Glory Boy: A Military Sci-Fi Series (Drop Trooper: Birthright Book 1) by Rick Partlow

Glory Boy: A Military Sci-Fi Series (Drop Trooper: Birthright Book 1) by Rick Partlow

Author:Rick Partlow [Partlow, Rick]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aethon Books
Published: 2022-07-25T16:00:00+00:00


CHAPTER 17

"I'm Georgia Matias," the woman said, shaking my hand.

She was probably in her mid forties or fifties, with the weathered look of someone who spent most of their time outdoors in the sun and wind, something the normal antiagathic treatments couldn't erase the way they did the other marks of the years. Her skin was the brown of turned earth and her grip was firm and dry, with the rough feel of someone who worked with her hands. She wore work utilities with the look of use to them and had an old Gauss rifle slung on her left shoulder.

I liked her. She reminded me of mom.

"Cal," I told her, which was as much as I was allowed. "Nice to meet you."

"You're the leader of the militia?" Holly asked her, stepping in to introduce herself as well.

"I suppose I'm as close to a leader as there is for this little mash-up," Matias said with a sigh, glancing around at the hundred-odd armed civilians loosely arranged in a security perimeter under the cover of the forest canopy.

We were only three kilometers from the outskirts of the city, less than that from the Tahni base and the whole situation made me squirrelly as hell. I knew that we had to have them formed up this close or they'd get intercepted en route; but we were very vulnerable to drones and satellites here despite the overhead cover of the tree canopy and the electromagnetic full-spectrum jamming that Jaden and her partner, a chubby-faced little man named Abel, had assured us would keep them undetected.

The two halves of the DSI team designated "Archer" were huddled with Brian and Deke among the massive roots of a century-old oak, discussing the plan for the attack. I don't know why I had followed Holly to meet the leaders of the militia; part of me didn't want to think about them at all, since all I could think of was how much they reminded me of my neighbors, and how many of them would probably wind up getting killed.

"How well are your people drilled?" Holly asked her, cross-checking what Jaden had told her. I nodded slightly to myself; Holly was smart, and she was picking up this game faster than I was, faster than anyone but Mat, I thought.

"We practiced as much as we could," the older woman answered with what felt like pained honesty in her voice and a wince in her expression, squatting down in the wet grass as if her instinct was to get low to avoid observation. It was probably more psychological than practical but we dropped down also. "But we couldn't gather in very big numbers till now, or we'd have been detected. Mostly the squads drilled together in groups of ten or fewer."

I looked at the militia members closest to us, saw a guy probably younger than me laying flat on the ground beside a downed tree, grasping his rifle like a totem, lines of fear around his eyes. He had long, blond hair tied into a ponytail, and it reminded me of dad.



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.