Anvil Dark (Backyard Starship Book 3) by J.N. Chaney & Terry Maggert

Author:J.N. Chaney & Terry Maggert [Chaney, J.N.]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Variant Publications
Published: 2021-11-21T00:00:00+00:00

Whatever it was, it sure as hell wasn’t a Vibariyun. It looked more like an oversized turtle with a gleaming shell, way too many legs, and a flat, triangular head that seemed to be nothing but mouth and teeth.

Then all hell broke loose, and I went into motion.

I snatched out The Drop and snapped off a hip shot as the thing scuttled toward me. The slug smacked against its shell and ricocheted away, but not before spalling a chunk of bone and leathery skin. I cursed and fired the burster, but the energy charge didn’t seem to faze it at all. And then it was on me, its mouth snapping shut on my right thigh. I felt the pressure through my b-suit, enough to make me feel like the thing was going to take my leg by simply pinching it off. But the b-suit held, and I opted for the only sensible response.

I bellowed for help.

“Torina! Perry! I’m getting Death By Turtle!”

Torina fired a shot that bounced off the thing’s shell and buzzed past my head. I made an uncomplimentary remark about that, then planted the muzzle of The Drop against the thing’s head and squeezed the trigger.

The damned thing didn’t fire.

“Not my day,” I wheezed.

Torina lunged in, banging out three point-blank shots into its neck. The creature grunted, released me, and pulled back, then staggered under repeated shots from both Torina and me, since The Drop seemed to be working again. We backed up the corridor side by side, stumbling over the Vibariyun body and hammering out rounds at the tough, angry creature.

“Bastard won’t die!” I shouted, firing again.

Torina changed mags, re-cocked her weapon, and resumed firing. “I’ve only got one reload after this. Didn’t expect a firefight.”

Unbelievably, despite the pounding it had taken—the creature charged us again, bone-white palate exposed as it opened up to bite me again.

“Thank you very much,” I muttered, jamming The Drop down the creature’s throat and pulling the trigger.

Twice.

Gore sprayed backward from the neck and shoulders, and the Turtle of Doom folded obediently, leaking fluid from an array of holes. After a frenetic series of twitches, the beast went still, but not before some gland on its tail cut loose, spraying the wall with a substance so foul it made me gag.

“I… did it just piss on us?” I asked, fighting back bile.

“It tried. Or something,” Torina said. Our chests were heaving with adrenaline, and she leaned forward and casually put another round in the creature’s head. “Take that, and just because I need to know, what the hell was that thing?”

I heard movement behind us and spun around, The Drop raised as Torina lifted her own weapon. “Not again—"

“Woah, Van! Good guys coming to the rescue here!” Perry said.

He and the Invigilator had rounded the last corner and now gaped at the creature filling half the corridor.

I looked right back at the Invigilator. “My colleague here just asked a very pertinent question. What the hell was that thing?”

“It would seem to be a—” Again, the word didn’t translate.

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