Carnifex

34/8/468 AC, Nicobar Straits

The classis proceeded in what amounted to an arrow shape: three corvettes in a V followed by one minesweeper, then the heavy cruiser, Tadeo Kurita, then by the Dos Lindas. Behind Dos Lindas came the rest, escorted by the single remaining patrol boat and Qamra.

Fosa wasn't overly worried about attacks on the support ships, not the way the classis was proceeding. He watched with a smile as a flight of Yakamovs took off, carrying a full load of Cazadors. Up ahead, Kurita's turrets, all that could be brought to bear, swiveled in their mounts to point generally to the west.

* * *

Yuan Lin had found a place for herself and her children. Rather, she had found a place for herself as one of Parameswara's concubines. The children were fed, clothed, and housed because the pirate chief liked his concubines happy.

Of course, happy doesn't mean I don't have to work, Lin thought, beating some dirty clothes against a rock in a stream a half mile from Parameswara's fortress. She was not alone. Thirty or more other women and girls, likewise engaged, were there with her in the clearing by the stream. But it's not so bad a life, Lin thought. Para doesn't hurt me anymore than I like to be hurt. And the kids are doing well enough. And—

She felt a sudden pressure in the air. It was like the prelude to of rain, really, except much more sudden. She looked up and saw the fortress suddenly bathed in smoke and fire. Then she heard the freight-train racket of flying shells, followed by the body- and soul-buffeting explosions from the fort.

The pounding went on for many minutes, the column of smoke rising to the sky. When it stopped, mere seconds after it stopped, she noticed small dots in the sky that she took for helicopters. They were descending.

Lin never heard the Turbo-Finch that dived down upon the group in the clearing. Before she could have, she and they with her were perforated by dozens of small finned nails called flechettes the plane had fired by rocket before the noise of its engines could reach ground.