"Thank you again. Speak to you soon."
The channel closed.
"I guess that explains why we didn’t meet her before," said Annabelle grinning.
"Yep."
But my eyes were on the screens showing Custer and the dropships approaching the ground. Custer suddenly seemed to light up like a Christmas tree, with all its underside and side small turrets firing downwards, IR missiles firing continuously, and even its mosquito launchers firing madly.
"Was that you or Grace?" I asked Jane.
"Mostly Grace. But I'm doing the firing. She's feeding me specific targets though."
Interesting. Maybe she was due for a promotion.
From underneath Custer, the dropships fell out through the open hanger doors, and joined the rest of them in forming a circle around the city. Co-ordinated by Jane, they all landed at the same time, and combat suits and droids streamed out.
Ten twenty person teams in combat suits, and some two thousand combat droids, formed a loose ring around something between twenty and fifty thousand Trixone, surrounding a city. They didn’t need to move, as the plants turned and charged them, the moment they deployed.
"Is George supposed to be down there?" asked Annabelle.
"No, why?"
One of the screens zoomed in, showing a Gorilla going berserk. On another, an upright lizard was wielding meson streamers like a pair of scythes, cutting down plants in an arc in front of it. The other combat suits and all the droids were doing the same with single mesons.
"Do I need to be worried?" I said into team coms.
"No Admiral," said an unexpected voice. "The plants have no armour, and their stingers can't hurt ours. They don’t appear to be otherwise armed. This may take a while, but it's no problem."
"Is that Hobbs?" asked Annabelle, sounding surprised this time.
It was. The General was leading four SAS teams himself, two stars on the shoulders of his combat suit.
"Well I never!" exclaimed Jane.
Another screen zoomed in, and we could see a tiger and roo fighting side by side. Roo was using what looked like an actual Death style scythe, while Hobbes was wielding curved swords. They were systematically lopping the flowers off the top of any plant which came close. Both were using their belt suits to emulate their natural shape and fur, with only their eyes uncovered. I could see both had three more as armbands on each arm.
And yet another screen zoomed in to show two magicians calmly walking into the fight, a shield around them, both hurling fireballs at any plant in range. I shook my head. There were two very brave people, or at least very confident about their skills. Neither of them had their suits active, and were wearing their ordinary robes.
"Are you wishing you were down there too?" Annabelle asked me.
"Hell no. I had enough of that fighting the Darkness that time. Or fighting rogue Jane's the time before that. I'll go down if they need me, but for now, I'm very content to stay here and monitor everything. Besides, we should be paying attention to what else might be on its way."
"Confirmed," said Jane.
The Lightning, which had returned after the round ship had left, launched again, and zoomed away towards the jump point. I watched its progress along with everything else, my gaze making a circuit of all the screens methodically. Nothing showed up on the expanding navmap as it progressed.
An hour passed, and Jane landed a Cobra, from which cargo droids unloaded new meson streamers to the dropships. It made its way around the city, ensuring all the dropships had fresh weapons waiting. Troops began returning to change overheating weapons used for far too long continuously, take a few minutes out of their combat suits, relieve themselves, and get a drink, before cycling back into the fight. Droids too were returning, their mesons out of power, returning to the fight with a new fully charged gun. Fighters started returning to their carriers, now out of missiles and torpedoes. They too took a few minutes as the cargo droids changed the magazines.
Gunbus continued laying down fire, but Lacey was the last to return to BigMother, having finally run out of missiles and torpedoes himself.
The battle raged on below, and Lacey was headed back down there in minutes.
"How did Lacey do that?" I asked Jane.
She laughed.
"He had half a cargo bay of magazines waiting for him on the flight deck. All he needed to do was open his cargo bay, and his own cargo droids threw his empty magazines out, while other ones carried his full ones in. Button up, and launch out the other side. By the time he gets groundside, his droids will have him reloaded."
"I wonder how he thought of that?"
She tapped her finger against her nose, and grinned.
Sixty Five
It took another two hours for the battle to end.
At the end of it, more than a kilometer in every direction from the city was blackened and smoldering. The combat droids completed a sweep of the whole area, formed a new circle, and started fanning outward looking for survivors. The fighters as well began sweeping the whole continent, looking for any plant on the move, or any plant with a flower which tracked their movement.
The teams met up at the city's main gates after the shield was removed, and the dropship pilots moved their ships into a Jane defined parking area, next to Gunbus, which once again looked like a ship, and not a dragon.
The Lightning had reached the system jump point, dropped a comnavsat, and gone through. On the other side, it found nothing waiting, and dropped another.
I took a risk, and called John Slice, inviting him to explore the next system for us, and find out how many jump points we had to worry about. Apricot One came through the rift about ten minutes after I called, along with Eric Neilson and Jessie Ball, each in their own Gunbus. I sent Katana and Unassailable with them, and had Jane send Gorilla down for George, with orders for him to catch them up in Scimitar.
