Falcon's Bane: The Falcon Trilogy Book 3 (The Falcon Books) by Waller Mike

Author:Waller, Mike
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Rampart Publishing
Published: 2023-12-02T00:00:00+00:00

Joe stepped across behind the admiral. The man’s brow was furrowed, a hand raised to cover his mouth. Of the pods sent out, only four appeared to have been successful.

The fleet had withdrawn as soon as the pods were away. The admiral had no way of monitoring what was happening, but retreated to a safe distance in anticipation of success.

Within minutes of passing through, at least two pod pilots activated their bombs, and Joe’s expectations were confirmed. As anticipated, the shields directed the energy from the explosions back toward the targets, failing only when the alien generators ceased to function.

The force fields glowed incandescent as the bombs exploded, but contained the blast for less than a second. In the space of a heartbeat each shield failed and the blast forces expanded as two massive, miniature suns.

All four attackers for those two ships had escaped.

“Looks like we got the antimatter tanks,” Joe murmured.

For the other four behemoths, nothing changed.

Asgad shook his head. “This is not good. It appears eight of our people did not succeed, and we’re never going to get another shot at this. Any clue what happened, Joe?”

Joe remained silent, his head shaking slowly. He had no better idea than did the admiral but accepted the question had been asked out of politeness, in deference to his supposed rank. The president of Mars had pushed through his reinstatement and promotion regardless of his wishes.

A penny dropped in his mind. “There is still a possibility they are active,” he said. “When we first approached the Minaret we were taken by a tractor beam—something we haven’t yet managed to duplicate—and drawn into the Minaret‘s internal landing field. These ships are aware of anything and everything inside their shields, and that may be the case here. The other eight may have been captured by the enemy.”

“So they can still complete their missions?”

“Possibly. They’ll have minutes to act before the pods are disabled, so it depends on whether any of them will choose to make the ultimate sacrif…”

At that exact instant, two more shields blazed with light.

“Heads up, everyone,” Asgad shouted. Joe wrapped his arms around a support stanchion and braced his body for the anticipated shock waves that his mind knew would not come. If the devices exploded inside the ships, the generators would be damaged almost immediately and the force fields would fail far too quickly to limit the blast, but with no atmosphere the shock wave would be greatly reduced.

The second he grabbed the pole, another alien shield lit up, quickly followed by the sixth. A minute later, he eased his grip. He had held with such force his hands hurt, but he dismissed the pain. Subconsciously he knew the ship was safely distant, but the motion had been involuntary.

The mission was a success, but at least eight souls had paid the price. Joe’s skin prickled, his mouth dry. The bravery of those men and women was astounding, and he wondered if he would ever be able to show equal fortitude when the time came for his own demise.

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