Behemoth: Rise Of Mankind Book 1 by John Walker Read Free Book Online

shield.
                  “What the hell…” Meagan muttered.
                  “I know, right? It looks like they were concerned with aerodynamics or something.”
                  “Or that nose is a weapon,” Meagan replied. “God knows it could be. Imagine ramming speed.”
                  “I’d rather not.” Rudy gasped. “Hey, did you see that?”
                  Meagan scrutinized her screen. At first, she had no idea what he was talking about but then, she saw it. A massive panel on the side of the ship opened up, marring the perfect, smooth surface. Olly’s voice interrupted her before she could say anything. Apparently, they saw it too and probably had a much better idea of what it meant.
                  “Report.” Commander Everly spoke up. “What is that?”
                  “Something’s coming out of it,” Redding said. “Olly, what’re you reading?”
                  “Um…unmanned drones it looks like…a dozen of them…maybe more. Wait, getting an accurate count…twenty-four, all roughly half the size of our Wasp fighters.” Olly hummed.
                  “Group Commander Revente, this is Commander Everly. Launch your fighters but tell them to stay close to the ship. No engagement without word from us, understood?”
                  Revente replied, “understood, Commander. Launching fighters.” A moment later, their own speakers lit up. “Listen up, all fighters prepare for immediate launch. Rules of Engagement are escort only. Do not fire unless you receive a direct order from command. Repeat, you will not fire without an order. Fire them up, ladies and gentlemen. This very well might get interesting.”
                  “Here we go Rudy.” Meagan shifted her ship from idle to fire up. The pulse drive would reach maximum efficiency in less than twenty seconds. The bombers might take another ten or so but they’d all be out there soon enough. “You sure you’re ready?”
                  “I’m not the girl here, Meagan,” he teased.
                  “How was I confused all this time?” Meagan gripped the flight stick and flexed her fingers.
                  Unmanned drones. She hadn’t fought any of those since the academy. They were wily, able to pull off maneuvers no human pilot could but what they won in squirrelly moves, they lost out on intuition. Human creativity proved victorious over AI controlled crafts seven out of ten times.
                  Attempts to program them to feel otherwise made too many people nervous. God knows what the AI would do next so they left them dumb. But these weren’t constructed on Earth. They were alien and therefore, might be very different. Depending on their proclivity for victory, if this broke into a fight, it could be a real slug fest.
                  The burners in her ship made the entire frame rumble. The noise in the hangar hammered at her from all sides, making her head numb. When she reached the cold vacuum of space, all that noise would wash away. One of the only things to bother her came from the silence of the void where only the machines in her ship and the voices of command and fellow pilots were audible.
                  “Panther one, you are cleared for launch,” the radio tower operator spoke with his calm aplomb. No matter how wild a situation became, those guys always seemed to play it cool. She wondered if they enjoyed some kind of psychological conditioning or if they took some kind of drug. “Godspeed.”
                  “Thanks, tower.” Meagan patched into her squadron. “Panther wing, get ready to fall out. Follow my lead and stay close to the ship. This is strictly escort so lets not screw this up. Anyone have any questions, you can ask in the air but don’t fire. Our orders are to keep