Read Online War of Alien Aggression 5 Cozen's War by A.D. Bloom - Free Book Online
Authors: A.D. Bloom
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who are out there dying today... They don’t know this is the plan. They don’t know this is the way it’s supposed to go."
"Do you really think it would help if they knew?" Disdain soured her voice, but it wasn't for them. "Knowing you're going to die doesn't help. Let me tell you. I know. I’m going to die today. It’s part of the plan. It’s in the bloody script. Trust me, Mr. Devlin. Knowing doesn’t make it any easier."
There was, at least theoretically, a chance that Ram Devlin might survive the events of the next hours. But Matilda Witt, he admitted, didn’t have that to cling to.
" Don’t think me too much the narcissist," she said. "I agree it’s all quite tragic." She stood in the middle of the projections of mighty warships, scaled like some Olympian god. "But remember, these aren’t the first to die in this war. And on the push inward, we gave up a lot of advantages and opportunities to keep the secrets we had to keep. For example, we knew that skull-painted, alien bastard of a ship was keeping a shadow orbit around the 5th planet and we had to let other info from the same spysat mission go unaddressed so as not to tip our hand. We let three convoys get massacred to hide what we knew. Don’t think me cold. I just don’t have tears left for all the people we have to kill today. And even you, the high-minded Ram Devlin, agreed that this has to look like a real blunder Harry’s made or the Squidies won’t believe what comes next. And they have to believe it or we really are done for."
Ram’s mouth tasted like iron. He wasn’t sure when in the last few minutes he’d bitten his tongue.
A spread of a dozen warspite torpedoes blossomed across the alien dreadnought’s hull leaving nothing but faint pockmarks and blast streaks. She said, "They won’t get through that way. I know what that ship's armor is made of, you know. It took them centuries to grow that armor. The magnetite is deposited in melded layers by microorganisms. The Squidies live much longer than we do, of course. At least solar 200 years..."
" I’ve never heard that before," Ram said, "How do you know that?"
"I’ve had the pleasure of knowing endless fascinating things. So many things that will be lost. I know, for example, why we’ve taken no prisoners in this war since day one, seen no lifeboats launched, and recovered no escape pods from any Squidy ship."
"Because they're more afraid of us than death."
"No, Mr. Devlin. That's what I thought at first. Until I met them. Irrational as it may seem, the Squidies believe in an afterlife. In fact, they believe that once all their comrades have gone there, the afterlife is preferable to this existence. Do you think there’s an afterlife dimension, Mr. Devlin?"
Matilda Witt's death would come in just a few hours if all went according to plan, so Ram gave her question the dignity of an answer. "I don’t know."
"Fair enough," she said. "There’s something else about the Squidies. And it's not a matter of conjecture. This is a fact, Mr. Devlin and I need you to understand it." She looked not just into his eyes then, but right down them as if she was projecting herself behind his eyes to better convince him of the truth she told him next. "The Squidies do not follow their own will," she said. "They do not follow their own course. They are a colonized species, subjugated many centuries ago by an order that now spreads across this arm of the galaxy. They exist to serve that order and maintain the power of their Imperial masters over developing species like us."
"Why didn't you tell me this before? Why are you telling me all this now ?"
"Once the Squidies are well and truly gone, there’s going to be a job opening, I should think."
"A job opening?"
"Yes. And an interview. With whomever or whatever it was that pulled the Squidies' strings." She raised her eyebrows as understanding of what she meant visibly crossed his face. "Yes, Mr. Devlin... This
"Do you really think it would help if they knew?" Disdain soured her voice, but it wasn't for them. "Knowing you're going to die doesn't help. Let me tell you. I know. I’m going to die today. It’s part of the plan. It’s in the bloody script. Trust me, Mr. Devlin. Knowing doesn’t make it any easier."
There was, at least theoretically, a chance that Ram Devlin might survive the events of the next hours. But Matilda Witt, he admitted, didn’t have that to cling to.
" Don’t think me too much the narcissist," she said. "I agree it’s all quite tragic." She stood in the middle of the projections of mighty warships, scaled like some Olympian god. "But remember, these aren’t the first to die in this war. And on the push inward, we gave up a lot of advantages and opportunities to keep the secrets we had to keep. For example, we knew that skull-painted, alien bastard of a ship was keeping a shadow orbit around the 5th planet and we had to let other info from the same spysat mission go unaddressed so as not to tip our hand. We let three convoys get massacred to hide what we knew. Don’t think me cold. I just don’t have tears left for all the people we have to kill today. And even you, the high-minded Ram Devlin, agreed that this has to look like a real blunder Harry’s made or the Squidies won’t believe what comes next. And they have to believe it or we really are done for."
Ram’s mouth tasted like iron. He wasn’t sure when in the last few minutes he’d bitten his tongue.
A spread of a dozen warspite torpedoes blossomed across the alien dreadnought’s hull leaving nothing but faint pockmarks and blast streaks. She said, "They won’t get through that way. I know what that ship's armor is made of, you know. It took them centuries to grow that armor. The magnetite is deposited in melded layers by microorganisms. The Squidies live much longer than we do, of course. At least solar 200 years..."
" I’ve never heard that before," Ram said, "How do you know that?"
"I’ve had the pleasure of knowing endless fascinating things. So many things that will be lost. I know, for example, why we’ve taken no prisoners in this war since day one, seen no lifeboats launched, and recovered no escape pods from any Squidy ship."
"Because they're more afraid of us than death."
"No, Mr. Devlin. That's what I thought at first. Until I met them. Irrational as it may seem, the Squidies believe in an afterlife. In fact, they believe that once all their comrades have gone there, the afterlife is preferable to this existence. Do you think there’s an afterlife dimension, Mr. Devlin?"
Matilda Witt's death would come in just a few hours if all went according to plan, so Ram gave her question the dignity of an answer. "I don’t know."
"Fair enough," she said. "There’s something else about the Squidies. And it's not a matter of conjecture. This is a fact, Mr. Devlin and I need you to understand it." She looked not just into his eyes then, but right down them as if she was projecting herself behind his eyes to better convince him of the truth she told him next. "The Squidies do not follow their own will," she said. "They do not follow their own course. They are a colonized species, subjugated many centuries ago by an order that now spreads across this arm of the galaxy. They exist to serve that order and maintain the power of their Imperial masters over developing species like us."
"Why didn't you tell me this before? Why are you telling me all this now ?"
"Once the Squidies are well and truly gone, there’s going to be a job opening, I should think."
"A job opening?"
"Yes. And an interview. With whomever or whatever it was that pulled the Squidies' strings." She raised her eyebrows as understanding of what she meant visibly crossed his face. "Yes, Mr. Devlin... This
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