A long silence echoed until Kennick stepped up. “I’ll fly with him.”
Mira nodded. “Go, then.”
“Ma’am.” He saluted her, fist closed, and then headed toward the waiting Naga.
“You’d better get your other two friends on board the Andros,” Mira said to Lydia. “We’re leaving.”
Kennick nodded to Brennan as he stepped up on the stirrup set in the nose of the fighter, twisting around to drop back into the gunner’s seat.
“Hope you can fly this thing,” he said, hitting the switch that brought the canopy down.
The Fire Naga was laid out practically like a civilian skimmer, with almost complete forward visibility available through the canopy. For the person in the front seat, it was a little light sitting in midair with nothing around you but the sky. The only major difference was that the canopy had a very slight green tint, visible only because it was over four times thicker than the civilian model and composed of a considerably tougher material.
From Brennan’s position, however, he was getting used to the slightly limited visibility of having someone sitting ahead of him. Passengers sat in the back in civilian skimmers, but there were no passengers in a Naga, and the gunner got the hot seat.
“If it has sails, I can fly it,” Brennan said as he punched in the code to bring the circuits live and began to roll the Naga out of the hangar.
“That’s what I hear,” Kennick said. “Otherwise I wouldn’t have volunteered for this gig. Name’s Kennick, by the way. Jaymes Kennick.”
“Brennan. You know the last name. We don’t need it in here.”
“Right you are,” Kennick said with a smile, checking the instruments. “Been a while since I checked out on one of these.”
“You certified on a Naga?”
“Back in my legion days,” Kennick confirmed. “They were still using them as trainers then. You?”
Brennan shook his head. “Nope. First flight. Did all my time on Meridian model nines.”
Kennick shrugged. “Better than I thought. Almost the same airframe, just a lot lighter with smaller sails. Watch for that. Sometimes the Naga will be sluggish, and sometimes the larger sail will hook better than you’d expect and you’ll accelerate like nothing you’d ever believe.”
“Thanks for the advice,” Brennan said genuinely. “I can handle it.”
“You better,” the former legionnaire said as he glanced out to one side and whistled. “You loaded us with MACs?”
“They had enough in storage here to load a squadron.” Brennan grinned.
“Damn. I wonder if the skipper knew and had time to steal some.”
“Dunno.” Brennan shrugged. “I was surprised to find them.”
“I’ll bet. They phased the MACs out decades ago. Metal is too precious to waste throwing at the enemy.”
They were out in the open then, and Brennan found himself looking at the Andros as it was locked down for flight. The Andros Pak was a skimmer only by technicality in his opinion. Sure, there were some military ships that were larger, but any skimmer that used eight sails just had to be a nightmare to keep running. The software on a two-sail bird like the Naga or his own skimmer was complicated enough.
“Wait here for the Andros to lift off,” Kennick advised. “We’ll follow the skipper’s lead.”
“Clear,” Brennan replied. “Confirmed, comply.”
He settled the Naga into position, downwind of the Andros so that the bigger ship wouldn’t risk being dragged into them if she couldn’t get the altitude fast enough. It was unlikely; a good handler could play the winds to their favor and launch in almost any direction, but he wasn’t about to take a chance on being flattened right before he got to finally put a Naga in the skies.
The deep thud of the Andros firing off her projectors swept over them, the thin filament cables glinting in the light. Far above the light projectors the sails snapped into view, and the Andros smoothly lifted off the ground.
Brennan frowned. “They only put up four sails.”
“So they did,” Kennick said.
“Why would they do that? That’s going to cripple them.”
“Skipper has her reasons. Trust the skipper.”
“Whatever,” Brennan uttered with a scowl, checking the skies to ensure that they were going to clear the Andros. “Launching projectors.”
This time the explosive thud was closer and more intense, and in a few seconds the deep ultramarine sails of the Naga burst up above them. Brennan hammered the stick, winching in the cables hard as they pulled heavy and lifted into the skies.
He didn’t care. He was already in love.
CHAPTER 15
“Sail on the winds!”
Commander Kim turned, eyes automatically locking on the glint of silver-white light in the distance. It was too far for him to count the sails, but the color matched the Andros’s sail frequencies. The Elemental was bearing directly down on the ship’s position, running as tight to the wind as they could. He was already calculating the intercept chances in his head, but it wasn’t looking good.
“They launched early,” he growled, grabbing at a pair of long lenses. “We’ll never catch them if they head for the desert.”
“Yes, sir,” his second agreed calmly.
Horace scowled into the lenses. “That’s odd.”
“What is, sir?”
“Check me,” he ordered, handing off the lenses.
His second took the lenses with a puzzled look and put the device to his face. It only took him a moment to notice what his captain had spotted.
“They’re flying half-mast,” he said, “and they’re not running for the desert.”
Kim nodded, puzzled as he pulled a scarf up over his face. The winds at their altitude were low due to the destroyer keeping pace with them, but the crosswinds were still bitterly cold.
“Maybe it’s not the Andros, sir?”
Kim shrugged. “It’s possible. Maybe they haven’t spotted us?”
“Not spot an entire legion bearing down on their position while they’re in the process of raiding an Imperial depot?”
The incredulous nature of the question made the answer fairly self-evident. Some pirates might have missed the legion, but only the ones who got caught. Delsol was too good not to have an alert watch.
“Just what the hell is she doing?”
“Turning into us, skipper,” his second answered, his voice growing even more confused.
“What?” That was even less believable than the idea that they’d somehow missed a legion on the move.
“Check me, sir.”
Kim accepted the lenses back and did just that. Sure enough the sails had angled into the higher winds and they were clearly pulling south, directly into the Elemental and her squadron.
“She’s insane,” Kim said softly, shaking his head.
“Orders, skipper?”
Kim blinked, trying to parse what was happening, but it made no sense at all.
“Orders, skipper?”
The slightly more intense tone of his second’s voice shook him from his pondering.
“Battle stations,” he said finally. “All hands, all ships. Advise the Bulls that we’re preparing to engage the enemy.”
“Aye, skipper!”