Wild Sargasso Space (Stars in Shadow Book 3) by John Triptych

Author:John Triptych [Triptych, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: J Triptych Publishing
Published: 2018-11-26T22:00:00+00:00

Duncan Hauk stood alone at the opposite side of the downed shuttle. Using the plasma torch of the engineering harness draped over his battle armor, he welded the final joint in place before backing away to admire his handiwork. He had been building and assembling a four wheeled, all-terrain buggy for the past several hours, and all he had to do now was attach an engine into the chassis to get it in working order.

Strand walked over to him while activating their private com-link audio. “How’s it going, Duncan?”

“Almost there, LT,” the boy said as he disengaged the exoskeleton from his battle armor, leaving the harness in a free-standing position so he could squat closer to the overworked fabricator sitting on a nearby flattened boulder. The printer continued to function, busily creating new engine parts and spewing them out beside it.

Strand took a look at the nearly finished vehicle. The welding was somewhat crude, but the roll cage over the bare chassis seemed reinforced well enough for extended wear and tear. “I’ll say this for you, Duncan. You sure know how to build ground vehicles from scratch.”

Hauk used his helmet sensors to detect a fault in the engine part he’d just taken from the fabricator. “I’m sure you know my background, right?”

“Yup,” Strand said. “You grew up rough and tough, and used to steal vehicles for a living. You got plenty of talents, kid. I’d say you’re the best engineer we have on the strike team. I know the nytini contingent back on the ship wanted you in their department.”

Hauk used his HUD to send another assembly program via com-link over to the fabricator. “I prefer the strike team. I like to build things, but blowing them up is more fun.”

“Glad to have you. How far along are you with this?”

“Give me another hour, LT.”

Strand looked out into the distance. “Take as much time as you need.”

“I’ll have the engine assembled by then and hopefully it’ll work as intended,” Hauk said. “I’d love to add in some armored plating over the skeletal chassis for passenger protection, but all I’ve got is a small fabricator and I don’t think it can handle the load.”

Strand stood beside the front of the vehicle. “No problem. We just need this thing to get us from one place to the next.”

“It’s not a combat vehicle and we’ll be fully exposed while riding it.”

“Can we still wear the battle armors while we’re in it?”

“Sure,” Hauk said. “I made the seats extra wide just for that. Don’t fire any of your suit’s heavy weapons while you’re sitting down though.”

“I’ll be sure to jump out if I have to do that,” Strand said, pointing towards the empty frame in front of the driver’s seat. “You’re going to have to create a big steering wheel to accommodate our Armatus though.”

“No need,” the boy said. “We’ll be driving the vehicle using our suit HUD. That way our hands will always be free. Or Sappho can drive it for us too since I’ll modify one of the shuttle sensors and place it on the front.

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