“That is my sincerest hope, General.”
“Sounds loony to me. If I was their commander, I’d change my plans.”
“Fortunately, you are not,” I said with feeling. “The Macros are computers, sir. In most cases, computers do not reevaluate their decisions once they’ve been made without new input. Don’t give them that input.”
“I’ll await new input myself, then. Either from you, or the enemy.”
“One more thing, General,” I said before he disconnected. “I suggest you order your subs to submerge as deeply as you can. There’s a trench to the east of Andros called the Tongue of the Ocean. Send them down there. They’ll have a hard time burning that deeply into the ocean with a laser.”
“What if they fire more missiles at you? The tridents worked so well last time, I figured you were going to be begging us for a repeat performance.”
I shook my head and leaned against the computer. “Not this time, sir. They look like they’re coming right down to sit on us. If they fire their smart missiles from directly above, we won’t be able to stop them with a counter strike. We would have less than thirty seconds to react. Too short a time. I’d prefer you conserved the subs. We might well need every asset we have before this is over.”
Kerr was quiet for a moment. I suspected he was calculating our odds of survival and not coming up with good numbers. I’d thought of this detail as well—the possibility the Macros would come in and unload the rest of their missiles on us at point-blank range. I didn’t think they would do it—but I couldn’t be sure. They’d lost badly the last time they’d fired a missile barrage, and Macros didn’t like to repeat an error twice. They didn’t know how slow and disjointed our command and control was. Macro Command could react quickly, so they tended to assume we could as well.
“We’ll hold our fire then. Good luck down there, Riggs. Kerr out.”
Major Sarin had put up a clock in the table area in front of each of us. The clock read seven minutes. I didn’t want to stare at it, so I tapped the X in the corner and the clock vanished.
I looked up and saw everyone was looking at me. We didn’t have anything to do for four long minutes. I lifted an armored finger and pointed to the line of spread-open suits along the far wall.
“I want you two suited up,” I told the women. “We’re all putting on full gear, helmets too. If they decide to unload on us, it might make the difference.”
I thought for a second Sandra was going to object, but she didn’t in the end. Kwon and I helped the women get into their suits and adjusted their helmets. By the time we were done, the Macros were sliding into low orbit overhead. They had decelerated a great deal. We clanked back to the computer.
“Be careful,” I said, “set the suit gloves to delicate-equipment setting so you don’t smash the tabletop. Remember to set them back if we get into a fight.”
“Who are we going to fight down here?” Sandra asked.
“Macros like landings. There are six invasion ships in the rear of that formation. They aren’t full of tourists. Remember the first time they came to Earth?”
Sandra didn’t ask any more questions about it. We all stared as the last seconds ticked by.
“They are almost in range, sir,” Major Sarin asked. “Any targeting changes?”
“No,” I said. “We’ll stick with the battle plan for now. We’ll put a hundred or so beams on one cruiser at a time until it goes down.”
There had been something of a spirited argument about that. Some of the commanders thought we should focus everything on that big bastard up front and burn it out of the sky. I didn’t like that idea, as I didn’t know how tough it was. If I spent several minutes of battle time shooting at it, even as they were taking my guns out one at a time, they might be able to retreat and keep the ship alive. Then I would be facing all the cruisers without having destroyed anything. On the other hand, I knew how much firepower it took to destroy one of their cruisers, having done so on several occasions in the past. Focusing on the smaller ships, we were guaranteed to destroy one about every ten seconds if we could get all thousand guns over the island on it at once. That would not be possible, however. If they were smart—and Macro Command was fairly smart—they would hang off one coast in a tight line and pound it, staying out of range of our guns on the other side.
Unfortunately, as they approached, I could see this was exactly their plan.
“They are down to a crawl, sir,” Major Sarin said. “They are going to bombard the east coast of the island.”
“That’s why I had you put on these suits,” I said. The clock read eight seconds. “Hang on. This is liable to be quite a ride.”
-21-
The bombardment began about a minute after Major Sarin’s clock ran out. That was a good thing, because they’d come in closer than I’d figured they would. That meant my laser turrets along the coastline were well within range.
“Targeting priorities, sir?” Lieutenant Colonel Barrera asked.
“Put a hundred on each cruiser, burn it until it goes down. Automatically retarget next available cruiser.”
“Locked in sir. Are we ready to fire?”
I didn’t answer right away. I wanted the Macros to come in as close as possible, allowing more of my turrets to be in effective range. Slowly, they glided near.
I felt small, rumbling impacts.
“The bombard had begun, sir,” Major Sarin said.
“Any missile launches detected?”
“None, sir. So far, their missile ports are staying closed.”
I grinned inside my helmet. “That’s just how we want it,” I said.
“Are we ready to fire, sir?” Barrera said.
“Hold fire. Let them inch in closer. They don’t like to retreat, and I want as many guns in range as possible. Damage reports, Major Sarin?”
“Two turrets knocked out, one damaged. Update: three knocked out, one damaged.”
“Put some kind of damage meter up for me,” I said.
She deftly tapped at her screen, scripting a tiny app. She was the best at this type of thing.
“The ships appear to be down to a walking pace, sir,” Barrera reported over the strategic command channel.
I thought I heard a tinge of worry in his voice. That was a rare thing, and it meant anyone else would be panicking at this point. I’d been holding back in hopes they would roll right over the center of the island allowing more of our guns to reach them. But if they were going to halt, we were taking hits now for nothing.
“How many guns can we get on them now?”
“About three hundred and sixty effectives, sir,” Sarin said. “That number is dropping….”
“Commence firing. Bring them down!”
On the big screen, hundreds of thin green lines lanced out. They intersected on four points. At the center of each of those points, I knew, was an enemy cruiser under withering fire. If they would have just come in closer and lower, I could be certain of a win. But they were hanging back, wisely feeling their way. They would pound us while standing out over the ocean. From that position, they directed their more heavily armored snouts toward us.
Major Sarin had the counter up by now I glanced at it and my cheek twitched. We’d lost twelve turrets already. We hadn’t taken out a single cruiser yet.
“Barrera,” I shouted, “release the reserves. Send half the hovertanks to the east coast of the island. We need more firepower.”
“Relaying that, sir,” Barrera said. He sounded self-assured again, now that we were firing.