Reason For Vengeance (Dark Vengeance Book 1) Read Online Free PDF Page A

facility, it wouldn’t do any harm.  It also saved Valerie having to get an update before she departed the next day.
    “How did it go?”
    “Better even than we expected, the new super matt armour and the focused Electron Shielding worked marvellously.”  Emily said in a rather dry tone.  “The Spectre moved to within two kilometres of the Dante without detection.  We’ve analysed the Dante’s sensor data a dozen times and we managed to find only a hint she was there.  That hint was on the last two, after we entered the Spectre’s full specifications into the program.”
    Valerie was impressed, the PNS Dante was one of the most advanced battleships in the Legion Navy and that meant, in the entirety of known space.  She couldn’t help tease the other woman a bit.
    “I see, so she is detectable.”
    “Only if we wide broadcast the designs.”  Valletta replied, as usual not realising Valerie hadn’t seriously meant it.
    “True, but like any advantage in war, it’s only as good while your enemy doesn’t know about it.”  Valerie warned a little more seriously.  “Once a few ships have been lost they’ll want to know why and how.  They’ll do everything they can to find it.  You’d be surprised how much death motivates people.”
    “That’s the beauty of the shielding.  It can be adapted as time goes on.  If they find a way to detect the original spec’s, we can adjust the energy signature so it won’t do them any good.”
    “OK, Emily, please send me the full report to my secure Link tonight.  Shadow Company is shipping out tomorrow.  I’ll review it and give you my input when we return.”
    “Thank you, Major.”  She hesitated for a moment.  “I have to admit, I was not overly pleased to hear you would be assigned to oversee this project.”  Valerie raised an eyebrow and Valletta hurriedly continued.
    “I mean, as a ground combat specialist, I didn’t expect you to be able to contribute effectively to a Stealth Space Fighter, but your insight and recommendations have been extremely helpful.  The comments from your last flight in particular, clarified several points for us.  Your feedback was actually better than our main Test Pilots.”
    “I’m glad I could be of assistance,” Valerie said with a smile.  “The Spectre could well make a difference to combat.  If we can use a few fighter bombers to take out enemy ships, rather than pounding them from a distance with our own, it will save a lot of lives.  If the other Nations know that we can hit them anywhere without warning they’ll be even more wary of getting in the way of the Pantheons interests.”  The lift came to a halt at Valerie’s stop and the door opened. 
    Valerie paused as she stepped out and turned back to the engineer.  “I didn’t start my career in the Legion Army, I flew Vectors for ten years.  Including tours on Tau Ceti and Mars, among others.”
    Valletta’s eye’s widened.  “Mars?  You fought in the Dictator Wars?”
    Valerie frowned slightly.  “I’m not sure if fight is the right word but yes.”  Before the engineer could say anything more Valerie stepped back and let the lift doors close.  She headed down the corridor to her quarters, her mind looking back to over eighty years before.
    The Dictator Wars.  A mess those three words did not come close to explaining.  Earth and its oldest colonies became heavily over populated with ever more scarce resources.  Space travel gave the human race a vast wealth in chemical and mineral means, but it could not supply one of the most fundamental necessities, food.  To manufacture food you needed land, but that land was being used for people to live on.
    People got more desperate, governments collapsed and despotic dictators stepped into the vacuum.  Up until this point, the human tragedy of Earth and the surrounding space was of little concern to the Pantheon and the other newer human Nations.  There was little they could do about