Sky Hunter by Chris Reher Read Free Book Online Page A

Five. Taking a closer look.”
    “ Negative,” came the static reply after
a moment. “Synchronized rebel attacks throughout Shon Gat.
Casualties on both sides already. Everything south of the canal is
blocked off. Return to base immediately. Join Reko’s squad at the
north gate when you get here.”
    “ Heard, base.”
    “ Look at this,” Reko showed her his
hand-held scanner. “Picking up two drum shields down there. What do
they have that’s so important?”
    “ Crap!” Nova swung the hover around
hard enough to make Reko grab for the console to steady himself.
“Coilers.”
    “ Out here?”
    She did not reply, busy with swooping in an
erratic pattern away from the bluffs. But this wasn’t a Kite and
they were close enough to touch, it seemed. Reko had no further
objections when they saw the tracer with its telltale spiral
pattern angle toward them. It whipped by close enough to rock the
plane in its wake. She climbed higher and pushed the hover to its
limits to escape the next volley from the ground. “We’re one great
big target up here.”
    Reko said nothing, unaccustomed to trusting
his life to a vehicle never meant for engagement. No shielding,
limited armaments, an explosive fuel tank at his back – it suddenly
seemed safer on the ground, taking one’s chances with the
Rhuwacs.
    She had finally come about and headed back to
Shon Gat, taking the most direct path through the valley. The
plane’s system reported incoming laser fire from the rebel groups
that Reko had spotted on the way up.
    “ Feel free to pop yourself some
Rhuwacs, Reko,” she yelled.
    “ Are you crazy! I’m not opening that
door with you flying like this. Just get us out of
here!”
    She punched his arm. “Use the onboard guns.
It’ll at least distract them.”
    Reko returned the fire as well as he could
through her twitching evasive maneuvers while she hailed their
commander. “Base, this is Unit Four. We took fire below Sarasun.
Sighted two anti-aircraft positions. Clear now and approaching from
the south.”
    “ Heard,” came the static reply after a
moment. “That’s a no-fly over Shon Gat for now. Land at the
lift.”
    Nova and Reko listened to a burst of static
and cross-traffic that included the sound of some very large
explosions. “ Cazun ,” he whispered. “What’s going on down
there? Did they get tired of trying to get at the
transformers?”
    “ Must have been filtering people in for
weeks now,” she said. They now saw the town ahead of them, forming
a broad triangle as it spread out from the base of the hills into
the plains. Dust or smoke billowed into the air from more than one
location. “You’d think those damn caravans—”
    “ Incoming!”
    A shudder went through the hover and then
alarms started to complain from the console in front of them.
Whatever had hit them sent it into a wobble which she corrected
quickly but the indicators showed a steady and troublesome power
loss. “Not going to make it,” she yelled.
    “ What the hell does that
mean!”
    “ We have to land, what do you think it
means? Hang on to something.”
    He groped for the seat restraints while she
fought with the hover’s definite preference for landing at a
problematic velocity. She worked quickly to override some of the
automated scripts which, although faithful to safety protocols,
were useless now. The hover started to shimmy dangerously as she
dropped lower. It tilted, corrected, and then landed with a
thump.
    They sat still for a moment, stunned by the
realization that they were still alive.
    “ Damn, you’re adequate, Whiteside,”
Reko said finally with a forceful exhalation of air.
    Something whistled overhead and then an
explosion sent a shower of rocks and dust over the hover.
    “ Out,” Reko said. “They’ll want the
hover and they can have it. But not with us in it.”
    They grabbed their guns and gear to abandon
the vehicle. There should have been Air Command patrols all along
this end of town but