Free Valkyrie Burning (Warrior's Wings Book Three) by Evan Currie Page A

traces of the alien forces in them, and all of them were linked closely to Hayden. There were paths to take around Hayden, to be sure…especially when the enemy seemed to have better jump drives than they did, but those paths were circuitous and highly inefficient. To get to Earth, practically all direct paths ran through Hayden.
    “Well, it’s not our concern just yet,” Nadine went on, setting aside the slate with the dispatches. “Do you have the roster for who’s going planet-side?”
    “Yes.” He produced another slate, handing it to her. “We’ll be cycling people over to the station starting in an hour or so.”
    “Good. Be sure to remind them that leaving the colony site is strictly forbidden,” she warned.
    “Wilco,” he replied. “Everyone knows anyway, but it never hurts to hammer it home.”
    “I’ll like this system a lot better once they get the issue in the jungle settled,” Nadine grumbled. “Feels wrong to control the orbitals and yet basically have ceded the planet itself to an enemy force.”
    “You’ll get no arguments from me on that one.”
    *****
    “Heading ashore, Top?”
    Sorilla looked up to see Korman standing in the hatchway and nodded as she shouldered her day kit. “Yeah. After I check up on Crow, I figured I’d see how some of the pathfinders are faring now.”
    He nodded.
    “You not going planet-side?”
    “What for?” Korman shrugged. “We’d either be restricted to the station or the colony anyway.”
    Sorilla smiled. “What would you do if you weren’t? It’s a jungle world, K. Not exactly anything much there for R&R beyond the colony anyway.”
    “It’s the principle of the thing,” he told her, lip curled up in a half grin. “If I’m going to be locked up, I may as well be locked up here as there.”
    “Right. Well, I’ll see you when I get back on board.”
    “Cool,” he said. “You taking your leave on Earth then?”
    Sorilla shrugged. “Figured I may as well. We get time on Hayden pretty regularly, and I have family back home.”
    “Right, well, I’ll catch you later then, Top,” he told her before stepping back and into the hall.
    “Later.” Sorilla followed him out, sealing the hatch behind her.
    Korman headed back to the common areas while she turned left and headed for the medical labs. The med labs on the Hood were located near the center core, in the most heavily protected section of the ship. With the ship standing at station for the moment, Sorilla skipped the electric lifts and used the glide tubes to shift decks, arriving at the labs in seconds rather than minutes.
    The lieutenant was tied down to an acceleration bed, still on life support from what she could see.
    Sorilla snagged a nurse who was drifting in her direction, redirecting the woman so they didn’t collide. “How is he?”
    “Stable,” was the best answer she’d gotten yet. “We’ll have to transfer him off to the medical labs in the New Mexico Counterweight as soon as we get home. The damage is just too extensive for us to treat here.”
    Sorilla nodded, lips twisting up a bit. The enemy hand weapons weren’t as lethally effective as their artillery response capability, but they were bad enough. Armor wasn’t much use against them, except to sometimes prolong how long it would take you to die if you took a glancing blow. Crow was lucky enough to have had access to immediate medical aid, both from his armor systems and from the shuttle that picked them up.
    For all that, from what she’d seen of the damage, Sorilla figured that his soldiering days were done.
    “Thank you,” she said, hooking a hand into a grip and pulling herself out of the way.
    She drifted over to the bed, looking down at the man who was barely visible under all the rigging, blankets, and medical paraphernalia taped, tied, or otherwise attached to him. He hadn’t been so bad for a butterbar, in her opinion, started off a little rocky to be sure but stepped up to clean up his own mess and