barrage of rockets, he’d take some action, but for the moment he wanted to watch the Kijol activity in the compound.

  “Should I fire the Gatlers?” asked Deneuve.

  Grisham didn’t have much appetite for carnage, but some things had to be done. “Give them a burst,” he said. “Don’t try too hard.”

  “Underside Gatlers firing.”

  A third wave of gauss slugs pounded into the prefabs below, aimed towards the south of the compound where the Kijol were less numerous.

  “I think we’ve got—” said Lieutenant Lopez. “Yes! Enemy destroyer located! It’s coming in low across the northern horizon. Missile launch detected!”

  The time had come, and, against this opponent, Grisham intended to prevail.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  “Deploy scramblers!” yelled Grisham.

  He requested power from the Marauder’s Charos drive and the warship surged vertically. The scramblers had good range, but they wouldn’t function at maximum efficiency when they were submerged, and Grisham didn’t want to venture too far away.

  From the corner of his eye, he could see the tactical screen, on which thirty Apiar missiles were heading towards the Marauder. It was probable some of those would evade the countermeasures.

  “Scramblers deployed,” said Deneuve. “Gatlers set to track and destroy.”

  The topside and portside turrets fired immediately they were activated, and their slugs drew lines across the green of the jungle as they streaked towards their targets.

  “The enemy is targeting our airborne scramblers with their Dasor guns,” said Deneuve.

  “Where’s that Ghost lock, Commander?” asked Grisham tightly.

  “Lock obtained.”

  “Staggered waves. Fire.”

  “Portside cluster one: launched,” said Deneuve. She waited three seconds. “Portside cluster two: launched.” Another three seconds. “Topside cluster: launched.”

  Eight Ghosts from the first wave were followed by eight from the second and eight from the third. As the pinpoints of orange raced into the distance, Grisham rotated the Marauder to bring the loaded starboard and underside clusters to bear. The commanding officer on the destroyer would be doing the same and soon another thirty Apiar missiles would be heading towards the Marauder.

  No sooner had the thought formed than Lieutenant Lopez gave the confirmation.

  “A second wave of thirty Apiars is inbound, Captain.”

  “Scramblers deployed,” said Deneuve.

  “Launch from the starboard clusters, Commander.”

  “Starboard cluster one: launched. Starboard cluster two: launched.”

  “Ready on the underside cluster.”

  “Yes, sir. Ready and waiting.”

  “Fire.”

  “Underside cluster: launched.”

  “No sign of Olin missiles,” said Bishop.

  “They’ll come,” said Grisham. “That destroyer won’t have many Olin launch tubes and the Kijol won’t want to see their warheads wrecked by scramblers.”

  The Marauder’s Gatler fire smashed several of the inbound enemy missiles into glittering pieces and many of the remaining Apiars changed course as their guidance systems were fooled by the scramblers.

  “Our first wave of Ghosts was neutralised by the enemy disruptor, sir,” said Deneuve. “The enemy have diverted their Dasor fire from the scramblers. Now targeting our second wave of Ghosts.”

  By now, the Marauder was high above Xaros, and Grisham banked east over the jungle, twenty kilometres inland from the beach along which Maxwell and his soldiers had recently made their escape from the compound. Under Grisham’s control, the warship accelerated, its propulsion thundering and the Kijol missiles in pursuit.

  “Eighteen of the first enemy missile wave have crashed into the lake,” said Lopez.

  A combination of Gatlers and the scramblers over the compound was enough to neutralise the rest of the wave and Grisham was glad that luck was on his side. The Kijol didn’t have it so good.

  “Three confirmed Ghost detonations on the enemy hull, Captain,” said Deneuve. “Scramblers deployed. Ghost waves four, five and six tracking the enemy vessel.”

  It was an excellent result. Having heard the report from Private Barkley about the extent of the explosions on the destroyer’s topside, Grisham had gambled on the enemy vessel having lost at least some of its offensive and defensive power. Now those Ghosts had successfully penetrated the Kijol warship’s countermeasures, he was doubly hopeful.

  The second wave of Apiar missiles were coming in low and Grisham threw the Marauder onto a new heading, doing his best to ensure the following missiles would pass close to the deployed scramblers. Several of the devices in the lake were still functioning, as were the others deployed in the air. Grisham hoped his luck from earlier would hold.

  Gatler fire broke several of the Apiars into pieces, while fourteen of the enemy missiles either crashed into the lake or collided with one of the scramblers hovering above the compound.

  Two made it through. The missiles struck the Marauder’s stern plating and exploded. Grisham swore and banked the warship east again. In a few seconds, the portside and topside clusters would have finished their reloads and this way they’d be aimed in the right direction.

  “Give me the damage report,” he growled. On the underside array he could see slabs of plating falling into the atmosphere and a red failure light had appeared for Gatler R1.

