Xaros - Jungle Planet: Guns of the Federation Book 1 by James Anthony

Author:James, Anthony
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-01-18T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Sixteen

“What’s the plan for today, Sergeant?” asked Private Diaz. She was holding a steaming coffee from one of the replicators.

“What makes you think we aren’t going to sit on our asses until this security controller unlocks?” asked Maxwell, a half-eaten plate of replicated scrambled eggs on his lap. He was hungry enough that they almost tasted great.

“In the last ten years, I can’t remember one time when you wanted us to sit on our asses.” Diaz grinned. “Are you trying to convince me today’s going to be the exception?”

Maxwell laughed. “Hell no.”

“Are we going to search a few more of these prefabs?” asked Lyles.

“We’ve still got people to find,” said Maxwell.

“Maybe they all took off in that third shuttle.”

“There’s no way in hell you could fit more than a few hundred inside the missing shuttle, Private.”

“I’m just looking for easy answers, Sergeant,” said Lyles.

“Keep looking, Private, but you won’t find any here on Xaros.”

Maxwell finished his eggs and picked up his own coffee which he’d left balanced on the edge of the security controller. He took a sip, grimaced, and then took another. Placing the cup down again, he rose from his seat.

“Listen up, here’s the plan.” He waited until everyone was listening and then he continued. “We’re leaving one squad here to watch over this hardware. The second squad will search some of the other buildings.” He paused for a moment. “And we didn’t check out the two CES shuttles on the pad. Maybe there’s someone inside, or maybe the last pilot forgot to enable the security locks. If so, we’ll have access to that shuttle’s flight records.”

The soldiers didn’t have any questions, since the plan was as simple as they came.

“Squad A, we’re heading out first,” said Maxwell. “We’ll search for a couple of hours, or until I think we’ve done enough. Then we’ll return here, and Squad B can stretch their legs.”

Before departing, Maxwell gave his gauss rifle a once-over. The weapon had a stock and two grips, the vertical foregrip being three-quarters of the way along the gun’s three-inch-diameter barrel. That barrel held the firing coils, but where it neared the pistol grip at the stock, the lower section became flat. That section was the magazine, which could be ejected in a split-second and a new one slotted in.

The gauss rifle wasn’t designed for field disassembly, but it had a tiny readout that usually showed the remaining ammunition, and which could also display the results of a hardware audit. Maxwell’s gun was a-okay and he’d already pushed extra gauss slugs into the magazine to replace those he’d fired yesterday, so the ammunition readout was at fifty.

“Are you planning to stare at that rifle all day, Sergeant?” asked Fleming. He thumbed over his shoulder. “We’ve got a compound to search.”

“Then let’s get it done,” said Maxwell.

He led Squad A along the corridor and into the airlock. With a warning for everyone to be on their guard, he activated the outer door panel. Warm, humid air and

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