Death Never Wins (Guns of the Federation Book 7) by Anthony James

Author:Anthony James [James, Anthony]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-08-22T16:00:00+00:00

SIXTEEN

With a quiet whine of motors, the lift door opened. Two flashlight beams stabbed into the darkness of a corridor leading north.

“Looks clear,” said Lyles.

“All the way to that room ahead, at least,” said Maxwell.

The light didn’t reach far enough to tell him what lay in the next room, but he had a sense it might be a big space. For a time, the two soldiers listened.

“Quiet, like the grave,” said Lyles.

“Someone else’s grave.”

“And no mould,” said Lyles. “That’s a positive.”

“I’m sending the repeater on ahead,” said Maxwell. “I’m damned if I’m going to go marching in there without knowing what I’ll find.”

With its shields extended, the repeater wouldn’t fit through the lift door, so Maxwell ordered them to retract. The device accelerated into the corridor and he linked to its sensor array, which was only a little more sophisticated than the hardware installed in his suit helmet. Maxwell was also aware that the Ax’Kol didn’t show up with night sight activated, so he kept the repeater in daytime mode. Fortunately, the device was equipped with its own flashlight and the beam from that lit the way.

“A twenty-metre passage. Coming up to the room,” said Maxwell, narrating what he could see through his link to the repeater’s feed. “Half a dozen consoles, along with some more databanks. This might be the place.”

“Want me to call for Private Diaz?”

“Not yet,” said Maxwell. “Let’s finish checking it out first.”

The repeater came to the threshold of the room and he brought it to a halt. First, Maxwell instructed it to rotate right, so he could see what was on that side of the room. There were more databanks. Then, he instructed it to rotate left.

At that moment, Maxwell caught sight of a dark shape moving at tremendous speed from the room’s left-hand corner.

“Shit, Ax’Kol!”

The gun began firing, the sound of it jarring in the quiet of the underground room. With a crunching thump, the Ax’Kol collided with the repeater and Maxwell saw the creature’s long arms wrap around the device.

Knocked aside by the force of the impact, the repeater’s gravity drive fought to correct its position, while its gun spewed out bullets. Maxwell fired his rifle at the Ax’Kol. The repeater was armoured and it didn’t matter if a few of his gauss slugs missed the real target.

Having recovered from the collision, the repeater was again positioned at the end of the corridor. The Ax’Kol had its arms around the gun and, for a moment, Maxwell didn’t understand what the alien hoped to achieve. Then, he saw the creature raise one of its massively strong arms and crash it down against the front of the repeater, which was currently facing away from Maxwell.

“It’s trying to break the guns,” he said.

“Ah shit,” said Lyles, firing her rifle as fast as it would discharge the shots. “Is it strong enough?”

Maxwell had a feeling the answer to her question was a definite yes. As he watched, the Ax’Kol made several clubbing motions with the same arm and he thought he heard something snap.

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