Side Show by Rick Shelley Read Free Book Online Page B

intelligence is a little behind the time, Eustace thought. He swallowed heavily and got on the radio, looking for orders and information. Where to go and what to shoot.
    —|—
    "Where are they?" Colonel Stossen demanded.
    Bal Kenneck was busy on his radio links, looking for the answer. They were under the tarp of the colonel's makeshift command post again. Around them, the rain was starting to get a little heavier, but it was no cloudburst. Reports from the companies farther west, near the point, said that it was getting very heavy there.
    Teu Ingels and Dezo Parks were also busy on the radio, Dezo trying to get updated intelligence from CIC, Teu contacting the various companies and recon platoons, trying to determine just where the new Heggie fire was coming from. Even with all three staff officers working, it took nearly five minutes before anyone had an answer.
    "The tank fire came from here." Parks pointed to a spot on the mapboard off the right rear quarter of the 13th. "About three klicks out past 4th recon. CIC monitored the muzzle flashes but needed time to get an eye trained on the area. It looks like another column about equal to the one we're engaging on the other side."
    "Who's closest to them, Bravo?" Stossen asked.
    "Besides 4th recon, yes," Teu said. "And Fox has the point on that side of the diamond. They're not too much farther off."
    "Get Digby and Jacobi." Captain Digby commanded Fox. Captain Jacobi, the newest captain in the 13th, had Bravo. "Tell them to move to intercept, pincer these Heggies. And get the Havocs busy."
    Ingels got busy on the radio. Stossen turned to the other two.
    "If there are two columns that close, there might be a third, the rest of two battalions, infantry and armor. Or more. If so, I want them found before they start hitting us as well. Get patrols out, Dezo. Bal, get back to CIC. Tell them what we're looking for. If there are Novas on the move, CIC should be able to pick them up." The Combat Information Center on the flagship was the only outside help the 13th could count on. With orbiting spyeyes and the long-range sensors on the ships, CIC could provide a lot of information... on anything they could see. The problem on Jordan was the limited number of spyeyes the Accord had been able to maintain in orbit.
    —|—
    The seven remaining Wasps of the 13th's Blue Flight headed northwest. They were only halfway to their targets when a half dozen Schlinal Boem fighters intercepted them.
    "Straight into them," Slee Reston ordered. "We've got to get past as fast as we can." Most times, he might almost have enjoyed a good mix-up. Like most fighter pilots, Slee was supremely confident of his own ability, and equally confident that his plane was at least on a par with anything the enemy could throw at him. But now they had a vital ground support mission. The rest of the 13th was out in the middle of nowhere, "surrounded" by Heggies. That the 13th still had, apparently, a considerable edge in numbers made no difference to Slee. His flight had a mission to perform, and this fight was just slowing them down.
    Blue Flight had the edge in altitude, though that was no longer as major an advantage as it had been before fighters were powered by antigrav engines. The Heggie interceptors rose quickly, aimed directly for the Wasps. At a distance of six kilometers, the two sides exchanged their first missiles... then went into violent evasive maneuvers while they launched their spectrum of countermeasures. Both sides used fire-and-forget missiles. Once they had been shown their target, they needed no further guidance from the launching aircraft.
    In Blue two, Zel Paitcher dropped decoys and started his Wasp moving up, straight up. After two seconds, he reversed both drives and the Wasp sunk like a stone, the gee-load forcing blood to his head. He held the power dive as long as he could stand the strain, then flipped the Wasp end for end and went back to level flight—toward the Boems. Going into a