Countdown, John Walker [online e book reader txt] 📗

gut. He came dangerously close to his target before veering around it. The afterburners shoved him hard into his seat, giving him something else to think about other than the death of his friend… his second-in-command.

“Barker,” Justin cleared his throat to try again, “Barker, you’ve been promoted. Keeping hitting those things. We cannot let them go again!” He bit his lip as he flipped around, prepping to make another pass. Losing someone close to him made the situation feel dire, worse than he thought it could get.

The ships kept battering at their target, melting bits but not quite closing the deal. I hope the Morrigan gets here soon. We’ll never get through all of them otherwise.

***

Rita received a private communication request, one that came from the Morrigan but not the bridge. She tapped it, stepping away from Gabby. So far, the commander hadn’t questioned their attack into ervas space too much. It was only a matter of time before she started wondering what happened to her boss.

“Who is this?” Rita kept her voice low.

“Your damn brother!” Oliver replied. “What the hell’s going on? Noah just told me you’re okay and on some pirate ship. What happened?”

“Can’t really talk about it right now,” Rita said. “What’re you doing over there?”

“Keeping order mostly. The last mission they ran some assholes got aboard and caused real trouble. I had to make sure it didn’t happen again. Anyway, everyone’s fine this time. Why can’t you talk?”

“Take three guesses,” Rita rasped. “Seriously, I can barely talk to you right now. This is a precarious situation. Just know that we’re good. Um… I do have bad news.”

“What’s that?”

“Nostros…” Rita looked back at Gabby. The woman was not paying any attention at all. “He… he didn’t make it.”

“Goddamn it, what happened?”

“We’ll tell you later. He was our only casualty.” Rita cleared her throat. “We’ll talk soon, brother. Stay safe over there.”

“You too.”

Rita returned to Gabby. “How close are we to the targets?”

“Getting there.” Gabby turned to a woman on the left. “How’re we doing on the reactive armor?”

“Still recharging, ma’am. One more minute.”

“Is that what allowed us to take the blast?” Rita asked. “How’d you get that?”

“Some kind of tech we discovered in the frontier,” Gabby said. “Loch brought us to a variety of bases. We’ve been incorporating things into this vessel for quite some time. In fact…” She motioned to the pilot. “You should be in range to start firing. Take the ones on our far left first. They’re away from the allied fighters.”

“You can shoot them from here?” Rita wasn’t incredibly familiar with ship-based weaponry, not to the point of knowing how effective their range was. What she did understand came down to targeting. Distance messed with the computer’s ability to make reasonable adjustments to the weapons.

Apparently, not a problem here.

“Easily.” Gabby motioned. “Watch.” The weapons discharged… one of the shuttles winked out of existence, gone before it even had the chance to burst into flames. “Target the next one.” She paused, checking her terminal. “You’ve got less than two minutes before they can fire again… less time if they don’t care about the power.”

“I’ll just watch,” Rita said. “This is incredible. I can’t believe this ship.”

“We’ve become quite the power,” Gabby replied. “When Mister Loch returns, hopefully this will give us the leverage he needs.”

Oh boy. She seems like she might’ve been a little brainwashed. Rita had faith she could bring the woman around but doubted she’d have much of an opportunity. Every single member of that crew likely deserved to be arrested for crimes they willingly committed with their boss. At least they’re on our side right now. As long as I keep my mouth shut.

***

“War dogs have hit the surface,” Mac announced. A camera feed took up part of the viewscreen, showing them from a view of the shuttle. It was being remotely controlled, hovering over the theater of operation. The AI mechs swarmed the area, blasting defenders while surrounding the military complex.

Noah had seen one or two working together but never such a large group operating in tandem. They overwhelmed the ground forces with ease. That included hardpoints, defensive barriers erected which did nothing to prevent their advance. As they came to a halt all around the building, they opened fire in perfect sync.

Less than twenty seconds passed before the firepower took down the walls, sending up plumes of dust and smoke. They didn’t slow down, the flashes of laser blasts making the misty particles light up as if they were clouds in a storm. Whatever they went after exploded, sending up green flames high into the air.

“We have destroyed the complex,” Mac said, “however, there is still a signal providing the satellites with guidance. We are seeking it now.”

Damn! Noah had hoped they were through that part. Their jamming didn’t work, cutting them down limited their power but failed to stop them. Now we’ve got some other location or method to keep the things firing. Well done, ervas. This is a much better defense than I gave you credit for.

“How long?” Noah asked.

“Tracing the signal should be quick… I am working on it.”

No ETA from him isn’t good. Noah looked at Nina. “Call the fighters back, get them to buy themselves some space just in case.”

“Yes, sir.”

We don’t need to lose more of them if they start going up… and considering what Mac’s peers may have to do, it’s a possibility.

***

Sasha considered the pirate vessel that joined their ranks. He’d seen Loch’s ship before but never in action, not like that at least. When it absorbed the blast from the incoming satellite attack, that had been impressive enough but charging out to hit a target at beyond extreme range, that made it dangerous.

I’m glad he doesn’t have more of those. Of