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“In response, Fleet Command assembled a battle group to investigate. The group consisted of thedestroyerHeracles , commanded by Captain Veredi, as well as the frigatesArabia andVostok . They
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entered the Harvest System on October seventh and discovered the following.”
The holograph of the planet Harvest changed. The lush fields and rolling hills transformed, morphinginto a cratered, barren desert. Thin gray sunlight reflected off a glassy crust. Heat wavered from thesurface. Isolated regions glowed red.
“This is what was left of the colony.” The Admiral paused for a moment to stare at the image, and thencontinued. “We assume that all inhabitants are lost.”
Three million lives lost. John couldn’t fathom the raw force it had taken to kill so many—for a momenthe was torn between horror and envy. He glanced at the Purple Heart pinned to his chest andremembered his lost comrades. How did one simple bullet wound compare with so many wasted lives?He was suddenly no longer proud of the decoration.
“And this is what theHeracles battlegroup found in orbit,” Admiral Stanforth told them.
The blurry outline that was still visible, hanging in the air, sharpened into crisp focus. It looked smoothand organic, and the hull possessed an odd, opalescent sheen—it looked more like the carapace of anexotic insect than the metal hull of a spacecraft. Recessed into the aft section were pods that pulsed witha purple-white glow. The prow of the craft was swollen like the head of a whale. John thought itpossessed an odd, predatory beauty.
“The unidentified vessel,” the Admiral said, “launched an immediate attack against our forces.”
Blue flashes strobed from the ship. Red motes of light then appeared along its hull. Bolts of energycoalesced into a fiery smear against the blackness of space. The deadly flashes of light impacted ontheArabia , splashed across its hull. Its meter of armor plating instantly boiled away, and a plume ofignited atmosphere burst from the breach in the ship’s hull. “Those were pulse lasers,” AdmiralStanforth explained, “and—if this record is to be believed—some kind of self-guided, superheatedplasma weapon.”
TheHeracles andVostok launched salvos of missiles toward the craft. The enemy’s lasers shot halfbefore they reached their target. The balance of the missiles impacted, detonated into blossoms offire . . . that quickly faded. The strange ship shimmered with a semitransparent silver coating, whichthen vanished.
“They also seem to have some reflective energy shield.” Admiral Stanforth took a deep breath and hisfeatures hardened into a mask of grim resolve. “TheVostok andArabia were lost with all hands.TheHeracles jumped out of the system, but due to the damage she sustained, it took several weeks forCaptain Veredi to make it back to Reach.
“These weapons and defensive systems are currently beyond our technology. Therefore . . . this craft is
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