Guardian (War Angel Book 1) by David Hallquist

Author:David Hallquist [Hallquist, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Theogony Books
Published: 2021-03-22T22:00:00+00:00

* * *

“Break!” I and Rackham call out at once.

Gravity slams me around as I go into a wild series of evasive maneuvers, like the rest of the wing. We’re dodging through space, desperately trying to avoid the laser fire none of us will ever see unless it actually hits us. Terran craft and weapons platforms give off the tell-tale signatures in infrared and microwave, indicating they’re firing lasers and particle beams at the Lunars and us. Flares of light and heat bloom on the armored hulls of our fleet’s big ships as they take hits. A flare of raging x-rays and expanding plasma marks the death of Allen “Archer” Wallis as a gamma-beam burns through his frame.

All that in less than a second.

Time slows from a combination of adrenaline and my cyber-augments running at maximum. Ship movements and missile tracks become slow enough to see and react to, and even the terrible rain of beam fire becomes comprehensible. It’s now possible to think and act at the same speed that this computer-dominated war is running at. I might even be fast enough to save our lives.

“All Angels, fire heavy on marked targets,” Rackham’s calm voice cuts through the chaos. A series of target priorities come up from Chimera’s core: primary targets like weapons platforms and cruisers; secondary targets like missile bombers, gunships, and fighters; and a long set of tertiary targets, including nearly any Terran military ship in space. ‘Fire heavy’ means we can unleash our heavy weapons, the nuclear ship-killer missiles.

I focus my squadron’s targeting on two big Terran cruisers heading our way. I figure the missile bombers will flush all their missiles before ours can hit them, and the stationary weapons platforms will mostly neutralize each other after exchanging fire. Those cruisers, though, they’re a real long-term threat that can keep pouring heavy weapons fire into the fleet until they’re taken out.

Blazing plasma temporarily blinds me as all twelve of my Lancer multi-role missiles roar out of my twin missile bays. I instantly dodge again, figuring I’ve just made myself even more noticeable. The rest of my squadron follows suit, unleashing their missiles on the two Terran cruisers, creating a small cluster of blue stars racing off to the enemy.

More missiles roar away into the battle from the rest of the Angels, drones, and capital ships of our fleet. The other Angels and drones are firing missiles similar to our Lancers, while swarms of giant capital missiles pour like rain out of our cruisers.

It will be long, slow seconds before any of those missiles influence the outcome of this battle. All around us, space is filling with missile tracks. Everyone has to get their ordnance in flight before they’re taken out, and there’s no shortage of targets. Missile platforms, missile bombers, frigates, and cruisers launch everything at nearly the same time. Because of light delay, it looks like the storm of war is expanding outward from around my own position, but it probably looks like that to everyone out here.

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.