Joe glanced up again. The “burning” freighter was slowly slowly coming down. There were only main beams and spars left. But it must have the remains of a grav vortex still trying to hold it up.
The glowing wreck was all he could see, apart from stars. Joe went back to sucking in his liquidised lamb, yam and bean stew, with added nutrients for an all round balanced diet.
“Yellow alert. Yellow alert. Two shuttles leaving Mirconium. Headed for Al Banduq”
That was no problem. Not shuttles. But….
“Sir. Message from Fleet via Glitteringstones Comms. HUMINT believes Mirconians may be arming shuttles and smaller freighters to act as fighters.”
“They must have lost a good many fighters by now” said the Captain of HQ Company.
“Estimates vary from thirty to sixty percent.” Said Joe. “Fleet believes some Thunderbird pilots are a bit optimistic with their kill claims.”
“It was ever thus. Come on. That’s the signal to advance in one minute.”
Joe wondered how long before he could take his suit off. He could actually pull one arm out of its sleeve and reach round inside for a scratch or to pull dead stuff from the corner of his eye or whatever. But it wasn’t the same.
“All Rise” came the Captains order. Joe floated up and saw, or virtually saw, the long line of marines on each side doing the same. Like an ancient line of infantry. The Thin Red Line of The Redcoats. The Thin Black Line of men in space suits. And they were mostly men. Not that you could tell looking at the virtual representation of a space suit. Joe guessed that if any women wanted to join up they’d change into a man for the extra muscle.
“Forward slow. Let’s keep all those sensors well out in front. There’s nothing on the aerial shots but we don’t know what’s under the ice. So just keep it steady.”
“Red alert. Red alert. Freighter set to cross equator at Glitteringstones.”
Joe “thought” up a trajectory for the incoming. “Its going to pass right over us sir”
“All Marines. Halt and aim for the sky. There’s a Mirco freighter going to run….here it is.”
The Marines and their robots opened up with everything. The Mirconian freighter pilot couldn’t have known a full infantry line was out here. He was flying into an almost solid wall of lasers and homing shells. The freighter seemed to slow under the barrage. Its belly was ripped out. Bits of freighter tumbling and falling or spurting up towards the stars. It looked like 100% kill probability. But amazingly the freighter got through. Amazing pilot. Heading towards the North Pole and High Trewhitt. Then it was just the stars and the burning freighter again.
Like those few seconds of mass destruction hadn’t happened.
“All into TAB form “W”,”
If the Marines stayed in a straight line then a Mirco fighter could get their co-ord fr
“Red alert. Red alert fighters from Mirconium”
The “burning” freighter was lower. Was it heading here? There were flashes and lasers going off. High over head. Then a huge flurry of lasers. Then more.
Slowly another light grew. It was pink, then red. It was brighter than all the rest.
It was the red shift of matter accelerating to the speed of light.
It was a black hole. With a destroyers stern sticking out of it. The light faded. The hole was full and spinning and evaporating.
Just half a destroyer was left. A long shape covered in sparks. So far away. So small against infinity. Just another field of stars.
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