Star Corps(119)

“One moment,” Cassius added. “One moment…”

Ramsey pushed off from the bulkhead and drifted across the CIC cabin, catching himself on the console alongside Ricia.

“I have additional information,” Cassius said after a moment. “Ship sensors have detected a low-yield subsurface nuclear detonation at the location of Objective Krakatoa. I surmise that the ARLT has acted on its own initiative and destroyed the enemy planetary defense network.”

“Thank God,” Ricia said.

King sighed. “Amen to that. I guess that means Norris isn’t going to get his toy for PanTerra.”

“At this point I don’t give a damn about Norris and his toys,” Ramsey said. “Cassius, expedite efforts to reestablish a working net. At least get me radio contact.”

“Not immediately possible, Colonel. Our exterior antennas were damaged by the collision. Furthermore, the LZ is about to pass below the horizon, and without our constellation of communication satellites in place, we will be unable to maintain line-of-sight contact for radio or laser communications.”

“Estimated time to bring the net back online.”

“Unable to provide an estimate, Colonel,” Cassius said. “But at what humans might call a very rough guess, I would say that we are talking about a matter of several days, at least.”

“Okay, Cas. Highest priority to regaining ship-to-ground communications. Let me know what you need in the way of human assistance to facilitate repairs.”

“Yes, Colonel.”

Ramsey rotated in space to face King. “With the net down, sir, we’re going to be flat-out useless up here. I suggest we consider transferring your flag to the ground.”

“You mean…to New Sumer? Has the assault force taken it yet?”

“I don’t know, General, and we won’t be able to know until we come around the planet in…” He consulted his inner clock. “…seventy-one minutes. But I’ll say this much…”

“Yes?”

“If our main assault doesn’t take that city within the next hour, we might as well go downstairs anyway. I don’t know about you, but I’d just as soon die on the ground as up here.”

“I see what you mean, Colonel,” King replied thoughtfully. “Even if we get the Derna fully repaired, we’re trapped here.”

“That’s right, sir. With our reaction mass gone and the main drive dead, we’re a space station, not a starship. We won’t be going home again anytime soon.”

“So our only hope is with the Marines on the ground,” Ricia said.

“Yup,” Ramsey replied. “Things could be a whole lot worse.”





21





26 JUNE 2148

Lander Dragon Three

New Sumer, Ishtar

0032 hours ST

The Dragon descended over the Legation compound, depositing the lander module on the broad plaza in front of the old xenocultural mission. The doors swung up, the ramps came down, and Garroway stumbled into the murky twilight of a city engulfed in battle. It was, he decided, a good thing that the landing was already under way and the situation well in hand; he was feeling dazed after the hurried evac and the destruction of An-Kur, and he would have had considerable trouble snapping to if there’d been anyone here to fight.

In fact, there’d been little fighting in the Legation compound. The first LMs had touched down twenty minutes earlier to find the entire walled-off area deserted. In fact, the purple-red nakaha vines and hairmoss-alga clinging to the facades of many of the buildings, the doorways still gaping open, the holes in walls and windows unrepaired, all contributed to an almost oppressively lonely feeling of utter desolation and abandonment.

A few Ahannu bodies lying in the courtyard behind the main gate gave evidence that the compound had not been completely undefended, but most of the Frogs who’d been here, seemed to have fled.

Outside the compound it was a different matter. The city of New Sumer—Shumur-Unu, according to remembered downloads—was a vast and teeming sprawl of low buildings, conical huts, flat-topped pyramids, and labyrinthine walls of mud brick extending north and west of the compound on both sides of the slow meander of the Saimi-Id River. Though most of the native inhabitants appeared to have fled, a fairly steady gauss-gun fire from snipers in the tops of pyramids and the taller buildings kept things interesting for the landing force. Primitive rockets hissed through the early dawn sky, exploding randomly within the compound walls with loud reports and clouds of black smoke. Beyond the walls, smoke billowed skyward from five different locations where Marine assault teams or aircraft had already suppressed particularly annoying sniper strongpoints.