Smuggler's Bounty: A Military Sci-Fi Series (Space Hunter War Book 4) by Rick Partlow & Pacey Holden

Author:Rick Partlow & Pacey Holden [Partlow, Rick & Holden, Pacey]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aethon Books
Published: 2023-03-27T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 13

Shot is inaccurate. Someone was actively shooting at us.

Multiple rounds, staccato-like bursts, aimed in our direction. My SAR training manifested in the moment; the ghost of an old life brought back from the ether of the past at necessity’s insistence.

Two, maybe three shooters, I thought grimly. Sonic profile too soft to be assault guns. Have to be carbines, and close.

Rounds plinked into the groundcar’s exterior panels. I drew my Gyroc and squeezed off a single round, blind-firing through the gap where the rear window panel had been.

The answering barrage nearly killed Chip and me both.

Before I could readjust my position, the headrest exploded with a blooming snap of ripped synthetic fibers.

Ten or more rounds cascaded into the console—some of them tearing through our seats with ferocious cracks. Polyester fabric jetted into the open interior, billowing in the air stream like feathers in the wind.

I slapped the switch to drop my window. A sputtering gust of chilled air buffeted my face as I leaned out and rested my elbow against the frame of the door. The wind whipped at my hair, driving knives of icy chill at the nape of my exposed neck, snaking all the way down my back.

I took in the situation at a glance.

Two groundcars. One forty meters behind us, the other fifty or more; both gaining fast. Two human gunmen hung out the passenger side windows of both vehicles, Gyroc carbines alternating fire right at us.

Instinct told me to duck, but my training took hold.

The groundcar wasn’t cover. The destroyed interior of the vehicle was proof enough of that. The only cover I had at my disposal was the cover I could create with suppressing fire.

I rested the iron sights of the Gyroc pistol on the lead groundcar’s bumper, right at the bottom, and pulled the trigger five, six times. I purposely started my aim low and fired fast, successive shots discharging in rapid fire as I worked the double-action trigger to my advantage.

The result was almost like a shotgun blast of nine-millimeter rounds—nowhere near perfect accuracy. Given the circumstances, I was willing to settle for spray and pray, even if just to put a little distance between us and them.

I ducked back into the car as a few stray rounds zinged by, missing my head by a narrow margin.

Marakit said the Tahni jumped them, I thought, why are humans after us now?

There wasn’t time to consider that thought further. I cast a glance at Chip, relieved to see he hadn’t caught a round but also thinking that luck couldn’t hold forever.

The autopilot had us going in a straight line, and at the exact speed limit.

It was going to get us killed.

I switched it off and smashed my foot into the accelerator until it flattened against the floorboard. The groundcar surged like a racehorse bursting through the gate. Acceleration pulled Chip and I back into our seats. Chip leaned forward, heaving a retch from the bottom of his gut. Bile and rancid, half-digested coffee spewed over the dashboard in a foul deluge of orange and brown liquid.

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