“If enough of theship came down intact,” she explained, “then there might be somefighters aboard her. We just have to hope one of the squadrons wascaught aboard her for a re-arm when she went down.”
“And that theymanaged to finish the re-arming?” he asked, daring to look at heragain. She was covered. He was mostly relieved but still a littleannoyed at losing his suit.
“C’mon, c’mon,c’mon!” she urged the suit as it closed up to her neck. Sheopened a holographic HUD.
“Recognize,Gabriella Morales of Earth. Second…Correction, firstin line of succession.”
She blew out ashuddering breath at something the suit had voice-projected to herinner ear. “Reporting Adelina Morales of Earth, firstin line of succession, deceased.”
She stood there, bitingher lip for a second then nodded. “Release all security interlocksfor this suit.” She looked at him. “Wouldn’t want colonistsaccidentally activating a fighter or anything,” she explained witha small shrug.
She looked back at herHUD and started opening new menus. “They never even launched?”She selected an icon and it began blinking.
“We’re in luck,”she told him.
He was about to ask herwhat exactly she had in mind when the air slapped him on the side ofthe head. He turned in alarm, hands up, and she placed an armoredgauntlet on his back.
“Careful,” shewarned. “You almost backed into those spores!”
She turned and lopedtoward a lumpy black hole in the world that hadn’t been there amoment ago. The debris of the jungle floor was rattling in concertwith the pulsing of its drive.
She clambered up one ofits dangling lobes and he could make out the steps set back into the…thing… now that he knew where to look.
“You know how to flythat thing?” he asked her.
“Yes”she shouted down.
The fighter closed uparound her and she settled into her seat. The rattling ceased as thewhine of the engine increased and then she was gone.
He stumbled forward asthe surrounding air rushed in to fill the sudden vacuum. “OK,” hemumbled, looking up but seeing no sign of her already. He looked overto where the corvette had been loading up survivors.
It was gone as well.
“So, I’ll just hanghere, I guess?”
Gabriella racedskyward, her mind melded with thirteentons of raw destructive force. Theblue faded to black and she pushed out farther,past debris and bodies.
She swung her noseabout to face the planet as she backed away, looking for thetell-tale black spot that would indicate a corvette. She expectedthem to be careless.
The Deathstalkerhad tried to settle into orbit before the crash, indicating they’dgained the upper hand against the defenses. The traitors would feelsafe in a standard orbit while they spooled up their path engine.
Her HUD was picking outpossible contacts but dismissed them just as quickly as larger chunksof what had been defensive corvettes. Then it found what she waslooking for.
Her lips peeled back ina silent snarl as she fell back toward her target. She spun up bothher missiles and sent them directly at the ship.
In an instant,they’d sketched a pencilline of exhaust vapor toward the corvette. It was like switchingbetween two still images.
One second, thecorvette was intact, preparing to path out. The next, a thin trailfrom Gabriella intersected the ship and the planetward side was atangle of debris and a spear-point of exit-plasma that lanceddeepinto Ragnarok’satmosphere.
Growlingnow, she pressed closer, crossing thousands of kilometers in a blink.She went to guns.
She could see bodiescaught in the planet’s well. She knew the damage control teamswould be working frantically, chasing the unlikely hope of repairingthe engineering section she’d targeted.
She fired into thehull, starting at engineering and working her way forward. She slidsideways, orbiting around to the ship’s bows where she heldposition on her enemy’s main axis.
She kept pouring firedown the corvette’s center-line, tearing the main bus to shreds.Bulkheads and stanchions were easy to repair but the bus was wherethe conduits, tubes and wiring lived. They could only be repaired bya skilled linesman cutting out the damaged sections and meshing innew lengths.
She ran out ofammunition and her barrels were probably cooked as well. She screamedher rage at the ship, falling silent as she finally released thefiring circuit.
The barrels spun downas she sat there, breathing heavily, staring at her enemy. Then theship finally seemed to answer its helm. It swerved to her starboardbut it wasn’t trying to sneak around her; it was giving up thestruggle against gravity.
The renegade corvetteslid down against the jumble of parts she’d blasted out with hermissiles. The hull was attempting to knit that debris back into theship as it fell but it was little more than a symbolic gesture, atthis point.
Gabriellafollowed the ship down, finally backing off when it started gettinghot. She slowed her descent, though she’d already scorched off herstealth coating of carbon nanotubules.
The corvette, theEdged Star, Gabriellaremembered, was burning as shefell. Various chunks were tearing loose now and she nearly missed thefact that three of them were escape pods.
“System,” shecommanded, “track those pods. I want to know where they land.”
One of the podswas spinning so hard there was practically zero chance anything couldsurvive the forces inside. The other two would come down with theEdged Star, withinthree hundred klicks of the city.
She watched as the shiphit the dense jungle, far down-valley from the colony. The impact washard, gouging a deep rift in the ground for at least a halfkilometer.
There’d be nosurvivors after that. The pods landed within a three-kilometer radiusof the main site.
Gabriella cursedquietly and turned back to the wreck of the Deathstalker.“Unknown pilot, this is HooliganActual. Identify, over,” an angry voice said in her ear.
“Identify,” sherepeated, “Morales, Gabriella. You’d better have a damned goodreason why you’re not in the air right now, Hooligans.”
“My lady…”Therewas a pause, probably while he waited for the voice-print to confirm.“My lady, we’ve been in a crash…”
“I was in acrash as well, Hooligans,” she replied with the slightest hint ofcensure. “You’veclearly got functional fighters, already armed, and a planet toprotect.”
“Ah, yes. Well, we…”
“How many ofyour pilots are fit to fly right now?” sheasked, surprised at her own calm.
“Ah, I’ve accountedfor seven so far.” There was the sound of muffled shouting. “I’llget us up there right away.”
“Good.”
