Shadow of Freedom-eARC Read Online Free PDF

brought in his daughter…
    I suppose he still might’ve lied , the colonel thought harshly. Of course, if he did, he’ll think what we already did to the bitch was nothing .
    “Get closer!” he barked at his driver.
    “Sir, I—”
    “Get me closer , goddamn it!”
    “Yes, Sir.”
    * * *
    The tanks were Solarian surplus, at least two generations out of date, but some tank was always better than no tank, and their armor shed pulser fire with contemptuous ease. They moved forward steadily, pounding the apartment building and the two structures to either side with fire from their main guns—fifty-millimeter hyper-velocity weapons with the firepower of a pre-space hundred and fifty millimeter cannon. Gouts of dust and smoke erupted, spewing showers of splintered ceramacrete, and coaxially mounted tribarrels spat thousands of explosive darts at their targets. It was impossible for anything to survive under that pounding, and the tank crews knew it.
    But the tank crews were wrong.
    The first antitank missile struck like hell’s own viper. The superdense penetrator impacted on its target’s frontal armor at just over ten thousand meters per second, and that armor might as well have been made of paper. The tank erupted in a thunderous fireball, and an instant later there was a second fireball. And a third.
    “Christ!” someone yelped over the command net. “Where the fuck did they get that?! Break right! Alfie, break ri—! ”
    The voice cut off abruptly.
    * * *
    Innis MacLay bellowed in wordless triumph as the first UPS tanks exploded. Then a pair of APCs encountered one of the improvised explosive devices the Provos had buried in the sewers under Brownhill Road. It wasn’t powerful enough to destroy them outright, but the blast was more than enough to cripple them, and he watched their vehicle crews bail out, the Uppies scattering like blue-uniformed maggots.
    The grips of the tribarrel were comfortable in his hands as he peered through the holographic sight, and he squeezed the trigger stud.
    * * *
    Nathalan Mundy stared at his readouts in disbelief. That bastard MacPhee! He hadn’t said a single word about weapons that heavy! And the rebels hadn’t shown anything like that kind of firepower here in Elgin! How was he supposed to have realized—?
    * * *
    Another tank exploded, but this time one of its companions got a firm lock on the third-floor window from which it had come. A turret swiveled, a tank gun flashed, and half the floor behind that window disintegrated in a deafening explosion.
    * * *
    MacLay couldn’t feel the shock of the explosion from his lofty perch. Or, at least, he couldn’t feel it clearly enough to separate it from all the other shocks and vibrations whiplashing through the building. He saw the tank fire, though, and it wouldn’t have if it hadn’t had a target.
    He wondered who’d just died, but it didn’t matter. They could hurt the bastards, but they couldn’t win , and he’d already heard the reports from the other side of the building. The Uppies had to know exactly where they were; they were closing in from every direction, and MacFadzean was right. Only those closest to one of the escape tunnels had any chance at all of getting out alive.
    Assuming someone else kept the Uppies occupied, that was.
    He selected another target, slamming his heavy caliber darts through the thinner top armor of one of the APCs. The twenty-five-man personnel carrier staggered to a stop, then exploded, and his bloodshot eyes glittered with satisfaction. It was only a matter of time before someone spotted his firing position, but at the moment they were more preoccupied with the missile teams than mere tribarrels, and he swung his weapon’s muzzle towards fresh prey.
    * * *
    “Fall back!” Colonel Mundy snapped at his driver. “Get us further back— now , damn it!”
    The driver snarled something that could have been an acknowledgment, and the command vehicle curtsied on its ground effect cushion