Christopher G Nuttall First Strike (epub)

[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.But once she had forgotten about them, they probably intended to ram her ships.But they’d underestimated the sheer level of firepower she’d brought to the battle.“Battlecruisers are to shift fire to the Galactic ships,” she said.It was unlikely in the extreme that any actual Galactics would be onboard.Even if there were, the Hegemony wouldn't be blamed for their deaths.“Superdreadnoughts and heavy cruisers are to continue targeting the human cruisers.”* * *“Admiral,” Wallenberg said, “some of these Funk missiles are behaving oddly.”Sun tapped his console and zoomed in on the data from the recon drones.Wallenberg was right; the Artificial Stupid in charge of flagging potentially interesting pieces of data had noted it right away.The Funks might have copied all of their technology from the Association, but they’d been good students… and the Association’s technology was a byword for reliability.They shouldn't be burning out mere moments after they were launched from a squadron of heavy cruisers.He ignored the brief lurch as Pompey manoeuvred violently to avoid a Funk superdreadnought’s determined attempt to kill her.Some of the tactical planners had questioned the wisdom of the fleet’s commanding officer flying his flag on one of the ships intended for close assaults on the enemy fleet, but Admiral Sampson had set the trend for commanding officers leading their people from the front and Sun had no intention of disgracing him.Besides, if they lost this battle, Earth wouldn't last much longer than the Federation Navy…The wry thought connected the dots for him.“Hammerfall! They learned from Hammerfall!”Galactics only put a single one-shot drive in their missiles, mainly because long-range missiles were easy targets for point defence.Humans had used a modified missile to attack Hammerfall; the Funks, it seemed, had copied the idea remarkably quickly.Too quickly… had someone helped them, or had they simply managed to reprogram the missile drives to allow them to reactivate instead of burning out?And those missiles were racing toward Earth.“General alert to the defences and the gunboats,” he snapped.It was already nearly too late, but they had to try.“Those missiles are the first priority.Take them out now!”If he was wrong… but he knew with a terrible sinking certainty that he was right.Everyone knew that mass planetary bombardment would bring down the wrath of the Galactics on their heads, but the Funks were fighting a civil war.They no longer had much to lose.* * *Earth’s defences were puny compared to those surrounding Hegemony Prime.The Federation Navy had concentrated on starships, leaving only a small amount of resources for fortifying Earth.A handful of purchased fortresses, a number of automated OWPs and a squadron of gunboats were barely enough firepower to slow a battlecruiser, let alone a squadron of superdreadnoughts.But they were backed up by the best sensor network in the galaxy.Targeting priorities were assigned as the defences opened fire, reacting with a speed that was quite literally inhuman.Of the two hundred missiles fired by the Funks, seventeen survived to hit Earth.One of them came down in Greenland, another in the Sahara Desert, but the remaining fifteen maintained their systems long enough to lock in on cities.Moscow was the first to die in a colossal explosion, but it was followed rapidly by Washington, Paris, London, Bonn, Tokyo, Delhi, Tehran, Mecca, Istanbul, Beijing and five other cities.The targeting priorities confused the defending computers – nine of the targeted cities were national capitals, but the remainder seemed to have been picked at random – but it hardly mattered.Straight fusion warheads left almost no radioactivity behind them.For the populations of the targeted cities, it was no mercy.* * *Admiral Sun’s family lived in Beijing.The thought tore at his mind for a cold second and then he pushed it away, firmly.At least the Funks hadn't used antimatter warheads in their strikes.They would have depopulated the entire planet if they had.The Funk fleet was slowly wearing down his own, even though three superdreadnoughts had been destroyed outright and a further four badly damaged.They’d been quick to realise the advantage they had over the ships humanity had bought from the Galactics, targeting them before Sun could realise that they were refusing to be tempted by his cruisers.Two of the would-be suicide ships had gone up in staggering explosions; a third had managed to ram a battlecruiser, vaporising both ships in a spectacular blast.Most of the modified freighters were gone, while humanity’s sole battlecruiser had been targeted and blown apart by a pair of Funk superdreadnoughts.The Earth Defence Force was slowly being worn down [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

Linki