Star Fallen by Joshua James & Daniel Young

Author:Joshua James & Daniel Young [James, Joshua & Young, Daniel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-12-22T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 16

“What are your capabilities, Greyston?” Engano asked as they headed across the hangar.

“I’ve had some basic flight training, but I’m probably not much use in a real dogfight. But I aced my sharpshooter—”

“In the facility, Greyston,” Engano said, feeling the huge vein in her forehead throbbing. “Why would I care about your personal capabilities?”

“Ah,” he said, followed by silence as he furrowed his brows and seemed to contemplate if Engano would ever actually care about his personal capabilities.

Engano glanced around, genuinely wondering if anyone would care if she killed him. She could just reach out and strangle him. It would be so easy. She pictured the stupid oaf, tongue dangling out as he lay on the ground, neck snapped, shitting himself. She smiled at that image in her mind.

Greyston smiled along with Engano. “That makes sense,” he said at last.

Before she could fully express how little sense Private Greyston made in the greater scheme of the universe, Ben spoke up. “This place is huge,” he said, looking around the hidden hangar.

“It should be,” Engano said. “We spent a trillion credits on it once upon a time.”

“I’ve never seen some of this equipment,” Ben said.

“We don’t like to overshare with the UEF,” Engano said. “So I’m not surprised.”

“I know your equipment pretty well,” he said. “I studied AIC tactical equipment extensively.”

“Good for you,” Engano said. “But I’m sure you studied current tech. Nothing in here is less than fifty years old.”

Ben shook his head. “Fifty years old?”

“If not older,” Greyston said. “This was all built long before the Great War.”

“Are you sure the Shapeless don’t know about this place?” Ben said to her.

“No,” Engano said bluntly. “That’s why we need to hurry.”

“The Shapeless?” asked Greyston.

Engano waved his question away. She had enough of a headache already without trying to educate Greyston on that topic. “What about those capabilities, Greyston?” she asked. “The facility capabilities,” she reiterated.

“Hard to say for sure, ma’am,” Greyston said. He was walking double-time just to keep up with her, even though he was ostensibly leading the way. “We got about forty fighters in the short hangar. Mark-10s.”

Ben coughed. “Mark-10s? As in Mark-10s?” He pantomimed a fighter stick bucking in both hands.

Considering it was a miracle Engano had Greyston on topic, she didn’t really need Ben interrupting every second. “Beggars and choosers and all that,” she said.

“I suppose,” Ben said, shaking his head.

If Greyston understood the back and forth, his eyes didn’t show it. He continued as if there hadn’t been an interruption. “A little older, sure, but still flightworthy. Well, mostly. Hence the need for all this maintenance. These old buckets of bolts need a little loving before they’re ready. Then we have two troop transports. A general’s cruiser—”

“A general’s cruiser?” Engano asked. “In here?”

They were quite large, maybe half the size of a dreadnought. She hadn’t expected one here. It could be useful.

“Not a full-sized one,” Greyston said. “It’s a little bit bigger than a raider-class ship, meant to look like a luxury liner. It was meant to transport VIPs undetected in case of something, well, like what’s going on here.

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