Scales of Envy (Uplink Squadron Book 7) by J.N. Chaney & Chris Kennedy

Author:J.N. Chaney & Chris Kennedy [Chaney, J.N.]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Publisher: Variant Publications
Published: 2023-04-16T00:00:00+00:00

BLASTER THREE OH ONE, HANGAR BAY, TSS INDEPENDENCE

“Are you going to be done in time?” Jimenez asked as she walked up to her fighter.

“Yes, ma’am,” the ordnanceman said, stepping back from the MER on station one. “We’re just doing the final continuity checks. We’ll be finished in five minutes.”

“What do you want me to do?”

The tech smiled. “Go ahead and do your pre-flight like you normally would, just keep your fingers off the weapons panel, if you would please. We don’t want any stray voltage running through the MERs at the moment.”

“I’ll be careful,” Jimenez said. She did her exterior walkaround, stopping next to one of the MERs to look at the smaller missiles. After flying with the anti-ship ones for so long, the anti-fighter missiles looked almost like toys in comparison. Still, she knew each was topped with a small nuclear charge which would be devastating inside the pressurized hangar bay. No matter how small, a nuke was still a nuke, and she had a very healthy respect for even the little ones.

“We’re all done,” the tech called as she was finishing her exterior inspection. “Go get ‘em, ma’am!”

“That’s the plan,” she said with a smile. She climbed into the fighter, strapped in, then plugged into the system.

“I’ve already got the system warmed up,” Daiyu said. “All we need to do is get the motors started.”

That was completed quickly, and Jimenez was ready a couple of minutes later. “Ready?” she asked.

“Yeah,” Daiyu said. “Time to go save the world from stupidity… again.”

Outside the system, Jimenez saluted the catapult officer, and the fighter was thrown out into space.

“Let me know when you have them,” Jimenez said. She turned toward the rendezvous point, and as the first one there, set up the holding pattern.

“I’ve got them,” Daiyu said after a few moments. “Looks like they match the link picture.”

Jimenez nodded. “Well, at least they got that right.” The Fulbans were the first to pick up the incoming strike and were managing its position in the link. The link almost always reflected reality… but it was always good to check. As they’d learned in wargaming with the Fulbans, sometimes you saw what you expected to see, and the prudent aviator confirmed what they were being shown when possible.

“Here’s something we haven’t looked at with the Legastians,” Jimenez said as a thought came to her.

“What’s that?” Daiyu asked.

“Do the Legastians have a link signal?”

“I don’t know. I’ve usually been too busy to worry about it. Why?”

“I was just wondering if they had one, and if so, is there an opportunity to exploit it.”

“In what manner?”

“In every manner possible of course.” Jimenez chuckled. “I was thinking about how the Fulbans tricked us when we were wargaming, and I was wondering whether we could use it to either get them to think we’re where we’re not. Or, to think that there are more or less of us, depending on the situation. What I’d really love is if they run their missile launches off of it, and we could get them to fire in the wrong direction.

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