Surrounded by the clamor of alarms, Kotto huffed down to the hangar deck to board the ship. He arrived red-faced and winded, but he was actually smiling! “At last, a chance to test the new wental weapons.”

With a sweep of her arm, Tasia encouraged him to get inside as soon as she extended the ramp. “And they’d better work. We launch in two minutes. No time to waste.”

Orli Covitz and Hud Steinman had followed Kotto from the workroom, where the three of them had been fiddling with the Klikiss Siren. Tasia was anxious to test that device, as well — but it sure as shizz wasn’t going to be today.

“Are we evacuating?” Steinman asked.

Tasia turned. “Not a chance. We’re going to fight those bastards with everything Kotto’s got.”

“You should stay here, Orli,” the old man said, sounding a bit too paternal. “It’ll be safer.”

The teenager rolled her eyes. “What, exactly, is safe about being on a skymine that’s under attack?”

“Good point.”

Kotto looked back into the hangar bay. “Are the compies coming?”

“They’re not very good at running,” Orli said. “I’m sure they’ll be here in a few minutes.”

“We can’t wait,” Tasia shouted over the roar of her engines, which she was already warming up. “Get in, or stay behind. This ship is leaving now.” They all decided to scramble aboard.

When the hatch was sealed, the Confederation cargo hauler streaked away from the skymine, and they instantly found themselves in a fury of faeros, like ricocheting sparks. Steinman and Orli let out astonished gasps as Tasia pulled the ship in a tight corkscrew to evade a gout of fire; Kotto was so busy checking his system status with the ice-projectile launchers that he didn’t seem to notice.

“The wental shells are ready,” he announced. “I rigged a refrigerated magazine and loaded the shells onto this ship and eighteen others. We each have ten projectiles. Let’s see how effective they are.”

“Tenprojectiles each?” Tasia indicated all the blazing ellipsoids. “Don’t you think you underestimated a little?”

He flushed. “Well, it was originally meant for defense, and the faeros usually attack with only a few fireballs at a time. When Speaker Peroni asked me, it seemed a reasonable assumption.”

Hundreds of Solar Navy warliners descended from orbit in a mind-boggling defensive array, led by Tal Ala’nh. Though it was an extremely impressive show of force, Tasia wasn’t certain the warliners were prepared to face the faeros. She switched on the comm. “Stay clear, Solar Navy — we’re going to try out the new projectiles.”

Tal Ala’nh’s gruff voice came over the channel. “We may not have your specialized armaments, but we will fight, not cower behind you.”

“For whatever good that’ll do,” Tasia muttered. As three warliners charged forward in a foolish and suicidal offensive, she sent another communication burst. “Shizz, don’t waste your ships! They’re going to be destroyed.”

The fireballs flared brighter, racing to intercept the ornate vessels. When she contacted Adar Zan’nh in the main force of warliners, however, he did not order the tal to have his ships retreat. The Ildiran commander’s face looked tired and haggard on the small screen in Tasia’s cockpit. “It is what they feel they need to do to protect the Mage-Imperator.”

Exactly as Tasia had predicted, the trio of warliners crashed into the flaming ellipsoids, ineffectually firing their weapons until the moment of their destruction. The exploding Ildiran ships released a shockwave that hammered back into the faeros, disrupting the integrity of those particular fireballs, though they soon reformed into a roiling mass. As far as Tasia could tell, the Ildiran sacrifice accomplished little.

“Our turn,” Orli said.

Tasia aligned the targeting cross on her screen and drove the cargo hauler toward the nearest fireball. Flickering, ragged flames wreathed the oncoming faeros as they grew closer, hotter. “Here goes nothing.” She launched the frozen projectile, subconsciously holding her breath.

The pointed cylinder streaked out and vanished into the heart of the vastly larger fireball. The flames twisted, knotted, and swallowed all trace of the frozen artillery shell.

Kotto seemed embarrassed. “I, uh, expected something a little more. dramatic.”

With an eruption of white steam, a detonation tore apart the fireball’s nucleus, expanding outward in a cold, moist cloud that engulfed and smothered the flames. When the flash dissipated, nothing remained — no faeros, no wental, just an empty clot of superheated air in the sky.

“Nine ice bullets left. and about a million fireballs out there,” Steinman said.

“Dive toward another one!” Orli said. “We’re wasting time.”

Exuberant, Kotto took the communication controls and urged the eighteen other Roamer ships to launch their frozen projectiles. “It works — I encourage you all to try it!”

Tasia headed toward a faeros and shot their second icy artillery shell. One more fireball annihilated. Altogether, the clan ships on Golgen had nearly two hundred of the special shells. Maybe it would be enough to make a dent and turn back the faeros. As far as she could tell, they had no other weapons that were even remotely effective.

Her third icy projectile created yet another spectacular cold flash that extinguished a faeros. “I can start enjoying this. Your artillery is a success, Kotto — I just wish I had a full battery of them.”

Now, more Roamer ships flew into the chaos of fireballs, launching their own frozen projectiles. Numerous flaming ellipsoids were extinguished, leaving behind flashes of dying light.

Down below, skimming over the cloud tops, Tasia could see the watery vessel flown by her brother and Cesca, rallying the wentals in the atmosphere, pulling curls of mist higher into the sky. She expended her fourth projectile, and Orli and Steinman let out a cheer.

When the enraged fireballs hurtled toward them, though, she knew for certain they didn’t have enough ammunition.

117

Osira’h

From where they stood inside the large bay, looking out at the landing deck and the open sky, Osira’h and the others watched several warliners being destroyed in their attempts to fight back. The daring Roamer ships flew about, and their icy projectiles were having some effect, but their numbers could not possibly be sufficient. The fireballs kept coming.

Adar Zan’nh’s voice called out on the open channel of the Mage-Imperator’s small communication device, “Liege, will you remain on the skymine, or do you wish to be brought up to the flagship? I do not know which gives you a better guarantee of safety.”