Bandits Engaged (Battlegroup Z Book 4) by Daniel Gibbs

Author:Daniel Gibbs [Gibbs, Daniel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-05-31T16:00:00+00:00

“Alpha Two to Alpha One. You’ve got a bandit on your six.”

Justin gritted his teeth as purple xaser beams ripped by the canopy on his Sabre. “I noticed,” he replied with a grunt. “Do you have a lock?

“Negative. He’s still whipping around pretty good,” Feldstein said.

“Forget the Vultures. Switch to heat seekers and send one at him. I’ll break right, positive declination, and lead him into your sights.”

“Wilco, sir.”

The red dot representing the hostile heavy fighter weaved back and forth behind the icon for the Sabre in Justin’s HUD. He’d almost resorted to guns-D to keep the enemy pilot from obtaining a guns solution on him, but Feldstein’s attention changed the nature of the fight. The moment the Eagle heat-seeking missile erupted from her fighter, he pulled hard right on his flight stick, kicked in the afterburner, and ran for his life.

Justin prayed the heat seeker wouldn’t flag the exhaust, which burned at thousands of degrees Celsius as it flew out of the engine manifold at the back of his Sabre, as hostile. Luck was with him as the missile ran straight into the tail end of the pursuing fighter, followed by a barrage of neutron-cannon bolts from Feldstein’s craft. Justin let out a sigh of relief as it exploded, and the red dot disappeared from his HUD.

“Alpha Two, splash one.” Feldstein grunted. “These guys are hard to kill.”

“Better shields than I’ve seen on anything except a Boar.” Justin scanned his HUD, searching for the next target.

Tehrani’s voice on the guard frequency was a surprise. “Attention, hostile fighters. This is Colonel Banu Tehrani of the Coalition Defense Force. We have boarded and captured your remaining corvette. There is no avenue of escape. Surrender now, and we will spare your lives. Continue to resist, and my pilots will run you down.”

Silence came over the commlink. Justin ran through the possibilities as another wave of fighters launched from the Greengold. We might lose another bird or two, but the enemy is now outnumbered.

“What guarantees do we have you won’t kill us on sight?” someone with a rough voice asked.

Justin didn’t recognize it and assumed the speaker was one of the pirates.

“The Terran Coalition honors the Canaan Convention on Human and Alien rights. You will be treated per its stipulations until tried for your crimes.”

Justin recalled the Coalition’s supermax prison—Lambert’s Lament. Housed on an asteroid, it was where the worst of the worst were sent to live out their days or await capital punishment. I wonder if these idiots will get the firing squad.

The rough voice came again. “No summary executions?”

“No,” Tehrani replied quickly.

On Justin’s HUD, the remaining enemies had grouped, and both sides seemed to have paused hostilities as the impromptu surrender discussions continued.

“How do you want to do this, then?”

“Do your craft have ejection systems?”

“They do.”

“Each pilot will eject from their fighter, and our search-and-rescue craft will pick them up. Any attempt at subterfuge or resistance will be met with overwhelming force.” Tehrani’s voice had a hard edge to it—harder than Justin had ever heard from her.

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