War Against the White Knights Read Online Free PDF Page B

hand on his thigh and squeezed gently, not wanting to spoil his concentration. She didn’t hate him, then. The thought loosened his mind a little. He’d apologize later for snapping at her, but he needed the comfort of her love right now, not her words.
    While he waited to re-emerge into the fight, he tracked the battle’s progress.
    If Janna hadn’t been there, what he saw would have chilled him with horror, but her presence kept him grounded, reminded him what he was fighting for.
    More waves of flying bombs were on their way, but now the true attack was revealed. A wave of ships designated by the tactical analysts as troop carriers was headed their way. Worse, they were swarming around the dockyard facility and the orbital defense platforms that defended the planet far below.
    Worse still, at the rear of the enemy formation emerged much larger craft, each the size of a heavy carrier but of an unknown configuration.
    Romulus borrowed a sensor feed from Beowulf and got a closer look at the new capital ships. They took the form of two cones glued together at their bases. He couldn’t make sense of them. Big warships were normally hollow carriers that disgorged huge quantities of drone craft, and then stayed dark and silent far away from the danger of a combat zone. But no drones flew from these new ships. Their hulls too were odd. Instead of smooth plates of armor punctuated with weapons ports, Romulus had the impression of a central magnetized shaft that had attracted deep layers of random metal scraps. No weapons were on open display.
    Despite the absence of any obvious offensive capability, there was only one class of large warship that would enter an active battlezone.
    “Planet killers ,” Janna whispered, and he knew she was right.
    He counted around fifty, all of them headed for Khallini-4.
    A familiar voice came over the comm. “Captain Lubricant to all fighter groups around Beowulf . Attack the enemy capital ships. I repeat. Leave the small fry to us and concentrate on the new craft designated Papa-Kilo one through fifty-one.”
    “Roger that, Captain,” said Ormuz over the flight’s comm channel. “Disengaging and heading for the Pee-Kays.”
    Then on a private channel, she said to Romulus. “Wolf Cub. The order was for fighter groups around Beowulf . That doesn’t mean you. You’re inside .”
    Romulus couldn’t help but grin. Her flexible interpretation of orders was why he got on so well with his flight commander. “Officially, you’re too far away to rejoin my flight,” she said. “Unofficially, I’m relying on you to ensure I have a home to go back to. Got that?”
    “Loud and clear, Flight-Lieutenant.”
    “Good luck,” said Ormuz.
    Romulus put her from his mind because the jam was cleared, his bird had been re-armed, and the hangar rats were about to release her tether.
    But they hesitated… What were the chodders doing?
    The Hangar Boss’s face appeared in the Mustang’s comm screen. “The XO overheard a rumor that you’re staying, Wolf Cub. Says if the rumor were true, then you shouldn’t waste your time shooting up the incoming troop carriers. Leave them to us. Concentrate on the dirty wixers who get through to reach our hull. You didn’t hear that from me.”
    “Roger that.”
    “Now, go save our butts.”
    The tether released and the Mustang streaked out into space.
    The void was awash with troop carriers. They took the form of pods arranged in a ring, towed behind a central tube-shaped section. There was no obvious sign of propulsion but they were coming toward Beowulf at speed. Hundreds of them.
    Beowulf’s missiles and laser batteries took a heavy toll out of the attackers, lighting the void with the blooms of their explosive deaths.
    Romulus came in for an attack run, approaching the wavefront of attackers at a shallow angle, raking them with controlled bursts from his replenished railgun. He aimed for the central sections of the troop carriers, chewing up five of