Rogue Element (Autonomous Weapons Division Book 2) by B.R. Keid

Author:B.R. Keid [Keid, B.R.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harmony Publishing
Published: 2023-09-29T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER

TWENTY-ONE

Red bolts hissed past the armory’s broken doorway, followed by the clamor of boots and shouting. A squad of masters-at-arms raced by, firing at an unseen enemy further down the arterial. A few of them rushed into the armory, itching for a fight.

Too bad they’d just missed it.

“Clear!” an officer shouted, an ensign from the look of his pips. “Deck four armory clear,” he repeated into his wrist comms.

A brusque voice came back. It sounded like Mirden.

“Who’s in charge here?” the ensign bellowed.

Sev could feel Cole’s gaze boring into him, cutting like a raider’s laser. Jene leaned against the closest weapons rack, sweating profusely. Only Harp looked remotely normal. That alone was more than a little disconcerting, given what just took place.

“Master Specialist Sevvers,” Harp said, confidence oozing through his too-big grin.

“Sevvers,” the ensign called out, searching for him. Sev raised a hand, and the officer motioned him closer. “Holy Twelfth!” the man said, starting at the sight of the ruined daxed corpse. Or maybe it was the stinking ooze that coated Sev’s uniform. “How’d you kill that thing?”

How had he? It was all so—

Yeah, yeah, so fast, Three said. The whole attack lasted 78.9 seconds. Any idea how many raiders I wasted in that minor eternity?

Sev. Six’s stream was calm and reassuring. Are you okay?

He frowned. Wasn’t he?

“Are you okay?” the ensign asked, echoing Six’s stream.

“Them.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“You asked how, sir.” Sev tilted his head toward his team. “Them. That’s how.” He locked eyes with Jene, suppressing the urge to smile for fear he might cry. “Riot guns,” he coughed. “The wisps can’t handle them.”

The ensign’s eyes shone, like the state of the armory and the dead daxed in the corner suddenly made sense.

“You there,” he snapped to one of his security team, motioning to the stacks of riot guns behind Jene. “Get those poppers distributed to the men. Two per squad, maximum power. Do it now.”

The man shouted an acknowledgment, ordering two nearby guards to assist him. The officer fished a water pouch from the satchel hanging off his shoulder and offered it to Sev.

“Ensign Mallick, Bravo Team, Ship Security,” Mallick said.

Sev took the water pouch and sipped lightly. When the sweet taste of the water hit him, he gulped it eagerly.

“We’re holding them on deck four,” Mallick went on, wiping his brow. “The squids can’t help themselves, stealing as they go. Slows them down, makes them easy to kill. Those bugs, though, they’re nasty.”

“Any more Lost?” Sev asked, wiping his mouth.

The ensign’s focus shifted to the dead daxed. “Not that I’ve seen, thank the Twelfth. Getting some odd reports from deck nine, though. They’re having a hell of a time up there trying to keep the bugs off the shield capacitors.”

Sev swallowed hard. The Lehman’s shield capacitors were the only things keeping her in the fight. She was a big ship and could, theoretically, take plenty of damage. But with a fraction of her regular crew complement, they would quickly lose the race to keep vital systems functioning.

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