Del Rio swung around to Lasky. “Okay, they’ve opened fire on the ship. Stand by.”
“It’s Defender of Faith, ” Parangosky murmured. Nobody asked her how she knew. Fleet seemed to accept that ONI heard al and saw al . “I’d cal that compact. Twelve hundred meters length overal , ventral energy beam. Don’t see many of those.”
“Lasky, what’s she doing?” Hood asked.
Lasky leaned over a console that stil had disconnected conduit sticking out of it. “Not returning fire, not yet. She’s powered up to give him a zap, though.” He indicated a sensor screen. “Look at her energy and temperature profiles.”
“And that looks like more troops moving in now,” Del Rio said. “Are we waiting for a formal request from the Arbiter or not?”
If Vaz had placed a bet, he’d have put his money on the Arbiter preferring to make a last stand on his own rather than beg a human for help.
Silent bolts of light shot out from the destroyer and struck the west side of the keep. Why didn’t they just bombard the main buildings? But hinge- heads had agendas like anyone else. They seemed to want to get into the keep rather than pulverize it. Maybe there were things that they needed to recover.
“We can probably get the ship’s attention and make sure we’re justified in targeting her, Captain, but let me help the Arbiter make up his mind.”
Hood waited a few moments, gazing up at the deckhead, then the muffled sounds of explosions fil ed the bridge. Hood nodded at the comms officer to open a link. “Arbiter, this is Terrence Hood. Where are your ships?”
There was a little doglike cough. The Arbiter didn’t sound like a man who was winning, but at least he stil had comms. “They have yet to arrive, Admiral.”
So the Arbiter had been left high and dry by his chums. Hood didn’t blink, but Vaz knew a man who was enjoying himself when he saw one. “Wel , in case they’ve been held up in traffic,” Hood said, “shal we remove that destroyer for you while you’re waiting?”
Silence: it was a long pause, probably while the Arbiter wrestled with his hinge-head sense of manly honor. But he was already screwed because he’d gone soft on humans, so what difference did it make if he accepted Hood’s help? Vaz had thought the Arbiter was a bit more pragmatic than that. He could always climb back to the moral high ground—if these bastards had any—when he’d crushed the rebels.
“I should decline,” the Arbiter said, “but I cannot.”
“I’l take that as a yes, then. Stand by.” Hood folded his arms and nodded at Del Rio. Parangosky had taken a few steps away from the chart table to sidle up to Mal. Vaz had no idea she could move that fast. “Al yours, Andrew.”
Del Rio stil looked like it was simply an exercise, frowning slightly in concentration. “Aine, give me a projection of where that ship wil come down.”
Defender of Faith started to lift. She was right above her own troops, but also dangerously close to the keep if she was shot down. Vaz couldn’t believe that a simple handshake had brought them to this—that they could be within striking distance of the enemy homeworld, able to destroy what leadership it had left, all of it, without any real chance of being hit, and yet they were working out how much col ateral damage they’d cause if they took out a destroyer.
This is it. This is the one chance we’ll get. Do it now. Screw the treaty. Fry them, maybe seize the destroyer and do a little glassing of our own.
Because they’ll be back one day. You know they will.
But just as he’d stepped back from shooting Halsey and meting out the justice that he knew damn wel the Navy and the courts never would, Hood wouldn’t finish off the Sangheili, and neither would Parangosky.
But at least Parangosky’s holding back because she knows you have to kill them all in one go, or else you leave enough of them around to start another war.
Vaz looked up at Mal, but Parangosky had steered him away to a quiet alcove. She didn’t look as if she was asking him about his dinner plans.
Austen, the principal weapons officer, had both hands on the flat section of his display like a concert pianist composing himself for a real y difficult piece. “Howlers ready, Captain—target acquired, altitude five hundred meters, climbing.”
“Estimated ground impact?”
“Too close to cal .”
“Get her attention. Active sensor ping. Let her know we’ve got a lock on her.”
Vaz put his finger to his earpiece and tried to listen in to Port Stanley’s channel without making it look too obvious. Phil ips took his cue and did the same.
BB’s voice whispered theatrical y in his ear. “I’m redacting ‘Telcam’s transmissions, just in case.”
“In case…?”
“In case he says something that we don’t want Hood to hear.”
“Like who he is.”
“Like when his prize warship turns into a fireworks display.”
Defender had now disappeared from the chart. “Target ascending two thousand meters and locking on, sir,” Austen said. “She’s got us.”
“Pods one, two, and three, spread—fire Howlers.”
“Pods one, two, three—missiles away, sir.”
Yes, it might as wel have been an exercise. Vaz didn’t feel any vibration or hear a sound as sixty missiles streaked down at the destroyer below.
He couldn’t even see what was happening. The chart display was focused on the ground and he was in the wrong place to watch what the hul cams were picking up. Austen counted down, quiet and calm.
“Time to target, ten seconds … missiles incoming … incoming tracked and neutralized … five seconds … impact, sir.”
Vaz needed to see this for himself. Defender hadn’t even been able to get her missiles past Infinity’s defenses. He went over to the weapons station and watched the hul cam feeds over the shoulders of a couple of ensigns. He wasn’t sure what the magnification was, but he could see the destroyer venting vapor and flame, turning slowly to starboard.
“Damage assessment?” Del Rio asked.
“Stil making way, but her hul ’s breached.”
“Finish her off, Lieutenant. Pods four and five. Fire.”
“Howler pods four and five—missiles away.”
Vaz counted but didn’t make it to ten seconds before Defender of Faith bloomed into a bal of white light. When the firebal died away, the ship’s bow section was shredded like a blown tin can and she was spinning slowly, starting to fal out of the sky as her drives failed.
“Aine, debris impact projection,” Del Rio said.
“The main hul ’s likely to fal five kilometers west of Mount Kolaar, in a wooded area.” The AI had a flat, disinterested female voice. Vaz got the feeling she’d be a bit of a misery to work with. “There’s a lot of smal er debris already fal ing along that corridor now.”
“Good work, Austen.” Del Rio managed a smile. “I think I’m going to like this ship.”
Hood stepped back from the chart table and nodded to the comms officer again for a link. “Arbiter, this is Hood. In case your sensors haven’t detected it, we’ve disabled Defender of Faith. She’l come down around five kilometers west of you.”