The Ghost Pact by Ben Wolf

Author:Ben Wolf [Wolf, Ben]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: X27
Publisher: Aethon Books
Published: 2021-05-25T04:00:00+00:00

12

Rather than diving for cover, Justin stunned the sergeant with his robot arm and snatched the pulse rifle from his shuddering hands before he could hit the floor. Around him, pulse rifles rattled and mechs roared as the docking bay erupted in mayhem.

Though he managed to get the pulse rifle into his hands, Justin fumbled with it at first, trying to find his grip and get his finger in the trigger guard. By the time he got a handle on it, the other two soldiers guarding him had realized what he’d done and raised their rifles to fire, well before he could’ve shot them first.

Why am I so terrible at this stuff?

His chest seized, and he stiffened as the pulse rifles clacked with a flurry of rounds.

Then both the soldiers dropped before him, their backs issuing steam from multiple cauterized holes in their armor. Behind them stood Captain Marlowe, who also held a pulse rifle. Around him lay the three soldiers guarding him, also dead.

How he’d managed to take them down so fast, Justin had no idea, but it didn’t matter now. He was alive, holding a pulse rifle, and had to get the hell out of there.

Arlie, also wielding a pulse rifle, led a frantic group of the Viridian’s crew over to Captain Marlowe. It looked like most of them, from what Justin could tell. Without so much as a word, all of them ran away from the rig, toward the docking bay exit, skirting along the wall of entry fields on their left.

In the main area of the docking bay, the battle raged on. Swaths of ACM soldiers fell and died, but they kept coming. Farcoast soldiers perished, too, in about equal numbers, but their forces dwindled with each passing moment.

Justin followed Captain Marlowe closely, his rifle raised and ready for action, but thus far, he hadn’t fired a shot. Hadn’t needed to. None of the Farcoast soldiers had even taken notice of them.

Arlie brought up the rear, and the few times Justin glanced back, she’d been firing her pulse rifle into the ACM soldiers behind them. She wore a mischievous grin on her face as she battered ACM’s ranks. Must’ve been cathartic for her. A release. A way to vent her pent-up frustration at Captain Marlowe, at ACM, at this whole situation.

Her shooting, however, didn’t prevent stray pulse rounds from reaching them. Several times, Justin heard his fellow rig-runners cry out, and when he’d glance back, someone would be lying on the docking bay floor, dead or wounded.

His chest ached each time someone went down, but the sight of Dr. Carrington taking a round to the side of his head twisted Justin’s stomach. He went down hard and fast, gone in an instant.

Others from the crew grabbed their wounded comrades and helped them along, and Justin tried to keep his focus forward in case he needed to use the pulse rifle in his hands.

[JB, three o’clock!] Keontae’s voice ratcheted through Justin’s mind.

Justin turned, his rifle raised in time to see a helmetless ACM soldier pulling a pin from the grenade in his hand.

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