Star Crusades by Michael G. Thomas

Author:Michael G. Thomas
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: coming of age, marine, female lead, space marine, marine scifi, female sci fi
Publisher: Swordworks Books

The increased gravity hit her body harder than expected, especially her lungs. Tex automatically augmented her blood flow with additional oxygen, plus a cocktail of other enhancements to keep her moving at peak efficiency. Almost immediately two of the lances opened fire on the distant weapon installations. The conventional firearms did little more than scratch the surface, but the rockets and XHEC cannons blasted great chunks away from the outer armour.

“Novas, spread out. Heavies hit the guns, everybody else clear the Ski’ligs if they come too close.”

Valentine might carry the lighter limbs, but she also carried the overcharged XHEC-1 cannon on her shoulder, a weapon ideally suited for the destruction of ground assets.

Tex, I need all the power you can spare. I need overload.

The power indicator on the weapon quickly reached critical, so high that if she didn’t fire it would be likely to malfunction, perhaps even blow itself apart.

“Firing!”

Her armour took the brunt of the recoil, but it was still enough to twist her shoulder back nearly a centimetre. The servos pushed her back into position as the weapon recharged and fired again. One shot after another slammed into the nearest of the weapon platforms, and the gunfire ripped open the outer armour. Then came a massive explosion that saw a large part of the structure split apart and crash to the ground, scattering broken material all around them.

“Is that it?” Kallias asked.

But then the battery fired again, and pulses of red flashed overhead and off into space. Valentine looked more carefully and spotted the outer armour had gone, but that had done little more than expose the main support mounts for the guns.

“We need to keep hitting it.” She took aim, “Where’s our backup? We need the heavy artillery down here.”

“Forget the backup!” Kallias said, “Look!”

She looked up as Tsarkov called out.

“Contacts! I mean a lot more contacts.”

Valentine tried to count them, but even Tex couldn’t present the data fast enough as hundreds of the Ski’ligs swarmed from hiding places in the roof and walls of the diamond world.

“Novas! Form circle!” called out the Lieutenant as the shapes moved closer. Without even needing to check on their positions, each of the eight-man lances moved to form up into a loose circle, with the commanding NCO in the centre. With each of them facing outwards, it should prove impossible for the enemy to surprise or hit them from an unexpected direction.

“What about the guns?” Alexis shouted, “We’re here to protect the fleet.”

“Forget the fleet,” said Lieutenant Fletcher, “We can’t save them if we’re dead. Now into formation.”

He sounded furious as one by one they moved into circles. Valentine found herself facing away from the guns and towards the gaping mouth of the massive cavern high above their position. Another lance of Novas came in behind them, working their way down the paths as they struggled to catch up.

They made it!

Valentine had assumed they had been killed after losing their Jackals, but through luck or judgement they’d survived and made their way to the correct location.

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