The city was not completely defenseless, although it might as well have been. Scores of automated sentries began to amble out of the many buildings, alerted to the attack by their master controllers. These machines were never intended to fight; they served police duty, walking the halls of empty buddings at night or strolling dimly lit walkways. Even their biggest guns were inadequate against the defensive shields of the black fighters. Once the Starwolves realized what was firing at them, they began to use the automatons for target practice.
As soon as all of their ships were inside the cavern, three of the packs broke off from the rest to gather in loose formation above the city. The transport, the last ship to emerge from the lake, hurried to join them.
"Baress, are you ready?" Velmeran asked over ship's com. In a sense, Baress had the most important task. They could leave without the memory cell if they got into serious trouble. But they could not easily get away until he destroyed the generators that powered the dome shield and planetary defenses.
"Ready and willing," he replied, breaking away from Velmeran's pack to set himself in the lead position for the others.
Baressa and Kalgeran led their own packs as they followed him, shooting across the city. The entrance of the corridor leading to the power complex lay in the north wall of the cavern, down at street level. It was a tight fit for the fighter, but no more than the underwater tunnel. Here, however, they could expect some opposition, sentries and guards with guns, and blast doors that could be secured. Baress would go in first to lead the way, and his fighter had enough firepower to clear any obstacle except solid rock. He found the entrance and dropped down to street level, beginning his run.
The power complex lay a kilometer to the north of the city, an artificial cavern cut well back into the rock of the mountain above it. Self-contained, the complex had only this one entrance. Double sets of massive steel doors served to guard the passage at either end. The doors at this end were still open, and he made sure that they would stay open before he began his ran. He brought the big accessory cannon to bear on the walls to either side of those portals, wrecking the locking mechanism and tracks.
The next instant he was inside the passage, ignoring the steady barrage of light-energy bolts that streamed down its length as he focused his telescopic vision on the doors at the far end. After a moment he could see that they were closing, the halves moving slowly inward. He had no intention of racing them, but slowed until they were closed and securely locked. Then a hail of bolts from his accessory cannon ripped those doors apart in an instant.
The generator chamber of the power complex was a rectangular cavern, bisected by a main corridor. A second corridor ran the length of the chamber, lined on either side with a total of fifty massive generators, each adequate to serve the needs of the largest battleship. The two packs fanned out as they entered, drifting slowly through the installation as they centered their lesser cannons on the computer controls of each generator. They had to insure that the generators were safely shut down, since a damaged and malfunctioning computer could force an overload. As safe as total conversion was for general use, a forced explosion of one of these generators would rip out a large section of this range, leaving a gaping crater several kilometers across. A chain reaction of several could destroy this entire world. Once the generators were stilled, their big cannons would insure that the planetary defenses would remain down.
At the same time Velmeran led his own pack west across the city, to where the government budding stood massive and gray in the dim lighting of early morning. Their task was in truth an easy one, and Velmeran expected no trouble. The pack spread out to circle the building, while Velmeran searched the top of the building for the proper chamber. There were several such chambers in that same area, all a part of the sector museum, with very similar design and window patterns. At last he was forced to draw back and turn his ship's scanners on that area of the budding.
Centering on the indicated chamber, he drifted in slowly, hardly more than a walking pace, and cautiously pushed the nose of the fighter through the window. The glass shattered easily, falling away. He drifted on inside that opening and brought the ship to a motionless hover as he made a quick inspection of the room, then brought the fighter down to floor level. Tregloran came in through the opposite window and settled in as well. Chance had put the younger pilot on the side of the chamber where Velmeran wanted him, the guns of his ship facing down the short corridor toward the double doors that were the only entrance.
Finally the transport approached the side of the budding, hovering before a section of the wall indicated by its own scanners, the end of the short alcove branching off the main chamber. While Threl held the transport steady, Marietta made use of a special weapon, a unique combination of energy bolt and projected held. She played it across the outer wall. The wall shook, splintered and crumbled away beneath the blasts as if it were being beaten by an immense hammer. Two large slabs of polished gray marble were reduced to rubble beneath those blows and the inner wall quickly followed, leaving only a twisted steel framework. She sliced that away with an ordinary cutting laser, and the transport drifted through that rough opening.
Threl brought his ship into the main portion of the chamber and edged it over until its cargo bay was even with the memory cell. Marlena had opened the large bay doors and now extended the handling arms out to receive it. The arms took firm hold of the unit and Marlena tried to lift it from its display stand. But the unit did not rise. Instead, the transport shifted slightly, tilting dangerously off center. Marlena quickly released the pressure and Threl fought to regain control of the ship before it slipped sideways off its field drive suspensors.
"Velmeran, that thing is fastened down," Marlena said over com.
"I suspected as much," he replied. "Give me half a moment."
