(Maati, ask Calum what your coordinates are,) Acorna said.
(Can’t,) Maati replied.
(Is he hurt?) Acorna asked anxiously.
(No, nothing like that. He’s doing a lot of clapping his hands and stomping his feet and bellowing. Everybody else is doing it too so I wouldn’t be able to make him hear me. But I can read them.) She was silent for a moment, then recited the coordinates.
(Keep sending,) Aari told her. (We’re on our way.)
The coordinates were nowhere near those of narhiiVhiliinyar.
The Khieevi swarm spiraled in rings twenty deep around narhiiVhiliinyar. Blossoms of red fire bloomed from the innermost ships as missiles silently connected with the surface of the planet. Then the ships that had fired spiraled back out to the outermost layer to be replaced by fresh ships.
Up until recently, no one who had witnessed this battle formation had lived to tell about it. One hundred percent saturation, domination, and decimation were guaranteed. Usually the innermost ships dispatched shuttles with ground troops instead of bombs, but sometimes the bombs came first, to soften up the enemy before the troops landed. This time the ships themselves intended to land and gather up the prisoners.
The strategy was time tested and utterly perfect against planets without missiles or other defenses of their own. Planets such as narhiiVhiliinyar.
The attention of every ship was focused inwardly, on the target, though in many cases in this particular formation, individual ships were distracted by a substance brought onboard by disabled shuttles and wounded crew from the battle with the vine world. The substance was as intractable as the Khieevi themselves, creeping, infiltrating, oozing over any and all surfaces, and where it met with susceptible carapace or Khieevi exoskeleton, burning and eating all that it touched, growing ever more rapidly as it fed. Much like the Khieevi. Very much like the Khieevi.
The ships that had been infected and remained within the swarm did not request assistance from the other ships. They did not know exactly -what was weakening them and causing them to suffer, but they knew that weakness -would be met with elimination, so they gave their suffering to the Young and carried on as usual.
Nine Klackt am) Seventy-two Klick<) had just returned to the outermost spiral ring when its hull imploded and the bridge was filled with burning, clinging yellow sap and the high pitched eeee’s of the crew.Nine Klack