Angel in the Badlands: space opera sci fi romance (Sons of Amber Book 1) by Bianca D'Arc Read Free Book Online Page A

wasn’t the Regulus —which his sensors would have recognized and not identified as a threat—then it was probably the jits.
    “Something’s wrong.” Angela sat up beside him, a worried look on her face.
    “Yeah, the sensors are picking up something in orbit. I’m going up to check the sensor station. I’ll be able to tell more from there.”
    “No, I mean, something is wrong at home. Mother Rachel passed along a message through my brother Sven that danger approaches. They’re scrambling the troops, preparing to defend the colony.”
    Zeke scrambled to the hatch, heading the short distance down the corridor, Angela close on his heels. He sat at the pilot’s station and quickly scanned the sensor data.
    “There’s a ship in orbit right above us. They just launched a shuttle. Based on trajectory through the atmosphere, it should be here in a half a standard, which gives us just enough time to fire up the engines and move this crate.” He realized he was shouting and moderated his tone. “Good thing the atmospheric engines weren’t damaged in the crash.”
    “Can’t they just shoot at us from space?” Angela asked.
    “Two problems with that. First, they can’t be certain the vague shape of a ship they’re seeing on their scanners is me, which is why they’re sending the shuttle down to confirm. And secondly—related to the first problem—is the fact that your atmosphere here contains a lot of reflective dust. Sensor readings from orbit are unreliable, which is probably why your ancestors chose this place to settle. Your unique atmosphere here—and that fact that few people are crazy enough to set up house beneath close binary suns—is probably a good part of what has kept you so well hidden all these years.”
    “So then when they get down here, they’ll spot your ship and open fire?” she asked, a hint of panic in her tone, though she was managing to appear calm.
    “If we’re lucky,” he replied, running through checks on all systems. “But there’s also the distinct possibility that they will notice your settlement and want to investigate. We need to stop that from happening. So far, your population is untouched by the jit virus. Do you know how rare that is?” He spared her a look as his voice rose to stress the importance of his words. “If they come down here and walk into your colony, your people will have no immunity. All your men will die, like every man on Espia. And many of your women will get sick and probably end up sterile. We need to avoid that at all costs. If that means going into a firefight with a half-junked ship to keep them off the ground long enough for the cavalry to arrive then that’s what I’ll have to do.”
    “You don’t mean to fight them in this?” She looked horrified at the idea and he couldn’t blame her. The ship was a mess, but she still had enough left in her to make a decent showing—or so he fervently hoped.
    “Do you guys have anything that can shoot a battleship out of the sky?” He finished his assessment of the weapons system, pleased to find it was still operational.
    “Well…” She hesitated long enough to make him look up at her. “We could probably knock out the shuttle, but I’m not sure we have enough firepower to take on the mother ship.”
    Zeke sat back and just looked at her for a moment. “Thank the Maker for that at least. I was thinking the colony was completely defenseless.”
    “Not by a long shot.” Angela actually smiled for the first time since they woke up. “We train for defense of our home. We have a standing militia. And we have foolproof communications because every one of our soldiers is telepathic.”
    Zeke thought fast. “That’s an amazing advantage for a ground battle, but we need to prevent the jits from making land because of the virus threat.”
    “So what do you propose?”
    “Weapons are online and fully loaded. Thankfully the bulk of that system was undamaged in the crash. I have atmospheric