Blood War 1: Last Stand of the Legion: Rift Read Online Free

to look at the distance to target reading. Each time he did his stomach tightened with concern. So he glanced at his velocity indicator and it was right where he wanted to be for this mission. This was the longest patrol he had ever attempted. The distance was going to push Dasan and his ship to their limits. He settled into a comfortable pace and tried to relax. He was trained for this; it was a matter of pushing through one last time. Then Dasan would never have endure this again.
    He had checked the space weather forecast for Gaxola before the launch. No solar flares had been projected. Gaxola had a solar wind plasma scale of 5, so it was not as dangerous as some systems. It should be a quiet flight despite its distance. The last thing the patrol needed on this mission was a single event gate latchup or burnout of their electronics of one of the Raptors. That kind of damage to a ship's sensors or navigation systems had doomed more than one Legion patrol. His ship was shielded against solar flare ups as were the others, but even the shielding could not hold up to a large enough event. Gaxola was Type III sun and it was more than capable of such unexpected flare-ups. He glanced at the current space weather readout; the x-rays were in the normal range, the P2 was a little high but not in the red, the neutron pressure was within normal limits and the magnetic readings were also well within acceptable levels. That is exactly what he needed - a space weather forecast that was accurate for once.
    Dasan glanced at the temperature reading s for his ship's crystal. It was in the green and the power rate of flow was dead on. The tiny Ecomcon Drive anti-matter drive behind Dasan had more than enough power to push the fighter, but it was the Von Fleet crystal that magnified that power which was the real key to the Raptors speed and range.
    The crystal magnified the power created by the drive by a number that Dasan could never quite wrap his head around . The crystals used in his ship were very small compared to those on destroyers or battleships and they had a limited life under the temperatures and pressures created by the ECC drive. The engine had the most sophisticated magnetic confinement and cooling systems available but it could only keep them cool for so long if you pushed them to their design limits. If the temperatures rose too high for the cooling systems to handle the crystals could crack and fail. Their magnification of the power would be lost. The ship would be cast adrift in the space with no communications or ability to return to their launch ship. If that happened it would take years just to return to the Lyre instead of hours. So they would slowly drift with only their life support system on batteries until even that finally ran out. In the early days of the Raptor I's this was not an unusual event. That is when the Legion made the tear tattoo official for all personnel. Dasan was glad he had started his career with the Raptor III's they were more reliable with the new crystal technology.
    He glanced at his liquid oxygen display - it was in the green and his flow was right where it should be. His ship was performing flawlessly. She was quite a ship. This connection he felt when he flew was something he would always miss. Despite the physical toll and the mental stress there was nothing like flashing through space at speeds few could comprehend, at one with your ship. The ship, through the plug behind his ear, was part of him now. It would do what he wanted, when he wanted it to without a single command. Those tens of feet of nano wires that had crawled their way through his brain made it possible. No, no matter how much he hated the life, the flying was the only real pleasure he had and he still relished it when he got out of his own way and simply flew his ship.
    He glanced at the time to target readout. He didn't like it, the distance would break the current Legion record for a patrol distance. No, this was going to