(eng) Nick Webb - Earth Dawning 01 by Mercury's Bane

Author:Mercury's Bane [Bane, Mercury's]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirty

Earth, Low Orbit

Bridge, EFS Intrepid

The fleet decelerated hard, right to the edge Earth’s exosphere. Only the Oksana held back, her fighters out, bays open on the off chance that Pike’s shuttle was just hiding behind an orbiting asteroid or defunct human satellite, as the rest of the fleet made a diversion in the fore. Walker marked the progress of the fleet against that lone, tiny dot.

Come on, Pike. The Intrepid lurched as the engines roared to life and Walker gripped the desk as the room rocked. The ship dropped altitude and she let out a sigh of relief when they came to a relative stop a moment later as the engines pushed them into orbit at the upper reaches of the atmosphere.

On the other side of the desk, Delaney looked like he might be sick. Telestine-made inertial dampeners helped with acceleration—or they tried to—but for some reason the stolen Telestine tech struggled to make deceleration comfortable. It felt like none of them had been able to take a full breath since Walker gave the order.

And she couldn’t let them stop to enjoy the moment, either.

“Larsen, give me news.”

“Right.” Larsen’s fingers danced over the screens and his lips twitched. “Looks like we managed to get under the radar and—are you ready for some good news?—I think we took out a Telestine satellite on the way in. Without puncturing the hull,” he added.

“I was going to say....” Walker allowed herself a small smile. She kind of wished she’d saved this maneuver for the final battle against the Telestines, but it was impossible to deny how satisfying it was to screech into the atmosphere of her home planet at full burn, and take out a few Telestines on the way. “Are they regrouping?”

“Their units are all full of chatter, that’s for sure. Broadening the sensor sweep.” Larsen waited, jiggling his foot with impatience. Around the bridge, the rest of the crew was also adjusting to the lack of extra g’s, with excess energy made manifest in pen tapping, nervous smiles, and a great many people stretching hugely.

All of the nervous activity stopped when the klaxons came on.

“We’re detecting five fighter detachments, ma’am.” Larsen met her eyes. “And it looks like we might have a carrier coming as well.”

“All right.” Walker laced her fingers behind her back and gave a silent prayer. “Let’s take out those detachments before the carrier arrives, and make a lot of fuss while the Oksana finds our payload. Fighters out, and dive.” It was time to see if McAllister had gotten his new trainees up to speed; she could only hope that he had.

“Yes, ma’am. All fighters launch. Say again, all fighters launch.” Larsen held up one finger toward the Intrepid’s helmsman. His lips moved as he counted the fighters now streaming out into the holographic view. “Bays one through nine empty. Bay ten. Bay eleven. Valiant reporting all launched. Brama reporting all launched.” He looked up to meet the helmsman’s eyes. “Dive.”

The Intrepid gave a groan ... and dropped.

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