  “We lost one of the rear Gatlers, but otherwise the plating soaked the damage, Captain,” said Adler. “Just try not to take another hit in the same place.”

  “I’ll do my best.”

  “Ghost wave four was neutralised by the enemy disruptor,” said Deneuve. “Ghost waves five and six…another three confirmed detonations!”

  “Enemy missile launch detected,” said Lopez. “Twenty Apiars inbound. They must have lost a launch cluster.”

  “That leaves them with five,” said Grisham. He realised he didn’t know how many clusters the new gen Aeons were fitted with. “At least five.”

  “Still no sign of an Olin launch,” said Bishop. “Maybe they lost the capability.”

  “I’m not banking on it,” said Grisham.

  “Portside cluster one: launched. Portside cluster two: launched,” said Deneuve. “Waiting…topside cluster: launched. Scramblers reloaded and deployed.”

  Grisham sensed this was the moment. If the recent Ghost strikes had crippled some of the destroyer’s weapons or defensive systems, the Marauder might come out on top. Otherwise, the engagement was too close to call.

  His eyes went to the tactical, where the Kijol destroyer had gone low and was accelerating south-west over the lake. Grisham recognized the tactic – a warship could withstand far more atmospheric friction than a Ghost missile. If the destroyer achieved sufficient velocity, the pursuing warheads would burn up.

  Grisham took this behaviour as a positive indication that the Kijol believed the encounter was going the wrong way and a new surge of adrenaline pumped through his body at the thought of victory.

  “The destroyer is heading away from Sergeant Maxwell’s position,” said Lopez. “We could hit them with a proximity nuke detonation.”

  Nuclear weapons still had their uses, but the Kijol didn’t usually get caught out by them. The enemy crew would be watching for a nuclear missile launch in the same way that Grisham was waiting for an Olin attack.

  “We’ll launch a nuke on the tail of our next three salvos,” said Grisham. The issue he’d run into on Tambus with him being locked out of the missile launch systems wouldn’t happen again. It was one of the first things he’d checked after boarding the Marauder.

  The incoming wave of enemy missiles was closing fast and Grisham banked south and then east once more, hoping to throw off their guidance systems.

  “Scramblers deployed,” said Deneuve. “We’re down to fifty percent capacity. Ghost wave seven has been neutralised by the enemy disruptor. The enemy missiles are diverting towards the scramblers. The Gatlers have taken out—”

  Deneuve didn’t finish. Three Apiar missiles impacted with the Marauder’s portside flank. Plasma erupted and one of the portside arrays went offline. The other sensors on that flank remained operational, though most of what they showed was the white of plasma explosions.

  “We’ve lost one of the portside Ghost clusters and both portside Gatlers, sir,” said Lieutenant Kinsey. “Some of our Chareum modules are exposed.”

  Grisham didn’t respond and he aimed the Marauder once more to the south. On the forward feeds, he thought he saw specks of light – Ghost detonations - appear on the distant destroyer’s topside plating. Then, from the corner of one eye, he witnessed torn pieces of the Marauder’s armour plating tumbling into the planet’s night. Some of the debris would land in the lake, though he didn’t have time to predict where it would impact.

  “Best tell Sergeant Maxwell to make a run inland,” said Grisham. “That’s if he’s not already doing so.”

  “They’re following the beach,” said Lopez. “Shit, I’ll let him know.”

  “Four confirmed detonations from Ghost waves eight and nine,” said Deneuve.

  “That destroyer can’t have much left,” said Adler.

  The reload for the starboard and underside clusters was almost done and Grisham adjusted the orientation of the Marauder in preparation to fire.

  “Enemy missile launch detected,” said Lopez. “Three total.”

  “We’ve got them!” yelled Bishop.

  “Not so fast,” said Grisham, unwilling to accept his opponent was defeated while it was still firing and still flying under full control over the planet’s surface.

  “Our starboard and underside clusters are ready to launch, Captain.”

  “Fire,” said Grisham without hesitation.

  “Starboard cluster one: launched. Starboard cluster two: launched,” said Deneuve. “Underside cluster: launched.”

  The Marauder’s remaining Gatlers had already acquired targets and they fired at the incoming missiles. Three Apiars become two, then one. That final warhead seemed to have a charmed existence and it flew on through the Gatler shield, ignoring the remaining scramblers.

  “Kill it,” said Grisham between his teeth.

  At the last moment, he pulled the controls hard right and the Marauder’s bulkheads groaned with the strain. The enemy warhead didn’t strike its target. Instead, it was broken apart by one of the Gatlers less than a thousand metres from detonation.

  “Let’s get after that destroyer,” said Grisham. The most recent evasive manoeuvre had brought the Marauder’s nose onto a south-west heading, and he set the warship in pursuit of the enemy vessel. “Commander Deneuve, hold the scrambler deployment for anything that looks like it might be an Olin.”

