Supreme Leader of Anstractor: A Sci-Fantasy Space Adventure (The New Phase Book 3) Read Online Free PDF Page B

always does.”

04 | Exploding Crystals
    C AMILLE YAN powered up her engines and took her phantom out of idle mode to drift ahead of the other Phaser ships. They stood as an arrowhead facing the Geralos fleet and were awaiting an order to move in. Rafian had come up and he hadn’t uttered a word as he stood at the head of the arrow, waiting. Camille flew beneath him, rolled masterfully, and then turned her phantom around to face him.
    “Isn’t this special, Commander,” she began. “The last time I flew wing to you, we were both marines on Helysian . Feels like several lifetimes have passed since those days, doesn’t it?”
    “It does,” Rafian replied. “I miss those days. Back then, innocence and ambition clouded our minds to the impending doom of Anstractor. Hell, the only thing that was on my mind was”— thyping you until we were barely able to move , he thought—“being the best pilot in the Alliance.”
    He forced his mind to focus on Marian, and he thought of how perfect she’d looked in her 3B suit while they fought the Crak-Ti on Meluvia. Camille’s ship hovered in front of his but he was no longer seeing her. All he could see was his Marian, smiling the way she did whenever they were together. He saw the smooth caramel skin of her face and the perfect white teeth that were barely able to hold in her teasing red tongue. He felt weakened by the love he felt for her and—
    “Raf, when are we going to do this thing?” Camille asked impatiently. It took Rafian a few more moments to realize that she had been talking to him.
    “Fall back in line and calm your nerves, Phaser,” Rafian ordered, and Camille made a mock salute and did as she was told.
    Rafian was worried, and he was trying to remove this worry by focusing on his wife. He wasn’t worried for her safety or for the safety of his men. He was worried about failing and the fallout if the Geralos were able to commandeer their sanctuary.
    As a married couple, he and his wife had been on the frontlines since the last day of their honeymoon. He wanted a break: a week, just one week with her, with his Marian, away from everything.
    He closed his eyes and concentrated on the blackness of nothing, then opened them to exhale in the Mera-Ku way.
    “Okay we’re doing this on my count,” he spoke loudly into his comm. “Tayden, you and Yuth are paired up. I want you to push through to their rear, put plasma on that main mothership, and keep moving until you reach the other side. Cammy, you head north and wipe out everything that comes at you; Klemise, you stay tight on her tail. I will take it south and we will swap sides on the mothership and then rendezvous with Tay and Yuth on the back end.”
    “What about me and Rentrout, Commander?” the nasally voice of Erlaine asked.
    “Erlaine, drop 10,000 feet and hover. Your job is to pick off any would-be raiders that would use this fight’s distraction to do a bombing run on our beloved city. Rentrout, fly up near the atmosphere; I don’t want any of them trying to leave while we’re killing their friends. By the time we start, this thing is going to turn into a maelstrom. Do what you do and we will reconvene on the other side, got it?” he asked.
    “GOT IT!” they echoed in unison and then sat silently as Rafian took a few more moments to clear his head. “Okay, let’s remove these thyping crutas from our air space, Phasers. Get ready on my count! Three, two …”
    As soon as he reached “one,” Rafian’s black phantom—whose familiar shape had become somewhat of a legend to the Vestalians—rocketed forward. It was loud and violent in its sudden movement, and to the people on the ground it sounded as if an explosion shook the heavens.
    The thoughts of Marian, the memories of Camille’s sweet touches, and the worry for relaxation after so much war was gone from Rafian’s mind. All he could think about was the sound of his engine, and his body and mind became one with the phantom as it