Milla nodded inside her suit, not realizing that even if the soldier had stopped to wait for confirmation, he wouldn’t have been able to see her movement inside her helmet. She wrapped her hands tightly around a rail that ran along the wall. Now what? she wondered to herself as Savoy tapped a code into a panel.

Suddenly, the hatch blew, exposing the interior of the shuttle to the hard vacuum of space. Milla felt the tug of the explosive decompression trying to pull her armored form into the depths of space. She tightened her grip even more.

“Are you people mad?” she demanded, in shock.

A group of chuckles floated back across the tac-channels.

“Mad? Naw…just crazy.”

“We’re worse, lady; we’re spec ops.”

“Ya know, I’ve been wondering the same thing ever since I signed up—pretty smart chick to get us pegged so quick.”

“Awright, cut that out!” Savoy ordered tersely. “Playtime is now over!”

Savoy looped himself back toward where Milla was holding onto the wall as if her life depended on it. “You can relax now. Decompression is over, and your suit’s integrity is rated to several hours in hard vacuum.”

Milla glared at him from behind her mirrored visor, not realizing that he couldn’t see it.

Savoy chuckled, however; he had years of reading emotions through the way a soldier held herself in her suit. “If you’re pissed now, you’re gonna be ready to kill me when I tell ya what comes next.”

Stephanos wheeled his fighter around in a 180-degree spin without killing his forward momentum, loosed a missile and two bursts from his cannon, and spun back. Behind him, the pursuing Drasin fighter stumbled directly into the hell storm barrage thirty-three seconds later, erupting into a ball of flame and expanding debris.

“Yee-haw!” Brute yelled over the tac-net. “Lovely shooting, boss man!”

Stephanos suppressed a smile, instead snapping an order into his mic: “Can the chitchat, Brute. And watch your six!”

Brute laughed over the net as he flipped his fighter in a graceful pirouette, his cannon blazing as he did. “No problemo, boss man! These jokers react like computer drones!”

Stephanos had to admit that Brute had a point; the enemy fighters flew well, but predictably. We do this and they do that. They were either relying heavily on computer interfaces or discipline was extremely rigid among the enemy flyers. Either way, the Archangels had a marked advantage over their flying foes in this fight.

He set his features as he considered it. “All right, Angels. Here’s what we’re going to do…”

CHAPTER 20

“NO!” MILLA DECLARED firmly. “I will not!”

Major Brinks exchanged a snide look with Lieutenant Savoy. “You’re the one who wanted to come along planet-side. This is the only way that’s going to happen.”