Star Crusades by Michael Thomas (best ereader for pc txt) 📕

dark patches on these wallsshowed entry points into the planet itself, as well as a myriad ofhiding places for the enemy.

“I don’t like this,” saidKallias, “I don’t like it atall.”

4th Lance moved off to theleft, with 1stLance deploying fifty metres behind them as theyraced to the curved walkway. It didn’t take long to reach it, andsoon they began to work their way down. More Jackals swept in, andValentine was granted a view of one coming in close with its gunsblazing. It was one of the Special Forces variants and spat fireall around it as it came in to land.

“Keep moving!” Sergeant Jablonskysaid, “We don’t have time to play aroundwith these creatures. You go that pathway.”

He pointed aheadand then tagged the location. It was one of manyways to work their way down towards the turrets.

Valentine moved as fast as she could and immediately felt thepull of the alien world. She jumped and moved a short distancebefore crashing back onto the broken diamond. Her armoured feetslid a little on the steep gradient, and then she hit a series ofplatforms cut into the ground to provide a zigzag walkway thatmoved down the cavern. It slowed them down, but at least allowedthem to make some progress. Kallias yelled and instead of followingthe path, he simply leapt through the air and crashed down twolevels below. He tumbled forwards and nearly fell into a row ofserrated spikes before being grabbed by Bandu.

“Don’t do that again,” saidSergeant Jablonsky, “Take it easy, anddon’t get killed!”

The increased gravity hit herbody harder than expected, especially her lungs. Tex automatically augmented her blood flow withadditional oxygen, plus a cocktail of other enhancements to keepher moving at peak efficiency. Almost immediately two of the lancesopened fire on the distant weapon installations. The conventionalfirearms did little more than scratch the surface, but the rocketsand XHEC cannons blasted great chunks away from the outerarmour.

“Novas, spread out. Heavies hitthe guns, everybody else clear the Ski’ligs if they come tooclose.”

Valentine might carrythe lighter limbs, but she also carriedthe overcharged XHEC-1 cannon on her shoulder, a weapon ideallysuited for the destruction of ground assets.

Tex, I need all the power you canspare. I need overload.

The power indicator on theweapon quickly reached critical, so highthat if she didn’t fire it would be likely to malfunction, perhapseven blow itself apart.

“Firing!”

Her armour took the brunt of therecoil, but it was still enough to twist her shoulder back nearly a centimetre. The servos pushed herback into position as the weapon recharged and fired again. Oneshot after another slammed into the nearest of the weaponplatforms, and the gunfire ripped open the outer armour. Then camea massive explosion that saw a large part of the structure splitapart and crash to the ground, scattering broken material allaround them.

“Is that it?” Kallias asked.

But then the battery fired again,and pulses of red flashed overhead and off into space. Valentinelooked more carefully and spotted the outer armour hadgone, but that had done little more thanexpose the main support mounts for the guns.

“We need to keep hitting it.” She took aim, “Where’s our backup?We need the heavy artillery down here.”

“Forget the backup!” Kalliassaid, “Look!”

She looked up as Tsarkovcalled out.

“Contacts! I mean a lot morecontacts.”

Valentine tried to countthem, but even Tex couldn’t present thedata fast enough as hundreds of the Ski’ligs swarmed from hidingplaces in the roof and walls of the diamond world.

“Novas! Form circle!”called out the Lieutenant as the shapes movedcloser. Without even needing to check on their positions, each ofthe eight-man lances moved to form up into a loose circle, with thecommanding NCO in the centre. With each of them facing outwards, itshould prove impossible for the enemy to surprise or hit them froman unexpected direction.

“What about the guns?” Alexisshouted, “We’re here to protect thefleet.”

“Forget the fleet,” saidLieutenant Fletcher, “We can’t save themif we’re dead. Now into formation.”

He sounded furious as one by onethey moved into circles. Valentine found herself facing away fromthe guns and towards the gaping mouth ofthe massive cavern high above their position. Another lance ofNovas came in behind them, working their way down the paths as theystruggled to catch up.

They made it!

Valentine had assumed they had been killed after losing theirJackals, but through luck or judgement they’d survived and madetheir way to the correct location. Two of the dropships werealready leaving, one trailing smoke. The guns fired, and as before,the bolts of red energy rose up into the sky.

“Here they come!”Kallias said, lifting his arms.

Valentine watched the survivorsof 5th Lance as a host of Ski’ligs dropped down around them. Theywere in open order and blasted away as they were assaulted atclose-range. Valentine took aim and was about to fire as shapesfell all around her. Kallias opened fire and was quickly obscuredby the four massive muzzle flashes. The rest of the lance joined inas every one of them unleashed hell around them. Valentine couldbarely see a thing and had to rely on the tagged targets andtracking data as she joined in.

“Yeah!” Hawkins calledout, “Kill them all!”

CHAPTER TWELVE

The Trench, EkatiAlpha, The Ski’ligTerritories

Carbines, rifles,machines, and cannons roared as the Novaswent to work. Their powerful weapons tore apart anything theytouched, leaving bodies all around them, as well as shattering anyof the diamond structure they touched. Broken shards scatteredaround them, with Valentine being hit twice by clouds of thehardened material.

“Val, if we survive this, I’mtaking a piece back with me.” Kalliaslaughed as he kicked a small spike on the ground. It didn’t breakand left deep lacerations in the side of his armouredboot.

“Careful what you kick, Private. Trustme, you don’t want an armour breach down here. Have you seen theatmosphere?”

Something came down close andexploded, showering them all once more inthe crystal like rock. Valentine lifted her arm to protect herselfand watched as the Ski’lig tried to escape. She snorted as she tookaim and then fired. The first two shots missed, but the third wastoo hard to avoid, and it blasted apart the thing’s right wing,sending it spinning away.

“Niceshot, Val.”

“Yeah. Don’t get cocky,” said Sergeant Jablonsky, “There’s plentymore left, and we need this