Decisive Battle (Armored Warrior Panzerter Blackwater Book 4) by T. E. Butcher

Author:T. E. Butcher [Butcher, T. E.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-08-20T16:00:00+00:00

SEVENTEEN

The Gulf of Promise

En Route to the Sorelians

Roland braced against the G-forces pressing him back against his seat. The catapult’s acceleration hardly bothered him anymore. More of an inconvenience really, especially since he’d been training his body to more readily endure the Gs inflicted on him by the Ozelot at full thrust. He smiled as his squadron formed up on him.

“Alright Thunderbolts, check in ready status,” he said. He kept an ear to his radio as his eyes drifted to the Tigers standing on the Baltica’s bow. It was hard to look at them without seeing the earlier version equipped with nuclear torpedoes. Union pilots had stolen it and ended up shooting a colony by mistake. Roland had found himself locked in combat with the prototype, and though he ultimately destroyed it, he felt pity for its tuber pilot.

His specific feelings about that battle were something he’d really only shared with Charlotte, and for a moment, he missed the pillar of understanding and support he’d had. Of course, since he was a professional, he refocused on his mission.

“I can’t believe we’re about to throw nukes around,” Liability said. “Try not to get too close, alright?”

“Can our Panzerters survive a nuclear blast?” Witch asked.

“It’s not quite like that in space,” Roland said. “The nuclear torpedo was bad because it could go off in the colony’s atmosphere and turn the whole thing into a huge bomb. Nukes are rough in the atmosphere because the X-rays they give off super-heat the atmosphere in an instant and create shockwaves. In space, there’s no atmosphere to create shockwaves, but those X-rays will still heat things up to lethal levels, and the EMP will fry electronics. It’s why they’re good against the defense stations and ships.”

He took a breath after his rather long-winded explanation and watched the Tigers push off from the Baltica’s hull. Roland made sure to give them a wide berth, even though it took a very specific set of circumstances to create a nuclear explosion and, as he’d established, the nukes had a small radius in space. Maybe it’s some deep-seated ancestral memory. If history class was anything to go by, I have plenty of reason to be wary.

He recalled a painting his father kept on the mantle, one he’d inherited from Roland’s great-grandfather when he’d died. It was a beautiful painting, a snowy city at night. The buildings ranged from across history: towering cathedrals and domed churches rose towards the sky, with apartment blocks, houses, and shops packed between them. On a hill overlooking the city, a majestic castle illuminated the light coming from city, and surrounded by pine trees stood vigilant. Its lone companion was a single star in the night sky. His father had told him that over a century ago, their great grandfather’s grandfather had come from the serene-looking place, before it had been lost to an atomic fireball. The boiler plate at the bottom read Salzburg.

The Tiger squadron broke up into divisions so that each of the Gulf’s escort squadrons only had to protect four Panzerters.

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