Terminal Risk (Blue Star Marines Book 4) by James David Victor

Author:James David Victor [Victor, James David]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Fairfield Publishing
Published: 2020-10-05T16:00:00+00:00

9

Boyd opened fire, and pulse rounds from the assault team slammed into the asteroid’s surface. The Skarak fire dropped as they ran back into cover. Boyd touched down and lay flat on the asteroid’s stark surface, pouring fire onto the retreating Skarak.

The cavern on this asteroid was similar to the previous one, but this time, a group of ships were here in the large asteroid’s hollowed-out interior. Boyd detected several Faction ships, a Union civilian transport, and a massive Union heavy freighter. They were all buried deep. There were almost a hundred weak life signs, and they were all concentrated in one section of the freighter’s interior.

The hull of the heavy was cracked open to the vacuum of space. The Skarak soldiers moved freely in the vacuum, seemingly without need of protective equipment. They moved easily over the asteroid’s glassy rock, clinging to the crystalline surface with their secondary arms and their insect-like feet, firing their Skarak weapons with their long upper arms. The flashing blue crackle beams reflected in their large, emotionless eyes.

The narrow cavern and the small crack in the heavy’s hull gave the Skarak a highly defensible position. The only way to break the defense was with a determined forward assault. Every meter forward would be paid for with the life of a Blue Star Marine. Boyd waved the assault team onward.

“Fire and maneuver. Suppress the Skarak and advance,” Boyd said calmly over his squad’s channel. The Marines advanced in small groups, rushing forward while their comrades laid down a heavy barrage of pulse rifle fire. With a small team having advanced, they stopped and opened fire, taking advantage of the cover against the sides of the cavern. One Marine reset his suit’s gravity field and clung to the roof. The Blue Stars in the forward position laid down a withering barrage, pulse rounds raking the ground in front of the Skarak soldiers, all rounds finding a target and dropping the defenders. Then the next group rushed forward under the covering fire before they too stopped and gave fire.

Running into the dark cavern and closing in on the breach in the hull of the freighter, Boyd felt the thrill of the action rise in him. He stamped it down and advanced with cold determination. The feelings of excitement were wholly unprofessional. Not Blue Star. He needed to be focused and calm.

The Skarak held their ground, their blue crackle weapons flickering along the cavern lighting up its dark crystalline walls. The medical readings of the entire assault team appeared on Boyd’s enhanced data view. Six Marines were dead from the short approach to the freighter’s hull. Several others were injured, their life signs erratic, heart rates racing as their bodies were racked by the disruptive energy of the Skarak crackle beam.

The remaining Blue Stars closed in on the Skarak, electron bayonets flashing in the dark. The Skarak defending the breach fought to the last. Boyd put down the last defending Skarak with a blast of pulse rifle fire and immediately began organizing his team.

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