Backstab by Aer-ki Jyr

Author:Aer-ki Jyr [Jyr, Aer-ki]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2013-03-27T16:00:00+00:00

6

“They’re moving to intercept,” Frankton said from the navigation console as Captain Davion took his Gargantuan-class freighter down into low orbit.

“How close?”

“Hold course and we’ll hit atmosphere first. After that I have no idea. The ballistics of this ship outside of a vacuum are beyond me.”

“It’s not the ship, it’s the shields,” Davion reminded him from the pilot’s seat. The rest of the bridge including the captain’s chair was empty, as was the rest of the ship, save for the Canderian assault shuttle waiting in the hangar bay. “They brake the atmosphere, not the hull.”

“Until they collapse,” Frankton said, making adjustments to the computer projections of their course. “I think we need to brake a bit sooner,” he said, sending a new revised route over to the pilot’s station.

“Worried about the in-atmosphere turn?” the Captain asked, taking the suggestion and altering their course slightly as they descended rapidly towards the planet in the oversized transport. The Starbright and her sister ships were the largest vessels in the Star Force fleet aside from the jumpships, capable of hauling an insane amount of cargo and personnel and barely fitting into the hulls of the interstellar transports. Fortunately the Hycre knew how to accommodate such large ships in transit, otherwise they never would have been able to bring in enough equipment to build the seda in the first place.

“At the speed we’re traveling, ‘difficult’ is an understatement.”

“Relax, I’ve got more than 50 years of piloting experience under my belt before I worked my way up to Captain, and a lot of that was with dropships. I’m well acquainted with atmosphere.”

Frankton frowned. “You flew dropships? I thought you were strictly a navy man.”

“I am now,” Davion said, tweaking their course a bit more as the wisps of upper atmosphere began to tug at the large ship. “But they just don’t hand over command of freighters to anyone like they did back in the day. You’ve got to work your way up, kid, and do so by demonstrating skill. Kiss ass will get you demoted in Star Force. I’ve seen it happen to lots of guys. Double check our exit.”

“Yes, sir,” the ship’s navigator said, sliding over to another console. “All doors read locked open from here to the hangar.”

“Range to enemy ships?”

Frankton slid back over to his normal station. “60 seconds out, but they’re going to have to decelerate before then or the atmosphere will bounce them back.”

“Don’t count on it. Check my alignment.”

“You’re four degrees high.”

“Good. That’s what I wanted. Hold on to your butt,” the Captain said, kicking in the conventional drives at full power.

The ship shook from the blast of acceleration, but thanks to the inertial dampeners neither man felt it. The massive engines at the rear of the elongated, yet fat gargantuan kicked out blue fire exhaust that churned against the upper atmosphere while the ship was flying backwards, causing a faster deceleration than friction alone would have allowed. The shields along the rear portion of the ship were down

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