The Dead Sun (Star Force Series) by B. V. Larson Page A

are saying? That the Colonel has finally lost it and plans to fly Riggs ’ Pigs on one last suicide mission into the unknown? No, I’m not that crazy.”
    He cleared his throat and took a breath. He seemed relieved. “Excellent, sir. I assume we’ll be conducting some kind of surveillance then. A secretive drone, perhaps?”
    “A drone, but not a quiet one.”
    I explained it all to him then. I told him about Marvin’s plan to build a communications unit that could connect us to the stars for a brief instant and pinpoint the location of the system on the far side of the ring, even if the Macros destroyed it almost instantly.
    His worried expression returned as he contemplated the possibilities.
    “But that could…the Macros will know what you’ve done. They aren’t stupid.”
    “Far from it.”
    “They’ll know they’ve been located. They will take action.”
    “No,” I said. “ We will have taken action. We will have thrown them off their timetables for once. When an enemy is tired, don’t let him sleep. When he’s hungry, don’t let him eat. And when he’s quietly building up for a big attack on your homeworld, hit him first.”
    Newcome looked like he’d swallowed something large and unpleasant.
    “How long do we have?” he asked.
    “What? To write our wills? Plenty of time. Marvin is working on the transmitter every day, but the receiver will be far larger. We’ll begin construction near Thor as soon as we arrive.”
    “Near the star itself?”
    “Where else do you think we’ll get the energy we’ll need?”
    He left soon afterward. I knew that he’d spread the news throughout the fleet . Let him, I thought. It was time they all knew what we were doing out here. Maybe it would quell the nervous rumors.
     
    * * *
     
    We flew past Welter Station, the most impressive fortress in humanity’s arsenal. That bulwark was now properly placed at the border of our five controlled star systems. Hopefully, the next time the Macros came at us we’d be able to stop them right here.
    We glided through the ring into the Thor System and were now on the frontier of known space. I stood on the bridge with my top commanders when we crossed over the border and into the devastated system.
    Once there’d been trillions of intelligent people here—the Crustaceans. These argumentative, arrogant aquatic beings had fought us and the Macros, but ultimately they’d been destroyed. The last few millions of their kind were now living in the oceans of Eden-6 where we’d transplanted them. They complained it was too warm for them, but since their three home planets were now brown, radioactive cesspools, I figured they’d just have to get used to the tropics. After a few generations, the hot salty water would seem natural to them.
    As the images from the Thor System came up on our screens, I didn’t look at the twin stars or the planets. I focused in on the three water -moons that circled the gas giant in the habitable zone. On these three Earth-sized moons, dubbed by us Harvard, Yale and Princeton, nothing now lived.
    I was glum-faced to be back here, to be faced with what had to be my single biggest defeat. I’d always regret the events that transpired here over a year ago. I was determined not to let any wholesale slaughter of innocent biotics happen again.
    I glanced toward Jasmine, who was watching me. She dropped her gaze when her eyes met mine. I wondered what she was thinking. Being out here and seeing the smoldering cinders that were once rich living worlds—the sight got me to thinking.
    “Maybe you were right, Jasmine,” I said aloud.
    She raised her pretty face and met my gaze when I said this. Her eyebrows rose in a questioning manner.
    I gestured toward the screen displaying the three lifeless moons.
    “We can’t let anything like this happen to Earth. We’re living in a hard era, a time almost like a new Dark Age.”
    Jasmine seemed to figure out what I was talking about. She nodded. “We