Heroes of Helios (Star Crusades Nexus, Book 3) by Michael G. Thomas

Author:Michael G. Thomas [Thomas, Michael G.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Swordworks
Published: 2013-12-04T18:30:00+00:00

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The crash site was more like the after-effect of a meteorite impact. A scar almost twenty meters deep ran behind the ship and through scores of buildings. Two massive concrete towers had been torn in half, and hundreds of other buildings lay in ruin. From the ground level, the brown fog appeared much thinner, but the fires and smoke caused by the crash had once more reduced visibility to less than a hundred meters. Emergency airlocks had opened at key points through the ship, as well as throughout the evacuation decks on the dorsal level along the spine on the vessel. From one of the small doors emerged the coughing shape of Jack Morato, closely followed by his three marine comrades, five Helion guests, and the two crewmen that joined them just prior to the crash.

“This is insane!” said Thai Qiu-Li as she climbed out onto the surface of the ship.

Hunn moved through the door and stopped, bending down to touch the metal plating on the exterior of the powerful warship.

“Can you feel the heat? Is she burning inside?”

The form of Lieutenant Rossen emerged, the last to leave the evacuation deck where they had been waiting. She heard Hunn’s question and moved on past him and to the others along the curved upper level.

“No, the heat is from the re-entry. Look at her. I’d say she survived the landing pretty well.”

Wictred laughed at her words.

“Landing! What would you call a crash?”

The Ambassador moved along the side of the ship, examining the burn marks and damage. Some of it must have been from the descent, but there were other areas that showed obvious impacts and weapon damage. He stopped at one the worst and reached out to touch the fused material. Jack spotted him and grabbed his hand before he could touch it.

“Are you serious? You’ll burn your hand off touching that.”

The smoke and dust started to clear a little more, and they could now see large groups of Alliance personnel leaving from scores of exit points. The ship was clearly in a bad way but was still intact. Emergency vents dumped excess gases and heat from ruptured internal sections, and yet there was still power to large parts of her hull. Jack watched in surprise as the descent vanes withdrew back into the hull just a short distance from where they stood. The group continued their downward progress along the curved hull and to one of the large ribs that ran out and touched the ground. Along three sides were grab rails, designed for use in zero-g situations. Shapes in the dust and fog moved about, but from that distance it was hard to tell who they might be.

“Lieutenant Rossen, are there evacuation craft on the way?”

She pulled out her datapad to find the communication section showing as blank.

“Weird.”

She shook the device and then tossed it to Thai Qiu-Li.

“What do you make of that?”

Thai Qiu-Li examined the screen and made several adjustments before throwing it back. She withdrew her own unit and shook her head in surprise.

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