He brought his ship down to the floor, landing gear up so that the cockpit was tilted down. He quickly climbed out and signaled to Marlena, who threw him a light and a hand-held cutting laser. With these in hand, he walked quickly to the end of the unit and flashed the light underneath it. The memory cell had inset tracks running down all four of its long sides by which it was locked into its cradle inside the ship. The Union official who had overseen the installation of the unit had made use of the bottom set of tracks, installing mechanisms that locked it down to the dais. He quickly cut loose the two locking bolts, then crossed quickly to the other end to free those bolts. He had just finished when Tregloran interrupted him.
"Captain, we have company," the younger pilot announced casually, even amused, so that Velmeran knew that he was in no real danger. If there had been any real trouble, he would have fired at first sight.
Velmeran turned slowly. Not five meters away stood a towering figure of a man, his legs braced as he held a gun centered on the Starwolf. He might have almost been a law officer making an arrest, so sure he seemed to be that he had the situation well under control. But that was hardly the case, for Velmeran knew that the little gun could not so much as dent his armor. He stood for a moment, regarding the intruder with an appearance of mild surprise and patient tolerance, even though he was securely helmeted.
"Commander Trace," he acknowledged at last, switching on the com link that gave him contact with the world outside his suit.
"Pack Leader Velmeran," Trace answered coldly. "I knew that I would find you here."
"So?" Velmeran asked, drawing his own gun. "What do you expect to be able to do about it?"
Commander Trace hesitated as that very question occurred to him. Somehow he had thought that if he could just get here in time Velmeran would be defeated and he would win, as if those were the rules of the game. But that was not the case at all. This game went to the player with the greatest advantage, and just now Velmeran possessed every advantage. His confusion gave way to real fear, for he knew that he was facing his own death. And when the Starwolf raised his gun to take aim, he turned and fled in open terror. He knew that his one, remote chance for life depended upon getting himself out of that chamber.
Velmeran hesitated, astonished at this turn of events. Defeated and fearing for his very life, the plight of this man evoked his sympathy. For once Velmeran saw him as he was, not a personification of evil or the enemy of the Kelvessan, but a man. In spite of his prejudices, his blind hatreds and his disregard for the lives and rights of others, he also possessed rare courage and a selfless devotion to duty. For good or ill, he was human. And for the first time Velmeran understood what being human really meant, both the familiar and the alien.
Velmeran realized something about himself — what he was in comparison, and what he believed himself to be. Killing this man would give him no satisfaction, nor would it restore some balance in his own sense of justice. Dveyella's death would not be vindicated in blood, but by the accomplishment of her dream. Vengeance was his for the taking, and he did not desire it. He could not hate this man, not as Commander Trace hated him.
He shot anyway, because it was his duty.
Commander Trace's back exploded in a sheet of flames, and the force of that explosion threw him forward to land with bone-crushing force just short of the open doorway and the safety he sought. He lay there motionless, the material of his uniform burning lazily. Velmeran had no more time for that matter. Turning back to the transport, he saw that Marlena had done nothing to load the memory cell.
"Get that thing on board!" he called impatiently. "We have to get out of here now."
"I did not want to be a distraction," she replied, working the controls of the handling arms. The unit lifted easily from its cradle where it had lain for thousands of years, and the arms retracted it back into the ship, drawing it into the bay. The fit was so tight that it did not appear likely to go, although the measurements Valthyrra had provided insisted that it would slip in with a third of a meter to spare. Velmeran tossed the cutting laser and the light into the bay even as Marlena began to close the door.
"He is gone!" Tregloran warned suddenly.
Velmeran turned quickly to see that Trace's body had indeed vanished. He had either revived enough to drag himself out the door, or someone had quietly collected him, dead or alive. Velmeran suspected the latter. Either way, there was nothing that he could do about it. He wanted Donalt Trace dead for the same reason that he would want to deprive the Union of any valuable weapon. But at that moment he had to get his attack force away.
"We have to be on our way out," he said, and waved the transport out of the chamber. "Swing that ship around and get out of here, Threl. We will guard your back."
The transport spun around in a half circle as Threl cautiously pivoted the ship to face back the way it had come in. He then led the transport down the side corridor and out the impromptu entrance of the gaping hole in the outer wall. Once the larger ship was clear of the budding, the two fighters rose to the ceiling and passed out through the broken windows. It might have seemed easier for them to have followed the transport out, but they could not. As small as they were in comparison, their wingspan was too wide for that opening; the boxlike hull of the transport had no wings or fins.
What they found outside appeared at first glance to be absolute confusion. The government building had apparently been replete with automated sentries. Scores of them had appeared on terraces and rooftops to shoot at the circling wolf ships. And the Starwolves had been entertaining themselves with picking off those sentries. But the sentries were a self-sacrificing diversion, occupying the Starwolves' attention while the inhabitants of the budding fled. Indeed, the Sector Residence and the Farstell Trade building had been evacuated as well; Velmeran applauded Councdor Lake's wisdom in guessing his next move.
