Janice closed the comm as he glanced back at her. “I want a private comm to Confederacy Command and Control. I’ll take it in my office.”

“Aye aye, Captain.”

Sun looked over the intelligence feed, eyes narrowing as he read the reports from the other Heroics. The Confederacy was a few steps ahead of the Block on this matter, he realized quickly. Someone over there had to have gotten lucky to spot the enemy movements.

He walked over to his communications officer. “I require a link to the ground forces. I understand that Colonel Reed is on the ground?”

“Yes Captain. He is liaising between our, I mean, Block forces,” communications officer Yeing Tao answered. She tapped a few commands. “The colonel is standing by, Captain.”

“Thank you, Yeing,” Sun said, walking back to his station. “Colonel, this is Captain Sun.”

“I hear you, Captain. What’s going on?”

“We have new intel from your SOCOM division in the Confederacy,” Sun said. “They seem to believe that the city forces are a distraction. They are reporting massive enemy forces in mines containing large concentrations of rare earth elements. China has significant deposits in the northern sections. Still, I believe we may have . . . as you say, a problem.”

“Shit,” Reed swore. “I’ll let the locals know. You have a plan?”

“I’m going to shift the Bellerophon to examine those regions,” Sun said. “In the meantime I am detaching all of our assault shuttles to your command. If we find what I believe we will find, I will authorize laser strikes immediately. You may be required to put boots on the ground, as you say, to confirm that we’ve eliminated the enemy forces.”

“Roger that,” Reed answered. “Good hunting.”

“And to you, Colonel. I fear we both will have our fill of the hunt before this is over.”

“Speak for yourself, Captain. I just got in on this game,” Reed answered with a feral tone in his voice. “This is what I live for.”

“You need a better reason to live, Colonel,” Sun answered dryly. “Sun out.”

He settled back, sighing, then nodded to his helmsman. “Take us north, over the Gobi toward the resource mines.”

“Yes Captain.”

“What is happening, Colonel?”

Reed glanced over to the Block commander who had been assigned to him. “The Bellerophon is heading north to investigate something that might be happening.”

The colonel looked up, and indeed the huge bulk of the alien warship was smoothly moving out from where it had been holding position over the city. He knew that it was a Block captain in charge, but honestly he felt better with the massive object moving away.

He just couldn’t shake the feeling that it was going to fall on him.

“Shiva One Two, we have a new tasking.”

“Well it’s about time,” Captain Hiller grumbled, glancing over at his copilot. “You’d think everyone was on a coffee break down there.”