Naero's War: The Citation Series 2: The High Crusade Read Online Free PDF

and giving back better.
    At one point Naero was about the press the assault forward.
    She felt a strong hand on her shoulder holding her back.
    Trevor Lakota pulled her into an alley. An alley filled with dead Ejjai, butchered like cattle.
    Lakota wiped his long battle blades on the hide of a dead Ejjai Alpha.
    Naero hadn’t detected anything or heard a sound. The slashers had been hiding there, holding back, ready to ambush anyone who came near.
    Lakota had slipped in behind them fast and scythed them all down.
    “What do we do now?” she asked him.
    Lakota smiled. “Wait a moment. Little brother Fox is tricky. He knows his business. He and fourth squad have some tricks of their own to play. Then we can join in.”
    The other squads held their positions, making the advancing enemy pay.
    Then three score enemy strikers raced in fast and low to ground on gravwings.
    Float-seeker smartmines popped, taking the foremost Ejjai and halting their advance.
    Jonny Fox and the rest of Squad 4 cut across the jumbled up enemy like flashing razors, gunning them down.
    More foes tried to rush in.
    Squad 4 suddenly shot straight up.
    A mek platoon uncloaked and shredded the enemy reinforcements with interlocked autogun and rocket fire.
    By this time the enemy and their reinforcements were fully exposed. Marine and naval close air support dropped down and became a crucial factor.
    Then several naval warships also swooped in to assist, modified for ground attack and further close support over the heaviest engaged portions of the rapidly expanding battlefield. They pounded the invaders wherever they showed themselves in excessively large numbers, chewing them to pieces.
    After that, Bravo command pushed in at numerous key points and carved the remains of the enemy trap into manageable chunks that it could envelope and eliminate in efficient, short order.
    Company 36 and 2 nd Platoon assisted in pinning down Ejjai strikers in high-rises, pyramids, and skyscrapers all around them. While they held the attention of the enemy up front, more Bravo units slipped in stealth mode to finish them off. This system worked time and time again.
    Sometimes they switched off.
    Sometimes others kept the enemy busy, and 36 went in to take out the Ejjai up close. At one point, the slashers tried to use hostages and human shields.
    Marine Company 36 went in like ghosts and took the enemy down, up close and personal with blades in order to limit casualties to the civies.
    Much like herself, she saw Trevor Lakota fight fiercely at several points, with a gory blade in each hand. He zipped through a dozen Ejjai like a surgeon, slicing windpipes and spines, nearly severing heads, piercing hearts and lungs. The invaders barely knew they were dead before they hit the ground. Even the civilian hostages were stunned at what occurred.
    Miranda-Naero grinned as she moved forward, cutting down Ejjai on her own.
    Her knife sparring matches with Lakota were going to be a hoot.
    Miranda-Naero didn’t hold back for once, and passed through the astonished enemy in a whirlwind of flashing, spinning kicks and deadly steel. She left almost thirty invaders in bleeding pieces in her wake. All told, 36 cut down several hundred foes in a matter of seconds, and did so in almost eerie silence, except for the grunts and yelps of the dying Ejjai.
    Hundreds of severed Ejjai claws clutched weapons, grenades, and explosive devices that they never had a chance to activate.
    The Anaconda grabbed her and yanked her back for a second. “Allen! Where in the hell did you learn to fight like that? I’ve only ever seen one other Spacer ever fight that way–The Invincible Cyclone!”
    Miranda-Naero grinned and shrugged. “I grew up watching the fight circuits,” she said.
    No time. Word came down. They needed to execute another gravwing assault on an enemy hardpoint nearby. They left the startled civies confused, but alive, to fend for themselves. The combat grid would not wait.
    Five hours