Omega Force 7: Redemption Read Online Free PDF Page A

the dirt you're clear to get our package."
    "Yes, Captain," Lucky said and strode quickly off the bridge.
    "They just touched down," Kage said, watching his monitors. "Shit! They just tossed something out and they're taking off!"
    "Stand by!" Jason barked, yanking the nose up and bringing them in on a steep, fast glidepath down to the surface. "Kage, drop the ramp and track that ship."
    "Ramp down," Kage said. "Lucky jumped out." They all watched on the monitors as the battlesynth sprinted across the tarmac at incredible speed, checked the large lump that had been bundled in a tarp, and sprinted back to the ship after tossing it over his shoulder. Jason's anxiety was building by the second. He knew for certain that something had just gone horribly wrong.
    " Captain ," Lucky's voice came over the intercom. " The package is dead and Crusher is nowhere in sight. "
    "Fuck! I knew it!" Jason roared. "Close us back up! Get me a vector for that ship!"
    "Ramp is back up," Kage said. "Tracking arrows coming to you." An instant later two arrows appeared, hovering in Jason's field of view thanks to his ocular implants, and told him which way the small shuttle had escaped. He slammed down the throttle and sent the Phoenix rocketing over the city, drawing the attention of every law enforcement craft in the area.
    "They've gone over the edge," Doc said. "Tracking them as they fly down the southern face of the mountain."
    "All the better," Jason said, concentrating as he shoved the nose of the gunship over and dropped them off the edge of the city and down the mountain. "Those traffic enforcement skimmers won't follow us."
    "It looks like our package has been dead for some time," Lucky said as he walked back onto the bridge. "His body temperature was below outside ambient."
    "So he was killed and put on ice until they tossed him out of that shuttle," Jason said, yanking the Phoenix over into a sharp bank to close on the shuttle at an inside angle.
    "And no Crusher," Twingo said. "I have a bad feeling this was a message for someone."
    "You and me both, bud," Jason said, pushing up his speed a bit as they leveled out into the flats of the desert that surrounded the oddly solitary mountain. "Do you think it's safe to bring that shuttle down?"
    "I highly doubt that Crusher is on there, Captain," Doc said.
    "I agree," Twingo said. "They likely thought we would be held up inspecting the body at the pickup and wouldn't notice them escaping."
    "I think we arrived a bit earlier than they thought as well," Kage said. "Take 'em down, Captain."
    "Knock down it is," Jason said. He pushed the throttle up and lined up behind the fleeing shuttle. The pitiful little craft had no chance of outrunning the powerful gunship, and soon it was bouncing around in the air as the Phoenix drew in so close she was disrupting the airflow over the aft stabilizers. "Kage, you're up," he said, squeezing the trigger and holding it for a three-count to let the computer know the copilot's station was authorized access to fire control.
    "Watch this, Doc," Kage said as he deployed the Phoenix's point-defense turrets. "Like a surgeon." He fired a single, low-power salvo that he'd assumed would degrade the port, aft repulsors enough that it would force them down in a controlled landing. But Jason had been much too close and the sudden loss of lift, coupled with the Phoenix compressing the air between them, sent the small ship into an uncontrollable tumble. They watched it fall from the low altitude and bounce across the desert floor in an impressive eruption of dust and parts.
    "Damnit, Kage!" Jason snapped as he yanked the stick back into his lap and shoved the throttle up. The Phoenix shot up off the deck in a vertical "yo-yo" maneuver with Jason chopping the power at the apex and rolling them around, braking hard so they didn't overfly the crash site.
    "I'm pretty sure that wasn't my fault," Kage said as he scanned the debris field. "Look! It had an ejectable crew capsule."