Warlords of Antares - Another Sample

Greetings one and all. With the finishing touches being done on 'The Warlords of Antares' today, I thought I'd post another small sampling. This is from Chapter Nineteen. The book will be released on April 10th, and you can pre-order it now on Amazon, iBooks, or Barnes & Noble.  Please keep in mind, this is not an Edited work as yet...
Enjoy, Author, Brian K. Larson...


“Delta leader, Delta Five, come in.”

“Delta leader, go ahead Delta Five.”

“How much longer we gonna be out here, Captain?”

“We’re just about to the end of our patrol...”

“Whew, it’s been a pretty boring CAP, Sir...sure will be glad when this is over...wait a minute. Stand by.”

“Delta Five? What’s your situation?”

“I’m picking up two unidentified bogies inbound, twenty-five kilometers out!”

“Copy that, Delta Five. They just appeared on my screen too, stand by. Delta squad, arm weapons and engage enemy!” the Delta leader commanded, “Rocinante, Delta leader, do you read? Two inbound bogies twenty-five out...repeat two inbound bodies, do you copy?”

“Confirmed,” Lieutenant Henderson said. Then he turned to Captain Fits, “We’ve got company, Sir!”

“Sound General Quarters!” Jameson ordered.

Lieutenant Collins pressed the ships alarm button, sending a repeating buzzing noise throughout the ship. Then he shouted over to Captain Fits, “Three incoming missiles!”

“Charge plasma weapons,” Fits commanded, “launch countermeasures, and fire our main guns!”

“Aye, Captain!” Collins shouted in return. “Launching drones and activating point defense systems!”

“Helm, hard to port!”

Lieutenant Payne turned the fourteen hundred foot destroyer, repeating the command back to the Captain as she executed the turn.

“Rotate ship thirty degrees,” Commander Jameson ordered, “Fire plasma cannon when ready!”

“Plasma cannons charged, Sir!” the tactician replied. “Point defense systems are online. Firing cannons!”

There was a large boom that sounded within the massive destroyer as the plasma cannon discharged its powerful energy blast at the two enemy vessels.

The two hundred drones buzzed about the hull of the sturdy Rocinante, firing their laser blasters at the incoming missiles, successfully destroying two out of three.

“Brace for impact!” Jed commanded, grabbing the arms of his chair.

The missile struck the Rocinante’s armor plating. The detonation nearly buckled the hull, shaking the massive ship. The ship’s ion charged shielding preventing the hull from being breached.

Captain Fits regained his composure and ordered tactical to recharge the plasma cannon for a return volley.

“Sir, the two inbound ships have launched a squadron of fighters!”

The Captain turned toward Henderson, “Lieutenant, launch the alert fighters!”

“Aye, Captain. Chief Kelly is already in process of launching the fighters.”

“Attention flight deck!” Chief Kelly shouted through his comm link, “Launch all fighters. Inbound ships are twenty kilometers out. Your ETA is six minutes.”

Captains’ Phillips and Jones walked arm and arm on either side of Captain Simon. Stopping at the announcement, they turned and looked at each other, and then took off down the causeway toward the flight deck.

“How many are you going to take out this time?” Jones asked Major Phillips.

“You’ll be lucky if I leave you any,” Phillips smirked at Eric.

“Ha!” Rene scoffed, “Let me remind you, that I took out more enemy fighters on our last run than the both of you!”

“Yeah, yeah,” Jones said, swatting at the tenacious female pilot, “She’s got us on that one, Kurt.”

“Well, at any rate,” Phillips said, climbing into his cockpit, “Free drinks to the one who bags the most today!”

“Well,” Rene said, sealing herself inside her fighter, “Better start filling my cup then.”

The lead fighter pilot signaled with a salute, “TALLY OH!” and then the green lights lit up the launch bay, sending their fighters to intercept the approaching ships.