Northwest Passage: A Military Sci-Fi Series (Drop Trooper: Birthright Book 3) by Rick Partlow

Author:Rick Partlow [Partlow, Rick]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aethon Books
Published: 2022-09-19T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 12

MITCHELL

“You really think this is going to work?” Deke said, looking as if he was trying hard not to fidget.

“Little late to be asking that,” I muttered, trying to fight off a general irritation that went back nearly a week to when we’d left the Naga base.

Kara shot me a knowing look before answering him. “No reason why it shouldn’t,” she said soothingly. “According to the files Robert dug up, the fleet is expecting a supply shuttle from the base. We even have the right codes and ID thanks to him.”

“Yeah, he’s a real sweetheart,” Deke murmured, eyes going back to the tactical display projected above the Dutchman’s main control board.

I let my gaze drift towards it as well, lacking anything else to keep me busy. The Dutchman was a hazy, blue-tinged delta shape moving at a respectable fraction of lightspeed under impellers towards this system’s only terrestrial planet: a worthless, lifeless rock-ball. We’d emerged from T-space at the inner jump point, broadcasting the codes Cutter had obtained at the Naga base, but we’d first entered the system far out near its cometary halo in the orbit of a long-period ice giant. That was where the Ariel and Cutter’s little squadron still waited, while the four of us headed for the Naga fleet which was gathered around the terrestrial like nomads around a campfire.

Heavily armed nomads, I corrected myself.

Gregorian had gathered himself together quite the little armada for a theoretical private citizen, starting with your normal corporate lighters and culminating in what had to be a Tahni War-era light cruiser, bristling with military-grade weaponry. I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised that the corrupt former head of the Commonwealth’s premiere intelligence organization could scrounge together some retired Fleet warships if he needed to…but I wondered what he expected to find on the other side of the Passage that he thought he’d need that much firepower.

I wish we’d been headed for the cruiser, because I didn’t like that big of a hammer in the hands of unfriendlies, but the shuttle had been scheduled to rendezvous with one of the lighters. I had to admit to myself that even for me, Deke, Trint and Kara, taking out the whole crew of a light cruiser without alerting the rest of the ships might have been problematic.

Trint was strapped into the acceleration couch behind me, silent as the grave, his arms crossed over his barrel chest. Neither he nor Rachel had been happy after the events on the moon base and Rachel hadn’t been nearly as silent about it. Not that I blamed her. I hadn’t been too happy about Cutter’s play back on that moon, but I wasn’t sure what she’d wanted me to do. Alienate our only ally to save the lives of five mercenaries that had deserted military service to work for an illegal private intelligence agency that was trying to kill us?

Shit, if only there was more time…

“Now comes the real test,” Kara said, a bit of tension barely perceptible in her voice.

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