Deception: Ether War Book 4 by John Walker

Author:John Walker [Walker, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-02-07T07:00:00+00:00

Chapter 8

Oliver steeled himself for the fight to come against overwhelming numbers. He took heart in the fact his people were better trained and certainly more accustomed to honest combat. The enemy forces gathered around the others by the debris, digging in rather than charging.

Their first mistake.

He made up his mind to use Dora after all, to have the shuttle strafe their enemies a couple times. It might make for a difficult time with diplomacy, but that was better than dying. Besides, their shuttles landed and didn’t take back off. That made him question their motives… and sanity.

“Blake!” Oliver called. “Before I give an order that will obliterate their forces, tell me what’s on their minds. Landing over there is throwing me off. Opinions?”

“No clue, sir,” Blake replied. “Unless they don’t think we’ll use our ship to attack ground troops.”

Out of wartime, it was frowned upon to have ship weapons fire on human beings. The rules of engagement didn’t want that to be the first decision a commander made. We tried to talk, we tried stuns… they’ve got more people than we do. I’m not going to feel bad if I have to justify this.

“Dora,” Oliver called. “I’m sure you saw what just happened. I’m afraid I need you to make a run at where they’re dug in. Tear them up while their shuttles are grounded.”

“Sir?” Dora replied. “Can you repeat that?”

“Strafe the enemy position,” Oliver replied. “Do it now before they work up the courage to charge us because we cannot take them if they decide to make a run for it.”

“Yes, sir. I’ll line that up now. Keep your heads down. This is going to be brutal.”

Oliver waved at everyone to get down, to dig into their cover behind the trees. The pirates had yet to fire at them. They remained quiet over there, hiding… waiting. For what!? He looked all around but didn’t see a reason. What do they know that we don’t? This is outright annoying.

Dora wheeled around half a mile off. They could see the vessel as it began its attack run. In less than thirty seconds, she’d be obliterating the area around the downed pirate ships. Any people would certainly be slagged. Oliver walked combat zones with that kind of carnage. The bits left behind were rarely recognizable as people.

“Major,” Dorian’s voice came through the comm, “we have a ceasefire with the pirates. Repeat, stand down. We are no longer in conflict with the pirates.”

“Son of a bitch!” Oliver shouted into the com, “Dora! Stop! Break off! Do not fire! Repeat, do not fire!” He watched as she continued her approach, a rock forming in his gut. He prayed she heard him, held his breath… as she pulled up some thousand yards from when she would’ve started shooting.

Slumping against a tree, Oliver let out a deep breath. Stupid bastards! They could’ve said something! They didn’t attack because they knew about the ceasefire first. Probably because their commanders were in the process of calling it in when they arrived.

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