The Legacy of Earth (Children of Earthrise Book 6) by Daniel Arenson

The Legacy of Earth (Children of Earthrise Book 6) by Daniel Arenson

Author:Daniel Arenson [Arenson, Daniel]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Publisher: Moonclipse
Published: 2018-09-03T04:00:00+00:00


CHAPTER TWENTY

Port Addison, a city of a quarter million people, spread across the landscape below, nestled between river, mountain, and plains. Here was the first colony humans had founded on Earth since returning from exile. Here was the jewel of humanity. Here was Bay's home.

The nuclear weapon was diving toward it, leaving a fiery trail through the sky.

Bay groaned, gritting his teeth, barely clinging to consciousness as his Firebird swooped after it.

The civilians were in their bomb shelters.

But Bay knew: If this nuke hits the ground, they're dead.

He opened fire. The Firebird's rotary cannon spun. His bullets missed … then ran out.

Bay stared in horror.

"We're out again!" he shouted. "Rowan! Anyone! We need more Firebirds!"

But the others were too far above, still fighting in orbit.

"Oh Ra," Bay said. "Brooklyn, we can't do it."

Brooklyn shared the cockpit, squeezed beside him in the seat.

"We're not letting it blow," she said.

"But—"

"We're not letting it blow!" she said, shoving all her weight against the throttle.

The Firebird swooped. Seventy kilometers above the surface. Sixty. Fifty.

The nuke was dropping fast.

Brooklyn sneered and gave the Firebird every last drop of power.

Twenty kilometers above Port Addison, they passed the nuke.

Just a few meters below the nuke, Brooklyn swerved and flew back upward, engines blazing on furious afterburner.

The flames from their exhaust bathed the nuclear weapon.

Its casing twisted, heated up, began to melt. Brooklyn swerved again. Again. Washing the nuke with her afterburner until the bomb ripped open.

The nuke did not detonate. A nuclear reaction required a meticulous chain effect, one the weapon was probably programmed to initiate closer to the colony. But as the nuclear weapon tore open, uranium spilled. It rained toward the colony, highly radioactive.

"Our boys on the ground will have to clean up the mess," Bay said. "It'll be a big mess. And we might be eating three-eyed fish and talking bananas for a while. But we just saved a quarter million lives. You saved them, Brooklyn."

She grinned. "Not bad, considering I've only been human for a couple of months. Brooklyn Emery, savior of the Earth!"

"Oh, you're an Emery now, are you?" Bay said.

"Sure am. I'm living inside Rowan's clone, remember? And she's an Emery, so so am I." She frowned. "So so. Is that proper grammar?"

"We'll figure it out later. Get us back into space. We still have to—"

On the horizon, a massive white ball of light flared.

A shock wave slammed into Bay's Firebird, hurling it backward in the sky.

A mushroom cloud flared, shrieking, expanding, shaking the atmosphere and ground.

It must have been a thousand kilometers away. But it rocked even Port Addison below, flipping trailers over and cracking the Terranon.

"That blast came from Kemtown," Bay whispered. "Brooklyn, what is the population of Kemtown?"

She stared, eyes wide, face pale. "Seven thousand and fourteen people," she whispered, voice cracking.

Silence fell across the comms.

Pilots were staring.

Bay heard a few pilots gasp, others cry.

Bay took the joystick from Brooklyn.

He narrowed his eyes, gritted his teeth, and soared back into space.

Only a few basilisk starships remained. The human forces were still pounding them.



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