Insurgency: A Military Sci-Fi Series (Pirate Wars Book 1) by Rick Partlow & Ralph Kern

Author:Rick Partlow & Ralph Kern [Partlow, Rick & Kern, Ralph]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aethon Books
Published: 2023-10-23T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

The loud echoing sound of gunfire echoed disconcertingly down the long, barely lit corridors. A constant feeling that at any time, an enemy could turn the corner and send a hail of rounds toward us.

Close-quarters combat in zero gee, or CQC-Zee as it was called in the Marines, was as much a poetic ballet as it was the raw aggression required for groundside building clearance. It was a different mindset, not just knowing on an academic level, but appreciating on an instinctive that this was a three-dimensional game, with the walls and deckheads being as much in play to maneuver around and through as the deck.

Hell, the Belters had even developed their own martial arts for it. The cage fights with the combatants using CJJ, Ceres Ju Jitsu, really were a thing to behold. Fights where every angle was in play.

“Moving.” I pulled against the hatch sill. Sailing for what felt like an eternity to a stack of crates netted to the bulkhead and tucked behind them. Above me, relatively, Jacinto reached the sill of the next hatch. I tucked my cheek down, sighting down the corridor. “Cover on.”

We’d brought two of Jacinto’s remaining six officers with us, the others being left to secure the powerplant. None of us wanted to endure the bellyache of retaking it if the boarders decided to have another go at it. So those four were hunkering down.

“Moving.” The officer, Mannan I recalled her name was from the brief introductions we’d had, launched herself past me, reaching her own cover, followed a few seconds later by her partner.

This was taking forever. The urge to just charge through the corridors and get to the bridge was overwhelming. It sure didn’t feel like slow and steady was going to win this race.

“Cover.”

“Moving right.” I pushed off at an angle, reaching for the next cover point in the T-junction I was in. I caught a handhold, my momentum flipping my body around. I quickly pulled myself down feeling an itch between my shoulder blades. “Cover right.”

I hoped to hell that Jacinto remembered enough from his time on the coal face to know to cover left from my call.

“Cover left.”

Thank God for that. I still had to resist the urge to look back. Trusting instead the arrogant asshole had said that he was covering left, then it was damn well covered.

“Moving right,” Mannan called.

I was focused, hard, down the corridor. A figure appeared from behind a stack of secured crates, clad in a suit that looked a decade old. Another was on his tail, moving up.

Close-quarters combat, whether clearing out a gang-ran drug factory or a house full of Tahni troopers shared three principles.

Surprise.

“Contact Right!” I snapshot rounds, squeezing my carbine’s trigger the millisecond my sights kissed anything that looked worth hitting. One of the pirates was caught mid-bound. My rounds slammed into him. Red mist puffed out of his torso, lingering in the air. The other managed to get a handhold, scrambling to pull himself back behind cover.

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