Star Crusades Michael Thomas (speld decodable readers .TXT) 📖

followed his gaze and spotted the lance embedded in her chest.It was to the right of her breast and followed through almost toher collar.

“Oh…come on. Not again.”

She reached for the lance and grabbedit with both hands.

“No!” A marine lunged to stop her, but it was too late. She only managedto withdraw the weapon a few centimetres, blood spurted from thefront of her armour, and she collapsed to the floor. Her visionfaded quickly, and then she could barely hear the people around heras they shouted to each other.

Tex. Tex! I need your help!

Something jolted her body, andshe could feel her heart as the drugs andartificial electronic stimulation pushed her body beyond anythingshe could have done herself. She blinked, and her vision began toreturn, albeit it blurred and strangely coloured.

“I’m okay,” she said as Alexis and Kallias bent down in front ofher.

An IAB medic attached equipment to her frontal armour, and then shookhis head.

“Her internals arestabilising. I can seal you back up, andyou’re good to go for now. You will need some repair work after thefighting.”

Valentine laughed atthat part, forcing herself up to her feet.Kallias helped her, and then a number of IAB marines cheered. Therewere bodies all around her from the enemy she had felled, and soonenough they were lifting their arms for her andshouting.

“Take it,” saidAlexis, “That was one hell of awin.”

Valentine heard the words, butshe could hear the sadness in her friend’s voice. They’d beenordered to kill prisoners, and now they learned that most of thosethey’d been fighting were not Ski’ligs,but slaves or forced labour. It left a bad taste in her mouth, butlooking to the others, she felt a moment of relief. They were herfamily now, and seeing them alive and all around her cheered herbeyond measure. It didn’t matter to her who was attacking themright now. That was a problem well beyond her control.

“Alexis. We’re just soldiers. Wefight for each other, and we let thegenerals work out the rest.”

Alexis nodded, and then did it again asthough trying to persuade herself.

“You’re right,Val. But that doesn’t mean I’m going togun down soldiers surrendering.”

“Nor should you.” She moved closer to her friend and reachedforward. They grasped each other’s forearms, “Command runs the war,and we’re responsible for what happens on the ground.”

“You’re right. I need toget my ass into gear. We’ve got a job todo, and nobody is gonna do it for us.”

The ground shook, and for amoment it felt like the entire complexwas about to rip itself apart.

“Look,” said Hawkins.

They turned and watched as thebloodied General Gun moved closer, withregular marines at his flank.

“That was some good soldiering,”said the General, “Now we push on andlink up with Captain Olik.”

“And then?” Alexis asked.

“Thenwe loop back and hit the Skils from behind. General Rivers haslanded half of his forces now, and more are coming down by theminute. If this goes to plan, this war will be over in days, notmonths.”

The ground shook again, and Valentinehad to grab onto Alexis to stop from falling.

“What is that?”

“Orbital bombardment to cover the landings,” said General Gun, “Thebattle has turned.”

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Morato Class Frigate‘Nautilus’, Ekati Alpha, TheSki’lig Territories

24 hours later.

Captain Regina leaned back in hercaptain’s chair and took a sip from her cup. She’d left it toolong, and the coffee had turned lukewarm,making her nostrils flare in disgust. In her left hand was an oldstyle Secpad showing the latest reports and casualty figures fromthe planet below. She placed the cup back down and looked to theview ahead. Far of into the distance were the hulks of the Ski’ligbattleships. All of them had been torn apart in a long, brutalbattle that had taken almost twenty hours.

“Our fleet has been mauled, and whatpart did we play?”

Her XO shrugged as they watchedgigantic sections of the ships continuedto drift through space. Even now, Alliance engineers were pullingthe vessels apart to take whatever materials and secrets they couldfind inside the hulls.

“The navalengagement is just part of the campaign,”said First Lieutenant Meredith, “We’re here to…”

“To what? Babysit the transports?Against what exactly? Any threat left in this system is far awayand skirmishing with the few ships the Admiral left to keep thembusy. The only other action is downthere, inside that godforsaken world.”

First Lieutenant Meredith opened her mouth to speak and thenthought the better of it. She wanted to try and justify what washappening, but the reality was quite simple. Skirmishing between ahandful of ships continued to rage, leaving the rest to protect thetransports over the planet to assist with the bombardment below,while others protected the critical Spacebridge backhome.

“Who’d ever have thought a battle couldbe so dull?”

First Lieutenant Meredith smiledpolitely.

“Quite. I don’tthink the Admiral is keen to sharevictory with the IAB.”

“We’re not the IAB,”she retorted.

“True.”

Most of the fleet was withthem now, all apart from four CrusaderClass cruisers, plus a handful of smaller Dragoon Class frigates.Fighters launched every few minutes, many descending to the planetto assist in the ground battle. The IAB ships remained together andspread out in a single large formation to provide logisticalsupport to the battle.

“Just look at them. I never oncethought I’d see the grand old ladies ofthe old Confederate Army in use again,” said Captain Regina,“They’re monsters from another age.”

Both looked at the line of shipsas they carried out their work withfactory like efficiency. They were as big as battleships, and theirlarge crews and automated systems allowed them to handle the planetassault with incredible efficiency. An entire armada of landingcraft and smaller landing ships headed towards the surface,carrying battalions of marines, robot support units, and armouredvehicles. A stream of similar craft continued to work their wayback as they supplied an almost endless number of soldiers to thebattle.

“This is what true industrialwarfare looks like,” said Captain Regina,“A production line of ships and soldiers.”

“Captain,” said the communications officer, “Contact from carrierIzumo to all ships in orbit.”

“And?”

“Sir, It’s a PriorityOne transmission.”

“Put them on. Fingers crossed thatsomething interesting has happened.”

The imagery of the aged AllianceGeneral Rivers appeared, and any sense ofboredom quickly vanished onboard the ship.

“Men and women of the Alliance. The invasion is proceeding faster thanexpected. IAB and Nova assault units have