The Steel Tide by Michael Green EPUB & PDF – eBook Details Online
- Status: Available for Free Download
- Author: Michael Green
- Language: English
- Genre: Fantasy Adventure Fiction
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Casket Run
Lieutenant Ross s Waloo sat in the briefing chamber, staring at the
operations maps for his next assignment. He was headed back to Three, by
way of the fleet lanes, but it was a six week haul. His eyes bulged, as he
studied the traffic on his nav charts; the lanes were packed. According to
the original plan, the Combine fleet was expecting replenishment of
material and supplies to be at least partly secured from the conquered planet
Four. Strategists expected early successes; of course, they were wrong. The
invasion had stalled. Now, an endless torrent of supply vessels were on
rotation back and forth from Three, just to keep the fleet operating.
The lanes were the shortest route back to three, but, to a pilot’s eye, they
were filled with so many vessels, cruising as fast as possible, that the
prospect was downright hazardous.
The distances between the vessels would be immense, but a single slip,
a misread numeral in the ten-thousandth place, might not only mean death,
but the loss of desperately needed supplies. Waloo recalled his last flight
crew briefing, and what their wing commander said at the outset of
replenishment operations: “Everything is resting on the shoulders of our
pilots—but not our fighter pilots, or the helmsmen of our mighty cruisers,
but you, our transport pilots—god help us.” Their commander seemed in
jest, but Waloo had his doubts.
He imagined his tiny transport, zipping through the lanes, back to three,
pulling thousands of kilometers per millisecond, only to slam into a freight
barge one hundred times his size, because a transponder delay of a halfsecond failed to trip the proximity alarm, or trigger the autopilot to squirt a
stream of compressed hydrogen from the attitudinal bank. He might be
leaning back in his seat, sipping coffee, or rolled over in his rack, while his
co-pilot was on watch, and he could die, in less than a blink.
Waloo gulped and looked to his counterpart, his new co-pilot, two
chairs over. He didn’t recognize her, but that was getting more and more
common as the sub-standards, non-fleet-worthy pilots, began arriving in
cargo barges and shuttles, piloting the first wave of replenishment from
Three. Those pilots filtered into the fleet rotation as the better pilots started
their long treks back to Three.
Waloo had been proud of his assignment to the fleet. Sydney saw
potential in him; at least, that’s what his mother said, but this new pilot, who
was she? She had the air of an experienced long-haul pilot, her disheveled
and careless appearance implied so. There was also a certain quality in her
attitude, a sense of tempered confidence and well-earned cynicism, that
wasn’t unattractive.
Breaking the silence, Waloo spoke. “Is this your first return trip from
the fleet?”
He saw a name stitched above her breast-pocket. “Hanlen,” it read.
She nodded, lowering her slate. “Sure is. They snagged me, coming in
from past the belt; requisitioned my helium, and now I’m flying for the
fleet.”
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