Stark's Crusade Read Online Free PDF

attempts to achieve an improbable hit against fleeing targets at maximum range. "Just for the record," Wiseman added, "I really hate accelerating toward the surface of planets and moons. Understood?"
    "I assume you're planning on pulling out before you hit."
    "Assuming everything works right, yeah. If it doesn't, I'm gonna be real pissed."
    And real dead. Stark checked the converging tracks of cargo shuttles, armed shuttles, and artillery. Okay. Artillery hits first. Saturates the defenses around that location while Wiseman's shuttles sweep in from the front and the cargo shuttles come in from the rear. Any functioning defenses should automatically engage Wiseman's shuttles because they're an incoming target. Defenses should give the cargo shuttles low targeting priority because they're fleeing targets. Hopefully none of the defenders will realize we're planning on that and switch to manual targeting in time. Those cargo shuttles don't have half the survivability of Wiseman's armed shuttles. "Cross your fingers, Vic."
    "And my toes," she assured him.
    Enemy defenses began throwing out rounds to intercept the incoming artillery, but Stark's barrage was too big to be stopped. He'd sat under enough artillery barrages himself to know exactly what would happen while those big shells were hitting the enemy line. Exposed sensors and weapons would be shielded and troops would keep their heads as low as possible. In the case of soldiers in bunkers, it was an almost irrational reflex, since any shell penetrating their underground lairs would be certain to kill everyone whether prone or standing fully upright. But sometimes even irrational reflexes made you feel a little better, made it a little easier to handle the thought of tons of explosives falling all around you.
    Wiseman's armed shuttles were maneuvering again, putting everything into pulling out of their death dive toward the surface and converting it into a dash straight over the enemy line. The cargo shuttles were also altering course, jinking as madly under the push of their attitude jets as their forward velocity would allow.
    Symbology converged. Stark avoided calling up visual of the artillery hitting the enemy positions. He'd seen it happen a thousand times, and derived no joy from thinking of the soldiers cowering under the bombardment. Wiseman's armed shuttles tossed out weapons of their own, and a flurry of countermeasures, as a scattering of enemy defenses tried to engage the fast-moving targets. At the last instant, a few of the enemy shots sought out the cargo shuttles as they and Wiseman's armed shuttles rocketed past each other. Almost instantly, the armed shuttles fired their attitude jets again, then kicked in their main drives, arcing up once more in a high-g maneuver to curve back inside the American defenses as quickly as possible.
    Stark realized he hadn't been breathing and took in a long, shuddering breath as the cargo shuttle symbology lunged toward the American defensive line. Damn. Did we pull this off? Actually get our people out intact?
    "Got a hit," a watchstander announced as alarms sounded. "Shuttle Alpha."
    "How bad?"
    "Hull rupture, stabilization systems out, got an uncontrolled tumble. The shuttle's close to the deck. She's got no room to recover."
    "Oh, man." Nerving himself, Stark called up vid from the shuttle, jerking involuntarily as his vision suddenly filled with wildly tossing images. The impact of the hit and secondary explosions on the shuttle had thrown it off its smooth trajectory.
    Lunar terrain littered with rocks zipped past in flashes of gray and white, alternating with the star-sown blackness of space.
    "Gutierrez!" Chief Petty Officer Wiseman shouted over the circuit at the shuttle pilot. "You're too low for autorepair to stabilize that pig. Do it manual!"
    "R-roger," Gutierrez came back, his voice shaking, as his body was tossed constantly against its restraining harness.
    Stark blinked as Vic deliberately broke his vid