Read Valkyrie Burning (Warrior's Wings Book Three) for Free Online

arc as the powerful ducted fan inside it whirred to life. Then, in a flash, it whipped off after the flyer, slamming into the back of the alien bird and detonating its small shaped charge in an explosive lightshow.
    As the flyer came crashing down in flames, Sorilla rolled clear of it and came up to one knee to shoot over the ruined vehicle, using the flames and wreckage for cover.
    Crow was sprinting toward her, firing back over his shoulder in short bursts, aiming with his rifle cam on the run. His accuracy wouldn’t be worth much, except that with the guidance fins and the seeker heads on each round, he’d probably hit as much as one out of three shots. Especially at the tightly packed formation that was charging along behind him.
    The prisoners had spent the entire two minutes since they’d broken out running as best they could for the treeline and were halfway there or more. Sorilla made sure they weren’t being threatened overtly then continued to fire into the enemy ranks as Crow sprinted for cover. Her rifle clicked empty, and she dropped the mag in a smooth motion, slamming a fresh one home just instants later.
    As she leveled the weapon again, she caught a flash of light erupt from Crow as he ran, an enemy weapon tearing into his armor at the shoulder. It converted the carbon fiber, and a good chunk of his flesh and bone, into a plasma jet that roared back out the hole it had created, pitching him forward off his feet and into a spin.
    Sorilla was moving even before he hit the ground, yelling into the tactical network. “L.T. is down! Cover me!”
    The booms of her companions’ weapons rose in crescendo as she dove for Crow’s position, grabbing his good arm as she clawed for purchase and started pulling him backwards away from the enemy. She flipped her rifle over to full guidance mode, without any IFF restrictions, and opened up while struggling to run backwards with the lieutenant’s flopping weight trying to unbalance her.
    Her weapon went dry then, and she heard Jardiens curse as his own followed suit. Korman kept shooting, but he had to be running low on that mag too. She let the rifle drop in its sling, struggling to pull the wire line from her belt, then snapped it onto the bolt in the back of Crow’s armor.
    The ground beside her roared with flame and concussion as a shot came far too close, causing her to jerk backwards again as she fumbled with her hanging rifle, trying to get a fresh mag into place. The distraction of trying to reload on the run while dragging the lieutenant finally got the best of her as Sorilla’s foot found a loose stone that rolled right out from under her.
    She went down hard, dragging the lieutenant’s immobile form up halfway on top of her, and she cursed as she rolled him off and struggled back up to her knees. One glance told the story as the ragged remains of the Ghoulie regiment regrouped, charging her position. They weren’t firing at her, as best she could tell, probably hoping to take her alive. Explosions of superheated plasma erupted around her, though, and certainly drove both Jardiens and Korman back as they were forced to take cover in shallow ditches while they continued to fire back desperately.
    Sorilla clawed at the ground, grabbing the magazine she’d dropped, and fed it to her rifle finally. But one look at the host coming down on her told her she wasn’t going to get them all before they got her. She gritted her teeth, leveling the weapon as she prepared to make sure the others did get out, only to hear a sudden whistling sound rip past her ears just before the entire front rank of the Ghoulie line were thrown back into their fellows, spraying grey ichor to the wind.
    Sorilla surged up, recognizing the sound of long-range artillery fire from an M900, and just reached down to grab the strap on Crow’s armor before she turned and ran while the Ghoulies were still shocked by the sudden mass death fed to them.
    Jardiens and Korman covered her retreat,