Steel Sworn by Richard Fox

Author:Richard Fox [Fox, Richard]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-05-01T23:00:00+00:00

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Ely, Lars, and Pulaski stood on the catwalk running in front of their Armor while medics worked on Ely and Lars. One sprayed Nu-Skin on a bare patch shaved onto Ely’s scalp, who winced as the medic pressed a hypo spray to his neck.

“Just a flesh wound.” The medic closed his bag and moved away.

“And you’ve never seen him before?” Santos asked.

“He sounded like the one I fought yesterday,” Ely said, “and the one from the Breitenfeld. I didn’t see his face, but my guess is it’s the same guy.”

“Why are the Geist so hard up to get him?” Lars asked. His eyes were pinpricks, and he didn’t quite seem to know what he was looking at. His medic had a sensor on Lars’s chest, attached to a wire on the medic’s oversized forearm rig.

“Mr. Hale is in possession of a Qa’Resh artifact,” Santos said, touching the back of Ely’s head, “which can’t be removed without killing him. At least not by anyone on Aachen.”

“We should plug him into his suit and not let him walk free again.” Pulaski took a suture gun from his medic and stapled the bullet wound on his leg himself. “If the enemy will take this risk, we should take more precautions.”

“Stay in the pod for how long?” Ely’s eyes went wide.

“You’ve never gone into the deep dark, have you?” Lars asked. “Being locked in for days on end with no expectation of rescue is one of the first tests we go through to earn our plugs.”

“He doesn’t have plugs,” Pulaski stated.

Santos pointed a knife hand at Ely’s chest. “You move only with your battle buddy from now on. Showers? Shitter? Rack time? Lars’s there. And probably a security detail if one can be spared. Congrats, Mr. Popular, your life just got more complicated,” the captain said.

“I’d take the thing out if I could, sir.” Ely patted at his liquid stitches.

“We mount up in an hour.” Santos looked at his forearm screen. “Geist are massing troops outside the wall and Marshal Roland will launch a spoiling attack. We’re getting standard munitions loaded. I volunteered for the twilight devotional. Stay in the compound until we roll out. Questions?”

Ely drew breath in, but when Lars grabbed him by the wrist, he opted not to ask anything.

“Check your gear,” Santos said and walked away.

Pulaski jumped over the railing and landed next to Stinker. The Toth menial hissed at him and scampered behind an ammo crate. The Karigole limped into the storage room.

“Two drops in each eye every half hour.” The medic working on Lars pressed a little vial of medicine into his palm.

“Easy enough.” He tilted his head back and followed instructions. “You ready to go back out, lillebror?”

“Combat again in an out-of-date suit…or hang around and wait for that Commissar to come back for me. Rock and a hard place,” Ely said.

“Whoa…got some neat colors going on.” Lars stood up. “Let me teach you how to check head space and timing on your gauss cannons. Should have enough time for the Saint once we’re done.

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