Left Behind (Ghosts Of War Book 4) Read Online Free PDF Page B

save his fight capacity for the longest time possible. Sensitive artificial intelligence, like the Chinese Collective, did the same.
    For a ghost it was different.
    Commander Scatena knew for sure that his ship was in the best conditions possible and none of his ghost crew had anything to spare for the future. So there was no quarter and no thoughts about failure. They keep firing at max frequency.
    ***
    Inside the control center, the entity known as Collective was considering the ongoing battle, trying to extrapolate the best course of action to gain another victory. It was the thirty-eight time that the “Chang'e” was involved in a battle and the mighty cyber vessel always had the upper hand in a matter of minutes. In the past there was always the knowledge that human opponents will do anything to save their ships or to protect the lives of the crews. This new ship simply did not swerve from its intended path.
    ***
    More devastating blows hit the “Rome”. Each hyper-accelerated slug on target break havoc in some part the ship, on the main screen a number of alerts showed up, glowing red signals that spoke about danger and failing systems. The only reaction of the crew was disconnecting the alarms, one by one, until only the image of the enemy ship remained at the center of the screen.
    ***
    The “Chang'e” was trembling. Half of the prow was a mess of dark holes, three out of five of the main carbonite steel beam had been damaged until the point of collapse and a lucky shot penetrated the innards of the ship before annihilating a secondary power unit. The space giant was losing away parts of the external hull and a third of its maneuvering engines was offline. More and more Chinese ghosts were smashed by the raw power of the three of five inch shots fired by the “Roma”, their last output recorded by their collective conscience. For the first time, the concept of fear showed up in the biggest mind ever created.
     

XVII
    «Mikhail, I made it! Now we have direct comms with the habitat, I'm opening the channel right now.»
    «Well done, son. Let's hear our new friends.»
    There was a lot of static and more noise than near Jupiter, but there was a real voice from the habitat. A frightened man's voice, frail with age and pain.
    «“Zel’dovich”, do you copy? Are you still listening?»
    «Right here, man! I'm captain Babuskhin and I have at my side my aide, Dmitry Anuchin. We're almost at your door, synchronizing orbits in a matter of ten minutes or so.»
    «Oh, my God. I can't, I just can't tell you how much is important for us to finally hear the voice of another man. I mean, I already know that you are out there but this is overwhelming.»
    More noises, other voices in the background.
    «Uh, captain? I'm Russel. Ol'man Jacob here is, well, he's out for a moment. He's crying.»
    «It's OK, don't you worry about that. I can understand.»
    The Hell you can, that was the message in the eyes of Dmitry. Mikhail acknowledged with a grimace. A generation of psychologist could not understand as well the feelings of such a community, stranded and oppressed for decades.
     
    After a while Jacob came back on line, his old voice now under control.
    «Captain Babuskhin, please tell me about what's going on. From what we have just experienced the habitats around Pluto should have been destroyed.»
    «That's right. Both of them. The European ship canceled them with two nuclear warheads, they're nothing but dust by now.»
    «May their souls be damned forever. If they ever had a soul, of course. What's going on with the ship?»
    «You mean, the “Chang'e”?»
    «We... we don't pronounce its name.»
    «Well, it's your choice. For what I can see from our sensors they're taking a serious beating. We detect a lot of high-energy impacts and their missiles failed to knock out the Euros.»
    Silence. More and more indistinguishable voices in the background.
    «Jacob? Are you still here?»
    «I am. My people here are a bit astonished,