Battle Beyond Earth: Desolation by Nick S. Thomas

Author:Nick S. Thomas [Thomas, Nick S.]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Swordworks
Published: 2017-02-06T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 8

“This is where it will happen.” Taylor walked around the oval-shaped sports court with seating all around.

“You want an audience?” Rogers asked.

Taylor shook his head.

“No, I want space to manoeuvre. Bolormaa is fast, and I do not want to get boxed in. This is the largest open space on the ship.”

“Yeah, and it also has no cover once you are out here.”

“This is not going to be a gunfight, Jones.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“Because she is too hung up on the glory she thinks she will revel in by defeating the Colonel in personal combat.”

“Yep, and do you know what else this arena has?”

They both shook their heads.

“Cameras, lots and lots of cameras. You are going to broadcast this to anyone and everyone you can, including the enemy. Open channels.”

“You are that confident we can win?” Jones asked, “But what if we fail? You want us to fail before the eyes of the whole Alliance?”

“I don’t care about that. I just want her focused on me.”

“I don’t think there is any worry that she won’t be, is there?”

“She is determined, but not stupid, and she won’t take any risks if she sees any chance of failure,” replied Rogers.

“That’s about right. You said CJ gave her cause for concern with the AR2 suit.”

“That’s what was reported by Lieutenant King.”

“And you have reason to trust her?”

“She may serve with CJ, but she was appointed by trusted officials and officers within the Alliance. She is not one of them.”

“What are you getting at?” Jones asked Taylor.

“Bolormaa won’t come at me straight, not until she is confident that she can defeat me.”

“If the suit was able to stand up to her, she’ll want to see it depleted before making her move,” said Rogers.

It was clear that it was all finally clicking and coming together in Jones’ head now.

“You are going to use what she knows against her. The weaknesses of the suit she already knows, that is your plan?”

“Bolormaa knows more than we would like, but the one thing she doesn’t know is that we have more than two of the AR2s.”

“One more, let’s not get carried away.”

“One should be enough, Jones. The suit was developed with the intention and capability to allow a good fighter to overcome Bolormaa singlehandedly.”

“Yeah, okay, I get that, designed for it, and they are wonderful and all, but one man against her, are they really that good?”

“The AR2…” began Rogers.

Taylor interrupted.

“The truth is we don’t know. When working at its peak performance those suits are something of a marvel. Could we say they are up to the task of facing her, we don’t know, but it’s the best shot we have, so we have to try.”

“And we are throwing in everything on that gamble?”

“If I had another way I’d take it, but you know we don’t. It’s all we have.”

“Sure we do, we could take her on at a distance. Blow her ship to high hell, or reel her in and take her out as she comes to board.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.