The Battle for the Ringed Planet by Richard Edmond Johnson Read Free Book Online Page A

ships?”
    “I don’t see any, but they might try to use it.” 
     He glanced at her and she returned a puzzled look. Then he motioned her to continue and they walked for a few kilometers until they were near the north edge of the city.
    Torian pointed to the next ramp, “We’ll head off there.” He eyed the black and grey tower of smoke surrounded by smaller fires burning from debris. Once off the ramp, they walked along a side street covered in weeds.
    Siiri pointed, “My village is that way, along the river.”
    “The crash isn’t too far,” Torian commented as they strode down the road into the thicker brush, vigilantly scanning the side streets both with their natural eyes and with their Cons.
    On an overgrown sidewalk Torian pulled out a metal water bottle and offered it to Siiri first, but she declined, “Go ahead, I need to find a bush first,” he nodded and then she added waving her finger, “Don’t scan in my direction!”
    “Don’t worry, I’m checking the fires for debris,” he sighed, annoyed.
    “Good.” She disappeared and he took a couple of gulps of water. Then he studied his Con in the other direction, towards the smoke and wreckage. There was some burning debris a block away.
    Staring at him a few feet away from a copse of elm trees between two large buildings was a white tail deer with a six-pointer rack of antlers, “Oh how I wish I was back home with my hunting rifle. Pa would be so proud.” Torian made his hands into a pretend rifle and aimed at the buck, but the deer wisely kept his distance and unused to human presence, just stared.
    “If only I had my bow!” she whispered, creeping up behind him.
    “Are you any good?”
    “Of course, I’m better than most of the boys my age.”
    Just then, the deer dashed away and vanished into the dense brush that used to be a small parking lot for residential apartments.
    “I could use that drink now.”
    The street that led away from the expressway was wide with shops and parking lots, and like the other roads, full of wrecked vehicles, debris, and vegetation. Checking his Con, he now focused their trek towards the small fire further up the road. Hazy grey smoke filled the air from a burning piece of debris in the abandoned parking lot of what appeared to be a large grocery store.
    “Hey, that’s a Nutrifood!” Torian spied the faded green building with some of the large yellow letters still intact.
    “What?”
    “A chain of big grocery stores, we have them where I’m from. I guess they had them here, too.”
    Approaching the burning object Torian checked his Con and then cautioned Siiri, “Checking for radiation.” When he noted her confused look, he chuckled, “It’s invisible, but can cause harm. It is usually occurs around sky ships when they break up.” He spotted a long tubular object that crushed two abandoned hover cars and set them aflame.
    Since it was mostly intact and had a familiar shape, Torian guessed what it was right away, “This is a plasma canon from a gun turret. It’s reinforced for heat from plasma bolts, so it looks like it survived burning in the atmosphere.”
    “It’s a big gun from a sky ship?”
    “Aye.”
    “Is it from yours?”
    “Hard to tell, I can’t see any identification markings. Enemy cruisers also have plasma canons.” He watched the larger smoke pillar darkening the sky in the distance.
    As he started in the direction of the big smoke, Siiri lingered for a moment and turning back, the soldier was startled to see her eyes glowing bright gold, “Hey!”
    Then her eyes returned to normal and she shot him an anxious glance, “The voices …”
    “You’re freaking me out.”
    “There is great danger ahead.”
    “From what?”
    “Sky Demons.”
    Then with an anxious look, unexpectedly, he drew his pistol, “Don’t move.”
    “What? Why?” Staring down the black muzzle of the plasma pistol she glimpsed his brown eyes in disbelief.
    “Now, undo your belt and put your hands in