Conquest of Earth (Stellar Conquest Series) Read Online Free PDF

belly in case of a wrong answer. Cheng looked around the small command center, thinking of the two dozen humans throughout the Sentinel station, and his guts churned again. Some would join them, but others would stay loyal to the Empire, and would have to be dealt with.
     

Chapter 7
    Absen watched with mixed feelings as the Aerospace missile strikes went home against the orbital weapons platforms. He’d ordered the missile fusing to detonate them farther away than normal in hopes of just knocking them out and sparing at least some survivors. He was less conflicted as weapons struck the three moon-based Meme command centers, vaporizing them in bright expanding balls of stripped ions and particles. Those were manned mostly by Purelings. “Excellent,” he said aloud in relief, and then glanced a question toward Scoggins at Sensors.
    “Sorry, sir,” she said. “I don’t have anything on the assault landing. They should already be down, but the rock and the plasma is blocking the view and cutting off all signals.” She turned toward Rick Johnstone at CyberComm.
    Rick shrugged apologetically, worry creasing his face. “She’s right. I got no contact. They’re on their own.”
    Absen sat back stoically, wishing he could do something that mattered. Ford continued to take desultory potshots at any target that presented itself, but at this range hits were few and far between. Even the Weapon below would hardly have been able to light a match at twenty million klicks.
    “Bring us in on conventional drive to five million, outside of the Weapon’s targeting arc,” Absen said. Maybe the flare of Conquest ’s engines would attract some fire away from the Crows, though those should be rapidly running away to rendezvous in deep space with the grabships and the refueling pinnace Conquest had dropped off hours ago.
    At least at five million klicks Conquest ’s weapons might do a bit more than tickle the enemy. He’d settle for blinding them, disrupting their systems, hopefully leaving humans intact. It wasn’t a body count he wanted: it was hearts and minds. This assault was ultimately more about recruiting reinforcements than it was a military operation.
     
    ***
     
    “Ten seconds!” Bull heard Flight Warrant Butler snap over the Marine frequency. “Breach is open and clear, but we got no data on the LZ.” The assault sled shuddered and bucked with hard deceleration.
    “Crash protocols,” Sergeant Major Repeth ordered. In response, seventy-eight suits of Avenger battle armor froze in place, clamping down on the bodies of the Marines and Ryss inside them.
    “Taking fire,” Butler snarled as he wrenched the assault sled down to a slewing, shuddering slide across the subterranean floor of the enemy base. Something caught the edge of the heavily armored shuttle and it rolled several times, finally coming to rest upside-down and half buried in a bulkhead.
    “ Everyone out, go go go! ” Bull roared into the comm as his suit came under his control again. The rear of the sled opened like a flower with four petals. One petal dropped to the floor while the other three spread wide, allowing easy exit. The front could do the same, but right now it was obstructed.
    Bull rolled to his feet and watched as the rest of the command squad did the same. He let Reaper get the people moving as he checked the overall HUD picture.
    “Come on, Massimo, get moving,” Reaper grunted as she helped the heavy weapons team leader unbolt his semi-portables from what was now the overhead. In the light gravity, the lack of dexterity from her gauntlets counted more than the mass of the crew-served weapons. “Butler, get that Recluse up.” The big spider-shaped battle drone, folded into its external pod, was the closest thing they had to an armored vehicle.
    “We’re upside-down, Reap,” Butler replied. “The sled’s sitting on top of it.”
    “Let’s fix that, shall we?” Repeth replied. “You four – yes, you, you, you and you,”