Read Online Taming the Wildcat (Sargosian Chronicles) by Bethany J. Barnes Mina Carter - Free Book Online Page A

lace up her duty boots. By the time she hit the corridor at a full-out run to the lift, she had her suit zipped up, dodging crew members as they flooded out of their quarters.
    “Make a hole, people,” she shouted as another blast rocked the ship. Adrenaline flooded her system, her body humming with readiness for the upcoming fight. The Tipton was not a small ship. For her to be bucking and rolling from enemy fire, it didn’t bode well.
    A few short seconds in the lift got her to the flight deck. Pilots and mechanics ran between each other and the Talon slings as they scrambled the fighters. The next announcement over the P.A. made her blood run cold.
    “ This is Captain Forbes speaking. All hands to the escape shuttles and pods. Hull sections three, eight, eleven and twenty are breached. Shields are failing and our weapons are not responding. Talons will cover evacuation. Godspeed to you all. It’s been my honor to serve as your captain. Forbes out. ”
    Summer smacked into another pilot, Kevin Peters, so hard, as she grabbed her helmet, she dropped it. It skittered across the deck and under a bench. She didn’t have time to run after it, she’d have to fly without it.
    “Hey, watch where you’re going, King,” he teased, the stark truth of the situation in his eyes. This could be the last time they flew together.
    “You ran into me, Peters. Get your ass in that bird, pronto, mi amigo. We’ve got some pirates to kill,” she threw back as she turned for her fighter.
    “Whatever you say, chica. Let’s show them they just dicked with the wrong bunch of Fleeties.”
    Strapping herself into her bird, she replied, “Hell, yeah!”
    She grabbed an auxiliary headset from the side of the instrument panel so she could communicate with the other fighters and the Tipton. The fast startup on the fighters had them all lifting off within seconds of the pilots climbing in. Looking at all of them, she felt both pride and sorrow at that moment. They were some of the best pilots she had ever served with, and she knew not all of them would survive this.
    Switching her comms to voice-activated, she broke them up into two groups—those who would go with the escape shuttles and pods, and those who would stay to cover the evacuation. The last line of defense.
    “Talons two through eleven, you’re with me to run interference and defend the Tipton. Talons twelve through seventeen, your group will go with the escape shuttles. You make sure they make it out of here. The first group will give you cover fire as much as we can. Good luck, everyone.”
    She glanced at her instrument panel. Weapons systems were armed and ready to go. She gave the order to move out just as another blast hit somewhere on the Tipton.
    “Let’s take these fuckers out!”
    A chorus of “Aye” answered her as they hit the shield barrier and exited the ship…straight into hell.
    “Talons, on me. Group two, get to the shuttles,” she bellowed as they punched out into a blitzkrieg of enemy fighters. They were so thick, as if someone had kicked a hornet’s nest. There was no way they could stay in formation in this type of firefight.
    The group she had assigned to the escape shuttles broke off. Her second-in-command, Lieutenant Kevin Peters, flew close, just off of her wingtip. He was in a Rogue class fighter while she flew the smaller Eagle class. The Tipton carried several different types of fighter craft, but each had its own strengths and weaknesses. Hers was perhaps one of the most maneuverable ones they had, and fast as all get out.
    Peters took the first hit but his shields held. A glance around proved what she already knew. This was a gauntlet of death, a suicide run. There was no other choice, they had to run it.
    “Talons, break formation. Fire at will, people. What do we want from these bandits?” she called out, whipping everyone into battle frenzy.
    “ Their blood! ” came back at her over the radio from every one of her pilots.
    The