Apricot was a drone cruiser, custom designed for using modified drone fighters for finding jump points quickly. But it meant she was vulnerable if they stumbled into a local fleet. On the other hand, a drone could go through each jump point long before Apricot arrived there, and if it was destroyed, at least we'd know by what, and Slice would run if he had to. Eric and Jessie each had a bog standard Gunbus, but with Slice's sensor package installed. Between the three ships, they could explore out through three jump points at the same time.
I didn’t know if this was going to be important or not, but at the least, I wanted as many jump points staked out as possible, so we'd have warning if another ground force was on the way.
George made it back to Scimitar, and my attention returned back to the planet. Or rather, was drawn there.
"Boss?" said Jack. "You better come down here. Locals want to meet you."
"Tell them I'm on my way."
I turned to the hollo of Thorn.
"We'll see you down there," he said, and vanished.
"Jane?"
"Jon?"
"Prep Excalibur for me."
"Don’t be so mundane," said Thorn through bridge coms. "Jump here, and bring Annabelle with you."
For the first time ever, I saw Annabelle show real fear on her face. But she covered it quickly.
"Fuck," I said, just for the hell of it.
"None of that involved," responded Thorn. "Just get on with it."
I’d seen Tanith moving people before, and even been moved by him. But I didn’t know how he moved himself. And quickly decided I'd go with what I did know.
The door into my ready room became a rift, changed to see through, and I checked where I'd put it, as I walked over to it. The team were all there with the exception of George, along with Jack and Sam, and Hobbs, and no longer in combat suits. I moved the rift position a meter further away from Amanda, and beckoned Annabelle to follow me.
"Don’t do that!" yelled Amanda, as I stepped out behind her.
"His fault," I said, pointing to Thorn, who had all four older women behind him.
Ann
abelle stepped out behind us, and I closed the rift. I hesitated, opened it again, pushed just my head through, and saw Angel still on the console looking at where I'd gone.
"Won't be long sweetie. You have the con while I'm gone."
Jane looked at me in shock, but quickly got the joke. I withdrew my head, closed the rift, and looked at Thorn.
"Not what I suggested," said Thorn, "but good enough."
"You gave Angel the con?" asked Aline.
I nodded, and there was a good deal of chuckling.
"Admiral Hunter?" asked a man who looked very like the man in my dream, only wasn’t, and who wasn’t addressing me.
"No," said Annabelle, and indicated me.
"Will you please follow me?"
He led us in through the gates of what I could now see was a fully walled city in a medieval style. But inside, we found nothing at all medieval. A train station was a short way away, and a train was standing there waiting for us. The man led us into the first carriage, the doors closed automatically, and the train left the station at considerable speed.
The city appeared to be in a similar state to early twenty fourth century cities I’d seen in history books. Except this city was very full, as if all the people had come here prior to the plants arriving, with every animal they'd owned.
The man refused to let me catch his eye, so I wasn’t able to ask questions. Within minutes, the train slowed, and entered what appeared to be a central train station. The man led us outside, where we attracted a lot of looks, and we boarded a bus waiting for us. The bus deposited us outside the largest building I could see.
We were bustled inside, and finally ushered into what looked like a conference room.
"You may help yourselves to refreshments," said the man, waving to a buffet and drinks area along one wall. "Facilities are through the door over there. Make yourselves comfortable, and someone will be along after you are refreshed."
He bowed shallowly, and left.
The team descended on the food as if they were starving, which after a three hour battle they probably were. Annabelle and I sampled some of it, but I needed a drink more than food, and went looking for something the right colour. I found what I thought might be the local ginger ale, and it was, but there was a nasty bite to it which took a bit of getting used to.
After a while, flunkeys came in and set up the conference table, although there was only seating for five on each side. More chairs were brought in, and placed along the wall on one side. Assuming that was our side, I moved over there, and took the center chair. I waved Annabelle to my left, and Thorn to my right. Hobbs took the vacant seat on the left, and Jack on the right.
As soon as we were seated, five people entered, taking their seats in the same order. The man I'd seen in the dream was on the right end, and had entered first, and according to Thorn, was some sort of powerful seer. The woman next to him appeared to be a mage of some sort, and her attention was solely on Thorn. The man opposite me was wearing the local version of a business suit. The woman to his left was wearing a military uniform, as was the man on the left end.
"On behalf of the people of Solidario, I'd like to thank all of you for coming to our aid. I'm Administrator Sandros. I head a committee which rules this planet, made up of one third mages, one third military, and the other third being mundanes representative of primary skills." He looked from me to Thorn. "Which of you is The Reaper?"
"I've been called that," said Thorn. "Why?"
"You were a myth. Lore keepers said you brought us here three millennia ago from a dying world, and left us to fend for ourselves. The seers convinced the committee to call for your aid, even though until you arrived outside our gates by magical means, no-one believed you still lived. But we hoped a descendent still would, who retained the power to save us once again."
