Three Winter Tails: A Cat Among Dragons Story Set by Boykin Alma

Author:Boykin, Alma [Boykin, Alma]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: UNKNOWN
Published: 2016-11-21T05:00:00+00:00

A New Star Rises

“Cap’n Ni Drako, we got a problem.”

Rada closed her eyes, counted to five twice, and opened them again. This entire operation was turning into far, far more than the Adamantine Division’s contract covered. The fighting had been nastier, conditions rougher, and once they got inside the prison mines, well, it had taken the Old Bird himself’s intervention to prevent a near genocide once they saw what had been done to the Likari. “Say location.”

“Portal six lima.”

“Six lima, roger. Ni Drako en route.” She called up the map on her forearm display as she started walking. “Estimate five minutes standard.”

“Roger. Blue Four clear.”

“Ni Drako clear.”

Unlike her guards, Rada didn’t need low-light enhancement, and she dismissed her combat monocle, letting both eyes do their thing. The planet had one of the strongest axial tilts she could recall having seen, and in the southern hemisphere’s winter, night and twilight extended for half the year. She liked that, but the tropical climate? Ugh, warm and humid made her cranky and she shuddered at the thought of what summer must be like. The mission situation didn’t help her temper, and she wasn’t alone in her bad mood.

She heard the two-tone beep of a frequency shift to the headquarters discrete signal and groaned silently as a deep rumble ordered, “Ni Drako, report.” Only Major Gupta had such a low voice, even modulated by the comm set up. Rada rolled her eyes and wondered which shit storm she should deal with first. The answer was probably yes.

“Ni Drako en route to Portal six lima at Blue Four’s request.”

The long pause made her nervous. Long pauses meant the Old Bird wanted something, or that Nothing Good was about to happen. “Carry on.”

“Carry on, roger.”

“Command Three clear.”

“Ni Drako clear.”

Now she really wondered what disaster awaited her. Rada offered a silent plea for help to any passing deity who happened to be feeling merciful. She also loosened the safety strap on her side arm, and shifted her rifle for faster access.

Rada and her guards walked out of the woods and almost collided with a large cluster of newly-released Likari. Wha—? Why are they not moving? We can’t empty the prison caves if they don’t keep moving. Rada dodged to the side of the group of slender, semi-humanoid insects. They stood motionless, oblivious to her, staring up at the sky. As she and her escort struggled to work their way around the thickening mass of natives, she realized that all of them stared at the sky. Should she be worried? Rada glanced up as well, didn’t see anything besides their transports and the local star patterns, and shrugged. She needed to find Blue Four, and her lack of height made it almost impossible.

Rada sub-vocalized a command and her radio flipped frequencies to the line-of-sight channel. “Blue Four give me you position.”

“Blue four is beside the portal.”

And the portal was in the mountain wall ahead of them. Great. Rada’s monocle flipped down and she shifted it to thermal. Blue Four stood out in brilliant white.

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