Planet Hell by Joshua James

Author:Joshua James [James, Joshua]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-05-24T06:00:00+00:00

21

I watched Big Boy shrink below us as the dropship roared into the sky.

“Hold here,” Lam said.

“Sarge?” Dice asked.

“We need to get into that fight,” Mason said. “I’m ordering you to take us down.”

Dice glanced at Lam, clearly not happy about taking orders from Mason, but also knowing that he was the ranking man onboard. He started to push the stick down.

“Stop,” I said.

All three men turned toward me.

“We’re not going down there.”

“I outrank you, Captain, or have you forgotten that?” Mason seethed.

“Think for a second,” I said. “Let’s see if they follow the rock. If we pull away and see a change, then we know. This might be our only chance to know.”

“We can push back for two minutes and see,” Lam said to Mason. “I don’t like running from a fight either.”

I could feel his disappointment in me. Whatever he thought of Mason’s competence, I was sure he could see the yellow streak in me a mile away. “If nothing happens with this … experiment … then we go back in.”

“It might be over in two minutes,” Mason said.

“Then we wouldn’t make a difference,” I countered.

Lam nodded at Dice, and the dropship began a long, lazy curve away from Big Boy, slowly giving us some distance from the station. I felt like a thief trying to make a nonchalant getaway from a crime scene.

I hopped on the pulse cannon assembly that was attached to the side of the dropship and pulled on the sighting goggles. From where I was, we didn’t have drone views, but the goggles allowed an enhanced view.

I felt Mason next to me, waiting expectantly. “Nothing yet,” I said as I scanned the surface of the base. There were firefights continuing. I saw two more dropships take off, but they circled back around to provide cover, doing exactly what Mason wanted us to do.

I remembered the Empire bastards making a run for it in their dropship. It made me a little sick to think I was no better than them.

Which was crazy. I was here to keep Mason alive. That was it. Why did I keep thinking like one of these Marines?

Just as the base was about to disappear from view, someone in a black uniform rushed out of the building, using the same door we’d come out of.

I couldn’t make out the details from this distance, but it wasn’t hard to guess who it was. General Nelson. It could have been one of his other men — I had seen at least two others running around, in addition to the men with Nelson in the interrogation room — but in my heart, it was an easy call. It had to be Nelson.

“That was that bastard, wasn’t it?” Pinky said.

I was surprised out of my thoughts. I hadn’t realized the tarmac of Big Boy was still in view. Then I felt dumb when I realized there were several distance goggles on the dropship. “There’s no way to know for sure, but yeah, I think so.”

“Me, too,” said Mason.

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