What happened next did surprise me, but I suppose in retrospect that it shouldn’t have. Long before we got into shooting range, Crow turned his fleet around and headed back toward Andros.
I hissed through my teeth.
“He’s running, sir,” Gorski said.
“It was all a bluff,” I said. “Damn.”
“He was probably hoping the Macros would turn back or buy into his talk of renewed alliances,” Gorski offered.
“I wonder if he even knows why the war has started up again,” Major Sarin said.
I ignored them both and stared at the metal table. A mass of metallic green beads retreated toward Earth. Our red diamond pursued.
Everyone watched me, waiting for orders. I was uncertain. If we hit them now, Crow might turn around and join the fight. But then again, he might stand back and let us do as much damage as possible before coming in to clean up. That sounded more like the Crow I knew. I hadn’t come all this way just to die in Earth orbit.
“Damn that man,” I said.
“He doesn’t know we’re here, sir,” Gorski said. “It looks like a hopeless fight against four cruisers to him.”
“Yeah,” I said, “but I know him. He’s going to go down into the upper atmosphere and hug close to his laser turrets on Andros Island. He’ll stay in low orbit and try to get the Macros to attack him where his strength is.”
“Sounds like a good plan to me,” Gorski said.
I shook my head. “It would be, but there is no way Macro Command is going to fall for it.”
Marvin, who had been quiet for a long time, finally spoke up. “Incoming orders from Macro Command. Target has changed.”
“New target?” I asked.
Marvin began to list off cities. Mostly, they were in southern Europe, but they spanned on toward Moscow and beyond. We were to do a bombing run over Earth, destroying millions. Crow’s fleet would not be allowed to spring their trap. Macro Command clearly had figured it out. Star Force would have to come face us in the open, or Earth would suffer the consequences.
In the meantime, we were Macro ship number four, and had orders to fire on our own civilians. If we didn’t do it, Macro Command would know who we really were, and the fight would be on.
50
We hit them a few minutes after we passed the East Coast of the U. S. The Macros followed Crow’s retreating ships down over Cuba, I supposed in case he changed his mind and came up to fight. The Macros never lowered themselves into the range of Star Force’s ground-based beams, however. Instead, the diamond formation veered northeast and glided toward Europe.
I figured it was now or never. We were accelerating over the Atlantic. A battle over water would minimize any collateral damage on the ground. Every minute I waited left Crow’s Fleet further behind. It was still a hard decision to make. We considered waiting until they were bombing Lisbon and Madrid, the first cities on the hit list. I knew Earth had some missiles to fire back up in our direction, and possibly they’d developed enough tech down there to really matter in this fight. After all, the Chinese had managed to knock out a cruiser a year or so back. But I didn’t feel like gambling with millions of lives just to find out what Earth had deployed in our absence.
“Gorski,” I said, walking over to his operations station. “This is going to be your finest hour.”
He looked at me in glassy-eyed determination. I could tell he couldn’t really believe he was in this situation at this very moment. His skills with an alien interface could mean the lives of all his crewmen and a lot of civilians as well. It was an odd feeling that I knew all too well.
“Yes sir,” he said.
I hovered close to him. He was seated in the midst of a nest of computers and instrument panels. The area was the biggest mess on the bridge, but I’d never complained. We could organize it later if we all lived long enough.
“Which one is your turret tracking now?” I asked.
“The one on the left,” he said, “to our north. Are we going for the engines or their belly turrets?”
“Hold on a second,” I said. “You are going to hit two targets. Keep the turret on the one to our north, take out his engines. Next, fire our missiles at the ship on the south flank.”
“Targeted system?”
“Engines again,” I said.
“Why engines?” Gorski asked. “They’ll all hammer us with their guns.”
“I know,” I said. “We’ll take out the guns when the engines are knocked out, if we are able. But in the meantime, Kwon and his marines will sally out of the launch bay and fly to those ships with the newly redesigned mines. If they don’t have engines to maneuver, they can’t escape my marines riding their dishes. They’ll stay more or less on course and in easy reach.”
We’d changed the mines slightly over the last few days. We’d taken off the prongs and simplified them into what amounted to portable charges. Every tenth man in Kwon’s assault team carried one now, and ten of them were more than enough to blow through the Macro hulls. In a way, the mission was easier this time around. We didn’t need to capture the Macro ships. Destroying them was good enough. A single squad of marines with a few well-placed charges could accomplish that. The trick would be to get in close enough.
“What about the lead ship?” Gorski asked. “The one dead ahead?”
I clapped him on the shoulder. “If we are still alive, we’ll take it out. Or Crow’s fleet will.”
He blinked and nodded, dazed. The implications of what I’d said were sinking in. This was a desperate play. We were attacking an enemy force three times our size, with surprise as our only advantage. It was a suicide mission, but we couldn’t let them bomb Earth indiscriminately while we sat here waiting for the perfect moment.
“Colonel!” Major Sarin shouted suddenly. “The Macros are opening their tubes.”
“Macro Command orders us to fire on the first target,” Marvin said.
“What? Are we even in range yet?”
“It’s not optimal, but the missiles should reach,” Gorski said.
“Open tubes!” I ordered.
My only thought was: What the hell was happening? But I knew enough not to blurt that out in front of my crew. When the Macros had bombed Earth in the past, they’d fired when they were directly over the target to effect maximum damage.
“They are firing a barrage against Lisbon, sir,” Major Sarin said in a dead tone of voice.
I stared at her for a second. “Gorski, fire all our drones. Take out those missiles before they reach Europe.”
“Firing sir.”
“Why the hell are they unloading so early?” I asked no one in particular.
Sandra tapped at the big metal situation table. I followed her gaze. I saw then what she was pointing out. A swarm of slivers had appeared over Europe. Earth was firing back. I understood then: the Earth governments had been busy building ship-killer missiles to attack cruisers exactly like ours. Who could blame them? They’d seen China pay a grim price for using theirs, but it was all they could do. It was the only effective armament they had. The Macros had fired early because they wanted to make sure Earth cities were knocked out even if their ships were taken down.
“Gorski,” I said. “This is it. Put our turret on the ship to the north and knock out those engines.”
“But sir-” he objected.
“Let’s stick to the plan,” I said. “Kwon, prepare to sally.”
Kwon acknowledged. Gorski gritted his teeth and pressed control points in rapid succession. The ship quivered under my feet as missiles, drones and cannon rounds all fired at once. We were unloading all the armament we’d prepared.
Gorski couldn’t miss. We were in very close range, firing on an unsuspecting enemy. His cannon had been locked onto the target for some time now. The first shot flew toward the unsuspecting target, hammering the engines. The rear section of the ship to our north blossomed incandescently.
“Drop the nanite shell over the launch bay,” I said. “Kwon, take half your marines to each of the flank ships. Plant your bombs and fly away.”