Read Online The Battle of the Void (The Ember War Saga Book 6) by Richard Fox - Free Book Online
Authors: Richard Fox
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they’re on the side of the light, like us.”
“Malal doesn’t want a nice summer home on the beach and a pension. What did the Qa’Resh promise to get his help?”
“I don’t know,” she said through grit teeth.
“Your grandfather tricked the whole planet for decades. Engineered a scenario where there was enough of a fleet to retake the Earth after it sidestepped the Xaros invasion. I have a hard time trusting him, and something tells me your apple doesn’t fall too far from his tree,” Hale said. He cut the line to Stacey and moved back to Cortaro.
“I see a wall,” Elias said. “Twenty rows of trees ahead.”
“My lab,” Malal said.
CHAPTER 6
Makarov double-checked the seals on her helmet and lowered her head in prayer.
God, don’t let me screw this up. Amen.
She touched a strike cruiser in the holo before her and opened a channel to the captain.
“ Gallipoli ,” the captain said, a feed of his helmeted face appearing next to his ship.
“Parris, you ready for this?” Makarov said.
“We’ve been ready for the last half hour. I’ve got my squadrons in the void and three Warthogs tethered to my hull. Waiting for the word,” Captain Parris said.
“The word is given, good hunting,” Makarov said.
Parris cut the transmission. The Gallipoli, a frigate, and two destroyers accelerated away from the rest of the fleet, their course plot taking them wide around Abaddon’s rings. A diamond popped up on the course plot, the maximum engagement distance for the Gallipoli and her escorts’ rail cannons. Their mission was simple: attack the rings so Makarov and the fleet’s scientists and engineers could gather data for the next step.
The minutes ticked by as the Gallipoli closed on the firing point without action from the Xaros. Sweat dribbled down the back of her vac suit and fell onto her visor. It reacted to the moisture, vibrating until the drop dissipated.
“We’ve got movement,” Kidson said. A single point on the drone net lifted off the surface, aimed directly for the Gallipoli. The net broke apart, the needlepoint of drones keeping toward the approaching human ships, the rest of the net reknitting itself over the surface.
“Abaddon’s acceleration is slowing, ma’am,” Santiago called out. “Down almost twenty percent to two gravities.”
“Is the net part of the propulsion system?” Calum asked.
Makarov opened a channel. “Scorpion, what’s your read on this?”
Delacroix’s face popped up next to the Abdiel . “The data is fascinating…a bit preliminary for a definitive answer.”
“The separated drone mass comes to nearly a hundred thousand individual drones,” Kidson said. He glanced at a flashing screen. “Video from the Gallipoli. ”
A window opened in the holo. The needle of drones broke into thousands of individual drones, all swarming toward the Gallipoli .
Makarov saw the projections for her ships to reach the firing point and the intercept times for the drones. She opened a channel to Parris.
****
Captain Parris reached into his holo table and traced routes with his fingertips. He looked at his XO and shook his head.
“Parris?” Makarov’s full-body holo came up next to him. “We’re looking at the plot and—”
“It’s pointless, ma’am,” he said. “If we turn tail and run, the drones will be all over us before we could expect support from the rest of the fleet. I stay the course and I’ve got a fight on my hands before we hit range on the rings. Damn things are a lot faster than we’d seen before. My guess is they’re combining their Alcubierre fields to get at us that much sooner.”
Makarov’s face betrayed nothing as her holo wavered.
“We’ll take the shot. You have my word, Admiral.”
“Good hunting.” Makarov’s holo vanished.
“Helm,” Parris strapped himself into his command chair, “all ahead full. Guns, I want a full spread of q-shells and flechette rounds on that mass from every ship. Beat
“Malal doesn’t want a nice summer home on the beach and a pension. What did the Qa’Resh promise to get his help?”
“I don’t know,” she said through grit teeth.
“Your grandfather tricked the whole planet for decades. Engineered a scenario where there was enough of a fleet to retake the Earth after it sidestepped the Xaros invasion. I have a hard time trusting him, and something tells me your apple doesn’t fall too far from his tree,” Hale said. He cut the line to Stacey and moved back to Cortaro.
“I see a wall,” Elias said. “Twenty rows of trees ahead.”
“My lab,” Malal said.
CHAPTER 6
Makarov double-checked the seals on her helmet and lowered her head in prayer.
God, don’t let me screw this up. Amen.
She touched a strike cruiser in the holo before her and opened a channel to the captain.
“ Gallipoli ,” the captain said, a feed of his helmeted face appearing next to his ship.
“Parris, you ready for this?” Makarov said.
“We’ve been ready for the last half hour. I’ve got my squadrons in the void and three Warthogs tethered to my hull. Waiting for the word,” Captain Parris said.
“The word is given, good hunting,” Makarov said.
Parris cut the transmission. The Gallipoli, a frigate, and two destroyers accelerated away from the rest of the fleet, their course plot taking them wide around Abaddon’s rings. A diamond popped up on the course plot, the maximum engagement distance for the Gallipoli and her escorts’ rail cannons. Their mission was simple: attack the rings so Makarov and the fleet’s scientists and engineers could gather data for the next step.
The minutes ticked by as the Gallipoli closed on the firing point without action from the Xaros. Sweat dribbled down the back of her vac suit and fell onto her visor. It reacted to the moisture, vibrating until the drop dissipated.
“We’ve got movement,” Kidson said. A single point on the drone net lifted off the surface, aimed directly for the Gallipoli. The net broke apart, the needlepoint of drones keeping toward the approaching human ships, the rest of the net reknitting itself over the surface.
“Abaddon’s acceleration is slowing, ma’am,” Santiago called out. “Down almost twenty percent to two gravities.”
“Is the net part of the propulsion system?” Calum asked.
Makarov opened a channel. “Scorpion, what’s your read on this?”
Delacroix’s face popped up next to the Abdiel . “The data is fascinating…a bit preliminary for a definitive answer.”
“The separated drone mass comes to nearly a hundred thousand individual drones,” Kidson said. He glanced at a flashing screen. “Video from the Gallipoli. ”
A window opened in the holo. The needle of drones broke into thousands of individual drones, all swarming toward the Gallipoli .
Makarov saw the projections for her ships to reach the firing point and the intercept times for the drones. She opened a channel to Parris.
****
Captain Parris reached into his holo table and traced routes with his fingertips. He looked at his XO and shook his head.
“Parris?” Makarov’s full-body holo came up next to him. “We’re looking at the plot and—”
“It’s pointless, ma’am,” he said. “If we turn tail and run, the drones will be all over us before we could expect support from the rest of the fleet. I stay the course and I’ve got a fight on my hands before we hit range on the rings. Damn things are a lot faster than we’d seen before. My guess is they’re combining their Alcubierre fields to get at us that much sooner.”
Makarov’s face betrayed nothing as her holo wavered.
“We’ll take the shot. You have my word, Admiral.”
“Good hunting.” Makarov’s holo vanished.
“Helm,” Parris strapped himself into his command chair, “all ahead full. Guns, I want a full spread of q-shells and flechette rounds on that mass from every ship. Beat
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