Weapons of War Read Online Free PDF

concern surprising him.
    "I don't know," he replied, still scanning the tree line.  
    The grade and distance had given them a short respite from the Dread soldier's harassment fire. He could hear the fighter's engines growing louder as they approached for another pass. He heard something else now, a crashing sound from the other side of the bank a hundred meters distant. It was the sound of tree branches breaking against something substantial.
    Something like a mech.
    "Hurry," Donovan shouted, giving up on trying to keep his balance. He scrambled down the slope, slipping onto his back, barely managing to maintain his hold on the pilot. Diaz moved ahead of him, reaching the water's edge and wading into it.  
    Was the water even deep enough for them to hide?
    The trees on the other side began to part, the Dread mech making its way through the foliage. Donovan looked back over his shoulder. Ehri was still nowhere to be found. Where could she have gone?  
    She had abandoned them at the worst possible time. Without her, the mech would have free reign to open fire.  
    He got back to his feet, skipping the last few meters to the water's edge. Diaz was in up to her waist and had turned back to face him, holding out her arms to help him in. The mech was clearing the trees, its arms swiveling to target them.  
    "Get down," Donovan said, throwing himself into the current.  
    Then he was submerged, his ears hearing nothing but the rushing of the water as it began to carry him away. He lifted his head to take a breath, shifted his body to ensure the pilot's head was clear. The echo of the mech's weaponry discharging drowned out his hearing again, rounds splashing into the water behind them as the machine's driver worked to get completely clear. Donovan looked around frantically, searching for Diaz, finding her a dozen meters ahead of him, letting the current carry her away.
    The Dread clone soldiers reached the edge of the bank, and suddenly Donovan found himself under fire from both sides. Plasma bolts joined with projectiles, striking the area around him and vanishing in gouts of steam and bursts of water. He knew he was hard to see and hard to pick up on sensors submerged the way he was. It didn't matter. The volume was more than enough that he would be struck sooner or later.
    He tried to swim a little, to push himself further and faster, to escape the range of the attack. He felt a biting in his leg, a bolt sinking into the water and hitting him, striking the Dread cloth at a reduced strength, burning him but not destroying the flesh and bone. Another hit his shoulder, only inches from the pilot's face. He was too slow, their escape too late. They had taken Matteo, Ehri was missing, and he was going to die at any moment.
    At least he would fight to the last breath.
    He rolled over onto his back, positioning the pilot on top of him and bringing his Dread rifle from the water to rest it in front. He pulled the trigger, aiming wildly at the soldiers on the side of the river, fighting back until the last. He smiled when he saw one go down. He laughed when he saw another fall.  
    He froze when he realized he wasn't the one shooting them.
    The mech was.

  EIGHT

    Donovan lowered his body, trying to find the bottom of the river with his feet. He kept his eyes on the scene ahead of him the entire time, watching in awe and confusion as the mech on the south side of the bank decimated the Dread clones on the north side, tearing them apart with heavy projectile rounds.  
    "Dios mío," he heard Diaz say behind him, as she caught sight of what was happening.  
    He started swimming toward the shore as the last of the soldiers vanished beneath the onslaught. A Dread fighter streaked overhead, sending streams of plasma into the mech. It burned into the machine's armor, making deep scores but not taking it down. The mech pivoted to track it, missiles suddenly launching from hidden compartments on its shoulders. They streaked behind the