Chapter
Three
And they weren't long in coming! Recovering from their initial setback
they attacked as Sorrowful Fox had predicted; in a broad line along the
outlying colonies. To their surprise they met only limited resistance.
Though each fleet was challenged and suffered severe damage they
destroyed
the ships defending the colonies and bombarded the colonies,
themselves, demanding the defenders surrender. When they did, The
Goddens came down and slaughtered them.
2 They killed the men quickly, but the things they did to the women and
children were unspeakable. The Goddens had no way of knowing that these
brave people were all members of The Black Death, and their surrender
was part of a trap.
3 The Goddens moved further into The Union, making their line of attack
smaller. Again the colonies fell. Some of The Godden Commanders sensed
their advance was too easy, but their superiors did not listen to their
warning.
4 Finally they occupied the three systems on the southern side of
Hades, and again a vast fleet moved on the capitol. "This time,"
boasted The Godden General, "we will take them. They cannot stop us
again!"
5 But a signal left Hades, and on all the colonies The Goddens had
taken, the hiding defenders attacked. Cities that The Goddens had taken
over and occupied suddenly blew up under them. Ships that had been
hiding and forced to watch their comrades die, attacked the virtually
defenseless convoys of freighters bringing supplies.
6 In The Hashon System itself The Godden Fleet was again driven out,
but they found retreat difficult. Their supplies left on other colonies
were destroyed or captured, The Hashons now understood that they had to
line up for their leaps from star to star, and were waiting at the
points where they would have to leave from. Less than one fourth of The
Godden Fleet reached its own territory again,