Lost Horizons: A Military Sci-Fi Adventure (The Descending Worlds Book 2) by Justin S. Leslie

Author:Justin S. Leslie [Leslie, Justin S.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Podium Publishing
Published: 2024-03-26T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 18

_______

Nine Lives

The familiar vibration of entering a gate had increased to the point of rattling out teeth as the massive, combined behemoth of the Murphy now attached to the Crow’s docking stall slowly poked its nose through the shimmering anomaly in space. After several hours of calculating the risks, the decision had been made to test the boundaries of their small gate drive, proving once again how powerful the tech was.

“See, I told you so. No problem. I’ll have an oil change and lube by the time those other ships are able to flush a toilet. Which, by the way, when Alurians go number two, they—” Albert droned on before Dailey cut him off.

“We can talk about this after we get through this gate,” Dailey said, seeing a bead of sweat dripping from Becket’s forehead. The Nova Ranger’s First Sergeant had vocally made his opinion of gating known. For the man who had been in more significant emotionally violent events than the devil himself, it was the little things that got to him. Most notable were things and events out of his control, such as gating.

As for the two Alurian ships, Albert had pulled off what could only be called a stroke of genius. Seeing that the Crow had not been thoroughly tested and Dailey’s general disinterest in getting stuck at the far edges of another galaxy, the AI had caused as much chaos as possible.

After witnessing the Starfire Reaper’s capabilities of destroying large chunks of the remaining depot to get to the prize, it was a simple stall and redirect tactic. Albert had fired all the ship’s primary laser and plasma systems, knowing from the output readings of the Alurian vessels they would do little more than produce a chaotic laser light show.

While calculating each individual laser’s targeting through the mess of wrecked hulls and the depot itself, Albert had spent the rest of his time reprogramming the constructo bots to engage and disassemble the two ships in an attempt to self-salvage themselves. In doing so, Vergosh had ordered the Starfire Reaper and the Nebula Fury to eject any damaged parts of the ship.

One significant and not wholly planned outcome was the disabling of the ship’s gating abilities, leaving them stuck in the system and also hampering their ability to communicate over vast distances, a trick Dailey and the others had quickly learned to exploit.

After another hour of pulling constructo bots off the Alurian hulls like ticks, the Murphy and crew had made their way safely out of the debris field. It would take weeks, if not months, to get the two Alurian ships back into some semblance of functioning vessels. The only risk Dailey could see was the graveyard of ships and spare parts floating around them.

Pearl cut in over the comms while the last of the vibrations wrinkled through the ship. “It appears we are clear of the gate entrance. All systems are showing stable, and as of ten seconds ago, Sparky decided to take a nap beside the mech.

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