War Against the White Knights Read Online Free PDF Page A

the tac-console, a smudge of red too thick to resolve into individual markers showed the enemy assault. It was advancing on Beowulf .
    But that’s impossible! Somehow, the enemy had penetrated the entire sensor network and the minefield without being noticed. Who in the galaxy could possibly field the technology to pull that off?
    His course of action was clear. He had to rejoin his patrol defending Beowulf and the orbital dockyard.
    Training took over and he scrambled into action. Moments later he and Janna were secure inside fast-fit emergency pressure suits, strapped into their couches and speeding to protect Beowulf , which had been his home virtually his entire life.
    The harnesses were a habit that made little sense in the X-Boat the instant Romulus had activated the momentum absorption system. This was the little fighter craft’s secret. It could accelerate at the limit of its engine’s thrust without crushing its inhabitants, and come to a stop in an instant, because momentum could be channeled into a Klein-Manifold region. Conservation of momentum remained a universal rule, but only if you looked at the big picture. Squint and you could appear to bend even this most rigorous law of nature.
    Hell, the details were for science-twonks like his brother, Remus. What mattered to Romulus was that his nimble little fighter had the same kind of engine that could push a battlecruiser across the interstellar gulfs.
    With a whoop, Romulus set the Mustang’s engine to maximum thrust.
    They didn’t feel a thing.

— Chapter 05 —
    The unidentified enemy came at Beowulf in waves, lining up as they materialized into view on the inner rim of the minefield before charging down the distance to the old troop ship. It was bizarrely similar to disciplined cavalry attacks on old Earth.
    And just as effective as cavalry against the most advanced military tech in the galaxy.
    Romulus kept his thumb on the firing stud and swooped down on the attack wave from above, raking them with fire from the Mustang’s railgun.
    Only his years of training allowed Romulus to make any sense of the environment as he jinked around the attackers, accelerating faster than a missile one moment, and then dancing on a pin to fly at them from another bearing. Confusing as it was, he was seeing a sanitized version of reality fabricated by his Mustang’s fight system. The view stuttered and blurred as the display caught up with the furious pace of change.
    He threw burst after burst of darts at the enemy, taking out dozens, scores of what he decided were probably drones. The enemy craft were slightly smaller than his Mustang, shaped like an aero engine with a pinched nose and an exhaust nozzle spitting fire.
    Jeez! These things are using chemical rockets from the Stone Age, but can slip through our sensors unnoticed.
    “Been having fun, Wolf Cub?” asked Dodger, or Flight-Sergeant De Silva when he was in trouble, which was often.
    “Good of you to show up,” said Flight-Lieutenant Ormuz, the tension in her voice giving the lie to her banter. “The rest of this wave is ours. Stay out the way while we deal with them. Then form up on my wing until you’ve integrated your museum piece into our tactical net.”
    “She’s not a museum piece, sir. She’s still a fighter.”
    “I’m counting on it, Wolf Cub. You do realize that’s the same Mustang General McEwan flew at the Second Battle of Khallini?”
    “No, sir, I didn’t. Leaving the field to you. Wolf Cub out.”
    A premonition told Romulus that Janna was silently laughing at him. “ What? ” he demanded as he pushed the Mustang out from Beowulf .
    “Wolf Cub!” Janna laughed. “You fliers with your silly names. Yours is so cute.”
    “Yeah. Very funny. Now shut your mouth. I’ve a battle to fight.”
    Romulus bit his lip. He hadn’t meant to snap, but he also hadn’t realized he had taken the general’s boat out for a sex cruise with the commander-in-chief’s former girlfriend. McEwan