Counterstrike: The Separatist Wars Book 2 by Thomas Webb

Author:Thomas Webb [Webb, Thomas]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Valiant House Press
Published: 2020-03-31T22:00:00+00:00

-15-

Gusts of snow blasted across the viewscreen of the Avenger gunship, piling into deep drifts below. Shane corrected for the bouts of wind as they headed toward the pre-selected landing spot. Two kilometers out from the target was as close as she dared to put the team down. Two kilometers out from a luxury chateau, situated at the foot of a mountain range on the northern hemispherical continent of OC Planet #31, otherwise known as the planet Hostia.

Of all the Outer Colonies worlds, Hostia had been the very last to be settled. And with good reason. Few and far between were the humans who’d actually chosen to make Hostia’s frozen forests, mountains, and wastelands their home. A few more were unfortunate enough to discover that Hostia was the only place they could go, slipping onto the undesirable planet right before United Nations exploration of the cosmos temporarily ceased, now replaced by the effort required to wage the decade-long plus Separatist Wars.

Shane’s thoughts drifted to her comrades, still on active duty. They were still at war. Were still out there fighting and dying. Meanwhile on Earth, the UN core planets, and a good deal of the Outer Colonies worlds themselves, life went on as usual. The inhabitants continued with their lives as if nothing was wrong. As if they weren’t all at war, with the fate of billions resting on the outcome.

But wasn’t that why she was here in the first place? Wasn’t that why she’d agreed to work for Silvio Lima? To try and somehow make a difference? And if taking down Unites Les Space and its Separatist allies wasn’t making the kind of difference Shane wanted to, then she didn’t know what possibly could.

Shane shook off her melancholy and got back to the mission. “We’re setting down now Trace,” she said, speaking over the command comm channel she and Hale shared. “Get everyone strapped in.”

“Copy that,” Hale rumbled.

The target structure was a chateau built at the base of a mountainside. The plan was to set the gunship down a couple of klicks out, have the team infil by way of foot patrol, then call for retrieval once LeBlanc was secured. This evening, Shane and X37 were playing the part of both transport and, if needed, cavalry. She hoped the latter role was one they wouldn’t be called on to perform.

Shane ran a quick check of their instruments. “Level us off please, X37.” She eyed the topo map floating above her console. “Set us down on that flat space we scoped out. The one just above the hillside.”

“Understood Captain,” the chipper AI replied. “Setting us down now.”

The screen outside was a blur of wind and snow and forest, the trees twice the circumference of those on earth. Thankfully, the blizzard wasn’t twice as strong. Hostia was comprised mostly of snow and ice, trees, and rock. It was a rugged, cruel planet, with but one reprieve. There was a small continent in the southern hemisphere that actually had a ‘summer,’ if you could call it that, with temperatures reaching as high as a balmy 10 degrees Celsius.

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