SECTION 42
The records on board the yacht give Ulnar information about what happened on Endymion. Dispatched from the planet even as Larno’s ships were engaged in their desperate fight to the death, the ship contains information collected at the planet’s scout base as well as supplemental observations recorded by the crew as they fled the system. An abrupt and ominous end to these shipboard observations comes shortly after the crew noticed the lone Ka’slaq cruiser pursuing them at a speed even their powerful geodynes couldn’t match.
Speed is one of the hallmarks of the Ka’slaq. Their first appearance at Endymion was totally unexpected, and the alien ships swooped down on their prey in tight-formation, high-speed maneuvers no human pilot could have hoped to duplicate. The reports here bear out Larno’s transmission that there were a hundred or more enemy ships in the attacking fleet, and they also confirm the presence of some larger object, never actually seen, but showing up plainly on ultrapulse scanners. The cruisers made up the real threat of the Ka’slaq assault, each identical in size, speed, and powerful armaments.
Larno’s last fight was not witnessed by any of the people who contributed to the courier’s records, but some of the reports suggest that the garrison drove into the heart of the enemy fleet to try to reach the large object. The Ka’slaq ships gathered around the battle site, concentrating all their power on the Legion ships; nothing more was heard of the Legion ships thereafter. But the Ka’slaq came back, and they proceeded to reduce the Endymion colony.
Their subsequent actions made it clear that they knew everything they needed to know about the colony, down to the location of the smallest, newest homestead. This could only mean that the Discovery, reported captured at S.C. 170, has yielded up its computer files to the aliens. Using their powerful energy weapons—each of them far more powerful than Legion vortex guns—the Ka’slaq bombarded the planet’s surface in a ruthless, systematic campaign on eradicate any sign of human habitation on Endymion. They neither offered quarter nor accepted surrender, destroying one town even as its helpless inhabitants broadcast their agreement to capitulate unconditionally. With the exception of a few ships—and many of those were probably dealt with in the same fashion as the courier itself—no one escaped from the holocaust on Endymion.
There is nothing in the yacht’s files to suggest whether the Ka’slaq are still in the system or not, and no clue as to their ultimate purpose or immediate plans.
Transferring the data to his files, Ulnar turns to Captain Sammis and orders the squadron to resume its previous course and speed toward Endymion and gather more information.
Proceed to section 51.