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Both Covenant frigates, however, were still intact. Their shields, however, flickered once . . . then wentdead.
“Get me firing solutions for the MAC guns, Lieutenant Hikowa. On the double.”
“Aye, sir. MAC gun capacitors at ninety-three percent. Firing solution online.”
“Fire, Lieutenant Hikowa.”
Two thumps resonated through the hull of theIroquois .
“Lock remaining Archer missile pods on targets and fire.”
“Missiles away, Commander.”
Twin thunderbolts and hundreds of missiles streaked toward the two helpless frigates.
The MAC rounds tore though them—one ship was holed from nose to tail; the other ship was hit on hermidline, right near the engines. Internal explosions chained up the length of the ship, bulging the secondship’s hull along her length.
Archer missiles impacted seconds later, exploding through chunks of hull and armor, tearing the alienships apart. The frigate that had taken the MAC round in her engines mushroomed, a fireworks bouquetof shrapnel and sparks. The other ship burned, her internal skeletal structure showing now; she turnedtoward theIroquois but didn’t fire a weapon . . . just drifted out of control. Dead in space.
“Position of the Covenant carrier, Lieutenant Hall?”
Lieutenant Hall paused, then reported, “In polar orbit around Sigma Octanus Four. But she’s moving offat considerable speed. Headed out-system, course zero four five.”
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“Alert theAllegiance andGettysburg of her position.”
Commander Keyes sighed and slumped back into his chair. They had stopped the Covenant ships fromglassing the planet—saved millions of lives. They had done the impossible: taken on four Covenantships and won.
Commander Keyes paused in his self-congratulation. Something was wrong. He had never seen theCovenant run. In every battle he had seen or read about, they stayed to slaughter every last survivor . . .or if they were defeated, they always fought to the last ship.
“Check the planet,” he told Lieutenant Hall. “Look for anything—dropped weapons, strangetransmissions. There’s got to be something there.”
“Aye, sir.”
Keyes prayed she wouldn’t find anything. At this point he was out of tricks. He couldn’t turntheIroquois around and return to Sigma Octanus IV even if he had wanted to. TheIroquois ’ engineswere down for a long time. They were speeding on an out-system vector at a considerable velocity. Andeven if they could stop—there was no way to recharge the MAC guns, and no remaining Archermissiles. They were practically dead in space.
He pulled out his pipe and steadied his shaking hand.
“Sir!” Lieutenant Hall cried. “Dropships, sir. The alien carrier deployed thirty—correction: thirty-four—dropships. I have silhouettes descending to the surface. They’re on course for Cote d’Azur. A majorpopulation center.”
“An invasion,” Commander Keyes said. “Get FLEETCOM ASAP. Time to send in the Marines.”
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