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“Don’t be an assle, Nguyen,” Avasarala said “It’s over”

The ops deck was silent for a long moment, the tension almost unbearable Naoot ot a lot of them”

“Where?” Holden snapped

“Fro, but her tactical display resized, pulling back until the cluster of ships, red and white and the single defiant green, were less than a quarter of their original size and the e of the display Rising like a solid mass, hundreds of fine yellow lines

“Get me a count,” Holden said “I need a count here”

“Two hundred nineteen No Wait Two hundred thirty”

“What the hell are they? Are those torpedoes?” Alex asked

“No,” Bobbie said “They’re monsters They launched the monsters”

Avasarala opened a broadcast channel Her hair probably looked worse than Souther’s but she ell past vanity That she could speak without fear of voh

“This is Avasarala,” she said “The launch you are all seeing right now is a new proto used as an unauthorized first strike against Mars We need to shoot those fkers out of the sky and do it now Everyone”

“We’ve got a coordination override request coship,” Naomi said “Surrender control?”

“The hell I will,” Alex said

“No, but track requests,” Holden said “I’ control of my ship to a military fire-control computer, but we still need to be part of the solution here”

“The King’s starting a hard burn,” Alex said “I think he’s trying to hightail it”

On the display, the attack fro to blooles, so out in bent paths like an insect’s articulated legs Any one of them was the death of a planet, and the acceleration data put the hu huht appeared fro down to meet the threads of Io The slow, stately pace of the display was undercut by the data Plas seconds for them to reach the main stem Avasarala watched the first of them detonate, saw the column of protomolecule monsters split into a dozen different strea toward us, Cap,” Alex said “I don’t think they’re designed to hole a ship’s hull, but I’et in there and do e can We can’t let any of these … Okay, where’d they go?”

On the tactical display, the attacking

“They’re cutting thrust,” Nao dark Must have radar-absorbing hulldata? Can we anticipate where they’re going to be?”

The tactical display began to flicker Fireflies Thein what looked like se