  Ghost waves ten, eleven and twelve had already crossed much of the intervening distance between the two vessels and Grisham willed them to their targets.

  “Come on,” said Deneuve under her breath.

  Wave ten vanished from the tactical as if those missiles had never existed and Grisham felt anger and disappointment in equal measures. One by one the green dots on the tactical representing Ghost waves eleven and twelve disappeared. Then, those green dots overlapped the larger red dot of the destroyer.

  Grisham’s eyes jumped to the forward feed. The destroyer was dead ahead, several hundred kilometres away and low over the lake. Lights sparkled brightly on the enemy warship’s hull.

  “Yes!” said Deneuve. “Five impacts!”

  “The output readings from the enemy vessel’s Charos drive are fluctuating, Captain,” said Lieutenant Adler. “I think their engines are about to fail.”

  “The reload is complete on the portside and upper clusters,” said Deneuve. “Ghost missiles ready to fire.”

  “Fire,” said Grisham. He was sure the destroyer was beaten, but until it was a flaming wreck on the ground, he wasn’t going to back off.

  “Portside cluster one: fired. Portside cluster two: fired,” said Deneuve. “Topside cluster: fired.”

  “The enemy’s Charos drive has shut down!” said Adler. “They’re out of the game.”

  At the back of Grisham’s mind, the thought of a last-moment Olin launch was lingering like a bad smell. He considered breaking off and heading low enough that the Marauder would be hidden by the planet’s curvature, but he told himself there was no point. If the enemy had an operational Olin launcher, they’d have already sent a warhead his way.

  With no Charos drive to power its disruptor, the thirteenth wave of Ghosts plunged into the enemy destroyer, exploding vividly against the darkness. Wave fourteen followed moments later and then wave fifteen. Suddenly the Kijol warship seemed to be in many pieces. Huge sections of the destroyer’s hull broke away, burning starbright with plasma.

  “That debris is coming down in the lake,” said Lopez. “Most of it’s going to land within a hundred klicks of the south-west shore. It’ll make a hell of a wave.”

  Grisham watched as the remains of the destroyer struck the water. The warship had been travelling at high velocity and the impacts created numerous colossal arcing splashes of water, which looked as if they’d travel most of the way to the south-western shore. When the initial effects of the collision were over, Grisham saw that the debris had sunk out of sight, suggesting that the water was deep.

  “See those ripples travelling away from the crash zone?” said Bishop. “They don’t look like much, but when they reach the shore, they’re going come inland – maybe dozens of klicks inland.”

  The natural world had never evolved to cope with collisions of this magnitude and the lake waters sped outwards in every direction at six hundred kilometres per hour. From the safety of the Marauder’s bridge, the movement seemed gradual. Serene almost.

  “Sergeant Maxwell isn’t going to outrun that,” said Grisham. “Not a chance in hell.”

  “That wave won’t reach his position for almost three hours,” said Lopez. “We’ve got plenty of time to make the extraction.”

  “Let Sergeant Maxwell know we’re on our way,” said Grisham.

  “What about the alien, sir?” asked Deneuve.

  “Things have changed, Commander. We’re making the pickup.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “And if we have to disable the Marauder’s onboard systems and quarantine ourselves out in space for a month, then so be it.”

  Hardly had the details of Grisham’s plan left his mouth when everything was turned on its head.

  “Sir, I’ve detected a Charos burst not far north of the CES compound!” said Lieutenant Adler. The fear in the man’s voice made it clear this was going to be bad. “An Eternus battleship has just exited lightspeed somewhere on this side of Xaros!”

  “Find it and put it on the tactical!” yelled Grisham, knowing that if he was in the enemy vessel’s sensor arc, he’d likely already be dead.

  Grisham had no idea what a Kijol battleship might want with Xaros, but if he hung around to find out, the Marauder would be reduced to molten pieces within seconds of detection.

  With an unstoppable enemy warship in the vicinity, Grisham had no idea if or how he could rescue Sergeant Maxwell and his soldiers from the Xaros surface.

  As he banked the Marauder south and sent it into a sharp dive towards the surface, part of Grisham wondered if it was time to cut and run, rather than risk the lives of his crew on an impossible rescue.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Having been given advance warning of the falling spaceship debris, Maxwell had ordered his soldiers inland through the trees. The foliage pulled at his tiring legs, but he couldn’t allow himself to slow. Being killed by a wave from the lake after everything he’d gone through so far would be particularly galling.

  “We need some more information on that debris,” said Corporal Fine, gasping with the effort of pushing aside the undergrowth. “If it landed five hundred klicks from here, we’ll have plenty of time and likely not much to worry about.”