Night Song (The Guild Wars Book 9) by Mark Wandrey (best ereader under 100 .txt) 📕

Tucker. The exceptions were Gibbs and Hewers. She wondered how Sonya felt about the latter. It was no secret she had some sort of feelings for the boy, but Ripley didn’t understand it. Humans were…so Human.

“Brace for takeoff,” Flop said. The ship stopped, and the pilot engaged the ascent engines. They roared to life, the brakes holding it back for a second before the vessel rocketed down the runway. In just a second they catapulted into the sky.

The pilot banked back until the Phoenix stood on her tail, and the Gs built quickly. Ripley’s lips skinned back from her teeth, and she was pushed into the side of her armor. It was one of the shortcomings of the Phoenix; the CASPers were loaded in two lines facing each other, backs to the bulkheads. It allowed more armor aboard, but forced the passengers to fight takeoff at an awkward angle.

There was little choice except to grin and bear it as their father said. Sometimes it was the fate of a merc to deal with bad situations the best they could. Her CASPer display dutifully told her the Gs peaked out at 5.9, which was just shy of horrendous. Every time she’d been to space before, they hadn’t gone over three Gs. Of course, those had been pleasure trips on commercial transports. The Phoenix provided neither.

“You five doing okay?” her father asked on a private link to Ripley and her siblings.

“Piece of piss!” Drake responded before any of the others could.

Despite the strain, Ripley laughed along with Rex, Sonya, and Shadow.

“Okay, good,” Father said. “Just a few more minutes.”

It felt like a few more years before the thrust fell off to a much more manageable two Gs. Ripley understood better than ever why the Humans received nanite treatments to toughen their skeletal systems. She was lucky, by comparison. Zuul possessed stronger muscles and bones as part of their basic biology and could withstand, by nature, what Humans needed to bolster against. Didn’t make it pleasant, though. They endured another 10 minutes of two Gs as the ship circularized its orbit and entered a rendezvous course with the Zuul ship. Then the pilot cut thrust. “Secure from boost stage,” he said. “You are now free to move about the cabin.”

All the CASPer-suited troopers chuckled. Even if they could detach from the harness holding each suit in place, there would be little room for them to move. The Phoenix was crowded, with 11 mechs aboard. The book said it could hold 15. Ripley wondered how you’d manage it, though.

They had to be approaching the Zuul merc cruiser, and she wanted to watch. “Lieutenant Prendergast, can we see the live feed on approach to the Paku?”

“Sure thing,” the pilot replied. A second later, her CASPer’s computer informed her of an incoming visual data signal. She used finger controls to project the images in front of her muzzle. The bulbous cockpit of the Mk 7 CASPer provided enough room for a small Tri-V. However, the data feed was 2D, so it merely projected on the inside of her cockpit.

As she suspected, the Zuul merc cruiser was already in view and closing quickly. Her eyes burned in on the alien ship design. Only, it’s not alien, she reminded herself. The ship was created by her race.

She’d only seen Human starships in orbit and on the ground. They tended to fit into three categories. Shuttles were aerodynamic, either like an airplane or a lifting body. Transports were round or flattened spheres. They didn’t have to be particularly aerodynamic; maximized internal space was more important. Military ships were usually cylinders, or needles for smaller ships.

The Zuul merc cruiser was a pointy cylinder, but with sharp, forward-swept wings, which reminded her of claws. Unlike human ships, it was painted. The main hull was silver, with a black and brown striped pattern that extended down the wings. A number of ports and vents showed it was also heavily armed. In a word, it looked dardy!

Silent Night’s own merc cruiser, a Human-made Enterprise-class ship named Starbright, looked like a cylinder holding three bulky modules in a ring. They’d originally been manufactured as light cruisers, and had proved under-gunned for their job. However, Enterprise-class made decent merc cruisers, especially when additional cargo space was added for dropships and ordnance. Paku didn’t follow any of the design criteria she was used to, and it clearly wasn’t designed to spin.

“How do they spin for artificial gravity?” Drake asked over the squadnet, his thoughts clearly aligned with hers.

“They don’t,” Flop replied. “GalNet says Paku is an Insho’Ze-class merc cruiser, designed for fast insertion and landing support. They can land.”

Ripley gawked. It was a bloody big ship to land. She doubted they carried enough fuel to land and take off after flying between the stars. That meant the ship would be all-in during an attack. Win or lose. No draws because they couldn’t retreat.

In a minute, their Phoenix flipped over, stern toward the Paku, and Flop warned them thrust was resuming. He burned the engines at just under three Gs for several minutes, then reduced to a fraction. They slid up under Paku in a perfect approach.

I need to hang out with Flop for some simulator time.

They floated in the silent void for a minute while their pilot discussed docking with Paku. Then a bay opened in Paku’s belly, and Flop piloted them up into it using careful bumps of the Phoenix dropship’s maneuvering thrusters. The feed cut off in the darkness of the hold as they felt the merc cruiser’s bay take ahold of the dropship, locking it in place. They were berthed.

“Now we get to see the ship,” Ripley murmured with a grin.

“Ripley’s in love,” Rex said.

Ripley cringed, not knowing her mic had been live. Her siblings never had understood her love for all things airborne. She tried not to