Phoenix Rising (Book Two of The Icarus Trilogy) Read Online Free

shout over the gunfire.  He was foolish and arrogant standing above cover like that.  Feldman was about to say something over Comms when he saw the soldier’s head snap back.  The corpse stood there assisted by the power armor for a moment before finally crumpling to the ground.  Feldman cursed at the man’s incompetence and wondered if he would make it out of this situation.
    He was answered by a grenade falling at his feet.  “Shit,” he cursed under his breath as he kicked away the grenade as hard as he could and brought his sword up to shield him from the shrapnel.  The grenade burst into a hundred fragments in front of him, most of them ricocheting off of the heavily-shielded plasma sword, but some of them sank into the soft parts of his armor by the joints.  In another stroke of luck the brunt of their destructive power had been taken by those soft layers of armor, but he felt the pain of a dozen minor cuts.
    It could have been worse.  It could have penetrated the shielding of his weapon and caused the fusion battery to enter meltdown.  Feldman had read an article detailing the explosion that had destroyed a few square miles of battlefield.  He would have hated to be the reason for another event like that.
    Feldman weighed his options.  Whether or not there was one soldier or two, they had no real way of knowing that Feldman had been left largely unscathed by the grenade.  He could rush out to meet them and get mowed down by their rifle rounds or he could wait and see if they wanted to confirm the kill.  The giant realized that he didn’t want to rush headlong into death, so he waited, perched on his heels with his sword lying behind him. 
    He did his best to pick out the footfalls of any opponent.  It was a difficult prospect, considering all of the echoing gunfire and explosions from bombarding shells, but Feldman knew how to pick out the right sounds.  He couldn’t rely on just sight if he was to overcome his debts.
    Feldman heard at least one soldier rounding his cover.  He paid careful attention to hear if there were any other footfalls or if there was any communication between the soldiers.  The success of this attempt was directly related to whether or not he would have to swing his blade more than once.  If there was another soldier Feldman was a dead man.  He heard no communications; he heard no other footfalls.
    Unless the other soldier was hanging back, the Viper was alone.
    Feldman decided that it was now or never and sprang up from his position; he wasn’t going to die squatting on the ground.  As the giant rose above the wreckage he could see his opponent a meter away from him.  The Viper was alone and there was no other soldier in sight, which was good for the massive soldier.  Feldman stepped forward and brought his sword in an upward arc from right to left.  The Viper let loose a few rounds, but they glanced off the armor around Feldman’s knees.  It wasn’t enough to stop the plasma beam from burning through the Viper’s torso and completing the wicked arc through the man’s right arm.  Feldman could hear the pop of the super-heated air in the man’s lungs and did what he could to breathe through his mouth.  If he became hungry after this encounter he would be sick with himself.
    The man fell to the ground unconscious, which was a relief to Feldman.  He didn’t want to step on another soldier, but quickly he scanned the horizon to see if there were any other threats.  He found the other Viper lying dead a little over ten meters away.  Feldman’s partner had done that well, at least.  The giant looked down at the carnage he had wrought and sighed.  He hated having to kill people like this, even if it was his job.  A gun was so much more efficient.
    He walked towards the other Viper, determined to see if the man was dead, when he heard a crackle over Comms.  It was Warner’s voice.  Feldman didn’t like the man, but he was a good enough soldier.  The