Echoes of War Box Set, page 109
part #1 of Echoes of War Series
The sudden tight turns the ship made were the first indication something was wrong; Ruth was flung off her feet and narrowly missed hitting her head on one of the padded seats that were used for hard landings.
“Secure yourselves! We’re under fire from the planetary defense grid!” MacDonald’s voice came out of a speaker in the room at a shout.
Ruth tried to get herself up, only to find a powerful hand lifted her suit and helped her into the chair. “There you go, LT,” Ahmad said and handed her the helmet that went with the armor. “Get it on and strap in.”
Ruth just nodded in reply, fumbling around with the helmet for a moment before it locked into place. Whoa, this is neat, she thought as the HUD initialized, automatically linking her into the same tactical network that the commandos shared. It also allowed her to see metrics from the ship, which weren’t right. Multiple missiles appeared to be tracking their craft. How the heck did the League even get a lock on us? This thing is supposed to have the latest in stealth tech. Wishing for a moment she hadn’t looked at the feed, she braced herself as a missile hit the ship.
Time seemed to slow down and almost stop as the muted sound from the explosion roared through the tiny vessel. Ruth held on to her straps as the floor seemed to rush up at her; the rest of the commandos looked like it was merely another day at the office. “New plan!” MacDonald’s voice came over the speaker again. “Brace for impact! We’re going down!”
Ahmad dropped into the seat next to hers. “You’re not properly strapped in, Lieutenant,” he said as he pulled the straps tight enough so she couldn’t move. “The entire point to these harnesses is they keep us from moving and our feet out of contact with the deck. Large reduction in injuries that way.”
Ruth nodded in return. I’m not showing my fear. “This happens often?”
“All the bloody time!” Meissner yelled. “It’s because we use the lowest bidder on building our shit!”
The ship began to rattle uncontrollably; Ruth used the helmet’s interface to look at their relative position to the planet. They were eighty miles up and coming in at a near ballistic trajectory. The pilot appeared to be on track to somehow get them near where they had planned to recon. That’s some real dedication or just crazy amounts of skill.
“Yasue yahminana min alshar,” Ahmad said quietly, causing Ruth to look over. The commando had his head bowed and was holding his hands together.
“I’m not sure what you just said, but amen,” Ruth interjected.
Ahmad laughed. “I asked Jesus to protect us,” he said as the ship rattled once more and the hull made groaning noises, indicating extreme stress. Through her HUD, Ruth saw they were now fifty miles up.
“I think we’re going straight in,” Ruth said, fighting to talk through rising G-forces as the inertial dampening system was overtaxed and at the point of failure.
“Pilot will pull out of the dive before that happens,” Ahmad gasped back. “Done this before, Lieutenant. Don’t worry, we’re not dying today. At least not in this crash.”
That sounded a whole lot like false bravado to me. Ruth closed her eyes and chose not to watch the updated sensor readout as they hurtled toward the ground. For those few moments, she considered her choices and the decisions she had made. God, if You’re up there… if You can hear me, if I even matter to You, she prayed silently. Just help me to get through this and do the right things down here.
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Echoes of War: Book 4 – Gates of Hell: Colonel David Cohen takes on a deadly new challenge - finding a League spy before it’s too late.
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Also Available from Daniel Gibbs
Echoes of War
Book 1 - Fight the Good Fight
Book 2 - Strong and Courageous
Book 3 - So Fight I
Book 4 - Gates of Hell
Book 5 - Keep the Faith
Book 6 - Run the Gauntlet
Book 7 - Finish the Fight
Breach of Faith
(With Gary T. Stevens)
Book 1 - Breach of Peace
Book 2 - Breach of Faith
Book 3 - Breach of Duty
Book 4 - Breach of Trust
Acknowledgments
To Dad - thanks for all the many hours of great stories from your time in the Navy. They were a wonderful source of ideas!
Dave - thank you for the mentorship, advice and when needed, directness in helping me improve my writing and this book in particular.
To all those who have helped make a dream that started twenty years ago a reality; thank you for your help, support and encouragement—you know who you are.
I would be remiss if I did not thank the servicemembers of the US military that I have had the honor of working alongside for many years. Thank you for ensuring a society in which I can write the novel I choose to, the way I choose to. Above all, thank you for your service.
Finally, I believe it fitting to thank God for giving me the ability to write this novel and bring this story to life.
Daniel Gibbs, Echoes of War Box Set
