by John Ringo
Mosovich merely whipped out the Posleen monomolecular boma blade he'd held for nigh on sixty years, a boma blade he'd picked up on Barwhon seemingly ages ago, and held it up.
The armored tentacle hit the monomolecule edge and separated in half, the severed end clanging against a bulkhead as the remaining tentacle began to spray green ichor across the compartment.
Nearly a hundred years of combat experience, and nine adepts worth of protection, took Mosovich across the compartment. He didn't need protection from the tentacles of the nightmare in the room, he had all he needed in the razor-edged blade of his former foes. That and lots of experience.
He waded straight into the Imeg, which quickly realized that going tentacle to blade was a losing proposition. Its shield reduced by the combined force of the adepts, it retreated until it was backed into the bulkhead. It tried to open a hole in the bulkhead but the Indowy adepts prevented that change in reality.
Jake knew the objective was capturing the creature that had destroyed his friend. So he didn't, in fact, kill it. He just kept chopping and chopping, severing tentacle after tentacle, shortening them and shortening them, until the thing lay in a puddle of ichor, its tentacles mere pumping stumps.
He knew it was still deadly but he got down in that green blood on one knee and looked into one of its multifaceted black eyes.
"We're going to take you apart like a jigsaw puzzle," he whispered. "And we're not going to bother putting you back together. Kang, put this thing out."
Chapter Twenty-Four
"Hey, Commodore," Mike said as he and Michelle appeared in the CIC of the Lex.
"General O'Neal?" Ronnie said, looking around. "Where . . . ?"
"Long story," Mike replied. "Just be here a moment."
He looked over at Michelle who was looking very pale.
"You okay, Shelly?"
"You haven't called me that since I was a kid," Michelle answered. "And, no, the answer is, I'm not okay. We're not okay. Kang has the Imeg back on the Des Moines."
"Good news," Mike said.
"No, bad news," Michelle said, rubbing her forehead. "DAG was nearly wiped out doing it. Many of them by the Imeg. They're much stronger than we thought. Stronger than we could have believed. He's transferring the information across the mentats. But the force we have here . . . If we can keep them from destroying the ships, the SS, we'll be lucky."
"Commodore, discontinue support missions and get your ships out of the system," Mike said instantly. "Contact Admiral Chun and add that order for his ships. Use remaining antimatter, all of it, to make max jumps towards the warp entry point then get the hell out."
"The Hedren are bound to send reinforcements . . ." Ronnie replied.
"Understood," Mike said. "You'll be back. But you need to come back fueled and with Sohon supports. Michelle, get all available mentats to base Delta X-Ray. And we need to go join the SS."
"Yes, Father," Michelle said, nodding. Then she winced. "The Imeg are up. This is not going to be good."
"Honey, being on the wrong side of a Posleen tenaral charge ain't good," Mike said, placing his hand on her shoulder. "This here's a walk in the park. Let's roll."
Gamalsarad, Emperor (Elect) of the Tular Po'oslenakar, considered the message. It had been sent across nearly a thousand light-years, through dead star systems and the ley-lines of black holes, following the sinuous Hidden Path.
But it was a message the Tular had awaited for a very long time.
"Prepare the Fleet," he growled, his crest lifting as combat hormones flooded his body. "The time has come to Return."
"Destination, Emperor?" his aide asked.
"Earth."
Where the silent voices whisper
Find the course that is your own
And however great the obstacle
You will never be alone
For I have watched the path of angels
And I have heard the heavens roar
There is strife within the tempest
But calm in the eye of the storm . . .
THE END
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Eye of the Storm
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
