Read Online Rise of Shadows by Vincent Trigili - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Vincent Trigili
Ads: Link
perfectly. We had appeared out of nowhere, destroyed a battleship, and left.
Once we were ready, Dusty and I worked together to keep us hidden while Flame engaged the jump drive. I did not want the pirates to know when we left or where we were headed. We could only stay hidden until we jumped, as jumping into the ethereal realm of jump space broke our cloaking spell. As we exited jump space, we came out into a field of ships. There must have been three dozen different ships of all sizes, mainly comprising cruisers and other fast attack ships.
“Shadow, it’s the Aleeryon Navy,” commented Spectra.
“Excellent, see if you can raise someone on the comm,” I said.
Spectra was able to get someone fairly quickly up on the main screen. He appeared and said, “Hello, Alpha Academy. I am Commander Jackson of the Third Aleeryon Naval Wing.”
“Greetings, Commander, this is Battle Wizard First Rank Shadow Weaver of Alpha Academy,” I said. “It seems that our friends with the battleships did not follow us through the jump.”
“Yes, it does appear that way. What a shame, I was looking forward to meeting them,” he responded.
“Spectra, please send a report of that last fight to the navy, but leave out how we destroyed the battleship,” I sent.
“Yes, Shadow,” sent Spectra.
“Commander, you should be getting our report shortly, but it looks like they were heading for the Scaladian route, probably assuming that is where we were going,” I said.
“Sir, how long ago did they jump?” the commander asked.
“They had not yet jumped when we left, but they were heading in that direction,” I said.
“Excellent, then we have a good chance of catching them on the other side. Sir, we would be greatly honored if Alpha Academy would join us,” he said.
Something was not right here; he did not have enough firepower to go after that fleet, unless something was hidden. I stretched out my awareness and looked across space, and slowly I could see tiny points of power spread out all over the area: stealth bombers, and lots of them! A force like this would easily decimate the pirate fleet that we left behind. It seems that we might have underestimated the Aleeryon Navy’s forces, if they could gather this much firepower.
“Commander, we would be honored to join you. We are a black ops vessel, so we will need your encryption keys and power links,” I said. That would allow us to cloak up but stay in touch with their fleet.
“Wonderful, sir! We will need to move out quickly if we are to intercept them. As soon as your ship is tied in, we will move to the jump point,” he responded.
It took an hour to get everything set and travel to the jump point. During that time we went over their plan. The vanguard of their fleet that could not cloak would head in first and engage the enemy. Once the enemy was fully engaged the stealth ships would sneak in little by little and spread out. Once everyone was in place, the vanguard would retreat, and the bombers would make their runs. If properly timed, their bombs would create a sphere of death large enough to wipe out most of the enemy fleet in minutes.
The main problem with this plan is it left no place for us to really shine forth and work on making a name for ourselves. Still, it would be great space combat experience for my crew, and it would help to build relations with the Aleeryon Navy. I decided we would jump with the first wave and evaluate the battlefield to see where we could have the greatest impact. It seemed most likely that we would be taking part in the initial attacks as just another cruiser, but we did not know yet what we would face when we arrived.
While waiting I looked around at my crew and asked, “Speak freely: based on our first fights, what do you think we have done right, and what can we improve?”
For a while no one said anything. I wondered what each person was thinking. Was Flame beating herself up over her miscalculation of that turn? What
Once we were ready, Dusty and I worked together to keep us hidden while Flame engaged the jump drive. I did not want the pirates to know when we left or where we were headed. We could only stay hidden until we jumped, as jumping into the ethereal realm of jump space broke our cloaking spell. As we exited jump space, we came out into a field of ships. There must have been three dozen different ships of all sizes, mainly comprising cruisers and other fast attack ships.
“Shadow, it’s the Aleeryon Navy,” commented Spectra.
“Excellent, see if you can raise someone on the comm,” I said.
Spectra was able to get someone fairly quickly up on the main screen. He appeared and said, “Hello, Alpha Academy. I am Commander Jackson of the Third Aleeryon Naval Wing.”
“Greetings, Commander, this is Battle Wizard First Rank Shadow Weaver of Alpha Academy,” I said. “It seems that our friends with the battleships did not follow us through the jump.”
“Yes, it does appear that way. What a shame, I was looking forward to meeting them,” he responded.
“Spectra, please send a report of that last fight to the navy, but leave out how we destroyed the battleship,” I sent.
“Yes, Shadow,” sent Spectra.
“Commander, you should be getting our report shortly, but it looks like they were heading for the Scaladian route, probably assuming that is where we were going,” I said.
“Sir, how long ago did they jump?” the commander asked.
“They had not yet jumped when we left, but they were heading in that direction,” I said.
“Excellent, then we have a good chance of catching them on the other side. Sir, we would be greatly honored if Alpha Academy would join us,” he said.
Something was not right here; he did not have enough firepower to go after that fleet, unless something was hidden. I stretched out my awareness and looked across space, and slowly I could see tiny points of power spread out all over the area: stealth bombers, and lots of them! A force like this would easily decimate the pirate fleet that we left behind. It seems that we might have underestimated the Aleeryon Navy’s forces, if they could gather this much firepower.
“Commander, we would be honored to join you. We are a black ops vessel, so we will need your encryption keys and power links,” I said. That would allow us to cloak up but stay in touch with their fleet.
“Wonderful, sir! We will need to move out quickly if we are to intercept them. As soon as your ship is tied in, we will move to the jump point,” he responded.
It took an hour to get everything set and travel to the jump point. During that time we went over their plan. The vanguard of their fleet that could not cloak would head in first and engage the enemy. Once the enemy was fully engaged the stealth ships would sneak in little by little and spread out. Once everyone was in place, the vanguard would retreat, and the bombers would make their runs. If properly timed, their bombs would create a sphere of death large enough to wipe out most of the enemy fleet in minutes.
The main problem with this plan is it left no place for us to really shine forth and work on making a name for ourselves. Still, it would be great space combat experience for my crew, and it would help to build relations with the Aleeryon Navy. I decided we would jump with the first wave and evaluate the battlefield to see where we could have the greatest impact. It seemed most likely that we would be taking part in the initial attacks as just another cruiser, but we did not know yet what we would face when we arrived.
While waiting I looked around at my crew and asked, “Speak freely: based on our first fights, what do you think we have done right, and what can we improve?”
For a while no one said anything. I wondered what each person was thinking. Was Flame beating herself up over her miscalculation of that turn? What
Similar Books
