Fleet Admiral Tanner was still trying to scrounge up any available assets to step between the sole remaining Drasin cruiser and, if necessary, the alien ship that had taken to hunting the Drasin, for no discernible reasons.

He’d left the command of the ground units in the hands of Cmdt. Nero Jehan, his alternate in the Colonial Army, but judging from the constant flow of contraband language flowing from the adjacent communications pit, Commandant Jehan wasn’t having much more luck than he was.

Tanner sighed, taking care to do so quietly, wiped his brow as he crossed the short distance to his peer, and laid a hand on the roughly built man’s shoulder.

Jehan was from one of the outer colonies, one that had so far only been populated for a few centuries and had grown up in real wilderness, not in the carefully monitored and tamed preserves that still existed here on Ranquil. That was undoubtedly one of the reasons the man had chosen a military career in the first place and certainly led him to his vocation in the ground forces.

It also made him a little rougher than most people from the Five Colonies were willing to tolerate.

“Calmly, Nero,” Tanner said as the mountain of a man half jumped and spun on him.

Tanner stood a full head and a half shorter than his army counterpart, but he didn’t flinch as the big man turned, and it was the bigger man who backed down first.

“Apologies, Rael,” Nero Jehan mumbled, shaking his head.

“No need,” Tanner assured him. “However, do check your language; it makes my naval personnel nervous.”

The ogre of a man smiled ruefully, rubbing the back of his head in slight chagrin. The ultracivilized culture that his diminutive friend came from was hard for him to work his way around easily, as he’d grown up in a community of less than one million people that had been spread over several hundred square kilometers of rugged forest and brushland.

Here on Ranquil, with over five billion people living within only a few square kilometers, he had found that there were few people, indeed, who wanted to be around him.

Rael Tanner had been one of those few.

“Apologies again,” he said, glancing back over his shoulder.

“How’s it going?” Tanner asked, nodding in the direction of Jehan’s staff.

Jehan grunted a sound that communicated more annoyance and disgust than all the illegal curses Tanner had ever heard. “I’ve lost three brigades so far. Enemy losses are negligible.”

Tanner frowned.

It didn’t make sense, dammit!

The weapons they carried, the shipboard tools of destruction, were more powerful than some suns! One laser rifle could render a small mountain to molten slag in short order, its beam able to radiate focused energy that was on par with the surface of a small star. The shipboard weapons were even more powerful.

The Drasin shouldn’t be able to stand up to that. No one should be.

“Have your people seen any of the objects that fell from that alien shuttle?” Tanner asked.