A Small Colonial War (Ark Royal Book 6) Read Free

- loudly - if Clarke expended them all within the first month.
     
    We should have practiced flying them anyway , she thought, as the drone made its way towards Davis Mountain.  Davis had been a colonist who’d gone climbing in a protective suit, only to be caught in an avalanche and buried somewhere below the half-frozen ocean.  We might have been able to improve the drone guidance systems before now .
     
    She gritted her teeth as a particularly nasty gust of wind slapped the drone, sending it cart-wheeling across the sky before she managed to regain control.  The RPV had a computer core that was meant to handle the basics of flying, but it hadn’t developed its own understanding of the environment yet.  In theory, a drone that crashed could have the core salvaged and loaded into another drone - thus allowing the second drone to learn from the mistakes of the first - but in practice they simply hadn't wanted to waste the tiny vehicles.  That, she suspected, might have been a mistake.
     
    “Contact,” she said.  “Three shuttles; seventy armoured men.”
     
    The Governor bent over her shoulder - so close she could smell the odour of tobacco on his breath - as the Indians came into view.  The assault shuttles didn't look that different from British designs - the war had forced the various Great Powers to standardise as much as they could - but the armoured combat suits looked more primitive than the suits she’d seen on Warspite .  Their wearers were already starting the short march towards the colony.  Behind them, a handful of light tanks rolled off the shuttles, one of them rotating a gun to point towards the drone.  Moments later, the screen went blank.
     
    “Contact lost,” she said, formally.  “They’re on their way, Governor.”
     
    “Noted,” the Governor said.
     
    The minutes ticked by with agonising slowness.  Lillian knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that the defenders couldn't hope to win, yet she also knew the Governor couldn't simply order a surrender.  Whatever happened afterwards, the colony could not be said to have surrendered without a fight.  But as the monitors started to pick up the advancing forces, she found herself wishing the Governor would change his mind.  She knew some of the men out there, girding themselves for a brief struggle.  Some of them had disliked her - the policemen had kept a sharp eye on her for the first two months - but none of them deserved to die for nothing.
     
    She winced as the radio buzzed.  “I have nine armoured men in my sights,” Sergeant Harkin said.  He was actually a retired soldier, someone who’d been demobbed two years after the war and secured a posting to Clarke for reasons that he’d never really shared with anyone else.  Lillian liked him more than she cared to admit.  “They’re advancing towards the first trench.”
     
    “Engage at will,” the Governor ordered.
     
    Lillian closed her eyes for a long moment as the first set of combat reports came in.  The defenders fired a handful of shots, then fell back to the next line of defences, forcing the Indians to waste time clearing trenches that were already abandoned.  A handful of Indian soldiers were caught in improvised traps - she felt a moment of vindictive glee as it became clear that a handful of intruders would never see India again - but it wasn't enough to do more than annoy the advancing soldiers.  They knew as well as she did that they had all the time in the world to clear the trenches. 
     
    “Nine intruders down,” Sergeant Harkin reported.  “I ...”
     
    His message cut off.  Lillian glanced at the sensors and cursed under her breath as she realised the enemy had hit his position with a missile.  The remaining defenders were pulling back, but they were rapidly running out of space.  It wouldn’t be long before the Indians were in a position to either storm the colony doors or merely blast their way through the prefabricated walls.