The Complete Aliens Omnibus by Steve Perry

Author:Steve Perry
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Titan

15

One of Powell’s supporters arrived right after Wilks and Billie, also armed with a carbine. Between the two of them, they had no trouble capturing the four men and one woman whose transponders IDed them as Spears loyalists. At least according to Powell. Wilks didn’t much like trusting the major, but in this case, the choice was easy enough. At least Powell wasn’t homicidal.

“What’s the scat, Sarge?” one of the captured troops said.

“Changing of the guard,” Wilks answered. “To keep it simple, here’s the drill: Spears is out. Powell is in. Any problems with that?”

The five troopers glanced around. And at the weapon Wilks held across his chest in port-arms position.

“You breaking a few regs here, Sarge,” one of the women said. “Spears will cut you a new asshole.”

“Yeah? How long you figure before you trip over one of those regs and wind up feeding the general’s little pets?” Wilks asked her. “You know some of the people webbed in there, don’t you?” He waved at the reinforced wall to his left. The queen’s chamber was on the other side.

He could see them weighing it. If Spears came back and assumed command, they would be in deep shit if they played along with this. He was not a forgiving man. On the other hand, if Powell was the new honcho in charge, he wouldn’t give them to the aliens. A smart marine would sit tight and wait to see which way the current flowed.

Then again, Wilks thought, a smart marine would have figured out that it was only a matter of time before they all went into the chambers as protein supplies for Spears’s new and improved troops. Like the three who deserted and ran, only to find themselves out of the intake and into the combustion chamber. And it wasn’t as though Colonial Marine line troopers were galaxy-renowned for their high intelligence.

Then again, he had the gun. Even a stupid marine usually figured that possibly dying in the future was better than for sure dying right now.

“Looks like it’s your show, Sarge,” one of them said.

“That it is. Let’s take a little stroll to assembly, what say?”

The lights blinked out, followed by the sound of pressure doors dropping into place. That would be Bueller. The emergency lighting popped on almost immediately. Half a second, no more. Unfortunately, that half a second was enough time for the largest of the troopers to think he could take advantage of the darkness. He jumped at Wilks.

Wilks’s first reaction was to shoot the sucker. He was big, but slow, and he had plenty of time to cap one off into the man. But blowing away marines, however misguided their sense of duty, didn’t appeal much to somebody who’d spent most of his life in the corps. He’d done it before, he hadn’t liked it.

Wilks sidestepped to his left, swung his foot up in a spring kick, caught the charging man high in the belly. Stole his wind just long enough for the second kick, this one to the man’s right leg, next to his knee.

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