Undaunted by Jack Colrain

Author:Jack Colrain [Colrain, Jack]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9798501917538
Amazon: B09559NTW1
Publisher: Independently published
Published: 2021-05-16T22:00:00+00:00

19

“They’re denying pick up,” Arden said as I was foaming and applying nanos to the civs.

I looked at the group. Fourteen very scared and hurt people. There was someone crying, but it wasn’t from their wounds.

“We’re not leaving them,” I said. “We’ll walk them back to Collie. Let’s make sure they picked up that kid, too.”

Arden nodded.

“Captain, this is…” I paused before saying the callsign Vilipend gave me, but I knew he would expect it. “Tiger. We have over a dozen civilians and it seems transport and rescue is tied up. We’re going to walk them back to Collie to guide them to the field hospital.”

It was the most literal field hospital I could think of, with soccer goals at each end.

“Double time it,” Vilipend said. “Your assignment is not being a taxi.”

Yes. Let me force these people who have been attacked and held prisoner at gunpoint by aliens to run through the streets while nursing their wounds. I was lucky if we could maintain a decent shuffle.

Arden took lead and plucked off a drone I never even saw. We worked back around the corner to the main street. When we made it to that corner, half of our group stopped at the red light, waiting for the cross signal. Strange how human habits work. Anything to cling to normalcy when aliens have invaded your world and war shows up on your doorstep.

The kid wasn’t in the music store. Hopefully he rode back to the field on a quad or piggybacking some grunt. I didn’t want to consider anything else. While the street was damaged and there was some smoke and something burning in a storefront, the view to Collie a few blocks away was clear.

My HUD called my attention upward. I looked. Two ticks were falling toward us from several stories up.

“Take cover,” I shouted, clearing the impact zone and making my way to the middle of the group. They scattered screaming from me as a tick landed next to me.

I heard Arden’s Longshot snap a round as I drew my monofilament baton. The tick next to me shot a slinger round that clipped my shoulder, and a blob of whatever the hell the goo was stuck to my chest. I swung the baton and took a leg off. The smoking tick that was Arden’s target overhead fell next to us as the one I faced fired again. Another swing of my baton and it shut down.

“Stop,” Arden called. One of the women in the group was running up the street. He hit his jumpjets and landed in front of her. She was a mess, screaming and pounding his chest. I stayed with the rest and got them clustered against the building as I scanned for more surprises from any direction. I looked to Arden.

He was carrying the woman lying limp in his arms, like some gleaming black robot monster who just claimed a victim in a black and white horror movie.

“She fainted?” I asked.

“With the help of some chlorazine,” Arden said as he headed back.

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