Starstorm (Starstorm Saga) Read Online Free

applause. Jack was about to take advantage of the interlude to ask the girl her name, but before he could, someone tapped him on the shoulder. Jack turned to see a tall menacing guy looking down at him.
    “Move aside shorty. You flyboys think you can just come in here and hog all the women? You’re nothing but a little boy in a fancy uniform.” He shoved Jack aside and took a step towards the girl. “Why don’t you come dance with a man, honey?”
    Jack normally considered himself a lover, not a fighter. But he was too chivalrous (and angry) to just abandon the girl to an oversized punk. He leapt back between them and glared menacingly up at the thug.
    “Listen, lowlife, I don’t think the lady wants your company.”
    The punk pounded his fist into his hand.
    “Is that a fact, lover boy?” The punker grabbed Jack by the collar of his uniform and practically lifted him off the ground. “You can kiss that baby face goodbye, because by the time I’m done with ya, you won’t have a face!”
    Suddenly, Red came seemingly out of nowhere. He leapt onto the punk’s back, wrapped his arm around his throat and started to choke off his air supply.
    “That’s my friend you’re messing with, slimeball!”
    The enraged punker reached up and grabbed Red by the hair. He then bashed his head backwards busting Red’s nose and knocking him clear. The punker turned to face Red, but in so doing he turned his back on Jack. Little or not, Jack had studied Isshinryu for half his life. Jack punched the punker in the kidney and then used a cross kick to hit his leg which subsequently collapsed beneath him. The moment the fight had begun, most of the crowd had backed up, trying to get to a safe distance from which to watch the action. Pilots and punkers got in fights all the time, Jack just wished he hadn’t been the lucky pilot.
    The punker began to force himself back to his feet. Jack could have been merciless, and hit him while he was down, but once again his chivalry got the better of him. Instead, Jack circled around him and then helped Red to his feet.
    “Come on Red, we better get out of here!”
    “Not until I teach this punk a lesson he’ll never forget!”
    Red’s pride had been wounded and when his pride was wounded he was very often blinded by rage. Jack, however, saw that there were three more punkers coming to help their injured friend.
    “We can’t take on four of them!”
    “Watch me!”
    Unwilling to abandon his reckless friend (who had recklessly come to help him in his moment of need) Jack fell into a stance and prepared for the worst. Fortunately, five of their fellow pilots from the Condor Academy came charging in and the dance floor erupted into a full scale brawl. Their surprise attack sent the punkers running before Red or Jack could get back into the fight.
    Jack watched them flee, then turned to look for the young woman for whose honor he had fought. She was nowhere to be seen. His heart sank. Red put his arm around his friend.
    “You’re lucky I’m here to watch your back! Just think of all the excitement you’re going to miss by not coming with me!”
    Jack sighed. He checked his comlink again.
    No messages. No missed calls.
     
    Light years away, traveling through a hyperspace corridor located between two jump points was the main body of the Imperial Zidian 3rd Fleet. Thirty battle cruisers, 350 fighters, fifty transport ships, and the Flagship known as the “Krusha” which meant "black soul" in the Zidian language. On its bridge, on his platform, overlooking the view screen was Fleet Commander Akdon. He stood seven feet tall, the average height for Zidians. He wore a gray, black and silver armored uniform with many decorations commemorating his past victories. Like all Zidians he had rough, dark brown skin, a tall hard narrow forehead and powerful jaws that resembled the beak like mouth of a triceratops dinosaur.
    The lights were dim and the air hot. Below his platform on the main floor was