"It was me," conceded Thorn. "And I heard your call for help mainly because I've been expecting something like it, and have been open to it."
The man on the right end looked confused.
"But when sending the call, I saw him," he said, pointing at me.
"We both received it, and no, we are not related. My time is ending," said Thorn. "Admiral Hunter's time is just beginning. We originate from way across the galaxy from each other, but were at the same place and so we both heard your call. Although Jon here had no idea what it was, and thought himself dreaming. But we both came as fast as we could."
"You seem very young," said Sandros to me.
"I feel very old. We'd been in battle with a now vanquished foe for two months, and became involved in a new three way war through necessity, less than a week after the last one ending, making it a four way war now. All this is the last thing I want happening, but we do what needs doing."
"And you do it well," said the woman I assumed was a general. "How is the round ship which came first?"
"Safe now," I said, "but so badly damaged it will need a lot of work to fix."
"Did they lose anyone?"
"Not as far as I know."
"That is good. We've had dealings with Arthur and his people for many years now, and would hate to have been the reason why some of them died."
"You arrived by a means unknown to us," said the mage. "Both in space, and your arrival at the gates." She indicated Thorn. "His means is well known to us, but none have the power to move from orbit to the ground." She turned to me. "But yours is a mystery to us. What magic is this?"
"Not mine," I said. "Thorn and I share a power, and while he was born a mage, I was not. But in the last week, you are the third human society with mages we've come across, all apparently put where they are by Thorn in the past. One of those developed what we call rift movement, and subsequently lost the ability, although I was taught by the only one who retained the skill. What I do is not magic though. Just a sort of raw application of power granted me by a higher being."
The Seer spoke again.
"We can see the tear in time and space above our planet is still open. Where does it lead?"
"Back to our space, and as far as I know, there is no time component involved, as I can communicate with my people in real time. We are under siege by all three galactic powers, but so far, we’ve kept them at bay. Steps are being taken to fortify the entrance to our small pocket of space. And for four other human societies now linked to our space."
"Could you protect and link us in the same way?" asked the general.
"Immediately, no. We could establish a link using a rift from a building here instead of from a station, which like the others will allow us an early warning of any fleet approaching your system, giving us a chance to arrive first, and take them at the jump point. The means of detection is being set up now. But it could be weeks or even months before we have enough fixed defenses to spare to protect your system from the Trixone."
"We seers have seen this," said the seer. "And we've seen a time when you are hard pressed on all sides, and what you send to protect us is not enough."
I could sense they were leading to something, confirmed when Sandros looked to his left and received two nods, and to his right, and received two more. He looked at me.
"Can you evacuate us instead?"
Sixty Six
The silence which followed dragged on.
In theory, it was possible. In practice though?
"How many people?" I asked finally.
"Slightly over a million."
Which brought up two problems. How to evac so many people quickly? And where to put them at the other end. Haven could certainly take them, but these were ground dwellers, who didn’t even have a space station. More than likely a significant number of them would hate being in space, and more than a few find it impossible to live there.
Which left us planets. For this number of people, there was only one option, and it wasn’t the planet below Haven.
The silence continued as I thought.
"Evacuating planetary populations is something we're good at. But the ships for the t
ask were put in for upgrades. I'll have to find out what we have available. At the other end, we have limited options. We can support your population on one of our space stations, but I suspect that will be unacceptable." All five of them nodded. "The only other alternative is a planet we haven’t explored yet, but which seems capable of supporting at least five million people. This of course means the planet is only habitable around a small band of the planet, maybe even only part of a continent, but it's much better than two of our other options. The only decent planet we have in our space is still being surveyed for our own uses."
"We'll take your marginal planet, with our most sincere thanks."
"When can evacuations begin?" asked the mage.
I looked at Thorn.
"How much do you need to take with you?" he asked.
"People are our priority," responded Sandros, "but why do you ask?"
"Hunter has ships he can call here rapidly, but they can only take people and what they can carry themselves. But in a day, I can build a ship which will allow the copying of selected structures, which could then be moved to the new planet. The same one I used to bring your people here in the first place, but modified to remove accommodations."
"How much of our city could it move?"
Thorn frowned.
"How much is essential?"
Their heads turned to the mage.
"If we could take ten percent, it would include at least one of everything. It will task our mages to copy that much to create a new city at the other end, and likely take months to rebuild, but it can be done."
"I'm pretty sure we can arrange some help with that too," I said. "All we need do is ask for help, and let negotiators on all sides figure out a trade. We have a station being made at the moment which will become a diplomatic and trade station, for all the societies we are linking up to meet at. Your people can have an embassy on the station as well, and join in the committees organizing banking and trading."
"May we ask what sort of societies these are?"
The administrator looked interested, but I could see a certain level of apprehension. But I could also see the resolve to compromise any way they had to in order to survive. And like as not, they were right, and this planet was not defendable from the Trixone into the middle term.
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