Too Old To Die by John Walker

Author:John Walker [Walker, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-04-29T16:00:00+00:00

***

Lyra studied the regional map, staring so intently it burned into her mind’s eye. Not only did they have the locations of military outposts throughout the area, but also the traffic to and from those points. This data helped logistics officers ensure supplies and convoys were used properly.

Which was why only supposedly secure locations had access to the data.

One screen showed her a list of supplies. The other showed the locations where each had been dropped off. Barty wanted to hit the one with the most. Lyra talked him down, reminding him of why a base needed so much stuff. They didn’t want to break into a place with a few hundred bored soldiers sitting around.

No, she wanted that secret location, which might’ve required a breach of another small facility. Somewhere they either fudged the logs of resources, or a stopping point for refueling where no supplies were deposited. The goal led her to narrow the search to depots, small locations with mostly automated defenses.

Having Zed along meant the possibility of breaching those things, shutting them down or even turning them on their owners. Negotiations tended to be a lot easier with turrets. She figured their destination had to be near enough to a depot that no one had to worry about running out of fuel if something went wrong.

A secret base wouldn’t do much good if ships constantly found themselves in a state of emergency over resource depletion.

I wish I knew about this before I left the military. Part of her brief stint in the armed forces gave her access to all manner of shipping information. They put her in logistics after a brawl. Then drummed her out later after a worse altercation. All that data sitting right in front of me. Probably the exact location we’re looking for even.

The maps narrowed down the search considerably. Just not enough to make it easy. There were too many options, too many places to search. Someone at those depots knows though. Some crew member had to have talked. They always do. Maybe we should hop out to one of them to find out.

Lyra worried if they showed up at one depot, the military might start defending the others. Even if she didn’t hurt anyone. And of course, there was the possibility to kill everyone aboard. Then the bounty hunters and cops would double their efforts, probably going so far as to shoot on sight.

No, I want to keep this as clean as possible. No killing, no random murder. Just get the job done, woman. You’ve waited this long. Hitting the depot made sense for other reasons. They needed fuel. Unfortunately, they didn’t have enough money to buy some. Which means stealing. Return to point A about keeping this clean.

“Two birds with one stone,” Lyra muttered. The depot she felt most interested in sat far out on its own. They had enough fuel to make it that far, but if anything happened, they’d be done. Is it worth it? The risk, the chance to find what she’d been after… yeah, I really think so.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.