The Third Side (Battle for the Solar System, #2) by Stephen J Sweeney

Author:Stephen J Sweeney
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: space opera, science fiction
Publisher: Stephen J Sweeney

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Estelle held on tight to her rifle, breathing hard and praying silently for a miracle. She didn't want to be doing this. Not for the first time that day, her father's words came back to her. She felt she was finally in over her head; this was all too much.

Along with Thompson and Stafford, the group rounded their barricades and headed down the road, into the thick of battle. The road up ahead was laden with the remains of a collapsed overhead walkway. The incline of the structure was such that it permitted them to clamber up the mound and gain a commanding view of the battle further on. Almost at once, Estelle heard shouts for her and Chaz to duck into cover, and position themselves where they would have an advantage over their adversaries. Even before she did so, the scene that greeted her was enough to make her want to flee back the way she'd come.

People were running in every direction, trading gunfire and explosions. Bright green plasma bolts flew all around – across the lengths and widths of adjoining streets; from the ground, up into buildings and back down again. Rockets joined them, whistling through the air and smashing into walls and the remains of other still-standing structures. The impacts tore gaping holes in the constructions, covering everything beneath in a shower of debris. On more than one occasion, soldiers taking refuge below were buried under a mound of rubble. The air was thick, too, with the cries of battle. Every other word Estelle heard uttered was either a curse at the enemy or a plea for backup and support. She fought to find the confidence to lean out of cover, find a target and lend her support. But every time she was ready to do so, a trail of bright green light would hurtle past her hiding place, often far too close for comfort. The few times she had managed to pull out, she had struggled to operate the weapon as effectively as she desired, her shots wild and far off target. The rifle possessed a great deal more recoil than she had originally anticipated, shuddering with every bolt she loosed off. She felt it was all too easy to lose control of the weapon and hit someone else. She had thought of Dodds and pulled back into cover.

She glanced over to Chaz, hunkered down not far from where she cowered. Unlike herself, the man was working the rifle as though it were second nature to him – watching his ammunition carefully, not firing for too long and causing the gun to overheat, and only moving out of cover long enough to assess where his targets were and where to shoot, but not enough for the enemy soldiers to get a bead on him.

“Hold them! Hold them!” Estelle heard a cry from somewhere around her. She peeped out of her cover again, to see a host of red eyes swarming towards the bottom of the mound.

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