The Link (AI Empire Book 1) by Isaac Hooke

Author:Isaac Hooke [Hooke, Isaac]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-02-01T08:00:00+00:00

12

Eric watched as the shuttle approached the outer extents of the world killer. The invisible energy shield was indicated on the video feed, displayed as a red ellipsoid around the donut ship, as recorded by their sensors during the previous attack.

Eric remembered the conversation he had with Jain before the mission.

“We’re going to have to decide on who’s in command,” Eric told the former SEAL.

“That would be a good idea,” Jain agreed. “Since it’s my shuttle, and my teleportation device, I’m in charge of course.”

“Not so fast,” Eric said. “Sure, I’ll let you command the shuttle, since it is yours, after all. But once we land on the world killer’s hull, I’m taking over. Invading alien warships is like second nature to myself and my Bolt Eaters. We’ve done it so many times, we could do it in our sleep.”

“I’ve boarded a few ships myself,” Jain said. “Plus, I was the commander of a Navy SEAL team. I’ve been leading men into battle for my entire adult life. I’m more than qualified to do this.”

“Yes,” Eric said. “But you’re a bit rusty. You’ve been leading starships. Which is completely different from small unit tactics.”

“Not so different,” Jain said.

Eric shook his head. “I’ve had the same training as you, thanks to my Mind Refurb nature.”

“Wait, you say I’m rusty?” Jain said. “As far as I can tell, the last battle you had was over eighty years ago.”

“But a Mind Refurb never forgets,” Eric said. “Eighty years ago might as well be yesterday. Besides, that was the last battle recorded by humans and Mind Refurbs. I’ve had more than my fair share of battles on Banthar Prime since then. The insurrections, the assassination attempts… the Banthar have kept my combat skills sharp, don’t you worry.”

Jain opened his mouth, but Eric raised a hand to forestall him.

“Look,” Eric said. “Let’s do it this way. We’ll go by who has the bigger mind.”

Jain frowned.

“And since that’s me—my mind is the size of a planet—I’m in command by default once we touch the alien hull,” Eric said. “But if anything happens to me, or my connection severs, then you take charge.”

Jain stared at him for several moments. For a second, Eric thought the former SEAL would disagree yet again. But then Jain shrugged.

Eric took it as tacit agreement, and smiled fleetingly at that. He wondered if Jain would acquiesce to his commands so easily during the actual mission. Probably not. But he was ready to spar with him if needed. And if they really came to blows, well, then Eric was ready to give the order for the two teams to go their separate ways. He only really needed the Void Warriors to get him inside. Once he was aboard, the Void Warriors could do whatever the hell they wanted as far as Eric was concerned. His Bolt Eaters were enough to handle the job.

“You know,” Brontosaurus said, bringing Eric out of his thoughts. “If it was so easy for you guys to create teleportation devices, maybe we should have had you create some teleport bombs for the rest of the fleet to use.

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.