Exodus: Empires at War: Book 8: Soldiers (Exodus: Empires at War.) Read Online Free

creeping into the
system, coasting at point zero one light.  If they were spotted it would
soon be realized they were not a natural object, not moving at three thousand
kilometers a second.  They needed to get through the system and out the
other side, though, and with their stealth, being spotted was of low
probability.
    “We’re in range
for a good view of the planet, ma’am,” called out the Sensor Officer.
    “Then let’s see
what we have.”
    The holo
changed, showing a blue and white orb, the one habitable planet in the
system.  They were looking at a globe that was half dark, half light in
its current orientation to the ship, which was coming in at a ninety degree
angle from the orbit of the planet.  The night side was unusual in that
there were no lights showing, on a world that had recently been the home to
seven billion people.  There were rumors that there were still people on
this world, New Moscow, once the capital of a small Empire.  Less than
there were.  Probably less than a half billion.  But still there, and
still alive, for now.
    “Get some close
up views from the day side,” Ben Gurian ordered the officer.  A moment
later they were looking at the surface, a view equivalent to being in low
orbit.  The gravitic lens adjusted, and the view clarified, showing the
web of rivers, cities scattered around them, and the heavy transport net
linking the habitations.
    The lens focused
to higher resolution, and one of the cities, a very large one, resolved on the
holo.  Resolved to become ruins, the smashed remnants of a city. 
Several large craters occupied the center and the west side of the former
metropolis, the sign of either kinetics or large nukes, possibly
antimatter.  Most of the tall buildings had toppled despite being made of
superstrong alloys reinforced with carbon fibers.  Those that still stood
leaned drunkenly, some of their supports still intact, most stressed to the
breaking point.  The city was otherwise deserted, nothing moving on the
rubble strewn streets.
    The view moved
up the river that was flowing over the fallen bridges, to a smaller city, also
damaged, if in a different way.  Here were the signs of ground fighting,
buildings holed, the smaller craters of bombs and shells.  Still, it was
just as dead as the capital city.
    “Keep looking,”
Ariella told her Sensor officer, glancing for a moment at the tactical holo
that showed the enemy shipping.  They were coming up on the closest
approach of a pair of those vessels, supercruisers, four million ton warships
that could take Narwhal in an instant.  It was the closest
approach, thirty-one light seconds, unless the enemy ships moved their
way.  There was no reason for them to do so, but reason didn’t always have
anything to do with reality.
    The scene kept
changing as it moved over the surface of the world, the Sensor Officer
adjusting the view based on a larger image being pulled in by another gravity
lens.  More cities, towns, villages, small farms, all deserted.  Some
wild areas, and the dinosaur sized wildlife that occupied them.  And then,
on a wide area of field, they found what they were looking for.
    “My God,”
whispered the Captain to the deity of her ancestors.
    The camp covered
hundreds of square kilometers, and must have housed tens of thousands of
tents.  The tents were not of human manufacture, and seemed large even for
something the Ca’cadasans would use.  The view shimmered a moment as the
Sensor Officer adjusted the focus on the grav lens, and the inhabitants of the
camp became recognizable.  Humans.
    “What’s the
estimated count?” asked the Captain.
    “At least a
million,” said the Tactical Officer, who was monitoring the take and feeding
the data into the ship’s computers.  “Maybe two.”
    The ship
continued to coast into the system, her grav lens telescope looking over the
surface, finding more of the camps, some larger than the first.  And, with
many of the camps, some