Escalation by Aer-ki Jyr

Author:Aer-ki Jyr [Jyr, Aer-ki]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2012-10-24T16:00:00+00:00

7

Warrant Officer Julia Peskin looked out the pressurized cockpit of her A-22 ‘frog,’ situated between four attached engines that pivoted to provide both lift thrust and forward/lateral momentum. Current the two widely spaced forward engines were tipped well forward, gaining the A-22 as much speed as it could manage as it and the 107 other such craft flew towards the approaching Star Force walkers across the 15 mile wide gap that was ever so slowly decreasing.

To the frogs, however, that distance wasn’t significant, and they would be engaging the enemy within minutes. Julia’s primary target had been tagged as the big starboard walker, which was even now, 10 miles away, visible on the horizon and growing in size by the second. The image ran a shiver of fear through Julia’s lithe body, making her feel like Luke Skywalker making a run against the AT-ATs on Hoth…and everyone knew how that turned out.

A flash of light crossed her peripheral vision as her target fired off another of the energy bursts at the base, less than 200 meters to her left. She blinked away the residual light in her retinas and focused on her target and the best approach angle to take on the behemoth, which would probably be a lateral strike against the largest cross section and well away from its big gun.

Feeling a bit psychic, tactical data flooded her cockpit monitor, indicating the exact attack vector she’d been visualizing, provided by her squadron commander. They’d hold to this line of flight until they came within 2 miles, then swing around to make the assault pass and unload all of their missiles into its side. If the attack worked, they would have time to fly back and reload for another run on the other heavy walker, and maybe even a strike at the third before the Star Force troops got to the base.

Gripping her controls through pressure suit gloves, Julia’s finger caressed the firing button, unsure of how much opposition they would get on approach. Before any further doubts could worm their way into her mind a pirate signal cut through into her headset, as well as those for all the other frog pilots.

“This is Archon Ryan-096, commander of the Star Force ground troops you are currently flying to engage.”

“How the hell are they…?” she mumbled, wondering how they got through the encryption.

“We’re not here to kill you,” Ryan assured them. “We’re here to remove you from the planet and confiscate this base…along with all the other American, Japanese, British, German, West African, South African, and Indian territories on Mars. All those parties involved in this war are being kicked off the planet and back to Earth, we’re just starting with you because you’re the best. If we have to fight you for this base, our victory will encourage others to surrender without a fight, but I’d prefer we didn’t have to.”

Julia glanced at her rangefinder as the miles clicked off, wondering how far out the approaching walkers could target them.

“I

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