AMP Siege by Stephen Arseneault Read Free Book Online Page A

together."
    I thanked them as they left the room to begin their work.
    I paced about in front of the view-screen and then spoke. "Wow, that projector shield brings back some memories. I was just getting into the thick of it with the Milgari when we came up with that. What an outstanding team I had. If this works out, the Gontas will be scratching their heads."
    The shield was prepared and deployed. Rodriguez piloted the Granger through several tricky maneuvers, and the one-hundred-twenty-meter-diameter rock was soon on its way towards Targ. We moved back into position on the back edge of the planet that protected our location and watched intently on the view-screen.
    The officer at the sensor console spoke. "Everything looks good, Captain. I'm not detecting any type of sweep signals, and there has been no movement from the Gonta ship."
    I sat back in my chair. "How long to impact, Captain?"
    The Captain replied, "Three hours, twelve minutes. The rock and shield are going in hot, but we will be applying some ion braking through the shield just before it hits the atmosphere. At its current speed, it would likely cause severe damage. We had to send it out at high speed, or we would be sitting here for months waiting for it to travel from here to there. Let's just hope they don't pick up on any signals from the braking."
    The sensor officer spoke. "Approaching final speed, Captain. Shield is lifting away. We have atmospheric entry. Impact in... thirteen seconds."
    Frost spoke. "Can we zoom in on the impact point? This should be exciting!"
    I replied, "Mr. Hobbs. Let's give Frost her zoom, please. We wouldn't want her to be disappointed."
    As the image enlarged, an alarm sounded. "We have another Gonta entering the system, Captain! We are in full view with our camera systems active. We aren't putting out much of a signal, but..."
    The Captain yelled, "Rodriguez! Get us out of here! They have a lock on us!"
    The Granger began to accelerate as the Gonta ship closed.
    Rodriguez spoke. "Better get those weapons online!"
    I stood and turned. "Rodriguez! Bring us to a halt and turn us to face the Gonta. It's time we find out if they can be dealt with."
    The Gonta ship slowed to a halt as it closed to five thousand kilometers’ distance. The sleek black ship had a wide oval base with a long, thin neck that jutted from the center and ended in a fore bridge that undoubtedly gave a clear view of all but the back side of the vessel.
    The sensor officer spoke. "Sir, we are receiving a hail signal from the Gontas."
    I replied, "Tell them we are explorers and mean no harm. Let's see if they are reasonable."
    Frost cut in. "Holy moly, Sir! That impact is spectacular! If I was to guess, they already have a trajectory figured out and will take that as a hostile gesture."
    Hobbs spoke. "Sir, our comm remains offline. We have no way to respond. They are continuing their hails. I'm detecting ion activity, Sir. It looks like they are bringing their weapons online!"
    I turned to the Captain. "Any ideas? I don't want to just be sitting here if they decide to start blasting."
    The Captain replied, "Mr. Emmers! Bring the Yacabucci online. Start a web forming in between us and them. Rodriguez, get ready to pull back on my command."
    I spoke. "What are you thinking, Captain?"
    The Captain replied, "We can't hit them with the web without it taking time to build. If we put it between us, we might have enough time to ramp it up to full strength. At that point, we start to move away with the hope that they will follow and move into it. Of course, we have no assurance that it will work. And we do have the issue of that other Gonta ship. Given the speeds we have seen them traveling, it could be on us in about four or five minutes."
    I leaned back in my chair and turned towards Frost. "Great, where I go, trouble soon follows."
    York spoke. "Sir, we could bring the comm system back up and try for a response to them. Worst case is we have to shut it back down."
    The