But the largest piece of auto-destruction came from the Ru’at mothership itself. As Solomon and the others watched, it started to break apart, revealing that it really was made of nothing more that strange, modular machine parts and billions of crystal-tube fragments.
It was these latter components that appeared almost surreal to the eyes of Solomon and the others aboard the ECH, as a fast-expanding cloud of glittering silver blew out from the mothership and the smaller Ru’at jump-ships like a fragile spider’s web, tattering and winking out as they grew more and more disparate.
“I don’t like the look of that one bit,” General Asquew admitted from her glitching holo-form standing next to Chief Ochrie.
Asquew had survived, somehow, even though almost half her crew aboard the Resolute had lost their lives. The command crew aboard the top of the dreadnaught had performed last-minute airlock procedures in order to keep fighting to the very last man, woman, and computer.
“What comes next?” Solomon asked in a sort of awe as he watched the first and most devastating enemy of humanity fall to pieces.
“We rebuild,” Jezzy said beside him, her face grim. Solomon knew that the task ahead was great, and that fractured humankind, more than ever, would have a lot of obstacles if it was ever to approach its former glory once again.
And what was even worse was that Lieutenant Colonel Solomon Cready knew that even though they had halted the Ru’at in Confederate space completely, so they no longer would be able to FTL their drone fleets to attack them, the Ru’at were still out there somewhere, a hundred thousand systems away. The real Ru’at. The ones who had built these machines and seeded the galaxy with their orbs.
To Solomon, this felt like a new era in more ways than one. Humanity now had all the pieces of Ru’at technology to salvage and reverse-engineer, which was what the Confederacy had been doing for the last hundred years anyway, right?
But now they had access to the secret of subspace communication. Quantum-entangled electromagnetism. Cybernetics. Particle-beams. Tractor beams. And of course, faster-than-light travel.
And we’re going to need all of that if we’re ever to face the Ru’at—or any other alien super race—again.
“Colonel Cready?” Solomon turned to see General Asquew and Commander-in-Chief Ochrie regarding him strangely.
“Yes, sir?” Solomon saluted them. He felt like a new man somehow, after everything he had been through.
“Considering your efforts and achievements over your short military career,” the general began, “I would normally offer you some R and R for a job well done, but…” The hologram nodded to the wreckage ahead of them. “There’s work to be done. Assemble your battle group, please. We need a trained military commander, one who’s good at thinking on their feet, to lead a rescue expedition to the people of Earth.”
Earth. Solomon considered. The cradle of humanity. Our home. The place he had once been told he’d never get to return to. “It would be an honor, sir.” He saluted again, turning to Jezzy, Malady, Ratko, Willoughby, and even Kol.
“Ready for another mission, schlubs?” he asked.
“If it’s alright with you, sir,” Kol said, his eyes downcast, “I would like to stay here, on the ECH. Work on rebuilding everything that I helped destroy.”
“Request granted, Corporal Kol.” Solomon nodded. It was probably for the best, anyway. He looked again at the remaining members of Gold Squad. “Anyone else want to beg off?” he asked, a trace of humor in his voice.
“We’ll be ready to ship out within the hour, Colonel,” Jezzy said.
Of course you will, Solomon thought. He knew they would give him a hundred percent.
Because that’s what Marines did.
THANK YOU
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Conquest of Earth Page 14
