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Chapters (44)
  1. The Crimson Worlds Series
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  3. Chapter One
  4. Chapter Two
  5. Chapter Three
  6. Chapter Four
  7. Chapter Five
  8. Chapter Six
  9. Chapter Seven
  10. Chapter Eight
  11. Chapter Nine
  12. Chapter Ten
  13. Chapter Eleven
  14. Chapter Twelve
  15. Chapter Thirteen
  16. Chapter Fourteen
  17. Chapter Fifteen
  18. Chapter Sixteen
  19. Chapter Seventeen
  20. Chapter Eighteen
  21. Chapter Nineteen
  22. Chapter Twenty
  23. Chapter Twenty-One
  24. Chapter Twenty-Two
  25. Chapter Twenty-Three
  26. Chapter Twenty-Four
  27. Chapter Twenty-Five
  28. Chapter Twenty-Six
  29. Chapter Twenty-Seven
  30. Chapter Twenty-Eight
  31. Chapter Twenty-Nine
  32. Chapter Thirty
  33. Chapter Thirty-One
  34. Chapter Thirty-Two
  35. Chapter Thirty-Three
  36. Chapter Thirty-Four
  37. Chapter Thirty-Five
  38. Chapter Thirty-Six
  39. Chapter Thirty-Seven
  40. Chapter Thirty-Eight
  41. Chapter Thirty-Nine
  42. Chapter Forty
  43. Chapter Forty-One
  44. Epilogue

“It makes perfect sense. A chance to probe our defenses, and a way to solve their logistical problem. If we don’t respond—or if we come at them and lose—it is a sign of weakness, confirmation of the Union’s promises that we can’t spare forces to fight them. They’ll invade as soon as they can get their fleets underway.”

“But if we defeat whatever they sent…we might just dissuade them from coming at us, at least long enough to deal with the Union attack first.”

Holsten was nodding. “But we don’t know what they have out there. Dauntless is a good ship, but she’s far from our biggest or newest. And Captain Barron is a good man, but he’s young, relatively new to command.” A pause. “What else can we get out there?”

“Now? Nothing.”

“There must be some available forces.”

“There aren’t.” Vonns’ voice was hard with certainty. “Even the closest fleet units are a month away…and many of those are reserve ships still being refitted for action.” He took a deep breath. “Dauntless is all we have out there, Gary…and we’re lucky she’s there.”

Holsten turned and looked back at the screen. “So, Captain Barron is all we have…he and his ship are all that stands between us and a war with the Alliance?”

“If our assumptions are correct, that’s probably true.”

“And there’s nothing we can do for him, no way to help him?”

“We can warn him, tell him he must prevail, whatever the odds, whatever the cost.”

Holsten exhaled hard. “So we send the grandson of the Confederation’s greatest hero into a possibly hopeless fight with no more help than to tell him to find a way to win?”

“I’m afraid so. Unless we count our best wishes as reinforcements…”

The head of Confederation Intelligence just stood and stared at the screen, his mind racing to find something, anything he’d forgotten. But there was nothing. A warning and best wishes were indeed all they had to send to Tyler Barron.

His hangover was gone at least, the alcohol-induced headache replaced by a new one, even worse.

“Godspeed, Tyler Barron…”

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Sixteen

Near the Ruins of Base Tom Wills

Planet Santis, Krillus IV

307 AC

“Keep firing!” Hargraves was down on the ground, his rifle extended in front of him. He’d opened up on full auto, but now he was firing single shots. He didn’t have enough ammo to be careless, and the enemy troopers had dropped to the ground too. He just didn’t have a good enough target to waste more than a few rounds.