Commander Klitch and his quargs, I think, were pleased with the spectacle, and in some ways I could understand it, but I myself took no pleasure in contemplating this local Armageddon. Samples of ancient toads weaponry should have been captured intact and not wiped into powder and vaporized in streams of raging plasma. And, most importantly, we had the opportunity to do it. The toads would surely give up, where would they go? But who knew
We spent two more days capturing the autonomous space objects. Taking advantage of the total absence of enemy warships in the system, I ordered our own transport ring to be deployed not far from the destroyed toads portal and contacted Admiral Nelson.
Well, Igor Yakovlevich, congratulations on your first success as commander of the Allied fleet, Nelson smiled having listened to my report, Do you need any assistance?
We have a mountain of trophies here, Mr Minister, I smiled back at Nelson, There are a lot of shipyards and factories abandoned by the toads in the system. They prepared some of them to be blown up and even managed to destroy some of them, but weve managed to capture a lot of them almost intact. Right now our boarding robots are taking control of the most interesting autonomous space objects, but we clearly dont have enough forces for that as thats not why we flew here after all. Could you send General of the Army Barrington to help me? I think the operation has now entered the stage where his talents are indispensable. I wouldnt stay here too long. Who knows what the toads are capable of? They now sit quietly on their planets under a dense network of orbital fortresses, but this isnt their only star system, they can counterstrike, and I only have 14 Black Dragons and nearly empty drone torpedo carriers.
General Barrington had not arrived alone. Following the cruiser that had brought the rear chief to us, there was an endless stream of huge evacuation transports, the same ones built for transporting prisoners from the Kappa Ceti system. It seemed that our genius of logistics was seriously determined to take out of the enemy star system everything his grasping hands could reach.
Commander, Sir, Barrington, after reviewing the list of the captured objects, addressed to me with a slight smile, Im afraid your squadron will have to stay here for at least six days. It would be just criminal to leave such trophies here or to destroy them.
I started thinking. Such a delay was not part of my plan. It seems that a large fleet of toads could not appear in the system. If they had it, they would have brought it here through the portal a long time ago and not let us take over their space with impunity. But the risk was still quite high. We had already encountered one surprise that had cost us quite a bit. Who knows how many more of these trump cards the enemy has up his sleeve? But Barrington was also understandable. The Federation was desperate for new technologies, and here they were practically lying around to pick up.
All right, General of the Army, Sir, you will have six days, but I need your men to deploy three more transport rings in different parts of the system. In the event of a sudden change in the situation, this will allow transports to quickly evacuate through the nearest portal. I will send you the coordinates of the gate installation points.
Ill give the order, Barrington nodded and plunged into the process of organizing a professional looting of the enemy industrial infrastructure.
Chapter 3
Why are we still working on this old stuff, Fléa? Silk asked in a tired voice, turning away from the programmer of the medical capsule and sinking heavily into a chair, As far as I remember, we were promised new equipment a week ago. I mean, these promises are two weeks old, and they were supposed to arrive here a week ago! I spend three times as much time using this junk as I could on one patient. What do they think theyre doing there in the capital?!
Youre completely out of touch, doctor," the older nurse shook her head, When was the last time you watched the network news?
What news? Dont you see whats going on? Rescue workers are constantly opening up new blocked entrances to the underground levels of cities, and you know what follows.
Fléa knew this. Every time the heavy repair robots managed to reach another blocked off neighborhood, the flood of wounded was literally overwhelming the hastily deployed Civil Defense Department hospitals. It was just a miracle that engineer Colweg, who came out of nowhere, turned out to be both a qualified doctor and a specialist in medical equipment. Only through his efforts was it possible to bring the old med pods and diagnostic equipment out of mothballs so quickly that the hospital was able to receive almost twice as many wounded. But now Colweg was so busy with work that he fell asleep on the job, so it was no wonder he couldnt think about anything else.
In the last ten days, the toads have attacked five more of our systems, Fléa answered softly, All in all, almost 30 planets are now under simultaneous attack. Many of them have surface battles going on. The news reports say that the fleet and army have mobilized all their reserves and soon the situation will be back under control, but frankly, I find it hard to believe. The portal network is practically paralyzed. If theyve tried to send us new med pods and other equipment, the transports must have gotten hopelessly stuck somewhere. And most likely, all of it has already been dispersed to other places for the needs of the army. Theres so much carnage over there now that no one will remember our Kappa Gyan anytime soon.
Okay, Fléa, I got it. Im just grouchy, dont mind me. Whos next?
The nurse didnt have time to answer. A junior technician peeked into the cubicle, saw Silk and waved to someone in the hospital corridor, Engineer Colweg is here, Colonel! Come in.
Service Engineer Colweg? The question was posed by an energetic military man in a medical colonels uniform, who entered the room after the technician.
Im listening to you, Silk said, and he had a bad feeling in his heart.
Colonel Egen," the unexpected visitor introduced himself, Mr. Engineer, do you have a few minutes to spare? At that, Egen glanced expressively at Fléa.
I think Ill make you some tea and cookies, Doctor, the nurse smiled and left the room, beckoning the technician to follow her and shutting the door tightly.
Hello, Dr. Silk. General Las, Ministry of Defense Security Service.
So you found me after all, Silk grinned mirthlessly, Why am I surprised? Why the Ministry of Defense Security Service, General? I thought people from the Imperial Security were coming for me. And the General Isnt that a bit much?
Youve been rather imprudent, Doctor, Las replied, glancing around the cubicle filled with equipment, It wasnt that hard to figure you out.
I couldnt have it any other way, Silk answered grimly, You dont want to answer any questions, do you? Shall I pack?
Ill answer, but not here. I dont think my colleagues in the Imperial Security Service are any stupider than I am. Staying in the hospital is extremely dangerous for you. Theres a fly-car waiting for me at the special-vehicle yard. It would be better if we left here immediately and under some plausible pretext.
Why should I believe you? asked Silk, looking into the Generals eyes.
Because if I just turn around and leave now, Las squinted, then in a few hours, 24 hours at the most, there will be people from the Security Service of the Empire here. And they will talk to you in a completely different way. General Clay is now sitting in their detention center, and theyre dreaming to get another member of the operation to send Brigadier General Deans consciousness to another galaxy. And I want to get to the bottom of whats going on, and to do that I need an opportunity to meet or at least to talk to Admiral Lavroff via hypercomms.