Fleet Vanguard (Transcended Book 2), page 23
“Thanks for the rescue,” he said.
“No problem.”
“How are things?”
Keller knew exactly what he was referring to. Her eyes glittered darkly. “Look.”
She showed Nation the recording. One moment, the Trivar capital ship hung in space, untouchable and arrogant. Then, it appeared to bulge outwards for one or two frames of the recording. The colossal explosion within the shuttle bay was far too much for Xur’kd’s hull to contain. Armour plates glowed with heat and the entire ship was ripped into several huge sections. The vacuum of space contained no air to enable the detonation to achieve its full potential and the blast quickly faded. It was enough.
“Done,” said Nation.
“I’m bringing us out of lightspeed,” said Keller. “Maybe this day will have two successes to offset a fraction of our losses.”
The SC Gundar entered local space, far from anywhere. Keller went through the motions and brought up the shield and activated the stealth modules. The spaceship’s databanks began populating with the latest information on the Space Corps network.
“Nothing,” said Keller.
“Why not?”
“It’s too early or still classified. Want me to try Admiral Cody?”
“He’ll be pissed.”
“He doesn’t have to answer if he doesn’t want to.”
Keller requested a channel and Cody responded at once.
“I’m busy, talk quickly,” he said.
“Extinction, sir. What happened?” asked Keller.
“It failed. Anything else?”
Nation and Keller exchanged glances. “Xur’kd is destroyed, sir. It’s not enough, but it’s something.”
Cody sounded surprised. “Really? Well that’s some good news at least. A gold coin hidden in the shit.”
“We’ll let you get on,” said Keller. “I wish we had more to offer.”
Cody sighed. “We’ll debrief when the dust settles. Until then, my hands are full. The three Trivar fleets vanished shortly after the bomb went off and the Antaron went with them. Extinction failed in its primary purpose, but it succeeded in a secondary one and bought us some time. Return to Eriol.”
“Acknowledged,” said Keller. She shut off the channel and sagged into her chair. “Damn.”
“It couldn’t be much worse,” agreed Nation.
“Like Admiral Cody said, we bought ourselves some breathing room. We’re down, but not out.”
Neither of them wasted time pondering if the Trivar were gone for good. The enemy were here and it was certain they’d show up again. Keller brought the lightspeed catapult online and sixty seconds later, it fired the Gundar, its crew, and thirty-six soldiers towards planet Eriol.
The future was unknown and the Confederation’s losses were unthinkable. Even so, both Nation and Keller were glad it wasn’t yet completely decided.
“Where there’s life, there’s a chance,” said Nation.
Keller smiled sadly and said nothing. She reached across and rested her hand on top of Nation’s.
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Anthony James, Fleet Vanguard (Transcended Book 2)
