Much, much worse. The Kezdai were throwing everything they had into this one a.s.sault.

Then, just when Veck thought nothing else could go wrong, it did. "We have just lost contact with Shiva," Rover said.

"Then establish contact again."

"I have been trying," Rover said. "Even on back-up channels. They may be damaged. Seriously damaged."

"Understood," Veck said as another h.e.l.lrail shot streaked skyward toward another enemy ship.

Veck stared at Shiva's position on the screen and the rapidly advancing enemy troops. That Bolo was going to be behind enemy lines if they didn't do something quickly.

The problem was, they were doing everything they could just to stay alive, let alone pull off a rescue.

Five.

"What a mess!" General Kiel said, staring at the big electronic maps that filled the walls of the forward command post. Those walls marked the locations planet-wide of every Bolo, every DFF battalion, every tank, every enemy Toro, every enemy battalion, every enemy ship in orbit. At the moment those boards were very, very cluttered and becoming chaotic as they showed a rapidly deteriorating situation worldwide. One that Kiel couldn't even have imagined a few hours ago when Kal dropped him off here.

Kal had predicted part of this, but not this heavy an attack, or this widespread.

"Where's General Rokoyan of the DFF?" Kiel asked of one of the techs sitting at stations in front of the big board. Kiel and Rokoyan had never seen eye-to-eye, and if Kiel could have taken him out of the loop long ago, he would have.

"Safe and sound at the local command post in Blackridge," the tech said. "He is the one who has given the order to all DFF forces to pull back."

"Sitting there safe, like a giant spider in the center of his web," Kiel said, disgusted.

On the board it was clear that the DFF planetary defense lines had been completely broken by the enemy. The local forces were pulling back en ma.s.se. The problem was that there wasn't a great deal of ground left to pull back to.

Kiel studied the map as more information appeared.

The 1198th Bolos were occupied with a full frontal a.s.sault. They were taking out Kezdai ships as quickly as their h.e.l.lrails could fire, but it didn't seem to be making a dent in the attack at all. Between dodging spearfall, trying to avoid the mines the Kezdai had planted, and taking ground fire from all sides, those Bolos were lucky to be able to even defend themselves.

Kiel figured this was certainly going to test those rookies, that was for sure. He just hoped they survived to use the knowledge they were learning now.

Kiel studied the board even harder as new information appeared. His Mark x.x.xs were attempting to sh.o.r.e up the lines and cover the retreat, but from the looks of it, they were having only minor success.

One tech glanced over his shoulder. "General, Planetary Governor Traine is calling. He insists on talking to you."

"That's exactly what I don't need now," Kiel said. "Put him on this screen here." Kiel pointed to a small screen in front of him as he stepped forward.

"What is it, Governor?" Kiel asked.

"Look, it appears you've been right all along," Traine said, clearly shaken. "What can I do to help now?"

Kiel nodded. At least the man knew when to change course. With his planet quickly being taken over, there wasn't time to wait and see about anything.

"Governor," Kiel said, "get the civilian population moving north as rapidly as possible, no matter the cost. We'll try to keep them protected as long as we can."

"Done," the governor said.

"Also," Kiel said, "If you have any influence with General Rokoyan, get ready to use it. We're going to have to take a stand somewhere, and I'm going to need Rokoyan's full support to do it."

"Rokoyan will do as I tell him," Governor Traine said coldly. "Rest a.s.sured of that. And I will do as you ask."

"Good," Kiel said. "That will help."

"One question, General," Traine said. "How bad is this? Really?"

"Put it this way," Kiel said, "If you can find any way to get your family off this planet, you should say your good-byes and do it."

"Understood," the governor said, nodding, and cut the connection.

Kiel stared at the situation on the board. From the looks of it, he hadn't told the governor the complete truth.

It was actually worse. Much worse.

The command compartment around Major Veck felt like an oven. The boards in front of him showed chaos. All his Bolos were under attack, both from s.p.a.ce and from Kezdai Toros on the ground. Rover had just reported that every Bolo had sustained some damage.

"It's as if we're being nibbled to death by minnows," Veck said. "We've got to stop this somehow.

"Rover," Veck said, "are you still trying to contact Shiva?"

"I am," Rover said. "Without success."

"d.a.m.n," Veck said. With Shiva gone his force was reduced ten percent.

"There is another Bolo coming," Rover said. "The convoy carrying Lieutenant Orren and his new Bolo has arrived in the system."

Veck flashed on the image of his old friend. Too bad he wasn't there right now. "If Orren had arrived yesterday, it would have made all the difference," Veck said to Rover. "By the time he gets on the ground and deployed, this battle will be as good as won or lost."

Rover said nothing.

Veck went back to trying to make sense out of the enemy movements, trying to spot a weakness. Anything that would help them.

Suddenly Rover broke into his thoughts. "I have established contact with Shiva."

"Is Lieutenant Amad alive?"

"Yes," Rover said. "Shiva hit a mine and is heavily damaged. Several track systems are out and speed is down to a max of 14kph. h.e.l.lrails are now fully engaged in creating airbursts to defend against spearfall."

"Can you put me through to Amad?" Veck asked.

"No," Rover said. "The Bolo's communication system is almost totally destroyed."

"But she can still fight?" Veck asked.

"She can," Rover said. "However, at that speed, the Bolo will fall farther and farther behind the enemy lines."

"Tell Amad that we'll find a way to extract him."

"Understood," Rover said.

