Free The War Across the Stars by Alex Pennington Page A

No, no repeating needed,” Max said, obviously unaware of how it really works. 
    “Ok,” Phil said. 
    “We’re ‘bout to land on Tronadan!” Wanda called.   ”We’re going through its atmosphere now.” 
    I remembered that Tronadan had much less atmosphere than most planets and was barely habitable.  It was only after one and half revolutions of terraforming that the first colony began to look like a city.  Four hundred and fifty days of terraforming just to get a hot, volcanic moon as a place for people to live.  Currently, only fifty thousand people even live there.  I only knew of two cities, Tronadan City and York. I didn’t know of or expect any military bases.
    “Almost thar!” the airman exclaimed.  “This atmosphere didn’t take near as much shielding as most planets.  ‘Course it’s not really a planet,” she babbled. 
    Then we felt the transport lurch as the resistance of the upper atmosphere gave way to the troposphere.  I wondered why it hadn’t done that on Enphuerzo or Sontonos.  I assumed it was due to the damage to our transport’s engine.  Soon the transport was easing toward the dark brown ground.  It was a cracked, dry land, as Tronadan received little rain and relied on shipments of additional water to survive.
    We heard a soft bump as we touched down on the ground.  The transport’s door opened and Ryan stepped out.  I followed him and watched as the other transport landed.  We looked up as we heard the roar of an atmospheric dropship.  That is when we saw a Vorgian Wildcat dropship soaring by.  Surely it couldn’t be Gonyon, since he was coming from Sontonos. 
    “James…get in!” Ryan screamed as he hopped back into the transport. 
    I quickly followed, unsure of Ryan’s intent.  Ryan barked some orders at Wanda and the transport began to lift.  I was somewhat worried about what his plan may be.  The transport’s only defense, or offense as I feared he would make it, was an L-101 scaled twice as large as normal mounted on the front.  The transport turned and sped the same direction as the dropship. 
    “Full speed!” Ryan ordered. 
    “Yessirree!” Airman Xavier called out. 
    Since the transport was designed for space it would naturally be faster than the atmospheric drop ship, likely enough to catch up.  Whether or not that was a good thing I had yet to find out.  The dropship likely had missile pods and a chin-mounted minigun.  Fortunately though, the minigun would probably be fixed into position, making it only a forward defense weapon.   It should be useless on a target behind the dropship. 
    “Target their port engine,” Ryan commanded. 
    “Yepperdo!” Wanda exclaimed. 
    Beams of laser shot from the bow of our transport.  In an instant they impacted, melting the engine.  The dropship wobbled as its pilot tried to keep it steady.  I could see the warm blue-orange thrust decrease on the two starboard engines. 
    “They’re re-stabilizing!”  Philip said as he looked out the cockpit’s window with Ryan and Wanda. 
    “Go for the aft-starboard engine,” Ryan said. 
    Another column of light shot from the transport in a split second.  The engine sizzled as the impact melted it.  The thrust weakened to nothing as power to the engine cut off completely.  The remaining starboard engine powered back to full to equalize with the port engine. 
    “Try and contact them, “ Ryan said. 
    “Okay,” Wanda agreed, surprisingly not adding anything unnecessary.  The COM crackled to life and Ryan stated his demand. 
    “Land your ship immediately or we will disable it.  Our sights are set at your next engine,” he said nudging Wanda.  
    “Okay, I see,” Wanda whispered as she aimed the laser at the engine. 
    “It is in your best interest to land.” 
    Nothing came over the COM.  Suddenly, the dropship’s engines pointed down and the dropship began to hover in place.  Our transport zoomed past, our pilot unable to react