Read Online Blood of Heroes (The Ember War Saga Book 3) by Richard Fox - Free Book Online

want but I think Gall would snip your balls off for that,” the pilot said.
    The corner of Hale’s mouth pulled into a grimace. The planning session with his ex-girlfriend had been rather one-sided. She, as she told him in no uncertain terms, was the ranking pilot in the air and she’d get him and his ground pounders where they needed to be, and out of there, without his bright ideas.
    He hadn’t found any fault with the air assault and evacuation plan she’d devised, and there wasn’t any reason to change things on the fly. He scrolled through a channel list to find the private channel to her Eagle, and hesitated. Durand’s default response to losing a pilot was anger, unfocused and unrelenting anger.
    He shrugged his shoulders and opened the channel.
    “Marie?”
    “What?” she snapped. “Don’t call me that when we’re on the clock.”
    “You alright? I heard about Kyle and Hornsby. I’m sorry.” Hale mentally kicked himself for starting this conversation, which felt exponentially worse with each word. He squeezed his eyes shut and readied for a tongue-lashing.
    “They didn’t…this isn’t necessary. You know that, right? Skipper’s got some sort of hero complex going on. We could all be home right now on an R&R chit to that resort Ibarra rebuilt in Hawaii,” Durand said.
    Hale checked to make sure he was talking to the right person.
    “Captain does what he wants. It’s his ship,” Hale said.
    “So you agree with him?”
    “I didn’t say that.” The Mule rattled through another bout of turbulence. Hale heard the whine and thunk of both turrets rotating, and he looked at the armored hatches closing off Bailey and Standish from the rest of the ship. Arrows painted on each showed both turrets pointing toward the port side of the Mule.
    “I’m not the only one grumbling about this, and the couple Dotok I met haven’t exactly made me feel overly welcome and appreciated,” Durand said.
    Hale felt his combat instincts rise to the fore as neither turret changed directions. What were they looking at?
    Torni banged an armored fist against her bench and tapped at her helmet.
    An amber light lit up on his gauntlet. Standish was trying to open a channel to him.
    “You call me and then you hit me with the silent treatment? I swear, Ken, this is exactly what we used to fight about.”
    “Marie, I think we’ve got—”
    The turrets roared in unison. Hale killed the channel to Durand.
    “—gets off the horn with his girlfriend that we’ve got drones,” Standish yelled.
    “Got the one on our six,” Bailey said.
    “What about the one that went around us?” Standish asked as his turret spun around and around, hunting a target.
    “How many drones did you see?” Hale asked.
    “Hi, sir, welcome back to the battle.” Standish’s twin gauss cannons fired a burst. “Two for sure…I think I saw another five or six between the clouds. One’s right on top of us, somewhere.”
    “Gall,” Hale said over the open command channel, “my gunners think they saw up to five more drones. Can we handle this or do we need to abort?”
    Both turrets opened up, drowning out Durand’s response. For just a second, Hale wished this battle was happening in orbit where there wasn’t an atmosphere to host the din of battle.
    Something slammed into the Mule’s cockpit and the ship dove. Hale’s restraints kept him in his seat as the Mule tumbled end over end, tossing Hale around like he was on a rollercoaster. A flash of ruby light burst from the cockpit and flooded the cargo bay.
    The tumbling continued.
    “Sir, drone got the pilots,” Standish said. “I’m open to suggestions!”
    “Bail out!” Hale slapped the emergency release on his harness and used the magnetic linings in his boots to lock himself to the deck plating. Even with the world spinning around him, he could still make it to the exit ramp—which was shut. Hale took uneasy steps along the deck, walking like he was drunk.
    As the stricken Mule