Farthest Reach by Lauren Moore

Author:Lauren Moore [Moore, Lauren]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-12-09T22:00:00+00:00

About the Author

Gary G. Osborne

Cary G. Osborne has lived in several states and for two years in France, and is now settled in Oklahoma. Cary is also the author of ten published novels in several genres, including science fiction, fantasy, and mysteries, and two dozen or more short stories, in the same genres, plus horror.

Synth

Luke T Barnett

CLANG!

Kelsey jerked forward as her pod ship slammed into the side of the freighter.

Gotcha!

She unstrapped her harness and checked to make sure her blaster pistols were still strapped to her thighs.

“Come on, Tracks!” she shouted at the bot resting in the copilot’s position. The mammoth bot unlocked its powerful treads and turned to follow her as she pulled a heavy blaster rifle from the wall. Normally designed for use by the heavy-duty war bots like the one that now followed her, the weapon would be unwieldy in the hands of the average human soldier. In Kelsey’s hands, it weighed next to nothing.

It wasn’t her weapon of choice. But these were some pretty nasty aliens she was about the face down. She needed all the firepower she could get, which was also where TRX-33 came in. At seven feet tall, covered by a coating normally reserved for outer hulls of starships, heavy blaster turrets mounted on each arm, and a radar HUD that was as good as any shock trooper’s, the thing was a beast of a machine. Still, even with the bot rolling behind her, they were in for a fight. But Kelsey had never been one to back down. Not now, not ever.

She reached the rear of the ship, the part now lodged inside the freighter. A display confirmed the seal integrity around the insertion point.

She hit a button and raised her rifle. The end of the ship irised open in the blink of an eye. Kelsey didn’t blink. Her rifle found its targets and fired two bright, cyan blaster bolts, taking down first one, then another humanoid in light armor. TRX-33 picked off six more from either side of her and the two advanced into a three-way intersection inside the freighter. Once they were out, Kelsey slapped a device on her belt closing the portal behind them.

“Where’s the cargo hold?”

“Three hundred meters aft of our current position,” the bot rumbled. Kelsey marched down the hall, TRX-33 falling in behind. “Of course, if you had aimed for the cargo hold like I suggested in the first place, we would be there already.”

“I can’t control where we come out of hyperspace relative to the ship,” Kelsey said as she took out two more men before they could get in range. “And you said there were Carapaces on this ship.”

“I will be sure to file a complaint with my intelligence-gathering program.”

Kelsey shook her head. The bot never seemed to miss an opportunity for either satire or sarcasm, even in the middle of a firefight.

Two hundred ninety meters and fifteen humanoids later, they came to another intersection. Kelsey gestured to TRX-33 and the big war bot detached a small spherical bot which hovered around the corner.

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