“Captain, that isn’t what is wrong,” Knapp said, pulling away.
“Then, what is it? You’ve been sullen this entire time. Thought you were broken.”
“I am broken, Captain. I can get through this. I need to do this on my own time is all.”
Yamahara sighed and stood fully erect. “Knapp, please stand at attention.”
“Captain?” she asked as she stood up. She loomed over Yamahara, eight inches taller than Yamahara.
Yamahara slapped Knapp hard across the helm. It wasn’t as harsh with the suit and helmet absorbing most of the blow. “Get it together. You are not in Boot. You can’t get out of things by asking to ‘take your time.’ This is war. Get over it, or I’ll shoot you myself to get you out of my way.”
Knapp was silent, her eyes wide. Her body started to quake, and Jennings was suddenly very interested in the launch.
“Not to kill. But, at least in the knee or ankle. Now, get it together and push forward, or drop your weapon—”
Knapp dropped her rifle, turned and walked towards the shuttle. “I’ll be working on the ship, Captain.” The “Captain” was thrown in with sarcasm.
Yamahara wanted to shoot her. But she didn’t. You have a mission. Discipline her later. At least she is doing something. She turned to Jennings and both headed off towards the facility.
They were close to the facility. The area was filled with the broken ancient stone edifices of one-time buildings. Yamahara’s commlink buzzed with someone’s comm signal. It wasn’t any of the ones she came down with. The name “Cyrus” popped up on her HUD. She looked around and saw the dark silhouette of an I.S.S. battle suit. She and Jennings ran forward to check. When she was close, she checked with Miln while kneeling behind a broken wall. “Any sign of traps?”
“None that are showing on the scanners, but be careful, sir,” Miln said.
Part of Yamahara wanted to look around to try and find him, but she knew that wasn’t going to be possible. She crept a little closer, Jennings coming up behind and tapping her shoulder before she moved forward. When she was close, she realized it was Lt. Cyrus’s body. He had one leg, the other one cut off at the hip, his suit programmed to do it to keep from letting the crap of the environment into the breach. He looked unconscious.
Yamahara moved a little closer, until the commlink buzzed again. “Lt. Cyrus? You awake, soldier?”
“Yes, Captain, but I can’t move. Don’t come any closer. Please.”
“Why?” She asked, moving a little closer.
“One of the Eridani freaks rigged me to some explosive.”
“Miln scanned and said—”
“Captain, I am picking it up now,” Miln cut in.
“Anything we can do?” Yamahara asked.
“Make sure my mom knows I loved her,” he said with a wet chuckle.
Cyrus turned his head, and she saw the visor was cracked. His face swam with a blue and silver liquid. “Fall back!” She screamed and backpedaled as fast as she could. She tripped over something, but kept pushing herself backwards on her hands and feet. Not fucking Bloom!
Cyrus’s body ruptured into a large cloud of red and black and silver. “Shit, I thought even the Eridani stopped using Bloom?” The spray was once Cyrus. It had become a colony of spores that could burrow through the armor of an I.S.S. suit. She scrambled back faster, seeing that the cloud dispersed. She still checked herself for patches of red and green, making Jennings double check her. And she checked him.
Yamahara was tired. She and Jennings were the only ones in the ditch in front of the facility. The remains of Cyrus had been meant to blow onto her and Jennings. This mission was going tits-up in the worst way. She had to find Garret. At least find the bastard’s remains, and if needed, bring his tags to the I.S.S. He had to be in the facility. She knew better than to talk to Miln. He was out watching their asses. She felt tired. She tried to remember the last time she had slept properly. It wasn’t anytime recently.
“Captain, we have company,” Miln said through his comm.
She turned to see dozens of drones shooting towards them. Some of them took on their humanoid fighting postures, while other were still in their missile configurations. And all of them were converging on Yamahara and Jennings, who fired back wildly.
“Jennings, get ready.”
Jennings pressed himself into a firing position and nodded. “Aye, Captain.”
“Fire!” Yamahara screamed, pointing her own rifle towards the five robots as they tumbled towards her. The pulse weapons wouldn’t do much against the robots, but it was something to distract them while Miln knocked a ion grenade into his rifle and fired it into their midst. It went off with a loud pop, and the bots stopped. Three of them sparked violently and collapsed. One exploded, and Yamahara had to duck behind the stone wall to not get hit by the shrapnel.
She tapped Jennings’s shoulder. He charged forward towards the facility entrance. Yamahara and Miln, wherever he was, covered him. He made it to the doorway and waved Yamahara forward. Once she was there, she and Jennings waited for Miln a half-second. He then contacted them saying, “I’ll stay out here and keep an eye out.”
Garret blinked, unaware of what was going on. Last he remembered, he was held by the Eridani. He found himself in a bug suit, his rifle in hands, fully charged. He had no idea where he was. He was on a raised platform, and he felt before he heard something coming closer to him. The platform was needed for some reason. He had to protect it. Something’s coming, a voice hissed in his mind. He saw a flicker of movement and fired without thought. The burst of blue light from the plasma discharge lit up the area. He saw faces, Eridani faces, around him. They were all tall, like the Unity Eridani; walking on their own, striding towards him. He didn’t know where he was, he just knew he had to stop them. Their faces grinned, their claw-tipped hands glinted wetly in the light of this plasma rifle.
He started to fire at them, and each burst of plasma gave him another target to fire on. Again and again, he shot wildly, striking one Eridani, and another took its place. They were terrifying, each of them striding towards him. Their grav-chairs abandoned, their limbs longer and stronger than even Garret’s. Garret only knew he had to protect the platform. That was his job. Protect the platform, it kept repeating in his head again and again.
They were moving closer and closer. Garret fired again and again at the larger Eridani, creeping closer and closer.
ALSO BY LON E. VARNADORE
I.S.S. Starkiller Parts 1-3: Catch up on the first three parts of the Starkiller Chronicle.
Mostly Human: A sci-fi noir set on Mars. Can 4Pollack find the Chimera Killer before it’s to late?
Blood for the Empress: A rollicking space opera with adventure, snarky cats and dinosaurs.
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Previously on Starkiller Chronicle
Starkiller Part Five
Also by Lon E. Varnadore
I.S.S. Starkiller Chronicle: Part Five Page 2
