Freedom's Fate (Freedom's Fire Book 6) by Bobby Adair

Author:Bobby Adair [Adair, Bobby]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-04-29T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 30

We pop out of our sixth bubble half a million miles from the moon, much closer than I’d have preferred. We’re at a range from which a Gray might detect us, but Phil isn’t comfortable with making our last jump down to the moon from more than a few light-seconds away.

“Phil?” I ask, as seconds tick by.

He doesn’t answer.

Our bubble jump computer could have made this last break between jumps strobe past, but Phil isn’t letting the computer control everything on this trip. After each jump, he’s been manually checking our position against where the computer said we’d be. So far, so good, but once Phil gets an idea in his head, it takes a long time for his interest to find a new problem to nag.

“Even if a Gray sees us,” says Lenox, “we’ll be there before it figures out what we are.”

“And before it has time to commune with its pod on what to do about it,” adds Silva.

“The assault started seven minutes ago.” Brice’s gaze comes to rest on Phil; Brice wants Phil to know he’s not pleased. “If they’re on schedule.” It’s a rare, double dig. Phil worked through the math on the orbital dynamics that put our assault forces on their intercept paths with the battle stations. If they didn’t arrive on schedule or came down out of sync, it would be Phil’s fault. As for our delay, Brice puts the blame unequivocally on what he saw as Phil’s unreasonably cautious approach. “The war is calling.”

I look at my d-pad to confirm the time. We’re close enough, though I’d have preferred to arrive before the assault started. Now every gunner on the moon will be at the ready, or already shooting, if the Grays figured out that they can pelt the battle stations with their small-caliber railguns and kill off our assault teams before they get inside.

“Won’t work,” says Phil.

“What?” I ask, pissed. “The jump?”

“No, shooting at the battle stations. At max velocity for their small-caliber guns, it’ll take hours for the rounds to cover the distance from the moon to the earth. The troops will all be inside by the time the rounds impact.”

“Phil,” I tell him, “stop reading my thoughts and concentrate on what you need to do.”

“We're ready now," he says, turning to me for the final go.

I don’t hesitate. “Jump.”

The ship flashes bubble blue.

One Mississippi.

Two Mississippi.

Why am I counting?

The blue sizzles out.

“Shit!” cries Lenox. Nothing is showing on her screens but gray lunar rocks.

Before Lenox’s shout fades from the comm, Phil pushes every amp of ship power into the grav lens, just as we impact.

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.