noticed. He and Gilly had found some new game that caused them to require trips there. She filed that away for further attention: Anders: Deliberately seeking self-harm? He had an addictive personality; he could get hooked on almost anything.
Jackson: “Getting our first look at VZ hostiles. One ring, six hives. Lot of traffic. Maybe five hundred soldiers in flight.”
Gilly: “Any fliers?”
Jackson: “Negative.”
Over comms: Anders breathing. Huh, huh, huh.
She said, “You all right, Anders?”
“Yeah. Head hurts. Almost at station.”
Concussion? Hangover? Tumor? She would review his medicals.
“Hurry,” said Jackson. “Contact in sixty seconds. It would be nice to have weapons. Intel, what am I seeing in Armor? It looks low.”
“We’re undercharging. Not a problem. Lots of spare capacitance.”
“We’ll have full armor in sixty?”
“Before that. In thirty.”
“Thank you. Life? How are we looking?”
“We’re looking beautiful,” she said.
“Hives discharging,” Jackson said. “Eight hundred in flight. A thousand. Twelve hundred.”
“How big are these hives?” Gilly asked.
“Standard. Eighty yards across. But take your point. It’s more than we usually see from this kind of cluster.”
“It’s a lot more.”
“Topping out at sixteen hundred. Yes. It’s a lot more.”
“Intel,” Talia said. “You’ve been running swarm analysis. Anything unusual in their behavior?”
“It’s too early to tell. We’ll find out if they turn.” He sounded pleased to be asked, so, mission accomplished.
Jackson: “Contact in twenty seconds. Anders?”
“Weapons, checking in.”
“Thank you. How does it look?”
“Pulse ready. Laser batteries . . . have not deployed.”
“We’re going in with just the pulse?”
“Yep.”
“You want to figure out why?”
“Roger.” The ship deployed weapons based on its situational assessment, which was often too complex and fast-moving to follow. But Anders was supposed to be across it.
“Hostiles converging,” Jackson said. “There’s the turn. Contact in five.”
“First turn,” Gilly said.
“We’re in range. Weapons, why aren’t we pulsing?”
Anders: “Uh . . .”
“Hostiles turned again. Same as last time. They’re spreading out again.”
Gilly: “Same tactic.”
“And here they come again. Third turn.”
“Pulsing,” Anders said.
“Thank you, Weapons. That was a good one. Caught them on the bubble. Four hundred down.”
Gilly: “Oh, that’s good. We anticipated their turn this time. Outsmarted them.”
Anders: “Pulse ready in ten.”
“Clever ship,” Gilly said. “Very clever ship.”
Jackson: “Hives are breaking formation. Leaving the ring.”
“We hit them?”
“No. Think they’re leaving.”
Anders: “Pulsing.”
“Acknowledge. That got a lot of them. Five hundred remaining. Four hundred. Debris is cascading. Three hundred.”
Gilly: “Still all soldiers?”
“So far. There may be some we haven’t picked up. Hives outputting a whole mess of spores. Doesn’t matter. Tracking is stable. Weapons, we’re still going pulse-only here?”
“Affirmative. Next pulse in eight seconds.”
“Incoming fire,” Jackson said. “Two hundred in huk range.”
“Again, just soldiers?” Gilly said.
“Correct.”
“Pulsing.”
“Huks destroyed. Soldiers destroyed. No hostiles in flight. Looks like we got them all.”
Talia said, “That puts us over half a million mission kills, yes?”
“Oh, yes, just,” said Gilly. “That’s a milestone.”
Jackson: “Contact with hives in ten seconds.”
“How many do we need to overtake Fire of Montana?”
“Another four hundred thousand, at least,” Gilly said. “We need a lot more hives.”
“Maybe we’ll get lucky.” Personally, she didn’t much care how many confirmed kills anyone had. It was mainly a goal to keep them on task.
“That was more salamanders than normal, though. Target density seems to improve as we get deeper.”
“Speaking of which,” Jackson said. “We just crisped the hives, correct, Weapons?”
“Yep.”
“Please continue to call in until the end of the engagement.”
“Roger that.”
“Zero hostiles. Zero structures. Debris is scan-clear. Engagement complete.”