Resolute Victory (The War for Terra) by James Prosser

Author:James Prosser [Prosser, James]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2014-05-24T07:00:00+00:00

18

Battleship Resolute

Lee almost shouted as the image on the projection screen cleared. Coming out of M-space and waiting for the energy corona to dissipate was always a dicey proposition, but with Connor Jakes along for the ride, it was downright terrifying. Resolute and Sweet Liberty translated from the membrane between universes outside the orbit of the Ch’Tauk monastery world’s shepherd moon. As the energy bled away from the battleship, Lee saw the side of the Sweet Liberty brushing against Resolute’s scanners.

“Jakes,” Lee said, as calmly as he could. “I swear if you ever do that again I will shoot that ship of yours, myself.”

The screen flashed from the retreating yacht to the smiling face of Connor Jakes. He had returned to his ship after the conversation with Admiral Chang and the two captains had made plans. Melaina Petros could be seen standing just over his shoulder on the bridge of the ship. The man had tied his long black hair back from his face and changed into a fresh white shirt, but still wore the battered leather vest that had become a trademark of the pirate.

“Aww, Captain Pearce,” Jakes said from his bridge. “Ya’ll ain’t no fun. It was a mistake, anyways. When Bonnie turned us outta the hole, she didn’t see ya. Ya’ll know how that fireball works. It’s hard to see anything.”

Lee remembered the woman known as “Bonnie” as a former prisoner of the Ch’Tauk he had rescued years ago with Henry Moore. The woman had become a competent pilot, but signed on with Connor Jakes after being asked by Chang to report on the man’s activities. Lee was surprised the woman had stayed on with the Corsairs. If Lee remembered, she was the only woman other than Melaina to travel with the rogues.

“We’re not here to make mistakes, Jakes,” Lee said. “Just keep ready while we scan. I need you to hang back as backup if we run into trouble.”

“Trouble?” Jakes replied with a grin. “We’re only deep into enemy territory chasin’ down a xenophobic politician with a big damn gun. What could possibly go wrong?”

The image snapped off as the Sweet Liberty swung around behind Resolute. Farthing brought up a tactical scan of the system with their ships as glowing green dots behind a small moon. They had only the most basic information regarding the system. Most of what they knew had been brought along when the ship was assigned to an invasion fleet six years ago. There were two moons of the monastery planet, as well as a few large asteroids. Resolute had exited behind the smallest of the moons to avoid detection.

“Sir,” Goldstein announced from the pilot’s station. “We’re receiving navigational telemetry.”

“From where?” Lee asked. “We don’t have any probes here.”

“It’s from another ship, Captain,” the co-pilot replied. “It’s an Alliance signal. Transponder shows it to be the Victory.”

A stab of panic spread across Lee’s back as he thought about the other battleship. Melaina Petros had tried to estimate the time needed to repair the ship based on the data embedded in the video transmission.

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.