Raine VS The End of the World Read Free Page A

division, terminate the targets. Charge every beam, arm the missiles, and what the hell is taking the interceptors so long?”
    His second in command looked at him quizzically.
    “Docking bay shields are offline, sir. Our men are sitting ducks. ETA for reinforcements is two minutes. I advise that we fall back--”
    “Idiot! The reactor in there could go off any second now! We may not have two minutes. Gun targets down at all costs!”
    ◙
    Lillian Hermes banged on the thick doors and screamed at the top of her lungs, ignoring Rutger’s attempts to comfort her.
    She didn’t want to listen to some stupid computer.
    She wanted her Mommy and Daddy, and nothing was going to stop her. The girl searched her memory banks: she once had to memorize the layout of the Belladonna , inside and out. There should be at least three ways to escape this dungeon.
    Picking up a stool, she desperately searched for the vent to the food forest’s water supply, which linked up with the engine coolant system. It wouldn’t budge. There was no use. Her parents were risking their lives, and she was trapped like a pathetic little thing in a metal cage.
    XF-22 whirred into the chamber. The doors locked shut behind its bodily frame, which opened its humanoid arms to Lily just in case she needed a hug. She cautiously approached the android.
    “Miss Lily, please understand,” Rutger began. “I am under strict orders to protect you.”
    “And I have the key! I’m the boss, and they need me! I can pilot the Phoenix ! Let me out of here!”
    “There is nothing I can do. I am sorry.”
    Lily fell into tears. XF-22 wrapped a blanket around her shivering frame, then handed the young Captain her favorite stuffed elephant, which she held tightly. She gazed at the digital clock on the console, barely able to look at the video coming in from the two ships. Each second seemed an eternity to the poor girl, a dreadful countdown.
    They’ll make it back in time. They’re invincible, she thought.
    The PA chimes rang in Rutger’s friendly warning.
    “SpaceTime Warp Initiation in two minutes.”
    □
    Dozens of missile turrets emerged to thwart the Eagle even as Carl blasted away the last of the starboard lasers taking aim at the Belladonna’s navigational beacons.
    Coming from the opposite direction, Elizabeth eliminated the guided rockets, but missed one by a hair as she pulled her ship away, while Carl barreled into a corkscrew turn.
    Sweat coated his palms as the impact connected. He had thought he could out-maneuver it. The Eagle was hit, and hit badly. The lasers fried his primary engine, and shields were giving way. One more direct hit and he’d be done for.
    “How much more time do we need to buy?”
    Both husband and wife had accepted that there would be no return from this.
    “Two minutes should do it,” Elizabeth replied. “The interceptors are packing mini-nukes. We can’t let them get any closer.”
    “I love you,” Carl said.
    “I love you, too.”
    They doubled back towards the fray and crippled the engines of the armed personnel ships advancing towards the Belladonna ’s dock.
    Returning from their first pass, a squadron of unmanned interceptors rushed the duo like bees escaping a drowned hive. Elizabeth squeezed her triggers, shifting against the recoil of her overheated guns. Zooming past the remains of her targets, she winced from the debris that clunked against her right turbine. Her heart sank into the back of her chest. She turned to look at where Carl was flying by her side as they cleared the wave.
    As a scientist she tried to rationalize the silent fireball, there and gone in a second, as just another transmutation of particles, a collision of alloy on alloy. There was no point in spending her last moments in mourning. She gave herself a final engine burst at maximum power, sending an enormous amount of G-force through her body. Her Falcon soared towards the bridge, jets at full power and guns blazing.
    ∩
    Silence struck