The wolf ships now dropped to street level for the final phase of their attack. They began to streak in low and fast, firing rapid bursts from their auxiliary cannons into the lowest levels of those three buddings, so that in barely half a minute they were all reduced to smoking rubble. This was not wanton destruction but a calculated strategic move. The destruction of those buildings also meant the destruction of the bureaucracy they housed. The management of both the government and the trade company in this sector would be seriously impaired for months or even years to come.
Once that task was complete, the Starwolves withdrew to the upper levels of the cavern, forming into their separate packs. Velmeran found eight present, including his own; the two that comprised Baress's assault force had not yet returned.
"Baress?" Velmeran called.
"We are on our way out," he answered promptly. "The planetary defenses are down. Cut a hole in the roof and start out. We would join you in time to bring up the rear."
Velmeran waited no longer. Flying out over the middle of the city, he dived down to make some running room and arched up toward the dome, aiming a blast from his accessory cannon to its very center. As the smoke cleared he saw blue morning sky beyond and shot through that small opening without hesitation, his pack following him closely. The transport slipped through the hole next, and the remaining packs brought up the rear. The second attack force shot out the tunnel leading to the power complex in time to fall in place behind the others.
Once all the wolf ships were clear, they began to accelerate quickly, at the same time reforming into the tight arrowheads of their running formations. Velmeran's pack took the lead and the rest gathered into a defensive sphere about the transport. Once assembled, they accelerated straight up, leaving the planet by the shortest course. They were aware that a fleet of Union destroyers and battleships such as they had never seen lay directly in their path, waiting to intercept them.
At that moment four more groups of five packs each suddenly appeared at the same instant, descending upon the Union fleet with frightening speed as they closed for the kill. Warships tried to adjust to the new attack, frantically pivoting to face incoming ships. The only result was that the fleet was in a state of complete confusion as their new attackers began to rip them apart with cannons they did not normally expect on fighters. The Starwolf forces closed quickly to crush the Union ships between their concentrated barrage, the packs separating to strike at different portions of the fleet, then separating again as fighters went after individual targets. They shot to kill, their accessory cannons tearing entire ships apart in a single pass.
Velmeran's assault force stayed in tight formation, concentrating their own fire on anything in or near their path, opening a hole for themselves through the enemy fleet. Six of the packs fell behind the transport to guard the rear as they shot through that opening unopposed. Then they were out the other side, and the six following packs circled around to return to battle. Two of the remaining packs dropped back behind the transport as they prepared to cross the Union's second line of defense.
Farther out, in an arch behind the first fleet, awaited the stingships. Their original task had been to go after anything that tried to break from the main battle. They now prepared themselves to intercept this small group fleeing with their prize. Thirty carriers worked quickly to release their loads, swinging long racks of stingships out from their sides for deployment.
Before they were able to launch, powerful bolts of energy leaped out from empty space, so powerful that they completely destroyed the carriers and their cargoes of stingships on touch. Perhaps the Union pilots looked about in confusion for their unseen enemy, but their scanners reported only empty space. At the last instant indistinct shapes of enormous proportions began to register, only a moment before the carriers themselves became visible. The three immense ships went through the second line of defense like mowers reaping a field, leaving nothing but Velmeran's assault force as he led it to the safety of open space. The Methryn circled back to follow, accelerating quickly to move ahead, whfle the Delvon and the Karvand continued on. Their presence in the first field of battle would decide matters there very quickly.
Once they were well away of the area of Vinthra and the possibility of any danger, Velmeran cut acceleration to give the Methryn a chance to overtake them. He waited as she moved ahead and positioned herself before the packs, matching speed for their final approach. The transport separated from the rest, heading for its own bay just ahead of the big holding bays. The four packs moved apart, each orienting on one of the Methryn's four flight decks as the fighters fed back in single file for landing.
The welcome sight of home served as a signal to Velmeran that it was time to shut down, in spite of his best efforts to remain alert. He had not eaten in ten hours now, too long for a Kelvessan under any circumstances, who could starve to death in only three days. He was able to bring his ship in for an acceptable landing with only the greatest effort, then sat back in his seat, wondering how he was going to get himself out of the cockpit. Benthoran was there as soon as the rack was in place, unstrapping him and actually lifting him out of the cockpit to all but carry him down the platform to the deck, leaning him against the platform of the rack.
"Can you hold on here for a moment?" Benthoran asked.
"Yes, of course," Velmeran insisted.
"Someone wtil be along to help you in a minute. You are needed on the bridge."
Velmeran nodded, and promptly forgot all about it as he wished for something to eat. Because he was not looking up, he did not see it coming. Four strong arms suddenly closed about him as he was hugged with crushing force, so tightly that he squeaked in protest in spite of his armor. He had no idea who might have hold of him; all he could see was white armor, brown hair and a pointed ear. All Kelvessan had brown hair and pointed ears. The white armor was the clue, and it was not tall enough to be Mayelna. He could think of no one else who would spare him such obvious affection except… Consherra?
"Meran, you did it!" she exclaimed. Definitely Consherra.