Rumors of Honor (System States Rebellion Book 2) by Dietmar Wehr Read Free Book Online Page B

from air friction to give off a glow,
were plunging toward the spaceport. The sound he heard was the CRACK that the
point defense rail gun cannon made when its accelerated metal slugs left the
gun barrel at three times the speed of sound. One of the plunging warheads
exploded in mid-air, then another. Just as Trojan hoped all three would be
intercepted before hitting the ground, more streaks emerged from the rain
clouds. He didn’t bother to count them. There must have been at least a dozen,
and not all of them were heading for the spaceport. A couple seemed to be
coming right at him. He fought to overcome the surge of fear that threatened to
paralyze him. It was unlikely that missiles fired from deep space would be
targeted at an otherwise vacant spot that just happened to be occupied by a
two-star general. He quickly realized that those two warheads were still a fair
distance away, and although they were moving in his general direction, they
would likely be a kilometer or more away from him by the time they hit the
ground.
     
    More
warheads exploded from rail gun fire, but not all of them did. Several hit the
spaceport with blinding flashes of light and loud booms that dwarfed the sound
of thunder. He quickly turned his attention back to the two warheads heading
his way. It was clear now that they would be landing on the other side of the
ridge, and Trojan cursed the fact that the half-built duplicate command post
was likely to be hit. He had just enough time to turn and look in that
direction when both warheads hit the site and exploded. They landed close
enough that he felt the shockwaves from the blasts. The sound was deafening.
With the site temporarily obscured by smoke, Trojan looked up expecting to see
more warhead streaks, but there weren’t any. Shivering from the cold rain, he
waited until the smoke cleared. Even from this distance he could tell that
Majestic had taken a lot of damage. The good news was that all the damage could
be repaired. The bad news was that doing so would delay making Majestic operational
by months. At least no construction workers had been killed. They all would
have had time to get to the shelters.
     
    Trojan
shook his head. The Union had gotten lucky that their attack had taken place
during the relatively short period when Majestic was being installed but before
the hardened roof and stone layers could be added. There was no point in
staying any longer out here on this ridge in the rain. The attack seemed to be
over, at least at Site B. He carefully slid down the ridge and got back into
the groundcar.
     
    “Take
me back to the spaceport and close the god-dammed door!” he shouted. He needed
to get access to satellite-based communications to find out what else had been
attacked. If the spaceport control tower was damaged, he could always try his
recon craft, assuming that it was still in one piece. Despite his urgings, the
auto-pilot took its time getting the vehicle back to the spaceport. Trojan
cursed the programmed speed limits. By the time the vehicle stopped at the base
of the control tower, the lightning was no longer striking in the distance. It
was hitting nearby, and the resulting thunder was so loud he had to cover his
ears until he got inside the tower. The control tower itself was completely
automated. Fortunately it didn’t seem to be damaged. Trojan quickly activated
the communications equipment and within seconds had static-filled audio contact
with 1st Fleet/Army Force HQ.
     
    “They
came in fast, General!” said his Deputy. “Four ships emerged from hyper-space
with a velocity of roughly one fifth light speed. They planned it perfectly and
approached Hadley from the North Pole. As the planet rotated in front of them,
they were able to hit both continents. Alpha got most of the missile fire. HQ
itself is undamaged, but a lot of the equipment on the surface is so much scrap
metal now. Two freighters sitting on the ground took direct hits in spite of
our rail gun