Ragnarok: Colonization, intrigue and betrayal. Andrew Claymore (primary phonics books .txt) đ
- Author: Andrew Claymore
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âThere was one ofthem dressed just like your new friend up there,â he pointed up toher cockpit. âProbably their next victim and you would have forcedme to kill him. These birds arenât exactly sniper platforms,kiddo.â
The âkiddoâstung and so did his point. Sheâd let herself focus on the guy tiedto the rock and didnât look, really look,at what else was going on.
âWe donâteven know why they were killing those guys,â Luna added. âIf theywere murderers or traitors, then weâre the criminals now.â
âIf they were justtrying to ensure a good harvest,â Adelina spoke up, âthen she didthe right thing.â
Gabriella was a riot ofemotions. Grateful to her mom for speaking up but ashamed that sheâdput her in that position in the first place.
âTrue,â Luna agreedsoftly, putting a hand on her sisterâs shoulder. âWeâll knowmore after we can talk to him.â
She looked back at herniece. âHe may be useful. Saving him might end up being thebeginnings of friendly relations with his people but we wonât knowfor a while.
âBut that doesnâtmean you can just ignore orders and do what you feel like. Iâve putHotdog in an impossible position. I realize that now. He shouldnâthave to be responsible for your safety if you have no intention oflistening to him.â
She sighed. âI thinkwe need to leave you on the ground for a while, give you time tothink things through.â
Gabriella felt asthough sheâd been slapped. She looked down, nodding but sayingnothing.
âWeâll takeour new guest back with the squadron,â Luna said. âIsuggest you do some serious thinking about all of this,Rascal.â
She shook her head whenher sister caught her eye. Luna nodded Adelina toward her fighterwith a look of warning. She set the example by walking off to her ownfighter.
Adelina hesitatedfor a moment, then moved off with a glance at HotDog,who was clearly waiting for a moment alone with his protégé.She moved to her fighter, thirty feet down the road, but waited bythe sponson, watching warily as the Texan approached her daughter.
âSorry,HotDog,âshe said, meaning it more than she wished.
He chewed thatover for a second, then gave her a curt nod. âI know, kid.â Helooked down the road, frowning at nothing for a short while, thenlooked her in the eye. âIâm still pissed,â he said evenly, âbutthat was a pretty ballsy move, Rascal! Youâll do alright.â
He turned and walkedoff before she could absorb what heâd said, let alone respond.
Adelina must have likedwhat she saw in her daughterâs face because the tension drainedfrom her expression and she mounted the steps of her fighter for theflight back to headquarters.
Engines allaround Gabriellastarted humming to life and she looked down, hopping back to get outof the projected warning zone from Lunaâs fighter.
The squadron flew off,her own fighter following on automatic. She scuffed an armored toe inthe loose surface of the road. âI suppose Rascal is the right namefor me after all.â
Saplings
Northern Highlands, Ragnarok
Frank had to admit it.The EVA armor was less cumbersome than heâd expected. They werewearing the suits completely closed up today, hoping it might filterout whatever effect theyâd been subjected to before.
He already knew howthey could reduce fatigue during manual labor. The suits provided asmuch or as little muscle assist as the wearer wanted but that was alittle like SCUBA diving. After a long session in the Pacific, Frankalways felt the accumulated fatigue when he climbed out of the waterand returned to normal gravity.
A big advantage withthe suit, however, was you could keep that assist going until youwere home and ready to recuperate from a long dayâs work. Thehelmets were a little harder to acclimate to.
Theyâd been workingwithout the helmets on previously but the strange events wereunsettling enough for them to try using them. They werenât halfbad.
Not bad at all,âFrank thought. Now that he was getting used to the interface, it wasalmost better than working without it.
The cooling, for onething, was a gods-send. His body had been cool enough previously,thanks to the suit, but heâd been borderline sun-stroked after thatweird time-loss that had stranded him in the sun. Now he was barelysweating at all and the under-armor suit he wore was more thancapable of dealing with it.
Heâd expected to haveblind-spots and limited range of motion, purely because of thestandard Human idea of space-suits. This was no NASA suit with afixed helmet.
It moved with hisbody, flexing and twisting like a living thing and his field ofvision hadnât been compromised at all. In fact, he now had accessto new data, like thermal and infrared imaging. Hecould even create close up views of distant objects and set theonboard computer to track them.
At the moment, though,his family was using the suitsâ muscle assist to plant coffeesaplings.
The nanite-basedequipment probably could have been programmed to do the job butneither Frank, Trisha nor Terry trusted the machines to handle thedelicate saplings theyâd brought all the way from Earth.
Vikram had been anenthusiastic supporter of the automated equipment. Heâd felt thatthey ought to make use of the things, since theyâd been shipped allthe way to Ragnarok from Lady Bauâs dominions.
They owed it toher kind generosity, heâd argued. Heâd also insisted, despitenobody else bringing it up, that it had nothing at all to do with areluctance to spend days slogging through the hauntedhills north of Unity doing heavy labor.
Heâd beenoverruled, of course, and theyâd been working since first light,planting by hand. To hiscredit, Vikram had done more than his part. Frank suspected theyoungster was feeling proud of the results.
Every now andthen, Frank would see him looking back at the long row of plantedsaplings heâd put in the ground. Kidâs gonna make agreat farmer. He reached intothe sapling bag.
He looked down at theempty bag that hung over his shoulder. It wasnât the empty bag thatsurprised him so much as the fact that his armored fingers were stillsensitive enough for him to notice without having to look.
He stepped over to therunabout to reload the bag from the cargo bed at the back. Terry hadrigged a panel of nanites over the top to
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