Chapter 103
Chapter One Hundred Three
The buzzing was so loud that Connor had to activate his helmet’s noise cancelling system. That didn’t stop the sensation of the beating wings—the vibration that tickled his skin.
One of the scorpions dove out of the bright afternoon sky straight at Vicente, twisting to bring its stinger in sideways.
Connor hurried forward, lowered his shoulder on the threatened side to protect against the strike, and when the monstrosity came close enough to strike, slashed its tail off with the sword in his other hand.
Ichor spurted onto his helmet, filming his visor. The rotten stench of it—a thousand tombs in concentrate—made him gag.
That corruption was on his tongue, in his spit and sinuses.
Vicente snarled at the retreating bug before nodding at Connor. “Thanks, Boss.”
“We’re making it out of here alive.”
It could have been meant in defiance or confidence. Connor wasn’t sure which.
Behind them, the others followed in a weaving line, leaving behind the building where they’d almost been trapped. They raised weapons to fire, sometimes creating the expected crack of gunfire that brought a scorpion down, sometimes screaming in frustration and working on their weapons.
What mattered was that they followed.
Under the brutal sunlight, sucking in the heavy air, perspiration broke out over Connor’s exposed flesh. His gloves would help him keep a grip on the swords, but inside those gloves, he was already sweating.
He stayed parallel with Vicente, twice driving off attackers that seemed intent on taking the big man down.
A third attacker came in from behind, only giving away its approach with the vibrations Connor felt on his neck.
Connor slowed, spun, and with two strokes beheaded the thing, then cut it in two.
Its lower half thrashed on the stony ground, stinger spurting dark venom.
Vicente was panting when Connor caught up. Sweat covered the big man’s arms and neck.
He gulped in air. “This slope’s tough work, Boss.”
“Brutal.”
Connor’s thighs burned from the exertion, but they were close to the point where standing buildings ended and nothing but partial walls remained. From there, it was through the pollen-spewing scrub brush, then the moderate slope of the open land.
After that, trees offered some protection.
A yelp brought Connor around. Yemi was on the ground, clutching his leg. A scorpion hovered in the air over the fallen mechanic, ready for another strike.
Had it poisoned Yemi?
Connor couldn’t reach the mechanic in time to kill the attacker. Getting there in time to administer aid—
Lem darted forward, assault rifle raised. He fired a short burst into the bug’s lower body, cutting off the stinger. Dark, ropy guts spilled from the bug’s wound as it tried to fly away.
After a few meters, its flapping sputtered, and it crashed into the side of a ruined building with a wet crack.
Two bugs landed several meters in front of Vicente.
A third landed behind Connor.
The big man scraped to a stop, snarling again.
Connor pointed a sword toward a sturdy-looking wall to their right. “Put your back against that.”
He placed himself between the heavy weapons expert and the three bugs, swords slashing to keep the creatures back.
They formed a semicircle, then the ones on the edges hopped forward.
Connor stepped out to meet them, ducked below their swinging tails, then leapt over the middle one as it came forward.
His flip barely cleared the bug’s head.
When he landed, he pivoted on one foot, swinging his swords parallel to the ground.
The middle bug collapsed, a twitching, gory ruin.
But the other two hadn’t turned from Vicente for some reason.
One had struck at the big man, striking Aubriella’s corpse. The other had left a dark slick of poison on the wall a few centimeters from Vicente’s head.
Connor cut that one down as it shifted for another strike.
That finally got the attention of the last one, which swung around.
Before it could strike, Connor plunged both swords into its abdomen, then twisted the blades around to point outward and cut out, so that it was held together by only a thin bit of carapace in the center.
It wobbled, then its legs gave out, and it fell.
Vicente ran forward and stomped the thing’s head into a gooey puddle, then wiped venom from the the dead woman’s check.
The rest of the team caught up at that point, but Yemi looked ready to collapse.
Lem was doing his best to support the mechanic. “He has sustained a deep cut across his thigh. It fell short of the femoral artery, and there appears to be no venom involved, but he lost enough blood to be concerning.”
Yemi shook his head. “Yemi feels fine.”
Connor wasn’t about to waste time arguing. He sheathed his swords and took the mechanic in a fireman’s carry. “You can feel fine without slowing us down.”
A gasp of pain was all Yemi had as a retort.
Lem took the lead, assault rifle held high ready as he jogged uphill.
Selen settled in at Connor’s side, chin jutting forward. “He better make it.”
“Yemi?” Connor twisted his head around. “You okay?”
“Yemi feels fine.”
That didn’t satisfy Selen, though. She craned her neck until her lips were almost next to Connor’s ear. “You undermined me again.”
“I saved the team.” He kept his voice low, but his patience was wearing thin.
“Following my orders would have saved the team.”
“It would have gotten everyone killed, Selen. Those bugs broke through. We can’t count on the ground keeping them out, even with stone covering it.”
How could she not see that she was putting the team at risk?
As they passed through the scraping scrub brush, the roar of Kalpana’s sniper rifle brought Connor around.
A particularly large scorpion fell to the earth, wings flapping.
The scout was hunched slightly, trailing the Moon twins, who were helping to cover their retreat.
And there was no other way to put it: They were once again running for their lives.
It gnawed at Connor’s gut: A defensive position wasn’t possible.
Unless…
He had an idea, but survival came first.
Log in with Google Account
Chapters
Favorite
Settings
