She forced her eyes down from the holocaust in the sky and punched a new frequency into her com panel with trembling fingers.

“Th-” She cleared her throat. “This is Gonzalez. Who the hell are you?”

“I am Unit Two-Three-Baker-Zero-Zero-Seven-Five NKE of the Line,” the soprano replied, and Gonzalez heard someone gasp.

“You’re the Bolo?” she demanded in shock.

“Affirmative. Colonel, I have detected a kinetic strike in the low kiloton range at the approximate coordinates of Santa Cruz Fleet Base. I have attempted to contact Fleet Ops and Sector Central without success. Further, I have established that Santa Cruz’s subspace communications arrays have been destroyed. I have also detected two Fafnir-class Concordiat Navy assault ships on an attack course for the Fleet Base. On the basis of this data, I believe Santa Cruz is under attack. I-”

“But… but why?” Gonzalez blurted.

“I have no information as to the attackers’ motives, Colonel; I simply report observed facts. May I continue my SitRep?”

Consuela Gonzalez shook herself once more, then sucked in a deep, shuddering breath as her merely human mind began to fight for balance.

“Go,” she said flatly.

“I have engaged and destroyed one Fafnir-” Nike said.

“Christ!” someone muttered.

“-but not before it detached two Dragon Tooth-class assault pods. I estimate their LZs lie approximately forty-five point three and fifty-one point niner kilometers respectively from my present position. I am currently en route to locate and destroy any hostile forces at those locations.”

“How can we help?” Gonzalez demanded.

“Thank you for the offer,” the soprano voice said, and Gonzalez’ eyebrows rose as, even through her shock, she heard its genuine gratitude. “If you will shift to Condition Delta-Two, I will download my own tactical data to your onboard computers, but a Dragon Tooth pod is capable of landing up to a Mark XXV Bolo. It is therefore probable that the Enemy has deployed a force too heavy for your own units to engage successfully. I request that your battalion rendezvous at map coordinates Echo-Seven-Niner X-Ray-One-Three and stand by to assist my own operations.”

“You’ve got it, Bolo. Watch yourself.”

“Thank you, Colonel. If I may make another suggestion, it might be wise for you to broadcast a planet-wide alert of hostile action.”

“We will.” Gonzalez nudged her com tech’s shoulder with a toe and jutted her chin at the panel while her own fingers darted over the master computer console. “Delta-Two on-line,” she told Nike, and looked at her driver. “You heard the lady! Take us to the rendezvous coordinates-fast!”

* * *

Esteban was still staring at the explosion when a flicker of movement caught his eye. He snapped around, staring further south, and shock gave way to the fury of understanding as he saw the huge spacecraft sweeping towards the field. It went into low-altitude hover almost directly above the old fleet base and began shedding AFV assault pods. Huge hatches gaped in its flanks, and a cloud of air-cavalry mounts erupted from them, followed within seconds by the first infantry assault vehicles on counter-grav drop rings.

That sight jerked him into motion. He thundered back down the stairs and into his communications center, and his lips drew back to bare his teeth as he flung himself into the chair before the console. He might never have seen Navy duty, but he’d always taken his responsibilities for the field more seriously than he chose to pretend to others. That was why he’d installed a certain landline link he’d never bothered to mention to anyone else.

He flipped up a plastic safety shield, punched in a three-digit code, then rammed his finger down on the big red button.

Fafnir One’s CO pounded on his command chair arm and spouted a steady, monotonous stream of profanity. The attack which had begun so perfectly had gone to hell in a handcart, and he was frantic to get back out into space before something else went wrong.

The communications arrays were down-that much, at least, had gone according to plan-but nothing else had. The two Fafnirs had docked with Matucek’s mother ship to take on the maximum personnel loads their life support would permit them to handle for an assault run, then made their approach from the planet’s southern pole. It was the long way to reach their main objective, but it had let them come in over largely uninhabited terrain and, as a bonus, deploy the two Golems to cover their southern flank if the plan to deal with the Bolo had failed.

As, judging by the evidence, it had.

The transport commander swore again, harder. His tactical readouts confirmed it; the single shot that killed Fafnir Two had come from at least an eighty-centimeter Hellbore. That meant it could only have come from the Bolo, and he didn’t even want to think about what else that might mean! His sensor section reported the Golems had separated before the attack, so they, at least, might have gotten down intact, but a quarter of the Marauders’ infantry, half their air-cav, and ten percent of their Panthers had gone up with Fafnir Two.

He darted another look at the status board and felt a stab of relief. Ninety percent of their passengers had launched. Another few seconds, and “Last man out!” someone announced.

“Go! Get us the fuck out of here!” the CO shouted. The Fafnir’s nose rose as it swung further north towards safety, and he glared at his com officer. “Tell Granger that goddamned Bolo’s still alive!”

Far below the hovering transport, a dozen slabs of duralloy armor slid sideways to uncover an equal number of dark, circular bores. Deep within the wells they had covered, long-quiescent circuitry roused as it received the activation command from Lorenco Esteban’s distant communications console. Targeting criteria were passed, receipted, evaluated, and matched against the huge energy source in the sky above.

My sensors detect a fresh burst of gravitic energy from the bearing of the Fleet Base. It is too heavy to emanate from any planetary vehicle and must, therefore, be the first Fafnir. It is accelerating away from the Base, but its commander appears to be no fool. Although I can detect his emissions, he remains too low for my fire control to acquire him. I compute a probability of 99.971 percent that his current maneuvers indicate the successful deployment of his assault force, but I cannot intervene.

“Missile acquisition! We’ve been locked up!” someone screamed. Fafnir One’s commander started to twist towards the technician who’d shouted, but he never completed the motion.

Twelve surface-to-space missiles launched on pillars of fire. Their target raced for safety as rapidly as its internal grav compensators permitted, so fast its bow glowed cherry red, but it never had a chance. The SSMs’ conventional boosters blew them free of their silos, and they tilted, holding lock, and then went suddenly to full power on their own counter-grav. They overtook their victim just over three hundred kilometers downrange at an altitude of thirty-three thousand meters, and twelve twenty-kiloton warheads detonated as one.

There was no wreckage.

The warheads’ glare was bright enough to bleach the brilliant sun of Santa Cruz even at three hundred kilometers’ range, and Esteban snarled in triumph. He didn’t know why anyone would want to attack his world, but he knew at least one bunch of the murderous bastards would never attack anyone else’s.

Not bad fer an old crock with no formal trainin’, he thought venomously, and then, Thank God Enrique an’ ‘Milla aren’t back yet!

He shook himself and climbed back out of the chair. Whoever those people were, they weren’t going to be very happy with him for wrecking their transport. On the other hand, he’d spent seventy years on this very hacienda. He knew places where an army of raiders couldn’t find him.