Starship's Mage 2 Hand of Mars Read Online Free

it, he truly was scared of what would happen when the Hand arrived.
    “You know I’m good for it,” Vaughn said after a moment of silence.
    Cor also knew Vaughn wouldn’t go down without handing certain files to the Hand, so the money would have to be enough.
    “Fine,” she said flatly, then cut the connection.

    #

    “Turns out I shouldn’t underestimate miners, Alpha,” Anthony told Lori over the com. “Or you, for that matter. Seriously? The Army ain’t coming?”
    “Any of them that are left are busy pulling bodies from the wreckage,” Lori told him quietly. “The Scorpions?”
    “Turns out one of the miners had built himself a trebuchet as a hobby,” Anthony replied. “Mounted it on a rooftop and used to drop a hundred kilos of mining explosives on top of the barracks. Leveled the place,” he finished cheerfully.
    “All right,” she said. “We’re en route. Between your cells and the folks I’ve got on the squadron, we should be able to get some order in place - and then we’ll bring in some transmission gear.”
    “‘We hold these truths to be self-evident’?” Anthony replied.
    “Something like that,” Lori told him, a moment of amusement managing to penetrate her veneer of shock after the sheer violence of the pass.
    “Well, the miners are ready to stand behind you,” he told her. “They remember your fa—”
    Silence. Even as the com cut off, there was a sudden bright flash on the horizon, in the direction of Karlsberg.
    “ Hold on ,” Leclair snapped. “Everybody, shockwave inbound - hit the deck. ”
    The pilot matched actions to words, flipping every rotor to horizontal and driving the aircraft towards the ground. Lori was wondering just what Leclair was doing - and then the shockwave hit.
    Leclair had managed to get the gunship into the trees, sheltered from the worst of it, and it still took every erg of power the rotors could put out to hold the tilt-rotor aircraft in one place.
    Another gunship, which hadn’t made it as low, was caught by the shockwave and slammed into the trees with enough force to break both several trees and the aircraft in half. The explosion of the gunship’s fuel tanks and munitions was an exclamation point on the shockwave, and Lori stared at the fire that had been seven of her people in shock.
    “Everybody, get down on the ground,” Leclair ordered. “We’ll need to double check everything before we fly again - that’s going to have done a number on the rotors.”
    “What the hell was that?” Lori finally asked shockily as she reached for the com to try to raise Anthony again.
    “I’m only guessing,” Leclair said quietly, “but I think that was a kinetic strike. There’s no point grabbing the com, boss - even if I’m wrong, it’s only about what did it, not what happened.
    “Karlsberg is gone.”

    #

Chapter 4

    Several hours after arriving aboard Tides of Justice found Damien joining Alaura in the office attached to her quarters. The Hand poured herself a glass of wine and offered the bottle to Damien.
    “Drink?”
    “Coffee, please,” he replied. “It’s a little early in the day for those of us without iron stomachs.”
    She raised her glass in silent acceptance and produced a carafe and a cup out of the collection of silverware and glasses on the small table next to her desk. Presumably, some minion from Harmon’s crew kept the table stocked - Damien knew from experience that the Hand’s cybernetic stomach allowed her to drink alcohol without getting drunk, and the woman tended to abuse that over drinking coffee.
    “How’s Olympus Mons?” she asked after filling his cup.
    “It’s winter,” Damien replied dryly. “Everyone who can’t get to the southern hemisphere has locked themselves in the mountain and is pretending there isn’t three feet of snow outside.”
    While the mountain wasn’t that far north, the section of it that housed what was currently the Mage-King’s palace was high up. Three feet of snow