Forged Under Siege by James David Victor

Author:James David Victor [Victor, James David]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Fairfield Publishing
Published: 2018-05-08T22:00:00+00:00

11

Sarah Reyes slid back under the tac boat’s forward landing strut with a large hammer in her fist as the pilot stood idly by.

“This is a sophisticated machine,” the pilot said. “I’m not sure a hammer is the right tool.”

“You never worked maintenance, did you?” she said as she lined up her shot. “If it doesn’t work, you haven’t used a big enough hammer.”

Reyes hit the articulated joint hard. The dull thump echoing around the Marine hangar deck. She shouted in between thumps.

“You. Will. Fit.”

The joint moved. Reyes relaxed for a moment and then slid back out from under the tac boat.

“There, try it now.”

The pilot looked over to Reyes. He was leaning against a weapons trolley.

“Now, pilot!” Reyes shouted. “I’ve got friends down there who need this stuff.”

The pilot sauntered over to the boarding ramp of the tac boat.

“I won’t get departure clearance now,” he said.

“What? What do you mean? They need these supplies.”

“There’s a wave of Chits incoming,” the pilot said casually, as if it was a shower of rain and not a massed attack by the deadliest enemy they had ever encountered. He showed Reyes the data feed on his handheld holopad. “See?” he said.

Reyes dropped the hammer on to her tool trolley. She opened a channel to Major Griff.

The call went unanswered. Reyes tried again. Nothing.

“He won’t answer you now,” the pilot said. “Maybe we should get to our shelters.”

“You are not going anywhere, do you hear me?” Reyes fixed the pilot with her big, dark eyes. She wiped her oily hands on a dirty cloth and grabbed her diagnostics pad. “Let’s get this thing ready to fly. The moment we are cleared to depart we are getting these supplies down there.”

The pilot shrugged. “Okay.” He leaned against the trolley stacked with pulse rifle ammunition and grenades, tapping away at his holopad.

“Thanks for lending a hand,” Reyes said sarcastically as she connected the diagnostic pad to the tac boat’s internal processor.

The pilot shrugged. “I fly them, not fix them,” he said without looking up.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.