Nowhere to Hide by Saxon Andrew Read Free Book Online Page B

your ships with unarmed boson missiles and let’s see who the best is. You may go and prepare your pilots for the maneuvers.”
    The two stood, saluted, and left the room. Kregen turned to Marissa, “Who do you think will win?”
    “I’m not sure. Captain Newsome was angry she wasn’t chosen to take part in the last battle. She’s been in command longer than Captain Fox.”
    “Then why did you select him?”
    “I’m not sure, Kre. I just felt he would perform the task…more efficiently. His pilots really worship him and wouldn’t do anything to disappoint him.”
    “What about Newsome?”
    “She’s a hot shot. Her pilots are incredible in their ability to fly the new ship.”
    Kregen smiled, “She reminds you of you.”
    Marissa smiled, “She does; but you know how I could make a bad decision before I learned the consequences of not paying attention to all the available information.”
    Kregen nodded, “You’ve really come a long way, Rissa.”
    “You taught me a lot. If I had to pick a winner, I couldn’t do it. Annie’s pilots are some of the best one-on-one in the fleet.”
    “And these ships are designed to be used in that kind of combat.”
    Marissa nodded, “Perhaps.” Kregen looked at her, “We really don’t know the full capability of the new ship and whether or not it can be used in organized attacks. Did you see the recordings of the invader’s probes destruction?”
    “I did.”
    “Well, there were numerous ships that could have fired on those probes but the closest one to each of them took the shot and the others waited to see if they were needed. None of them were looking for glory but were focused on doing the task the most efficient way possible. That speaks volumes about Fox’s skill at getting the most out of his squadrons.”
    Kregen thought a moment and Marissa wondered what he was thinking. He took a sheet of paper and wrote something on it, folded it, and handed it to her, “The name of the winner is on this. Don’t look until after the war game is over.”
    “You’re afraid I will help the one you don’t choose more than the other?”
    “It’s what I’d do.”
    Marissa took the paper and smiled, “This should prove to be interesting.”
    “It will also determine our future direction in using these new ships. We need to know.”
    “Their design is to reward an aggressive pilot. Annie will have the advantage.” Kregen shrugged and Marissa smiled, “You’re not going to give me a clue are you?”
    “Nope.”
    ***
    Annie and Ryan were in their ships just outside the boundary of the exercise. The rules stated that they were not to be involved in the action and that their pilots would have to act on their own without commands from their leaders. Annie smiled at that restriction. Her pilots were the best at fighting without direction. She pressed her communicator and said, “You’re going down, Fox!”
    “Good luck, Captain Newsome. Perhaps we can learn something from this experience.”
    Annie was angry at the comment. This false modesty was too sugary to tolerate. She watched the countdown reach zero and saw Ryan’s ships stay in formation. Her ships immediately rushed out at them at high speed. Suddenly, the Freaks broke formation and flew out in hundreds of different directions away from the incoming attack. Annie knew that in order to win, a ship had to hit an opposing ship with an unarmed missile. The force fields would prevent any damage and any ship hit would have to jump out of the exercise. The thousands of ships were flying at incredible speed and it was difficult to keep track of what was happening. She watched her panel to see the number of her ships that were hit. The results surprised her.
    ***
    “Lilly, I have one coming in from the port side.”
    “Set him up, Amal.”
    Amal turned hard right and the attacker turned into his path, cutting the corner. Suddenly, an attack ship emerged from green space and fired a missile at the attacker as it