He would rather have been aboard his own Juggernaut, but on the other hand, it was gratifying to fly these once-stolen EDF ships, which the black robots had been forced to return. The Mantas and theThunder Child had passed a complete detailed inspection; absolutely everything had checked out. Even so, Lanyan would never trust the robots again. He had lost too many good men to those tearing mechanical claws.

He had also lost plenty of men to the Klikiss — these particular Klikiss on Pym, in fact. He couldn’t wait to see how well these battleships performed.

On tactical screens, his weapons officers brought up projections of Pym, the location of the original Colonization Initiative settlement, and the site of the known transportal wall. The hive had spread out in concentric waves from the salty inland sea where the human settlers had built their colony.

Tactical officers on the eight ships divided up the approach, and as soon as the planet came into view, they began their attack runs. They had enough powerful flashmelters, thermal-wave warheads, and even a dozen old standby nukes that could peel the top layer of crust like an orange.

With theThunder Child in the lead, the EDF vessels cruised in high above the chalky white landscape, the alkaline flats, and the rivers of tainted water. They dropped loads of atmosphere-dispersed armaments. Before the bugs even realized they were under attack, the initial bombardment sent deep shockwaves and additive blasts to wipe out a significant section of the hive complex for kilometers around. The nukes made the biggest flashes, but the new-design weapons caused deeper damage.

Destruction continued to rain down in the second run, flashmelters literallyerasing parts of the expansive bug city, penetrating deep to hit even the lowest tunnel complexes. As he scanned the smoke and vitrified desert below, Lanyan felt real satisfaction. Nothing — no bugor human — would ever live here again.

While a human settlement would have responded with panicked confusion to the surprise attack, the Klikiss hive mind launched a smooth, efficient counterstrike. Lanyan was amazed that so much of their infrastructure remained intact even after such a hellish bombardment. He ordered another attack run.

Thousands upon thousands of Klikiss component ships shot like fireworks from protected underground bunkers. A roiling, coordinated cloud of them came directly toward Lanyan’s seven Mantas. Each alien component craft had only two energy-weapon cannons, but thousands of stinging blasts caused cumulative damage. Lanyan diverted his bombardment of the hive city below to turn his Juggernaut’s jazers against the numerous small ships.

“General!” Brindle reported, “we’ve got company coming in from above.”

“Where did they come from?”

“Four large cluster vessels were on the far side of the planet. We charged in too fast to detect them on our initial run, but now they’re on the way here.”

“Great, a cockroach cavalry.” On his tactical screens Lanyan watched four giant spherical masses composed of countless linked component ships. “Continue our bombardment of the ground colony while we can! Don’t let up.” Supposedly, once they managed to crush the central mind, the bugs wouldn’t know how to attack anymore. On the other hand, the hive mind might be aboard one of those swarmships instead.

He directed three of his Mantas to peel off from the main group and engage the giant clusters in orbit. When the Mantas opened fire, the jazer blasts carved away sections of the conglomerate vessels, but the swarmships simply recoalesced, shed their debris, and continued to bear down on them.

Lanyan swallowed hard. This was not good.

One of the swarmships shifted its internal structure to form a deep pit in its middle, like a giant cannon mouth. Lanyan was trying to figure out what kind of threat it posed when a gout of whitish-yellow light vomited out of the swarmship weapon. The lavalike beam played across the bow of the nearest Manta, peeling it down into slag.

Two more swarmships shaped themselves into similar weapons, but before they could fire, the EDF ships whipped about in evasive maneuvers. Their captains didn’t need specific orders to scramble. The huge energy blasts struck out repeatedly, at last destroying a second cruiser. The third Manta managed to evade, but Lanyan knew it was only a matter of time.

Below, an endless stream of component ships continued to launch from the burning hive cluster. With all the damage the Juggernaut and Mantas had already inflicted, he couldn’t understand how he suddenly found himself facing a hopelessdefensive battle, when he’d been in the midst of a headlong punitive attack only moments before. He was supposed to arrive in great force, lay waste to the hive, then depart.

Considering how many alien vessels were all around them, along with the four swarmships closing in, Lanyan couldn’t even see a clear path to retreat. His ships were trapped here. Emergency alarms made a deafening clamor on the bridge. TheThunder Child no longer seemed so powerful.

Those waves of component ships fundamentally altered the tactical scenario. He had to change his approach, and fast. “Launch all Remoras for one-on-one dogfights. It’s the only way to deal with so many targets.”

With commendable speed, thousands of Remora attack ships streaked out from the five remaining Mantas and began to engage the Klikiss component vessels in individual battles. His pilots were good, their weapons training extensive, and they did a lot of damage. but Lanyan was sickened to count the tremendous number of casualties they suffered.

Suddenly, one of the huge swarmships received a furious blast from the rear, struck by a barrage of unexpected firepower. It broke apart into a disconnected cloud of component ships. High-energy shots continued to pepper the disassociated wreckage, slicing the cluster into pieces.

“What the hell was that?”

Dozens more ships roared in from outside — a Juggernaut, several Mantas, and some odd vessels that he didn’t recognize.

“This isFleet Admiral Willis calling,” a voice drawled. “General, it looks like you could use some help. What’s it gonna be, allies or enemies?”

Lanyan couldn’t believe what he was seeing. The new set of battleships opened fire on the Klikiss ships from above.Confederation battleships. The Juggernaut — Willis’sJupiter, he saw — raked a swath of destruction through a second swarmship.

Speaking without authorization, Conrad Brindle responded on the open channel. “We’re sure glad to see you, Admiral! We appreciate your assistance.”

On a direct, coded channel, Lanyan scolded him not to open communications with the other ships.

A young man’s voice joined the conversation. “I kinda prefer fighting at your side, Dad. We should do it more often.”

A cheer went up on the bridge of theThunder Child. Lanyan’s beleaguered Mantas responded with a surge of hope, lashing out at the Klikiss attackers with unexpected fury. The balance was still precarious, but maybe — just maybe — they could turn the tide against the Klikiss.