Andromeda's War (Legion of the Damned Book 3) by William C. Dietz

which he had been punished so that the Ka clan could save face? That was the way it appeared.
    “Your sword, Admiral,” Arrow Commander Ora-Sa said as he returned the weapon. He looked embarrassed.
    “Thank you,” Nola-Ba said as he took the blade. It felt heavier somehow.
    —
    ABOARD THE LIGHT CRUISER
INTAKA
(DEATHBLOW)
    Vice Admiral Nola-Ba was seated in one of the high-backed chairs located to either side of the cruiser’s U-shaped control room. The captain, pilot, and navigator were positioned at the bottom of the U, where they could view a mosaic of ever-morphing screens on the bulkhead opposite them.
    Nola-Ba had been a captain himself and knew what it felt like to have a senior officer present while conning a ship. So he felt some sympathy for Captain Po-Ba but not much. Anyone who couldn’t deal with that sort of situation was too weak for command.
    The better part of two standard months had passed since the court of inquiry and his day of shame. That had been followed by weeks of politicking as he tried to secure a command. Not an office in the basement of naval headquarters but a
real
command. The kind of assignment that might offer him a chance at redemption.
    And finally, after more than a month of worry, the orders came through. He was, in the stilted language of the admiralty, “. . . To take command of Battle Group 761, establish a presence on the planet Savas, and form alliances with the indigenous peoples that would prevent or hinder further colonization of said planet by Humans.”
    There was more of course. Thirty pages of it. But the essence of the situation was that the Savas system was located at a point where the Hudathan and Human empires overlapped. Eventually, it would be necessary to eradicate both the beings indigenous to Savas and the Humans—because any variable that could be controlled should be controlled. But that would have to wait for a while.
    In the meantime, there were only so many resources to work with, and there were thousands of potentially strategic planets, so it wasn’t realistic to occupy low-priority worlds like Savas. Not while the Human empire continued to flex its muscles on planets like Orlo II. So Battle Group 761 had been sent to secure Savas until such time as a Class II Occupation Task Force could be sent to “process” the planet.
    But first, Nola-Ba had to reach Savas. And that meant slipping through a screen of robotic picket ships. A network of such machines protected the Human empire and was programmed to launch message torpedoes in case of an attack. And, should such a vessel fail to report in on schedule, a navy task force would be dispatched to check on the situation.
    So Nola-Ba’s first task was to pass through the early-warning system undetected. Failure to do so would result in a swift and most likely fatal naval battle since the increasingly edgy Humans would respond to such an incursion with overwhelming force.
    The battle group’s fate was in Captain Po-Ba’s hands as he gave an order, and the
Intaka
began to accelerate. For Nola-Ba’s idea to work, timing would be critical. The plan was for his ships to accelerate in concert, match velocities with the long-period comet that was due to pass through the area, and hide in its tail. If the plan was successful, the Human computers would ascribe sensor anomalies to the comet’s passage.
    Would it work? Nola-Ba was gambling his life and the lives of all the people in the battle group that it would. He worked to keep his face blank and forced his body to relax while his ships slid in behind the comet and took up stations on it. The biggest threat to his plan was an old hulk called the
Head Hunter
. He had plans for the destroyer—but were her ancient drives up to the task? So far so good.
    It wasn’t long before the nearest picket ship showed up on the
Intaka
’s detectors. And if the cruiser could “see” the picket ship—then it could “see” the Hudathan vessel as well. And if the