Stars on Fire: A Spectacular Starlit Romance (The Sable Riders Book 1) by Sky Gold

Author:Sky Gold [Gold, Sky]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Eden Publishing
Published: 2023-02-25T16:00:00+00:00

10

Good Stalking

Selene

The descent to Dunia was slightly bumpy as Mirage dove around pockets of compressed air and wind as it burnt through the atmosphere.

Mirage’s thrusters had to work hard to deliver multi-g deceleration that would ensure a smooth landing.

The temperature inside the gunship warmed slightly, but due to its super-efficient shields, its interior escaped most of the massive heat generated outside.

Selene felt her body tighten in anticipation of what was to come. This was the final push.

Gaining control of Dunia’s military command centres, seats of government, infrastructure hubs, and landing zones and ports was the most critical step. They had to succeed. There was no other option.

Mirage broke through the atmosphere and below them unfurled the Arumba continent, home to millions of people, including the inhabitants of New Malindi.

Kainan, still taciturn and stoic, guided Mirage towards Zaalalum. The jungle came rushing towards Selene’s holo screen, and she took a deep breath in, leaning forward until she noticed a dark mass over the sprawling forest.

A storm front.

They hit it with such impact that Mirage shuddered against the powerful external forces of nature. Selene gulped as large plate-sized salvos of water flung horizontally from drenched skies slammed down to the planet’s surface. Lightning flared; moments later, a series of thunder crashes rocked the gunship.

‘Dammit!’ Kainan snapped as Mirage struggled against the planet’s fury. ‘Mirage, revert more power to your dampeners. We’re getting slammed out there!’

‘Something’s happening, khosi.’ Kage’s voice thundered, radioing in from his corvette. ‘We’re seeing massive storms picking up all over the continent.’

‘Here too,’ Xion said on-screen, his usually calm face screwed up in concern. ‘The trees above Rambasa are going crazy, moving against the wind, kicking up leaves and hail. Visibility is shit.’

By then, Mirage was close to the tree line above Zaalalum’s hidden altiphyte valley, now a seething mass of movement. On the view screen, soaring phytaphylia trees whipped themselves from side to side. Mirage managed to duck a long-reaching thorny gametangium that unfurled from its trunk. Selene watched in shock as brachyphia ferns rose in waves above ground, crashing against themselves in a fury, aided by the extreme forces of vertical and horizontal wind shear.

‘It’s the planet!’ Selene whispered.

Kainan whipped around to face her. ‘Did you say the planet? Selene, what-in-the-actual is going on? Because this storm is not natural at all. It’s not letting us through.’

Selene stared back at him wide-eyed. ‘I think I know what’s going on. I believe Dunia is resisting.’

‘Dafokk?’ Kainan ground out, his brow furrowed deeply.

‘The planet is semi-sentient,’ she told him. ‘It’s fighting us. It probably thinks we will harm it and the people of Dunia because our corvettes attacked the spaceport and the other locations. So it now thinks that we’re the enemy.’

Kainan’s eyes narrowed slightly at her words. Then he shook his head and whipped his chair back to the controls.

‘Mirage, pull back up to a safe altitude, out of reach of the tree line. Sable Team and all corvettes in space above the planet, please do the same. And stay safely above the storm in a holding pattern until Her Excellency and I sort this out.

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