AMP Siege by Stephen Arseneault Read Free Book Online

clovette greens and turned to look at York. "I could sure use a red Brivad ale about now. A nice Borak steak would hit the spot too."
    York replied, "On my last duty station, I had a small hydroponics cart that I kept as one of my personal items. I managed to keep a megeth root budding in there for almost two years. Put a little ground-up megeth on that clovette and you will soon forget what you are eating, Sir."
    I chewed on the dense vegetation and spoke. "When I cook for Ashley, I cover just about everything with megeth. I know it's expensive and always in short supply, but it is one luxury I am glad we sometimes have available to us, given that we are always on the run."
    Frost took a swig of germus tea from her metal cup and replied, "You know, the hits we took from the Colossuns, they took out nearly three-quarters of the megeth growth in the Grid farms. Stocks were just starting to run dry when we left. The price went from four credits per gram to almost twelve overnight. I thought about going into business with York here, to open up our own hydro farm. She is the only one I know who has gotten that stuff to stay alive outside of the Grid. I bet we coulda made a small fortune!"
    York spoke. "Dear, when I go into the farming business with a plant killer like you, we will know our time in this galaxy is at an end. Sir, that woman has killed every plant I tried to set her up with."
    York turned towards Frost. "Now, why would I risk my time and money on you, Frost? What would you bring into this business?"
    Frost grinned. "You grow the root. I'll sell the root and give you 25 percent!"
    York shook her head. "You do realize that I scored extremely high on my math exams, don't you?"
    Frost replied, "Please, not the math exams story again. Sir, I beg you, ask her to stop. She brings that..."
    Lieutenant Goddard stepped into the cafeteria. "Sir, Captain needs you on the bridge. Sensors picked up a Gonta ship in the Targ system."
    I took a swig of my drink and hurried off to the bridge.
    When I arrived, an image of the Gonta ship was on the view-screen. "That looks like one of their bigger ships, Captain. Are we going to be able to approach the planet without being spotted?"
    The Captain replied, "I wish I could say, Mr. Grange. The last time they were here, we were sitting still. Motion makes us visible."
    I looked intently at the view-screen. "Can we change course so that we slide in behind one of those planets? That would get us into the system at least."
    Rodriguez spoke. "Already on it, Sir. Will add about twenty minutes to our journey. I can park us where we are in visual sensor range, just on the planet's edge."
    Several hours passed before we arrived at our observation location behind a gas giant. The planet had a debris ring that was teeming with asteroids of the size we were seeking. Goddard and Thigs got to work on selecting an appropriate rock to propel. After we came to a stop, the Targ's planet, along with the Gonta ship, was in full view.
    Thigs spoke. "Sir, we have a rock picked out. It should give us about a two-kilometer crater. Anyone within five hundred kilometers will definitely feel the impact."
    I turned to the Captain. "Can you call a couple of your ship's engineers up here, Captain? I have a few questions for them."
    Several minutes passed before the engineers arrived on the bridge. "Guys, do you have the ability to construct a small shield that we can apply an image projector and engine to? We used a strategy against the Milgari where we built a shield of sorts, with an image projector to hide its visible signature. And we then cruised in behind it in our ships. If we can build one big enough for the asteroid we want to send in, I think we can surprise them with it. The Gontas would want to know how that got so close without it being detected, so they would investigate."
    The lead engineer spoke. "We will see what we can do, Sir. I believe we would have the materials on board needed to put that