“They’ve stopped firing, sir. About sixty birds in total. All standard Macro design.”
I opened my mouth to tell Jasmine to contact Crow, but he beat me to it.
“Admiral Crow sir,” she said.
“Open the connection,” I said.
“Riggs? What the hell is this? How did you get the entire planet to fire on me at once?”
“The missiles are not intended for your ships, Jack.”
“I’m sorry, I’m pulling out. We can’t take the risk.”
“Hold your position, Jack, damn it!” I shouted. “Raise up out of the atmosphere if you feel like it. You’ll see, the missiles won’t track after you. Just hang there and shoot down everything the Macros fired. That’s all I’m asking.”
Crow cursed at me. I was some kind of cross between a pig’s ass and a wallaby, as best I could make out. “All right, but this had better not be a trick.”
I breathed deeply again as the Star Force ships held firm. They did lift up higher, and when the Macro missiles passed by they fired thousands of pulsing beams down into them.
I caught Barrera nodding. “Very good move, sir. How did you know where the Macros would aim their missiles?”
“They are literal-minded, even for machines. They’ll try to take out the missile bases first. Florida is right on the flight-path between the two locations. Crow’s Fleet is too weak to hit the Macros head-on, but they can still thin the missile barrage. I had been hoping they would fire fewer missiles.”
“On the good side,” Barrera said, “that means they have less missiles to fire at us. But on the negative, you’ve just brought the U. S. and possibly all of Earth into this war. I thought we weren’t going to do that, Colonel.”
We exchanged glances. “I had hoped it could be avoided,” I said.
Barrera continued to stare at me. “Did you always intend to risk all of humanity in this struggle?”
“If necessary. I’d rather die free than live as a slave.”
Barrera was scowling now. I could tell he didn’t like my position. Who knew, maybe he was right. But I didn’t think so. I’d been inside the ships of these monsters. I understood them better than most. They weren’t going to stop coming until we were all dead or enslaved. And they would only tolerate us as slaves as long as were useful to them. This war was about extinction, and if we didn’t fight now, I didn’t think we would become stronger over time. Historically, species, tribes, nations and the like that were pushed to the brink and defeated rarely saw their revenge later on.
“Fleet is stopping the Macro missiles, sir,” Major Sarin said with relief.
We all looked up at the screen expectantly. The red slivers of color that represented the enemy missiles over the coast of Florida were indeed being burned down, one after another. Suddenly, however, a flash appeared on the coast. I frowned.
“Was that…?”
“A hit, sir,” Major Sarin said, her voice catching in her throat.
We all watched in stunned silence. Another flash went off, then another.
“Riggs, this is Crow,” the ceiling said.
I was almost too stunned to respond. “Miami is gone, Admiral,” I managed to say a moment later without losing control of my emotions or my voice.
“I know. I’m sorry about that, mate. The missiles must have realized that they weren’t going to get through. They are dropping on the coast. I’m moving further south now to prevent that.”
I nodded, and watched as Fleet did advance, shooting down the last missiles. Before it was over, four had hit alternate targets. Boca Raton, Fort Lauderdale and Miami—they were all glowing white spots on our screens. Casualty estimates flashed up on the screen. They were in seven digits. I gritted my teeth and avoided looking at them.
“Regrettable, right sir?” Barrera asked.
I glanced at him sharply, feeling an urge to smash my fist into his helmet. I resisted the feeling, but was surprised I’d felt it at all. I could not recall ever having felt that way about Barrera before. I supposed it was just the emotions of the moment.
I turned back to the boards. “Professionalism, Lieutenant Colonel,” I said. “The U. S. ship-killers are about to make their strike.”
The flock of green contacts finally slammed home. The big dreadnaught had glided forward to meet them, and beams flashed from its back, expertly taking out missiles with each lash of invisible heat. Still, the surviving missiles rolled in. The Macros broke formation, scattering. Missiles homed, burning their engines up until the last second.
We held our breath until the first one flared white. Then more went off.
“Eight kills, sir,” Major Sarin said.
I couldn’t even hear her over the cheering that came from the hallway. Most of it came from higher up in the bunker, where marines were watching summary screens. To my surprise, I realized Kwon and I were cheering too. Even the taciturn Barrera gave a hoarse shout.
“Why don’t they fire their missiles at us?” Barrera asked. “I’ve been expecting that all along.”
“We took out their entire barrage last time. They went for a hammer-blow, a single strike to take out the whole island, and they lost everything they put into it. Macros don’t mind losses if goals are met, but they don’t like to repeat serious mistakes. I suspect they’ve marked us as ‘un-nukeable’ in their database.”
“But they’ve wiped out our laser defenses.”
“I also think they like to hold their missiles in reserve. Or maybe they came in with their magazines half-empty. Let’s just hope they don’t change their minds now.”
“Their dreadnaught has been hit, sir,” Jasmine continued. “It survived the strike, however. They’ve lost a total of thirteen cruisers.”
I didn’t know if the U. S. had used all their missiles, but I suspected they probably had. They’d fired over two hundred birds and taken out about a quarter of the enemy fleet. It was a good hit, but possibly not enough to save Andros.
“Sir,” Major Sarin said. I glanced at her and she directed my attention toward another screen. A new flock of yellowish contacts had appeared over Great Britain.
“What the hell?” I asked of no one in particular.
“There are seventy-six missiles in this barrage, sir,” Major Sarin said. “They are roughly of the same design as the U. S. missiles.”
“Huh,” I said. “I didn’t think the Brits had it in them. Apparently, they’ve decided to join this war. Maybe they think it’s now or never. Change those missile contacts to green, Major, and relay a request to Crow. Have him move his ships to interpose themselves between the Macro fleet and Britain, in case the Macros decide to respond with a barrage of their own.”
“Admiral Crow has agreed to your request. Fleet is moving away from their position over Florida.”
Contacts slid this way and that on the boards. The battle remained fluid. Slowly, the enemy fleet organized and turned back toward Andros. Their dreadnaught moved separately, out to sea. It clearly meant to meet the barrage from Britain and halt as many of the missiles as possible. I scanned the map until my eyes landed on our hovertank reserves, which had nearly joined the battle. Up until now, I’d kept them on the western half of the island where they could not be hit easily. Soon however, they would be under fire.
“They still have too many ships bearing down on us,” I said. “Order the hovertanks to chase the dreadnaught on the eastern side of their formation. If they can, they should attack out on the water, where they have a clear field of fire against it.”
Barrera looked at me as if I was insane. “They’ll be out of range of all our defensive fire. They’ll be annihilated, sir.”