Veck turned went back to studying the mess going on around them. He had no idea how he might do what he just promised. But if there was a way, he would do it.

Orren glanced over at the old sergeant as the general quarters alarm sounded, echoing through the freighter like a death knell.

"d.a.m.n," Blonk said, dashing off with Orren right behind him.

It took them only a moment to get to the control room, where they stopped at the door and said nothing. There was no way either of them wanted to bother the three crewmen who were working intently at their stations.

It became clear to Orren, very quickly, what was happening and why the alarm. A ma.s.sive Kezdai fleet had appeared over Delas and there was a full-scale attack going on. So far, none of the enemy ships seemed to be heading for the convoy. All the attention seemed to be directed at the ground.

Behind them a voice said, "That's a general quarters alarm, gentlemen. You both know what that means."

Orren and Blonk both turned around to see the ship's second in command coming at them. He was a middle-aged man named Jake who had very little sense of humor, even in quiet times.

"I expect you to follow regulations," he said as he went past them into the control room.

Blonk took Orren's arm and turned him around. At a fast walk, with the alarms blaring, they headed for their quarters. That was where they were supposed to have gone when the alarm sounded. The quarters were the safest area on the ship, and close to all the escape pods. But Orren was glad they hadn't gone there first. He couldn't imagine sitting in that small s.p.a.ce, waiting, not knowing what was happening as the alarm blared and blared. That would have driven him crazy.

Of course, knowing that they were headed into a major battle wasn't going to help his nerves, either, but at least he knew.

"Maybe I should head down and be inside Ziggy," Orren said as they reached their quarters. "We're going to be heading into battle soon and we need to get ready."

Blonk laughed over the blaring alarm. "Trust me, that Bolo is more than ready to fight. Your job is staying alive so you can help it."

The old sergeant shoved Orren into his room. "I'll see you when the alarm stops."

Like tucking a child into bed, Blonk pulled the door closed behind him.

Kiel did nothing more than nod at the news that Shiva and her commander were still alive and fighting. It would have been good news, if it meant a d.a.m.ned thing strategically. But Shiva was falling behind the retreat and quickly becoming a liability, not an a.s.set. It was only a matter of time before the Kezdai get lucky and picked the Bolo off with spearfall or a mine.

And with everything else going on, there was nothing they could do at the moment to help the Bolo either.

"General," one of the board techs said, turning around slightly. "Major Veck is calling for you."

"Put him on audio only."

A moment later the tech nodded.

"Go ahead, Major," Kiel said as he studied the board, trying to make some sense out of what was going on.

"I've got a plan, General," Veck said, "to push a drive back to Shiva's position and extract Lieutenant Amad."

"What about the Bolo?" Kiel asked.

"The Bolo's going to have to fight its way out," Veck said.

"Let me hear the plan."

"Rover and four of my other Mark x.x.xIVs will make a lateral move toward Shiva in order to provide air cover."

Kiel studied the board. That part of the plan would work. Four of the Mark x.x.xIVs were in a position to do a move like that.

"Go on," he said.

"Since my Bolos are going to be occupied by the bombardment," Veck said, "I need your Mark x.x.xs to fight their way in and pick up Amad."

Kiel glanced at the positions of the Mark x.x.xs. Possible.

"What exactly is Shiva's position now?"

"A half klick north of the remains of the city of Starveil," Veck said. "At the edge of the savannah. Once Shiva is into the rough country it will be slowed to a near stop. I figure it's Starveil or not at all."

"Good idea," Kiel said, "but it won't work. The Kezdai will just ma.s.s their s.p.a.ce bombardment, and the Mark x.x.xIVs will be no help to the Mark x.x.xs at all."

"True," Veck said. "So first we need to blow a hole in the s.p.a.ce attack, allowing the Mark x.x.xIVs to turn their attention to ground targets, if only briefly. That should be enough to break the Kezdai push for a while and let us get Amad out."

"I don't understand how you plan to take out the s.p.a.ce bombardment," Kiel said. "We don't have fleet support."

"But we do have the Tasmanian."

Kiel stopped. Veck was right. The Tasmanian was the transport that had brought Veck and his Bolos here. It wasn't a capitol ship, but it was armed and armored. And at the moment standing off-planet, out of the way because there just wasn't anything it could do to help without destroying itself.

"Your plan for it, Major?" Kiel asked.

"Skip it through the atmosphere right under the Kezdai fleet," Veck said. "It will catch them by surprise, and the ionization during the atmosphere pa.s.s will help protect it when it's in its most vulnerable part of the pa.s.s. And it will allow my Bolos to do the damage they need to do on the ground in the meantime."

"The plan would work," Kiel said. And it would. It was a brilliant idea. But just wrongly focused and with the wrong objective.

"Thank you," Veck said.

"But I'm not going authorize it to extract one man. And I'm not going to leave a Bolo behind for the enemy to capture or destroy at will."

"I don't understand," Veck said. Kiel could clearly hear the puzzlement in the major's voice.

"We use your plan all right," Kiel said. "But we don't go for a rescue, we use it to stand our ground. Starveil is where the Kezdai offensive stops. We'll throw every resource we have at that point, with your plan as the lynchpin, Major. Stand by."

He cut off Veck and got the tech to connect him to the governor. "We're going to make our stand at Starveil," Kiel said. "Have your troops and all of General Rokoyan's men dig in at the edge of the savannah and stand their ground to the last man."