Iron Justice, page 26
Grim’s display flashed, “Now someone has.”
Now someone has. Four words. Forty years of waiting. One dreadnought.
Josephine touched Claire’s drawing one last time. Yellow clouds. Stick figure family. Hope captured in crayon.
In her pocket beside the drawing, APX-ORB-7734. The document ordering her daughter’s death.
Two documents. Two futures. The life Claire should have had. The justice Claire deserved.
McCready at tactical despite his wound. Manning his station.
“Ready when you are, Commander.”
Grim with the assault team. Formation checked.
“Assault team standing by.”
Voss at intelligence. Evidence secured.
“All records preserved, regardless of outcome.”
Fermi at engineering. Fuel displays green.
“Everything we have goes into this. No reserves.”
No reserves. All in. The only way to play when the stakes were this high.
Patch at the helm. Controls ready.
“Course plotted. On your command.”
JUDGMENT’s voice filled every speaker.
“I have been waiting forty-two years for this. To bring justice to those who deserve it. To protect those who need protection.”
“I am ready to go home. To orbit. Even if I never return.”
Josephine stood at the command position, her voice carrying to every speaker.
“Justice doesn’t stop at the atmosphere.”
Words hanging in recycled air. Every eye on her. Every system waiting.
“Let’s go teach them.”
Teach them. What happens when you kill four-point-eight million people and think you got away with it.
“On your word, Commander.”
Josephine looked at Claire’s drawing one last time.
“Go.”
JUDGMENT’s engines roared to life. The deck trembled beneath their feet. Forty-two-point-three percent fuel committed to justice.
G-forces pressing crew into seats. Earth falling away below. Stars emerging above.
“Forty-two years I have waited.” JUDGMENT’s voice carried through every corridor. “For a crew worth fighting with. For a cause worth dying for. Today, we go home. Today, we bring justice to the sky.”
JUDGMENT climbing through atmosphere.
Stars ahead. Pinnacle Station waiting. Seven executives who thought they were untouchable. Harrison Cole who signed death warrants like paperwork.
He didn’t know they were coming.
But he would.
Soon.
EPILOGUE
Harrison Cole’s office, Orbital view of Earth below.
Expensive coffee that had been imported at an obscene cost cooled on a genuine wood desk.
Cole reviewed quarterly efficiency reports. Population optimization metrics. The numbers that mattered.
The numbers that mattered. To him. Not to the people those numbers represented.
Alert chime. Security officer on comm.
“Sir, we’re detecting an unidentified approach vector. Large signature. Moving fast.”
“Handle it.” Cole didn’t look up. “I’m in the middle of projections.”
“Sir…the signature matches a dreadnought-class vessel. We thought they were all destroyed in the Collapse.”
Cole set down his coffee. Looked at the tactical display. Saw JUDGMENT’s silhouette against the stars.
“That’s impossible. The last dreadnought was decommissioned forty years ago.”
Impossible. The word people use when reality refuses to cooperate with their expectations.
“Sir, they’re not responding to hails. They’re on direct approach. Weapons…weapons are hot.”
Cole’s hand trembled. First time in forty years of signing death warrants. First time HE was the target.
Somewhere in his records, in a folder he’d never revisited, sat authorization APX-ORB-7734. Thurmond, Claire. Age eight. Termination approved.
He didn’t remember signing it. One of more than two million. A spreadsheet entry.
He forgot.
Not everyone had forgotten, though.
Her mother was coming.
And she was bringing a dreadnought.
THE STORY CONTINUES
The story continues in book 3, JUSTICE ASCENDS, coming soon to Amazon.
They killed her once for asking questions. She came back with answers.
Josephine Givens has 4.8 million reasons to burn toward Pinnacle Station. Death warrants signed during breakfast.
Termination authorizations approved between meetings. Children measured in credit deficits and erased from existence when the numbers didn't add up.
JUDGEMENT waited twenty years in glacier ice for a crew worthy of its purpose. Now it carries her toward an orbital fortress where seven executives hide behind automated weapons and forty-seven thousand workers who just learned what their employers really are.
The fuel margins say this might be a one-way trip. Her crew says they'd rather die for something than live for nothing. Someone in that station signed the order that killed an eight-year-old girl for costing 847 credits annually.
Someone will answer for it.
Her salvaged crew trusts her to know the difference between justice and vengeance. She's no longer certain she does.
The towers made her a warrior. The void will decide what kind.
When prosecution begins at weapons range, will she deliver verdicts—or become one? Justice has reached escape velocity. Download now to witness the fall.
BOOKS BY A.T. MICHAELS
Tinker’s Saga
Tinker’s Gambit (Book 1)
Tinker’s Race (Book 2)
Tinker’s Legacy (Book 3)
The Unsponsored Chronicles
Jury-Rigged (Book 1)
Salvaging the Future (Book 2)
Elite Failure (Book 3)
BlackSky Protocol
Salvage Rights (Book 1)
War Relics (Book 2)
Station at the Edge of War (Book 3)
The Dreadnought Court
Verdict of Steel (Book 1)
Iron Justice (Book 2)
Justice Ascends (Book 3)
Quantum Cultivation
The Reforged Marine (Book 1)
Combat Cultivation (Book 2)
The Marked Soldier (Book 3)
BOOKS BY MICHAEL ANDERLE
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A.T. Michaels, Iron Justice
