Stark's Crusade Read Online Free PDF Page A

like Lamont put one of his tanks into low lunar orbit."
    "A few pieces of it, anyway." Vic checked the time on her display. "They set the charges for minimum delay to make sure those enemy troops wouldn't be able to deactivate them. Any second now and we should see a lot more stuff heading for orbit."
    "Those shuttles are still too damn close. Wish we coulda command-detonated the charges."
    "That kind of signal is too easy to jam," Reynolds reminded him. "And fiber-optic cable doesn't unreel well from a shuttle heading off at max acceleration. Hold on."
    She'd barely finished speaking when the charges left by Milheim's troops began detonating. Watching the view from a backward-looking camera on one of the fleeing shuttles, Stark saw a section of lunar terrain lift skyward as the huge ammunition stockpile went off in a rapid series of blasts that quickly merged into one massive explosion. Luminosity and infrared scales backed down in swift shifts to avoid being overwhelmed by the glare. "Holy cow," Vic breathed. "How much ammo did they have in that pile?"
    "I dunno, but I'm sure glad I'm not on that landing field. I guess we could've saved the other charges. There ain't gonna be nothing left of that field but one mother of a crater."
    "Maybe they ought to name that crater after you."
    "Thanks. Are the shuttles clear of the blast effects and debris?"
    "It's going to be close," Sergeant Tran reported. "There's too much junk flying to track every piece."
    "The shuttles are still boosting out at max acceleration," the private who had reported earlier announced. "But they're heading into threat envelopes from enemy anti-orbital systems."
    "I've got enemy and American warships converging toward the shuttles' projected orbital track," another watchstander reported.
    Stark took a second to rub his forehead, trying to fight down the sick feeling in his gut. Now comes the hard part. Getting away. "Where's Wiseman and her armed shuttles?"
    "Moving to intercept the warships."
    "Is she nuts?"
    "No," Vic advised. "She's pushing the other deception, Ethan. Making the warships and the enemy think those shuttles are going to follow a suborbital path back here."
    "Sure. Right. So when do our shuttles change—." Stark bit off the sentence as acceleration vectors on the cargo shuttles swung around. Attitude jets pushed the spacecraft tails toward the black heavens and pointed their noses back toward the dead Moon below. "Okay. Standby on the artillery." He checked the armed shuttles, watching as they canted wildly as well, arcing their courses around so they were also pointed at the Moon's surface. The displays updated the spacecrafts' courses continuously, the projected paths of the two groups of shuttles now pointing toward each other. Wiseman's armed shuttles were curving in from over the American enclave toward the enemy front lines as the fleeing cargo shuttles headed toward the same location from the opposite direction.
    "I sure as hell hope this works," Vic whispered.
    "You and me both. Artillery. Sergeant Grace? Execute preplanned fire mission Bravo Foxtrot."
    "Roger. Understand execute fire mission Bravo Foxtrot." Behind the lines the heavy artillery pieces sat within their own bunkers, monsters designed to hurl shells long distances. On the Moon, with only one-sixth the gravity, those shells carried a lot less propellant and a lot more warhead. As Stark watched, threat symbology sprang from the artillery sites, heading for the same area as the shuttles were converging upon.
    "You know," Sergeant Tran remarked. "If I were one of those enemy soldiers at that spot, I'd wonder what the hell was coming at me."
    "That's the idea," Stark noted. "Wiseman, how's it look?"
    "Just keep those warships off my tail." Her face seemed oddly flattened under the force of her shuttle's acceleration. On display, the enemy warships were pushing the edge of the Colony's anti-orbital defenses. A few threat symbols detached from the warships, marking desperate